AN/: HI lovelies! Thank you so much for all the love, we're almost at 900 reads which is so exciting! I always feel like the 1K mark is such a milestone so I can't wait!
Hope you all had a fab halloween, let me know your costumes in the comments, I always love hearing about them! The bf and I went to a party very last minute, but we managed to get costumes of Steve and Robin from Stranger Things when they worked in Scoops Ahoy, super fun night and v comfy costumes!!
Hope you enjoy x
Something was humming in the back of Bonnie's head.
It lingered there, as though testing the strength of her mind, waiting to see if it would be let in or pushed away.
It was a strange sound. One unlike any she had heard before. It seeped into the cracks, awakening a picture that painted itself slowly. Meticulously.
She could feel the cold wind on her cheeks, the slightly damp air that sprinkled droplets onto her skin. It didn't feel clammy; it felt fresh. Awakening.
Her body was numb, or perhaps she did not have a body. She couldn't tell. But she longed to reach her fingers out and trail them along the surface. Of what, she didn't know.
A whisper like a piece of string, slipped past, dangling just out of reach.
There was no direction here. No way to know where it had gone or follow it—she could only wait to see if it would come again.
A tinkling sound like a bell, or a chime knocking in the wind echoed somewhere in the distance.
Everything was so bright. White wherever she looked, as though she was sitting in a cloud, but it did not feel soft.
It had no feeling, no way to identify where she was or what was happening.
The whisper flew by again, this time stronger. She followed the tail, trying to hold on to the thread before it disappeared.
A deep rumble beneath her feet.
A far of call of someone's voice that she didn't recognise.
Bonnie.
The thread twirled, pulling her with it as it dived, weaving intricate patterns that she could not see but felt.
A rush of wind. The fluttering of wings. They brushed against her as she pushed forward, clawing for knowledge.
The thread snapped, and whispers flooded the air.
Bonnie.
"Hello?" she called out, watching as a tiny speck of light drifted ahead of her. It floated away as she tried to look for who was saying her name.
The whispers grew, the wind carrying them in circles that made her feel dizzy.
The dripping noise fell into her ear and slipped out through the other.
The fluttering of wings again, brushing at her back and along her arm.
Bonnie.
Her name spoken so softly, but so close. Words mangled around it but only her name as clear.
"Hello? Is someone there?"
Laughter pulled her to one side, the fading tones of it running into the distance.
She tried to move towards it, but it echoed the other way, and she still could not know which direction she was looking, let alone where to go.
That string flew past again, and Bonnie touched it with the very tip of her finger. Or what felt like her finger, she couldn't be sure.
"This has to be a dream," Bonnie mumbled.
A familiar voice. Her own.
...Please...guardian angel...yours...
The wind picked up, and the chiming grew louder, blocking out the sound of the voice that trailed through the air.
Her head pounded. The sounds now coming in droves instead of droplets, flooding her senses.
The air was getting thicker; the vibrations growing louder.
There wasn't an inch of her that didn't feel as though it was compressing down, being pulled inwards by something.
Bonnie...help...demons
"Hello?" she tried to call again, but her voice cracked into a thousand pieces.
Everything was closing in. Her lungs were collapsing under the strain.
"Please," she choked, reaching for the light that floated metres away. "Please."
Bonnie...Bonnie...Bonnie...
"Bonnie are you going to eat that?"
Bonnie ripped herself from the memory, pushing down the thoughts of floating orbs and whispers that she couldn't understand. Gremory watched her, pointing at the lonely piece of toast 0n her plate that she'd forgotten about.
"Oh, yeah go for it," she answered, pushing it towards him and ignoring his raised brow. Her appetite was still nowhere to be found.
She felt like she had been dreaming all night. Her eyes were still dropping, and she was grateful that Gremory had been quiet this morning, nursing his own pain. He'd arrived at her door a few moments after she'd sprung up in bed, making her push aside the questions she had woken with. His bashful expression and the coffee he held out to her in apology went well with his stumbling regrets, and she had let him off easy when she saw how awful he looked. The usual glow around him was missing, and it appeared that daemons got hangovers just like humans.
It was a fun form of repenting, and Bonnie was a little pleased about it if truth be told. It was nice to see them even more human than before. But that feeling of hurt still lingered. It was hard to forget.
"Where's Kimaris?" she asked, watching as he shovelled down the toast with his cup of tea. He shrugged his shoulders at her question.
