Stars and Satellites

  She stopped suddenly and jumped to her feet, her eyes staring at them doggedly. She seemed shocked to see them, which made Hayley feel uneasy. There was something about her eyes...

  “Good afternoon.” Alex greeted her, in his regular, cheery way.

  The guardian shot him a dubious glance. “I would not know unfortunately Alexander.” She said regretfully. “Your messages...” She said as she hurried over, keen to get straight to the point.

  “Your message is on the third shelf on the right, the seventeenth origami swan from the end closest to the door.” She instructed to the angel.

  Alex smiled politely. “Thank you.” He said gratefully, before turning away to retrieve his prediction.

  She next turned her attention to John. “Your message is also along the right wall, the first shelf from the ground, the eighteenth one from the front.”

  “Ok...thanks.” John said dubiously, giving her a bemused look as he walked off to retrieve the paper fortune cookie.

  The guardian then looked to Hayley, her icy stare sending an unsettling chill through her being. “Your message is on the top shelf along the left wall, the eighth from the front.”

  “Thank you.” Hayley said politely. The guardian gave a slight, yet graceful nod of acknowledgement and then quietly returned to her work.

  Hayley watched as the guardian resumed her desk, and lifting the scribe became once more engrossed with her work. Turning her attention back to retrieving her message, she began her search. Gazing up to the top shelf, she began to count along to the eighth swan perched along its edge. Double checking that she had counted properly, she reached up and removed it.

  Cupping it between her hands, she began to examine the neat and careful folds which formed the pearl bird. It was beautifully crafted and just as perfect as the next.

  “Are you ready to go?” Alex asked.

  “Yeah.” She said, giving him a wide smile. She looked back at the paper swan again. “Am I allowed to open it now?”

  “I think it would be best to wait until we are outside.” Suggested Alex.

  “What?” said John, not hearing him – He had already unfolded his.

  Alex sighed and shook his head. Plucking it from the youth’s hands he reiterated, “I said not until we leave. Do you ever listen to me?”

  “I didn’t hear what you said!”

  “Just get out, go! Just go!” Alex said, jostling him toward the exit.

  Even by the time they had returned to the flat John was still rambling on in his defence.

  “I didn’t hear what you fucking said! How many times do I have to say that?” He shouted with raw frustration as he stepped inside the door.

  “You never listen John that’s the point. I think you need to wash out your ears or possibly even consider getting your head checked.” Alex replied, showing very little interest in his excuses as he walked on ahead down the hall.

  “Fuck you! You need to learn how to speak louder!” John ranted as he tailed the angel into the kitchen. His moaning was suddenly drowned out by shouting.

  Alex felt a heavy metal object make contact with the back of his neck. At the very same moment – both John and Hayley were snatched from behind – their captors vanishing through the doorway with them in tow.

  Unflinching from the fruitless blow to his head, Alex twisted round at an alarming speed – severing his attacker’s neck with a snap of the neck. Four people came at Alex from different directions, only to be sent flying back the direction they had come from as they were struck by the strength of the angel’s unfolding wings.

  Hayley had been dragged into the hall, her captor restraining her with an arm pulled tightly across her neck. Kicking and punching every direction, Hayley managed — by chance, to land one square in the side of his face. The blow was only a minor inconvenience to her abductor, but his loosened grip was the opportunity Hayley was looking for to make her escape. Using her new reach to her advantage, she struck again twice – this time causing him to wince and swear in blind agony. An unrestrained head butt was the finishing blow she landed to break free from his grasp.

  But there was nowhere to run. Behind her was her wincing captor, nursing his bloody gushing nose and before her, the one who had caught John. Cursing and spitting in humiliation, she was grabbed from behind again...and from behind her captor came the murderous grab of an enraged angel. A second was all it took to break his neck – before his limp body tumbled to the floor.

  Alex stepped over the corpse to reach Hayley, who now stared at him, unharmed – but clearly terrified. As he did, another man took the place of his fallen comrade. Stepping around the corner of the hall, he armed his weapon.

  Alex turned, about to strike – but it was already too late. The trigger was pulled, the mechanism fired – the metal spike penetrating his right shoulder. The scream that roared from Alex’s lungs rang for miles, its pitch shattering glass and piercing eardrums in its wake.

  “Hayley! Run!” He screamed at her in the moment between the first and second spike. The second one shot straight through his left wing, the product of the first gunner’s comrade, who had now joined him in his bid to contain the winged guardian.

  Instead of heeding his pleas, she ran toward him, catching him as he slumped over. She struggled to support his sagging weight and with the last of his strength, he pushed her away.

  Hayley fell back, staring at him with streaming eyes.

  “Run!” he yelled at her.

  But she didn’t. She reached for him again, but before she could reach, someone grabbed her.

  Alex watched, powerless, as she was dragged away. A searing pain shot through his left leg – another spike. Then all he became aware of was the pain, the mind-numbing, burning pain. His blood turned to fire. His limbs and wings throbbed mercilessly where the foreign metal penetrated, and every vein and nerve within him burned like fire. The pain finally became to overwhelming to handle and the world turned black...

  Chapter 12

  “Alex...Alex...Alex!”

