Dark Angel (Anak Trilogy) (21 page)

“Thank you for your congratulations, but I didn’t want a fight. I just wanted him to leave Annie alone. She has made her ch
oice, and her choice isn’t Jon.”

Although Zell decried the violence, everyone
was still impressed. Jon had been the toughest guy in school up to that point and often a bully until Zell showed up. Civics was boring and uneventful with Ms. Howard lecturing for the full fifty-five minutes. Even Zell was unusually quiet during class. I sat lost in my thoughts trying to pay attention to the lecture, but it was a hopeless battle.

Art class was next. It was an easy elective that I cho
se to take my senior year. Miss Picknell, my teacher, was talented, fun, and a bulldog for information. Zell had no more than entered the classroom when she pounced.

“My name is Miss Carole Picknell, and
I presume that you are the new student?”

Did I imagine it or did
Miss Picknell emphasize the Miss in her introduction to Zell?

“Yes, Zell Starr,” Zell replied extending his hand to shake hers.

“In fact, you’re a very handsome gentleman.”

I cocked an eyebrow at Zell. I wasn’t sure, but I think he blushed. 

“Perhaps you could pose for me one day?” Miss Picknell asked.

Was Miss Picknell flirting with Zell? I thought so.

“Excuse us,” I huffed putting my arm through Zell’s and pulling him along to a vacant table.

“Am I the only female on earth that doesn’t turn to mush over you?” I asked Zell exasperated.

“You’re the one person, the only one, that I wish did get mushy over me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I answered quietly as Matthew and Christopher joined us at the art table.

I had been laboring over a painting of a vase of flowers for days. I took out the materials for Zell and
myself. Then, I went to get a fresh canvas for Zell. After that, I ignored him as I painted. Zell, Matthew, and Christopher talked quietly all through class. Miss Picknell hovered over them the entire class period. I could have used some help, but I decided I would rather she kept Zell occupied. When she called closing clean-up time, I turned looking at what Zell had done, and it was amazing. He had painted the same vase of flowers as I, but his painting was terrific. He got the colors, shadows, and details just right. He also did it all within the class period.

I threw my brush down, and began putting away my art supplies. Miss Picknell had Zell cornered gushing over his painting. I took the opportunity to get out of class before anyone noticed I was gone. I had a fairly long walk through the halls to the gym
and basketball practice. I decided to duck outside and take a shortcut across a back lot, where the recycling dumpsters were kept, to the gym. It was a much shorter trip as the crow flies. However, crows weren’t flying today. The sky was overcast and dark. It looked as though the sky would burst at any moment. By the time I reached the dumpsters, I had the feeling of being watched. It began to feel creepy, and I stepped up the pace. I had almost reached the last dumpster when a dark figure stepped out of the shadows from between two dumpsters.

The figure was not human even though it seemed to have two legs and two arms. Big, triang
ular-shaped red eyes focused on me, and the creature stepped out blocking my path. Its wrinkled, grayish face looked similar to that of a gargoyle, and it crouched on its haunches staring at me. It had wings too, but not the beautiful, large wings that Zell had.  The creature had pointy, blackened, spiny looking wings similar to the wings of a bat. It looked like an old, wrinkled, winged man. I froze in my tracks unsure of what to do. Slowly, I began to back up. Keeping my eyes locked with the creature’s eyes, I moved one foot backward at a time. The creature didn’t move but watched me intently.  It opened its wide mouth and hissed at me exposing multiple levels of razor-sharp teeth.

Trembling, I tried to hasten my retreat an
d stepped on the strap of my book bag. I fell backward hitting my elbows and tearing the flesh from them. I barely noticed the pain though because as I fell the creature leaped for me from his crouching position. It landed a few feet in front of me and hissed again. This time, I had a close-up of those pearly whites. His teeth, rows of them, stuck out in all directions dripping with strands of salvia. A pointed, black tongue darted in and out of his mouth. This creature was so ugly that he would make a train take a dirt road. Shaking, I tried to continue backing up from my seated position further ripping the skin from my elbows in my retreat. In horror, I watched as the creature leaped once again and was flying at me through the air.

From behind me, I heard a swoosh, swoosh, swooshing sound.  I looked up and saw a sword flipping end over end toward the creature. The sword hit him with an impact so ferocious that the creature was knocked backwards at least thirty feet through the air. The monster hit the home plate fence
on the baseball field and stuck there impaled about six feet off the ground hissing and shrieking. Instantly, Zell was in front of it with his other sword and flaming sword drawn. He plunged the blazing sword deep into the bowels of the creature pulling out the sword that had impaled and nailed the creature to the fence as he did so. The creature burst into flames shrieking hideously.  Zell cut off its head as it fell and hurried to my side.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said quietly helping me up.

The monster continued to shriek for several minutes as it burned even though its head was severed from its body and haunted our escape. Within seconds, we were away from the scene. We walked through the doors that went into the gym.

“If we’re lucky, no one saw what just happened,” Zell whispered as we walked.

Coach Neely was just inside the gym bouncing a basketball and looking at us strangely.

“What’s
all that noise coming from outside?” he asked.

Zell and I looked at one another shrugging our shoulders as if we had no idea.

“What’s the matter, Annie?” Coach Neely noticed my bleeding elbows and actually sounded concerned.

“I fell out in the parking lot,” I replied trying to keep the blood coursing down my
arms from getting on my tee-shirt.

“Doesn’t look like you’ll be playing any basketball today. Go on home and clean that up,” Coach Neely said coldly turning his back on us still bouncing the ball. So much for that brief thought that he was concerned. That was a dismissal if
I’d ever heard one. As we left the gym, we saw a crowd starting to form around the burning corpse of the creature.

