Alexander

Chapter Two

My alarm sounds stark against the darkness of my room. 5 AM coming too soon. I can feel the groan rattle from my chest as my hand slams down on the button to disarm the incessant beep. I drag myself from bed, the weight of exhaustion heavy on my face, and into the bathroom where cold water fails to resonate with my alert side. It does, however, give me a moment to recall why I didn’t sleep as I normally would have.

I stumble from the bathroom sink to the closet to throw on my slacks, matching black t-shirt and usual white jacket. After slipping my shiny loafers on I glance in the mirror. Using water from the bathroom sink I slick down the short bit of light brown hair that resides on top of my head. It wasn’t much to groom, but I always felt better with it cut short. It was perfect for morning rushes like today. No fuss goes a long way when trying to save humanity.

I bump into a few of my fellow humans, offering my apologies, as I proceed quickly to the cafeteria where I snag a large black coffee and a cherry filled doughnut on the way to my office. I don’t stop to apologize to those in line; instead I toss them a slight wave so I’m no later than I need to be. Part of me is concerned with how he managed through the night; the other excited to see how this proceeds from here. My instincts blaring to me I am right about this and that he would be just fine when I arrive.

My lab door is wide open when I approach with a not so warm body inside, one who on occasion feigned being my useful assistant. She looks at me curiously with that slight hidden glare she always has reserved for me in special.“What can I do for you today Clara?” I ask, taking my time setting my coffee down.

It’s an attempt to keep her attention away from the back corner where the Angel currently is.

She eyes me through narrow eyes with her long sleek blond hair framing her lean tall body, her face without imperfection minus the scowl that accompanies her glaring eyes.

“I heard a noise.”

“A noise? What noise could you have possibly heard that would force your entry? I am certain after all I locked my door last night.” I eye her with obvious suspicion.

She laughs. “Yes, I know. I still have your spare.”

She dangles it before me, her smirk yanking her lips tightly together. Her voice is casual, but it still causes me to wonder how far into my laboratory she has traveled since breaking in. She has a curiosity that could literally get her killed, like a cat as the saying used to go. I might very well kill to get my sister back. Clara, while noticeably missing, would not be missed. She rubs everyone like using rough grit sandpaper as toilet paper. She always has an attitude of superiority, while everyone else here at least pretends to be equal.

“The noise?” I question, my throat clenching around the words. I can feel the anger as I barely get the words out, far too impatient for her to leave.

“Oh, that. I haven’t heard it since I opened the door. You arrived before I could investigate,” she laughs, giving another look around the room.

“That’s quite alright Clara, I can handle it now. Thank you.”

I step away from the door so she can read my intention of letting her leave quietly, knowing well an obvious indication would easily pass her by. She hesitates, but then removes herself from the edge of the counter she had propped herself against. I hold my hand out for the key. She was supposed to return it sooner, but she likes to linger where she doesn’t belong.

“If you insist.”

Her smug words make me cringe inside as she places the key in my hand.

“As a matter of fact, I do.”

I sigh with relief with the door closed behind her, the key firmly in my palm. I flip the switch on the lock before turning on the lights. It’s only a moment before I remember why I was in such a rush.

I run to the back of my laboratory. Just before the bars of the cage is one lonesome feather on the floor. As I stare at it wondering what it meant another feather drifts into view, swirling to the floor beside the first like a lacy leaf falling in late fall. Inside I find him curled up with his back to the back corner of the cage tossing feathers he pulls from over his shoulder one at a time into a pile. For a moment I feel a pang of guilt, but I choke it down quickly. Angels are usually beautiful creatures after all, but the darkness across his face is almost intolerable.

“You have survived the night I see,” I greet him, hoping his survival would perk him up some.

“For nothing beneficial,” he mumbles almost inaudibly. “Can you kill me now?”

His eyes look up from the pile of feathers and into mine, they pull me in. He isn’t joking or even sorry for his situation. He truly wishes to die and it is evident in the dark lavender pools that echo his pain as though he were transferring it into me.

