Our Future
Chapter 9: Waking Consequences

Jasper left or rather disappeared from the roof soon after the gunshot. We went up to see what the damage was; he hadn’t shot Cain but rather the roof. The bullet was lodged in the cement of the roof. Cain was out cold; at this point the only thing we could do was get him as far away as possible from the school. So we picked him up and flew about an hour or so out of town and dropped him in the middle of some random countryside. If the fall didn’t kill him, he’d be lost for a while before replaceing his way back to the city.

I told half of the truth, I was still living half a lie. Everyone believed I was straight except Emily, Grace and my mother. Grace had told Sam and Anna about me being an angel, she too had told them about my sexuality.

When we got back Cassie gave us the news the Abele had woken up but that Jasper had yet to be seen by anyone so he didn’t know. We went to visit Abele before seeking out his brother.

When we entered the room he looked threatened.

“Where are Jasper and Cain?” he asks sounding desperate yet, cautious.

“Jasper was here. I’m sure he’ll be back soon. Cain threatened to kill you and others so we abandon him about an hour outside of town,” I reply cautiously.

“Kill me? Was he the one who shot me?” he asked more calmly holding his hand to the bullet wound.

“That’s what we were told by Jasper,” Gabriel comments.

“And it’s true,” whispers Jasper appearing in the corner of the room his gray wings folded against his back in a statement of shyness and worry. “Cain shot you. You almost died, Abele.”

“Jasper?” he whispers quietly. “What happened to you?”

Jasper was still bloody from his fight with Cain. He looked away nervously, avoiding Abele’s stare.

“He was trying to kill you, I had to protect you,” he replies.

“Calm down. I know but why?” he comments.

“He thought he deserved your award and college money cause he was the first born son and he thought he was the smartest and best and whatever else,” Jasper answers nervously.

“How’d you get wings?” Abele cautiously asks.

Jasper looks up slightly but away before he meets Abele’s eyes.

“I’m an angel,” he whispers. “My real parents were half angels, Nephilim.”

“An angel?” he replies. “Like the things people see when their dying? Am I dying?”

“That’s what the myths say about the original angels but we’re second generation angels born from Nephilim were not like them,” comments Gabriel.

“You’re not dying. I stopped Cain from killing you and others,” he says cautiously.

He’s probably worried about how Abele is reacting to all this.

“How long have I been out?” he asks looking around.

“Almost two days,” I reply.

“Thanks for that I guess...” he says looking confused.

Jasper’s shape flickered. He looked like a ghost or projection.

“Jasper, where are you going?” Abele sounds slightly panicked but also worried.

“I have things to do,” he replies and disappears.

“Why? What does he have to do? Cain’s not a problem anymore, or at least not for a while,” he yells after Jasper.

I and Gabriel sit in silence. Disappointment and confusion filled the room. This was exactly like before Gabriel had told everyone his secret. He’d disappear, to some quiet place away from everyone he knew to think, think about how he could tell everyone. And contemplate when it was best to come out. He’d hide from everyone, his feelings, confusions, fears. If he did talk, he was never very open. Even with me. I’d been his friend for years. He felt he couldn’t trust me or even his own parents. We were of course all very patient and eventually words were spoken and hearts were broken and friends were lost. Emily. Of course now she saw her act as selfish. She felt bad that she hadn’t supported Gabriel in those years. I mean he’d had me, Melody, Quinn and Arran. But I was the only one who understood him and I was too afraid to admit it then. We’d both told so many lies, to make us seem normal, to keep our friends. To please our families until we just couldn’t lie anymore and then things were shattered. Where everyone used to see us as normal they now saw as freaks, enemies, friends, equals, they saw us as many things but they certainly didn’t see us the same ways. They had to get used to it, understand us.

“Thanks for dealing with my brothers,” whispers Abele.

“Don’t worry about it. Just get some rest and hopefully Jasper will be back soon or maybe we’ll go see what he’s up to,” replies Gabriel trying to calm him down.

“We’ll leave you to rest,” I reply.

We weren’t staying stuck in this room no matter what Michael said. We had lived here longer than most of the people here, if they had an issue they could leave. Neither of us should have been kicked out into the apocalyptic world but it was either that or you lived with us, I preferred option two.

I and Gabriel were cautious when we left.

Jess and Cassie were talking in the staff room next door so we were extra quiet. Jess wouldn’t have had anything against us leaving but Cassie would be worried about our well-being. I was just stabbed and fainted twice and Gabriel had been shot.

We were quick but not quick enough.

“Nathan, we have talk,” calls Emily as we approach the box cave classroom.

Dammit. I was tired, and it was like 3:30 in the morning. I wanted to sleep.

I turn back and see her and Arran. What did they want to announce that they liked each other?

“Make it quick, I’d like to get some sleep,” I reply.

Emily picked the lock and we snuck inside and all made ourselves comfortable in the cave.

I was lying on my side, Arran was sitting by the entrance and Emily was beside me well Gabriel was sitting near my feet.

“What is it?” Gabriel asks with caution as if he might get slapped again.

“When were you going to tell Arran? Sam knows, Anna knows, I know, your mother knows...” she pauses. “You could have told me, Nathan. It wouldn’t have changed our friendship. I accepted Gabriel and it wouldn’t be fair not to accept you or your relationship with him,” Arran says rolling his eyes at Emily.

He’s just as tired as I am.

“I was unsure, and Melody. I didn’t want to ruin our friendships more. And for the record the relationship thing only started like what? A few days ago? Must I announce it to the world where nobody cares anymore about your ‘relationship status?’ “I reply, “Nobody knew I was gay till a few days ago and I’ve only known since Melody died.”

