The Round Room
For Topaz it was as if she was floating, almost dreaming but in perfect clarity with utmost awareness and preciseness. She knew what she wanted and she knew how to get it for the first time in her life. Abi was a mere presence in her mind, like the voice in her head which read and thought things. Inevitable to be there but not noticeable until you actually thought about it. With Abi's knowledge she portalled inside the gates of the light world, pausing in obvious shock as she took in the sight around her. "Is this it?" She asked aloud to the bright green grass stretching for hundreds of miles before her. She stood beside towering golden gates, as tall and long as her eye could see. Beyond the gates was nothing but whiteness, like staring through clouds to see more clouds, and more, and more... But on this side of the gate the sky was bright blue, clear and glowing, and despite there being no sun, the grass sparkled as if warmed by it's glow, and glistened Abi's tanned hands.
What were you expecting?
Abi's voice asked in her head.
Golden gates and never-ending clouds? Cupid's Angels greeting you when you arrived?
Topaz smirked. "Yeah, something like that..." The mermaid reached into Abi's mind and as easy as walking, she took off into the air and began flying towards the horizon before her, where she could see the towering white of buildings.
It felt amazing to fly, and now Topaz really appreciated that. She could feel the air brushing through every feather of Abi's wings, feel the wind run through her hair and patter against her cheeks. It felt effortless and fulfilling, like when she transformed into her true Shape in the water. It felt true.
Once she reached the white towering buildings of the town, Abi helpfully took the lead and flew through the buildings, no concrete or pavement lining the ground underneath, just pure green grass, endless blue sky and sky-scraping white buildings. There were no cars, no fumes, and no grey. As she flew forwards through the towering buildings, Angels flew by smiling and bidding Abi good morning. "Do you really know all these Angels?" Topaz whispered to Abi.
No, we're just polite.
Abi's tone was clipped, and Topaz could tell the Angel was frightened to return home. She didn't want to delve into Abi's memories to find out what happened between her and her parents, or how she happened to come across Alice, but she could tell it was bad. Bad enough to scare her into returning. "It'll be okay, you know..." Topaz whispered as she flew out of the city centre and into the living centre of LVS. These houses were large white mansions, reminding Topaz of The White House in America where the Norant American President lived. They were all rich and posh looking. She wondered if there were any poor Angels.
What will be okay?
Abi asked in Topaz's mind. "Going home... They can't hurt you Abi... They can try. But I won't let them." Topaz could feel the gratitude in her mind, could sense the Angel felt a little better as they continued into a quieter part of the city, where at the top of a grassy slope stood a large white mansion with golden gates and the first non-grass ground of a golden pebbled drive. "Is that where you stay?" Topaz asked, hovering in the air at the bottom of the hill.
Yes...
Abi said.
This is home.
Aden's stomach churned with nerves. He bit his nails. He shook his leg. He paced. He twitched. He swore. He stared. He knew he was frightening the others with his silence, but he didn't care. He had a connection with Topaz, had a connection with Abi. He knew what Topaz would be seeing. She'd be seeing his World, his home, his family. He was ashamed of who he was for the first time in his life, and he didn't want anybody he loved to share that shame.
At the golden gates sat a pair of Angels in white robes, bickering and laughing while playing cards. Topaz cleared her throat as she reached the gates and hit out with her own attitude through Abi's voice, "Why don't you get off your lazy behinds' and open this gate?" The two Angels leapt to their feet, embarrassed to have been caught off-guard. "M-M-M-Miss Lightingale!" The round man said, his white-blonde hair cropped and shining in the non-sun lit morning. "What a surprise to see you have returned..." The other one said, his lanky frame hurrying over to the shelter beside the gates and fumbling with the controls inside. The gates began to silently open, no creaking or cracking alerting others to their opening. Abi told Topaz that the thin Angel was Alec and the round one was Andrew. "Why? Have you been looking?" Topaz asked, walking through the gates in Abi's white ballet pumps. "O-o-of course we have Miss, your parents have been worried out of their minds!" Topaz continued walking up the drive away from the Angel guards. "Well maybe they deserve to be." Topaz murmured under her breath in her own voice.
Be careful Topaz, please, my parents, they're... They're very dangerous Angels.
Topaz paused at the top of the golden drive, where it curved in a circle around a large white and gold marble fountain with an Angel, mermaid, witch, pixie, werewolf and vampire moulded in the centre, the Angel the largest figure in the centre of the fountain with the others bowed at their feet. Topaz's stomach churned. She looked up at the towering four-storey mansion in front of her, the semi-circle white marble steps leading up to the house laid out infront of her. "It's alright Abi," Topaz whispered. "I know exactly what I'm doing." Even if the two girls knew that was a lie, Topaz managed to climb the stairs to the large golden front door and inhale a large mouthful of fresh air. This was it. She told herself. No going back.
