Devils and Angels

xxvii. dawning revelations

p e t r i c h o r

the scent of rain on dry earth

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PAIN EXPLODED THROUGH MY LEG, caught beneath the frame of my bike. I was sprawled on the ground, the wind knocked out of my body.

In the dim light, a face swallowed my entire vision, peering at me with a mixture of anger and concern―only one of which I recognised on the pristine features I could barely make out.

Elizabeth's pretty face was characterised by a scowl as she yanked at the bike wrapped around my legs. Her free hand pressed into my mouth, muffling the inadvertent hiss that left my lips as my legs fell free to the frozen ground. Thin fingers wrapped around my wrist, and with a firm jerk, she hauled me to my feet.

"What are you doing?" She asked, angered features morphing with disgust. "If that car had seen you―well, that'd make this pointless."

"What's this?" I echoed in a low hiss. "I was just―there was something I needed to check, alright?"

"Fuck." She threw her hands up, then let them descend to her sides again in a single, erratic motion. "This is no good. We don't trust each other, so if we're both continuing with whatever the fuck we're doing, we'll end up getting in each other's way all night."

"Too right, I don't trust you," I replied, holding back on my derisive snort. "However, I recommend that you keep your voice down, because that man over there might hear, and he trusts me even less than you do."

Pulling her beside me, I slowly raised my pointer finger to the only visible form in the ever-deepening night; the man I now associated with torture, and malice, and everything that was loveless and cruel in an empty world.

He'd emerged from the car that had swerved beside me in those last few seconds, and though I was certain he hadn't seen me, the threat of danger he held over my head still had my hairs rising on end.

"Him?" Elizabeth responded, horrified. Confused, I turned to her, only to be rewarded by a stare that saw right through me.

Uncharacteristic of everything that was Elizabeth Rose Denham, her bottom lip jerked with shock, and her pupils were dilated. "...That's my father," She whispered, in a voice broken under millenia of secrets. "He's the reason why I'm here―I―I wanted to see what he gets up to."

"A lot," I muttered grimly, and my mind flashed back to washed-out azure eyes, and sharp, terrified movements. That monster of a man had stolen every part of Caspian's personality, and had replaced it with stone-cold fear. "And I think he's part of the reason that I'm here, as well."

"What do you mean?" The parched words barely left her throat.

"On Christmas day, I―I came here. To have a moment. I went inside, and I saw him. Your father. He was with a child, and―." A shudder wracked my body at the memory. "God. She couldn't stop screaming."

"What?" Her face paled with shock. Iced eyes stricken, she crept closer to me, and in the darkness, a clammy hand found mine.

On the edge of my own wits, I grabbed onto it, unsure of how much longer I could keep holding on.

"I know it sounds crazy," I began, hoarse. "But I need to see for myself. And I think―I think if you were suspicious enough to follow him here, then you need to see this too."

"Okay." She sighed. "He'll be on his way back in a minute. He always check on me at eight forty-five, before he goes back to the Lucas'."

"Right." I let us both fall under the cover of the trees, the shade swallowing us both entirely. "We'll go then."