Soul Veil

Evasion-2

“As you know Reemée…” I started, puffing as we rushed our pace.

“I don’t know many details yet,” he replied, and I could see the concern in his expression set in. And I also knew the gracious nature of his twin, BJ, that BJ may not have shared that much with him either.

“Okay, well, in short after her husband died in an accident, Reemée lost the plot somewhat…so I offered to look after Alezmé for a little while to give her some coping time, as Alezmé was only a newborn baby when the accident happened. But the days turned into weeks when she still couldn’t cope, and now-” I paused, catching my breath. “…and now five years has passed and I don’t know what’s going to happen…”

Abe suddenly stopped in his tracks and held back me back before I noticed anything.

There she was. The woman from the record store, dressed in a fine, fitted, dark malt-coloured suit had somehow appeared before us. She was poised with her knees bent as if she had just landed from a jump and her wiry, thin hair fell down across her shoulders as she held her pose, her expression smouldering, motionless.

But all of a sudden something unexpected happened — like time or the space around me changed — and I didn’t even begin to try and comprehend how we were now in mid-air, seeing the rush of the second level turning into the first with the blur of stores around us as we swiftly fell downwards…

Suddenly our feet gracefully touched the ground. Abe still had his arms held securely around me as he had done seconds ago, up on the second floor. I stayed with my knees bent as if I had needed to brace from landing from our descent, but after a couple of seconds I rose again with Abe’s aid and realised we were standing on solid ground again.

In the next moment a blanket of the brightest white light suddenly enveloped my vision and I felt ourselves turn, as if being spun around.

I opened my eyes wider and there before us was the woman, back in front of us again. How could she just-

Our descent, or sudden enigmatic ability to fall downwards must’ve been by supernatural aid, but I could sense that she wasn’t any kind of angel that I knew of. Her eyes, her mannerisms and just the sharp, icy cold feeling she was giving off was such a clear indication. But what did she want from…me?

It felt surreal as I only just saw her begin to approach, in between a changing light, before another protective bright light appeared before us again, shielding any visibility.

“She wants you to fight!” I heard but I couldn’t recognize if it was Abe’s voice…

But how?! I thought, thinking I have no fighting capacity, being of a reasonably small frame and without any self-defense training, as I’ve always been surrounded by security guards.

“Not how you think…” Abe’s voice came through clearly as a strong whisper.

But blackout was my next thought and my next apparent reality.

***

I awoke to looking up into Abe’s kind eyes. It felt like a dreamy reality and was so nice being with him, but where were we? And why was I sitting down with him?

The last thing I remembered was standing in the mall and the next — everything all went blank.

But now Abe was holding me in his arms and we were sitting on a bench down a corridor. It seemed like we were still in the mall, but it was noticeably quieter. It must be past closing time now.

“Are we s-?” I began to ask.

Abe nodded, answering my question about whether we were still in the mall. It looked like he wasn’t intending to say much, but rather was concentrating on listening out for someone.

“Is…?” I lowered my voice and wanted to say, is she, or is the…still here, but I didn’t know whether I was asking about a dark shadow, or a woman, or both.

Abe nodded again and smiled, but there was something cautious-looking resonating in his eyes. In this moment I started to sense imminent danger again, but also felt so completely safe in his hold. Was he trying to think of a new plan of escape? Or were we waiting for Daniel or Angelo or someone to arrive? I quickly wondered, as I hadn’t seen either of them around the mall yet even though I knew Daniel was supposed to be here somewhere from a distance.

A whooshing sound swooping past, too close for comfort had us both leap to our feet and look around. Abe was facing away from me and I looked in the other direction. He was right.

“Ki…” I heard Abe whisper and knew he was right behind me.

We scoped out the now empty mall like we were actually watching out for something that wasn’t visible. It was like we existed in this moment as a team, communicating as we do, but even deeper on an unspoken level as we couldn’t resume eye contact yet.

I knew if this was real, then Oaten must be here too. I ever hoped Oaten, my guardian angel was around, protecting us in some way and that the white light that’d shielded us before could possibly have been an angel also... It felt like I was just having a mini dream. Or was I really reaching into the deepest realm of my subconscious imagination to believe this was really happening, and that we were standing in a mall trying to evade a dark shadow, or an evil human, or both…?

I sensed Abe move closer behind me and it began to feel like we were so close in this moment. I could feel our hearts connecting, as close as you could get, that feeling within that expresses a deep feeling of connection was intertwined. So much so that I could sense his emotions and response even though I couldn’t actually see his face and expression.

Instinctively we moved closer, pressing our backs together even more so in response, wanting to be as close as we could be to each other in a different way other than being close passionately.

