"Another mother's breakin',
Heart is taking over.
When the vi'lence causes silence,
We must be mistaken."
Chapter Sixteen - "Zombie"
BALT
For three long, tiresome days, Immi hadn't come down from her room. It was almost like she'd barricaded herself in her room. Harmony was agitated, Saria was pissed off (although that would be a huge understatement) and the others were worried. Myself included. It hurt when I tried to coax her out and she'd ignore me or tell me to go away. It really did – and I didn't expect it to hurt so much.
At the moment, we were pacing in the main room. It was still as we'd found it three days ago. Dusty, mouldy and practically empty. Bernadette had told us that it would be better to leave it like this and not to get attached, just incase we needed to run again.
“There's got to be some way of getting her out.” Marcus said, holding Bernadette by the waist. It seems they patched their problems up pretty quickly.
“Balt, you could try again?” Bernadette offered helpfully. I sighed.
“Maybe later.” I'd already tried earlier, and got no response. “She couldn't have gone through a window... could she?”
“Windows are pretty tight here. Glued 'em shut.” Bernadette told us. Gustav looked at her, with an odd look on his face. It was almost like he was trying to analyse her.
“Why?” By the tone of his voice, it was clear as day that Gustav didn't trust Bernadette. He still didn't trust us demons, even though we were bound by a contract. An almost unbreakable contract.
“This... this was one of the places that was going to be for the sacrifices. Luckily, I told them I'd do it myself. Only I know of this place.” Bernadette told them. It seemed that she was trying to gain their trust – she was giving everyone as much as information as she could offer.
“Sacrifices?” This time it was Marcus asking the questions. However, it wasn't because he was analysing her. He was confused, as we all were.
“Ipos finally figured out that just taking the blood wouldn't work.” Bernadette said before thinking of what to say. She seemed to be struggling with her wording. “Y-Shax said something about needing a host. Something for him to be able to live in, so that the bones could reassemble themselves. Something about magic too...”
“But they've only been taking the blood from angels. They've never mentioned the need for a body.” Harmony narrowed her eyes, not believing Bernadette. “Cheribum or the elders would have told us otherwise. They wouldn't risk our safety. Not with a threat like him around.”
“Do you really think Ipos is stupid enough to let the angels know?” I added. I believed Bernadette, because frankly, it sounded exactly what Ipos would do. Confide in his most trusted minions and manipulate everyone else. It was no wonder that they'd managed to keep the operation running for so long, Ipos was an extremely smart demon. He could almost outsmart Lucifer.
“He can't be that smart.” Caroline scoffed.
“He's smarter than he lets on.” I told her, not appreciating her attitude. She kept on doubting everything we demons said. Sure, we were all capable of being extremely good liars, but why would we lie about this? It was a known fact that many demons wanted Dimitri gone for good. “How do you think he's survived for so long? He doesn't just tell anyone anything or hire anyone. He's good and he's got a keen eye.”
“Oh, puh-lease.” Caroline didn't believe me. Wow. Was she really that dumb? “Like he could outsmart an angel. We've got eyes everywhere!”
“Apart from on demon land.” I reminded her. Her blue eyes turned to ice and she glared at me.
“I know that.” She muttered. Pfft. How could she forget that an angel on demon territory equaled instant death?
“They've been abducting angels and keeping their bodies?” Harmony sounded disgusted. I didn't really blame her. From what I'd heard, the way they treated them was sickening and after Immi's hallucination... I didn't really want to think about it. There was only so much a demon could take.
“Keeping their bodies?” Saria laughed. She, of course, had no problem with how they treated the angels. She hated them with every fibre in her body. It was almost unnatural how much she hated them. There was a small part of me that said if Dimtri wouldn't treat her like a cockroach, she'd join their side. Saria was as heartless as demons came. “They don't just do that! They-”
“I don't think they want to know.” Marcus interrupted. “And neither do I.” Considering that Bernadette used to be an angel... I don't think he wanted to imagine what could've happened to her.
“You're such a fucking pussy, you know that?” After she insulted Marcus, she turned back with an evil smile on the face. “They'll have to know at some point. Wouldn't you rather they were prepared? I don't fancy angel puke on me.”
“They won't see anything.” Bernadette insisted. I could see that this wasn't a subject she wanted to talk about.
“Right. Sure.” Saria laughed. She turned her attention back to us. “You think they care about angels? Please. They'd leave them rotting on the floor.”
“Have you seen any of this, Saria? Have you had to watch your own sisters die?!” Bernadette screamed. Marcus had to grab her and restrain her from attacking a smirking Saria. “You are almost as bad as them! You heartless cow!” Watching her try and claw her way out of Marcus' arms was painful to watch. She looked livid. "Do you enjoy the misery of others? You demented, stupid, ignorant girl! You think everything is about hate?" As Bernadette screamed names and insulted the living daylight out of Saria, Saria just lit up, not caring. Her face showed she was just amused, which enraged Bernadette even more.
