An Angel Among Us

Chapter Nineteen: Something Goes Awry

That night I had another nightmare. I should have expected that to happen. It's too much to ask that I have a good night sleep these days. I didn't have any nightmares when I was at the California Angel Headquarters but my first night sleeping in the mortal world and I suddenly have nightmares.

Thanks a lot, Mekhi. 

It's cold and dark where I'm at. I appear to be in the ocean, wearing the linen pajamas from the first Angel Headquarters that I had stayed at. It felt like I was moving in slow motion. Everything around me is blurry as I attempt to squint through the seawater around me. I was slowly floating downward and eventually feel soft sand under my feet which I just noticed are bear.

Even in my dream, there is litter and trash at the bottom of the ocean. The garbage from people constantly dropping things into the water when they are on a boat.

A hammerhead shark swam a few feet away from me and I had to keep myself from swimming up to the surface in fear by reminding myself that this is just a dream. It didn't take long for it to swim away.

I understood why I'm dreaming about water since I fought a sea monster not too long ago. Dreams tend to linger on events that happen in your life. Suddenly something came out from the darkness and wrapped itself around my body, forcing my arms down to my sides and lifting me up off the sandy floor.

It's a tentacle with suction cups on it which is attached to a giant sapphire squid with big red eyes in the center of its head. All I could think to myself is: Holy crap, it's Squidward's mother!

The squid's tentacle tightened around, squeezing my ribs and suffocating me. My lungs screamed in complaint at the lack of oxygen going to my brain. The tentacles tightened even further, dark spots appearing above my eyes as evil and cold invisible voice chuckles in the background.

"You will fail, Isabella and darkness will rule. Angel's rose from so they shall end in fire by my hand."

I shot up in bed, eyes wide open, heart pounding emphatically in my chest. I felt arms and chest, looking for any broken or bruised body parts but was pleased when I came up empty. I thought I could still feel the weird sticky feeling of the tentacles against my skin and hear the echo of the man's voice in my head.

I knew the voice was Mekhi.

He was adamant about torturing me in my sleep since he's too far away to do so in person. And his monsters didn't seem to be succeeded at doing so while I'm awake.

My body is covered in sweat like it always is when I wake from a nightmare. Lucas and the others are sleeping in their bed and sleeping bag as if nothing happened. Which of course, is true. It was just a dream.

But it had felt so real and scary.

Just like all the other nightmares.

Standing up, I walked over to the open window that's bringing a soft nightly breeze that smelled like salty ocean water. It's dark outside so that meant it's not morning yet. I looked over at the alarm clock that rested on the side table by the bed. It's 4:16 in the morning.

I knew I should probably go back to sleep for a few more hours so that I'm well-rested for the journey to Angelus Urbem but I didn't think I'd be able to.

The sleeping bag had felt just as constricting as the giant squid in my dream. I grabbed a flashlight out of the side table drawer and went outside, quietly closing the cabin door behind me as to not wake the others. Just because I was having sleep troubles doesn't mean we all should.

A short walk on the beach should make me feel a little better.

Get some fresh air.

I didn't take off my shoes before walking along the beach because that might remind me too much of the dream and that'll make things worse. The slight breeze seems to cool down my overheated skin as I take deep calming breaths of the salty air.

There aren't a lot of beaches around where I live. So that was definitely a nice feeling to be surrounded by cool air and the calming sound of gentle waves as the tide came in and out.

I was so distracted that I didn't hear soft footfalls behind until it was too late. I turned around and the dark angel that had shown up on the plane a few days ago is standing right in front of me. He lifted his hand, sending a quick jab to my neck and pain went through my body. I collapsed onto the sandy beach, my necklace becoming unattached and falling next to me.

The last thing I see before everything goes dark is the Dark Angel's face as he lifts me up into arms, black wings coming out of his back before he shoots into the sky with me along with him.

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that my head is throbbing and my neck is sore. I blinked the sleep out of my eyes as it takes a few moments for my vision to become clear.

Above me is a rock ceiling covered in moss. There's a small amount of light in the room coming from a small window with bars on it on the side of the room. Slowly I sit up in what appears to be some kind of cot. The room is bare except for the cot that I'm sitting in and a small filthy toilet in the corner of the room.

I'll hold it, I thought, grimacing.

I got up and stretched my sore muscles. The roof is so close that I could put the palm of my hand flat on the ceiling and still have my arm bent slightly. I walked over to the window, hoping to see where I'm at. Hands-on the bar, I took notice of things.

First, the sky is red. I don't mean like a slight orange color that happens when the sun is setting on another day. No, I mean, the sky is a blood-red color made everything look strange. The building across from me is a mess. It's tall and would have looked nice except that the windows are broken and the building looks like it's partially destroyed and someone got tired of working on it.

Trash, broken glass and black feathers littered the ground as well as some sort of black goo that I've seen monster's bleed when my friends or I would stab them.

Somewhere out of sight, I faintly could hear echoes of people laughing. Not happy laughter but dark chuckles and maniacal laughter filled with glee.

The entire place looked a city that's been deserted and left to die slowly on its own. But that's not what made me feel uncomfortable about the place. It was the aura that the place gave off. Even the air I breathed seemed wrong. Evil.

Can oxygen be evil?

Quick, Bella, I thought to myself, what do you remember last.

Well, I remember having a nightmare about a giant squid and an evil laugh and then I went for a walk and...

It hit me. The dark angel I had seen. He must have knocked me out and taken me to this place and put me in a cell.

But what is here? When I think of the red sky, the first thing that comes to mind is Krypton but that's a fictional planet and I'm pretty sure it blew up. So, I'm definitely still on Earth but last time I checked, we had a yellow sun, not a red one.

Actually, I don't think this place has a sun at all. I thought maybe it's out of view from my cell but I had a feeling that this place only has red sky and that's it.

The sky is not important right now though. What's important is figuring a way out of here. The bar on the window is tight and I think I had left my sword in the cabin so I"m empty-handed.

I walked over to the metal door that I have a tiny face sized window with more bars and looked out it. It's just a hallway with other doors like mine on both sides. Grabbing the handle, I yanked and twisted the knob but no luck. It's locked from the outside.

Feeling my pockets, I came to the conclusion that I don't have my pick-locking stuff with me either, so I can't unlock the door now or ever. Not until someone comes and unlocks it with the key which I'm not looking forward to.

I walked back over to the window and looked outside again. It's warm here. Warmer than California was and there doesn't seem to be a breeze here. I wiped the sweat off my forehead. I'm guessing whoever captured me couldn't install an air conditioner up in this place. Talk about terrible service.

And then it hit me like a ton of bricks. The people that kidnapped me are dark angels so of course, this place is going to be terrible. And if the sky is red and everything's a mess, there's only one place that I could be right now.

The Realm of Dark Angels.