I burst out laughing, this had to be a joke… he wasn’t serious, was he?
“Stop laughing, this isn’t funny” but it just made me laugh even more, he was being ridiculous “I MEAN IT, STOP!” the anger and frustration In his voice was quick to make me stop, I stared at him with wide eyes… his chest rising and falling in a steady beat like a drum, the vein on his neck was now more apparent and bulging as the blood rose to his face “…I’m sorry..” But I was gone; I tossed the pizza to one side, yanked on the door handle and shot out, slamming it behind me. He was acting like an ass, there was no need to raise his voice to me… he was being delusional. Each stride I took became faster, blurred by the film of tears that were now building up in front of my eyes… Leo was a jerk… a jerk that thought he could pull the wool over my eyes so I wouldn’t see what he was really … a jerk that used and toyed with my emotions so that I would follow him like a sheep, that was probably the thing he was laughing at with Jessica the other day… laughing at my expense, talking about how naïve and vulnerable I was, how easy a target I was…
I could Leo’s voice faintly in the background as he called after me, he would have to suck up pretty badly if he wanted me to talk to him again. I could barely see now from the stream of tears that were shooting from my eyes, I don’t suppose I helped that matter much by starting to run either… I was crossing the road when I saw a bright light flash from the corner of my eye… it was too bright to be far away, I glanced to my side to see a car about a foot away… instead of carrying on… I stopped and raised my hands in a defensive manner… like that would help… I was going to die any moment now… I closed my eyes.
“Got you!” a rugged and muffled voice barked as I was thrown out of harm’s way, still afraid I kept my eyes squeezed shut… I must have died… it was too close for anyone to save me… was I dead? “Easy now...” a voice cooed, trying to soothe me “Open your eyes” I complied with the persons request to see… well it was… it was Leo… but how? Why? What? I didn’t comprehend how it was physically possible! I opened my mouth to speak but he just placed his finger to my lips and closed his eyes “Shhh… we need to talk… but not here…” he opened his eyes and scooped me up into his arms, such a romantic and overused gesture to assert masculinity… but who was I complaining… the guy just saved my life after all.
“Leo… how...”
“I told you...” he grunted “I AM an angel… but I shouldn’t have yelled at you… I should have explained...” he shook his head; I don’t think he understood that after what just happened I was willing to believe and listen to anything he had to say
“Please..” I softly pleaded and he looked down at me, his eyes filled with compassion and a love that I didn’t understand “Please...” I repeated once more
“You see… you’re going to hate me at the end of it” he smiled
“please…” and he sighed, we were almost at the car now, I understood that this is what he meant by ‘not here’, he wanted a little privacy. He placed me down at the front of the car, opened the doors and shoved the two pizza boxes on the back seat before requesting that I sit down, this was going to be a long talk. Once sat down with both doors closed, Leo once more chucked the heating on, shuffled in his seat to face me, cleared his throat and began
“You see, Jen... what you know about me already… isn’t a lie but neither is it the truth. My name is Leonardo; I have no last name that I can remember of… so before enrolling into college, I looked up American Surnames… “He shrugs “I was neither born, but neither am I dead… I was… created. Now when I say created, he goes under all sorts of names… God, Allah, Zeus… well you get the drift, but God created us to watch over what you call ‘Heaven’ but we were only permitted charge when he had to leave… which was when he created the humans, now in his absence some of us found ourselves becoming increasingly bored and wanted something fresh and new to do, we had no one to worship and idolise… so whilst God was preoccupied we snuck down to earth to take a peek at what he had created and was so proud of, I was of course one of the few ‘rebellious’… “He didn’t like the label he was set with, but I just shifted in my seat and allowed him to continue “… but what I saw… It was beautiful, all of these things humans take for granted… your landscapes, your oceans!” he grabbed my hands “It inspired me! But… we knew we didn’t have long to admire so we returned sharply to heaven in hopes no one noticed our leave. We did this a few times until…” he closed his eyes, but as I reached out to touch him, he shrugged away and sighed “well… in the 1800’s I travelled down and spotted this beautiful woman her name was Isabella, I befriended her and gradually over time we… well we fell in love… I was about to ask her to marry me one day when… when she was brutally murdered… as you can guess I was distraught … so filled with rage that it consumed me, I flew right up into heaven and demanded an audience with God, I was so hurt and so confused as to why the humans he created would find it acceptable to steal another’s precious life… especially one that was precious to me. I screamed at god to banish the humans from earth, as penance… but God would not listen to me, instead he said it was his brothers Job to judge and damn those who have sinned, and that I would end up down the same and bitter route if I did not control my anger, instead of listening to him I flew back to earth… I had to see my loved one buried… and it was the saddest day of my eternal life”
We sat in silence for a while, he was allowing me to absorb what he had just told me before he was willing to share more, I understood just fine… but I thought it best to give him a bit of space
“Are you ok” I asked him, he traced his thumb over the back of my hand, which sent shivers along my spine
“I’ll be fine, don’t worry my sweet”
“Why are you telling me all this… isn’t it painful..”
