A Serpent's Kiss

Chapter Three

Her feet pounded on the ground and her limbs moved impossibly fast. Her human heart thundered furiously, as if it was about to explode out of her chest but the serpentine ability to move and strike with deadly intention kicked in. She outpaced all the other runners until it was just Gabriel ahead. His head turned as he sensed her bearing down on him and her eyes never left his head. Closer and closer, the finish line loomed towards them. Her ears strained to hear sounds of his struggling but nothing. If this had been anyone else, they would have been sobbing, gasping but not Gabriel. What it…? Her mind threw away the thought but it had distracted her. Her feet slowed as she crossed the line in second place.

Lungs heaving, the snake having slithered back into darkness, Alaura bent double, her human heart now finally accepting the strain that had been put on it. A shadow crossed her path and she looked up to see the new boy standing before her. Teeth glinted white as a huge grin slashed across his features. He wasn’t half bad when he smiled. With the arrogance gone, he was a decent looking boy. And he was actually talking to her.

“There’s not many people that can give me a good race,” he chuckled. “But you certainly tried. You look like you’ve been running all your life.”

“I-” she began but then changed tune. “Yeah, I’ve always enjoyed it. Been really pushing myself this year.” She shot a quick glance over her shoulder to see if Katie, affectionately known as the ‘blabbermouth’ was anywhere near. She was embroiled in a conversation with a group of anonymous people.

“Nice,” he smiled again and she found herself warming to him.

“Well, guess I’ll be seeing you,” she started to walk off but his voice stopped her.

“Hey, do you…” She turned and he tore his eyes away, fiddling with his ear. “You don’t fancy showing me around a bit? I’ve got a free next lesson and no one else seems to..”

“Care?” He nodded. Alaura shrugged. She had a free period and had nothing else to do. It would be good to have a conversation with someone knew. Kate was great, but there was only so much one could take of her. “Wait for me outside the building and I’ll give you a tour.”

He muttered his thanks and joined the stream of people heading back into the building.

True to her word, Alaura waited for him. Breathing a sigh of relief, he emerged last. There was enough distance between them and the rest of the class to stop tongues wagging.

The school wasn’t exactly an opulent art gallery. It showed signs of its age - dingy corridors, boring classrooms and outdated facilities. The tour didn’t last long and Alaura, having had enough socialising for one day, politely hinted she needed to do some reading. With a dignified nod, Gabriel got the hint.

She passed the rest of the day feeling a little lighter than normal. Most days, she wallowed in her own misery, feeling exhausted, chugging water to replace meals she could not eat, and mostly sat by herself whilst Kate did one of her hundreds of clubs.

As she walked home, she realised a large part of her humanity was still there. She was still fighting it in the daylight. With the sun above and a new friend, she felt the most positive she had in a long time.

Until later that night when she feasted on a rabbit.

A few days passed and she gradually found herself sat with Gabriel in her lunches and frees. He was an intelligent guy with a love for music. He played the harp, of all instruments, and had travelled extensively with his parents. They had recently moved here because of his dad’s job.

“Do you fancy showing me a cafe, or somewhere that does a good grub?” he suggested as they were walking out of the gates at the end of a school day.

Alaura’s stomach lurched; unsure which part of her was making her do that. Last night’s meal sat heavy in her stomach but another part danced at the thought of a...date? Was it a date? She had been enjoying Gabriel’s company, finding herself enthralled by what he said...but was this the start of something else? Her mum had always said to give things a go, so why not.

“Urm yeah, there’s Sophie’s, it’s a pretty decent cafe.”

“How about Bob’s Burgers...I’ve heard that’s awesome.”

Alaura felt the colour drain from her face. “I’m a vegetarian,” she snapped, the words tumbling out of her mouth.

“Oh, I’m sorry..” Gabriel stuttered. “It’s okay, we’ll do Sophie’s. Want to go now?”

A night of sitting at her desk, pretending to do homework for a future she wasn’t even sure she was going to get, was what lay in wait for her. Her mum’s words flashed back into her mind.

“Why not.”

As they sat over milkshakes and a diet coke, Gabriel leaned across the table, his arms folded. For a split second, Alaura thought he was going for something else but she relaxed when he stopped, although not too aware of the concept of personal space.

“So I hear your town is one of myths and legend?” His eyes lit up. Ah, here lies his real interest.

Alaura shrugged. “I don’t know so much about this town but my mum tells me all the legends of God and goddesses.”

He leaned back appreciatively. “So you know that millenniums ago, an angel came to earth, in this very town, and fell in love with a human? She gave birth to a boy...half man, half celestial. But people were God fearing in those days and believed the child to be a curse…”

Alaura’s stomach contracted. This was sounding all too familiar.

“They never found the child. Some say he was taken back up to the heavens. If you believe that sort of thing.”

Alaura made a noise with her mouth; hal gurgle, half snort. She quickly turned her attention to her bottle of coke, as if it were the most fascinating thing in the world.

“Alaura,” a hand reached out to touch her forearm, to grab her attention. A spark of pure heat seemed to shot through her veins, racing through her synapses and exploding in her brain. For a moment all she saw was searing white behind her eyelapses.

When she returned to reality, she realised she was panting heavily. A trickle of damp was flowing onto her leg from the upturned glass. Warily, her eyes turned to Gabriel. He was staring back at her with dilate pupils.

Suddenly, she was aware the room had gone quiet. Dozens of people were staring, wondering what the commotion from the two lovers in the corner.

“We just saw a spider,” Gabriel improvised, and the sound rose again. Gabriel was watching her now, with a tilt to his head. It reminded her of her cat when it was staring at the vole it wanted to kill.