They'd been sat at the cafe for over an hour, watching the water and the people enjoying the milder weather, but he still hadn't appeared. She'd refrained from asking straight away. Gremory already had a little too much fun with teasing her about their interactions, she didn't want to give him anymore ammunition. And she was still a little sore from their strange moment last night.
Not that she'd call it rejection or anything.
Of course not.
But his words still stuck with her. It made her think of Eyael, the things he had told them and the advice that he had given her. She didn't think about it much yesterday, but after her dream, she was curious about the other angels and demons that clearly still had power.
"Hey Gremory?" He paused his assault on her food to look at her. "Who's Manakel?"
His expression tensed at her question, and he tilted his head to the side, chewing.
"An angel." Bonnie raised a brow at his response and he forcibly swallowed the contents of his mouth. "Okay, he's Kimaris' counterpart. But they don't exactly get along."
"That seems to be a common trait for him."
"Yeah, he's a bit like marmite. His bluntness can be a real charmer." Gremory glanced around, waiting until someone had passed them before continuing. "In fairness, he has a point with Manakel. The guy is a bit of a pretentious prick. I get along with most of the daemons but y'know... there's a reason he and Kimaris are two halves of the same piece."
A noise of understanding left Bonnie as she imagined what kind of attitude an angel version of Kimaris would have. She hadn't had a great introduction to them, Eyael was probably the nicest so far, and even he wasn't particularly eager to help humanity.
She let a few seconds tick by, thinking of the whispers in her dreams. Perhaps there was one with the skill to know what they said.
"Do they have the same affinity?" Gremory's wince deepened and Bonnie's heart sank. "Oh god, he's not got something more powerful, does he?"
"You know how Kimaris unlocks your... literacy potential? Well, Manakel is honoured as unlocking your inner potential. Like your hopes, ideas, dreams." Gremory snorted. "He's also meant to help with skincare problems which I just think is so funny because—"
"Did you say dreams?" Bonnie wanted to know all about the hilarious things daemons were meant to do, but this was much more important. Her spine chilled.
"Yeah," sighed Gremory, picking the crumbs of his breakfast that remained. "He's always humans favourite for that reason, the whole astral projection sort of vibe he gives off really works for the mystic appearance. He plays into it too—giving riddles and prophecies. Where do you think the humans get the idea from when they're scamming people? At least he can actually go into people's dreams and work out what they mean for them, so he's not a total phony."
"When you say he can 'go into dreams'—what exactly does that entail?"
Her thoughts were racing at a hundred miles an hour. Was it a coincidence that Eyael had brought him up and she'd had the dream within the same day? Did Eyael know what she was going to see? Is that why he told her to summon him?
Gremory gave her a slightly curious look but returned to his tea, slumping further into his chair.
"It depends on the person. Some people try to summon him in their dreams, but really that's silly because they're already so difficult to control. That only really gets done when they need him to stop nightmares. The efficient way is to kind of meditate and call on him just like any other summoning. And then he can see your dreams and thoughts, and can explain what they mean or clear them up for you. Like tuning a piano, so it plays the right song."
The whispers echoed in her mind. The ones that she couldn't make out and the voices she didn't know. Would he know? Would he be able to show her what they were saying, or tell her what they were?
It was probably nothing, after all life influences dreams and it wasn't as if she hadn't had a strange experience in the couple of days. Maybe her mind was just overworked.
"Why do you think Eyael said to summon him specifically?" she asked, remembering his wink.
"Well, apart from just wanting to piss off Kimaris? He's the one to go to for prophecies and legends. So, if Eyael was trying to get you to believe in one then he'd have the information on it. I wouldn't think too much into it though, there have been plenty of 'prophecies' that were just bad jokes or done to cause some entertainment for daemons. I don't really believe in any of them anymore. Remember Y2K? Hysteria."
Bonnie nodded along, a little panicked that daemons found that sort of thing amusing, but thinking of the talents Manakel might have. If she could summon Eyael, then maybe she had enough power to summon him too.
"We won't be following Eyael's advice though."
Bonnie's gaze shot to Gremory as he pulled his sunglasses onto his face, putting his feet up on the chair across from him.
"Why not?"
Gremory chuckled as he shook his head, stretching out his figure.
"If you think Kimaris will support that decision, then you've clearly not been listening. He hasn't spoken to him in a very long time. And as much as I think he might have a soft spot for you, there is nothing that could convince him to do it. Trust me. How would you feel if your counterpart could do those things when you can't? No wonder he feels inept next to him... Don't say that to him though."
Oh. That made sense. He didn't exactly seem like the type to not let that affect his pride, and she couldn't quite imagine that it's been easy being compared to someone for centuries. She knew a thing or two about self doubt and how crippling it could be.
