This Side Of Heaven

Chapter Five- Purpose

“Say that I did believe you…” Her voice echoed to him throughout the abandoned hallway with only homecoming posters and a few open lockers left on display, as he swiveled gracefully in her direction to give his attention undivided to her so she would continue.

“Is this going to be everyday of my life? Trying not to die between homeroom and gym?!” But as she had expected him to offer her some form of relaxing verification that he would always be there to protect her or that things may get better, all he managed to do was return to his venture to place this moment behind him, and Avery in the process as well.

“You wanted me to listen...I’m willing!” She called to him as he pushed his weight against the bar spread across the door for an exit as he could not refrain from speaking his thoughts before taking his leave.

“Right. Because the last few times I’ve tried that, you either stabbed me or tried to escape…” Her face twisted into a pout as her eyes evaded his as he turned to face her, waiting for her to cast some last ditch effort of a response, as he tried the door to leave.

“Tate?” Vince’s tone rose at the acknowledgement of this figure, as she now held knowledge to his title due to this interaction, as her teacher continued. “What are you doing here?”

“A strigoi and a hellhound...one for her and one for me…” At the mention of these creatures, Vince’s eyes widened as he looked into the direction of the gymnasium, in which they had just left, as Tate found it in everyone’s best interest to push through his pain and focus on keeping his ally from running into the gym with metaphorical guns blazing. “They’re ash now…”

“Thank you…” Vince was appreciative but weary as he saw how Avery watched them both. “You’re injured...You should let Quinn have a look at you…” He commented while looking to the other end of the hall, to her office, as Tate held his hands in rejection.

“I can handle myself…” He answered sharply. “Besides...It seems you will have your hands full with Avery...She is a bit more convinced since I nearly lost my life between the mutt and the leech…” Tate tried the door once again before Avery’s voice stopped him.

“I want the details from both of you.”

“Of course you do…” Tate uttered with a grunt.

“It probably isn’t wise for you to be out right now, anyhow. Any of them smell blood and you’re a beacon to them...and an entire school of nearly five hundred kids acting potentially as sitting ducks.”

“Well when you put it that way…” Tate was sarcastic, as usual, as he followed Vince into his classroom, before Avery slipped in prior to him, and he found it physically impossible to enter the room. Throwing his head back in annoyance, he cleared his throat, catching the attention of the two in his vicinity.

“Right, sorry, Tate...Come on in.” Nodding, his eyes narrowed temporarily to Avery in observation before Vince began to collect items from the drawers of his desk as she kept an eye on the injured and undetermined being sitting at the middle desk.

“I have to get some supplies from the nurse..I will be back in a moment. In that time, I trust you can answer the questions she has? Thanks.” Before Tate could counter Vince’s words, he managed to disperse from the room, leaving the duo alone.

“What are you doing?!” She suddenly jolted upwards while watching him remove his clothing while he smirked at her.

“I wanted to give you a little show, you earned it.” He rolled his eyes at the end of his own joke before pulling the antiseptic from its brown bottle and forcing it to his lips. Taking a swig, her eyes widened in horror. “Vince is right, if any more of them are around and they smell my blood...They’ll be lured here.”

“So you drink the alcohol?”

“I can still get an infection...I’m not entirely a monster.” His expression softened to her, almost as if he was trying to explain that she had been wrong whenever her eyes would lift to him in fear or worry that he may claim her life. But it was a simple glance eradicated by the mention of her next inquisition and he allowed it to fade as she knew it was best for them both if she feared him, as it meant he could easily keep her at arm's length; something he struggled with whenever she was around him.

“Then why are they after you?”

“Well...I’m not exactly an angel and I’m not exactly a demon...So both sides are trying to kill me…”

“Because you’re protecting me?”

Tate nodded as he began to apply the small adhesive bandage to his abdomen as she could not help but notice the contours of his muscles. It was truly as if he was made of nothing but masculine perfection and a few scars accumulated in his time ‘alive’. She wondered what must have happened to scar the skin of a...whatever he was.

But as she watched his skin flex unintentionally with his attempts to mend his wounds, he would wince at the pain, while reaching for the deep lacerations on his shoulder. Although she was upset at how he held a lack for taking any moment between them seriously, she felt slightly responsible for his wounds, and therefore convinced herself to aid him.

