Forsaken (2 page)

“
Alex and Cole,” she said
as she raised her eye brows, again questioning my intelligence. “Do
you seriously not see it?”

“
I don’t know what you’re
talking about,” I said as I looked back at myself in the mirror. Of
course I was lying, but it was too terrifying to admit the truth to
myself.

“
Something’s different
about you, Jessica,” she said as she looked around to make sure no
one was listening. If they had been she probably would have told
them off for eavesdropping. That was Emily. “I don’t know
what

it is but you’re even more different
than we were before.”

I didn’t want to admit it but she was
right. There was something different. Even with everything Emily
had gone through, I felt different from even her. I didn’t feel
like I fit in anywhere, except with Alex. He was home; he was
everything that was right with my world.

“
Whatever you say,” I said
as I turned from the mirror. Emily just shook her head and went
back to her shopping. I swallowed hard, my stomach twisted into
tight knots.

We came out of the store with Emily
having nearly maxed out her credit card and too many bags. Emily
had a bad spending habit for the amount of money she actually
brought in.

“
So I’ve been thinking,
maybe I should ask that guy…”

I didn’t hear the rest of what Emily
said as I looked ahead and saw a guy glance at me and duck into a
store. My heart leapt into my throat as dark eyes peered at me from
under a fringe dark shaggy hair. My knees nearly
buckled.

“
Are you okay?” Emily said
as she touched my arm.

“
No,” I said as I took
deliberate steps toward the store. “No, it can’t be
him.”

“
What are you talking
about?” Emily said as she hurried to catch up with me.

“
He is
not
coming back here,” I said
through clenched teeth as I stepped through the doors of the store.
A figure in a nice white shirt hugged the back of the store, facing
away from me. The collar stood up enough it

covered the mark that I knew would be
there.

Anger surged in my system as I weaved
through the clothing racks toward him. I didn’t know where this
surge of confidence and anger had come from but I didn’t
care.

“
What are you doing
here?!” I demanded as I grabbed his shoulder and turned him toward
me. The face that glared at me in confusion was nowhere close to
the one I had expected to find.

“
What the…?” the guy
demanded as he glared at me.

“
Sorry,” I said as I shook
my head and took a step back. “I thought you were someone
else.”

The guys face relaxed and a small
smile tugged on his face. “I can be whoever you want me to be,” he
said arrogantly.

I just rolled my eyes at him and
turned to walk out of the store. A confused and slightly annoyed
looking Emily followed me out.

“
You want to explain to me
what the heck that was about?” she demanded, following me as I
headed toward the doors.

“
Not really,” I sighed as
I stepped outside and took a deep breath. It was a relief to be
outdoors. I felt like the walls and all the people it contained
were pressing in on me.

“
You thought it was Cole,
didn’t you?” she demanded as she indicated for me to sit next to
her on a bench.

“
Fine! Yeah, I thought it
was Cole.”

“
And just what did you
plan on doing if it was him?”

“
I don’t know!” I spat.
“Back off.”

It caught Emily off guard to hear me
speak so harshly. I never talked like that. “Sorry,” she said
quieter. “I didn’t mean to jump on your back for no reason. I’ve
just been, I don’t know.”

I knew what she meant. It was actually
kind of nice to hear her acknowledge it. Her normally sun-shiny
personality had taken a damper. And she occasionally snapped like
she did just now. I hadn’t pressed her on the issue, figuring if
she wanted to tell me she would. Emily usually wasn’t one to hold
things back.

“
It’s okay,” I said as I
sat next to her. A few teenagers walked out the doors, laughing and
making fun of one of the guys in the group for liking another of
the girls. “Sorry I snapped at you.”

We were quiet for a moment before
Emily spoke up. “Can I ask you something? You don’t have to tell me
if you don’t want. I know it’s kind of personal.”

“
What?” I
asked.

“
What happened with Cole,
when he took you and you were so sick? And why did he come after
you?”

I was taken aback by her question.
Emily already knew so much about the whole messed up angel
situation it was strange she didn’t know a lot about what happened
with Cole, other than that he had been the leader of the condemned,
black eyed angels. She had never asked what had happened and I
wasn’t exactly dying to tell my story of dying.

“
You don’t have to tell me
if you don’t want. I just want to understand what happened better.
I should have been there for you more. I’m the only person that
could understand even a little bit of what was going on and I kind
of shut you out. And honestly, I’m morbidly curious,” she said with
a small smile.

I didn’t answer right away, thinking
about the answers to her questions. “I don’t think he really knew
why he came after me. He said he saw me at a trial and that he just
had to have me. Maybe it was just the fact that I was alive, I
don’t know. It doesn’t seem like a good enough reason to draw him
out into the world of the living.”

“
That doesn’t make any
sense. He just had to have you? I bet Cole was lying to you about
that. I bet there was a real reason.”

I considered this for a moment. “That
would make sense. He lied about a lot of things. Cole made me
believe a lot of things that weren’t true. He made me think Alex
had found another woman, that Sal really did commit suicide. It was
awful. He had me locked up in this room with no windows.

“
And then he had the gall
to ask me to be his queen of the condemned,” I said disgustedly as
I stared out at the grass in front of me.

“
What?” she asked,
confused.

My stomach knotted as I recalled the
conversation with Cole. “Cole told me I was dying, which was
actually the truth. He had me pretty much convinced I would be
getting branded for myself. He said he could make the afterlife not
as bad as it could be for me. He said he could even gain me a
position on the council. All I had to do was agree to be his. He
even had the nerve to tell me that ‘hell’s not that
bad’.”

