Created By

AwakingRose

Rate this Story

Embed

“Do you want me to take you home?” James asked softly when Lilian had calmed down.

“Yeah…I think that would be better…but I’ll need to text Sage first…” Lilian said and began getting up. She searched through her bag until she had found her cell phone. “Sage, I’m heading home. I’ll explain everything later. Love ya,” read the text message as she sent it and slid the phone to a close.

“Lilian, I’m sorry that you had to go through this…” James said remorsefully as he looked away from Lilian, blaming himself.

“James, it wasn’t your fault. If anything, I should have been more careful; I mean, Azrael was…never mind…Umm, do you know how to get out of here by any chance?” Lilian asked, stopping herself from telling James about what had happened earlier that day.

“Lilian…what were you going to say?”

“It’s not important,” Lilian insisted.

“How can I protect you when you keep secrets from me?” James protested.

“James, just drop it. Please,” she pleased and wrapped her arms around him. When she let him go, she put her hands on her hips and added, “If you don’t tell me how to get out of here, I’ll go on by myself.”

“What have I gotten myself into,” James muttered mischievously, loud enough for Lilian to hear.

“Excuse me?” Lilian smiled and she gave James a peck on the cheek. “C’mon, Hansel. Just follow the bread crumbs and lead the way.”

“Well Gretel, there are no bread crumbs but we have the next best thing: GPS,” laughed James as he whipped his phone out from his pocket. Lilian shook her head as she laughed and hooked her arm around James’s.

“Hey…about me kneeing you in the groin…sorry about that…” Lilian chuckled nervously.

“Yeah…I’m not in too much pain…” James laughed, “I’ll just walk it off. Not like we can do anything else…”

As they made their way through the woods, Lilian and James spoke openly for the first time since they had met and Lilian felt at ease. But even with that feeling of ease, an annoying buzz of fear and apprehension remained with Lilian as she and James found their way through the jade maze of trees.  She couldn’t stop thinking about Azrael and his constant watch over her, not to mention Death’s relentless plans to kill her by any means possible, even if it meant using her own family. Who would she be able to trust when everything was a possible hazard to her? Thousands of worries ran rampant through her mind the entire time but she masqueraded her fears with forced smiles and empty laughs. Once she and James had finally escaped the green labyrinth, though, she felt the protection and devotion of James as she stared into his eyes and knew that she would have to protect herself from any more dilemmas that might arise. She gazed at him with such adoration that James became puzzled.

“Am I growing another head or something…?” he said as he stood outside his car, preparing to enter.

“I don’t know how…I mean I’m only sixteen but I feel like we were meant to be together… forever…I must sound so crazy,” Lilian said quietly as she finally tore her gaze away from James and got inside his car.

“Well this isn’t exactly the most normal situation,” chuckled James as he sat down in the driver’s seat. “But I understand. You must feel a bit like I did when I was courting Mercy, but I now know that it had been all a grave mistake. In some twisted sense, God has given me a blessing by extending my life to this point. Had I stayed in my previous life, I would have never met you. But if I remember correctly, we both have a sense of remembrance…maybe we have met before.”

“Impossible, but so very likely…” Lilian mused as she dreamed of the possibilities.

“The father has spoken of such incidents…I took them as childish workings of a man in love but now it makes some sense to me…A man fell madly in love with the beautiful daughter of a merchant but the girl wanted none of this man. The man was disfigured by a humpback, but it did not hinder him in his attempts to marry the girl. He begged for one moment with her until she finally consented and he told her a tale, ‘my darling, when I was in heaven, God showed me the woman whom I was to marry. But he told me that she would have a horrible humpback. I pleaded with God, though, and told him to relieve her of the aberration and let her be beautiful and I instead be marked with it. God consented and that is the reason of my disfiguration’. The woman, moved by some faint memory, somehow began to love the man and accepted his proposal of marriage…” James recited his fable, his voice a melodic symphony of music as he drove.

“Well, since I met you there isn’t much that I can say is pure make-believe…” Lilian smiled softly as she stared at the passing houses.  “But who knows…”

“Maybe this is just the way it was mean to be all along,” James murmured and it was that last thing to be spoken for the rest of the ride.  As James pulled up to Lilian’s home, she felt a sudden burst of heat rack her body and she slumped down into her seat. “Lilian…Lilian, what’s wrong?”

