This Side Of Heaven

Chapter Four- Proof

Avery struggled to find normalcy in anything since her late night visitor’s final words. She questioned if every face she passed on her way to and from school, even those within the role of caregiver, friend, or teacher had been veiled humane only to be using this mundane facade as a mask for what truly lies beneath the surface. If she had managed to return her pulse to a stationary beat, she would then over analyze every shadow that caught her peripheral vision or noise that differentiated between passing conversation or the soundtrack to a normal day. This made her constantly on edge, even as she sat within the crescent construction of her desk, where she should have been safe-but she dove deep into her worries and remained there until her name was summoned with a sense of frustration.

“Miss Harkness?!” Her eyes rose to the front of the class, finding every set of eyes from her classmates surrounding her to have now looked at her with shared annoyance. “You can take a seat beside her…” Vince spoke as his eyes dug into Avery from across the room as a handsome man marked by wavy dirty blonde hair styled into something between a fringe up and a quiff, gave her a smile, and slipped into the desk at her side. His eyes remained in study of her, whereas hers evaded her teacher and focused on the eraser of the pencil that she was currently picking to shreds.

“Does this bore you as much as it does me?” He attempted to converse with her as she gave a kind smirk until hearing her name called once again. This time, her eyes rose to Vince with her own irritation.

“Can you read it for us?” Her eyes quickly darted throughout the entire textbook left unturned before her as she scanned the items before the charming and kind boy at her side reached over and pointed to the passage in context. However, she noticed how it was written in Latin; a language no longer mandatory to the modern world-and yet, without having been taught a word of it, she knew it better than her own English.

“It...It’s in Latin…” She spoke in annoyance as he slowly nodded.

“Ensuring you are paying attention...See me after class, yeah?” Her eyes rolled as she spent the remainder of the hour playing the part of a dutiful student and making notes of the civil war and its weight on the world it left in its wake-but in reality, she was scribbling images into a notebook of demonic faces and then the one of the shadowed figure that took occupancy of her room the night before. Yet as the bell rang to transition between classes, she sprung upright and charged through the sea of her academic coevals and into the hall before she would be forced to face her intimidating and possibly insane teacher.

She took refuge in the confined metal of her locker, exchanging her books from ‘history’ to ‘science’ before closing the door and finding the new student to startle her.

“Sorry...I just wanted to compliment your artistry.”

“My what?” He motioned to the artistic works of portraits on her notebook as she blushed with embarrassment. “Right…”

“Who are they?” but before she was be forced to conjure some idiotic excuse or do so much as take a breath, her arm was pulled away from him until she faced her two best friends; a sight for sore eyes considering her last day of eye-opening torment and confusion. On the left of her stood an athletic blonde with the current gym attire spread across a frail frame and to her right was a beautiful girl of mocha skin and a wide smile, dressed fashionably in purple and gold to stand with her arms crossed in deep focus.

“We’ve been trying to call you for two days!”

“I’m sorry Phoebe…” Avery explained as her eyes fell to the athletic blonde. “And Chellsea-It’s been crazy…”

“Well you can tell us all about it tonight...at Bloody Mary’s?” Avery agreed as her name was summoned once more; this time in a parental tone that left her frustrated at the sound of her title. Only this time, she was requested by Vince.

“A moment?” He questioned as she slipped into his classroom, parting from her friends, before following the steps of her teacher as he closed the door to ensure they were not overheard.

“If this is still about-” Avery began, immediately on the defense, but also harboring a temporary worry in disobeying this figure of dominance that could result in detention.

“I’m sorry. I was insensitive to how this must all be for you. Sometimes I forget that this world doesn’t remember or doesn’t know.”

“Mister Sydney...Please stop this. I just want to graduate in a few months and go off to college and-”

“If you do anything, it needs to be to prepare.”

“For what?! Finals?! I have a hard enough time trying to remember the difference between isosceles triangles and-the other ones…” She struggled to make her point before she continued. “I am not what you or that creepy guy think I am!”