However, as her focus came to the sight of the wounds left behind by the jaws of this canine creature, she stilled with a haunting realization of what would have become of her delicate skin if he hadn't been there to save her.

Avery pressed her fingers softly to his back to set the beginning edge of the gauze to his skin as she was forced to wrap herself around him in order to take the bandage beneath his arm and over his chest in a crisscross formation. Unbeknownst to her, his eyes came to a close as he took in her tender touch, both chilling and warming him to his decrepit core, as he fought every nerve in his body to bring her into him.

“What is a strigoi? Or a hellhound?”

“A strigoi is a very ancient type of vampire. They are difficult to kill, harder to sire, and supposed to be nearly extinct. A hellhound is a messenger to demons; their pets...So someone sent it...I’m anxious to know who…” He explained rather easily as her fingers now came to the ink set upon his back as she made it halfway through wrapping his skin; trying to focus on anything but the muscles that roused her each second her eyes fell to his nearly flawless physique.

He tended to her fingertips on him once again, only now, seemingly angered as he jumped to his feet and wrapped his chest back within his shirt and thick jacket that descended just at his calves.

"It is...it is the guarantee that you are the one I've been looking for. A friend of mine enchanted it so the words would become visible to me when I would meet the prophetic one-" Avery slowly nodded in understanding as their eyes locked for a second, a single moment not experienced with banter or a single crossword, just a longing gaze remaining in place until they were interrupted by Vince.

Her teacher began to sketch a diagram of three straight lines with a circle on the bottom. Beginning at the top line, he began his explanation. “This is the celestial plain-Heaven...this is us, Earth...and below us is Destiny Falls...There are things-”

“We already went through this part.” Tate informed him as he nodded.

“Right...So it’s simple really. We know little about you...but we do know that you were brought here from the celestial plain in an inhuman form by a rogue angel-someone who followed Lucifer when he turned one third of the angels against the Kingdom of God...We aren’t sure why this is-but she...she placed a curse on you. And this curse, became your prophecy...It spoke of you born to our world, both angel and demon, a key between both Destiny Falls and Earth...an end to some and retribution to others...However...it is said that once you lift this veil, it is done with your sacrifice; the last drop of your blood will seal it once more…”

“So I have to die?!”

“But if you manage to make it beyond your twenty first birthday or die without invoking your demonic or angelic side, you will remain human and the responsibility will fall to your next of kin...Which I would gather to be your sister-if the line is severed than the prophecy will fall to failure.”

“If this is true...why now? I mean clearly this war must have happened hundreds of years ago-”

“Thousands.” Tate corrected. “It was the War of the Oblivion...It eradicated the majority of the demons that weren't protect by Lord of Chaos...he was one of the demons before the fall that managed to humanize himself enough to be unjudged by God yet doomed to remain until his return; the rapture. The creatures you know to be Zombies and elves were changed into what we know now. Vampires were made into mosquitos and Unicorns lost their horns-”

“Those were all real?”

“Unfortunately for our legacy...there is truth in all the legends, yet it is twisted to appear fantastical so we aren't uncovered easily. For example, vampires don’t mind garlic or sunlight-but Strigoi specifically must be killed with a removal of their heart and decapitation. Whereas a werewolf is a friend-they can change only the night of a full moon, and are warriors of the Celestial Court-”

“Which is who I answer to.” Vince added. “Are you keeping up so far?”

“Strangely, yes…” She answered with a quarter of uncertainty before slowly nodding.

“It was written that this veil could only be opened with your blood...your last drop of blood will bring its close...And yet, creatures that should be beneath it are among us now. Sometimes they piggyback on the death of others...other times they are conjured by the will of the mourning or spells of necromancers having failed-Either way...it is a detail that we cannot understand an origin. Either way, we have to keep you...as human as possible until you’re twenty one-”

“And then the best case scenario is to let my sister deal with it?! How fair is that?!”

“It was the curse-the prophecy…” Tate commented again. “We just have to keep you alive and chaste until you’re twenty one...simple…”

"Here, read it, yourself…" Vince explained as he handed the book to Avery, words of Latin recognized immediately by her gaze.

“By the flash of thunder and lighting in twain should a s*x of female make way, she shall be marked by scropio and born into a debt she alone must pay.

Her heart will wear both light and dark in angelic and demonic reign, yet her end shall come for those above and those below in vain.