“What is that thing?” I heard Christopher ask Matthew.

Zell and I wasted no time getting as far away from the burning creature as fast as we could.

“Is your coach always so warm and caring?”

“That’s pretty much how he always behaves.” I groaned as I answered him. The numbness was beginning to wear off, and my elbows were throbbing. When we reached his car, Zell threw our bags in the back seat.

“Let me see how bad you are hurt.” Zell inspected my torn flesh.
“I’ll blow on your wounds and make them feel better.”

People always say that, but it do
es little to assay the pain.  However, when Zell blew on my elbows, it was like using one of those numbing sprays. They instantly felt better.

“I need to get you home and clean those wounds for you,” Zell advised.

I climbed into his car, and Zell took me home. I apologized all the way home for getting blood all over his seats.

“They’re leather. I can wipe it off. No worries.”

At home, I went to the closet in the bathroom to get the first-aid kit. Zell cleaned my cuts and scrapes with peroxide then alcohol. He didn’t say a word to me the whole time he worked. I watched him as he cleaned the wounds. Was he upset with me for leaving class without him? He must be. He was so unusually quiet, but he was gentle as he worked on my arms and elbows. Everywhere he touched me, my skin felt twenty degrees warmer. I wasn’t sure how long I could hold out before I fell madly in love with him. I wanted to touch his face, kiss him, and lay my head on his chest just to listen to his heartbeat. Was I losing my sanity? I had never felt this way about Jon or any other boy, and it was embarrassing and infuriating at the same time.

“Are you mad at me?” I asked him.

“No,” he replied not saying another word.

He stayed with me until my f
ather arrived, but he never spoke another word to me unless I asked him a direct question. Dad was at the hospital visiting with a member of the church congregation. Zell rose from the sofa where we had been watching television when my father entered the room.

“Reverend Ha
yes, Annie fell in the parking lot before basketball practice. Coach Neely told her to skip practice, and I brought her home.” 

“Is
she OK?” I heard Dad ask him.

“She’s ju
st a little scratched up, but I cleaned her wounds. She’ll be fine. I have to get home. I have some things to take care of, but I may be free to stop by later to check on her if that’s permissible,” he replied.

Permissible?
No teenager in the world talks like that except Zell.

“Of course,” Dad agreed.

“Bye, Annie,” Zell said quietly, and without even turning to say it to my face, he opened the door and left.

He must be furious with me.

In my dreams that night, I was running through a fog calling for Zell.

“Annie, Annie,” Zell called out in return.

I moved toward the sound of his voice, but I still could not find him. I stumbled weeping through the fog. The sound of my sobs echoed in the darkness.

“Annie, stay with your friends. Never be anywhere alone.” I could hear Zell’s voice whispering through the gray folds of the fog.

“Zell, please don’t leave me. I’m sorry,” I cried out.

“Everything will be fine. Just don’t ever . . .  ever go anywhere alone. Stay with your friends. Stay in big crowds. .
. Annie,” his voice whispered through the fog again.

“Where are you?” I cried out. “Please come back.”

For the first time since I have been aware of his presence, Zell was not there when I woke in a heated sweat from my nightmare. I was alone.

                    
9.    JON

THE NEXT DAY WAS WORSE. RAIN BLURRED

my world to a dull gray like the fog from my nightmares. Reality was even darker. Zell didn’t show up at my house the previous night to check on me or the next morning. In a mood as dark as the clouds above, I asked my dad to drive me to school as I had left my Tahoe at school when Zell brought me home. Jon was in my face as soon as I got out of my car.

“What’s up Annie? I tried to call you all night.”

“Sorry Jonny. I fell outside the gym last night and cut my elbows all up. I went to bed early.”

“Who is this guy you’re hanging out with Annie?’ Jon yelled at me. “I hit him yesterday, and it was like hitting a wall. It wasn’t natural Annie. Who is he? What is he?”

“Thanks for asking how I’m feeling.
You shouldn’t have hit him,” I answered wearily. “Zell didn’t do anything to you. He was just protecting me.”

“Since when do you need protection?”

“I don’t. Zell just seems to think I do.”

“Zell, Zell, Zell,” Jonny mocked. “I’m getting sick of hearing his name. What kind of name is Zell anyway?”

“An old family name,” I retorted beginning to get angry at him.

“Where is his family, Annie? No one has seen any of his family.”

“I have seen his father. He is here with him. Zell and his father have a home on Lake Lanier,” I said reversing the roles and defending Zell for a change. Zell did say his housekeeper and assistant pose as his parents. Didn’t he?

“Oh, so big, bad Zell has already taken
you to meet the parents?” Jon asked not believing me.

“Drop dead,” I replied coldly pushing past Jon. I stomped off in a huff across the parking lot.

“You’ll be sorry you ever met him when I’m finished,” Jon yelled after me.

My blood chilled when Jon said those words. I stopped and turned to look at him. His face was dark and brooding. His voice . . . His voice was different. He sounded so malevolent. His voice reminded me of another voice, but I couldn’t place where I had heard it.  Was it a voice from my nightmares, or had I
actually heard it somewhere? I couldn’t be sure, but I was shaking from the sound of it.

Zell wasn’t in homeroom. Everyone was asking me where he was. I wondered where he was too. I was worried. Maybe he had given up on me and returned to wherever he came from. Where did he come from? I knew the Europe story he told everyone at school, but was that true? I didn’t even know for sure.