Angels And Daemons

Chapter 15- Fight or Flight

I push my wings as hard as I can, straining them to get me home faster. Wisps of clouds rip past me as I tear through them. "Come on, come on!" I mutter to myself. My muscles in my shoulders burn and the cold air bites and stings my face. I don't usually fly this fast but I can't shake the feeling that something is wrong.

Finally, I reach my house. Mum's car is parked in the driveway, lights are on in the house, everything looks fine. I try to tell myself that it's ok, nothing is wrong, but even I'm not that good of a liar. "Mum?" I ask tentatively and creak open the door. The house is silent, another bad indicator. My muscles are all tensed, every nerve in my body screaming for me to get out. To run. Fly, fly away!

I can't leave Mum though. I'm about to call out again when I hear her voice from the kitchen. "Fi? Is that you?" "Mum!" I exclaim and run around the corner. Mum stands in the kitchen, smiling at me. I stop dead in my tracks. She isn't alone.

Standing behind Mum is a man in a leather jacket. Black flyaway hair dotted with bits of grey match soulless brown eyes, so dark they could be black. His otherwise handsome face is twisted into a harsh sneer and his hand holds a knife poised at my Mothers throat.

"Fiona, how nice to finally meet you!" The man mocks. I burst out my wings. "Let her go!" The man tuts. "Uh uh uh sweetheart. Sorry but that's a no can do. You see, my boss, he needs your mother here. A bit of a, uh, family reunion should we say?" He chuckles. "Mum, what does he mean?" "You haven't even told her? Tsk tsk" Mum ignores the man and stares straight at me. "Do you have any homework?" She asks. The mans expression is priceless and in any other situation, I would have laughed. But I knew what Mum meant.

A while back, she had told me about the importance of code words. How one word like 'funky town' could mean 'there is a gun pointed at my head'. People use them all the time to signal to others so we had decided to come up with our own, one of them being 'Do you have any homework?'. It was code for 'Are you ready to fight?'. I nodded to Mum. "Yep, loads" I'm ready.

Mum flung her head back, hitting the man in the nose with a loud crunch. "You bitch!" He shouts and cradles his now bleeding nose. Before he can go for the knife again, I shoot vines at his wrists and ankles, binding them together. Mum uses rocks to cover over them and securing his 'handcuffs'. I storm over to him and pick up the knife, prepared to slit his throat right there and then. "No Fiona, not now" Mum places a hand on my shoulder. I shoot a glare at the man and drop my hand, allowing the knife to clatter onto the ground.

The man, who I now decided to call Sleezy, laughs at us. "You stupid whores" He spits out and begins to chant. The room begins to shake and the glass vase holding the flowers wobbles off the bench, shattering against the floor. "What is he saying?!" I shout. "It's an old Daemonic curse, I haven't heard it in years!" Mum replies. The room begins to get hotter and hotter. "Fiona, run!" Mum shouts and pushes me toward the front door. Bits of plaster and ceiling begin to shake and fall, smashing beside us. "What's he doing!" I scream. "He's opening Hell Fi" Mum replies and gives me one massive shove causing me to fling through the front door onto the lawn.

"MUM!" I scream and scramble back towards the house but before I even get to the porch, a large blast knocks me onto my back again and makes me black out.

When I come to, the first thing I realise is the silence. I can't hear a thing. I reach up to my ears and pull my fingers back to find them bloody. Then the memories of what just happened flood back to me. "Mum!" I scream and attempt to get up. My knees go weak, almost causing me to fall back on the ground. I stumble over to what was left of my house.

Charred stumps are all that are left of the foundations. The kitchen bench, the stairs, my bed, everything is ash. My face feels wet and I don't realise I'm crying until a tear falls on the ground in front of me. "Mum?" I whisper, praying against all hope that she is still alive, that I will hear her voice. Nothing. I head towards what I assume to be the kitchen, stepping over the occasional glowing ember. I scan the ground, my brain finally comprehending what my eyes are doing. I'm looking for her body. When I don't find anything resembling a human, much less her, I don't know whether to be happy or not.

I collapse onto the coals, soot covering my hands and clothing. Tears begin to flow more freely until I'm sobbing. I cry and moan until I become physically unable to produce any more tears. Then I sit in silence. My mother is dead. And I know who is responsible. Pushing off from the ground, I propel myself into the air and hover a few metres over the site. What I didn't notice from the ground became all too clear in the air.

The ash, coals and embers were all positioned in a spiral pattern, the centre being in the kitchen. The spot where Sleezy had been chanting to be exact. No wonder there had been no bodies. The daemon had opened a portal to his hometown six feet under. And he had taken my Mother with him.