Whilst Marcus tried to calm Bernadette down, I turned my attention to the ceiling. We'd heard no noise and I was wondering whether Immi was still alive.
“She's strong. She's still there.” I heard a quiet voice tell me. Shocked, I looked at who was there. A small, black-haired angel. I hadn't seen her often, but she seemed to like Immi. She wasn't acting like Caroline but she wasn't acting like Harmony either. Maybe she and Immi were good friends?
“What?” I asked, wondering why she'd approached me. She still seemed scared of me. I remembered seeing her on the night Immi's wings were torn off. She'd held the same innocence that Immi had.
“She's still there, she's just... thinking.” I noticed that she wasn't looking at me. She was inspecting her surroundings.
“Huh. Right.” I didn't believe her.
“We were talking yesterday. She just can't believe it. She's just taking the time to... absorb the information.” Ouch, it kind of stung that Immi didn't want to talk to me. I'd spend the most time with her, so she should want to talk to me... right? “She's slowly remembering her past life.” I stayed silent, not really knowing what to say. “You should speak to her. I know you like her. She likes you too.”
“And how would you know that?” My voice showed that I didn't care, but truthfully? I was interested. How had this girl picked it up? I was sure Immi felt the soul mate connection but I still wasn't completely sure. Caroline hadn't picked up on anything and I wasn't sure if Harmony had. If she had, she was keeping it a complete secret.
“It's easy. She's never looked at anyone the way she looks at you.” I continued to look at her oddly. When she turned, she flinched slightly before relaxing. “Sorry, uh, well, uh, how do I explain it? Um...,” she took a moment to think before answering me, “well, in Heaven, none of us really looked at each other with... what's the word humans use? Adoration? Love? Well, it's one of them. Only when she saw a piece of gold–which was rare–did she look at something like that. We've only heard of that when an angel finds their other half. It happens with the older angels, but we barely see them.”
“Other half? You mean soul mate.” I corrected.
“We don't call them that. We call them anima socium.” She smiled before quoting something. “Your anima socium is the one who is the other half to you. Each angel were one before splitting. Together, they are perfect. There is only one other for each angel. Similar to what werewolves and vampires have, except you can't really reject your other half. You can if your a werewolf - it's pretty common. We've seen it happen and read all the case studies.”
“Huh.” The girl seemed to know her stuff.
“Yeah. Me and Immi would dream of finding ours. Seems like she found hers.” She gave me a look before smiling. “You need to coax her out. Sure, she'll listen to us, but she's still unsure.”
“And how am I going to do that?” I asked, laughing humourlessly. “She doesn't want to speak to me. If she did, she'd have already spoken to me since she locked herself away.”
“She's just hurt. She likes you and you didn't tell her what she wanted to know.”
“You never told her either and you said she talked to you.” I argued back. Emily gulped, I could see that being around me was scaring her but I didn't care. She needed to get used to it, especially if she wanted to come down to Earth more. "Plus, I never lied to her."
“Yeah... but she doesn't know that and I explained to her that I couldn't.” She shrugged. I didn't get why this angel couldn't tell her. “Balt–wait can I call you that?” I nodded and encouraged her to carry on. “Balt, I'm worried about her. Please can you get her down? I only told her a few things about being an angel, she needs to know more. She's right; she deserves to know.”
I thought about it for a few seconds. It couldn't hurt to try again... right? Maybe this time she would come out?
“Why does it matter so much?” I asked. Emily looked over to everyone. Harmony wasn't in the room anymore, and I guessed she was trying to persuade Immi to come out. Glancing at Caroline, she froze before whispering to me.
“Apparently, if she loses her energy she could turn into nothing or be really weak. She won't be able to do her job.” She stopped and looked over to Gustav who seemed to be trying to keep the peace between Bernadette and Saria. It wasn't going too well. “I overheard Gustav talking to someone once and he said that if an angel was fallen, their minds could be manipulated. She could turn over to the dark side!” Tears threatened to fall out of her eyes. I sighed internally. These angels really liked to play on their emotions... and did none of them understand that being a demon wasn't so bad? I mean, you had free will and you could do whatever you liked!
“And why would that be so bad?”
“She wouldn't be allowed back home! She could be like that... that Saria girl! Immi won't like that! She doesn't like the way she acts!” I didn't want that either. If Immi turned out to be like Saria, I'd personally get Lucifer to kill me.
“Fine.” I grumbled. I still didn't think it would work. It had been three days! Pushing myself up from the wooden box, I hoped that if Immi answered she'd have something more comfortable to sit on.
“Oh, and maybe you could teach us about demons? It might be nice to know from an actual demon, instead of reading text books? And when Immi remembers everything, she won't be so reluctant.” The angel smiled happily.
“Fine.” I mumbled unhappily. “Who even are you?”
She didn't seem fazed by my question, or tone of voice. “I'm Emily.” She chirped happily. “Immi's best friend! But you can call me Em or Emmy, all my friends do.” This was just great. The angel thought I was friends with her.