Much to the Worlder's surprise, the door flew open violently just as Topaz extended her hand to ring the golden doorbell. "ABI MY ANGEL!" The woman cried, leaping forward and throwing her arms around her. The Angel was tall and slim with blonde hair straight to her elbows, pulled back at the sides of her face with a clasp pinning it at the back. She wore a long white gown accessorised with gold, her feet bear on the white marble of the doorstep. Her wings were folded at her back as she embraced Abi with relief.
This is my mother.
Abi whispered in Topaz's mind. Swallowing that thought Topaz took a step away from the woman. "Thank the Angel you have returned," She said and grabbed Abi's hand, yanking her inside the house. "Your father and I have been worried sick about you, you poor thing!" Topaz could tell the woman was stern and cold-hearted, a bitch if there ever was one. Her "caring" act was anything but sincere, an elderly angel dressed in gold awaiting a younger angel in the drawing-room doorway on Topaz's right in the entryway. "Where have you been?" Abi's mother asked. "I-I'd rather not talk about it, mother. I-I'd like to rest." Topaz stuttered carefully in Abi's voice. "Well then, rest you may," She pushed Abi towards the two awaiting female Angels who gripped Topaz with an elbow each. "Take her to her room." Abi's mother informed the two Angels. She didn't say it but Topaz heard the extra instruction of, 'make sure she doesn't leave'. The Angels yanked Abi up the immediate flight of white marble stairs, everything in the interior of the mansion white and marble with portraits of the Lightingale family decorating the walls.
They removed Alice and Aden the day I left...
Abi whispered in Topaz's mind as she observed the portraits in the hall of the second floor where the Angels were taking her.
It was to mark their disgrace as a warning to the rest of us...
Topaz shook her head in disgust. "Is something the matter, miss?" The older Angel asked as the younger one unlocked the door to Abi's bedroom at the end of the corridor on the second floor. Abi told Topaz that the Angel who had spoken was Anastasia. "Anastasia..." Topaz gasped. Aden's nanny.... The woman who had raised him... "Yes miss?" The woman asked, throwing the younger Angel a look at the back of her head as she dragged Abi inside her bedroom. Topaz cleared her throat. "I'm fine," She snapped, glancing around the room. "I wish to be alone now, please." She yanked her elbows free and flattened down her dress. "But miss, after so much time alone, don't you long for company?" The youngest Angel - Alexis - asked sternly. "It was two days Alexis; I hardly count that as a long time!" Anastasia bowed her head to hide her smile while Alexis' cheeks brightened. "And I would much rather bathe alone thank you very much!" Alexis smiled at Topaz as she said, "As you wish miss. Just call if you need anything." The Angel then curtseyed, much to Topaz's surprise. "Thank you." Topaz nodded as Anastasia mirrored Alexis' curtsey before exiting the room.
Abi felt odd. It was like she was dreaming. She felt numb and oddly peaceful as she watched events unfurl through her own eyes without having the ability to control them. She told Topaz all she needed to know when she needed to. But besides that she was dormant, a mere spectator in the nerve-wracking task at hand. She didn't want Topaz to risk her life in the way she was. Possession was such a risky process. If they were caught... If they were stripped by anyone who wasn't an Angel... Not only could Abi die, but Topaz could be left in limbo, lost in a planet very different from heaven or hell, or life or death. Very different indeed. It would be its own worst torture. Abi regretted suggesting this plan to Robert. She regretted running away. Perhaps, if she'd have stayed rather than running away, she could have saved her sister instead of risking Topaz's life like this. Abi was a coward. And only now was it beginning to show.
Abi's room was wonderful. A large bed with white sheets hovered in the centre of the room over a white fluffy rug on white wooden flooring, a golden dressing table opposite the bottom of the bed on the left of the door stood against the only white wall. The other three walls were papered in an exotic pattern so unique to Topaz's eyes she could not explain it, with colours as warm and golden as honey but as rich and bright as red. There was a white wooden door on the wall behind the bed which lay opened to reveal a large walk-in wardrobe resembling an individual dressing room. Another door beside this lead to the en suite. "You have a beautiful bedroom." Topaz whispered aloud in the bathroom.
Thank you. It's the only thing that I can call my own.
Topaz pushed the lump out of her throat and turned back to the bedroom where she propped herself on the large white window seat and observed the luxurious scene before her. The white town outside the window shine brightly in a white light brighter than that of the sun. The green of the grass and the gold of the gates at the beginning of this World were not visible from Abi's window. Merely an ocean of white stood beyond. There was a small balcony on the other side of the window, but no door leading onto it. Topaz didn't bother to wonder why. She could tell this window seat was new. Abi's parents evidently switched the door for a window in the hopes of keeping Abi inside the house if she ever returned. Well, it would take a Hell of a lot more than a change of exits to stop Topaz.