  Alex’s eye suddenly open, each hazed with a dark swirling storm of pure rage. From corner to corner they churned in torrents of black and blue. His familiar azure pupils had vanished without a trace and all that existed in their place, their familiar warmth, was the dark and unflinching fury of an angel turned. “What?” his voice rang through the concrete cell from every direction. He was powerless, but he had refused to lose his voice. The heavy chains rattled as he straightened up to face the one who would dare imprison one of the Lord’s guardians.

  Juliette sauntered across the ceil - her wicked confidence written in every stride as much as her face. She smiled deviously at him. “You know what I want.” She said flatly.

  Alex cocked his head to the side, glaring at her with his malevolent eyes.

  Instantly she faltered, her resolve dissolved by a simple gaze – those eyes, those dark, angry eyes...She lower her gaze.

  Alex let out a sharp and chilling laugh, which seemed to come from every direction “Are you still afraid to look me in the eye Juliette?” He whispered, leaning toward her as far as his restraints would allow.

  “You are still dangerous Alexander, even chained as you are. I am not going to give you the satisfaction.” She replied, addressing the floor.

  Alex laughed at the top of his lungs again. “That’s right, isn’t it? I killed five of your friends just by looking at them and guess what?” He strained forward again, the heavy links of the chains clinking. “I’m not going to stop until you’re all dead.”

  “I can have your eyes gouged out if that is what it will take to get you to tell me where the journal is.” She threatened him.

  Alex tipped his head back up and smiled at the threat with relish. “Just like the eye is the window to the soul and how I stared into your men’s eyes and drove them insane before they died, the aura of an angel is never completely physical. Even in these chains I can still do things and you know that,” he leant forward again, this time
catching her eye, but only for a second. “That’s why not even you are not brave enough to get too close.” He smiled once again, but there was no humour, no warmth in it. “You’ll all burn even before you get close enough to try and take my eyes.”

  She was beginning to grow impatient with his endless threats. Folding her arms and looking to the corner of the cell she offered him a compromise, “Tell me where the journal is and I’ll let you see her.”

  “How about you bring Hayley here first and then I’ll tell you?”

  “No.” She refused outright, glowering at the corner of the room.

  Alex tipped his head again, staring at her with pure hatred. “That’s right...she may be dead or you may have even turned her into the freakish abomination that you are and if that is the case...” He whispered, “Then I will never be telling you anything!” he suddenly roared, his chains and shackles rattling as he strained forward.

  Juliette could not help but flinch back a little from the pitch of his yell. It rattled through the cell and it rattled through her bones. Regaining her composure and her courage, she shouted, “Then we will continue to torture you until you decide to tell us where it is!”

  A cocky smile crept across the corner of Alex’s mouth. “Wow, I am so frightened.” He said mockingly. What look of humour he did have evaporated from his pale, blood stained face as he strained forward again. “Why don’t you get Gabriel to come in here and do it? Or is he still too afraid to face me?”

  “He is better than you. That is why he is not here.” She dared stare him in the eye, but could only bare it for a second before forcing herself to look away again. “He could kill you so easily with you chained like this but he refuses too because unlike you, Alexander, he knows mercy.”

  Alex smiled darkly. “Oh yeah, that’s right...” he muttered to himself. Without warning, he lunged forward and shouted, “Are you really that fucking stupid?”

  Juliette flinched.

  “He’s a murderer, a traitor and a coward! And he’ll kill everyone once he gets what he wants, even you!” He spat.

  “Where is the journal?” Juliette demanded, running out of patience.

  “Where is Hayley?” The angel shouted above her, his eyes ablaze with fire – the simmering storms erupting red and black across his eyes.

  Juliette quietly turned away. Alex watched her leave, his heartless eyes burning into the back of her head. She was certain that she could feel it. As soon as she was gone, he stopped straining, the chains fell slack – and lowering his head Alex shut his eyes and fell silent.

  ******

  The sun broke over the eastern mountain range, illuminating the sprawling hills to the north of the Lake District – signalling the start of a new day. The dew on the grass sparkled in the morning sunlight, while nearby waters lapped gently under a chilly spring breeze - but this new morn bought nothing but painful memories for Hayley. She lay in bed, her head buried in the pillows, her eyes streaming with tears that refused to abate.

  A hollowed figure of Alex sat at the foot of her bed.

  “Come on now, you have to stop this.” He said, reaching for her. He hesitated as he remembered that he no longer touch her. Ruefully, he lowered his faded hand.

  Hayley sat up, her face pale and sickly from lack of sleep. Her eyes were ringed purple and swollen with tears. “They kidnapped you and are probably doing God knows what to you and you...” she glared at him angrily through her streaming eyes; “You don’t even care!” she burst into an uncontrollable sob again. Covering her face with her hands, she buried her head back into her pillow.

  Alex moved closer to her. “Of course I care Hayley, of course I do!” He said gently, a look of great regret upon his face, “But I am severed from my main form and I can’t hear anything anymore...” he continued, feeling a sharp lump of unease in his throat as he spoke. Regaining his composure, he quickly added, “I would dare to attempt to reconnect with him, but your safety comes first.”

