It is a story of girls who quite literally came back from the dead. Follow their journey as they explore the world of angels, as they seem to be part of that group.
The awkward silence surrounding us was broken by Zane, "We've got to get you guys registered now."
"Registered?"
"The Heaven's Angels are rare creatures. We protect the human world and so all of our duties are registered in The Mark, to keep track of us." Phoenix replied.
"Even dead angles are kept track of?" I asked with no emotion in my voice.
"You aren't exactly dead," Zane said softly.
"Well, then why don't you tell us what we are?" Eva asked with her temper rising. "We woke up a century later after we went missing with no memory of anything, just flashbacks of our past life. We're supposed to be 'Night Wings' or 'Angels' or whatever you call us in this fantasy world and you expect us to just follow you to your leader to get what was that, ya 'registered'." She spat.
"I don't think so." I hissed, standing with Eva.
"I can understand how you feel--" Phoenix started, but I cut him off. "Can you? I don't see you awoken from death."
Eva said "Unless you want the experience I'm more than happy to stab you right now."
"She's a feisty one." Zane chuckled.
"Happy late realization!" She said sarcastically.
"Urgh, I am surrounded by a bunch of wild animals." Phoenix sighed.
"EVERYONE JUST CALM DOWN!" I whisper-shouted, my eyes giving Phoenix and Zane a very cross look, or at least I tried. But the tone of my voice seemed to break their annoyance.
"You can trust us," Phoenix said in a calm tone that washed over all of us.
"Yea, we sure can. Cute angels don't exist. This is just a hallucination." Eva sighed, half-talking to herself in a rather disappointed voice.
"You think we're cute?" Zane asked with a smirk playing on his face.
"Aww, you make the cutest couple!" Phoenix teased sending a wave of jealousy over me.
"We do?" Zane asked grinning at Eva.
"Not." Eva clarified.
"Just snap out of it. Both of you!" I hissed with a commanding tone.
"Aww, does that mean the love drama won't continue?" Phoenix grinned.
"UGH! You guys just stop with this already!"
"Oooh, looky here someone's jealous," Eva said in a sing-song voice.
I could feel the blood rushing to my face, but instead of snapping back I just sighed and tried to push out all of my annoyance.
"Well, are you going to join us cute angles so that we can get you registered?" Zane asked, with a glance at Eva.
"How can we trust you?"
Zane sighed. "We're not here to harm you,"
"Or so you say," Eva muttered.
"Why don't you just follow us. If this is a hallucination, what's the harm?" Phoenix said.
"That's what kidnappers want us to think," Eva snorted.
"We're dealing with a bunch of disbelievers," Phoenix sighed.
"Well it takes one to know one," I shot back.
"And yup we totally believe you," Eva said with sarcasm dripping off her words like poison. "We believe that there are egotistical chicken heads running around this world thinking they are the Wing Heaven soul creatures. OK, now I don't even know what I'm saying."
"Please, just come. We can help you, we promise. We'll even let Eva keep our weapons, so we can't hurt you." Phoenix pleaded.
"Eva, it seems fair enough. Let's try this. What if that thing comes back. We might need help, and god forbid, we might need their help." I used my most convincing tone and Eva reluctantly nodded.
"Fine." She said, after a pause. She held out her hands and Phoenix put his short sword in her outstretched palm. When Zane handed her his sword, their hands brushed and he held her gaze. She looked away almost immediately, looking extremely uncomfortable.
As we walked through the village, I couldn't help but think of how my life had been here before I died that is. Flashbacks of Eva and I running around the village and through the forest, flashbacks of the annual bonfire, flashbacks of the fun we had as children- but all of it was lost, maybe forever.
Phoenix, Eva, and Zane walked ahead, deep in conversation. I trudged behind glancing and taking in all the details of this abandoned village.
One particular house caught my interest, it seemed similar, it was similar. My feet stopped in front of the house, my house, the house I grew up in.
I scraped my fingers over the hard wooden door just before a vision of some sort took over.
