Ryder's Angel

Chapter Thirty-Three: The Future: Ang/Danny

Chapter Thirty-Three: The Future: Ang/Danny

As it turned out, Hutch never came.

A few months later, on the ninth month, we waited in dreadful anticipation. Hutch nor his men came. A year later, after Ethan’s sixth birthday, we expected him to come – he didn’t. Every day I grew more worried.

This was good news and bad. Good because none of us had the spirit to fight and because we were hopelessly outnumbered in every way. This was bad because Hutch might wait until the “child” is old enough. He might come eventually.

But there was other bad news. Thanks to the epidemic with the possessing, Blu got terribly sick. Veronica wouldn’t tell anyone the details, and Kendall was the only one who knew, and my own brother wouldn’t tell me. I thought it was strain to the doctor’s heart, for he wasn’t very young. I feared his days were numbered.

The glass from my rage had been completely cleaned, and the window-wall was replaced.

As the seasons passed, children came and went. Almost every week, children as young as three years old came in with or without parents, and at the same time, kids who hit age fifteen were kicked out to fend for themselves. However, less and less came as more people heard of Miss Sadie’s death. Many had heard of her before, and apparently lots had thought she was wonderful. Some even thought the orphanage was less powerful with only her twenty-year-old niece and Miss Sadie’s elder sister, Sienna, in charge. Claire and her mother feared they would also lose money donations from relatives. 

Jason and Penelope were still dating, but they were getting restless. They didn’t want to stay hidden here, but I heard that they were constantly told that there was nowhere else to go. If they were out in the human world, they would get hunted down eventually. Humans were still set on their mutant-destruction plan.

Zo and Riddle had tried dating, but it didn’t work out. Riddle was a sly man, and Ro didn’t like it. Once or twice I heard them fighting in Zo’s room. But of course, because they were young still, Zo liked Riddle very much, deep down.

Ethan’s training continued, and he was getting better. He made a few friends, but they weren’t permanent. He’d rather spend time with his adopted family – Kayla especially. And when he had free time, Danny and I spent all ours making puzzles and building towers of blocks. But of course, he was getting older and liked older toys. He liked reading, but I couldn’t participate because I never learned to read. He liked to wrestle with Danny in the gym, he loved to train, and he liked playing one of the game consoles – Kayla told me it was called a Wii. I didn’t like it, because I preferred a world with hardly any technology.

However, my son’s and my brother’s relationship got better. I had found out from December that Veronica steals Kendall away, convincing my brother to ignore his nephew. And after the possessing episode, we had cleared things up. Kendall was back to his fun-loving self, with Veronica at his side less. My approval of her lowered, but before she was only stealing Kendall for herself. Now it’s much better. And pretty soon she might be taking over for Blu.

Things were well and getting less tense with each passing week. I couldn’t be happier, despite the tension of Hutch’s presence in the back of my mind.

One day, I had just dropped off Ethan at his training and Angeline was helping in the kitchen. I walked through the halls aimlessly, wondering what to do. Most training classes were done by now, but Ethan’s was on a different schedule.

There was soft chatter here and there, with one or two or a group of kids hanging out. I heard Ro and Riddle yelling at each other down the corridor. Two eight-year-olds were chasing each other on the ceiling. But what caught my attention was the group of three in the back of an empty classroom. Their heads were close together, a boy and two girls, about fourteen.