The Fallen (Angelic Redemption) (2 page)

“See you soon, Sawyer.”

“Lila, wait…”

Hanging up, Lila tossed the phone in her duffle
bag. Rummaging through the bag, past the Mickey Mouse ears and an assortment of
weapons, she found her Glock.

This exit strategy was like all her strategies -
do whatever necessary to win.

Lila wasn’t sure why she took so long to see what
was always in front of her. Maybe her confidence had wavered because of the
itch and losing the villain? Yet her old arrogance roared back to life and her
plan was clear. The villain’s escape ended now.

Hanging from the Mustang’s window, Lila took aim
at the police cruiser bringing up the rear of the chase. Firing once, she
watched the shot rip through the back tire, causing the cruiser to hobble to
the divider. Giving the gas pedal a kick, Lila raced towards the army of
cruisers ahead of her, dodging the ones she could and taking shots at those she
couldn’t.

For a few minutes, chaos reigned as cars screeched
and shuddered from the chase’s sudden shift. Once Lila spied God corralling the
humans to safety behind her, she made a beeline for her fleeing villain.

Up ahead, the Taurus sped over a bridge with only
a metal railing separating the road from the gorge below. Seeing her chance,
Lila exchanged the Glock for a flare. She pressed the gas pedal to the ground
and aimed for the Taurus.

While lighting the flare, Lila felt the itch’s
presence growing again. In the rearview, she only spotted approaching police
cars. Somewhere the itch lurked though, watching the chase play out. If Roman
wanted to see what Lila was made of, she was happy to give him a show.

Roaring into the Taurus, the Mustang shoved both
cars through the railing. Spiraling once, the Mustang landed atop the Taurus
and smashed it into the ground. Lila’s flare ensured both cars soon burst into
flames.

The fire billowed smoke high into the air, causing
the choppers to back off from their bird’s eye views of the crash. As a legion
of police cruisers lined the highway and their occupants stared down at the
fiery mess below, the villain’s run for freedom came to an end.

And the itch’s job just got a little bit harder.

Sophie was a self-diagnosed loser. After getting
fired for the second time in a year, she couldn’t argue with this diagnosis.
Arriving home to her one bedroom apartment, she flopped on the couch and
grabbed for the remote. The local news was abuzz about a freeway car crash.
Sophie quickly changed the channel to HGTV, looking for something to pep her
up.

Cooking a frozen dinner, Sophie glanced around her
apartment and wished she possessed a personality. A leftover sofa here, a
discarded table there, nothing in her tiny apartment really belonged to her.
She lacked something, even more than a personality.

While her food warmed, Sophie changed into blue
sweats and wrapped her blonde hair into a messy bun. Sitting in her comfy secondhand
chair, she tried to enjoy a Lean Cuisine dinner and an episode of
The
Biggest
Loser
. Yet her mind lingered on what her future held.

Sophie eyed a photo of her recently deceased cat
and wished the furball was still around to keep her company. Even if she wasn’t
lonely as much as bored, some interaction might be comforting.

Not long after Sophie finished her meal, the next
door neighbors arrived home and the sounds of the happy couple drifted through
the thin walls. Turning up her television, Sophie tried to feel bad about being
alone, but her fake envy was a sham.

Human companionship and all its rituals never
interested Sophie. Her family was a distant entity, even though they lived
nearby and she was on good terms with them. She had no friends, not from work
or from childhood. She knew people and they knew her, but no relationship ever
deepened.

Her life was missing something and Sophie often
assumed that something was companionship. Hearing her neighbors talking and
laughing, she knew she should want that too. Sophie should want to be normal, even
if normal felt wrong.

Dishes done, teeth brushed, and stomach muscles
crunched, Sophie slipped into bed. Closing her eyes, she tried to imagine
herself living somewhere else, doing something else, and being someone else.
Maybe tomorrow she could scrounge up enough money to go away?
Maybe, always
maybe.
Yet where would she go? What would she do? Who would she be? These
questions always held her back from making a leap of faith and embarking on a
great adventure.

