The Day We Hailed The Heavens

Chapter 5

Because of her mother’s stifling protectiveness over her, Alexis had always been somewhat uneasy around men, and awkward when she spoke to them. She had always known that because of her painful thinness and generally dull appearance, she was unlikely to get a boyfriend during her high school years… but then Starscream had fallen from the heavens like a dark angel and snatched her up, claiming her as his own at once. Certainly there had been problems – hundreds of them – but they had been overcome in the end.

Yet she sensed that this was not the end. Not for anyone.

The sound of an engine roared overhead and she flinched, scrambling onto her knees to look out of the window at the afternoon sky. Her sharp eyes spotted the jet, and she watched as it dropped into the forest at the back of her house. Waiting for her.

It was ridiculous and irrational to try it again. Climbing down to the ground and disappearing for so much time would drive her mother over the edge, and Robert and Rose would give her hell for it. She hated the way they acted as if they were already a part of their family and knew her mother better than she did… she no longer cared about giving them a run for their money. Robert had humiliated her, and so had her mother. They had hurt her, and she hated being hurt.

Starscream had hurt her, too. Initially, he had been obnoxious and abrupt, and had constantly insulted and mocked her – it was only when Sideways had landed that he had become oddly possessive over her. Then there had been the betrayal – that first, crippling example of the infamous treachery of the Decepticon Air Commander. Then there had been the second time – the discovery of what he had done to her father.

But she had learnt forgiveness. Because she had seen something in Starscream; a tortured being screaming for aid, and whose cries went unnoticed. He had tried to hide himself away behind veils of blood and barricades made of the ashes of his enemies, but she had let him touch her somehow. And he had… he had marked her forever. If a thousand years passed by and she somehow lived through them, she knew that she could never forget someone like Starscream.

She loved him.

She was in love with him.

And one day – perhaps very soon – she would express that love for him. She did not quite know how, although she had some ideas, but she knew that she would. A kiss could never be enough to convey her passion and love for him.

Nodding stiffly to herself, she dropped her cell phone from her pocket and let it hit the ground: she did not want to be disturbed. Then she stepped up onto the window seat and slid her slender leg out of the window, easing herself out onto the garage roof and moving swiftly and silently, praying that nobody was in the garage below her.

As she was lowering herself down to grasp the drainpipe, she blinked when she saw a slight movement from the window of Rose’s room.

Panic seized her – had she seen her trying to flout the grounding rule only ten minutes after it had been set?

Her fingers shook around the smooth surface, and her eyes widened when her booted foot slipped down the wall with a loud crunching noise. She fought to keep her grip on the piping, but her hands suddenly slipped – with a short gasp of shock, she fell from the roof and ten feet down, hitting the grassy ground in the back yard with a sickening whack.

She groaned, blinking back the white stars that burst in front of her eyes. Her head was already beginning to ache, and she knew that she had to get to Starscream before she passed out; the knock had been pretty hard, and she was amazed that she was still conscious.

Using the grass to pull herself upright – and subsequently ripping out several handfuls of the lush vegetation in the garden – she staggered to her feet and glanced behind her worriedly. When no-one emerged from the residence, she clutched the sore, tender wrist that she had fallen on so heavily and made a break for the trees.