“I…I don’t know…I just…I feel so…my entire body feels like I’m burning alive…” Lilian moaned as her body broke into tremors. James put his hand to Lilian’s forehead and gasped when he felt the extreme heat radiating from Lilian.

“Oh no, we’ve got to get you to a hospital,” James panicked and quickly put his seat belt back on.

“No, no I-I don’t want to go to a hospital, please, it-it will go away, please,” Lilian whimpered as she struggled to get back up.

“Lilian, they can help you better than I can! I can’t lose you now,” James protested; his voice gave away the feelings of fear and horror that he felt.

“James, I’m sure it will go away, please,” Lilian strained feebly as she tried to unbuckle her seatbelt. “If not, my mom was a nurse once so I know I’ll have medicine…please, James…”

James struggled with Lilian’s supplication; he knew better to take her to a hospital but her pleas were too much for him to handle. With tears in his eyes, he quickly got out of his car and hurried to the passenger side. He helped Lilian unbuckle her seat and swept her off the seat into his arms; he felt the scald of her fever through her clothes and remorse swept through him. A cool breeze of wind sighed an apology to him and Lilian but James growled; Azrael was to blame because of this. James knew that no medical staff would be able to help her against the crime of the archangel. Lilian was undergoing through small episodes of unconsciousness as James carried her to her home but heard James’ snarl.

“James…w-what’s…wrong?” she asked shakily, unable to keep her eyes open.

“Nothing, nothings wrong!” James cried out but remembered to keep his cool and calmed himself down, “Lilian, where are your keys?”

“They’re…in my bag…but there’s a spare beside…beside the fountain…” she sighed and another sudden spasm of tremors rocked her body. James felt another growl of anger rise within him but he quickly quieted it down with the guilt of Lilian’s torture.

“A little help would be nice; if not for me, then at least for Lilian!” James thought angrily towards God as he tried to think of ways to get Lilian insider her home.  “Fuckin’ shit, I’m going to have to kick the door down…” he thought irately but before he could take a step back and hope for the best, the door creaked open only to reveal emptiness on the other side. James growled an inaudible thanks and hurried into the house to set Lilian down.

He tore through the house and dashed up the staircase, trying to be gentle with Lilian all at the same time but she was fully unconscious now and knew nothing of the turmoil. The door to Lilian’s room was also shut but creaked open just as the front door had. James gently laid Lilian on her bed and turned on her fan to the highest level it was capable. Tears blurred his vision and he furiously wiped them away; he had promised to protect her and now she was on the brink of death. Suddenly, the room began to cool down rapidly; the room lowered to such an extent that the windows and mirrors in Lilian’s room become frosted and James’ could see both his and Lilian’s breath. James felt Lilian’s forehead to check her temperature with the immediate decrease in the room; she was still running a high fever but it seemed to be cooled down a few degrees by the freezing state of her room.

“If you think this is making up for everything you have done, you are dead wrong,” James muttered wrathfully but the sub-zero temperature of the room was beginning to cool down Lilian’s temperature. Despite the progress, Lilian began thrashing wildly and James started to panic again. Then he remembered what the Father had one told him about holy water. James reached into his pocket & took out a small vile of holy water and with a dab of holy water, he formed the sign of the cross on her forehead, and gradually Lilian stopped thrashing. As Lilian’s eyes began fluttering open, James sighed quietly to his relief, “Thank you Father…”

“J-James…what…what happened?” Lilian spoke softly, her voice nothing more than a whisper. James reached to feel her forehead, and she still had a fever; but it was several degrees cooler than before.

“You were having a reaction to Azrael’s kiss. It’s a severe sin for an angel to become involved with a human; the usual punishment is banishment for the angel and burning inferno for the human. Fortunately for you, you stopped Azrael before anything else happened but even a kiss can drive a human to insanity…You have heard about the flood and Noah’s ark, I presume? Well that’s what happened. The angels got to have their fun and even conceived children with the humans…and well, the women died horribly. They burned till the very end when they were eaten from the inside out by their own parasitical spawn. The men also suffered greatly, but not as much as the women…” James recounted the story as he stared grimly into nowhere.                                 “It was one of the worst periods of time for Celestial beings…” a hidden voice stated gravely.

_____________________________________________________________________

Author's Note: Please, please, PLEASE COMMENT! I live for your feedback so even if you don't think it great or even worthy of a rate, then please comment and tell me what you didn't like! and if you liked it, then tell me what you liked! The next chapter won't be out for a while since I haven't even begun it yet... thank you for reading!