“I can’t do that. I’m sure you realize that.”

“You won’t let me go either, not that I could go anywhere now,” he whispers angrily.

Even his anger doesn’t outweigh his melancholy.

Watching in awe as he stretches out his wings in the cramped space, he runs his hands over the tops and the feathers fall out in massive collections on the bottom of the cage.

“I would like to say that I am sorry, but I can’t when it is exactly what I had hoped for.”

He jumps at the bars attempting to grab me, looking nearly as blood thirsty as the vacant ones outside. I back away quickly enough, but he glares and snarls. His face red with anger.

“You hoped to remove my divinity? I can never go home! I can’t even send for reinforcements for your situation. You screwed us both!” he shouts with spit spraying from between his teeth.

I think about the last twenty years as I pull up a stool to sit on. He must have no idea how hard it has been here or how we were promised help. The world has changed so much since I was a child. I don’t think it is too much to want a life that resembles the one from my early childhood back. I look at the pile of feathers again, that slight pang of guilt rises in my throat like hot acid souring my taste buds.

“I am trying to save my sister’s life. Trust me your life after what has been done here will make great compensation. How much could they truly miss you? What kind of Angel are you anyway to show up uninvited and unwelcome to this wasteland your kind has left us to wallow in? Least you can die here knowing your home is in good hands. It is a lot more than we have been given.”

“If you only knew whose hands those were,” he laughs dryly, backing into the corner again a crooked smirk barely lifting the corner of his mouth making him appear nothing angelic like.

“Do you know what has happened here since the first angels left? The Amiables that were sent here have played with our bodies; using those of us still capable of procreating as test subjects to recreate humankind. Ironically, I thought that your type was capable of creating humankind easily, but I guess we were misled.”

“It doesn’t work that way,” he says interrupting me, eyes locked on mine, cold and dark.

“No matter now. No, you see because I have gone rogue, sequencing DNA on the side, because I have my own mission. Losing my grandparents wasn’t the worst experience. They were old and they had been through a lot in their lifetimes. My sister on the other hand, she is out there in the cold like the rest of the others contaminated by the contagion. Do you know anything about them?” I stop and glance at him to see how close he is listening. He nods. “Well, she is out there and I am going to bring her back, her and all the other non vacants roaming out there. I am going to save the human race.”

“By killing me?”

I laugh. “I am going to use your DNA. You have a unique trait that I know most other Angel’s do not carry. You see I was there when Serissa was here and her friend Kyle. I was a little tiny child who would listen into their conversations when they thought I was sleeping next door. You were once human.”

“So?” he questions. “So, what if I was? What is removing my divinity going to do? I am still an Angel, even without wings!” he screams, fully enraged, making me grateful that my laboratory is at the end of the hall away from the others and for the most part sound proof, except from maybe those who snoop by in the wee early hours of the day. It doesn’t stop me from flinching way from him though.

“I’m not so sure of that,” I reply tersely.

He shakes his head. “I am. What you do not realize, they will figure this out. I can only hope they do so before you manage to kill me. And even if they don’t I will die as an angel not as a human. You cannot take that away.”

I stare at him sensing his pride has been bruised. “Why is it so important for you to remain an angel?”

“I died already. I died to become one. The aftermath of that weren’t the best years of my life even if the company was perfection, because trust me I know what it is like to want to wake someone from the hell they are in. I am curious though, if your sister is as unaware of her hell as was the one I wanted to wake.”

His eyes lock me in their gaze again, searching for a weakness. I look away before he can sift one out. “I don’t intend to kill you, but if you do die hopefully, you’ll return to your angel world wherever that may be.”

He laughs at me once again. “It doesn’t work that way. You can clearly use a new education on our kind. You have us all backwards.”

“Whatever the case,” I say turning and walking over to the end of the counter in the middle of the laboratory taking a new seat in front of my papers and begin making notations.