A shudder worked its way up my spine
as I recalled how Cole had touched me after that horrific
conversation, the way he made me want it in such a delusional and
twisted way. It took me a moment to realize that Emily had not said
anything in response to my revelations.

I glanced in her direction. She seemed
to be in deep thought as if heavily pondering over the things I had
just told her.

“
Cole is an awful man,” I
said, my voice coming out a little more harshly than I intended.
“Well, not even a man.” I immediately regretted saying this. Even
though Alex was as unlike Cole as it was possible to be, they were
still the same species, or whatever you classified an angel
as.

“
I know that,” Emily said
defensively. “He branded me too for eleven years, don’t forget
that.”

Neither of us said anything for a
moment after that. I didn’t want to be having this conversation. I
didn’t want these wretched things to be in my past.

But they were; nothing was going to
change that fact.

I glanced at my watch, surprised at
how much time had passed already. “I’m sorry. Can we just pretend
this conversation didn’t happen?”

She was quiet for a moment then nodded
her head. “Yeah. I’m sorry I brought it up.”

“
Why don’t we just hang
out today? We could go back to my place and watch a movie and just
be bums today.”

“
That sounds really good
actually,” she said with a smile. “It sounds like a nice normal
day.”

I drove Emily back to the athletic
center where she picked up her car. We drove together back to the
lake. I pushed the button to open the garage and pulled in next to
the truck. Emily pulled in behind me.

We opened the front door, finding all
of the lights turned off.

“
Surprise!”

Alex and Sal popped up from behind the
couch. Streamers were streaked through the rafters and balloons
were tied everywhere, all in brilliant colors of lime green and hot
pink- Emily’s favorites.

“
Thanks you guys!” Emily
said in awe as she took in the decorated living room. I was
surprised when her eyes turned red and a tear broke loose onto her
cheek. Without saying anything, I wrapped my arms around her. When
I stepped away she wiped the tears and went to give Alex a hug. She
knew better than to hug Sal who didn’t like to be
touched.

“
Alex made a cake,” Sal
said, bouncing where she stood. I was still shocked to see her
there. She had only recently started coming out of her house
again.

“
Well let’s see it!” Emily
said excitedly causing Sal’s excitement to build until she bounced
on the balls of her feet.

We all rushed into the kitchen where,
sitting in all its glory, was the cake Alex had made. It was
three-tiered and looked like something right off the food
channel.

“
Wow!” Emily said with
something close to a giggle. “You really are amazing when it comes
to food, Alex.”

“
Glad you like it,” Alex
said with a smile, draping an arm across my shoulders.

It seemed a shame to cut into the
beautiful cake but everyone except Alex dug in after consuming more
than our share of hamburgers, potato salad, and soda.

As we ate, my thoughts drifted to a
few months previous, to my own birthday.

The weather had been amazing
considering it was still May. I had walked through the door after
yoga and found a scene very similar to the one we had just created
for Emily. Alex, Sal, and Emily had been there with one surprising
addition.

“
Dad!” I had exclaimed and
bounded across the room, throwing my arms around his
neck.

“
Hey kid,” he said as he
patted my back, returning my embrace. “Happy birthday.”

“
I’m so glad to see you,
dad,” I said into his neck, squeezing him tighter.

“
Ouch,” he grimaced and I
immediately released him and stepped back with a sheepish look on
my face. “That’s quite the grip you’ve got there.”

“
Sorry,” I apologized as I
beamed at everyone in the world that mattered to me.

We’d eaten dinner, cut the cake and
I’d opened all the presents. After Emily walked Sal home, my dad
pulled me out onto the back deck.

We sat on the wooden swing Alex had
installed only a few weeks before. It was almost completely dark by
then but the last of the evening light reflected on the water in
the beautiful way of man and nature.

“
I’m really glad you could
come out for this, Dad,” I said as I glanced over in his
direction.

“
Me too,” he said with a
grin and wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

We were both quiet for a while as the
last of the daylight faded, the only light to see by coming from
the windows. It took me a minute to realize there were a few tears
streaming down my father’s cheeks.

“
Dad,” I said in alarm.
“What’s the matter?”

“
Oh, nothing,” he said
with a sigh and squeezed me a little tighter. “I just didn’t think
you were going to live to see your sixth birthday at one time. Now
here you are, a twenty-one-year-old woman.”

“
It’s thanks to you, Dad,”
I said quietly as I leaned against him and rested my head on his
shoulder.

“
I put you through hell
for it though,” he said, his voice rough sounding.

“
It was worth it.” I
smiled as I sensed Alex walking around in the house. Worth every
second of it no matter how terrifying it had all been.

He didn’t say anything for a while as
he composed himself. “I like Alex more than I imagined I would ever
like a guy one of my girls would get involved with. But I can’t say
I’m thrilled at you guys living together like you do.”

“
It’s not like that, Dad,”
I said, suddenly feeling very uncomfortable. “We haven’t done…
that.”

I felt my dad relax a little bit at my
uncomfortable response. “Well, why don’t you two just get married?
You practically are already.”

It took a moment for me to respond to
that. “It’s complicated.” My stomach knotted up.

Thankfully my dad didn’t press the
subject any more.

“
I told your mother where
I was going, Jessica,” he said quietly. I felt a rock form in my
throat. I tried to swallow it but it didn’t go down. “She asked if
you were alright, how you were doing.”