Sophie embraced her fatigue and soon her dozing
dissolved into a dream.

The empty beach was something out of postcard with
a shoreline as white as the surf. Digging her toes into the warm sand, Sophie
lifted her face to the sun.

“Feels like we have the place to ourselves,
doesn’t it?”

Sophie turned toward the voice and found a
handsome man standing behind her. He wore cutoff jean shorts with a wide hat
covering his wavy brown hair. Even with his good looks and friendly demeanor,
Sophie inched away from him.

“You never trusted Micah, did you?” the man said.
“In retrospect, your doubts about him were a sign of good judgment.”

Sophie frowned, as confused in her dream as she
was in real life.

Waving his hand around the beach, the man smiled. “It’s
perfect here, but we’re not alone. They’re watching and they’ll be visiting you
soon.”

Flicking the tip of his hat, the man’s smile
faded. “You should wake up now, Sophie.”

Sophie’s green eyes popped open, startled by a
noise and the abrupt ending to her dream. Often frightened awake, she figured
the noises were part of apartment living. Even so, Sophie’s gut twisted with
anxiety, even as her brain told her to return to sleep.

Propping herself up on her elbows, Sophie stared
into the darkness just outside of her slightly ajar bedroom door. Nothing
rattled, no one spoke, yet Sophie knew to be afraid. Logic out of the window,
she stared at her door like a frightened child. Her logic might have returned,
if the door hadn’t creaked open.

As the door came to a halt against the wall, a man
in the shadows pointed a knife at her. In the darkness and with her fear,
Sophie thought his face seemed strange, misshapen even, which only added to her
paralysis.

Standing at the end of the bed, still holding the
knife, the man frowned at her. When Sophie made no attempt to save herself, he
lifted the blade and moved closer. At that moment, with her fate seemingly out
of her hands, Sophie felt free. This sense of freedom was interrupted when a
bullet ripped through the intruder’s head and into the wall just inches from
Sophie.

Once the man collapsed to the ground, a woman stepped
into the room and moved towards him. Lopping off his head, the woman then gazed
at Sophie in the same way the first intruder had – as if shocked by her
passivity. Before the women could speak, they heard a noise from the kitchen. Sophie’s
savior turned in a smooth motion and disappeared into the dark apartment where
a struggle ensued.

As a battle raged in the living room, Sophie fell
out of bed and crawled past the headless man to the bathroom where she locked
the door. With her only escape route perched too high, she climbed into the
bathtub, closed the shower curtain, and pulled her knees to her chest.

Shutting her eyes, Sophie tried to calm her nerves.
Outside the bathroom, objects crashed to the ground and bodies bashed into
walls. Then as quickly as the commotion erupted, the apartment fell silent.

Sophie considered taking a peek to see how the
battle ended. She even thought to make a run for help. Instead of doing
anything useful, she cowered and hoped for the situation to fix itself. This
plan worked until the door crashed open.

Sophie cried out then shielded her eyes from the
brightness as the bathroom light switched on. Just outside the shower curtain,
a figure approached and Sophie could do no more than listen to her pounding heart.

Pushing back the curtain, her savior stared at her
while holding a gun in one hand and a bloody sword in the other.

“You’re hiding? Really?” the woman asked. “We
don’t have time for this. You need to grab your essentials, so we can go.”

“Go where?” Sophie asked, not budging.

“Not sure. East, I think,” the woman said,
glancing out of the bathroom door with a grumpy expression. “All I know is we
need to bolt before more of those villains show up.”

“Villains?”

“Yeah, that’s what we call the bad guys. Classy,
huh?” the woman said, eyeing her reflection. Wiping a smudge of blood from her
cheek, she turned back to a frozen Sophie. “Oh, you don’t know the score, huh?
Well I’ll tell you in the car, but for now we’ve gotta hustle, Sophie.”