  “Oh for goodness sake Alex!” she screamed, reeling round suddenly, her face blotchy from her latest outburst of tears. “I wish you would get a backbone! I’m sick to death of this guardian angel bullshit!” she erupted, her tears suddenly turning to impatience and frustration.

  Alex looked at her angrily. “Do you think I can do much real good in this state? Do you have any idea how weak I am right now?”

  “I don’t care! It’s not an excuse not to try!”

  “And where do you think we should start looking? Huh? Juliette and her accomplices could be anywhere by now!”

  Hayley flung her quilts back and rose quickly. “Alright then, smart arse we’ll go back to Glasgow. That’s where all the weird stuff that’s been going on in the last few months. They’re bound to turn up at the flat again sooner or later looking for me.” She thought out loud as she crossed the room and snatched her clothes from off the back of a chair.

  Alex was on his feet in an instant and blocking her path to the door. “Don’t you dare.” He warned.

  Hayley glowered and then walked straight through him.

  Alex gritted his teeth furiously and hastily followed her out. “You better not be thinking of going back there.”

  “You’re quick genius.”

  Alex reappeared in front of her, his hollowed figure’s presence causing Hayley to stop.

  “Even if we did go back and they did show up, then what? I’m in no condition to fight!” He stressed with the gravest of tones.

  “If they catch me, then you can rejoin with the other you. It’s not that hard to work out Alex.”

  Alex’s expression grew darker. “And I’d be disposed of on site. You’ll be captured and my other self will still be imprisoned and with no way of saving you.” He loomed over her. “It’s too dangerous. Besides, this is not just about you anymore. John’s family are involved in this as well now. If anything we owe them. They’ve given up a lot and they’re risking their lives by harbouring us here in their second home.”

  Hayley squared up to him. “Don’t you dare accuse me of not being grateful, I know what they’ve done for us.” She shook her head as she held his steely gaze. “But that’s not the point. The point is I care about you and I’m not leaving you.” She said, reaching into her jacket pocket to find her mobile phone. She pulled it out with such force that a fistful of crumbled receipts flew out after it. She looked down and cursed angrily as the paper balls scattered across the floor and amongst them, the creased and crushed remnants of the paper swan and even, a feather.

  “Hayley you’re a genius.”

  “Why’s that?” Hayley snapped at him as she bent down to clear up the mess.

  Alex crouched down beside her, carefully plucking the white feather from the rubbish that scattered the floor.

  Hayley gazed in amazement as Alex slowly twiddled feather between his faded fingertips.

  “I thought you couldn’t touch anything?” she gasped/

  Alex held up the feather between his thumb and index. “This feather is an extension of the original Alex, just like I am. We’re bound by the same energy.” He said, looking at it with intrigue.

  Hayley gazed at the feather. “What are you thinking?” she asked.

  “I can find him.”

  Chapter 13

  Alex pulled and twisted at his chains, struggling to be free. In a moment of frustrated desperation, a surge of energy rushed through his body. Stretching and straining relentlessly, his blood-soaked wings extended to their full length and flailed.

  From behind the anonymous lens of the CCTV camera which monitored his every move, Juliette and her boss, Gabriel, watched from a safe distance.

  “He really doesn’t know, does he?” Juliette asked, looking to her accomplice.

  Gabriel continued to watch the monitor, his arms folded. “The chain was around his neck before she vanished, he could not have known.” He explained flatly. It was clear that he did not care for such questions.

  But Juliette was undeterred by his
tone. She glanced back at the monitor – where the angel continued to struggle. “Are you certain those chains can hold him much longer?” she asked, a touch of unease in her voice.

  “Yes.” He said at once. “It is the only metal in existence which can cancel out all abilities of the angels, mortal or other worldly. The magnetic signature is unique, it neutralises all others in existence, rendering their powers useless.” He seemed to take a certain morbid delight in those last words, although his expression did not show it.

  Juliette hesitated, longing to ask another question. But then she thought better of it, not even she dared push her look that far with Gabriel. So drawing a breath to steady herself she returned her attention to the matter at hand. “It does not seem to matter what we threaten to do to him, he won’t talk.”

  For the first time since she had known him, Juliette could have sworn she saw a brief smile flit across Gabriel’s pale, long face. “If only we really did have Hayley, he might co-operate more.” He contemplated with relish.

  “I thought you said that they could never be allowed in the same room as each other?”

  Gabriel finally turned to look at her. “That is why we have the video cameras, to eliminate such risks.” He said, as if she were stupid.

  Juliette could not stand to hold his gaze for too long. It was cold, dark and chilling, even for a vampire such as herself. She looked back to the monitors. “What if he carries on like this?”

  She could fell his soulless gaze burning into the side of her head – she did not dare look back. “Then we will have to change our techniques.” He looked back round to the monitor, where Alex continued to struggle. “I can make him talk if I want too...”

  ******

  “So what’s the problem? Why can’t you do it?” questioned John as they all sat around the kitchen table.

  Alex hesitated. “I am too weak. I know where he is but if I reconnected with my body, then I’ll become trapped as well.” He gave a hopeless shrug. “I just don’t think I have the strength to break him free.”