Fallen

Chapter Three: Hidden Identity

"Who goes there?!" A male voice called out in the darkness.

"Skylark, sir." The girl replied. "Amelia Skylark."

"Ah! Skylark..." The man stepped into the light, and Amelia could see his raggedy beard and distinctive features, such as the arm that stuck out, and the way he walked lop-sided. "Come for your next assignment, have you my angel?"

"Yes, sir..." Amelia said, as the man stepped disturbingly close to her. "The last was a successful mission." He lifted his hand up to touch her face.

"Good." He said, extending the word. "Your next mission..." He paused for the effect. "Is to disappear."

-x-x-x-

Angella awakened, startled. The man in her dream must have been at least twice Amelia's age. She seemed to be around nineteen or twenty, while the man was about forty-five. Angella was scared. She'd never felt what it was like to have a nightmare, but now, it was as though she was human, rather than angel, and she could feel every human emotion that was thrown at her. Happiness, joy, excitement, anxiety, sadness, depression, regret, guilt, and even fear. And right now, she was terrified. Terrified for the girl in her dream. Terrified of the man. Simply terrified. Timidly, she lifted herself from the bed, and left the Carpenters' spare room. Trying her hardest to not make a noise, Angella made her way into the kitchen to get herself something to eat. As she opened the fridge, the light cast an eerie, yellow glow over the space behind her, which unnerved her, so she took what she wanted, quickly, and headed back upstairs, with the food, but when she entered her room, she felt a shiver go down her spine. There was a salty taste in the air that night, as if some-one had been crying, and the wind whistled through the partially open window, like the screaming dead, while the moon shone the through the crack in the curtains, casting a spooky white misty glow over the entire room. Angella rushed to pull the curtains together, and close the window, but it refused to shut. The room was now immersed in darkness, with the wind still whining through the minute gap in the window, and all Angella could here in the back of her mind was the man's voice, from her dream.

"Skylark... my angel..." repeated, over and over and over again, creating a ghastly atmosphere that shook Angella's nerves. The hairs on the back of Angella's neck stood on end, causing her to think there was someone behind her. She spun around, and for a spilt second, thought that she saw the man from her dream. What did this mean?

-x-x-x-

The next few weeks, she had recurring dreams; not always the same one, but always with the same people. Occasionally, there were other people, but they dreams focused on Amelia and the 'boss', as she found out in a dream just two nights after the first. All of a sudden, the dreams stopped, and for almost a month, she felt it was safe to go to sleep, until one night, she saw those two again. However this time, they weren't conversing with each other. They were talking...

To her.

"Why can't you see it?"

"Don't you remember, angel?"

"Hello?! Anyone home?"

"Wake up, angel."

"Hey, get the point! Angella... Amelia... See the similarity?"

"Angel..."

"I'm you!"

--SNAP--

Angella awakened again, her heart pounding and her breathing heavy. She heard Amelia Skylark's voice in her head. "I'm you." Like an echo, it stuck around and repeated, but the difference was that it didn't stop. That voice stuck in her head for the remainder of the day, and the next. She couldn't figure it out. What did she mean, "I'm you"? Was it something to do with her future? Her past? What was it? What did these dreams mean? It scared her more, every time she saw those two, in her dreams. They haunted her.

-x-x-x-

Eventually, it became too much. After a week of pondering this, it was all too much for Angella to stand. She had to get out of the Carpenters' household. She couldn't stay. She feared herself.

-x-x-x-

During the following weeks, Angella thought up excuse after excuse to get out of that house, but every idea seem petty, small, unconvincing. She was certain she'd never get out.

Then, she thought of those words.

"I'm you."

What if it's true? What if she meant it literally? What if she's a legend?

Angella had sussed it. Amelia Skylark was a legend. Angella's legend. She figured that she feared herself because she feared the girl in her dreams. So she took a pen and some paper and she wrote a letter.

She had a hidden identity.

-x-x-x-