She sat there for a while, twitching and fidgeting. The last place Abi had seen Alice was the library but there was no way the Angel would still be there. Topaz twisted Abi's hair into a tight blonde bun at the top of her head and yanked at the dress. "Don't you have anything a little mote comfortable?" Topaz asked, pawing through the piles of skirts and dresses on the shelves in the dressing room.
I hate trousers.
Topaz was totally shocked as she retrieved the only pair of "trousers" in the whole wardrobe. A pair of tight white cotton leggings hugged her legs however were far more comfortable than the dress she still wore. "Don't you have any tops?" Topaz already knew the answer to this and groaned aloud. "Where's Aden's room? Surely he'll have a t-shirt I can wear."
Why do you need to change clothes? They'll suspect something is wrong if they see you in trousers. They know hate them!
"Listen Abi I'm the one who has to do this horrendous task, not you okay, you get to sit in there all cosy and not think about it but I'm the one responsible for the both of us and if I'm not comfortable I can mess this whole thing up!" The Angel was silent as Topaz made her way down the hall to where Aden's room stood tucked away at the end. Abi didn't tell her; therefore Topaz had to pluck the location out of the Angel's memories. That she didn't like doing.
You won't get in, it's locked.
Topaz raised an eyebrow and plucked a weapon from her bra.
Since when has that ever stopped me?
In seconds the door was open and Topaz was pulling it silently shut behind her. Inside the room was dark with the white curtains drawn closed over the two floor length windows. As Topaz flicked on the light, it illuminated the room before her and she smiled. On the wall to her right stood a wall to wall book case covered floor to ceiling in books of all genres, sizes and colours. Topaz wasn't much of a reader but she knew Aden was. This merely confirmed that fact more. Opposite her in between the two windows was a white hanging basket, hovering in mid-air between the windows, much like the bed against the wall on her left. The sheets were a pale blue silk all bundled and wrinkled with a book open in the centre. A few T-shirts lay scattered on the floor by a pair of white double doors, which lay open to reveal several shelves bare from when he packed to leave that day all those weeks ago. Topaz shivered. She could picture Aden living here but that didn't mean she liked it. There were no characteristics about the room, the only link to Aden being the books and the large piano beside the door. The en suite was in the dressing room much to her surprise. "Are any of you allowed to be yourselves?" Topaz whispered as she stood inside Aden's dressing room-come walk in wardrobe and selected a baggy white t-shirt from the endless amount on the shelves.
No. Not really.
Topaz thought as much. She zipped herself out of Abi's dress and pulled Aden's t-shirt on top, allowing a smell similar to Aden drape over her. It oddly comforted her in a way she never thought it would.
Back in Abi's room Topaz found it easier to concentrate with the Angel helpfully chipping in with information on occasion and the feel of Aden wrapped around her. She'd come up with the plan of wandering the house when a knock sounded roughly on her door. "Miss Lightingale, your father wishes to see you." Anastasia's voice sounded on the other side of the door. Topaz groaned and summoned Abi's voice from her mind, clambering off the bed and strutting to the door. "But Anastasia, must I?" The Angel-maid gasped in horror when she acknowledged Abi's new appearance. "Do you like it?" Topaz grinned broadly. "It's so comfortable." Anastasia shook her head. "Your father will most definitely have something to say about this." The elderly lady nodded her head briskly and Topaz rolled Abi's eyes. "Oh really it's just a pair of leggings." She pulled the door closed behind her and followed the Angel-maid downstairs and along a short corridor to Mr Lightingale's study. "Miss Lightingale as you asked sir..." Anastasia said by way of announcing their presence. "Thank you Anastasia that will be all..." The Angel turned and left the study, closing the door behind her. The Angel behind the white wooden desk in front of the large white marble fire had white cropped hair and half-moon spectacles propped on his nose while a white shirt was pressed pristine and smart. "Abigail!" The man shouted in horror, leaping to his feet and removing his glasses. He leaned against the front of his desk and folded his long legs out in front of him, observing his daughter before him. "Of course it's spectacular to see you have returned however what on the Angel's Earth are you wearing?"
"Leggings and a t-shirt, father."
"Is that sarcasm I hear?!" The Angel roared. "Of course not father, merely stating a simple fact is all." The Angel narrowed his eyes and scowled at Abi. "Your mother and I are very worried about you Abigail. Very very worried indeed..." Topaz began to realise that the Angel before her was worse than she'd imagined. He had a twisted air of evil about him, as if he was one of the rogue Angels, or worse still, one of fallen. He had the air of the dark Angels, not of the Angel's whose face he wore.
