House of the Angels
Chapter 23: Home and Healing

Anne hastily made her way home to Angel Manor the moment she heard that Sybilla and the others had found Kyle. The others had already returned from their search, save for Anne who had stayed a little while longer.

Her heels clicked on the surface of the sidewalk with each hurried footfall, hoping and praying through some God given miracle that Kyle was alive. When she opened the front door to the house, she found almost everyone there including Kyle who shot to his feet and flung his arms around Anne.

“Sweetheart thank God you’re safe.” She cried as a few stray tears slid from her eyes.

Kyle said nothing as the salty, painful tears welled up and streamed down his face. Anne led him upstairs along with Grey, Floyd, Eve, Joseph and Sybilla. Everyone else was ordered to occupy themselves with something, anything to keep their minds off of Kyle.

Anne led Kyle up to Dan’s room where he sat on the edge of Dan’s big alcove bed. They waited only a few minutes before Floyd came in with his medical supplies, clean rags and a bucket of hot water.

“What did she do to you?” Anne asked quietly.

A loud *THUNK* on the hard floor drew her attention away from Kyle, turning to Grey and Joseph. Grey’s eyes were cast down at the brown paper bundle on the floor while Joseph’s lips pressed tightly together, clenching in his anger.

“What is this?” Anne asked fearfully.

“See for yourself.” Joseph told her.

Anne picked up the bundle and carefully placed it in her lap, cautiously untying the string that held it all together. When she unfolded the corners, Anne’s worst fears were displayed right before her eyes…..Kyle’s wings.

She was at a loss for words. The sight of Kyle’s blackening, blood stained wings made Anne sick to her stomach. No wonder he looked so deathly pale. Anne ran her bony, trembling hand over the pair of wings, the blackening feathers still soft and beginning to molt.

How could they do this??!! A voice inside her heart screamed. To see what the Caulfields had done to him was something she could have only imagined in her worst nightmares, but now that nightmare had become a reality.

Anne had thought of all the times she had protected Kyle from such horrible evils, from birth until now. She thought back to when she first held him after he had been left on the doorsteps of Angel Manor, the way he stared at her with his mismatched eyes and smiled at her as though she had been the one who gave him life. As a baby Kyle had never cried and even as a child he always seemed happy. But now Anne saw things differently. For the first time in her life, she had seen Kyle shedding tears that were never meant to be shed.

“My poor baby.” Anne cried under her breath.

“Anne?” said Floyd.

“Here.” She said, carefully setting the wings aside. “Help me if you can Floyd. Eve, I’ll need your help too. You two can go.”

Grey and Joseph both left the room, leaving Anne, Eve and Floyd to tend to Kyle.

“Take the blanket off.” Anne said to Kyle. “I need to see how bad it is.”

Kyle removed the blanket and let it fall to the floor, revealing the painful wounds on his back. Not only were there a few switch marks here and there, but Anne could also see two very deep, long holes around his shoulders where Sally had cut out his wings. Blood ran in red rivulets down his back, the wounds stinging and burning from being exposed to the air.

“Alright Floyd.” Anne stated. “Do what you have to do.”

Eve snaked her arms around Kyle’s waist, letting him bury his face in the curve of her neck as he held onto her. “It’s ok Kyle.” She assured him. “I’ve got you.”

Floyd very carefully took a clean rag and soaked it in the bucket of hot water before wringing it out. As carefully as he could, he began cleaning away the streaks and smudges of blood that turned the rag pink. Eve felt Kyle’s grip on her tighten and loosen every few minutes but she didn’t care. She would rather have been squeezed to death than have Kyle suffer alone.

Kyle nearly squeezed the life out of Eve when Floyd began probing the two biggest wounds, his fingers digging beneath the skin and nearly touching the bone of his shoulder blades. He shut his eyes and tried to ignore the painful sensation of Floyd digging his way in, but it wasn’t any use. This was one discomfort that had no hope of being ignored.

“Are they deep?” Anne asked.

“Some of the bone is gone.” Floyd explained, wiping his blood covered hands on a clean towel. “It’ll take fourteen days plus for his wings to grow back completely.”

“Is there anything that can be done in the meantime?”

“Liquids and rest are a definite must.” Floyd concluded. “I’m also going to need to apply quite a few bandages to keep it from getting worse.”

“Won’t he need stitches?” Anne enquired.

“No.” Floyd replied abruptly. “Under no circumstances are we to stitch the wounds back together. It would inhibit the growth of a new set. Just bandages for now will do.”

Anne left Floyd to his work, watching as this dark haired, brown eyed young man applied the gauze bandages to Kyle’s injuries. Floyd placed a cotton pad over one and then over the other, both of which had been sterilized with isotropic alcohol. Kyle sucked in a breath as the sting irritated his wounds and the skin around it, tightening his grip on Eve. Floyd was careful not to wrap them too tight otherwise bloodflow would be constricted. When he was done, Floyd put everything away and zipped up his medical kit.

“Here.” Anne said, handing Kyle his coal black hoodie and a pair of denim jeans. “Get yourself into some fresh clothes and rest. Ya’ll need it more than anything.”

“What about Sybilla?” Kyle questioned, his voice still weak from dehydration.

“Just leave her be.” Anne told him patiently. “She needs time and so do the others.”

Kyle did what was asked of him and tried to get some rest. Eve stayed with him the entire time, the two of them resting against each other in Dan’s bed as the sunlight outside began to fade and the dark paneled walls of the room growing dimmer and dimmer.

“We shouldn’t have left you alone.” Eve said, her voice shrinking so that only Kyle could hear.

“It’s my fault anyway Eve.” Kyle told her. “I made a stupid mistake and I paid for it.”

Eve rested her head right over Kyle’s heart, a terrible lingering thought hanging in the back of her mind as she listened to the slow and steady beat echoing in her ear. “Did it hurt?” she wondered aloud. “When they….”

Kyle was silent. Of course it had. It was the most agonizing thing he had ever endured. “No one deserves a punishment like that.” He answered.

Neither of them knew how late into the night they stayed up and neither of them cared. All that mattered to Eve was that Kyle was safe. As the two of them slept that night in Dan’s bed, they both lay tangled together and didn’t let go.