31 Stuck

Azrael snapped his fingers and just like that our location changed. I was standing in a bedroom with a soft feathered black carpet beneath my feet, the Raven black feathers looked almost as though they were taken from angel wings. Knowing Death they probably were. I looked up at the white ceiling to see a crystal chandelier hanging in the centre of it as it glistened in the moonlight.

I felt Azrael's hands around my waist and I gasped at the way he held me. "Azrael..." I paused as he whispered... "Yes?" into my ear... "Let me go..." I continued. My words sounding like a mere whisper slowly fading into the distance.

I waited for him to say something... like maybe... "Who gives you the right to tell me what to do?" or "This is my domain I make the rules." but instead he did what I didn't expect him to do... He let me go.

"Make yourself at home." He said nonchalantly, almost as if he didn't kidnap me. He gestured around the room. I looked around again only for my eyes to fall on a bed. It was in the centre of the wall its headboard rested against at the far end of the room.

The bed was made of a white wood and the blankets seemed to take up most of it, they were huge and so were the pillows. The blankets and pillows were the same colour... a white that almost looked silver and it seemed as though the top blanket was made of silk. As I looked at the top blanket in more detail I realised that it looked silver because it was a white blanket with sliver leaf patterns all over it. I squinted in order to see this. A white wooden night stand was on one side of the bed with a black lamp upon it and on the other side of the bed was a chest of drawers that was also made of white wood.

I was so focused on the bed that I didn't take note of the colour of the walls... but I couldn't really see that well anyway since the only light filtering in the room was the moonlight that shone through the window. It's light mainly shining on the bed.

I felt a hand on my shoulder... Azrael.

"Do you like it?" He questioned, gesturing around the room again.

I now looked behind me to see a white closet at the end of the room and a blue sofa just under a large window. The blue sofa had a blanket that was ice blue draped over it. It looked rather cosy for a sofa.

Azrael touched my shoulder again as he spoke. "So..." he paused, "do you like it?" he repeated this time whispering in my ear.

I kept quiet for a bit. "Y... yes.." I said hesitantly as my voice echoed in the silence of room. I'm still nervous okay. I'm in this room. Wait, why am I in this room?

"I'm glad you do..." he said, "because this will be your room for the next three days."

Oh? That's why...

I looked around again noticing only one bed... which was the bed I saw previously. My lips parted as I spoke... "But where will you sleep?" I said looking towards the bed and then the sofa.

"Why... right there of course." Azrael said with his right hand out gesturing towards the bed.

My eyes widened in my head.

We were going to share the same bed?

What the heck?!..

"Okaaay..." I said as I gulped awkwardly looking towards the bed, "I'll sleep on the sofa." And I completed that sentence without any hesitation.

"I'm just joking." Azrael said smirking deviously and then laughing at the face I made... Hey I can't help it... I make weird faces when people make me feel awkward or uneasy, okay!.. "My room is just down the hall," he continued, "unless you want me to sleep on the sofa?" he questioned. A smirk tugged at his lips as he said this, him wriggling an eyebrow and then winking at me playfully.

"Nope..." I said slightly looking away and shaking my head whilst giggling. Oi... Why'd I do that? Giggling? He kidnapped me!.. I'm stuck here for three days. Hopefully I win this bet. "I'm totally content without you." I continued.

He faked a sad look. Making his bottom lip quiver as if impersonating someone who wanted to cry. "That's not a very nice thing to say." He said looking down.

"And you not very good at acting." I said now laughing at his failed attempt to get me to feel sorry for him.

Yeah... not gonna happen buddy.

After his fake act and attempt to get me to give into his actions of him wanting to stay in the same room as me, which by the way did not work, he finally ended up leaving. Well, attempting to leave.

"Goodnight..." Azrael said as he walked towards the white door.

"Wait where are you going to?" I asked in curiosity as I watched him walk towards the door. His hand resting on the crystal handle, almost about to open it as he looked back at me. My words echoing in the silence. In his silence.

"To my room of course..." he replied, "you know I have one of those too, right? I mean, it's not like this is the only room in the house I made specially for you."

"I'm not going to lie... the way he said that sounded like he did."

"I told you earlier..." he now face palmed, "my room is just down the hall."

"You did, didn't you?" I said with wide eyes. My mouth parted as the words slipped out.

"I did, didn't I... what?" He said looking tired and annoyed. There was also some confusion evident on his face. He furrowed his eyebrows.

I was shocked and confused... was he being sarcastic or did he only cater on me? He only made a room for me? Then he should sleep here? Well not in the bed... no way... on the sofa by the window.