Maybe she should push the thought from her head and go down another avenue for answers. She'd hate to overstep with Kimaris and ruin any progress they'd made.
"Do you think he's okay?" she asked after a couple of minutes, worry tilting her thoughts. "He's taking a while."
She knew he was capable, but she was still on edge. How could she not be after seeing Bifrons and his legions? Not to mention the whispers in her dream last night. She'd only just dipped her toe into the world of the supernatural, and although she felt better about knowing, it also brought a lot more fears to her life. And she couldn't forget the sad expression from his face last night. There were things deep inside of him he didn't share, that much was obvious. She wondered how he coped for so long holding onto them.
"Ask him yourself."
She followed Gremory's gaze down the street that led to the cabin, immediately spotting the dark hair of Kimaris walking towards them. The nerves that had been twisting her insides subsided, and she straightened up as he got closer. She'd planned what she was going to say earlier, but now that he was standing in front of her, she couldn't think of what it was.
"Sorry I took so long," he grunted, putting his bag down onto the chair that he stood behind. "I was trying to get this coat dried before I came, it took longer than expected."
Bonnie noticed the patches of different shades across the material of his jacket. Like an abstract piece of art, there was no correlation to the design, and it was only as he bent down that she noticed the very dark spots in the seams.
"How did you dry it?" she asked, amusement flitting through her words.
Kimaris hesitated, barely glancing at her as he took his seat.
"The air thing that you humans use for your hair. A hair blower, I think?"
"Dryer," she corrected, pulling her lips into her mouth as she spotted another damp patch on his sleeve. "I've never tried to use one to dry a coat before, but I can imagine it would take quite some time."
"Clearly, although I doubt you could call that dry." Kimaris' glare shot over to Gremory as he chuckled, making them halt. "Pass it here and I'll go put it under an actual dryer. And get you a coffee, grumpy."
Grumbling under his breath, Kimaris shrugged out of his jacket and held it out to him. Gremory shot Bonnie a disguised look of amusement as he took it, before disappearing through the pale door of the cafe.
Her heart gave a thud as she tried to settle into the feeling of them being alone again. She prayed the wind might whip up a conversation from the depths of her mind.
"If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have even had to wash it," Kimaris muttered. "He should be the one wearing it damp. He apologised to you, didn't he?"
She nodded, and her heart warmed at him checking. Sometimes he acted like Gremory's father.
"Do daemons even feel the damp?" she asked, resting her arms on the table. "I mean you don't feel cold or heat unless it's extreme, right?"
"Would you enjoy wearing damp clothes?" When she shook her head, his mouth pulled into a straight line. "Exactly. No one enjoys that. Except maybe psychopaths, or people who don't mind chaffing."
The picture of daemons complaining about their thigh rub came to mind, making her giggle. Kimaris looked over at the noise and his previous frown twitched into a covered grin. He wasn't used to hearing such twinkling laughter.
"Did you sleep alright?" He asked when they'd fallen back into silence, his soft tone surprising her. It seemed to have surprised him too as he quickly averted his eyes back to the scenery. "I just mean you look tired, so I hope Gremory didn't wake you at the crack of dawn. I barely slept with his snoring, plus he's not great to share a bed with. The floor wasn't exactly a pleasant experience."
"He didn't, I just had some restless sleep." She smiled, playing with the edge of a napkin. She could only picture the drunken position he had sprawled out in and the impossible nature of getting him to move over. "I'm sorry you didn't sleep, though. Maybe we should have shared a room instead, that way you might have got some."
It was only as his shoulders tensed that she realised what she had said. She'd meant it as a joke, but instantly thought of her beating heart when he touched her and the way her skin got clammy around him. She wanted to punch herself for even making the statement.
"What made you restless?" Kimaris asked, clearing his throat, the vein up his neck tight.
Although grateful that he had pushed past her statement, his question made her pause. She wanted to ask about Manakel and tell him everything she'd seen, but something told her not to. Like the voice that had whispered to her last night. It told her that if she asked, she'd never know.
"Just strange dreams, unsurprising with what's been going on," she answered vaguely, avoiding his eyes. "Although, I have a question that's been bugging me."
"Shoot."
"Okay." She shuffled to face him, choosing her words carefully. "If angels are real, does that mean that guardian angels are real? I only ask because I kind of prayed for one when that demon attacked me, so I just wanted to know in case a winged person is about to appear at my door."
