Enigma (27 page)

With that, I followed him back to his office as he printed the form that stated the box, from this point forward, was not for my use and that I acknowledge this fact. The form also stated how monthly fees would discontinue and if there were moneys left over, I would receive a refund. I put my accountant’s name and contact information at the bottom in case of a refund, so that he could take care of any monetary business or transactions. I did not have the slightest clue of how to add the refund to my trust account if there happened to be one. After finding all of the things he said I would, I trusted Allen now more than I ever had. I still didn’t understand his whole undercover job, whatever it was, but I knew he had to care about me even if he had never shown it before last night to continue to put himself in that kind of position just because he had made a promise to my dad who was now dead and would never know if he broke it or not. I wanted to call him and tell him I had gotten the puzzle pieces successfully but was struck by the thought that if he was undercover, he was probably always surrounded by people who watched his every move. They might even have his phone conversations monitored. If that was any possibility at all, I would have no part in revealing anything. I wasn’t about to get the one person who had just provided me with more information about my life than my own parents since I was born into serious trouble.

“That bracelet is beautiful! Do you collect angels?” the banker asked, catching me off guard. He studied the charm bracelet on my wrist that rested on his desk while my left hand held the paper steady while signing my name.

“Uh, thanks, yeah, it was kind of a thing my dad and I always had…have.”

“You said had. Is there a specific reason that you find that important?”

“Not really, my dad just gave me the bracelet before he died, so it’s special, I guess,” I responded, not liking the way he had so many questions.

“Surely it must have some kind of a special meaning to it. Why would it have been in a safety deposit box with no one coming to check on it for years? It’s almost as though you just found out about it,” he said, giving me a devious smile.

“No sir, it just took a while to get everything from the will ironed out, and my dad wanted to make sure I was old enough to not lose it, so he put it in the safety deposit box, intending to give it to me earlier. But I guess being dead prohibited him from doing so. I came for it as quickly as I received the key,” I retorted with a slight attitude.

“Well, Matalyn, it seems we have a little problem. I’m afraid I’m going to have to call our bank’s president in here and let him decide if we need to call someone to have you taken into custody, because it seems to me you are hiding something. I call it bank fraud, and I am quite certain the president of this bank will agree with me.”

“What? Bank fraud? What are you talking about? I haven’t committed any fraud! All I did was come to get a bracelet my dad gave me out of safekeeping! I haven’t been dishonest or fraudulent in any way!” I screamed at the banker as I looked behind me at a bank that was all but empty, except for a few employees who remained staring at me with the same deep, dark eyes and looks of threat on their faces.

“Well, Matalyn, it looks like I’m the only one with witnesses, so it won’t matter what you say. It’s a shame Daddy won’t be here to defend you. As a matter of fact, no one is here to come to your defense is there? No one is here to save poor, little, confused Mattie. Let me tell you what I think. I think that ring on your hand signifies that you know more about that bracelet than you’re letting on. I think someone is trying to help you, Mattie. I even think you know why. So let me make this clear, you won’t be walking out of here unless you tell me who is helping you.”

“Look, I have no idea what you are talking about! My boyfriend gave me the ring for my birthday, and to be honest, you are really about to make me angry with all of these accusations, so you should back off,” I shouted. I started to feel my blood boil while the heat in my body started rising from my feet.

“Aww, look at Daddy’s special little angel get all mad and flustered! Calm down. We’ll take good care of you, I promise. You’re old enough to be used for your intended purpose now. We have to keep you in tip-top condition. We wouldn’t want to make any mistakes with you. After all, you are the only one, and we won’t be able to get anymore unless you give them to us, right?” he said, speaking down to me as if I were in kindergarten.

“Give them to you? I don’t have any idea what you’re referring to, but know this—I will never be giving you anything! I’m going to give you one final warning: bad things that I can’t explain tend to happen when I get to a certain point of anger that I have no control over, so you really should back off,” I warned, knowing I would black out sometime within the next few minutes and I had no idea what I would find when I came back to reality.