Her eyes burn crimson and her heart to ash as she finds the clutches of death amiss, Yet this will not return this wore until she has fore found bliss.

A love not born of lust at all, a love of pure refrained, shall birth a child we shall know for Lilith is her name.

It will take but once of virtue pierced to meet this condition set, and then in two the war shall return from where angels and chaos met.”

“Meaning?” She questioned aloud following the end of the prophecy as the boys looked to each other once again.

“There are hundreds of ways you can pierce it. We have to ensure you don't...If you relinquish your virtue, you can pierce the veil. If you give in to your demonic side, you can pierce it.”

“And you said the only way to do that is to take a life…” Avery looked at Tate as he nodded.

“An innocent life.” Vince clarified. “Someone unmarked by a demonic entity, yes.”

“So all I have to do is not have s*x and not kill anyone for about four years? I’ve done that for the last seventeen…”

“Which may seem possible...however...with the veil already pierced...there are things that wish to use you for their own needs. They can use it to control you, turn you, alter you into doing things you never would have been capable of as yourself... Your blood is more pure, more sought after as it holds this key. They will torment you and use your body as a vessel to slaughter innocents...and then...they will turn whatever remains of you, into one of them…”

“You two really need to learn how to talk to a woman…” Avery explained as she let out a breath. “But none of that...prophecy point to me...aside from the hair-”

“There IS more.” To this, Tate lifted from his seat and took hold of the book before she could read it. His eyes skimmed the section immediately before he clenched his jaw and moved towards the door.

“Tate-”

“I have to go.”

“But-”

Before Vince could convince their ally to remain, he disappeared into the hallway as Avery refused to show the disappointment felt in his absence. Even if they had argued, bantered, and disagreed, she couldn’t help but admit to herself that she felt safer when he was near as well as excitable.

“Blackened hair as raven’s fur, a trait to whom I curse, Of bite of scorpion on her skin, and lips of her own to coerce,

Virtue pierced by lustful true, a love never meant to last, her heart will fall to her feet, broken, bruised, and thrashed,

In the final moments will call her end, she will return to her innocence, a state true since birth, yet only when the life of her love will cease to be limitless.

The veil shall close, the end hath saved if only her sacrifice shall be given by her hand, and then too shall she return to her home land.”

Along with these words came the description of her ‘cursed dreams’ of ‘ones she loved and those she passed to know death only aided by her hand, she will force to save those around her if she has a chance to reclaim her wings again’.

She ceased reading the words aloud as she looked at Vince.

“It’s difficult because there have been a dozen different prophecies and girls who fit them. But prophecies are not foolproof, of course...However, I knew it the moment I saw you. And I believe Tate did too…"

“So who is HE in all of this?”

“He’s a fallen angel. We don’t know why he was cast from the Celestial Plain, but...his past is quite colorful.”

“I have a feeling you mean colorful as in blood and not like a fun peacock...like he wasn’t a painter or eccentric dresser or anything?”

“He was...he was known as the executioner in Destiny Falls, it was a name that followed him for his crimes here as well...Yet his victims were not tried as they would have been here.” She suddenly recalled how he killed Josh, using the door as a guillotine, and coming to understand how his apparent ‘old habits’ were dying slowly.

“He spent one thousand years of our time lavishing in each of the seven sins as anger for being cast...Then he found an ally in the oracle...and she learned that if he protected you...when his death would come, he would obtain his wings...Similar to yours.”

“So I have to die?”

“Not if you live past twenty one, then it goes to Sophia-”

“You are making it sound like I’m choosing between a pen or a pencil here...This is my life!”

“Actually, you are energy-not necessarily a human-”

“Yeah? Well I feel like it. I have dreams and aspirations and wants and desires and...It’s not fair! It’s not fair that I have to lay down my life to stop some ancient evil from taking over the world!”

“I’m aware, Avery...And yet, you have been the one who is chosen...You can either decide to embrace it or fight it...but I must advise you that the latter will only delay the inevitable…”

“So what am I supposed to do? Just have you or Tate around all of the time? Hoping I don’t get jumped by a strigoi or a hellhound?! Pray?!”

“I know it’s scary-”

“Scary?! It’s terrifying! I can’t look at anybody without wondering if they are even human anymore. You have made me afraid of everything!”

