Fledgling: Book 1 (Afterlife) (26 page)

“Any sign of Orange or a place that they might be holding him?” I ask the other two.
 

Ben shakes his head.
 

Cindy speaks, “Between all the evil I can feel ahead, there is a faint angelic pull mixed with it. Can’t you feel that either?”

I shake my head. “I don’t feel anything other than the illness in my stomach from looking around at the devastation and wasteful use of life. I am flying blind hoping I will see something shortly.”

“I can sense something up ahead, and it is a feeling similar to being around you two or other angels, but it is extremely faint and surrounded by evil. It is all I have for a navigator. I hope I don’t lose it,” Cindy informs us.

“It is something at least. It could prove to be useful in finding Orange. And to think you were upset that you didn’t have a special talent. This one is proving extremely useful,” Ben says.
 

“If it is what I think it is,” Cindy stresses. A worried look crosses her face.

“You have my confidence,” I say. “They chose the three of us for some reason. Let us know when you feel a change.”

Some of the worries edge off her face, but she realises she has a large responsibility. Even though we are looking, she is the only one that can sense them. As we continue to fly, my wings feel heavier with each stroke. It reminds me of my human years when I exercised on an Olympic trainer and it would hit the setting of hill climb. Each step gradually became harder.

A weird sound came from the distance in front. I peeled my eyes to look for the source when we become shoved by a large gust of ocean breeze from behind us. Hit by the salty smell of ocean water we are pushed ahead. When the wind stops my wings became heavy again, and I scan the horizon ahead of us, listening out for the sound. The buildings are more crumpled in this area.
 

“Over there,” Cindy calls out. She has stopped flying and is hovering in the air.
 

I stop and look at her, seeing she was pointing off to her left. While hovering, my eyes follow her finger and fall on a clearing of in the middle of several tall buildings. At first glance, I can’t see anything different about the clearing. It looks like several other places we had flown over that are destroyed by the violence. Squinting, I study the clearing.
 

“Are you sure?” Ben asks, hovering close.

She nods. “I can feel an extra strong pull from there. The angel feeling is also stronger in that direction.”

“Lead the way then,” I say. “I can’t see anything yet.”
 

She turns and begins to fly toward the area as we follow behind. I hear the strange noise again. It sounds a little like a shrill of a cat. When we reach the clearing, we fly over, looking for something unusual. I can’t see anything; not one human, animal or any sign of Orange.
 

Turning to Cindy, she answers before I even get to ask.
 

“I know, I know. I can’t see anything either,” she says. “But it still feels right. I am sure they are here somewhere. I am definitely getting a concentrated feeling coming from there.”

Not quite sure what to think, I look at Ben. He shrugs his shoulders and looks back to the clearing. “Maybe we should land and take a look around on foot.”

“Sounds like a plan. I still can’t see a thing.” I turn to Cindy. She looks concerned. “I am not questioning your ability, although I think it would be good to have a closer look to see what we are missing.”

She turns her head and studies the area again. I guess she didn’t find anything either because her head nods slowly. “Okay. I really have a bad feeling about this area, but I can’t see a way around it. Besides, my wings are getting tired. The air seems thick here.”
 

Spotting a secluded place in between a couple of buildings, we land. Pieces of rubble from destroyed buildings fall to the ground when our wings forcefully push the air down.
 

Snakes slither away from the sudden intrusion and cats jump up into holes in the walls to watch the commotion. I did not see all of these animals from above, and I am struggling to believe they suddenly appeared on this small street. As I take a few steps, my heels click on the pavement softly. The sound seems too loud in comparison to the area, and I make an effort to quiet the noise. I don’t know why I am worried about the noise when there is no one around. We press forward.
 

A stone shoots across my path. My eyes shoot toward the noise then rise looking for the initiation spot of the rock's path when they catch Ben’s.
 

“Sorry,” he mouths at me. He kicked it by accident as he looked around the area.
 

I offer a weak smile as we continue. We have almost reached the clearing when I hear a throat being cleared on the side of our path. All three of us spin toward the direction. None of us had seen anyone approaching or moving, yet there in front of us is an old man sitting on a tall pile of rubble. Smothering his weathered dark skinned head is a bandage. Under his raggedy clothes, his body is slouched forward, and his back humps over. In one gnarly, dark hand he is holding a long thick stick. Taking in his condition, I assumed that it was for steadying himself while he walked. His toe twitches and I look down. His feet are bare, crusty around the edges, and cracked in several spots. They look painful.

I don’t know how I missed seeing him there. I did notice when he'd finished adjusting himself on his pedestal he was sitting silently and unmoving. For us not to be able to spot him, he must have been sitting as still as a statue before he made a sound.
 

After the surprise left, Ben approaches the man.
 

“Good day,” he calls to him in the native Arabic. The man’s head rises, and the only showing eye looks at Ben. It is bloodshot and slightly bulging, but the surprise of the intrusion does not show on his face. His mouth opens showing off his sparse arrangement of teeth; the remaining are brown and broken. I cringe as his tongue flicks out, doing a round on his cracked lips. They look painful.
 

The man doesn’t say anything back to Ben’s greeting.
 

Ben continues in Arabic, “Have you see a foreign person around here. He wears orange clothes.”
 

Shudders run through my body as he turns his attention away from Ben, looking at Cindy and I. His one eye travels up and down both of us while his head shakes continually in small twisting movements. The movement doesn’t look healthy and is unnerving.
 