"There is nothing to worry about, father..." Topaz said in a quiet voice, trying to plan a route of escape in her mind, or better yet, a plan of action. Now that she knew just what the Lightingale's had been telling her about, she had to plan how to attack it. "I am sincerely sorry for running away. It was cowardly and uncharacteristic of me and I'll forever be sorry for my mistake." Mr Lightingale grinned and came forward with wide arms, almost as if he was about to embrace his daughter but instead stood before her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Dear Abigail your apologies are not needed nor are they wanted," He shook his head. "Your mother has been fretting, is all, what with the Nightingale's murderers still out there and your brother and sister still gone..." Topaz was trained well enough to know when someone was lying. Even the most skilled of liars. She could see it now. Mr Lightingale was lying through his teeth. And because Topaz could see it, Abi could too. "However you are home now and that is what matters. You merely need time to rest." He nodded his head, his beady blue eyes piercing into Topaz's. Suddenly a surge of rage deep within her took over. She fought it back with the sudden realisation that it was Abi who was so enraged. Topaz then realised with a jolt that the Angel was yelling to herself.
I could do it now and no one will know, I could save Alice and the whole of the Light World. If I do it now he'll never be able to harm any other Worlder...
Topaz gripped the doorframe and ignored Mr Lightingale's demand for an explanation as to why she appeared to be so dizzy.
ENOUGH!
Topaz yelled at Abi.
I AM IN CONTROL ABIGAIL. NOT YOU. THIS IS MY MISSION!
By the time the Angel was silent and Topaz had regained her balance, Anastasia and Alexis had an elbow each and were hurrying her upstairs with Abi's father's orders loud from the bottom of the staircase. The Angels escorted her to Abi's bedroom and laid her down on the bed. "You just need some rest, miss, that's all." Alexis said firmly, turning the light off and retreating towards the door. "We'll be right outside if you need anything miss." Anastasia added before the door closed behind them and Topaz fell into a hypnotically deep sleep.
Zac had fallen asleep on the sofa just after dinner and Robert was trying to stay awake as Jemima retold countless stories. But Aden wasn't interested. He sat on one of the wooden chairs from before and stared out at the brightly lit nightlife of London. He wished to be sharing this moment with Topaz and wondered about what she was doing that precise moment. "Aden?!" A female voice sung, silencing Jemima and causing Aden and Robert to sit straight to attention, listening harder and staring at each other in complete shock. "Oh brother!" Aden recognised the voice to be not that of Alice's or Abi's or even Topaz's. But of Annabelle's. "Anna?!" Aden called, rushing to the mirror in the hallway by the front door. "I knew I'd find you here." She grinned. Aden shivered at the realisation that his older sister had changed since the last time he saw her. Changed with responsibility, with realisation, with the darkness of their parents. "What is it Ana?" His sister smiled. "Where's Topaz?" The Angel asked. "Excuse me?!" By this time Robert and Jemima had dragged Zac awake and the three Worlders were listening next to Aden, out of the frame of the mirror so his sister couldn't see them. "I want to see your new girlfriend. Where is she?"
"She's asleep." Aden hissed angrily through his teeth, refusing to give her the satisfaction of questioning her how she seemed to know so much. He refused to allow himself to think too much of the realistic reason. "Liar liar pants on fire!" Ana laughed. "You're going to Hell Aden Lightingale." His sister sung happily. "Not only for liking a rotten stinking mermaid but for helping her possess our sister!" And with that she disappeared.
By the time Topaz had awoken she'd wasted a half of the time she had. She had remembered what Alexis and Anastasia had said before they'd left her room, they'd be waiting right outside for her to leave. Conjuring a plan she had opened the door and smiled at the two Angels sitting silently straight-backed on hard dining chairs. "Nice rest miss?" Alexis had asked. Topaz shrugged. "Not bad," She had said truthfully. "Although I've awoken rather hungry... Could you fetch me something to eat? A chicken sandwich perhaps?" Alexis had leapt to her feet. "Of course miss, right away." The Angel had curtseyed and hurried off down the staircase, leaving Topaz standing in the doorway with Anastasia still sitting smiling on the chair. "How are you, Anastasia?" She had asked, lowering herself into Alexis' chair. "Me miss? Why I'm fine..." Topaz had smiled. "Are you sure...?" The Angel had anxiously picked at the hem of her white robe. "Well, I'm still worrying over your brother if that's what you mean..." Topaz had smiled and covered the Angel's hands with her own. "He will be fine, Anastasia, you must stop worrying."
