Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel

Chapter 2 of Banished for Love

Jeremy’s Point of View

 

I roll over groggily and settle back into my bed. An itching sensation at the back of my mind tips me off that something is very wrong, so I try to recall details from the last time I was awake. So, it was the first day of school, big deal. That can’t be what my inner alarm is griping at me about. With a gasp, I bolt upright in bed, realizing the problem. Images flash across my mind like bullets; little red men in stadium seats, me dangling over a pool of lava, Kelsey crying, and finally me waking up here in my room. I feel the phantom bite of iron shackles at my wrists.

 

Kelsey! What happened to her? How did I get back here? I rush out of my room, not caring that I’m only wearing pj pants, though wondering somewhere in the back of my mind how I got into them. Taking the stairs three at a time, I run into the pouring rain and across the street. No lights are on at Kelsey’s house, but I bang loudly on the door anyway, just in case.

 

Out of the corner of my eye, a dark object passes in front of the moon for a moment.

 

I track the shape with my eyes until it disappears into the dense forest. Heart thundering, I sprint through the trees in the direction of the fallen object.

 

Soon, I spot a dark heap crumpled on the forest floor. Recognizing the shape, I stagger forward in horror, my face no doubt twisted into a grimace. She lays in a fetal position with her back to me. I sink to my knees beside her in the damp ferns. I touch Kelsey’s shoulder lightly, and feel it shake with her sobs. A warm liquid oozes through my fingers. When I lift my hand away, my palm is stained red with her blood.

 

As calmly as I can manage, I scoop Kelsey off the ground, cradling her against my bare chest. She shivers slightly as I begin to make my way out of the trees. Slowly, she wraps her arms around my neck and buries her face in the curve between my neck and shoulder, still sobbing.

 

“I am so sorry,” I murmur against her skin as I lightly kiss her forehead. She only sobs harder. The realization that she is sobbing harder because she can’t feel these loving gestures causes an icy fist to close around my heart.

 

I carry her through the trees and into the house she shared with Janie and Libby. Not giving much thought to where they might be, I carry Kelsey upstairs to the bathroom. Ever so gently, as if she may shatter at any moment, I place her on the bathroom floor. She immediately pulls her knees to her chest, hugging them so tightly her knuckles turn white. Her back had finally stopped bleeding, and poking out of the top of her soaked tank top I can see jagged scars forming where her wings had been attached.

 

“I’ll be right back,” I whisper. She nods, staring blankly at the deep blue wall in front of her, rain lingering in her hair dripping onto her face and mixing with her tears. I walk out of the bathroom and down the hall to Kelsey’s room. Lying at the foot of her bed is what appear to be pjs. I pick them up and return to Kelsey.

 

“Here, I figured you may want some dry clothes,” I say as I drop them at her side.

 

“What does it matter? I won’t feel a difference anyway,” she replies in a voice so dead, it makes me flinch.

 

“You mentioned you would be able to feel temperatures, these will keep you warmer,” I say matter-of-factly, desperately striving for some sense of normalcy.

 

She blinks a few times, and then looks at me, as if peering through a thick fog. “What about you? You’ll catch a cold,” concern adds a hint of emotion to her otherwise dead voice as she drapes a dry towel around my shoulders. I catch her gaze then, and hold it. Her once beautiful gray eyes have turned black as onyx, making it impossible to tell where the pupils stop and the irises begin.

 

“What happened to your eyes,” I ask curiously.

 

She shrugs halfheartedly. “It’s a part of falling. We become dark, inside and out.” She says, the deadened voice returning.

 

“I don’t believe that,” I say and cup her cheek with my hand, unsure which of us I’m trying to convince. “I believe my same old Kelsey is in there somewhere. We just can’t let her die.”

 

She looks at me with eyes filled with more pain and agony than I could have ever thought possible. The weight of her hopelessness coils in my gut and I feel sick at my own helplessness to fix it.

 

“Right now, I wish I were dead.”