Fateful Encounter

Demanding Answers

"Don't. You. Dare." He declared maliciously as he walked slowly towards me.

"Oh, I will," I stated and that caused him to stop right in his tracks. In actuality, I really wasn't going to cut the feather. I just needed him to think I was, that way, I could get some answers out of him. The ball was now in my court and I wasn't giving it up any time soon. I grabbed my desk chair and did my best to push it to the corner of my room with my feet. While doing so, my eyes never left his. Body language could only tell me what was happening in the moment, but it was the eyes that told a lot and I found his, especially in this particular moment, to be giving away every thought he had. And I planned on using that to my advantage.

"Sit," I commanded him.

"And why would I do that?" He asked.

"Because if you don't, this little pretty feather of yours is going to get cut up into little pieces. And for a safety measure I might just burn it so you can't have it." At the word burn, an unreadable expression quickly washed over him, but it was quickly replaced by anger.

'Ok, maybe I need to turn it down a notch so he doesn't lash out at me...' I regretfully thought.

In an instant, he walked over to the chair and sat down facing me. He sat in the chair with a collected façade, but tension and frustration were rolling off of him like waves. While keeping my eyes on him, I placed the scissors and feather on my desk. Since my desk was situated next to my bed, I grabbed the flat sheet and walked towards him. He looked at me in confusion, but I didn't care. I turned the chair around so he was now facing the corner of the room and with that, I wrapped the sheet around him and tied it tight behind the chair. It wasn't rope, but it was the closest thing I had to keeping him in one place and I was thankful that my threat was keeping him sedated.

I turned the chair around and was now face to face with a very unhappy individual. Cold, dark blue eyes searched mine. As I was looking at him, two deep-seated emotions were buried beneath what he was currently displaying. Fear and helplessness. And in that moment, the strong front I was putting up quickly dropped. I could tell the fear was directed towards me and what I was threatening him with, but the helplessness, that was entirely a different reaction not caused by me or the situation we were both in.

I began to think that I was going too far with what I was doing, but quickly dismissed that thought. I needed answers and playing nice wasn't going to get me the answers I wanted. I then grabbed both the scissors and the feather off my desk and sat on the bed with my legs crisscrossed, staring at him.

"Speak," I stated. His only response was a single blink of his eyes and that caused me to groan in frustration, "Really? You're not gonna talk anymore? May I remind you, I have something of importance to you."

He then growled in frustration, "What do you want to know?"

'Finally!' I thought. "Who are you, what is your name, and why do you want this feather so badly?" I drilled out.

His eyes searched my face for a while and I could tell that he was carefully crafting his response. After a couple seconds of deliberating he said, "My name is Zane and I'm a fallen. That feather you have in front of you, it's mine and I would like it back."

The only thing that made sense out of that whole thing was his name. I quickly tried to think about what he meant by fallen unless...

"Wait...hold up. Fallen...as in a fallen angel? An angel kicked out of heaven for some reason that caused him to disobey the word of God?" I incredulously asked while crossing my arms over my chest. I knew stuff about angels and the fallen and so on from the bible and the internet, but those are all stories. They aren't real and even if they were, there was no credible proof. As I glanced at him, I could sense he was reliving something. The memories were coming back along with the emotions that were playing across his eyes. I couldn't read what emotion he was experiencing, but it was evident that it greatly disturbed him. "Even if I were to believe you, you have no proof..."

Quickly snapping out of his thoughts, he said, "That feather you have is all the proof you need right now."

"Right now?" I asked knowing that there was more to this story than he was letting on, "What else is there that you are not telling me?" I inquired.

He looked away and didn't answer.

"Tell me!" I demanded.

His eyes shot up towards mine and he looked straight into them, "Or else what?" he threatened.

"Really? Do I still have to remind you that I have your feather?" I said in an aggravated tone. "Quite frankly, I don't believe a word you're saying. You came to my house, already knowing my name, and now you're spewing all this...this...nonsense hoping I'd believe you!!? Yeah, you're gonna have to give a better answer than what you gave before buddy."

"Ha...you're something you know that?" he stated with amusement playing across his eyes.

"Well considering the events of today, yeah, I guess I am." I said matter-of-factly.

We both sat there staring at one another. If he didn't give a valid enough answer, he wasn't getting this feather back. It was as simple as that. I didn't know where to even begin with questioning him about angels and the fallen and that frustrated me so much that I ended up looking away and propping my elbow on my knee and resting my chin on my hand in order to help calm myself down.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could feel him staring at me. I looked back at him and he had an amused smile playing on his lips which prompted me to raise an eyebrow at him, "Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked feeling a little creeped out.

"You look cute when you're frustrated."

'Excuse me!? Cute!?' I thought. "I'm s-sorry, what?" I asked to make sure I was hearing him correctly.

"You heard me. You look cute when you're frustrated," he said nonchalantly with a smile.

"You think this is a game!? Ha, of course you do! You're not the one on the receiving end of all this...whatever the hell this is!!" I exclaimed as I threw my hands in the air. "You know what, fuck it. I'm gonna end this right here..." I muttered to myself as I got off the bed.

With his eyes now trained on me, Zane watched every move I was making and his eyes grew a little wide when I grabbed the scissors and the feather. "Don't...," he stated as that smile was now wiped off his face.

"You're in no position to be telling me what to do," I stated coldly as I looked at him. I needed to gain control of this situation again and as I was about to say something, the doorbell rang. Both Zane and I looked at one another in confusion, him a little bit more.

DING DONG

"You should probably go and get that," he said looking up at me from the chair.

"I am not letting you out of my sight! It's probably just a telemarketer...," I said hoping, but deep down, I knew something was off. The doorbell rang for the last time and after a couple seconds, it was accompanied by a loud knock.

"Ugh, what does this person want now...," I said as I made my way to the door of my bedroom while still holding both the scissors and the feather. All of a sudden, the door opened and I could hear the sound of heavy boots being tracked into the entry way. What happened next, caused me to stop dead in my tracks.

"Oh brroooottthhheerrrrr," an unknown voice said in a dark sing-song-like fashion, "Where are youuuuu? I can sense you...," it finally said in a bone chilling tone.