So, maybe she was lying a little. But the thought had been in her head, even before the dream. It was just that now she had some proper time to think about it, and she knew nothing else that could have white wings and appear in dreams.
"There are," Kimaris said slowly, assessing his answer. "They're the protectors of the star signs, so anyone who falls under the star sign is in theory protected by that daemon. But it's rare that they show themselves or continuously help one person; there're billions of people on earth, it would be impossible to do. Plus, most of them just can't be bothered, they don't have to help if they don't want to. There's plenty else for them to be doing."
Of course, like everything else she was discovering, humans had given them far more credit than they were due. She wondered how many people died or disasters occurred because an angel 'couldn't be bothered' helping. She was sure that if she thought about it long enough, she'd cry herself to sleep at night.
His answer also meant that her dream was odd. Maybe she was making it up in her head and it had been nothing more than her brain's response to coping with the magnitude of information that she was learning. But, if it wasn't... did that mean that she had a guardian angel taking an interest in her? Would that make her special?
Eyael's words came back to her.
What if she was a Scarlet Woman—whatever that actually was? Would that be why?
She looked at Kimaris who was tapping his finger on the metal tabletop, smiling at a Labrador that was being walked by. Gremory had said there was a zero chance that he would want to summon Manakel, but Kimaris had been surprising both of them. It was worth a shot, wasn't it?
"Kimaris, what if—"
"Ta-da!" Both of them looked to the celebratory voice coming from the doorway, jacket held firmly in one hand and a coffee cup in the other. "Good as new!"
Kimaris rolled his eyes at Gremory, but stood up to take the items from him, ignoring the expectant tone in his voice. Bonnie followed suite, pushing down the questions she had and saving them for later. So far neither of them had been entirely enthusiastic in telling her what she wanted to know, and they'd been even more reluctant with the topic of the Scarlet Woman.
"I suppose hand dryers are a better substitute than hair dryers," Kimaris commented, checking the jacket over before pulling it onto his body, satisfied with the results. "Good to know for future."
"Or a tumble dryer," Gremory stated, smirking. "The shop owner was incredibly sweet and put it on for a couple minutes. Would have saved you a lot of time, huh?"
Biting her lip, Bonnie knocked her arm into Gremory's ribs, shaking her head at his gleeful expression as Kimaris glowered.
"What?" he laughed, holding out the cup of coffee. "It's not my fault you don't ask for help Kimaris. Being nice really gets you somewhere, I've tried to tell you—"
He snatched the coffee from his hand, cutting him off abruptly.
"Yeah, and I'm sure it has nothing to do with your special talents or anything."
Gremory gasped at Kimaris' words, feigning insult and clutching a hand to his heart.
"Excuse me! I have personal charm too."
"Right, and your looks don't help in any way whatsoever."
"Kimaris!" He winked. "You think I'm good looking? You flirt!"
The groan that left Kimaris' throat almost made Bonnie crumble into laughter as he flustered over what to say. Gremory fluttered his eyelashes at him and brought his hand out as if to touch the tip of his nose, but he swatted it away before it even got close.
"I didn't mean—" Kimaris's mouth opened and closed a couple times before he let out a sound of frustration and spun on his heel, walking away from the two of them. "We should go."
Gremory immediately bent in towards Bonnie with a grin, looping his arm through hers as he pulled her in the same direction.
"I just love winding him up," he chuckled, hoisting his bag onto his shoulder. "I wonder if he'd have run away if I brought you into it. Maybe next time..."
"Don't." She laughed, and he pouted at her warning. "I think you've made him flee enough for one day."
"I suppose you're right." Gremory sighed, turning them down a cobbled street she recognised. "We do have to spend a whole train journey with him, and it might be a long one if he's in a huff. Maybe I can just practice some fun new ways to annoy him..."
Bonnie shook her head at his antics and let him brainstorm, barely listening to the words.
Kimaris walked ahead of them, his long figure taking her attention as he ducked under a tree branch. She hadn't forgotten his expression last night, the haunted way he had stared at the water, thinking of past events that he wouldn't share. His coat flowed behind him, now perfectly dry and with no signs of last night's trauma on the material. It was just like him—seemingly flawless but with a hidden past.
A past that he didn't want her to know about.
As they made their way down the street, the crisp sun making them squint their eyes, she couldn't help the small flicker of doubt that licked at her heels.
It wasn't that she wanted to believe they were keeping things from her, but she'd have been blind if she didn't notice the shared looks between them, or the subtle ways they skirted around answers. There was something they were hiding, whether or not to protect her, she didn't know. But she had a feeling she was going to find out, one way or another.