Angel

Her blonde hair is ten times longer, and fans out behind her like she’s underwater. Her entire lower half was replaced by a palomino horse’s. She makes a sound like a horse and rears. We duck from her flailing hooves, each strong enough to smash open our skulls. The Warriors screech like birds and descend upon her, but she fights to protect us.

“There’s too many!” Luana yells.

“How are we supposed to help?” Grayson yells back.

Suddenly, out of nowhere Erin pulls back the string of an oak-wood bow, loaded with the sharpest arrow I’ve ever seen. Her strong arms hold it, one hoof raised warningly.

“Do not make me,” She says, her voice rumbly and low.

The Warriors scream and fly away, a few feathers lost here and there.

“Let’s go!” Erin yells.

Luana and I swoop away, Grayson jumping onto Erin’s back. We race out of heaven and leap off the edge of cloud.

“Oh my god.”

I open my eyes, sitting up. Luana’s standing, her wings twitching again. When we landed on earth, her normal Angel clothes seemed to have been replaced by normal thirteen year old clothes - jeans and a black hoodie. She flips her brown-orange hair and stares at Erin. “You’re a centaur - but you were a person -”

Erin is back in her human form, and she stands up, rubbing her arms. “I didn’t - I’ve never shifted before!”

Luana gapes at her. “You’re so cool. You know that right?”

Erin blushes.

“That failed,” Grayson says, getting up and looking down. “I really thought the Angels would at least care.”

Luana looks down and curls her wings around her shoulders. “Maybe Angels aren’t as good as everyone thinks,” she says quietly.

I feel fear rise up inside me. “How do we get to Lora now?”

No one answers me. A sick feeling enters my stomach and I look around the dark town, starting to panic. We’ll never get to my twin sister, she’ll turn evil without me and I’ll never see her again-

“It’s going to be alright, Ludi.” Erin says.

I turn to her. She has a sympathetic face.

“How did Salan kidnap her?” Luana asks.

We all look at her strangely, this sassy angel teenager that broke us out of heaven. She sighs and rolls her eyes.

“I can’t exactly go back there, so I might as well help you,” She says.

“Well- he sorta sucked her into the ground-” Erin says, and Luana interrupts her.

“Of course! Okay, we gotta go there.”

“Uh - where?” Grayson frowns.

“The place where Salan kidnapped her.” Luana groans as if it’s obvious. “That’s the spot where the barrier between heaven and hell is weakest.”

Erin nods in agreement.

“We can’t get there soon, it’ll take ages. If you didn’t notice, I can’t fly very well with a burnt wing.” I say.

“Why haven’t you healed it already then?” Luana asks.

“Uh,” I fidget with my hands. “How?”

Luana rolls her eyes. “You three are so not ready for Hell,” She groans.

“You’ve been there before?” Grayson raises an eyebrow.

Luana glares at him. “Maybe.” She turns on her heel and stalks off.

“Luana, wait - you’ve got angel wings - people will see!” Erin grabs her arm.

Luana’s wings extend to their amazing length and shoves Erin back - she immediately grabs Erin’s arm and pulls her back up. “Sorry - reflexes.”

“It’s alright,” Erin says, a little breathless.

“I guess you’re right- I can’t walk around with giant wings.” Luana sighs.

“Oi! Look - it’s Erin and the others!”

We spin around and find that the same cops have found us again.

“What the heck happened!” Yells one, who I remember is Jason. “You were obliterated by light! And who’s this?”

Luana nervously grins at him and waves.

“This is Luana, our - friend.” Grayson looks at Luana, who rolls her eyes at his hesitation. “She got those wings from Cosplay Costumes.”

“But - the light!” Says another cop, a little panicked.

“Uh- it was -” I begin.

“A star blew up above us and we fell off the tree,” Erin says instantly.

We all give her looks.

“A star,” says the third cop. “Blew up. And you fell off the tree.”

Erin nods. “Uh - huh!”

“We’re going to take you in for questioning,” Jason says, reaching for Erin’s arm-

Luana grabs his and pushes him back. “Nope- sorry!”

Erin stares at Luana, who goes a little red.

“I don’t think I met you before in this town,” Says cop four, looking at Luana. She flips her hair.

“Are you the mayor that knows everyone?” She asks.

The fourth cop glares. “Watch it,” he growls.

“Watch what? Your job fly away? You’re not allowed to grab people against their will, for a good reason or not. Keep acting like you’re better than us, that you can boss us around, and I can promise you that -”

“OKAY, we’re going to go,” I say somewhat laughingly, tapping Luana on the shoulder. “C’mon, let’s go!”

