Heavenly Blood

6 - Alice

I just laid there. Thinking. The intense red eyes burned into my eyelids so whenever they closed I could see them, see them observing me. Neither one of us had been particularly subtle today, I know I certainly hadn't been. At one point I wanted to scream at him to come over and join us. But I couldn't. I was way too embarrassed. Until Max literally pushed me in his direction.

Up to this point Max had been relentless in her comments. Singing love is in the air every time she got close to me, telling me to be careful as she was too young to be an aunt, but that our future children would be so cute. The worst one by far had been the sand isn't the only one that is getting wet at which point I threw a lump of said wet sand at her, laughing as it dripped down her back. Then she said she was going into town. Jesus! I had almost been on my knees begging her not to leave me, terrified of awkwardness. But she had laughed it up and told me to get over it. I had literally been chanting stay calm in my head over and over as my feet walked me towards him, with relief sweeping over when he suggested we went for a walk.

Walking with him had been normal. Maybe I was being stupid in seeing him as this untouchable god that I could never achieve. I had felt I was rambling as I spilled everything from my life, including Max and the skittle incident, but he didn't seem to mind. Just walked slowly and listened patiently. He had even shared elements of his life also. And then he had called me an Angel.

That. That is why I laid awake thinking. At first I had taken it figuratively, beaming inside at the compliment, allowing myself to believe.... but then I saw his face. He stared at me so intensely with confusion that something within me, I don't even know how to explain it, awoke? Like a part of my brain unlocked and so everything I knew, mortality, disbelief of the afterlife, disbelief of Angels, was suddenly an open ended question with varying degrees of answers. He was making me question my very being. That was what was scaring me.

Something had always felt wrong. Like my life was divided into two time, before I was eighteen and after. Before was like a film, unreal and stagnant in my mind as I could only remember the most prominent moments, not like after. After was reality. Those horrible awkward moments you want to forgot or the moments you wish you hadn't seen remained glued in my brain along side the good times and the laughs, but the fun less prominent than the embarrassment. When the past was brought up, I never felt an overdrive of emotion as I did post eighteen. The craziest thing was I couldn't even remember my parents. Why couldn't I remember the people that raised me? It had always felt so messed up and wrong. And then this came crashing onto me also. I thought my head would explode.

"I dunno about you but I'm knackered."

I sat up in shock only to see Max come in and flop onto her bed. I laid back down slowly, my hands crossed over my stomach and my legs crossed at the ankles. I heard her sheets rustling as she threw her jumpers across the room, landing short of the laundry basket, followed by her jeans before curling herself under the duvet. For a moment silence followed.

"Ok!" She said finally, "Why do you look like someone in a grave?"

I snorted, "Will I ever be in a grave?"

She turned onto her back, "Jesus this is dark. Maybe I shouldn't have left you alone with my brother."

"Do you believe in Angels?" I asked.

Silence followed. I could almost feel her tension and hear the cogs turning about the nature of the question. Eventually she laughed hysterically, turning back over to face me.

"God no!" Max cried, "Do you?"

"I didn't," I replied, "Until Alec called me an Angel."

She laughed, "He always was shit at flirting."

I rolled over quickly to face her, "I know it's stupid but I can't help but think that there is something in my past that does add up. I know it's crazy but...."

"But what?" She asked, "You think that you are a divine being that flys in the sky doing God's work and somehow you forgot your very species? Alice honey you know that's crazy."

As she spoke, I knew how insane it sounded. I couldn't believe that I had even indulged in such an idea as to think that I was an Angel. Maybe I was projecting. Jesus, I always pushed things way too far. But...but something was definitely off. Not just with me but with Alec and even with Max. There was something that they weren't telling me. Maybe they murdered people on the weekends, I don't know. But I had two days left to find out.

And I was gonna find out.