As Abe’s back pressed firmly into mine, I melted into his like he was made for me in a protectively shielding way, and we were so inseparable emotionally-wise in this moment, the closeness, that feeling of really being in connection with someone was like I was melting into his everything.

A roar and then the sound of a snarl shook me out of my thoughts and gave me a fright, but not enough to lose connection with Abe. I could tell he hadn’t even flinched a muscle.

He then stretched his hand out and the woman suddenly materialized near my side and snarled again. Abe quickly switched places with me so that he was facing the woman and although I could still just see her, I now couldn’t move. Her swift darting eyes were still so dark, but they were now almost trembling, as if she couldn’t move either. Abe moved forward and she started literally fading.

Was I seeing things?

I wondered if my mind must be completely overactive from all the images and occurrences in my dreams. I thought we should be trying to escape again, now that she had found us, but in an instant it looked like the tables had turned and this woman looked afraid of Abe.

The frightened expression on her thin face grew, but she wasn’t trying to escape. Instead she just began crumbling, bowing as Abe moved closer.

I stayed behind him but was surprised when he bent down to the woman’s level, but I didn’t dare bend down with him in sync.

He said something so quiet I couldn’t hear it, and then stood back up as she vanished, leaving only a silhouette of black mist that began to dispel as well.

“Was she bowing before you?” was all I could think to randomly say, in shocked observation.

“No — not to me…” Abe replied and with that he spun around and pulled me close to him in a tight embrace.

“Battle’s on!” I heard Angelo’s voice and turned to see he had appeared beside me.

“Hey!” I pulled out of Abe’s embrace a short distance and stared intently at Angelo. “Where did you appear fr-” I started to ask before suddenly seeing someone else familiar up ahead.

“Hey,” Daniel called out too, walking towards us and I was relieved to see them now. I knew Daniel had been stationed at the mall while I was here, close by, but was out of sight so I could shop with a feeling of being normal. But where had he been when that woman had gone into the store after me?

“Battle?” I replied to Angelo, as I looked at Abe.

Abe met my eyes then looked to Daniel and then Angelo. I could see Abe wanted to explain but was hesitating.

Angelo began talking about the Dark Company, and that they think their scouts may have launched an assignment against me. Daniel agreed, reiterating some things and I noticed him slide closer to me, standing naturally protectively during the conversation. I understood that they were talking to me about this only because I now knew that Angelo and Daniel were actually angels here on earth, but in human form when required. And there was no denying that we’d actually just fallen or perhaps flown down from another level of the mall!

A thought began to form concretely as we walked toward the mall’s exit, that the battle they were talking about may not actually mean with real people… So that may mean that those guys I had seen, that I knew were tied into this Dark Company, may possibly not be real humans as well. But if they weren’t human or angels like Angelo and Daniel, and I knew that they couldn’t be if they had no kindness in them, especially if they were set out to harm me for some reason…then what could they be? And so, if Angelo and Daniel were angels that helped serve and protect people, did that mean there were also other angels — dark angels disguised possibly?

“Why don’t they just give up!” I exclaimed, not sure of who I should be asking, and everyone stopped short after closing the last exit door to the upstairs parking lot.

“They want something…” Abe replied as he pulled his arm securely around my shoulders, as if showing that he wouldn’t let that ever happen, even as he said it.

“So those unwelcome visitors that have been turning up in-store at Exquizit recently are a part of all this...?” I wondered out loud.

“Yes,” Angelo and Daniel said simultaneously.

“Wearing dark silver pin-striped suits and heavy jewelry?” Abe asked.

“Yes.” I nodded. It sounds about right — guys like the chase, right? I thought, not wanting to voice this out loud and felt an unusual annoyance that anyone, especially those people with a menacing intention, would try to invade my world. What did I have that they would want so much? Particularly with the consideration that these guys were from another realm or were possibly supernatural beings, then with my only new limited understanding of such things, what could I possibly offer in comparison if it was maybe knowledge they sought to acquire?

“But it was a woman today?!” I asked as a question as much as exclaimed, as I sensed this was a point of difference. Do angels or dark angels even have a gender type though?

I saw a flicker of an unusual shocked expression cross Daniel’s face. They usually look so calm no matter what.

“Interesting,” Daniel conferred with Angelo as we turned and began walking toward the parked SUVs.

Why is there such a battle over me? I just couldn’t help pondering with fervency, even though the more I thought on it, the less I actually understood...

***

After arriving home, I nestled the back of my head into Abe’s chest like a cushion, as we relaxed on the sofa and took a breather. We watched the waves of the ocean for a moment, but I couldn’t shift the imagery away from my mind about what had happened at the mall. I felt Abe’s chest rise and fall and I heard the reluctance in his sigh, presumably as he had to go back to Montebello soon. He explained that they were having a family dinner that he couldn’t miss, even though he really didn’t want to leave me after today.