NB: The Search (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 27: Tears of an Angel

“Surrender,” a voice shouts from outside the room.

Maggie and her classmates, cower at the fringes of the room. 

At the front of their room is a tall blonde woman, an ally of Damien, an angel sent to protect Maggie.  Like Officer Paige and the demon nurse, she came in the guise of a ‘guest lecturer’.  When Legion came into the school, she stood up strong and surrounded the room in a wall of light to keep the demons away.

“Stay calm,” the angel tells the class.  “We’re safe in here.”

There’s another gunshot and a scream.  Legion is working up its hostages so that when it kills them, their souls will scream that much louder as they’re lost to the chaos.

The gun sounds again. 

There’s no scream this time.

There’s death and blood and terror. 

People are dying in fear and in pain.  It’s tearing the angel apart. 

There are people dying and they are young and good.  They should have been able to achieve harmony, but now they’re gone. 

It isn’t fair, the angel thinks.  She can feel the tears running down her face.

All the students in the class are silent, but Maggie knows what she has to do.  She stands up and takes the angel’s hand.

“Thank you,” Maggie says.

The angel smiles.  “Everyone, get close to me,” she says. 

All around the school, people are hearing the gunshots.  They’re panicked.  Their souls are screaming out in fear.  And Legion is focusing everything in on the classroom.  It believes the Sword may be within. 

With every death, the angel feels a part of her soul scream too.  The wall is fading.  It’s closing in.

Josh, the boy who Maggie went on a date with, takes her hand.  The angel can feel it.  In the midst of all the darkness, there’s a flicker of light between the two of them.  She focuses on that light to maintain her own.  She smiles and tries to concentrate on her inner peace.

One student takes Josh’s hand.  Another student takes the angel’s.  Seeing the chain of hands, others start to join in.  Nobody wants to feel alone right now.  The whole class forms a circle.  They take comfort in each other and try to hide their own fear.

Outside the wall, Legion has three prisoners.  They’re lined up, kneeling in their dead friends’ blood.

On the end is a boy named Matt.  Maggie know him, they went to school together since junior kindergarten.  He used to hog the Lego during free play.  He’s crying now.  He can’t take it.  He knows that if he stays he’s going to die.  He decides to run.

Matt manages to make it to his feet and takes three steps before he is shot down by a bullet ripping through his leg.

A woman with a gun stands above him.

“That was brave,” she says.

Matt closes his eyes and prepares to die, but his sudden calm makes him useless.  He has to die in terror.

“You get to choose which of those two are going to die.  You have thirty seconds or they both go,” Legion says.

Matt looks over.  He doesn’t know either of the other people.  They’re a couple in the ninth grade.  Legion found them making out in the hall.

Matt doesn’t know what to do.  He just wants to scream, but that’s all Legion needs.  The woman pulls the trigger and kills Matt.  His soul screams out and the angel’s barrier shrinks a little more.

Legion can get inside the room now.

“Get close,” then angel tells the students as they hide within her sphere of light.

The barrier is weak enough that Legion can see through it.

“You’re just an angel,” Legion says when he enters the room.  It was hoping to find the Sword.  “Give us the girl and we will leave the final two prisoners.”

Maggie’s grip tightens around the angel’s hand, she knows she’s the girl in question.

“No,” the angel says.  She tries to focus her energies to force the Legion out of the bodies in the room.  Just as she is about to kill the avatars, one of them shoots the two prisoners, one after the other, and the angel is broken.

The barrier is gone and the demons are still alive.

The woman who killed Matt shoots Justine.  She has enough energy to keep herself alive, but she can’t feel the light.  She is in so much pain.

One of the avatars grabs Maggie and drags her away.

“Let go of me,” Maggie says.  “Damien won’t ever let you have the Sword.”

Legion ignores her, and the angel is too hurt to help.

As Legion drags Maggie out of the room, she screams out for help.

Josh can’t hold himself back anymore.  He has to try to help Maggie.  He is a big guy and he punches the man who’s taking her.

Josh is shot twice in rapid succession. 

“Stop!” Maggie yells.  “I’ll come with you.”

The three avatars of Legion leave with Maggie.

The angel makes her way to where Josh is lying. 

“Relax,” she says.

“I can’t.  We need to save Maggie,” he says.

“You need to lie still.  Everything is going to be alright.  Just relax for now,” Justine says, hoping to help one more soul find salvation.

“Stop that,” Josh says.  He’s fighting a losing battle to remain conscious.  “She’s in trouble.  We need to help her.”

“There’s nothing you can do.  You just need to stay calm.”

“No,” Josh says.  “I won’t give up on her.”  There’s nothing as hopeless as a teenage boy in love. 

Josh tries to get up, but he can’t move.  He’s so tired.  He needs to close his eyes for just a second, and then he’ll be able to stand up.  Then he’s going to save Maggie.

Josh closes his eyes and looses consciousness.  The angel won’t lose another innocent.  She can’t protect Maggie, or the Sword, but she can save the boy in front of her.  And, so, with the rest of her energy she manages to keep him alive for a little while longer.