The Demon's Angel

Chapter 10

Elizabeth
I was actually enjoying practicing for this new show. I thought that it would be a  terrible idea, but I was wrong. I loved it. I loved working with Kurt, and I loved that every performer was part of one big act instead of a ton of small ones. It was fun. I felt that I was actually part of the circus for the first time.

   Something almost ruined that. On the third day of practice, I was up on the silks when I heard a voice. I looked around. I didn't see anyone. Suddenly, I was in so much pain that I couldn't see. I lost my grip and fell, but someone caught me. I felt Kurt's hands supporting me (it was difficult not to miss the abnormal number of fingers when they were clutching my waist).

  I thought that I was the only one with this problem, when I felt Kurt collapse beneath me. I knew that it wasn't my weight (unnatural lightness), so my first thought was that I wasn't alone in this experience. I clutched him and he clutched me. I then realized through the white hot pain that we were both screaming.

  The pain faded quickly, and a mysterious voice said, "Hear me, inhabitants of this world. A message to every man, woman, and mutant. You have lost you way, but I have returned. The day of reckoning is here. All your buildings and temples... will fall." I gasped, clutching my head, as the voice continued. "The dawn of a new era will emerge. For there is nothing you can do to stop what is coming. This message is for one reason alone. To tell the strongest among you... those with the greatest power...." There was a long pause before the voice said, almost defiantly, "Protect those without. That is my message to the world." I gasped once more when the pressure in my head released. I looked down at Kurt, who was breathing heavily. He was still cradling me on the ground, even when he sat up. I blushed suddenly slightly embarrassed. Kurt didn't notice because he was staring around the tent. I followed his gaze. Everybody was holding their heads on the ground, confused looks on their faces. "It was a mutant, a telepath," whispered Kurt. "What's going on?" I asked. I felt a bit of pride in being able to understand, since he was speaking German. "I don't know," he sighed.

   I had an idea. Before anyone else could even get up, I pulled Kurt up. We were both leaning against each other because we were a bit wobbly, but we made it to the trailer. I tossed Kurt his shoes and a baggy hoodie and grabbed a hoodie for myself. He made a face at the shoes, but put them on without complaint. He curled his tail around his wait and threw the hoodie on over it. Once it was on, I helped him arrange the hood so that his face was barely visible. I didn't bother to put up mine. "Come on," I said. "We're getting answers."

   People were flooding the streets and sidewalks in a panic, and we were getting jostled on all sides. I winced as someone crushed my wings even more tightly against my back, but I was mostly worried about Kurt. His hood almost got knocked off several times, and with his hands in his pockets, he would almost get knocked over every few seconds. I grabbed his arm to steady him. We trudged on, eventually making it to a television set in a shop window. What the news showed was terrifying. The world was in a panic; that message had been heard by every human being. In a way, that was worse than if we were just crazy.

  Work on the show was postponed, since no one could concentrate. No one, not even the police, knew what happened. I hated that feeling of helplessness.

  It was three weeks before we knew anything. By then, show work had started again. Everyone needed something to keep their mind off of their fear and worries. What was shown was blurry footage of mutants in Germany. They were fighting against a mutant that seemed to be calling himself God in the video.

    When the camera was destroyed in the fight, all that was left was an image of a winged mutant standing right in front of it. "Is that.. Angel!?" I gasped. Kurt's eyes widened with recognition as well. "What happened to his wings?" I noticed that as well. They weren't the pure white wings that they once were, with one of them charred from the fight with Kurt; they were made of a pure metal substance, and yet, he could still fly. The camera had stopped as he landed. He was looking directly at it. "What happened to him?" I breathed. Kurt shook his head. "It says in the report that they found his body at the scene. He's... dead." I looked over my shoulder quickly before turning back to the screen; luckily, the street wasn't busy enough for anyone to notice the small conversation that Kurt and I had just shared. I unconsciously pulled his hood farther over his face. The reporter said that the mutant responsible for the destruction was assumed dead, as more footage from a different camera showed him apparently being incinerated by the other mutants there. Only two mutants were missing from the footage: Angel, who was probably dead by then and another one that neither of us recognized. After the mutant that everyone else was fighting was defeated, a red headed girl turned to a boy with sunglasses and pointed directly at the camera. The boy turned and lifted his glasses. There was a flash of red, and the video ended.

  The reporter moved on to another topic, so Kurt and I walked away, back towards home. I started at the thought. This was the first time that I had ever called the circus home, and realized as soon as I thought it that it was true. It made me smile as we walked out of the town.