Cindy steps closer to me and looks as though she would like to stand behind me out of his vision. She whispers in my ear, “I don’t like the feel of this. He is really creepy.”

Mastering my confidence, I whisper in return, “You’ll be fine. I’m sure he is just an old man who has been through a lot in this war.” Trying to add a little light-heartedness I say, “Imagine what we would look like if we had been through what he has lived.” My voice doesn’t carry the humour I intended.

Her tense face does not relax in the slightest way, and she continues to watch him.
 

With the eerie feeling remaining and his eye continuing to assess us, I gaze at Cindy then Ben. It is then that I realise that their forms are dull. We are not visible to humans. I could swear that this man is looking directly at us. On top of this, our wings are still released meaning if he can see us, he can also see our wings.
 

Seeing he hasn’t answered Ben, I begin to give the man the benefit of the doubt. He must just be looking in our direction simply by chance. I am so worked up being in this strange place and near danger that I must be imagining things. It would mean that he couldn’t hear us either as humans cannot hear us when we are invisible. After a long silence I almost laugh. I turn again to Cindy and then Ben and say, "We’re still invisible. He can’t see, or hear us.”

Cindy sounds out a nervous giggle as a sign of released tension. His one eye flicks toward her. Before his movement registered, Ben is half way through a quick, relieved chuckle.
 

Then the man turns his head to look straight at Ben.

- Chapter Twenty-Four -

Cindy gasps as Ben’s chuckle halts halfway. His eyes meet mine with a concerned look. That small snap of relaxation has disappeared. This is not normal. Tension has taken hold of my body, and I can feel the adrenaline rushing.
 

A strange cackle leaves the man’s body. Even though his mouth is showing humour, it does not flow up to his eyes. The creepiness felt before has escalated. I do not know if he is just imitating us or he has found something amusing.

The man stands. Using his stick like a staff and his back still hunched, he hobbles a couple of steps toward us. In my peripheral vision, I see Cindy taking a couple of steps back. I would like to do the same. We have not come across a human who could see us in our invisible state before. I hold my ground; after all, he is an old man.

His eye passes over Ben and I, with an amused glance cast at Cindy. Using the hand not holding the stick he indicates for us to follow. Without a word, he turns and begins to hobble in the direction of the building that is behind his sitting spot.
 

I notice one side caves in and the area is stone rubble; remains from the walls and ceiling. It looks as though it used to be a double story building. Only one level partially remains. Along the external walls are deep gashes concentrating around large holes in the wall that were once windows. Amazingly there is still a door that looks fairly whole. Right now, it is closed and decorated with several holes, once again left by bullets. Unlike the holes in the walls, the holes in the door passed completely through to the other side.
 

The elderly man staggers toward the door. When he reaches it, he stops and turns around with a concerted effort. My mind hadn’t registered before — we have not taken a step to follow him. He raises his hand and indicates again for us to follow.
 

Uncertain, I step forward. We are here for Orange, I only hope the man knows where he is. I hear the rubble crumpling as Cindy and Ben follow behind.
 

After seeing us begin to follow him, he reaches out his free hand and turns the doorknob pushing the door inward as he steps through. A ginger cat scrambles out the door, pausing on a pile of rubble. Its green eyes follow our every move as we continue walking.
 

Behind me, I hear Cindy whisper to Ben. “Even the cat’s creepy.”

When I reach the door, I stick my head through and take a quick look around. All I see is more rubble and the big hole in the side of the bottom level. I don’t know why we came through the door; there is nearly as much rubble lying in the path from the door as there is from the gaping hole in the wall. Nothing comes across as dangerous, so I follow the man, mindful of where I step.

I turn to see Cindy and Ben have progressed through the door. I am trying to read their faces when my thoughts are interrupted by the same strange cackle coming from the man. It does not give me confidence in where we are going. He could be playing a personal joke and lead us in the wrong direction on purpose. True to the archangels’ warning, this trip has been completely different to our other missions. My emotions are conflicting. They told us that this mission could be dangerous to angels, yet everything that has happened to me so far as an angel, has not injured me. Even with this knowledge I am not going to let my guard down. Every step I take I can feel my training kicking in and my body readying itself for a sudden attack.
 

There is no other choice other than to press forward.
 

The man continues. We pass through what used to rooms. Semi-crumbled walls frame the borders of the fallen rooms. Overhead, there is the remaining concrete ceiling from the first floor. As we press on, the ceiling and walls are more intact. He leads us to the furthest wall. At the back, there is another door. I follow as he totters toward it. Another eerie cackle leaves his mouth. I am wondering if it is more like a nervous twitch rather than an emotion.
 

When he reaches the back door, his spare hand reaches out and opens it, letting it swing to the outside. Cindy inhales noisily behind me. I gaze out through the hole. On the other side of the door before me, lies the large clearing in the middle of the crumpled buildings.
 

I frown. I am completely baffled. Why would he lead us through this house to take us to the clearing? We could have followed the path we were already on when we ran into the man. A snake slithers into the house. My human instinct wants to jump away, but my angel side knows the reptile will not hurt me. I stay put as it slithers over my boot while it approaches the other side of the house. As I look out over the clearing, it's still empty.
 

Cindy whispers, “There is so much evil out there.”
 

I blink and squint trying to see what she is sensing. I still don’t see anything.