“Because you need to understand...”
“Then please… continue”
“As you wish” he smiled “Now where was I… oh yes, after the funeral… I decided that I would take a trip down to hell” my eyes widened but he just shook his head “It’s called many things, Hell, tarturus, The underworld, the everneath… but it’s none the less the same thing, just depicted differently, I won’t describe it for you, neither shall I describe heaven… its forbidden. Anyway, once in hell I decided to have a little chat with the man in charge and demand to know why humans were so determined to destroy that which was pure… he just laughed at me and told me that which I loved was not a pure human but something of a hybrid, I almost punched the guy there and then but he asked me to follow him to his chambers where he could just show me.”
“ How could the devil show you?” he laughed at me
“The devil…now that’s original, believe it or not… the guy prefers to be called either Hades of Lucifer”
“Oh... I see”
“Yeah, now old Lucy showed me a crystal ball and within that ball I could see three hideous old women, he rubbed the ball and these hags appeared before us… sort of like the stories you speak about genies… anyway these ladies showed me the not so distant past… some dirty little angel had, had his way with a Mortal woman thus impregnating her with a hybrid spawn… Isabella’s mother… now because they broke the natural order of things the hags decided to have it in their power to curse on the offspring”
“What kind of curse?”
“That the soul of the child would be reborn, again and again and again… exactly the way it was born, but would always die before it reached the age of 18...” I Gasped, not meaning to but it just slipped out “Exactly… the woman I had fallen in love with, was half angel... and half mortal”
“But what has that...” I began, but once more he shook his head and I fell silent
“You Jennifer are part of that soul line…” I swear my heart stopped at that moment, all I could hear was my heart thudding… “Jen… please, snap out of it!” he shook my shoulders frantically
“Stop… I’m fine… it’s just a lot to sink in…but how can I be sure if you’re even telling me the truth” he bit his lip and run a hand through his hair.
“I’ll show you”
“Show me what?”
“Just trust me… step outside” he let go of my hand, turned around and stepped out of the car, moments later… I did the same; tugging on the sleeves of the sweater I closed the door and walked towards him with my head down looking at the floor “Jen, now I need you to look at me… its crucial you do…” So I did, I looked at him right in the eyes but he blinked away, stepped back and began to take his shirt off
“what are you doing!” I screamed at him
“You’ll see...” he smirked and continued stripping til he was completely topless, he inhaled before breathing out slowly… his eyes changed from the darkened sapphire to a light sky blue, his body emanated a white light before he yelled and strained, forcing two fluorescent jets of bright blue light to shoot from his shoulder blades, he fell to the floor and rolled his shoulders so that the lights now became to what seemed like… wings, I rushed to him and kneeled by his side
“You look beautiful…” he was panting, this obviously took a lot out of him so I cupped his face between my hands and searched his eyes. His eyes were the same icy blue colour I saw them shift to earlier but his forehead was dripping with sweat, but with the ounce of strength he had left he smiled at me
“Now.Do.You.Believe” he panted, feeling my heart leap at a 1000mph I drew him in and kissed him with the most fullest of passion, he sheltered us with those enormous wings as he raised his hand to my face and the other he ran through my hair, after what seemed ages I pulled from him but remaining eye contact I said
“Does that answer your question?”
YOU ARE READING
Lullaby
FantasíaJen is miserable, hurting and lost... not seeing the point of a life she once loved, covering up and swooping under the radar seemed like the only option... until Leonardo appeared that is.
