Fallen Angel (18 page)

David and Dmitri both looked at me as though I was mad.

‘You might as well,’ I said. ‘It’s just going to get cold and spoil. We might as well… you know.’

‘Enjoy our last meal together,’ Dmitri said.

David made a small noise. I looked away and stared into my fries as Dmitri put his arm around David’s shoulders. ‘Hey, come on,’ Dmitri said, and I could hear the strain in his voice. ‘It’ll be just like in that film.’

‘Which one?’ David asked in a muffled voice.

‘I can’t remember. Black and white, I think? Some guy was doing some thing, and—was he writing something? About the stuff he’d done in the rest of the film?’

‘You’re so delightfully vague,’ David said, giving half a watery smile.

‘Sorry. I don’t think I actually watched all of it.’ He grinned. ‘There was popcorn, and then I think I fell asleep…. And when I woke up, there was just a guy sitting in a cell.’

‘Oh well, that’s super helpful.’ David stole one of my fries. And we sat there, eating our last meal together.

After a while, just as I was finishing my fries, the nurse popped her head in through the curtains. She smiled. ‘Everyone all right in here?’ 

‘Yes, thank you,’ I said.

She saw the empty food packets and takeaway bag, and smiled. ‘Very good, lots of grease and salt and sugar, just what you need to get your strength back. Your friend’s finished being patched up. They’re just about to bring her back in.’

‘Oh awesome!’ I said. David reached over and pulled back the curtain on the right-hand side, and we watched as two nurses wheeled in another hospital bed. Laura’s face was almost the same white as the pillowcase, and her hair lay in a bright tumble around her shoulders.

I felt a pang of guilt at the sight of her closed face. During all the talk with Dmitri and David, I’d almost completely forgotten about her. Now I realised that we hadn’t discussed what to tell her. She had to know, but she hadn’t been there for all the important parts. She didn’t even know about me and my power. My heart quailed a little at the thought of having to explain all that all over again.

The nurses left, pulling the curtains closed behind them so we were in our own little combined cubicle with the two beds together. Dmitri pulled his chair over so he was closer to Laura. He leaned forward, and lightly took her hand in his.

‘I might not be here when she wakes up,’ he said without looking back at either of us.

‘What are we going to tell her?’ David asked.

‘Everything, I suppose,’ I said. ‘We can’t lie to her. I’m not going to lie to her.’

‘She might not believe us,’ David said.

‘Lizzie has her power,’ Dmitri said. ‘I think that’ll be convincing enough on that front, and as for the rest… I suppose she’ll have to believe that. You’ve no reason to lie about something like that, and if Lizzie’s powers are so evidently true to her, she should believe it about me as well.’

‘Yeah. I suppose.’ David rubbed the back of his neck. ‘This is going to be awful.’

‘Yes,’ Dmitri said.

David raised his head and stared at him, as though in disbelief. ‘How can you be so calm about this?’

Dmitri lifted one shoulder in a shrug. ‘I don’t have any choice.’

‘Yes you do! You can rebel, or explain, or…’

‘I don’t have any choice,’ Dmitri repeated. ‘This is the way of it. This has always been the way of it.’

‘Bullshit,’ David said, and I flinched. David never swore like that. ‘You’ve got to fight this. You’ve got to!’

Dmitri shook his head. ‘It isn’t the way of it. We just—don’t. I suppose—I don’t know. This is the way it always has to go.’

‘Then change the way!’ David almost shouted. ‘For God’s sake, Dmitri! Haven’t you got any idea about this? You don’t have to just go along with things! I mean, goddammit, I shouldn’t have to even say this, I thought this would be evident!’

Dmitri looked lost. ‘I just—I never thought—this isn’t the way—’

‘Then start thinking,’ David said brutally. ‘And if you say that this is the way of it one more time, then I shall punch you.’

‘No you wouldn’t,’ Dmitri said. ‘You can’t throw a punch to save your life.’

‘Maybe not to save my life but in this case I’ll make an exception.’

‘Can you hide?’ I suggested. ‘Go somewhere where they won’t find you, and you can hide out, and then maybe you can come back one day, or we can come to you or email you or… something.’

‘Sleep rough?’ Dmitri said.

‘Those are your choices right there,’ David snapped. ‘Sleep rough and free, or go back and take your punishment and never come back here ever again.’ He stopped, and bit his lip. ‘I’m sorry. I don’t mean—I’m not really angry, I—sorry.’

‘I know,’ Dmitri said.

‘Then what about that?’ I pushed. ‘If no one has run before now, if everyone just kind of accepts it, that
this is the way of it
thing, then they won’t expect you to run, and they won’t know how to track you.’

‘Yeah,’ David said, ‘that’s what you need to do. That’s what you must do. Dmitri?’

Dmitri was quiet.

‘You can see, can’t you?’ David pressed. ‘This is better. A better way. You’ll be free, and you—we might be able to see you again.’

‘I know,’ Dmitri said quietly.

‘Then why don’t you—’

I jerked my head at David. He stopped, and frowned. We both looked at Dmitri, who was sitting with his head bowed, staring down at his hands. He was frowning, and I could tell that he was chewing on the inside of his cheek. It was always difficult to tell what Dmitri was thinking, but I thought he looked scared.

‘Okay,’ he said finally. ‘Yes. Okay.’

David exhaled. ‘Okay. Let’s go then.’

‘What?’

‘We’ve got to go, man. You said they’d be here soon, and that was a while ago.’

‘Yes…’ Dmitri looked panicked.

‘You’ll be all right,’ I said encouragingly.

‘Yes.’ He still looked rather green.

I pushed back the covers and swung my legs over the side of the bed. ‘We’ll need to get to the roof.’

‘Wait, you’re coming too?’

