Angel's Messiah (41 page)

I patted the closest tree. “Maybe I’m approaching this all wrong. Instead of looking for it, whatever
it
is, maybe I need to be
taken
to it.”

Take me to what I’m not meant to find,
I thought to myself.

Absolutely nothing happened, but then I didn’t really expect it to. Without some clear direction, what I was attempting to do was pretty hit and miss.

The breeze picked up and the leaves were yelling loudly now,
we’re here, we’re here, you’ve found us
.

So, could it be remotely possible I was looking for talking trees? Was that
it?
Seemed like a silly thing to be afraid of. Maybe the trees held secrets those in hell didn’t want anyone to know.

“Tell me your secrets, trees,” I called out. I stretched my arms out as far as I could in the cramped conditions and turned in a slow circle, beseeching them to speak to me.

The leaves rustled and spoke,
we’re alive and we want out. We want bodies with arms and legs. We don’t want to be trapped here anymore
.

Okay, that was definitely weird. In reality I must be suffering from jungle fever, or have contracted some rare tropical disease from my close contact with the soil. I shivered. The wind was no longer warm. It was distinctly chilly, which was odd given where I was — in a tropical rainforest. I looked up at the canopy and noticed the leaves higher up did not stir. The wind was localised at a lower level — another oddity.

Is that possible?
I wondered.

The wind was getting stronger and it buffeted my body. I struggled to stand upright, bracing myself against a tree. My hair flew about my face, obstructing my vision and I let my eyes lose focus. It was the only way I could see through the veil my hair created, by letting my vision range outwards in all directions. I saw the trees, with their leaves shaking, as though in anger, and dark shadows, but nothing else.

Strange how there are shadows with so little light,
I thought.

I felt
something
hit me, yet not touch me. It was a bizarre sensation, as if something had passed through me without physically touching me. A slight tingling of my skin and goosebumps was the only evidence I had that something did seem to be happening.

What the hell’s going on?
I asked myself in confusion. Had I gone too long without feeding?

Yes! Hell, hell, hell!
the leaves yelled.

This is all in my head, it has to be
. I shook my head to try and clear it, yet the voices persisted.

“
Stop,
” I yelled out.

No, not until we have your body,
the leaves screamed back at me.

I was tossed around by near gale-force winds like a rag doll, thrown from tree to ground to tree again, rolled in every direction as the tempest continued to batter my body. I knew I wouldn’t be seriously hurt. It was unsettling all the same, like not being in control of your body anymore. All the while the leaves rustled and called out to me. I felt I was being fought over, and the prize for the winner was me.

Don’t be stupid,
I snorted to myself.
You’re not up against bodysnatching leaves. How utterly absurd. It’s the most ridiculous notion to go through your head yet.

But only a few years ago you didn’t believe in immortals,
the little voice of reason in my head said.

Immortals are one thing,
I argued with myself.
Leaves that can take over a body are another
.

Each time I was tossed around parts of me tingled, as though something were passing through me, but not able to remain within me. At one point I was being pulled in several directions at once, and felt as though I was being violated from a variety of sources.

My chest felt heavy. It was as if someone was sitting on me. The result of this sensation was that all of the other somethings were being pushed away from me. The leaves screamed out in rage. Somehow, without consciously thinking it, I found myself in another part of the world, totally unfamiliar to me.

My body continued to tingle, from within this time, as though something had managed to crawl inside me and was clinging to me as if its life depended on it. The tingling increased and transformed into thousands of agonisingly sharp pinpricks. I was sure something was growing inside me, expanding to fit to the shape of my body. As the feeling grew I began to sense a spark. Something evil and sinister was trying to take hold. In my mind I could see it taking shape. I trembled at what I saw, only now realising the leaves had not been talking to me — it was disembodied spirits that had talked, their rushing through the trees causing the leaves to rustle wildly. How many hundreds had there been, and who had won the right to invade
my
body?