Wingless Book Series (book 1) (18 page)

Evan came in the room in better
spirits. “So, sort of have a question. How do you feel about
festivals?” he asked, sitting on the edge of the bed and poking at
my toes. “And how do you feel about going along while I, um,
work?”

I leaned forward to kiss him good
morning before answering his odd question. “I like them and I don’t
know what that would entail.”

“
I just need to be in the right
place at the right time,” he said, shrugging.

“
Who?”

“
I can’t tell you that. I think
the best way to fully understand this is to just let you see how it
happens,” he said, cheerful.

It was hard to imagine anyone
cheerful at the thought they were about to end someone else’s life.
“I really don’t know, but yeah, I’ll go,” I said.

We got dressed and ready to head
out to the Citi’s annual festival. It was a large one, everyone in
town always raved about it and how it was a historical part of the
city. My parents had always attended since I could remember. It was
fun when you were a child and into games and rides and all the
glitz and chaos. But as I got older, it was something I didn’t care
too much for, but was so typical in my life that I couldn’t not
like it.

Driving through town you could see
evidence of the celebration, the pride was all around. Signs
adorned just about every surface, letting everyone know that the
festival was alive and bustling.

Evan wasn’t saying much,
concentrating on the road as he made his way through town. I stared
at the side of his head, wanting so bad to know what was going on
in it right at that moment. Was he still thinking about Kenny and
worrying what would happen with him? Or was he thinking about
nothing more than this next victim? Did he feel bad, did he wish
there was a way around it? I wondered about this person, if they
had any sense of impending doom.

It’s one of the things you think
about when you think about dying-everyone dies. It always scared me
to my core to think that, out of everything in life, when it came
down to it, you only had one shot at it.

It was scary to think that it was
so precious you better make sure you did all you wanted and treated
people the way you should. But at the same time I thought that so
many people probably acted the way they did because they figured
they only had one life, so why do what was expected?

Death was a scary thing, but
there were times in my life that I was so
stressed about something I
wished I
would die because I was so tired of living. And then I would get
over it and wish for nothing more than to never die because I
wasn’t sure what would happen next.

Your parents can teach you about
the afterlife and you can follow a religion, but does anyone even
know what becomes of us? Do we cease to exist? And if so, how can
one bare that? I always wondered if I died how it would feel. It
was something so hard to wrap my brain around I just blocked it out
and moved on rather than finding a truth or an answer.

“
What happens when you die?” I
blurted out in a rush, not looking at Evan’s glance. I gripped the
seat hoping he didn’t have a horrible answer.

“
I don’t know,” he said with a
shrug.

“
How do you not know? You’re the
one person I would think would know that.”

He laughed softly. “I’m like UPS.
I just get the package packed and ready to go; I don’t know who is
receiving it.”

“
Does anyone know?” I
muttered.

“
I’m sure a lot of people do, I’m
just not one of them,” he said, pulling into the lot next to
hundreds of other cars.

“
Do you think if you wanted to
know you could find out?”

He played with his keychain
dangling from the ignition pondering the question for a
moment.

He sighed, looking at me until he
caught my gaze. “It’s nothing you should worry over. You will make
it where you need to go when you need to go there,” he
said.

“
What? Do you know when I am going
to die?” I was almost sure I was white as a ghost at that
moment.

“
No, not yet. I’ll let you know
when I do though.” He laughed, getting out of the car.

“
Evan, that really is not funny.
Would you really know when I die? Oh, no. Would you have to kill
me?” I almost choked.

“
Shhh! And I don’t know. Will you
just calm down? It’s not something you need to stress over. When
it’s time for things like that to be worked out, all works out.” He
grabbed my hand.

I felt ill. One thing popped into
my mind and I started to cry. Long, hard crying that knocked me to
my knees. I sat right in the lot by an old pickup truck. I wasn’t
bothered by the fact I could be hit or mangled because no one could
see me.

Evan came down to kneel by me in
almost a panic. “Are you okay?”

“
No, I’m not,” I cried, sobbing
loudly. An elderly couple stared at me with concern and at Evan
with disgust, and he ignored them smoothing my hair pulling me
up.

“
Eve what is wrong with you? Tell
me.”

“
Did it work out for my brother?”
I asked.

Evan looked at me, then the
ground, back at me and all over the place. He sighed, studied his
hands, and looked at the sky and about a dozen other things before
he answered. I could tell he was unsure how to answer.

“
I wanted to take you here to show
you how these things work. And I wish you would have asked that at
a later time, it’s hard to really explain in words.”

“
Was it meant to happen to him
that way?” I pushed.

“
Eve, no, let’s talk about this
later.”

“
I don’t want to talk about it
later! I want to know if my brother was meant to die and why!” I
yelled for everyone to hear, or so I thought at least.

Evan pulled me close gripping my
arm. “Please keep your voice down,” he said tensely as onlookers
stared.

“
Fine.”

“
If it was me, no I wouldn’t end
someone’s life in that way. And I am sorry for that.” He pulled me
through the crowd.

I guess that was a good enough
reply for now. What I gathered from that statement was not much.
Evan felt for him I guess.

We reached the podium where
there were speeches from all sorts of people going on. The mayor
always showed up each year to meet and greet singers and dancers.
Evan watched the crowd intently before moving a little closer.
Everything took on an eerie feeling and I shivered. The sun was out
but it didn’t feel like it. It was almost like I could see death in
the air,
hanging over the
unsuspecting
like a
cloud.