“Creepy guy?”

“The one who killed Josh-the one who showed up at my room last night-the one who followed me to school this morning...The one who dropped me off at your office before I woke up and you called me a demon-”

“Part demon...but also part angel-”

“I don’t care! I don’t care about this veil...I don’t care about being part anything! I am going to class and I am-” Suddenly the luminescent silver of a blade was beside her cheek, her fingers having caught it from falling behind her. Immediately, she dropped it to the floor as her mouth came open into an instant oval and glared at him.

“What the hell was that?!”

“Muscle memory-nephilims have quick reflexes...another thing difficult to explain…” Her eyes continued to dip to the sight of the weapon before rising back up to the madman who threw it at her.

“And what if I didn’t catch it?! How can you even HAVE a knife at school?!”

But instead of supplying her answers, he made a point of his own; “You were supposed to have someone teach you these things; someone who acted as a guardian.They were supposed to train you at thirteen-”

“Train me? For what? A 5k?”

“You were born with the knowledge of three languages; Latin, Summeritan, and Spanish. You have strength that is unnatural for a girl only seventeen-or of any age...You have premonitions in the forms of dreams that come to you as a warning from the angels to help. If you help those people...you are keeping the veil closed.” He stalled for a moment as he realized she was drinking in this information, and so he continued. “As I was saying...You were supposed to have someone train you...someone you were to trust with your life...But after looking into it...I believe that that person died before they were given the chance. And I believe it was your father.” Her eyes suddenly shot up with immediate tears forming in her chocolate optics.

“I may allow you to speak about this insanity to a certain degree, but you know NOTHING about my father! NOTHING!” A tear now escaped down her cheek as Vince stepped forward to console her before she threw her hands into momentary surrender. “My father died-”

“For the cause. It was made to look like a car accident...But you always knew it wasn’t...Didn’t you?”

“Why are you doing this to me? What have I done to make this whole town try to kill me?! First Josh and you and the guy from last night! I would just be a lot better off if everyone would stop making me their personal mission! Just leave me the hell alone!” In quick steps, she tore herself from the classroom and into the direction of the gym that was left abandoned at this time of day.

“It’s too dangerous for you to be ignorant! You need to understand how important it is that you are ready!” Vince called to her from the hallway, looking to the students who now noticed the desperation in his voice, making him have to quickly result in a cover. “The finals will be here before you know it, miss Harkness!”

But Avery ran and pressed her body into the small crevice allowing her to sneak out of sight and into the makeup of the bleachers that sat on the East wall of the entire gymnasium. Usually it was a space for lustful couples to research just what the three bases before homerun were; but she was lucky to actually have this space to herself. However, it was not a moment of self reflection that would let her rise above the occasion with maturity and wisdom from Vince’s words. Instead, she wallowed against her knees pressed to her chest as she fell into her own body, taking this time to disintegrate emotionally into herself.

A handful of minutes passed before the sound of creaking metal drew her eyes upwards, where she saw the man from last night, now in the point of entry, leaning against the rod, while looking at her with compassion but also what appeared to be a readiness for yet another verbal spar.

“Why won’t you two leave me alone? I just want to be normal! Please...I just-”

“There are very few people in the world who are actually made aware of their purpose. You’re lucky, Avery...Your purpose is your birthright.”

“Lucky?” She now stood on her feet.

“I was just told that my father died because of me! That he was supposed to ‘teach me’, ‘train me’, as if I’m some dog. You have the wrong girl…And I am anything than what you call ‘lucky’!”

“I thought so too...Until last night.” He spoke to her just before she slipped beyond him and back into society. Out of curiosity alone, Avery remained in the shadows with Lorentate as she impatiently awaited him to continue. Suddenly he held up a necklace that made her still. “Do you know what this is?”

“It was my father’s.” She confessed as her eyes remained on the sight of a glass circle tied to a string that was then able to be worn as a necklace.

“It’s a shard from a sacred sword; given to guardians until they can pass it on to their warriors; their children...And in our case...the prophetic one.”