Right after finishing my sentence, I saw the banker nod in the direction of the front door. I took it as a signal for me to leave, so I turned to make my way out of his office. I no more than got out of his door when I heard the clank of the lock on the front door latch and the entranced-looking employees begin to encircle me. I felt the rage climbing to the top of my head, and just before everything would usually go black, instead my finger felt heated where the ring on it shined with the same intense glow it had the night Avan and I had made our promises to one another.

What happened next was enough to blow my mind. I could feel that I was the one doing it, but I had no idea how. Even though I knew I ultimately had the willpower to stop what I was doing, I did not want to. As the employees made their circle around me tighter, I could no longer control the anger that was overtaking me. I felt the wind whip up around me like a tornado, blowing papers all over the place, and pieces of furniture moved and turned over. Unfortunately, it was not enough of a distraction for the employees to notice, which only heightened my anger more.

The next thing I knew, the electrical equipment began to spark at the outlets and connections; I noticed flames begin to burst from them, yet the employees still advanced toward me, trapping me. Before I knew it, the glass from every window, computer monitor, door, camera lens, and any other glass object inside and attached to the building burst into shards, flying in all directions and entering the employees like shrapnel, sending them all to the floor shrieking in pain and agony. At this point fire had spread up the walls, nearly engulfing the entire bank. For whatever reason, I did not care. I had no mercy for the individuals who had obviously planned on taking me hostage and harming me in some way for some unknown reason.

“I hope you know I’m not calling anyone to come save you, and since there seems to be faulty wiring, I seriously doubt first responders will be here until it’s too late. I have a feeling you will be going back to where you came from. It looks like you can feel pain, so consider burning alive here a preview! Have fun in Hades!” I told the banker while looking down at him without remorse as I held my shoe on his throat.

With that I could hear the exploding flames behind me completely consuming the bank and blowing out the door all around me as I walked through the open door frame where the plate glass had stood only minutes earlier without the backdraft even causing me to lose my footing. Feeling nothing but comfortable warmth, I saw nothing but the enormous ball of orange flames that surrounded me as I walked from the middle of it onto the sidewalk.

I got into my car without any hurry as I watched the bank burning to the ground, feeling no remorse. I almost felt as if I had just done the world a favor and saved people from ever coming into contact with these insane, possessed individuals. I was so lost in thought I failed to realize that Avan had pulled up right next to me in the parking lot.

“What happened?” Avan asked frantically.

“I blew them up. They’re all dead,” I said sounding as if I were in shock but feeling very calm.

“Okay, tell me what happened. What were you doing here? Never mind, meet me at your apartment and we will talk about it there. Come on, go! We’ve got to get out of here now!”

Avan ran back to his car, jumping inside and throwing it in reverse. I followed him to Angel Towers and parked inside the garage. I had been so worked up that I was just now beginning to feel somewhat normal again. I was a little light headed and could really use a bottle of water. Getting out of the car, I realized there was not a single singe mark on my clothes, my hair was perfect despite the fact I was inside a burning building, and there was no trace of any soot on my arms, legs, or shoes.

Thinking back, I had not even had a hard time breathing surrounded by all the smoke inside the blaze! I must have been completely separated mentally from the situation in order to not pass out or even die from the smoke inhalation. I could have died! Why had I not died? How had I done all that damage without even touching anything? As I contemplated what had occurred in my mind, I realized I was wearing my bracelet, reminding me of the letter in my back pocket.

Seconds later, wrapped in Avan’s arms, he held me tighter than he ever held me before. I did not understand why at the moment and was sure he would hate me once I revealed what had actually taken place inside the bank. Backing up, Avan looked me over, making sure I had no obvious injuries before heading into Angel Towers. Neither of us said a word the entire ride on the elevator.

After a few seconds the elevator doors opened and we were walking down the hall and into my apartment. I never felt so relieved to be home!