Luana glares one last time at the four cops and begins to run away. Grayson, Erin and I follow, yelping with surprise at her speed.

“I’ve never run away from a cop before in my life! Especially not Jason!” Erin pants.

“Really? Out of all the crazy things we’re about to do, this is the one you’re amazed at?” Grayson raises his eyebrows.

“About to do?” I ask. “What are we about to do that’s crazier than what else we’ve done so far?”

Luana looks at me. “Well, we’re going to save your sister, clearly.”

“Um. How?” I ask.

They all roll their eyes - except Erin.

“Oh, come on guys, don’t blame him for being forgetful, if you went through everything he’s been through this past week you’d be forgetful too.” She says instantly.

Luana smiles at Erin like an adult smiling at a little kid wanting to fly to the moon. “That’s sweet.” Then she turns to me, and her face hardens so fast it alarms me. “Take us to the spot where your sister was kidnapped.”

“Oh - uh - um - sure!” I stammer, caught off guard. “Er - it’s this way!”

Luana groans.

“Sorry!” I say. “You really shouldn’t look so scary! Aren’t you an angel?”

Luana looks down, suddenly sad looking. “There’s more to everyone than meets the eye,” she mutters. Erin touches her elbow and makes a reassuring face.

Our group is silent for a moment. Then -

“Well, let’s get going - sisters to save and all,” Grayson says to me. Then he grins. “Sorry, I’m trying to be serious but I just can’t.”

“I’d prefer it if we weren’t more serious than we have to be,” I grin.

There’s more silence.

“OKAY CAN WE GET A MOVE ON?” Luana yells.

We all jump. “Yeah okay!” Cat says.

“Uh - no, not tonight - we gotta get some sleep.” Grayson says. “We’ve been up all night.”

Suddenly, I feel exhausted. Erin notices. “I agree with Grayson - let’s run back to his summer house and get some rest.”

Luana makes an angry noise in the back of her throat. “I am an immortal angel, I do not need rest-”

“I didn’t hear a word you just said because that noise you made sounded like a cat,” Erin says. “And I don’t care if you’re immortal or not - you need rest.”

Luana makes a huffing noise and flies up to the sky a few feet. “Where’s this ‘summer house’?”

“I am not stepping inside this hut.” Luana wrinkles her nose at the cabin.

“Luana, be nice!” Erin hisses. “This is Grayson’s house!”

“I hate this house too,” Grayson agrees with Luana.

Erin groans and pushes herself inside.

I run to my room. On the covers of the bed lies Heaven Exists. I smile. How useless that was.

But it wasn’t pointless. Not really. We met Luana, and she’s going to be an amazing friend, I can tell. I wish I knew more about her.

We stay in the house a lot longer than any of us expected. We ate all the food in the house and had to go shopping - only Grayson was brave enough to go, and I ended up going with him to keep him safe from Salan. Grayson was getting along with Luana. Erin and Luana seemed to have this sudden, super close relationship. And the angel’s stopped giving me sarcastic side glances every word I say.

One night, I’m sitting on my bed, reading Heaven Exists because every other book in this house is a magazine form of rich people bragging.

But eventually, even that got boring. It was pointless now that we knew heaven wouldn’t help us.

I sit straight up. “Heaven won’t help us.” I say worriedly. “How do we stop the war?”

“War?”

The door swings open to reveal Luana, her wings tense and her eyes narrow. “What do you mean, war?”

“The devils and demons are going to try and take over heaven.” I say.

“Really Ludi?” Erin glares, peeking out from behind Luana.

“She was going to find out anyways,” I say.

Erin rolls her eyes. “Sorry, Luana.”

“It’s fine.” Luana kept her eyes on me. “Tell me more. Who’s leading this war?”

“My uncles, Satan and Salan.” I say. “Or, we think so, anyways.”

Luana frowns. “Nina…”

“Nina?” Erin scrunches her nose. “What’s that?”

“No, who’s that.” Luana corrects her. “Nina… I met her a few times, and she’s propably what’s driving Satan and Salan to take over heaven. She always was greedy. She's not good news, she is the most dangerous person I've ever met.”

“Luana, please be honest.” I say. “Who is Nina? To you.”

Luana snarls in my direction, her wings flaring. I scoot back on the bed - heck, Luana could be scary.