"But miss you don't understand what it's like to lose a child! I do! I do! And I don't want to lose Aden as well. Your brother he... He was like a son to me. A son! I raised him and cared for him. Loved him like a mother should! And now he's gone! Gone! And I don't have an Angel's clue of where!" Topaz had smiled softy as the Angel leapt to her feet, tears pouring from her eyes. "I'm dreadfully sorry miss!" The Angel had gotten half-way through her curtsey before she had burst into tears and flew from the corridor, hurrying upstairs to the attic where, Topaz knew, she and Alexis slept.
Smiling smugly to herself Topaz had quickly closed the bedroom door behind her and headed down the hall towards the staircase that lead upstairs to the library. She knew that was the last place Abi had seen her sister alive, and despite knowing it was a long-shot, decided to begin searching there. She was silent as she walked, and knew she was running rapidly out of time. She didn't have any clue as to where Alice was being held, and she still didn't know by who exactly seeing as she could no longer locate Abi's parents, or, her other sister... The library was well-lit when Topaz finally inched her way silently inside. It was a grand old room with a high Victorian ceiling similar to the other rooms in the mansion. The floor was made of thick golden coloured wood, with a large furry white rug in the centre, a thick mahogany desk on-top. There was no one sitting behind the desk, thankfully, but on the surface sat a closed laptop and an in-and-out tray completely empty. Topaz frowned. That was a little unusual. Abi's parents were the rulers of the Light World. Therefore, why was this particular desk so empty? And where was Angelica's office if she didn't share with her husband? Topaz didn't ask Abi the question, simply thought it. Therefore, Abi didn't respond. She'd been oddly silent since her eruption back in her father's office. Topaz could hardly blame her. Topaz saw again the image Abi had shown her earlier of Alice. She'd been sat crying in the centre of the library, just behind the desk, a few feet from the large bay window with the stained-glass panel at the top. She'd been crouched in a ball, rocking back and forth with tears streaming down her face. Abi had left to get her some tissues and water, and returned to find the Angel gone. That night she'd heard her parents yelling from beyond the library as she sat reading. She couldn't find them, but she could hear Alice's cries and her parent's threats. She knew then that they were torturing her. She knew she'd had to get away. And so she had.
And now here Topaz stood, in the very spot Alice had crouched in, crying. There was nothing here to mark Alice's being ever here. Sighing she explored the library, the endless volumes of books, the glass cabinet of awards, photographs and statues. Framed books and boxed objects ranging from jewellery to figurines. None of it made sense to Topaz, none of it she cared for. It wasn't until she was wandering past the 'M' section that she came across the Mermaid novels. Glancing at a shelf a foot above her head she found a book bound in deep purple velvet with black writing on the spine telling her it was A Magician's Guide to the Magic of Mermaids. Topaz sniggered and wheeled the nearby ladder towards her, climbing a few steps and reaching out towards the book. Lifting it off she smirked at the sketch of a mermaid on the front of the novel, framed in silver thread. She shook her head and flipped it open, scanning the first page before deciding to take this back to her room with her. Glancing back at the shelf to the other novels she paused. A faint white light shone at the back of the shelf, making her frown in confusion and glance around behind her. She was at the very back of the library, up a few stairs on the right, on the fourth rung of the ladder. This gave her an entire view of the library. There were no lights shining directly at her. Therefore, the light at the back of the shelf was not reflected. Frowning she set the mermaid novel on top of the others at the end of the shelf and reached out, gently pushing on the back of the shelf, hearing it creaking, feeling it flex a little.
Desperately she yanked a few more books off the shelf and quietly positioned them on the floor at the bottom of the ladder before eagerly climbing back to the shelf and pushing harder and harder on the back until it eventually cracked and gave way, plummeting downwards on the other end, smashing loudly onto the floor. She gasped and held her breath, expecting to hear feet and screams coming after her. But there was nothing. She leaned closer to the narrow rectangle space now in front of her at the back of the shelf and peered through.
The room before her was a mystery. The library was situated at the very end of the second floor of the house. There were no doors after it, merely one before it. There was no space at the end of the house for a final room to be positioned. And yet here it was. A rounded room, of white tile, almost like an underground bathroom, with no lights, and no windows. And yet this room shone brighter than any other Topaz had ever entered. Through the narrow gap Topaz couldn't see much. But she could see enough.
Alice was hung on the far wall of the bizarre room, her wings half-bald and splattered with her own blood. Two butcher's chains held her by the wings, dangling in mid-air, her skin a pale grey, her eyes closed, her face filthy and smeared with her own blood, patches of her scalp baldy, her long blonde locks slashed and torn, dipped in her blood. They'd stripped her naked, a mere flimsy underskirt her only shred of dignity. Topaz slammed a hand over her mouth to stop from sobbing. But still her cry woke the Angel. "ALICE!" Her eyes fluttered and her fingertips twitched, her head moving slightly and the chains clanking.
