The Battle Within An Angel

Eight | Maddox & Claire

"Claire? You alright?"

"Yeah, I guess so." Claire looked behind herself and around the old apartment building that she was now standing on top of as if she were looking for the terrorists that were after her.

"I have a question, and it might sound odd, but are you that girl Chaos has been looking for? I saw a few posters and-"

"Yeah, I am," she interrupted. "They think I'm magic or something. I think that's crazy."

"Oh yeah? Then what was that glowing back there?"

"I don't know, okay?" Claire snapped. She ran her fingers through her tangled hair, pushing back the curly locks away from her face as the wind blew gently, sending waves of sand like tumbleweeds across the ground below.

Claire had always been the gracefully sarcastic kind of girl; one who would take up for herself whenever she needed to. She had always been defensive, sheltering her mind inside of her body, leaving it to be trapped inside the shell of a person she had become.

She held the firm belief that had she grown up with her parents in the 20th century rather than growing up in an orphanage in the 21st, she'd be a completely different person. She'd be happier, she'd find love, she'd let her guard down and have fun. She wouldn't be sunburned.

But life didn't work that way, she'd guessed.

Maddox sat, looking intently at Claire. He knew no safe places to take her and certainly didn't know how to help her. Arguing with women never went well for Maddox; they'd always ended in scratches, and once, bite marks.

He watched as Claire sat down on the other side of the roof across him, her head in her knees. From the distance, Maddox couldn't tell if she was crying, but decided against going near her. Distance had always helped him to heal, perhaps it would help her, too.

Although he had just met Claire, in the same way he had met Cole, it physically hurt Maddox to see Claire in pain, though there was no reason that he could point out for such pain. From when she cried over the bed of rocks in the desert to now, her mind cutting her heart into pieces and throwing those pieces out, it pained him.

After seeing what he had in the past few years- the countless dead bodies in piles on the sides of roads, the sand stained red, children crying to their mothers from being hungry and weak, and those mothers not knowing what they should do as their husbands fought a pointless war for food- Maddox found it difficult to sympathize with others, even though his own emotions often got in the way of his life.

He'd seen innocent people in worse situations than himself and Claire combined, and he knew things could always be worse. The problem lied in the simple fact that not everyone felt as emptily emotional as he did, and no one could truly understand the "worse" side of things if they've never experienced it for themselves.

Though held back by his own pride and his difficulty to sympathize, Maddox couldn't help but to inch as close as he could to Claire. He wanted to let her have space, but he felt compelled to be near her as if he had to. Ever since he had fallen into unconsciousness, into the corridor filled with hallways and countless doors of his mind, he had felt... strange. The need to be a protector flooded his mind, though he didn't know exactly how to deal with the strange new feeling.

The only thing he'd ever protected was the remote while staying at his Jamie's house when he was six years old, simply so he wouldn't change the channel while Maddox went to get snacks for the two of them.

He'd never felt too strongly about anyone. With a rough home life, countless "girlfriends," if that is what they should be called as relationships typically lasted only a few months, and his father's death, it was no surprise that Maddox had become the oxymoron that is an emotional, yet heartless man. He had strong emotions, but at the same time, he tried to hide them. On the outside, he may have acted cold hearted, but on the inside, a flame burned like a candle in the shadows of a dark hallway.

Now, he was anything but, especially around Claire. The flame now burned from the inside out; "cold hearted" no longer being in his vocabulary.

Maddox was now only a foot away from the girl who held her head on her knees, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. Reaching out slowly, Maddox's hand grazed slightly across Claire's shoulder.

Maddox quickly pulled his hand back as she jerked her head upward, only enough to see him in front of her. She revealed her bloodshot, tear stained eyes. She had been crying silently, quite the contrary compared to Cole's cries earlier the night before.

"Get lost."

Her words struck him like a knife to the chest, and he backed away. The thought of being rejected by the one person he was destined to protect made his heart skip a beat, his muscles becoming tense under his skin. He stood still, stumbling over his next words. He'd never felt this way over anyone. He wasn't himself and he knew that, but he couldn't stop it.

"I don't want to hurt you."

"You don't understand, Maddox. You don't know what I've been through." Sitting up now, Claire looked up at Maddox with daring eyes, still bloodshot from tears, though they had stopped flowing.

Before he had the chance to speak, a white, omniscient light nearly blinded the two as they sat on top of the roof of the building. Shielding his eyes, Maddox realized what was happening.

He was staring at her- the woman he had seen and spoken to while unconscious- the Masked Lady.

The light dimmed before them, showing the full figure of the woman. She wore a masquerade mask, white with gold trim. Her long, silk dress matched, white with a single golden design swirling at the bottom. She looked like a queen, but higher in power.

A goddess.

As her figure became limpid, her heart-shaped face coming into view, Maddox saw an undeniable resemblance to Claire. Long, brown hair, though she wore hers straight compared to Claire's curly. Her eyes were lightly colored- hazel and almond shaped. He stared at the Masked Lady in awe and wonder.

The silence around them was nearly unbearable. Maddox wanted to speak, but he didn't know what he should say. It was then he heard a whisper from behind him, hushed and quick.

"Mom?"

A/N: I know this is a bit of a shorter chapter, but I thought this was a good place to leave off. I have a couple of questions before you go:

Who's your favorite character so far?

Do you have any predictions as to what might happen next?

Let me know in the comments! I look forward to hearing from all of you!