Children of the Archangels

CHAPTER 30: GARDEN RUN

Most people crack under JUG. Luke managed to make the most of it, just as the Dean had suggested. Not only had his wound from the fight healed, but his mind felt reinvigorated.

Luke also kept to his promise. Over the next two months, he trained hard and fought hard. He learned to shoot a bow and arrow and actually land shots on the dummy—still not perfect enough to hit the bullseye but an improvement nonetheless. He managed to learn to wield a sword, although he oddly found a whip to be his preferred weapon. It was a very specific weapon that few have used seriously, but Luke managed to disarm enemies from a distance in training, and even slap arrows out of the air with it. Who knew a simple string could be his prime weapon.

Luke didn't worry about other folks liking him. Troubled students like Victor and George avoided Luke, while others started to come around to him. Winter was speeding by and spring was on the horizon, even though the weather stayed the same up in the Rockies—chilly and snowy.

He also managed to send out that letter he wrote to Nellie since not only did his phone have zero service and restricted internet access, but the school wouldn't allow him to make calls unless they were deemed important—and talking to one's girlfriend was not high on the priority list.

It took about a month for him to get a response by mail and in-between that time Luke felt like he had lost the love of his life. When a letter finally came into the main administration office for him, he was a lightning bolt that darted through the campus to retrieve the letter.

Nellie's writing for him was like the gospel. He read each line carefully, almost committing it to memory. She was doing well at CUA in D.C. She said that, since he left, there hadn't been any other instances of possession. Father Matthew was still kicking and preaching about demon awareness on campus. Many of the students just thought he was going senile, but a few have heeded his calling and are sufficiently paranoid enough to keep bugging him about whether they were harboring any demons.

His old suitemates Alex and Gio missed him very much. They hate their new suitemates they got to replace Luke and Kevin since they were stuck-up rich snobs who felt they shouldn't be forced to share a room. Sometimes they play jokes on the two like filling their pillows with used toilet paper. To this Nellie highlighted how gross it was, but still found it kind of hilarious since shit wasn't the worst thing that could come out of a human's body. Although she wouldn't specify what could be worse, and Luke really didn't want to know.

Nellie was ecstatic to come see Luke. She told Luke to let him know immediately when the Open House was so that she can purchase plane tickets to Denver. She attached a photo of her hazelnut skin splashed against a white robe holding a test tube with her red hair tied up in a ponytail. She wrote that she was surviving biology and hadn't become a dropout yet, so everything was good with her. She couldn't wait to see Luke again.

She signed, "Love Nellie." Of course, she wrote a postscript. "I also better not find you with another woman or your face will be possessing my fist."

Luke sighed with infatuation at her jealousy. God, he missed her. He tried getting an exact date for the Open House, but even the Dean said that the date is usually chosen during Spring, so he had to wait.

SGA also got a new student, delivered by an ambassador just like Luke was. This meant that Luke was not the most recent student anymore. However, the condition the student was in was more normal than the likes of Luke and Sirius because students came to SGA with a cog jammed in the mind that needed a tune-up.

The child's name was Nil, and he had blond hair that looked like golden sand. He had dreamy white eyes that looked like spilled milk. He had a smile that never shut off, with small gaps between all of his teeth. His head was usually tilted towards the heavens or looking just above one's eyes as if every human being had a halo around their heads. Wave a hand in front of his face and his eyes wouldn't track it. Push him and he wouldn't react. Talk to him and he wouldn't speak. The child was six years old, and if this trance he was in was allowed to last longer, then he could never be saved.