WHAT IN THE WORLD HAVE THEY DONE?!
The sight of her sister woke Abi from deep within her own body. Topaz's tears as they fell were clear for the first time in her entire life. "Alice! Alice! It's me!" Topaz called out to the Angel in her own voice. "It's Topaz! I'm here for you!" Alice began to whine from the chains which held her a few feet off the ground. Topaz leaned back and hovered in front of the book-shelf, now flying beside the ladder. Alice's chains were rattling in desperation as the Angel struggled to free herself for what Topaz feared wasn't the first time. She reached out and in a blinding snap of anger she tore the ladder off it's rungs and into her hands. She concentrated hard through her fury as she slotted the ladder through the narrow gap in the shelf and lowered it onto the ground. "I'm still here Alice, don't worry, I'm going to save you." The mermaid leaned forward closer to the narrow gap and in a moment of blind panic she cracked her head through the hole, enlarging it instantly and dizzying herself in the process. For a second, Abi's wings lost balance and dropped her against the bookshelf before regaining her weight.
Yeah, don't worry; it's not as if I need my head or anything. Just you go head-butt the book shelf, why not?!
Abi yelled sarcastically in Topaz's mind.
Oh shut up I'm doing this for your sister.
Desperately yanking herself forward, Topaz rammed her shoulders against the bookshelf, the whole room creaking and straining against her protestations. "Topaz?!" Alice groaned from her chains. "What're you doing here? It isn't safe! Why do you look like Abi?" Topaz opened her mouth to reply but was silenced by the worst sound of all. The voice of the Angels' mother. "Yes Topaz, why do you look like my daughter?" In the short silence that followed, Alice and Topaz shared a look of blind panic and gut-wrenching dread before a large blow in Topaz's back sent her flying head-first through the bookshelf and into the white chamber. She hit the back wall with a loud smash and Alice shrieked in rage and panic, her chains tearing at her wings, her following screams for her own pain.
Topaz held her head in agony as she climbed to her feet beside Alice as she watched the Lightingale rulers appear before her through what she could only assume was their own private hand-crafted portal. The smile on their faces was one of sheer evil. "Good evening, Nighter, what a pleasure to finally meet you, even if it isn't in your true form." Alistair grinned, bowing from the opposite end of the room, below the large disjointed hole Abi's body had made as Topaz had been pushed through it by an unknown source. "Screw you." Topaz spat blood onto the white tiled floor in front of her, and where Alice's blood instantly disappeared as soon as it hit the white, Topaz's didn't. Which proved her true Shape, even if her appearance didn't. "Now, now, language, please, you are in the World of the Angels." Angelica smiled. "I'm in the company of Devils, so it really shouldn't matter what language I speak." Alistair reached out a hand and with his middle and index finger, gestured a downward motion at Alice's head, which freed the Angel's wings from the chains. Alice plummeted to the floor and fell in a heap at Topaz's feet. "Alice!" Topaz cried, dropping down to help her. "They're evil, Topaz..." Alice whispered as the mermaid leaned over her. "You have to get out of here." Topaz opened her mouth but was again silenced by the Angels. "Now, now, Alison, we all know that dear little Topaz isn't going anywhere, is she?" Angelica grinned manically from the opposite end of the room. Topaz, straightening narrowed her eyes at the Angel ruler. "How can you do this?" She spat. "To your own daughter?! The only crime Alice has ever committed is love someone! That's hardly a crime!"