‘Well, duh,’ I said. I stood up, and then had to grab for the bed as the world dipped, and the floor seemed to wobble underfoot. ‘Whoa,’ I heard myself say from very far away.

David grabbed my arm. ‘Wait, wait, you’re not going to faint again, are you?’

‘Will you stop saying faint,’ I mumbled.

‘You don’t need to come,’ Dmitri said.

The world had steadied, and leaning on David’s arm, I felt a bit less giddy, but a headache had begun pounding away behind my eyes. ‘Of course I’m coming,’ I said loudly, over the pounding pressure. ‘Don’t be strange.’

‘Dude, you’re pasty white,’ David said.

‘If you ask me if I’m going to faint,’ I said, ‘I will slap you.’

‘If you’re sure,’ Dmitri said.

‘Of course I’m sure. Now
come on!
’

‘Okay.’ Dmitri stood up and pulled on his jacket. He went to Laura’s side, and lightly touched her face. ‘Bye Laura,’ he said softly. He paused there for so long that I thought we would have to nudge him to move. But then he took a deep breath and turned around, and nodded.

I clung to David’s arm, and together we walked as innocently as we could past the nurses’ station to the door of the ward. The corridor outside was pretty much empty, apart from a guy in blue scrubs pushing a trolley full of stuff. He didn’t take any notice of us, though, and we made it to the end of the corridor and squinted up at the signs.

‘Why’s there no sign for the roof?’ I asked.

‘Turn left for your handy getaway route,’ David said.

‘They’re here,’ Dmitri said softly.

We spun to look at him.

‘What?’ David demanded.

‘They’re here,’ he said. He was looking right, down the corridor to a reception desk. There were two people standing there, talking to the nurse on duty there. They looked like a normal couple, maybe there to visit a sick relative. But they both had wings, folded up on their backs. The man had pale blonde hair, and white wings that almost glowed under the hospital lighting. The woman was also blonde, but darker, and her wings were the colour of pale honey, flecked and streaked with tawny brown. They hadn’t seen us yet, but if they looked up, there was no way they wouldn’t see who we were.

‘This way, this way, this way.’ David grabbed my arm and hustled us left, where the way turned left, right, and upstairs. ‘Up, up, come on,’ and we darted up the stairs. 

I kept a close hold on the stair rail and used it to steady myself, but my headache grew, and the pain began to make me feel sick. My bare feet slapped on the floor, and I stubbed my toe on one of the steps, but I dared not stop or complain.

The stairs came out on another floor, and I grabbed at the wall to catch my breath as David stared at the signs on the wall.

‘You look like puke,’ Dmitri said.

‘Well, gee,’ I said breathlessly. ‘I can’t think why that is.’

He smiled, and lightly put his hand under my elbow. ‘I’m going to miss you.’

I grinned back. ‘That’s good. I’d hate to think I was putting myself through all this trouble for someone who wouldn’t even send a postcard.’

‘This way,’ David said. He took hold of my arm again, and we rushed on. We arrived at the end of the corridor, and came to a halt. David stared left and right, and said, ‘Um—’

‘A lift,’ Dmitri said. ‘We’ve got to find a lift.’

David looked at him blankly for a moment, then sheepishly said, ‘Oh yes, that would be a good idea.’

There was a lift farther down on the left. We hurried towards it. As we did so, the doors opened. David suddenly flung out his arm, stopping us from passing him, then hastily shoved us into the first open door on the left. We just managed it; as we pressed ourselves against the wall of the room, the two sylphs came out of the lift and walked past the door.

I held my breath, waiting for them to pass. But to my horror, they stopped and stared at the junction in the corridor that we’d just been standing at.

‘I don’t see where he could have gone to,’ the woman said. Her voice was husky, and sharp with an accent that I couldn’t quite place. Russian? Polish? ‘He must have known that we were coming.’

‘He might have stepped outside,’ the man said. ‘Maybe we should ask the nurses again.’

‘Maybe.’ There was a pause. The tension was making me feel sick. I didn’t realise that I’d been swaying back and forth until David quietly gripped my arm and pulled me back up again. ‘This is strange,’ the woman said. ‘I don’t understand why he’s not here.’

‘I think he has friends here,’ the man said. ‘In his reports he mentioned that he socialised. Maybe he wishes to bid them farewell.’

‘He should have already done so,’ the woman insisted. ‘This is very irregular.’

‘Never mind. We should go back downstairs and wait by the girl’s room. He’ll probably come back there and wait for us.’

‘Hm.’

Another pause. Then, finally, they walked away. I heard their footsteps echoing on the shiny floors.

‘They’ve gone,’ Dmitri whispered.

I almost collapsed with relief. Through the buzzing in my ears, I heard David say, ‘What did they mean about your reports?’

‘I have to send a report every week,’ Dmitri said. ‘It’s a rundown of what I’ve done and how things are going.’

‘Right,’ David said. ‘That’s not intrusive at all.’

Dmitri shrugged. ‘That’s the price you pay.’

‘Well, not anymore.’ He squeezed my shoulder. ‘Lizzie? Are you all right?’

‘Yeah,’ I managed. ‘Yeah, I’m fine. Come on. Let’s go.’

David took my arm, and then Dmitri came and took my other arm. I squeezed his hand, and he smiled at me. ‘How far we’ve come,’ he said.

‘All right, Yoda,’ I said, and was pleased when he laughed quietly.

We scurried down to the lift. There were a few terrifying minutes while we waited for the lift to arrive, and then, when the doors finally opened, we piled inside. David pressed the button to the top floor, and when the lift pinged and opened again, we were in a long, rather dark, corridor with bare walls. There was an open door at the far right end, which appeared to lead into an empty office with lots of filing cabinets.