A Demon With Wings

Eleven

"Where's the boy?" asks Trixie first thing at dusk.

Where's the boy. The first statement that comes out of her cold, cracked lips. Not good morning. Not I'm so sleepy. What about you.

"Killed him. Threw the body into the river. The stink would give us away," I lie as swiftly as I can. "We have to leave if we need to meet the others at our old camp at sunset."

So we head back the way we went, and show up just as the sun starts to light up the sky.

Are we still being watched? I haven't heard any cheering since day one.

A few moments later, Kev shows up, carrying a snoring Goodie. I tell them about Evangeline, and I suggest, "Let's head for the hills."

"What?!" asks Kevin.

"You crazy?" yelps Trixie. "It's going to be exhausting, Goodie in particular!"

"We've covered the fields and the forest. The Golden Team isn't there. So they're either in the hills or in the basins. I suggest hills, because from high up on the hills, we can see everything."

Nobody disagrees, so after Goodie wakes up and a Sugar Plum or two, we head off.

For once, Trixie has a point. It's exhausting to climb the hills. But at least we picked up something for everybody.

We stumble across a well-hidden longsword among bushes, and Kevin says that he can work on that.

We have two sets of knives, one for Trixie and one for Angel...if she's still alive.

For Goodie, he's using a mini javelin, which is cute, since he can barely swing it.

And as for me, well...I don't really have one. We found a mace, but no ones good with that. We end up breaking it so that neither team can use it.

We find the Golden Team's camp. We decide to attack four-ways. Trixie would start the fight. Kev takes left, and Goodie takes right. I circle back and attack from behind.

And of course Trixie starts off our plan by getting the Goldens' attention in the most creative/uncreative way possible: singing.

Yes, I'm serious. Trixie sang a song up in front of the Golden Team members.

Out loud.

In her terrible voice.

As soon as the Goldens start attacking her, we do too. And it's chaos.

Knives fly everywhere. Trixie is a fucking killer- literally. Already three people have knives in their chests.

At this point, I spot Evangeline out of the corner of my eye. She's fighting the boy in the hijab...and winning. Kev tosses her her pack of knives and she joins the fight.

We fight, but Trixie does all of the actual killing. Knife after knife, the way she kills is heartless and cruel. She's smirking, maybe even laughing as she slashes, stabs, throws and hacks.

I'm disgusted, as any logical or normal angel/human would do.

And when it looks like we've finally won, the worst comes.

A river explodes and starts flooding the whole place.

I have one hand on my khopesh, and the other on the crossbow as I'm torn from the rest of my friends and pushed along the current, drawing me away.

I had swimming lessons. I'm not good, but I'm not bad either. I can keep my head above water, and I can swim at a moderate speed.

I think I'm doing okay until I see Goodie.

Goodie is flailing about, ducking above and under water. He's yelping and screaming. It's evident he can't swim.

I swim over to him panickedly, and shout his name.

"Goodie?!"

"Miss Orsin!" he yells back. "Heeeelp!"

My brain frantically searches for the most logical answer.

Let go of the crossbow, and grab his hand, orders my brain.

Ignore him. You hate him, admits my heart.

Call for help. You can't support him, deduces my intuition.

I decide to trust my brain, but since it's so fucking useless, I end up letting go of the khopesh instead.

"Shit!" I yell out loud as I reach out my hand to grab his.

It would be comforting if Evangeline would shout, "Orson! No swearing!" right about now. To remind me I'm not alone in this. I mean, Goodie's so stupid, he practically doesn't count.

He lunges for my hand and successfully grabs it. I try to swim in the direction we came in, but all of a sudden, a new wave of water pushes us further down, pulling us along the current.

"Miss Orsie! You saved me!" Goodie shouts.

"Yeah. Looks like I'm a big good angel now," I say, but I'm not in the mood to realize the joke. "Look, Goodie, still got your javelin?"

Reluctantly, Goodie shakes his head.

"Got any weapon at all?" I ask, my once radiant hopes now dimmed.

Goodie rummages in the pocket of his shirt and pulls out a small knife the size of a toothpick.

"That's it?"

Goodie just shrugs.

The most unsettling fact is, though it may be unintentional, his silence reminds me of cold Trixie.

If we win this thing, I suggest that we change Trixie's codename to Queen Elsa of Arendelle, since she's about as warmhearted as a block of ice.

That heart of ice appeals to me, though. Maybe I'll mine through it someday.

God, when will I ever stop quoting Frozen? That movie is pure shit!

Anyway, I look back, and I'm lucky I did so. A huge chainsaw is in the process of being dragged along the current towards us.

"Hold your breath!" I shout to Goodie as I plunge into the shitty waters, towing him along.

It hurts to keep my eyes open underwater, so instead, I opt to shut them, and rise back up only when Goodie's frantic breathing starts showing via bubbles spurting out of his mouth.

We reach the surface, and both of us start taking long, deep breaths. Who would know that what seemed precious as gold to us, like oxygen, when we were underwater, would be found everywhere above the water, and not worth a price, or a fuck.

"Orson Goldbloom, right?"

"Yes?" I call out groggily, treading water as  I rub the icky stuff out of my eyes.

"We have a little score to settle."