“It would really help us out,” Erin puts a hand on Luana’s arm. The angel turns and looks at her, then sighs. “Fine.”

I scooch aside as Luana sits on the bed beside me. Erin leans against a wall.

“My mom died. She was angelic like my dad, so why she died when she should have been immortal in heaven is beyond me. But I became sadder and sadder without her, so my Dad remarried, hoping a mom would cheer me up again. She was a simple deceased person, named Nina.”

Luana fidgets with the blanket.

“Nina waited until my dad left one day, and tried to sabotage me. At the time I really wanted to become a full angel, so I applied to the angel’s association. She told the Angels the truth. Nina was a demon, and she was trying to use me to take down heaven.

“The Angels kicked her out, naturally. And if it wasn’t for my dad’s help, they wouldn’t have let me stay, either. My dad eventually didn’t keep up with his angelic duties, and became a deceased person. The Angels had to obey him, still. But that didn’t mean they welcomed me. I’m not a real Angel, I never will be.”

Erin raises her eyebrows. “Nina’s your stepmother?”

“And she’s the reason Satan and Salan want heaven?” I stare.

“I don’t know why she needs heaven. I wish I did.” Luana looks down. “But it can’t be a good reason.”

I stare at the covers. Nina is the reason my sister is in hell.

“Anything else we want to say to each other?” Luana looks directly at me. “You’re holding a secret.”

“My sister is in Hell with your stepmother and our uncles because they want to use her as a weapon. She’s a hybrid - a powerful one - with demonic spirits and magic.” I say.

Erin exhales. “I’m going to go find Grayson, Ludi - tell her about the goats next. I can tell you’re about to tell her all about out life.”

“Why would you want to hide things from her? She wants to help!” I say, following Erin out of the room.

“She’s an angel we’ve just met now!” Erin says. “Her stepmom’s a demon-”

“So is my Dad.” I say.

“Yes, but you’re not the demonic one! I wouldn’t tell her everything, Ludi. Be careful.”

Erin pushes past me into the kitchen. “Grayson?”

I look down. Erin could be right.

“Ludi?”

I spin around. “Yeah?”

“Thanks for talking to me,” Luana says, then she walks out. For a moment I consider going back into my room, but I have to tell Grayson everything that Luana had said. Maybe Erin would tell him, but I’d still be able to make a plan with him.

“Grayson?” I call his name.

“In here,” says his voice from the closet.

“Grayson, I have to tell you something-” I break off as he steps out holding macaroni boxes.

“I already know, Erin freaked out.” Grayson says.

“We need a plan of action now.” I say.

“To do what?” Grayson asks. “So what if Luana’s stepmother is the reason heaven’s in danger?”

“Well, first, if we destroy Nina we could destroy my uncles’ plans.” I roll my eyes. “Second, if we get down to hell to kill Nina, we can rescue Lora. Which we have to do.”

“How are we supposed to kill Nina?” Grayson asks, pouring the noodles into boiling water.

“That’s what we need a plan for,” I say angrily. “Finish that, and then meet me in the desk room.”

I walk out of the room before he can reply, silently fuming. How could Grayson forget about Lora? My sister, trapped in hell? He’s blind, oblivious to what Luana’s relation to Nina could mean. If Nina married Luana’s father, surely Nina feels a mother-daughter relationship with Luana. I’m sure Nina would want the best for her child. Despite the fact of her being a demon.

But why would Luana’s father marry a demon? He was an angel, a high-ranking one by the sound of Luana’s stories about him.

Why did your dad marry your mom? Asks a voice in my head.

Suddenly, a wave of guilt and sorrow consumes me. My parents must be worried sick about Lora and I. They don’t even know where she is right now, they don’t know the danger I’m in.

The danger I’ve dragged my friends into.

I walk across the room instantly and dial Mom’s number quickly. I have to tell her, at least. She can help, can’t she?

But I put the phone down after hanging up. What could Mom do? She’s an angel, and has no power over hell, where Lora is.

So I dial Dad’s number next, but I don’t click ’call.’ If Dad walks into hell, he won’t go two minutes without being found and most likely killed. Salan should know about his running away plan by now, and I’m guessing that it doesn’t make Salan too happy.

So no, I can’t call either of them. They’d want to act on it, and there’s nothing they could do without creating more of a mess. My hand itches toward the phone again, but I don’t pick it up. Instead, I wait for Grayson.

He doesn’t come in.

“Grayson!” I yell. Macaroni doesn’t take that long to make.

“Grayson’s not here.” Says Luana’s voice.