He watches me quietly as I thumb through my notes and make changes to my research. Now that I have spoken with him I do feel a little guilty. He is too intelligent to keep locked up the way I have him. But I’m incapable of letting him roam free, even without flight I can’t imagine the commotion that would cause in the commons. I consider if I can trust him to stay in the laboratory, but decide against it. I’ll give him a few weeks to get used to being under my guidance then, if the research goes well, we’ll see what if anything can be done about the cage.

I feel the minutes tick by as his ever watching eyes drift from me to the growing pile of feathers. Out the corner of my eye I catch him idly twisting one in between his fingertips. A few times he starts to speak, but never finishes. All the while I can hardly concentrate on my recent notations to even begin to formulate the first of my plans now that I have acquired him.

“Hard time focusing?” he questions.

The smugness in his tone makes me feel sick, because he’s right.

Blinking, I release the glazed sensation that has formed over my eyes as I stare across the room at a large white board on the wall. “Sorry?” I respond gruffly.

“You’ve been staring at that wall for nearly fifteen minutes. Think maybe you are ready for a break? I could use a bathroom. Even better some nourishment in the way of food and drink. I am a living creature, not just myth or fantasy,” he explains rather bored sounding, but in the back of his voice you can hear the anger simmering.

“Huh,” I groan. “That I will apologize for, I hadn’t quite gotten that far into my planning. I didn’t exactly except you to drop in the way you did.”

“That rope you snagged me in could have fooled me,” he responds coldly.

I almost laugh, but I clear my throat instead. “What kind of food are you fond of?”

“The edible kind, anything, but if you plan on using me for tests or taking my blood any time soon, you should make reference to the fact that I consume more food than you average humans do. If you want to keep me alert and useful, prepare to feed me a lot.”

At this I do let out a laugh. “I cannot be caught getting away with much extra food. We do things on a ration system around here. We only get a few extras a week.”

He gives me a dark, knowing smile. “Oh I know. I know you can’t let me starve either if you want me to be in well enough health to help you. While you mull that over how about that bathroom break, time is a wasting?”

I stare at him incredulously. It was without my intention to let him feel such ability to demand from me even the basic needs. I underestimated what I would have to provide and now I have to be quick so as not to backtrack in my initial plans. I nod at him. “Give me a few minutes, I’ll find a bucket.”

“I am not an animal. I am an A-N-G-E-L for the love of it just let me use the bathroom.”

He eyes the corner of my office, then points to the location of a small private bathroom as I stare at him momentarily weighing the risks in my mind, but I can’t quite begin to do that without full knowledge of what he can do. I am familiar with angel’s touch, and I know some are more powerful than swaying one’s mind to a new train of thought, a simple skill most posses.

“You look worried. Let me spell this out for you some more. I am weak. I cannot sway you, not now. I have been poisoned by your alcohol and I’m not even sure I will be able to recover from it enough to use any of my abilities again. Certainly won’t be flying any time soon!” he ends his speech with shouting again and tossing a handful of his feathers through the bars at me.

I scratch my head momentarily. “Okay, okay.”

Grabbing my key ring off the clip on my belt I reach down and unlock the cage. He topples out onto his hands and knees.

“See, too weak,” he huffs.

I embrace his upper arm and yank him to his feet. He’s tall and strong even when he is incapable of applying his strength to his ability to stand. He leans on me momentarily as he gets his bearings, then I walk with him to the bathroom. I afford him the privacy he deserves knowing he can’t escape and there isn’t anything of consequence he could use to hurt himself inside. Even the mirror is fake and so blurry it was hardly worth the use.

I hear the running water and prepare to walk him back to the cage. He steps out after a moment and leans on my shoulder as I walk him back and lock him in.

“Thank you.”

I stare at him a moment, the sight of his bare winged appendages sadly draping down his back impressing deep into my mind. Shaking it off I remind myself I’m doing this for Sophia. Every great accomplishment takes great sacrifice. I turn away from him pressing the image out of my mind.

“I’ll see what I can drum up to eat.”