“Well, I’d better go,” she flapped, standing up. “I need to...errr…” She left the cafe, the bell tingling as she closed the door behind her.

She started power walking home, her pace furious, cars and building going by in a blur. What had happened? What had he seen? This was no spark of love. The way he had looked at her….he knew something.

“Damn it,” she muttered under her breath.

It was only on the last leg home that she sensed someone watching her. Glancing behind, she saw the unmistakable figure of Gabriel. He was completely still, his hands folded over his chest. Fear struck a chord through Alaura. She took a step forward towards home but then she felt a burst. She would confront him. Make sure he kept his mouth shut.

But when she turned around, he had gone.

Her mind was too focused on Gabriel and who he was that night to resist the serpentine call. Sometimes, she could resist. Otherdays she couldn’t. Tonight, she found herself sliding down the walls and into the darkness of the night before she could check herself.

The first time it had happened, she had been alone at the house. By some blessing, her parents had gone out for the night. It had started with a knot in her stomach, a feeling like when she had eaten something too rich. But the knot had started to grow, tying her arms and legs to her side. She wanted to scream but her voice had gone. When her bones had started to crack, she had blacked out. The next morning, she had woken alone and in the forest next to a carcass.

She glided back towards the woods, intent on prey. The bumpy tarmac beneath her gave way to the soft whisper of grass and she moved in and out of shadow as the trees towered above her. As she passed underneath one, something made her flick her gaze upwards. It was merely an owl, a shadowy outline against the brilliance of the moon. She began to move forward and then stopped. In the darkness, something was watching her. Her eyes went to the owl. She turned away. It was ridiculous. It was just an owl, not particularly uncommon during the night. i***t. Yet even though she knew her heightened paranoia was twisting her mind, the small part of her humanity, locked away, stopped the hunger that night. She made it home, waking the next day in her own bed and with no poor animal sat in her stomach.

As she walked into history the next day, she saw Gabriel already sat at his desk. He smiled and nodded at her. She blinked. Twice. Glancing around, she realised no one else even cared about the exchange. With a nod and a half smile, she sat down, her mind racing.

At the end of the lesson, she prayed no one asked her about propaganda during WW1 because she had not absorbed a single word.

Walking down the corridor, she could feel something heavy in her bag bashing against her leg. Cursing at a particularly aggressive bump, she moved to the side and hoisted her satchel up. Moving the flap, she could see a worn spine, frayed with most of the lettering rubbed off. Frowning, she pulled it out. It was a book that had been written far before her time. Holding it carefully, she opened the cover and skipped to the title page.

Angels and Demons; a contention

Slamming it shut, she shoved it back into her bag. There was one place this book belonged. Who would have put it there? Someone knew her secret. Was it Gabriel? Perhaps the spark that had blown them apart had been a surge of attraction but somehow she doubted it. But then she couldn’t go around making wild accusations. There was no reason for Gabriel to get involved with her unless she knew something. Grunting, she stormed down the corridor, her mind made up.

She would take this book back to where it belonged and hopefully get some answers.

As the wave of pupils emptied from the school, Alaura hurried down the back lanes and alleys until she came to the small shop with peeling paint and grimy windows. Inside, the light came from yellow lamps and huge piles of books that defied health and safety cast gloomy shadows everywhere. This wasn’t an uncommon haunt for the book nerd.

An elderly man stood up from where had been sitting behind an antique desk. Pushing his glasses further up his nose, he have a small sound as he recognised Alaura.

“Hi Josh,” she said, ambling up towards him, her hands rummaging in her bag. “I…” She hesitated. “I found this book in the library. I think someone left it there…” she went to hand it over but her hands wouldn’t relinquish the volume just yet. “I think my friend left it. Do you remember who borrowed it?”

He looked at her over the rim of his glasses.

“Oh just so I can let them know I’ve brought it back, so they won’t have to pay any fines.” She shrugged even though her heart was working at one hundred miles per hour.

“Oh,” Josh scratched his balding head. “Young man. Haven’t seen him before. Quiet chap -”

“-with grey eyes?”

Josh gave her a wink and she shivered. “Can’t say I stared into his eyes...but….”

“It’s okay, I know who it is. Do you mind if I have a quick read through of this before I hand it back. It just looks like something I would enjoy.”

Josh nodded and pointed her over to a section in the left of the room. She would find more titles of similar themes over there.

Most of the titles had peeling lettering and faded titles, but one in particular caught her eye.It was a midnight blue leather bound and had engraved on it in gold lettering: An Eternal Conflict, opposition between angels and demons. Taking a seat on the tattered armchair underneath the lamp, she began to flick through the book she had found earlier that day.

.Angels and Demons are refuted to be locked in conflict from the moment when Lucifer began his fall from heaven and the light. Demons are said to be angels who have fallen out of the favour of God and have embraced the powers of darkness, rather than light. This is what is said to cause the conflict; pitch goodness against evil and you have a ferocious opposition.

Alaura flicked through more pages and illustrations began to appear. Instead of scoffing at this information as she once would have done, she now began to sense its importance in what was her happening to her. She stopped at a detailed picture with some text forming a paragraph underneath. This guy had wings sprouting from his back and was starkers. Underneath the text read:

An Angel of the Light. These kind are sent down to Earth in a more mortal form to counter any demonic activity. When contact is made between a demon and an angel, there is a blinding light and a forcefield as both souls vye for power. The angels can ofen take the forms of mortals, and this way, are able to track the demons without upsetting the reality of humans.

It is also said the tears of an Angel of the Light will cure any human who has been infected by a demon.

Alaura slammed the book shut. She threw it down onto the table and left without another word.