Leon didn’t have to see her face to know that the woman who was lying gravely injured beside him was his own grandmother. He remained calm externally but inside his mind was swamped by feelings of apprehension and anguish. He never would have thought that one day, his own family would be caught up in the mess of Angels.
“You’ll be alright, Granny,” he said, removing his cloak and putting it over before reaching into his supply kit and unfurling as much gauze as he could from its dowel before crumpling it up into a rough ball. He frantically tried to press it against the wound on her stomach, but her weak hand stopped him before it could touch her. “Help is coming soon.”
“Be gentle, Leon. Don’t hurt her.” she advised in her weak but kind tone. The affable strength she had possessed raising her grandchildren was fading away fast, but it was clear that her maternal side remained.
Leon looked just to her right to see the form of a young girl who had been partially covered by Isabel’s arm, which was why he hadn’t noticed her before under the shadows of the buildings there were in between. She couldn’t have been more than four or five years old.
Leon gently pulled his grandmother’s body away from the girl as much as he could. He quickly understood that girl was in medical shock and using the remains of an old wooden crate, raised her legs over it. He then began to press the ball of gauze against Isabel’s wound.
“She jumped out of that burning house over there,” she said, trying to point across the street. Leon caught her hand and placed it at her side. “I caught her, but she might have some scratches and scrapes. She ran all the way up to the top floor.”
“What were you doing out here?” Leon asked. “Why didn’t you go back to the house when… they came?”
A weak smile appeared on her face.
“I just wanted to relive my days of glory, before I married your Grandpa…”
Grandma used to rebel against the Angels?
“…I’m to have to leave you two and Janine like this…”
“No!” Leon yelled, pushing the gauze harder into Isabel’s wound. “You’re gonna make it! Both you and this girl…!”
“Leon, sweetie, look at me… and look at her…”
The girl was conscious and mostly unharmed. But it was clear that mentally, that was not the case. The wideness of her eyes which hardly blinked, and their lack of focus told Leon that she had witnessed horrors that no young girl should’ve.
That’s the same look Anwen had when she woke up all those years ago…
“Wh-What are you trying to say?” Leon pondered.
“I’ve seen so many of my friends and family leave this world so brutally…. It’s only fair for me to go after finally being able to live peacefully…. That girl has seen nothing of the world, yet she suffers. Doesn’t she deserve to make it in the world so she too can find peace?”
“I’ll save you both!” he cried.
“I feel… so cold….” Isabel muttered as her eyelids fluttered, struggling to stay conscious so that she could continue to speak to her grandson.
“You’ll make it, just stay with me!” Leon said, squeezing her hand with his free one. “Grandpa’s gonna be lonely without you! You don’t want that, right?”
“Grandpa is used to death… it won’t bother him for long…”
“B-But—”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Leon struggled to come up with a reason that would keep Isabel holding on. But one came to him.
“…if you die here and now…, how are you going to see Mom and Dad again…?”
“Pull your bandana down for me,” she asked softly. Leon hesitantly did as he was told, defying Black Shield orders. But this was his grandmother, not an Angel.
“I see them right in front of me,” she said, lifting her other, blood-caked hand to touch Leon’s face. “They never left.”
“Granny? Granny, what do you mean by that? What are you saying?”
He never received a response. Her hand dropped, leaving a red print on Leon’s left cheek. After staring into the open-hazel eyes of her motionless form for more than a few moments, he put two fingers to her neck to confirm a pulse.
There was none.
He wordlessly shut her eyes, then shifted the cloak from the side of her body to the front to conceal the upper portion of her form. He then took the girl in his arms, gently carrying her out of the alley and into the street so that his comrades could find him easily.
He looked down at her little, traumatized person. However, only an image of young Anwen appeared before him, silent and unfocused.
A tear splashed against her blue dress.
--
Dim light slowly creeped into Anwen’s vision as consciousness came back to her. Still feeling drowsy, she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and was confused to find herself in a bedroom.
“If this is Heaven, it looks very boring.” she groaned. She ran her hands against the soft sheets of the bed she was resting on, and for good measure pinched the skin on her forearm. She still had her boots on and was still wearing her fur coat.
“I guess I’m alive… holy shit, I was drugged!”
She knew that whatever Iris had put into her stew caused her to become senseless. Thankfully, it seemed nothing was done to her while she was out, but there was no way she would remain in the village whose name had been forgotten.
Her first guess was to try opening the door, but that was the most obvious place for a trap to be. Besides, it would most likely be locked anyway. She then tried to use the window, but it was barred. Only about half her forearm could fit through the metal barriers.
Someone definitely does not want me to leave this place.
She then spent about five minutes, looking for any weaknesses in the structure of the room, any cracks, crevices or thin sections that she could kick down using her relatively powerful artificial leg.
She plopped back down against the bed, holding her head in her hands. She began to become frustrated.
“Don’t panic,” she told herself. “You can’t get anything done—
Suddenly, she heard clicking and metallic jiggling noises coming from the door—someone was unlocking it and was going to come in.
Any disposition to give into the direness of her bizarre dilemma was thrown out the window. Anyone could’ve had any intention walking through that doorway. The best way she would made it out of that room safely was by remaining calm and being prepared, mentally and physically.
Iris’ father walked in, an amiable smiled on his bearded face. His tunic emitted a fragrant aroma and his grey, chin-length hair had been combed to perfection. Anwen’s character remained neutral, neither displaying relief that he had arrived, nor contempt.
“Did you have a good rest, dear?” he asked, taking a seat next to Anwen. She pressed her knees together, subtly trying to keep as much distance from him as possible without moving.
She shrugged.
“Could you tell me why I’m here?” she asked.
“I know you need salvation,” he said. “I believe I can help you reach it.”
“Salvation?” she asked. “What do you mean? How so?”
“Salvation… relief for your soul,” he said cryptically. “This told me.”
He reached underneath his tunic and pulled out a purple pendant which hung from a silver chain which hung from his neck.
Anwen’s pupils grew wide in astonishment as she immediately recognized the gemstone as being a piece of Utrium.
Utrium attracts Utrium.
“H-How did you get that?”
He smiled as he rested a hand on the mattress, in between his thigh and Anwen’s.
“What matters is not how I acquired it, but what it has brought me. I was chosen by an almighty power to bring solace to those who needed using the abilities given to me by this precious stone.”
“Abilities? To do what?” Anwen said, breathing as slow as possible to calm her racing heart.
“To gain the strength this world needs to free ourselves from the ones who subjugate us. But I cannot do it alone. My girls don’t stay with me simply because of my kindness. They stay with me because the power demands that they lend me something of theirs.”
“So… you’re saying that you have the power to take the Angels down?” she asked with apprehension.
“Not yet,” he said, looking at his curled-up fist which he held before his face. “That is why I need my girls. I need them just as much as they need me.”
“What do I have that they don’t? I can see that you’re trying to make me one of them.” she concluded without fright.
The father put his hand under her chin, turning her head to face his.
“You’ve already had your Initiation. So, you can already give me something all those other girls never had when I saved them.”
“And what do you have to give me, then?”
“Love.” he said, stroking the side of her face with the back of his hand.