“How do you know my name?”

“God told me,” the woman said, slipping the gun
into a holster. “Yeah, no more playing around. You need to get up now.”

Grabbing Sophie around the bicep, the woman yanked
her into the bedroom.

“Get dressed and pack whatever is super important.
We’re leaving in three minutes. Now, get to it.”

Sophie only stood where the woman left her, not
moving, not getting to anything.

“Are you mental?” the woman asked. “When these
villains work in packs, it’s bad news. And four of them just showed up to kill
you. Who knows how many more are on their way?”

“Who are you?” Sophie asked, slowly pulling on a
pair of jeans. “Why is this happening?”

“My name is Lila and you and I are the same
although you clearly don’t know what that means. I’d loved to explain it right
now, but like I said, we’re going to have company soon.”

When Sophie made no attempt to pack, Lila sighed.

“Fine, you want some details, I’ll give you some
details,” Lila said, wiping the blood from her sword on Sophie’s bedspread. “An
hour ago, I got a vision about you helping me find a rogue hunter named
Joaquin. It seems these villains snagged that transmission and decided to foul
up our big adventure. There, you happy? Hope so because that’s all you’re getting
for now.”

Frowning, Lila snapped her fingers at Sophie. “I
know you can move faster so do it.”

“The police will be here soon.”

Lila smiled, her hazel eyes clearly amused. “Yeah,
it doesn’t work like that. Your neighbors didn’t hear anything and no one
called the cops. It’s just you and me and a bunch of dead villains. If we don’t
hurry, we’ll be joined by a bunch of live ones too.”

Sophie finished dressing then sighed loudly as
reality took hold.

“I can’t come with you.”

Lila’s smile widened. “Look, I get that you’re
scared. I totally do, but my vision from God says you’re coming with me. You
get that, a vision from the Lord about you? So even though you’re not feeling
all that helpful right now, your needs don’t supersede His. Now hurry up or I’m
going to conk you over the head and drag you to the car. Either way, you’re
coming with me, but why make it so adversarial so soon?”

Sophie studied Lila, certain the woman was insane.
Yet Sophie had hungered for an adventure and one had shown up looking for her.
Resigned to her fate, she threw a few essentials into a backpack.

Following Lila out of the apartment, she noticed
how none of the neighbors seemed alarmed by the commotion and no sirens
approached. While Sophie kept expecting reality to break into this new
situation, the women arrived at an Escalade in the visitor parking lot without
incident.

Despite no apparent threats, Lila hurried Sophie
into the car and rushed to the driver’s seat, nearly in a panic. Speeding away
from the apartment, Lila scanned the night for possible dangers. Next to her,
Sophie relaxed and allowed herself to enjoy this new adventure.

“Is this your car?” Sophie asked, eyeing the
pornographic dice hanging from the rearview mirror.

“Nope. Stole it off some gangbangers after I tore
up my last ride. No worries though, those guys won’t be a problem. It’s the
villains we need to stress, not to mention the rogue hunter.”

Nodding, Sophie watched Lila who used a red light
as an opportunity to check her weapons.

“What are we going to do once we find this Joaquin
guy?”

Lila glanced at Sophie with a grin. “I’d think
that’d be obvious. We’re going to kill him.”

Three Years Ago

In a desolate slice of Mexico, Joaquin watched the
fire’s flames mingle with the sun’s roaring heat. The flames danced before him
and his dark eyes were colored by their salsa. The image was hypnotic, but he
was not hypnotized. His cluttered mind refused to enjoy the delicacy of the
image.

As his blood soaked clothes withered under the
heat of the flames, Joaquin buttoned a clean beige shirt. Scanning the horizon,
he viewed only untouched despair as dirt whirled around his idling sedan. Lost
in this place, Joaquin finally shifted the car into drive and headed in whatever
direction it was pointing.