Other side

Ch 14// James again

He approached from nowhere. If Kerry wanted she could not get away from James’s hand grab. It was strong, but not in a scary way, it was safe.

“What is happening here?” Kerry asked.

“Questions later. I need to get you out of this place as further I can.”

“What? Why?”

“Just… don’t talk, I will tell you everything later, please for now just keep up with me,” James released Kerry’s hand after saying this.

That move was unexpected. When he released her hand Kerry almost lost her balance. She tried to keep up although it was difficult, because all around there were students, it was almost impossible to keep up, but she did.

When they get out of school territory they didn’t become slower. James walked in the direction of the forest. Kerry was confused. Why he goes exactly in that direction not other? Far away she heard firemen’s car sirens. A few minutes they just walked in silence. Kerry couldn’t take it anymore:

“Where are we going?” it sounded more aggressive than she wanted it to sound, but it was already said. 

The guy pretended he didn’t hear it. But when he heard no more of girls steps he turned around.

“Let’s go, we don’t have time for this. Just trust me, I already said I will explain you everything…”

“Later? Yea, I know, you already said that. But you are saying that all the time. But after your “explaining’s” I become more confused every time. At least tell where the hell are we going right now!?”

“We are going to your home.”

Now it seems Kerry was surprised. 

“To my home? To the apartment? But…” there were so many questions in her head, but all she could ask was, “how we get there? Like… it’s far. And all that way on feet? I don’t now, maybe…”

“Don’t worry, it’s goanna be fine with your legs, we won’t go all path. That why let’s go now, we need to get to one place and then we will get there very quickly.”

Kerry relaxed and started to walk. But one thing still bothered her. James said they need to get to one place and then then they will get home very quickly? What place and how they goanna continue the way? She knew he was an angel and further in the forest there is nothing but trees. Was he going to disappear from human eyes to see and then with Kerry try to teleport, fly?? She knew it sounded stupid, but few days ago she didn’t even believe in such thing as guardian angel. James stopped. Girl stopped too. Girl stopped too so. He looked around then went little further, there was some kin of road extension, he watched it and asked:

“Ready?”

She didn’t now how to respond so she closed her eyes and leaned back a bit. She thought he will sort of grab her and just fly away with her. But she didn’t feel any of touching or grabbing’s. She opened her eyes. James watched Kerry, he looked at her like being very curious in what she was doing. He tilted his head a bit and with the smile asked:

“What are you doing?”

Kerry had a slight blush on her cheeks, and she turned away for a moment. Turned against him again she was ready to say something, but stayed with opened mouth. There still was James but behind him there was car now. But not the car’s colour or sign surprised her, but that there was no car at all few moments ago. She slowly closed her mouth and walked towards James. 

“H-how? What happened? How did that car appear here?""You mean my car? Standing where I left it."

“But I swear there was no car few moments ago.”

“Yes, I know. I enchanted it with rune’s. But I just took away the spell.”

“Of course you did. How didn’t think of that.”

“But you did not answer my question.”

“What question?”

“What were you doing back there? Why you closed your eyes and… leaned back?”

“Well… I don’t now actually. I just wondered what you meant when you said “very quickly” we will get to my apartment. And as a result I thought of more interesting ways of transportation than car.”

He crossed his hand on his chest.

"For example?" he was curious. He grinned, but he tried to hide it.

Kerry didn't answer immediately. She whispered:

"For example... flying."

The silence was broken by a loud laugh from the guy. But they were not evil laughter, but rather sincere. 

"Actually you weren't far from the truth. I mean in general about flying as such. But we rarely do that, at least we try not to use that way of transportation," James said, emphasising the . As if this wording would amuse him a little. "We use flying only in rare and extreme cases, when you really have no choice. And if you are interested in whether someone sees us - no, they don't.

Realising that they had spoken too much, James immediately straightened up and turned to the car. 

"Okay, now it will be enough to chat, there may be people here," the guy looked around again, but more unobtrusively, Kerry didn't ask anything anymore and quietly got in the car next to James. Leaving the forest on the highway, an ambulance drove past, followed by a police car. They were driving towards school, the girl in the mirror of the car in the sky felt that the amount of smoke had already diminished. They approached Kerry's home.

"Why are we driving to my place? You didn't tell me the reason earlier."

James's features tensed, and as he breathed he began to speak:

"We will have to spend a few days together. Don't get me wrong, It is for your safety."

"My safety? Am I in danger?"

"Not yet. I also need to check something."

"What?"

"When I check - I'll say," noticed the girl's disgruntled look, the guy continued, "hey, he didn't explain anything to me. He told me to take you and go to your house. Said it would be necessary to check something. What exactly I don't know, all I know is that I will need to contact him when we are there."

"Who told that to you?"

"My teacher. He and a few others are the only ones who know about ... our situation."

"And what does he hope to find there?"

James sighed.

"Did you even listen to what I told you? I already said - I do not know. I'll know when we're done. Ok?"

Kerry nodded and looked out the car window. The forest was over a long time ago. Now there were only private houses, apartment buildings, and from time to time flat meadows appeared. The whole world seemed more like usual than unusual. Kerry suddenly felt so lonely, she realised that she can't explain her problems to anyone, even if she told, best consequences - she would be sent to a psychologist. She didn't even know what would be worse, that she would involve someone and endanger that person's life, or that she would be considered mad. They had arrived at Kerry's house. James parked the car near the entrance to the building where Kerry lived. As he turned off the car, the two sat in silence for a moment, staring at the upper windows of the building.

"Okey, let's go." said James.

Kerry said nothing, just glanced, followed the guy. Upon reaching the apartment door, Kerry automatically pulled the key from her bag and opened the door. The girl took off her shoes and put on comfortable slippers. She was about to take a shower, but then remembered that James was still with him. She saw that the guy did not feel more comfortable than she did. He was about to go deeper into the apartment, but the girl stopped him.

"Listen, first of all it would be very nice if you took off your shoes, you know,  I don't want to wash everything. And... then it would be nice if you contact your... teacher, right?"

James took off his shoes without saying a word. She offered him his father's room slippers, but the boy refused them, he did not object to walking in socks.

"Well, what now? How will you communicate with your... teacher?"

"Soon, but it is difficult to explain how I will do it. You will see everything yourself."

Kerry had to experience a moment of misunderstanding again. She sensed that there were many more things that the girl did not understand. But she no longer felt she used to feel - the desire to stop and forget everything, but on the contrary. Something made her think change, maybe a fire, maybe James' appearance, she didn't know it herself, but she realized that blunt, short answers would not be enough for her, so she was ready to listen to explanations, even if it would take much longer than she would like.

With the corner of her eye, the girl watched as the guy entered the living room. He approached the window and pulled the curtains shut, a kind of twilight entered the room. Then unexpectedly he sat down on the floor.

"What are you going to now?"

"I will contact the teacher."

James took the backpack he had removed from the trunk of the car when they both went upstairs. After opening the zippers, the guy pulled a wooden box out of his bag. Sliding the lid off, James took the ring out of the box and put it on his left hand's fourth finger. He was moving it for a while, Kerry noticed that it was faintly flickering, but very minimally, barely noticeable. The guy muttered something to himself. The girl was about to speak, but then the guy quickly straightened out, his eyes shining in an emerald green tone. The engraving of the ring also changed the shade to green. Kerry froze. A light broke out of the guy's ring. The view reminded her of millions of tiny dusts of light flying in all directions, slowly but steadily at the same time, as if each dot of light knew its place and time to be. Gradually they began to form a silhouette, a human form.

"Teacher, we are at girls apartment. What will be the next instructions?"