“
Do you want to go on the Ferris
Wheel?” He asked me, making me come back to reality.

“
Yeah,” I said, eager to move on.
He stood in line quietly eyeballing everyone. I held tight to his
hand trying to not seem nervous.

Once on the Ferris Wheel, it took
a long time before they even got it moving. The huge ride made me
feel like a little ant.

Evan sat first, putting his arm
around me, he seemed relaxed now. “These are my favorite,” he
said.

“
Oh yeah, why?”

“
Peaceful. It’s like nothing else
matters when you’re on one,” he said with a smile.

“
I get that,” I said, looking down
below at the passing groups of people.

The Ferris Wheel felt like
it was going on forever. I enjoyed every minute of it because I
didn’t know what was going to happen
next.
Evan stared down from his side, tapping his hand on the metal as he
watched. There was no noise besides the whirring of the
machinery.

Evan turned, looking at me with an
odd expression. My fingers felt numb. I tried to keep his
attention, but the sensation was odd. I flexed my hands, flicking
them.

“
Are you afraid of heights?” he
asked me, holding my wrist to keep me from flailing. His touch only
caused more of an electric-type current. In shock, I tried to pull
away.

“
Eve, it’s
alright. Just pay attention and listen to me,” he said. He touched
the metal of the Ferris Wheel and all hell broke loose,
literally and figuratively.

The Ferris Wheel slowly
leaned, and then screaming ensued. I myself I screamed, thinking I
was about to fall to my death. The buckets we sat in were
practically swinging us out of them. Evan wrapped his arm around me
and held me in place, covering my mouth with his other hand, his
weight pressed against me. I didn’t know how we didn’t fall to our
death. Crowds of people were gathered in a tight group
below, pointing and screaming as
well.

I couldn’t breathe, it was all so
unreal. “Evan!! I’m going to fall I can’t stay like this anymore!”
I shrieked.

“
You’re fine, I got you. It will
be over in a few minutes,” he promised me, holding me
tighter.

I closed my eyes as more
screaming ensued. It all was such loud chaos I truly
didn’t understand what was happening. “Evan, I
don’t think I can do this!” I yelled again. He probably didn’t hear
me over all the chaos. My ears were ringing between screeching
metal and people crying and yelling.

“
It’s me, it’s me!” he yelled at
me, gripping me even tighter. The Ferris Wheel dropped lower and
lower and finally came to a screeching halt on the ground. Police
and Fire squads were already on the scene, millions of onlookers
were gathered around staring in shock. I was practically hugging
the ground. Evan got to his feet quickly, grabbing my arm and
bringing me up as well.

“
What’s going on?” I asked him in
awe as the majority of the crowd gathered in one large
area.

“
It’s done,” he said, grabbing my
hand and pulling me through the crowds of people.

“
Evan, all those people!” I
yelled.

“
They’re all
fine. No one is injured. Maybe some scrapes, its fine,” he said,
walking more slowly
now.

“
Are you sure?” I asked, feeling a
little less stressed.

“
I’m absolutely sure,” he said
nonchalantly.

“
Who is it?” I asked. I was
curious to know who had met their fate.

Evan turned me to the crowd. “Just
listen.”

I stood still, catching bits and
pieces of conversation, and then gasped when I put it all together.
It was the mayor. And the Ferris Wheel had, in nicer terms,
squashed him like a bug. I didn’t want to see, I just wanted out of
there.

“
Can we please just go home?” I
asked, feeling queasy.

Evan agreed, pulling me by my hand
through the crowd. The sounds were just too much to stomach.
Someone had lost his life and I had never been so close to it
before.

“
Eve!” A familiar voice called
out.

I turned to see both my parents.
Evan stopped walking. I wished he had kept going.

“
Dad, hey,” I said in
shock.

“
Are you okay?” he asked me,
touching my arm, looking me over.

“
Yeah, I’m fine,” I said
quietly.

“
Did you see
what happened?” my dad
asked in confusion.
My mother
stayed quiet, barely looking at
me.

Evan and I nodded.

“
Well?” my
dad
asked us, looking a little
confused.

“
The Ferris Wheel collapsed. Seems
someone got hit when it fell,” Evan said, acting as if he did not
know much. My parents looked even more shocked and
confused.

“
Oh, that’s
horrible!” my mother
exclaimed, finally
breaking her silence.

“
Yeah, we were heading out. It’s
really chaotic over there,” Evan said, pulling me. My parents
nodded in awe and we slipped off, getting back on the
road.

Chapter 18

The news

The cars were stopped,
barely moving as we made our way through town. You could tell that
something had gone
down. Evan kept his
eyes on the road not talking to me at all. I was fine with that; I
needed some time to let this all sink in.

The whole thing was difficult to
believe, but I truly did believe everything he said, and from now
on, I would always believe him. I couldn’t help wondering if this
meant he was not human. His touch on the Ferris Wheel was not-he
radiated something that I couldn’t even describe. He’d found a way
to bring the whole Ferris wheel to the ground; this was not
something a normal human being could do. I wondered if it was magic
or if he even had a word for it. I opened my window, letting the
wind hit me in the face.

We pulled over on the side
of the road, it was getting dark and I could barely make out where
we were. Evan jumped out of the car
and I
followed him after him.