Nephilim: Children of Angels

5: Criminally Insane

"Why are you so obsessed with drawing this thing, anyway?" I ask as Miguel attempts to pick the lock to the room where they keep our stuff. He has managed to get us past the security door with a bobby pin. I am impressed.

"Stop distracting me. We only have twenty minutes." He barks in a whisper. I look around nervously. How would they punish us? We already have nothing.

"Exactly" he answers my internal question. He opens the door.

"Get the stuff" he orders like a crack head.

I freeze as I grab the sketch book and pencils, spotting a purple hairbrush dad bought me last Christmas. Dad had tried to get me to draw on the way from Idaho to Washington, but I couldn't bring lead to parchment. Despite all the suffering I've caused him, he loves me, and I couldn't draw him one lousy picture.

I pull the supplies out of my bag, we run back to the recreation area. Miguel grabs the pad and paper from me and starts drawing, but he's doing it all wrong. I snatch it back and quickly sketch the demon, ignoring his protests. I turn the image toward him, and he stops.

"That's it!" Amazement on his face then excitement.

"We gotta show them." He exclaims.

"Who?" I ask, working on cleaning up the lines.

"The others. They can't see them. They don't believe me." He explains.

"That there are demons?" I ask.

"That all of the staff here, are." He claims.

My eraser skids to a halt. "What?" I ask, looking at him as if he's grown a second head or claimed the people in charge of our care are demons.

"I went in to see the Doc one day and found this thing in there. I blinked and the demon was gone, Dr. Hemsworth was standing in its place. It's simple from there to deduce that Janine and the weekend tech are as well." He stares me dead in the eye, serious as a heart attack. "You don't believe me." he says, reading my mind.

"Whatever. The others will once I show them the drawing." He huffs, giving me an annoyed look.

He is not just criminal, he is insane. He's just like my mom.

...................................................................

I jumped to my feet, ready to fight. Desert surrounded me, a terrifying abyss to my right. I scurried away from the ledge. 'I blacked out?' I assumed, but my phone showed no time had passed. 'I froze time?' I am hallucinating like the voices only much worse.'

"Rabid Babies." I cursed as I tore the tape off my face. If it's true pain will wake you from a dream I was defiantly not dreaming.

I noticed a viewpoint not too far away with some cars parked nearby. If last time really happened, I should have learned my lesson about getting into cars with strangers, but what choice did I have in the middle of the dessert?

There was an elderly couple admiring the canyon. "Hi." I greeted, trying to not sound as desperate as I felt. "My friends accidentally left me out here." I lied. "Would you please be willing to give me a ride into town?" I asked putting my hands together pleadingly, doing my best to smile sweetly while hoping my baby face would do the trick.

"Oh dear. How could your friends have left you here?" The older woman responded, putting her hand to her mouth.

"Of course, we'll give you a ride." Reassured her husband.

"Thank you both so much." I said while trying not to show how much I was freaking out. I didn't want them to know I was losing it. They might not be so willing to help me.