I wondered if I would have gone ahead and taken the chance to get the items in the safety deposit box if I had known what was going to transpire. How could I have been so heartless to the banker when I said those things with my foot holding him down by his throat on my way out of the bank? Was I really that cruel of a person? It astonished me to know I was capable of being that vicious.

“It was self-defense. Stop beating yourself up. Besides that, it’s taken care of. You didn’t kill anybody either,” Avan answered my thought out loud.

“All those people made it out? Am I going to be arrested soon? Are the police on their way?” I asked frantically.

“No, no, and no.”

“Then how was it taken care of? How did they not die, and why am I not being arrested?”

“Okay, first of all, you need to breathe. Oxygen is necessary to function. It was taken care of by the good guys. The bad guys went back to where they belong, and the cops will chalk it up to faulty wiring. The end.”

“Who are the good guys? Where did the bad guys go? Who were the bad guys?” I asked, seeming to only be able to respond with more questions.

“Our friends, an unhappy place, and demons. Any other questions will have to wait until after you read your dad’s letter, okay? Now come in here. We need to make some adjustments.”

Taking Avan’s outstretched hand, I followed him into my bedroom, where he opened my jewelry box that held the new angel charms he had given me for my birthday. Gently unclasping the bracelet from my wrist, he took out a pair of small needle-nosed pliers and began working on my bracelet, which I had not noticed until now had just enough extra links on it to put the new charms.

I was surprised at this, considering the fact that my dad must have intended this. If that was so, then Avan too must have been in on it, although seemingly impossible. It was all so confusing and exciting at the same time. It was as if Avan had known all along and planned it out. Most people would probably be unnerved by the situation, but for some reason I felt like this was how it was meant to happen from day one. It felt to me that my dad had planned every single thing as if he knew his death would happen at some unexpected moment so he left little pieces and plans in place for me to follow. I was getting closer and I knew it. I could feel it so strongly that I knew all of the answers were just within my grasp now.

After Avan secured my bracelet that was more beautiful now than it had ever been before we moved into the office, we proceeded to pick up my mess I had made looking for the key to the deposit box. I was so thankful that he was an artist when it came to organization. Compared to me, he took organizing my office to a new, undefined level. It took a bit longer to clean up than it would have if I had done myself, but I enjoyed being around him so much that it did not bother me one bit. One question was sticking in my mind so much I knew there was no way I could possibly accept not getting an answer. I had to ask.

“How did you know to come to the bank?” I asked Avan as he looked up, meeting my eyes with his.

“I could feel that you needed me,” he answered matter-of-factly.

“My ring glowed when things were starting to get crazy. Is that how you knew?”

“Yes, any time you ever need me, whether you realize it or not, I will always be able to tell. When your ring starts to glow, mine does too. Remember, I promised to be by your side and protect you forever, Mattie. I would have been there sooner, but because of where you were, it wasn’t easy for me to get a clear understanding of the situation. I will explain it all as soon as you read the letter your dad gave you. I promise, and I can’t break promises.”

“Why is that? Every other guy on the planet can!” I snapped, wanting more answers that I knew he had.

“Not every guy, Mattie. There are plenty of them who can’t break promises no matter how much easier their lives would be if they did. Trust me on this one.”

“So that’s it? That’s really all you’re gonna give me?” I asked, disappointed that I already knew the answer.

“Yes, Mattie. In fact, I am going to give you some time alone tonight to read the things your dad left you. I’ll go make sure everything is under control with the cleanup crew at the bank.”

I gave up arguing, considering I was used to the idea that winning an argument with Avan was impossible. I knew he was protecting me and knew exactly what he was doing. He always had a strategic plan for everything he did. I had to trust him now more than ever, considering I had just made C4 look like children’s firecrackers by taking out the better portion of a city block with my crazy, pyromaniac mental talents. I really wanted to avoid going to prison for arson. He had mentioned demons that had not died, and to be honest all of this made no sense to me. I was rather alarmed on about ten different levels, so I intended to let him play superhero and take care of the entire situation.