Alexander

Chapter Six

You know the feeling you get when you fall asleep and it takes forever to get there? The moment you wake and realize you didn’t get deep enough for your body or brain to rest? Your heart races and you feel wavy and funny inside the same way you do when you first come down with something? That’s how I wake at near two in the morning. Something isn’t feeling right. I tried switching sides, threw my covers on then off and then back on. No, I am missing something. Did I leave a sample out? Did someone break in? Damn Clara for planting that seed of paranoia.

My shoes are cold, my clothes as well. I dress quickly and attempt a slow walk down the corridors to my lab in case I bump into more aliens. No explanation would make sense to them at this hour. Lucky for me there is no one around except a few early workers on their way into the cafeteria to start the morning bread. They would care less what I am up to if I keep my pace slow when I pass them. I pick my speed back up once clear and continue until I am on my way through the corridor and near my lab door. I slam my key in the lock and fling the door open. The light is already on.

“What the hell?” I say, for my own benefit not expecting anyone would actually respond, but he does.

“It was cold,” he says simply.

He is standing on the other side of the counter in the middle of my lab outside his cage with a blanket in hand.

“You can get out?” I ask as he plainly looks from me to the cage and to the blanket in his hand before nodding. “I should have padlocked you in,” I admit frustrated with myself.

“Why? Do you see me running? Where would I have to go? No one out there wants me here anymore than I want to be here and let’s be frank, I can’t fly which means I can’t transcend into my world either. So what the hell do you think I’m going to do, make things difficult? Why bother? I will just wait for my rescue team, comfortably that is,” he explains taking the blanket and putting it in his newly arranged cage.

After he climbs back in and slides the cage door closed I manage to close my loose hanging jaw and walk over to lock him in correctly this time. “I’m sorry I didn’t think about the fact it would be cold.”

He doesn’t respond. He only grumbles at me in response. I pull out my stool and take a seat at the end of the counter watching him for a few moments. Wondering how long the alcohol kept him down. How soon after I left did he get back on his feet and manage to get around? I see the bathroom door open and realize he had taken privilege of its use. Running my hands through my hair I begin to think I haven’t handled this as smoothly as I had wanted. I thought I was managing well, but this is proof I made a stupid mistake. A very stupid one in fact, what if he wasn’t so apathetic about his situation and made a scene? Maybe he isn’t actually apathetic? Maybe he’s tricking me into thinking he isn’t going to cause a scene so I’ll trust him.

“Scared yet?” he asks me.

It’s the second time he’s asked me this.

Looking him in the eye, I say, “no.”

Why should I be? I didn’t personally have much to lose at the moment. My only living relative is out there with the monsters. I have no real friends or a girlfriend or the time to acquire either. I’m convinced I am the only one here capable of actually fixing the reproduction issues as well as saving those who aren’t quite gone yet. I’m the hero in all of this and I am going to make sure that everyone knows it. Someday, hopefully, very soon.

“No? You will see soon enough.”

“Why does Clara warn me that you are so special? What’s the difference between you and the others? I know you aren’t an arch, you’re not tall enough. She seems to think I should bear in mind that you are special, and you keep telling me I should be scared. What am I missing?”

He laughs so low I almost can’t hear him. “No, I am not an arch. My cousin, however, is and if he comes for me, well that would be one reason to be scared, frightened to death really. Angel’s are set on balance and equality. You will be met with that when they come for me.”

“What makes you so certain they will actually come for you? It’s already been almost 48 hours and I haven’t seen or heard anything reported,” I question in hopes he’d let something slip, something that would help me prepare.

His eyes have circles under them. Dark, gloomy circles that keep him looking more drained than he is behaving. I’ve never seen an angel look ill. He looks about as my sister had after the virus had moved past the fever and just before they cast her out. He glares at me through the bars. Even though I know he is angry, I can feel through his tone that he has nearly given up on escape.

“They’ll come. It’s the reinforcements that should frighten you, because as a matter of fact, I am special. I’m the kind of special that’ll have you shitting yourself when they arrive. Beautiful creatures we are, but we can be quite deadly when necessary. Balance it is everything to us.”

He grins slowly before turning away.

His words chill me, like little icy-footed spiders crawling down my spine. I shiver them off and make sure the latch is secure again. He gives me the same low laugh as I tug on it. I try to ignore what that laugh does to me, but it too sends more icy-footed spiders down my spine and I decide to get out of his sight before letting him see me shiver again. No reason for him to see me unsettled by something as ridiculous as a laugh.

What if it is the archs that are coming? They are large and intimidating, muscular mountains of men. They could take me out easily. Let them. Let them come for me and strike me dead. It’ll show my neighbors how evil they are. Even if I am not entirely convinced angel’s themselves are evil. I kick the wall in the corridor. It’s infuriating how difficult it is to decide how angry to be. They saved us once. They left us to die once. And it doesn’t make any damn sense. What the hell am I supposed to do with all of these feelings I never get to filter because I have no one to let out on?

This is one of the reasons I need my sister back. She was my best friend. She’s the one that taught me how to be civil really, after our parents died and we were pretty well stuck on the farm, no one our age nearby. She gave me the ability to understand the people around me when the survivors arrived. The children my age, now the adults my age. Damn, I’m still antisocial. I have always known I invested more energy into my work for a reason. Without her here to back me up I’m not all that confident to make any real friends.

It was always easy to blame the situation elsewhere. The fact everyone has to work hard, but it isn’t all that different than life before. When one’s shift is over, their time is their own to entertain as they will. Often games are held in the commons, bingo, trivia, you know, the basics. There is a gym with a basketball court and a track around the outside. Life has gone on here, and I’ve let it go on without me all because I haven’t had that confidence from my sister. That, and my mission to bring her back.

I storm back into my lab, slamming the door behind me. I stand huffing from anger as he stares through his bars at me with a humored expression. My hands are balled up at my side as I kick the counter side.

“Scared are we?”

“I don’t think anyone here really gets what is going on in the world around us. I was there. I saw it all go down. I know you have intimidating guards. I don’t care. I just want my sister back! It isn’t as though I don’t feel bad, because who wouldn’t feel bad for harming an angel. So yeah, maybe I am a little sorry, but what was I supposed to do?” I feel each rage filled word spill from my mouth like word vomit, uncaring if anyone hears me.

“Ask for help?” he says simply.

“And how the hell was I supposed to do that?”

“Hey angel, can you help me? It is why I was sent, but you had to go all bad ass and turn yourself into a dumb ass to get your point across. You don’t think it saddens me your sister was lost? That any of them were? You want to know what makes me special, that is what makes me special. I was once one of you and even though I don’t remember what it was like I sure as hell have a strong streak of empathy towards your kind. So, go ahead and keep being angry, it won’t solve anything. So far it’s only messed things up worse for you,” he tells me in a stern voice that would make any human nervous.

I can feel the groan tear through my throat as I kick the counter one last time. “Actually, it hasn’t your blood officially has the antibodies to save them. I was right in my theory.”

“And had you tested my blood before, you might have found I already had the antibodies, because I was once HUMAN!” he shouts at me this time and the glass shelves in my upper cabinets rattle.

“What?” I ask, falling onto the stool in defeat.

“We had our own theory with that. It was why I was sent. I tried to explain this to you, but I’ve learned you have to let people, humans, take the path they must to resolve whatever demons they have inside. Like I said before, you my sir, are a dumb ass.”