Awakening (Children of Angels) (8 page)

He walked towards Mia across the clearing, and as he approached, she was left breathless by his beauty. Was that the right word, she wondered? Did people usually call boys “beautiful”? She didn’t care. That was what he was. No other word would do. His dark hair had a slight curl to it, more like a wave in the places where it was longer. It was tussled, but in that deliberately messy way the boys wear their hair. As he drew closer, she could see his chocolate brown eyes looking back at her with curiosity and shyness. He smiled nervously, and his perfect white teeth seemed to shine in the sun.

Mia did not have any words for him, so she simply smiled back. They stood like that for a long time, just looking at each other. And then came the rustling from above, and a hiss from the snake who seemed to have grown impatient. The snake! Mia had forgotten him - forgotten everything, lost in the boys eyes. She saw the yellow eyes of the snake peering out from between the branches, and then it seemed to shake one of the branches viciously.

An apple fell from the tree, and the boy caught it neatly in his hands.
Somewhere in Mia's mind, she registered this image as being familiar – a bright red apple in the hands of a beautiful boy. It made her want to laugh, but laughter seemed inappropriate in this place
. She stared at his hands and even they were beautiful. She looked up to meet his eyes again, and he was smiling gently at her.

The tree shook again, and Mia looked up just as another apple fell. She caught it, with reflexes faster than she even realized she had. The snake calmed then, and slithered down from its branch, winding its way around the trunk of the apple tree, until its head was level with Mia’s. She saw out of the corner of it’s eye that it was watching her. She felt the apple in her hand, cool and hard. Her mouth watered, and she realized she was hungry. Smiling shyly at the boy, she lifted it to her mouth and took a bite.

Several things happened at once then. The boy reached out to her, as if to snatch the apple away, but he was too late. She swallowed the sweet flesh and went to take another bite. The snake hissed triumphantly in her ear, and as she looked over at the boy’s face, she saw it was filled with dismay. She wanted to ask him what was wrong, but as she opened her mouth the words came out as a shriek - the apple she held mere centimetres from her face was writhing with maggots. She threw it to the ground and disgust, and thought she might be sick.

Bracing herself against the tree trunk with one hand, she grasped at her stomach with the other. She did not feel the softness of clothes there, merely the bareness of her skin. She looked down and realized, with growing horror, that she had been naked through the entire encounter with the boy. The snake slithered over the hand that was bracing her against the tree, and she screamed and pulled it back.

The boy called out to her, and to her amazement, he knew her name.

“
Mia!
”
he called, sounding almost desperate.

She turned to look at him, to ask him how he knew her name, and why he was here. Things had only started going badly since he had turned up. As she looked at him, she was embarrassed to notice
he
was naked as well. She wondered if he had been naked the whole time and she simply hadn’t noticed - but surely she would have noticed?

He reached out to her, and as he did so the ground surrounding them both burst into flame. She looked up at his face, and noticed his eyes were devil-red now, and the reflection of the flames danced in his eyes as he stared at her, reaching out to grab her. His teeth grew longer and sharper as she looked at them, and his face became hideously distorted as she tried to back away in horror. The flames were too hot, and she felt as though she was cooking alive.

The whole forest seemed to be alight, it had seemed so humid and alive just moments ago. She had not thought there was enough dryness in the wood to fuel flames like this.
He
took a step towards her just then, and she felt the fire burn hotter, although she had not thought it possible. But he seemed to be the source of the fire, it was all surrounding him. As he moved, so did the direction of the flames, and as he opened his mouth the speak to her, those horrible fangs reflecting the flames just as his eyes were doing, Mia felt a physical jolt, as though someone were tugging at her arm.

She felt as though she were being shaken, and heard someone calling her name over and over

“
Wake up Mia, wake up!
”

Silly person, she
was
awake, she was awake and in the middle of a living nightmare. No, that wasn’t right. She was asleep. This was just a regular nightmare. Who was the voice? She recognized it. The heat closed in on her as the boy moved closer and spoke softly.

“
Do
not
wake up yet, Mia. We have things to discuss, you and I.
”
He reached out to touch her but she recoiled.

“
Wake
up
Mia!
”
came the voice again, and on some level, Mia became aware of the shaking becoming more violent. It was very strange. She knew she was being shaken, felt the sensation of it even, rattling her teeth and hurting her neck. But here, in this dream, she stood perfectly still, surrounded by flames and facing what she could only describe as a demon, who wanted her to stay here.

She didn't want to stay. She closed her eyes and focused all her energy on that familiar voice. Leonara’s voice, she thought. I must go back. It’s time for this nightmare to end.

With her eyes still shut, she felt the heat fading, and everything darkening. She knew the dream was ending. She was waking up.