“No...You were always afraid, Avery...I just gave you the names of the reasons why. These things have tormented you...they have hurt so many innocent people...And you can stop them-It is your birthright-”

“The only birthright I have is being able to spot a sale in high end stores or apparently reading latin despite the fact I haven’t studied a lick of it...But even if I were to believe any of this...I don’t accept it-”

“That isn’t how birth rights work, Avery...You don’t get a choice.”

“Well I am the ‘chosen one’ right? So I’ve chosen NOT to participate.” On these words, she collected her backpack and stomped into the direction outside of the classroom and onto the steps of the school. For a brief moment, she thought of returning to Vince and offering him the benefit of the doubt to continue his ‘plan’ for what would be next. But her heart could not take the weight of any further revelations and so she moved into the direction of the diner aforementioned by Phoebe earlier in the day.

Despite the fact that she would arrive nearly four hours before the time agreed upon, Avery was desperate to drown her thoughts in a plate of nachos and a strawberry milkshake with extra sprinkles. But as she began to flip through social media on her phone, mourning the normalcy of her peers that she was informed would not be her future, her attention was thrust forward to a figure who stilled her with fear. Not because he was hideous or dangerous, but because she recognized him; a man she had witnessed from a severe attack of deja vu on her already fragile mind.

“Can-Can I help you?” She asked nervously, hoping this feeling was just a collection of everything gathering in her consciousness and making her paranoid. But as she watched him eye her with conviction, she knew that whoever he was, he was not someone she should trust as he flashed his eyes crimson to her followed by a grimace of victory in having intimidated her. Her palms pressed immediately into the surface of the table before he took hold of her hand, his touch as cold as ice, capturing her in his strong grip that held the capability to snap her bones if she wished.

“I think it is best that you have a seat, Avery.” Her teeth clenched as she looked to the eyes that now eyed her in worry, before she kept her focus on the door. “I really don’t want to...But I can snap every one of their necks in a second if I wish.” Avery’s eyes locked to him as he now took a gander around the establishment.

“Take her…” The man spoke, his deep blue eyes scanning the scene and returning to Avery while he began to use his thumb and pointer finger in such motions that caused the woman’s head to begin to turn, her hands gripping at it to cease as those who accompanied her attempted to help. “And I could make them think you did it…” Suddenly all eyes shot to her, begging for her to stop. “Or you can sit and have a simple conversation with me...And I can make them forget all about it.” His hand now released her own and slid over the surface as if brushing off dust as the scene returned to normal.

Without a choice, she slipped back into the booth and let out a breath of nervousness as his eyes now prodded at the menu left at the space across from her, abandoned by the waitress.

“How rude of me...I know everything about you and you don’t even know my name...Lance...But you may have heard of my former name...Lord of Chaos?” She tensed, having recalled the name in Vince’s notebook and the array of torment he forced upon both Destiny Falls and Earth; countless bloodshed, limitless deaths, and now he was sitting across from her stealing her nachos and acting as if they were old friends. Her heart twisted for all she knew, they had been, as there were so many things about her life that she had yet to know…

“What do you want?” She asked with an attempt to remain dominant over the situation but found his eyes to rise and fall to her in dismissal.

“I want you to lift the veil...Because once you do...I take back what was mine...and you’re relieved of this...You won’t have to see the death and the carnage...You’ll just get your pretty little wings back...isn’t that what you want?” Her eyes fell to her food as she suddenly lost all sense of her appetite while he now interlaced his own fingers to continue.

“I can make that happen for you...You just have to say yes….”

Her gaze met with his fingers as she suddenly came to realize that night had fallen around her, his fingers spinning the scene yet again. “You don’t deserve this world this way...You deserve to be free of this...after all, you’re only seventeen...Just think about it, alright? You have until midnight of your birthday or I’ll be forced to resort to...other methods...ones that would get you hurt...and we don’t want that, do we?” Upon speaking these words, he now pulled himself upwards from the seat and allowed her to be alone at the very moment that Phoebe and Chellsea joined her. They both came to look at this man who wore dark hair and deep soulful deep blue eyes, before gaining her attention.

“Avery?” Chellsea questioned, taking her curled hair over her shoulder as Avery’s eyes remained on the man as he moved to the street outside, tapping at his watch, and turning to her one final time, his eyes flashing red, before he disappeared; leaving her with an ultimatum that sounded more tempting then the fate spoken to her by her supposed allies...