Jariel was becoming exhausted. No, he was more than exhausted, if that was even possible. They had searched at least a dozen abandoned buildings and there were still no signs of Dawn. He was cold, he was hungry, he was downright tired but he knew that he couldn’t give up. If he gave up, that could mean the end of Dawn’s life. He didn’t want to let Dawn down. He refused to let her down. For once in his life he was going to do something unselfishly.
“What if we can’t find her?” Annette said, her teeth chattering from the cold. Her hands were stuffed in her coat pockets and her blue scarf was wrapped around her neck, as well as most of her face, but she still looked like an icicle.
“Don’t say things like that.” Jariel said, sternly. “We will find her.”
“It’s almost dark out Jariel, there aren’t any working lights in these buildings.” She stated, matter-of-factly. “How do you expect to find her like that, huh?”
Jariel looked at her, trying his best to control his anger. “I am not going to stop until I find her. Yes, it’s getting dark out. But you know what that means?” Annette shook her head. “That we need to start looking harder. She may not last the night.”
Annette just let out a sigh and they continued to look. Jariel knew that if they didn’t find her tonight, she would be a goner. Between the cold and what Elise was most likely doing to her, he didn’t even want to think about what her chances were. He just hoped, with every fiber of his being, that they would find Dawn alive.
They entered an old, worn out, building that had seen better days. Like most of the other buildings they had searched through, the doors were missing and the windows were shattered. They slowly made their way around, stopping when they heard voices coming from a room down the hallway. Jariel put a finger up to his mouth, signaling for Annette to be quiet as they crept closer towards the voices.
“You piece of trash!” the first voice, which Jariel immediately recognized it to belong to Elise, yelled. They heard what sounded like a slap and then a yelp of pain. Annette looked as if she was about to charge right on in, but Jariel held her back.
“I need you to get out of here.” Jariel ordered, making sure to keep his voice low. Annette looked as though she was about to protest, but Jariel interrupted her. “No ifs ands or buts. This could become dangerous and I don’t want to have to worry about you on top of Dawn. I need to focus on getting Dawn out of there and the only way I can do that is if I don’t have to worry about you.” Annette reluctantly obeyed and ran out, as fast as she could. Jariel waited for the right moment to enter. From the corner of his eyes he could see Dawn, who was lying on the ground, tied to a pole. She was bloody and scratched up. Elise was circling around her. Anger boiled up inside of Jariel, and he clenched his fists. Why did she have to go and get Dawn involved? She had nothing to do with this!
“Game’s over Elise.” Jariel said, stepping in to the room, brushing aside any fear or doubts that were trying to sneak in to his thoughts. Elise whirled around, almost surprised to see him. A wicked smile formed on her face.
“Oh, you think so, do you now?” she laughed. “Well, I am the game master and you just made a mistake. Did you really think that you would come here and save the day? Be the hero? Please!” she rolled her eyes. “You’re no hero.” Before Jariel knew what was happening Elise was by his side with a fist heading towards his face. Everything went black.
* * * *
Elise smiled when her plan went well. Who was she kidding though; she already knew that it was going to work. Jariel had trusted his feelings and went after the mortal, just as she had predicted he would. Humans were predictable like that, and Jariel basically was one, after all. He lived among them, he worked for them, and he even fell in love with one. Now, whether he knew he was in love yet or not, Elise wasn’t quire sure and, quite frankly, she didn’t really care. It really wasn’t any of her concern, truthfully. All she cared about was removing the threat to her current reign.
She took Jariel’s unconscious body and tied him up on the other side of the pole that the human was tied to. She was going to finish him off, but first she wanted to explain why. She wanted to let him know why she was doing this. He wouldn’t be around long enough to tell, and she even thought that doing so was doing a favor for him. She would be kind, but just this one time. She didn’t want the other’s to think she had been growing soft now, did she? All she had to do now was wait for Jariel to wake up. Then she would finish what she had started.
* * * *
The sound of Jariel’s voice had brought a sense of relief to Dawn. However, it also brought fear along side it. She knew that Jariel was walking straight in to a trap but, due to the gag currently around her head, she couldn’t warn him. All she could do was watch as Elise surprised him and overpowered him, sending him, unconscious, to the ground. She was afraid of what was going to happen now. Would they get out of here alive? The chance of that was growing thinner and thinner by the passing minute, she thought.
She could feel Jariel start to stir behind her, and she watched as Elise walked over to him, the same wicked smile glued to her face. She could see what was going on by a broken mirror that was leaning against the wall in front of her, but she honestly didn’t know if she wanted to watch.
“Now, what were we saying?” she asked, getting right up in his face. From what she could see, Jariel was also gagged. “That this ‘game’ was over?” she let out a laugh. “Oh Jariel, this game has only begun!” She threw her hands up in the air, as if she were some circus ring master. She shook her head disapprovingly, “Jariel, Jariel, Jariel. Don’t we know any better? You say that you hate humans, and yet you’ve fallen in love with one.” Dawn’s eyes opened wide in shock, but she didn’t know if what Elise was saying was true or not. “It looks to me like you’ve failed at two things already, and it’s only been a matter of weeks. That’s just pathetic!” Dawn could feel Jariel start to struggle, trying to break free, but it was a futile attempt. “Oh, you’re not going anywhere Jariel. You’re going to sit here and listen. You’re going to hear why this is happening, though you most likely already know why, knowing you. But, I think I’ll let you wait a little bit longer. You know how I like building up the suspense.” With that she walked away, leaving them alone in the freezing cold room.
Dawn wanted nothing more than to get out of there right that moment. Jariel was there and it was supposed to be okay, right? However, under their current circumstance, Dawn highly doubted that. They were both stuck here and, most likely, nobody knew they were there, and so no one was on their way to come and rescue them. After all, Jariel couldn’t just go around telling everyone that he was a fallen angel and there was another angel here who took a human hostage, and they needed to go and save her. How crazy did that sound?
Dawn knew that Jariel wanted to ask Dawn is she was okay. She wished she could answer him. She already knew that she looked like hell; she could see herself in the mirror. Her head still ached from where Elise had kicked it, and she could already tell that her head was still bleeding. She was shivering like there was no tomorrow from the cold, and she could no longer feel her feet, which she knew was a bad thing.
The time passed by without a single word from Elise, she didn’t even show herself. Most likely building up the suspense, like she had said that she just loved to do. Dawn rolled her eyes. Elise sounded as though she was jealous of Jariel. After all, she had to sink so low as to trick him out of heaven instead of earning her rightful place.
Jariel was leaning against the concrete pole, his head down, looking at the floor. Dawn could only imagine the thoughts that must have been running through his head right about now. She wanted to comfort him, to let him know that it wasn’t his fault that she was here, or that he had walked in to a trap. After all, he had not known at the moment that it was a trap. If it was anyone’s fault, it was Dawns. Or so, she felt that it was her fault. She should have been more cautious, she should have somehow warned him, made some kind of noise, anything. But no, she didn’t even do that. Her eyes began to well up with tears. All she wanted right now was to be home in her bed, surrounded by her paintings. Her thoughts. She didn’t want to be here, nearly frozen to death, but she really didn’t have a choice in the matter, did she? She just hoped that, by some miracle, they would get out of this alive.
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Change of Heart (NaNoWriMo 2011)
Random**In The Editing Process!!** Jariel, a once favored angel in Heaven, has been thrown out. Not by his own accord, however. He was tricked, made a fool of, by an angel named Elise, bent on being the center of attention no matter what. Jariel is now s...