I really didn’t want to talk about this now. Nobody cared who I was in love with except maybe some of the girls down in room 106. And Gabriel obviously.

“Em, maybe we should let them sleep. It’s almost 4:00am and they’ve been through a lot the past few days,” comments Arran quietly putting a hand on her shoulder.

The spot where I was stabbed feels sore. I sign.

“Okay, good night,” says Emily quietly.

She looks back at us as she walks along a wall of boxes that the door is behind. She smiles and I glance down at the floor, when I look back up their gone.

Gabriel’s arms wrap around my neck and he kisses my head.

“You okay?” he asks.

“I feel bad for chasing her off now,” I reply.

“It’s late, we’re tired and so was Arran. It’s understandable. She can’t keep you awake forever,” he comments quietly.

I flash back to the moment when I found Gabriel shot and bleeding in the hotel room.

“Sorry,” he mumbles.

“It’s not your fault,” I reply quickly.

“I still made you think of it. The dream you had where I was dead sounded bad enough,” he continues.

“Do you know who would want to kill you?” I ask.

I didn’t want to lose him. I’d lost enough and Anna didn’t need to be alone in this apocalypse without the one person she knew and trusted. Anna probably didn’t remember her mother very well, and Gabriel was all she knew aside from me and Sam.

“No offense, but your mother... Maybe Paul. Who knows? Maybe the priest guy kills me,” he says the last part jokingly. “It’s not like we know whether or not the person has a connection to me.”

“But my mother tried to kill me, not you. She said we were impostors. So she thinks neither of us is the person so if you die, wouldn’t I die, too in that scenario?” I reply.

“Maybe she thinks you’ll return to normal with me out of the way,” he comments. “Are we really going to have this conversation now? You sent Emily away so we could sleep and we’re still talking.”

“I don’t want you to die,” I reply pulling my knees up to my chest.

“I know, I’ll try not to because I don’t want to promise you anything in case I do,” he whispers.

We lay down beside each other and soon I can hear Gabriel’s breathing slow. He’s asleep.

I won’t be asleep for a while. My brain is still going at a hundred miles per hour trying to replace a way to save Gabriel. I’ve seen things like this before but it usually let me see how or who killed the victim in our group and it usually resulted in me being able to prevent it.

I touched my forehead to Gabriel’s.

It was probably almost 5:00am. I was tired but, it was useless. I was going to go until I blacked out from sleep exhaustion.

I didn’t want that cause then I’d be of no use to anyone. But that’s what my mind was going to do.

Amazingly the exhaustion took over sooner than I thought. By six I was asleep. Gabriel’s company helped. Having him close made me feel like I could save him even if I didn’t know how.

The dream world was dark and empty. Fairly unusual but calming.

I placed myself before falling asleep, in between Gabriel and the door to the box cave, as a precaution.

I’d lost enough loved ones; I didn’t want to lose him, too.

Oddly the dream didn’t stay dark and empty and let me sleep peacefully.

The darkness faded till only my veins were stained black, my skin was bruised a dark purple on my left hand, on my right was a giant cut, it was covered in a black tar-like substance. The cut was both deep and long but it wasn’t bleeding despite being an open wound. The dream seemed short as always but of course when I woke up it was eleven in the morning. The dream scared me so much I actually had to check my arms to make sure the dream wasn’t a reality. It felt so real but without any emotion, no pain or anything like you’d normally expect with an injury of that stature.

Gabriel was sitting in the corner; oddly he didn’t seem aware of my alertness. I signed and tried to calm down; rubbing my wrists as if to make sure my skin wouldn’t melt away and reveal the dream.

Gabriel finally noticed I was up and I must have looked worried or spooked cause he snapped out of his ‘mind-wondering’ and looked at me, concerned.

“Bad dream?” he asked.

“If you could call it that,” I reply.

It seemed so realistic, like I was actually experiencing it, it wasn’t like my visions where I saw and acted upon the situation, and I had just stood there in disbelief of what was happening to my arms. Was it a sleep vision? Was I going to lose my arms? My arms didn’t feel like mine, have you even just stared at a limb and realized how unconnected it felt to the rest of you? Like if you cut it off it wouldn’t hurt? Almost like it was somebody else’s limb?

I shook my head trying to get the dream out of my mind but the dream is branded in my brain.

“It wasn’t real, you’re okay,” Gabriel whispers quietly rubbing my back.

He planted himself on top of me and started kissing me. He was trying to distract me. It always helped me forget things if I was interrupted well thinking about them.

“I love you,” he whispers.

I roll my eyes, I don’t feel like doing this right now but I hate thinking about the dream so I don’t tell him to stop. Maybe I won’t be as self-conscious if we do these things more often and maybe we won’t be as worried about getting caught.

“Do you want me to stop?” he asks it with worried look like I might be upset.

Considering our situation, anyone more mature would have known this wasn’t the time for this kind of thing right now but of course we were love sick kids. And I need to forget the problems of the ‘world’ around me for right now.

I shrug at his question, my answer is neutral. I want him to because I don’t feel like it and I want him to keep going so I’ll forget, cause I don’t want to see what might possibly be my future anymore.

I’ve had enough again, of my powers, responsibilities, maybe even some aspects of my life. Not him of course, he’s new, interesting and distracting. A relief, loving, rant beacon. He listens and advises with an opinion of what would be best for me and sometimes the rest of our relatives.

I wish I could forget everything and just stay here with him but of course that’s all too good to ever happen. Whether life ever goes back to normal or not.