"But Zachary isn't someone he's something. Just like you." Alistair snarled. "Oh? And, I suppose being in your daughter's form isn't going to stop you from hurting me is it? Because I can see how you treat your own children," Topaz glanced briefly down at Alice who appeared to be rapidly losing consciousness. Topaz had to get her out of there. But how? "What kind of Angels are you if all you stand for is brutality and evil? You don't know what it is to be gentle or loving." Topaz spat again, the blood rising from the large gash inside her mouth from where she'd bit down upon cracking her head off the white wall. The Angels' cackles sent shivers down Topaz's spine. "And you do?" Angelica asked wickedly. "Yes," Topaz answered truthfully before spitting some more. "I do know what it is to love. Admittedly I never used to," She spat again. "But after meeting your son, I soon was shown what love was," Angelica lunged towards Topaz, only to be caught back by her husband. Topaz grinned and spat again. "He's quite the Angel, your son," She smiled wickedly, playing on the words she knew would anger Angelica the most. Angelica was so much easier to target than Alistair. He was the hard nut to crack. "When I first met him all those weeks ago, he was shy and quiet and sincere... And then he started to become a little more... Lovely. That's what it was. He found love... And so did I. Isn't that coincidence? Us both, finding love at the same time?" She spat and shrugged. "Anyway, that's not what I'm getting at. I'd like to congratulate you both," She smiled and spat once more. "For giving me your son. He's smart, strong, brave, logical, charming, funny, and by all means is he a great kisser. Knows how to work it, if you know what I mean." She smirked and winked and thrilled in the fact that Alistair's grip was tightening on his wife as she struggled towards Topaz again. Topaz leaned down and moved Alice slightly before leaning down. "What d'you think you're doing to my daughter you filthy parasite?" Topaz straightened, having said to Alice all she had to. She inwardly prayed that the Angel was merely faking unconsciousness. "Me?! Filthy parasite? Have you seen the state you have your own daughter in?!" Topaz gestured behind her to Alice who was now whimpering inside the triangle of Topaz's blood. "She's dying and all you two can feel is anger at the fact that she isn't dead already. You want her gone, destroyed, sent to Hell for ever sending shame upon your Angelic name. Well, let me tell you, it'll never be Angelic so long as you two bare it." Alistair let go of his wife who lunged forward towards Topaz. She held her breath and waited until the last millisecond before lurching out of the way. Angelica should have landed on her daughter, but instead, slammed against the wall. Due to that, she was frozen in shock and Topaz was grinning with glee. Alistair however, was quicker. He had Topaz lifted off the ground by her neck in seconds. "You get out of my daughter you despicable leech!" Topaz spat in the Angels face and sneered, "I'm a Mermaid you idiot, not a Vampire." Alistair yelled and threw Topaz into the air, volleying her across the room. But Abi was inside her, already prepared for this reaction, one step ahead of the Worlders. She worked her wings to catch her and instructed her legs to kick out, sending one of the chains into her mother's chest, sending her flying against the back wall with a horrific scream. Alistair was momentarily paralysed in shock before he cursed and snapped a hand in Topaz's direction. She didn't know what happened, but suddenly, the bright white room became very dark.
"You can't go there!" Zac hollered, slamming Aden against the wall. "I have to!" Aden yelled, shoving the mermaid off his chest. "You idiot!" Zac called as Aden leapt down the few stairs and back inside the living room. Suddenly, he stopped, frozen in complete and utter shock. The others ran after him into the room and froze beside him as they saw what he saw. There, where the messy triangle still lay carved into the floor, lay Alice. "Alice?" Zac whispered in a broken voice, stumbling forwards before staggering towards her and falling down by her side. "Alice? Baby?" He cried, his blood dropping onto her face as he rolled her onto his lap and pushed her hair out of her face. "Is...She...?" Robert whispered, but Aden shook his head and staggered forwards, his tears dropping from his chin. "Alice baby please wake up!" Zac cried suddenly loudly, shaking the Angel in his lap. Her eyes fluttered as Aden dropped to his knees beside his sister, her body partially covered by a flimsy filthy dress, her legs covered in bloody gashes, her wings hanging limp in the way her arms might hang limp if snapped at the shoulder. Her feathers and hair were falling to the ground around her in bloody clumps, her face scratched and torn and bloody. Aden knew she wasn't dead. But he knew she wasn't far off. He'd never seen an Angel die before he'd slaughtered those parasites by himself a few weeks ago. But he hadn't been paying attention to the techniques behind it. Now, he watched as his sister's blue lips smiled up at Zac and her tears rolled from her eyes. Aden struggled to piece together his sister's words through her broken voice. "It hurt before," She whispered. "But now... Not so much." Aden cast a desperate look behind him towards Jemima who was hurrying forwards with a golden dust. She stood over the three Worlders and emptied the entire vial over Alice's head, illuminating her face in a bright white light. The witch began mumbling beneath her breath and Aden turned back to his sister, lifting her frail hand and holding it between his own. "You, h-have... t-t-to, s-save... T-T-o-paz..." Alice whimpered, casting her eyes over Aden. "Th-they'll t-tear her... f-from A-Abi." Zac shushed the Angel and leaned forward, placing a kiss on his sister's forehead. "I'll save her," He whispered. "Just like you've saved me, so many times." Alice smiled and her tears rolled over her cheeks as her whole body began to illuminate in the light from the powder beginning to gather in above her head. "Sh-She r-r-rescued... M-me." Aden and Zac smiled and Zac held his breath, Aden knew to withhold a sob of worry as well as glee. "She was determined she was going to." Aden whispered, stroking his sister's cheek. "S-s-s-save her A-A-Aden..." Alice gasped. "B-b-before they k-kill her."