“Why can’t you choose some other girl? I’m sure anyone else in this school would love to be followed around by you, told they are ‘special’ and ‘chosen’-your Houdini come and go act might be a real turn on for them; maybe even stealing something precious to them, like that!” Her hand now took hold of the necklace in pure anger as tears blurred her eyes once again. “But I am NOT her!”

“I would be disappointed if you said you were...It wouldn’t make it as much fun to try and convince you-” Suddenly a growl could be heard at the edge of the bleechers as both Lorentate and Avery looked in the direction to see a shadow now slowly move to where they both stood.

“Avery?”

“You see it too?!” She breathed an exhale of disbelief as anytime she had witnessed something of this caliber it was always written off as a fractal of her imagination proving creative yet again. But as he took his hand over her, shielding her, his attention was focused on the beast cloaked in black, but similar to him with crimson eyes now lowering to the height of their knees.

“Go back to Vince, his room is consecrated-demons can’t cross into it without permission…”

“What?!”

“For once, Avery, please just do what you’re told-”

“Not until you explain what the hell that thing is-” Suddenly the creature lunged at them both, striking Lorentate with a claw to his abdomen as he pushed Avery in the direction of the exit before finding another figure now blocking her escape.

“If you won’t listen, can you at least get behind me?!” Lorentate inquired as she obeyed-understanding that she was at his mercy due to the fact that of the three strange oddities set within the shadows, this muscular mass of a man seemed to be the only one genuinely in worry of her well-being.

Although injured, Lorentate took the stance of a selfless warrior and brought his hand to her protection, where she moved to him in appreciation and his eyes drifted to her in momentary distraction, until the animal lunged at them again. He managed to bring Avery further behind one of the metal beams that supported the structure that entombed them before kicking back over the same structure and using his weight to force the mutt across the grounds. This allowed him enough time to bring the vampire; a creature with similar features to that of Josh’s transition, onto its back as Lorentante tried to break one of the wooden beams for a stake. However, the lycanthropic beast managed to take a bite out of his shoulder in the process, all while Avery watched in awe.

“The necklace!” He called to her as she tossed it out of her grasp and into his direction, where he caught it, and used it into the ribs of the beast, hearing it wince, before it turned to ashes at his feet.

With only the vampiric entity left, his focus remained on it, as they both danced around one of the supports until finally Tate used a strong kick to pin it to the back of the wall. Yet as he was seconds away from snapping the creature’s neck and solidifying its end, his eyes came to the sight of another being of mutual vampiric trait to stand at the box that controlled the electrical bleachers. For a moment, he was at a loss, before he looked at Avery, who was safe behind the lowest section of the steps, until realizing she would be the first crushed if they were to begin to close.

“The bleachers! Get out from under-” The vampire now in his grasp managed to slip loose just enough to force Lorentate to the ground in a knee to the ribs as the mechanics of the bleachers began to move. But as she tried to follow his instruction, she was caught by the creature as Lorentate rose slowly from the ground.

“You failed, Lorentate...She’s ours now…” A malicious tone echoed in the space beneath them as Avery was pulled through the extent of the bleachers as Lorentate followed, managing to slip out at the last second before he would find his bones to be crushed into dust. His steps did not cease, however, and continued into the direction of this rival, catching the hair of the female vampire and forcing her onto her back. Still with the shard within his hand, he used it to behead the creature in a single swipe before then reaching into their chest and ceasing their existence in the same way he had with Josh.

“Do you believe me now, Avery?” He asked, standing as tall as he could considering his injuries before moving beyond her and into the hall as all of her scholastic peers were set within their respective classrooms. Her eyes looked back into the direction of the body left behind that now began to slowly turn to dust with each passing second, before she returned her focus to “Lorentate”, having proven two things to her. The first was that at least the demon portion of his and Vince’s mutual explanation had been self-evident by now. But the second was that he was an ally to her; at least for now-just as he had spoken to her in the window the night before.