Deracinate (Coprolalia Part One)

Fifty One: Dreams of Memories

Chloe was dreaming memories again.

In the memory, she was sitting in her old bedroom in New York. More specifically, she was sitting in her dark red -red was her favorite color- spin-chair while Evy paced. She always did that when she was thinking.

"Chloe?" Evy asked her. "What do you hope for in life?"

She shrugged. "I don't know."

Evyline rolled her eyes. "That is so you. You don't wish to be happy, or to have love, or to be successful, or anything like that?"

"Well, I guess there's one thing."

Ev looked at her expectantly.

Chloe took a deep breath. "I guess I want to die, you know, taking a knife or a bullet or something for someone else."

Then the dream shifted.

In this scene, she wasn't herself, she was watching it happen.

She saw her eighteen year old self climb out of Evyline's Prius and wave goodbye, then start towards her old house.

She knew when this night was.

This was the night she found out the truth.

She didn't want to watch this again.

But she followed herself into the house. She watched as past her froze, seeing her mom standing in the middle of the kitchen, talking to a man she'd never met before in then.

Past Chloe's backpack fell to the ground. "Mom? Who is that?"

Her mom -Melanie- turned around, a fake smile plastered on her face. "Chloe honey, you're home! Early!"

"Mom. Who is that man and why is he in the house?"

The man stood up and walked over to stand beside her mother.

Chloe actually took a good look at him this time. Before she'd been to preoccupied to look at him too hard, not even at his body.

"My name is Daniel, and I'm your father, Chloe." He said, his voice calm.

Daniel must not have changed his vessel since he'd fathered her. Melanie had blond hair, but Danielle's vessel had the same brown hair Chloe had. Thankfully she'd inherited her mother's curls and soft features. She'd gotten Daniel's tallness, since it obviously wasn't from her tiny mother. They both had brown eyes, another thing she'd gotten, she wished she still had those eyes.

Past Chloe looked livid. "Why are you lying to me?" Past Chloe growled. "You can't be my father, my father died in a car accident before I was born." She turned to her mother, expecting her to yell 'PSYCH' or say it was a prank, that this man was an actor she'd hired. But it didn't come.

"I believe she told you that story because it would make more sense to a child than the truth." Daniel smiled painfully. "I wish that could be the only story you ever knew, then you'd be safe, but I'm running it of time, and you must know the truth."

That only seemed to anger past Chloe even more. "What truth? Mom, tell me what's happening right now or I'm leaving and I'm never coming back."

Melanie Brooke sighed and took a few steps towards Chloe until she stood in front of her. "Sweetie, there's a lot I didn't tell you about my life before I got pregnant with you."

"Like what?"

Melanie sighed again and tugged the neckline of her shirt down to reveal a tattoo on her chest. A pentagram surrounded by a ring of fire.

Past Chloe practically gasped. Watching this scene, knowing what she knew now, was a million times worse than living through it. Because now she understood that her mother had an antipossession tattoo.

"I wasn't a flight attendant, Chloe. That was a cover I invented for when you asked me. I forged all the records, I never even went to college, and I dropped out of high school." Her mother explained. "My real job didn't even pay me. It went back to your grandpa, my father. My mom was murdered by something not human when I was small, so my father decided to dedicate his life to fighting and killing things like that. He raised me into it, and I hated it. So when I found out I was pregnant, I got out, I didn't want to raise a child in that world. Chloe Brooke, I hunted things. Demons, vampires, werewolves, you name it. They all exist."

"What the hell does that have to do with him?" Past Chloe yelled, pointing at Daniel.

"Because I am, as Melanie just said, a 'thing'." Her father explained.

Past Chloe looked like she couldn't breath. "What are you?"

"I'm an angel of The Lord."

Past Chloe started laughing. "Oh, I get it. This is a prank. Nice try, but I call bullshit."

Daniel looked frustrated. Suddenly, the shadow of a pair of wings appeared on the floor behind him, poking out of his back.

Past Chloe stumbled backwards. "You're saying that I'm part THING?"

The shadow wings disappeared, and both of Chloe's parents nodded.

"The technical term is Nephilim, but yes. Your mother here is completely human, but I am not in the least. You're half angel, yes, but also half human." Daniel said.

"Why are you telling me this now? Why not eighteen years ago? Why keep this from me? Why now?"

Daniel tried to answer her questions. "I didn't tell you as a child because I couldn't have a little girl going around boasting she's a superhero. Your mother and I kept this from you because in heaven, angels having children with humans, nephilim existing at all, it's not allowed. I had to keep it secret to keep you safe. I'm telling you this now because my superiors found out. We have a few more minutes before they find us and terminate the threats."

Melanie had a pained expression on her face. "Sweetie, you have to run, get away and never stop, because you're never going to be safe."

Past Chloe shook her head. "I'm not leaving. If I'm classified as a threat, there must be something I can do that can help. Daniel, what can I do?"

"Better hearing than regular humans, good fighting reflexes, better sight, faster, stronger, and immunity to possession."

Suddenly, six other people in pantsuits appeared, all looking far too calm.

Past Chloe turned, and she ran, just like her mother told her two.

Chloe awoke to a blood curling scream.