“
NO!” snarled the boy and she felt his fingers just brush her arm as she left the dream place.

“
To level the playing field
”
growled a voice in the dream place, as Mia left it and returned to the waking world.

It was very dark, and the air around Mia had cooled significantly. The flames were gone, of that she was sure. It was so dark. She opened her eyes cautiously, almost afraid to see where she was. All that was above her was darkness. For a moment, she wondered stupidly if she had perhaps died in the fire. Or
he
had caught her and taken her somewhere. But no, as her eyes adjusted, she could dimly make out a ceiling.
Her
ceiling. She was at home. She remembered then, the voice that had called her back from her dream. She sat upright and glanced around the room, squinting through the darkness for any sign of the Angel. But Mia was alone.

CHAPTER SEVEN

W
hen the sun rose on the morning following the nightmare, Mia, in
spite of herself, still couldn’t shake the feeling that parts of it had been real. She stood for a while trying to ‘teleport’ as she had in the dream. Of course, it didn’t work, and she felt thoroughly stupid for even trying. She pushed the thoughts of the dream to the back of her mind, and went on with the business of being a normal human girl.

A few days later, she felt her mind wandering back to those strange dreams she had, and how real they had seemed. But dreams are funny like that - sometimes they just feel so real, its harder to believe that the impossible things
didn
’
t
happen than believing that the dream was real.

So when she thought she caught a glimpse of the Angel from her dream, and called out “Leonara!” across the road, even starting to cross through traffic, much to the drivers’ annoyance, she felt exceptionally foolish to have a confused and bemused stranger turn to look at her. Had it only happened once, it would have been bad enough. But one week later, Mia was still catching glimpses of Leonara around town, at school, even in the street outside Mia’s house.

Finally, eight days after the dream, and having mistaken a portly balding gentleman in a business suit for the beautiful (definitely not portly or balding or a man for that matter) Angel who had visited her dreams, she decided it was time to seek help. Or guidance. Or something. Anything. She wondered why she had suddenly started dreaming odd things about who she was, how she had come to live with the people she called her parents. Why she had been abandoned. By whom. She decided the dream must have been her subconscious’ way of dealing with these unresolved issues and questions about her life. Questions she never really even realized she had, until now. The logical place to start then, was by asking her parents outright exactly how much they knew about where she had come from.

The thought of asking them made her feel sick. It felt almost like a betrayal. These people had brought her into their homes and lives, and loved her and raised her and sacrificed for her as much as any parent would do for their own child.

“
Well, any parent but my own mother, it would seem. Or my father for that matter
”
thought Mia bitterly, as she made her way home from the park, and left the confused business man muttering away about
‘
bloody weird kids
’
.
“
At least
”
Mia thought, with a wry smile
“
I don
’
t sit on park benches talking to myself. Not yet anyway.
”

As she walked home, she pondered over how to broach the subject. Would it be better to approach her parents one at a time, or confront them both at once? She slowed her pace and walked the long way home, to give her time to work up the courage and work out what she would say. But in the end, as she sat at the dinner table with the people she called her mother and father, she was still nervous and still had no idea what to say. She pushed the peas around her plate with her fork, staring at her plate without actually seeing it, lost in thought.

“
Sweetheart, are you okay?
”
a voice broke into her thoughts and startled her back to the present. She looked up at her mother
’
s familiar face, which was now expectant and waiting for an answer.

“
I
…
what?
”
Mia asked, not knowing what her mother had asked her, only that she had spoken to her.

“
Are you feeling alright? You haven
’
t eaten much tonight - and you have been very quiet since you got back from school. Is there something bothering you?
”
“
Are you sick?
”
asked her father, leaning forward and studying her face with his familiar squint.

“
No
…
I just
…
.I
’
m fine. I mean
…
.well
…
I have to ask you something
”
she was looking down at the table as she spoke, and now she took a breath as she rose her eyes to meet her father
’
s, then looked to her mother
’
s curious and mildly concerned face.

“
Okay, what
’
s on your mind honey?
”
asked her mother
“
You know you can always talk to Dad and me about
anything.
”

At that moment, Mia wanted to burst into tears. Yes, she could always speak to them about things. They were the kind of parents who listened, who took in everything you told them, who considered their replies carefully. Who didn’t just yell at her when she did something wrong, who explained why it was wrong. Who supported her, encouraged her, but never pushed her or bullied her. They were, in short, textbook perfect parents. And she was about to repay them for all their love, understanding, support and kindness by asking them a question that would break their hearts, she was sure of it.

“
Okay well
…
look
…
I
…
.I don
’
t want you to be mad about this...
”
Mia said softly, biting her lip. Her mother opened her mouth to reply, but was silenced by her father raising his hand.