Topaz peeled her eyes open, her hands aching behind her back where they appeared to be chained at the back of a chair. She blinked against the bright white light of the mysterious room, and focused upon the two figures in front of her. Angelica and Alistair stared down at her with matching evil grins. "You're not dead yet? I thought that hit with the chain would've done you in." Topaz snarled at Angelica, rolling her head and cracking her neck, aching all over from an unknown cause. "Not quite." Angelica smiled. "It appears you sent our daughter away..." Alistair shook his head and tssk-ed and rubbed at his jaw. "Which is a shame really, seeing as we were going to negotiate..."
"Negotiate what?" Topaz narrowed her eyes, uninterested in any offer the Lightingale's posed, however curious to know how weak they really thought she was... "Well, we have a little something of yours," Angelica smiled at her husband. "Well, hardly yours, but something of interest to you... Something that belonged to your parents..." Topaz frowned in complete confusion before Angelica retrieved her hands from behind her back, revealing a bundle of thick white sheets of paper. Topaz gasped. "That isn't..." She shook her head, laughing in disbelief. "What are those?" Alistair smiled. "We hoped you might've recognised them... But, seeing as it was our son who retrieved them, perhaps not..." Topaz was continuing to shake her head as Angelica smiled. "These, dear Topaz, are your parent's papers that you were so desperate to translate."
Zac sat in a chair at the side of the bed, Alice's hand laced in his own. When he'd first saw her, she was curled in a crumpled heap of agony and torture. Now, she was bound in white bandages and silk, her grey skin paling to white, her red slashes healing to pink scars, her veins dulling to normal once more. Her face was even as beautiful as he remembered, and her wings were growing more feathers as she healed. The source of her healing and strength came from the power invested in the halo glowing above her head in a shining oval beacon of gold. It was an Angelic symbol of health, purity and beauty, and Zac was indebted to Jemima for unveiling it. According to the witch, all Angels have halos; they are merely dormant until the Angel is in an agonizing state of near-death. In which case, a charm is needed to reveal it, turning it on almost. If Jemima hadn't been there... Well... Zac would've been cradling Alice's dead body in his arms.
He couldn't tare his eyes off her healing face, her beauty returning stronger with every minute that ticked slowly by. "When you're awake... When you've recovered, everything is going to be so much better than before... I'll take you away from all of this... We can go someplace beautiful, peaceful... Somewhere we've always wanted to go... Like Paris... We'll go alone, just you and me. We'll get away from everything and everyone and live the life we've always dreamed of... We can have a French apartment with a roof terrace and our own secret garden... Who knows, maybe Aden and Topaz could even visit once we're settled... And Robert... And even the twins if they ever return..." Zac paused with his fingers half-brushed through Alice's hair, his smile slowly slipping off his face. "I'm so sorry, Alice..." He whispered. "I should never have agreed to let you work on this case... You wouldn't have gotten into so much trouble otherwise..." He shook his head, hanging it in dismay. "Who am I kidding? I should never have fallen in love you, let you fall in love with me... We were doomed from the beginning, you and me... Doomed from that very first kiss, after I saved your life..." He sighed and pinched his nose. "It's funny, because, on paper, I've saved your life countless times. I've pulled you out of the rubble, slaughtered Rogues in your path, made medicine to heal your wounds... But every time, every single time I've saved your life, you in return have saved my own. Each time you'd wake up with that lazy smile and in seconds you'd be the one cradling me, soothing me, telling me everything was going to be okay. Each time you woke up, each time I saved you, the relief was enough to kill me.
"But there you were, with your healing hands and soothing smile. And you fixed me. Right on up... Like you do each day. I wake up and think about you. And just the thought, that tiny thought, like the flicker of a candle or the flutter of your incredibly long eyelashes, is enough to save my life, to give purpose to my life...
"Someone once told me to never give up on someone I can't ever go a day without thinking about. Well, that someone is you Alice... As long as you live, I live, as long as you do not, I don't either..." He shook his head, sniffing and wiping the bloody tears from his cheeks. He raised the Angel's hand to his lips. "You'll always be my one and only purpose in life. You always have been. Before you, there was nothing, I was merely existing. With you, I can live..." He smiled against the back of her hand. "When you wake up, I'm going to take you to dinner. To that quaint little restaurant you love so much. I'm going to have the house band play our song, and then I'm going to smile as you blush when I get down on my knees and ask you to marry me.
"Because it seems so stupid not to. It seems stupid that I haven't done it before now. It seems stupid if I do not, and it seems stupid that I could ever be with any other girl except you. You are my life, Alice, and for that reason I'd like you to be my wife too. To share my name, even if I myself do not want it. I'll always love you Alice. Unconditionally, irretrievably, ridiculously until the time when I can no longer be a part of the Dark World, The Light World, or any other World except that of what is waiting for us when we die," He kissed her hand and closed his eyes. "My Angel, you'll forever have my heart."