Eva's pale green eyes came into view. "Zellie!" She called out, or a younger version of Eva called out. "You'll miss the bonfire,"
"Coming," A young and feminine voice said from right behind me, the voice came from me, or a younger version of myself, I must have been 12.
Oh no, it was that night, the night we were almost burned, the night we were branded, the night we became outcasts
Younger-Zellie's dark black hair flowed freely dancing with the wind, her light brown skin matched the dying sunset and her golden eyes sparkled with joy and excitement.
"You know they've decided to retell the past tails of scary encounters!" Eva giggled excitedly.
"I hope they tell one about the warlocks I read about," Younger-Zellie said, catching up with Eva.
"Well I bet they'll talk about the famous krakens," Eva said, hooking her elbow with younger-Zellie's and dragging her away and into the woods.
I ran after both of them trying to follow them into the forest but black spots swarmed my vision. I was being pulled out.
"NO!" I screamed hoping they would hear me and give me answers, clues, hints. But they couldn't hear me. I was being wrenched out. My steps lagged and my body grew heavier with every step.
My knees crashed onto the ground right before a bright light came into view and I resurfaced in the real world.
Phoenix was clutching my shoulders, shaking me, his grey eyes filled with worry. I pushed away swaying backward and forwards with dizziness. Eva seemed too worried to look properly jealous while Zane's eyes were filled with confusion.
"What happened, did you have a vision, or a blackout or%u2026.or what?" Phoenix all but yelled. I shook my head, still too disconcerted to talk. Eva shoved Phoenix aside and grabbed both my hands. She helped me lower onto the ground and kept me steady as I sat, trying to make sense of what I had just seen. "What did you see?" She asked, in a soft voice that didn't quite hide the tremble in her tone.
"Us, that night," was all I could choke out. She seemed to understand though. She squeezed me and we sat for a moment or two, before getting up.
"Do you want to rest a little longer or-" Phoenix began. But I cut him off. "I'm fine."
We started walking again, and everyone kept glancing back at me. I said 'I'm fine' about a million times. We kept walking and Eva kept looking around with a focused frown on her face.
"Was it scary, knowing what would happen?" Phoenix asked at a point in time. I knew he meant the flashback. I nodded, "Yeah, I kept wanting to pull both of them- us back." "If you ever need help-"
Suddenly Eva swayed. She started shaking uncontrollably and hyperventilating. Zane jumped and grabbed her just before she hit the ground. I admit, I got a bit jealous, but was too worried about my best friend to care. She stared straight at a spot on the ground a few hundred yards in front of us. Somehow, there were no huts or houses there.
"Where did it go," She asked in a shaky voice. "The burning post, where did it go?" No-one answered and she didn't seem to want to know anymore. Then she seemed to realize how close she was to Zane, he was almost hugging her. She jumped and stood up rather too quickly.
She gave me a sorry look and said, "Let's go."
"What burning post?" Zane asked.
"There used to be a burning post there, for witches. We almost got burnt once." She replied, looking back at me.
"But you lived in the 1900s. The whole burning witches thing was back in the 16th century." Phoenix said.
"This place never really let go of the past" I piped up, knowing my best friend would probably mess up the sentence. She gave me a grateful look.
"Oh..oh OK," Phoenix seemed to ponder that.
"Wait, you said you almost got burnt. What the hell?" Zane asked. "Oh, yeah. People thought we made things happen and that we were bad luck. Some town's people tried to burn us once. And the bad part, our parents were a part of the crowd." Eva clarified. I shuddered. Humans could often be both wonderful and horrible creatures.
Out of all the memories that could've stuck with me, it had to be the one where we were almost burnt. We must have been only 12 years with tears flowing like a waterfall. From that day onwards we were branded as the 'Town's Witches.' But how we escaped, that was blurry, unclear and not a complete memory, or did we die that day? Nothing except the burning stuck with me.
Maybe it was a clue? Maybe it was a warning? Maybe it was an important incident related to what happened to Eva and I? Whatever the answer, it was connected to our past and I would find out why.