"Did you really just cater on me?" I questioned with my eyes still wide.

"Oh look," Azrael now said in a sarcastic tone, "she cares?"

I rolled my eyes at his stupidity... his so annoying even if he's Death.

"That's a first..." he continued with a chuckle, "I thought you were going to give me the cold shoulder." he now said faking a sad face. "And now you showing concern towards me." His face lighting up as he said this with a smirk. He seemed happy about this small triumph and honestly it was pissing me off... I just wanted to kill his little dream of thinking I'd eventually grow to love him.

Because let's face it I won't...

You can't make somebody love you...

It is what it is...

They either love you or they don't...

Sheesh, why can't he just understand that?

"Key word... thought," I continued, "and don't get your hopes up." I said as I looked at him... his facial expressions are sometimes really hard to read... I know he's Death but damn, sometimes he is really good at hiding or faking his emotions. Maybe they were just an act... maybe he didn't have any emotions at all... maybe he was emotionless?

"I was showing minor concern here."

Minor... minor concern.

"Wow... and here I thought I made a break through." He continued now with a manic laugh.

"It's official... Death suffers from bipolar."

"You doing it again..." I continued looking at him as though I couldn't give a damn. Yes, I gave him a blank expression. "and again... key word here is... thought. The way you thought and the way I think are two entirely different things." I continued once again... "Thought is what you expected me to say but I'm not a puppet that plays along to a script... I have my own thoughts and your thoughts of me are just an illusion of who you think I am. Basically what your mind wants me to be. But I'm not that am I? I'm just the opposite."

He doesn't like me... he likes the person he thinks I am.

It's time he realised I'm not her.

"But that's what I like about you..." he continued, this conversation just took an unexpected turn, "you full of surprises because you don't follow a script. You not what I wanted you to be... you stubborn and cold to me and that's what reminds me of her and what makes me like you."

And again I'm not her... I thought to myself.

Where did this come from?

So out of the blue?

The conversation a few minutes ago was about the room and me showing slight concern towards this jackass. He compares me to her and now he says why he likes me? What?! And things just get more complicated by the second... but enough with my thoughts... yes this is my thoughts if you wondering... isn't it weird to know that you in my head right now listening to me while I think.

You didn't know, did you?

You've been in my head a lot.

Yes, you reader... of course I'm talking to you.

Okay enough messing around let's continue...

"You so gullible sometimes, you know that?" Azrael said breaking me out of my thoughts.

I looked at him blankly as I blinked my eyes a couple of times.

"Gullible?!" I exclaimed in confusion.

"Yes that's what I said." He continued smirking. "So you do care about me." He laughed... well more to himself, I guess that's his habit. Mumbling and laughing to himself.

"No, it's not that..." I said clearly trying to be less friendly... which by the way is hard when you generally a good person. I have to be more tough and less nice now. I can't lose to this idiot.

"Then what is it?.." He now continued with a straight face that looked like he wasn't having it.

"Yes, I was concerned but not for you, it was for my safety." Technically that was a lie... I was concerned about him but only because he gave up a room for me and it looked like he had nowhere to sleep and I felt sorry for him because I'm a nice person who enjoys being walked over by other people (masochist)... no, I don't like others inflicting pain on me that was sarcasm.

"Your safety?" He questioned with a puzzled look on his face. I had surely confused him. This is great because I'm now one step closer to getting him to believe the lie. Look at me the manipulator. It's going to catch up to me, isn't it? But for now let's just go with the flow. One lie after the other for a good cause and I'm home free. That's if Felix figures out what's happening. And yet, I wouldn't be here if I told him in the first place.

~At The Apartment~

...

Felix just got back to find Alice missing. Now that she knows he was her cat there is no need to for him to shapeshift.

He walked around the apartment looking all over for her. He even checked her bedroom thinking she might have gotten home before him and went to sleep but when he found her room empty that's when he realised something was terribly wrong or maybe he was just overreacting and she was just running a little late. But indeed she wasn't, we all know that except for Felix her black cat.

He was her Protector so he did what he had to, to make sure she was safe and ended up calling Alice's phone a couple of times but nobody picked up... all his calls were denied. And then he tried texting her but there was no point cause she was not answering like she usually would...

Felix

You haven't answered

any of my calls...

Where are you?

He waited and waited but still no reply... she usually replied immediately but this time she didn't. She didn't reply.

"Something" was up. Something was wrong. So he decided to contact Eva... Maybe she knew where Alice had gone. Where was Alice? Was Alice still with her? She'd tell him if she knew... She'd tell him for sure.

Felix

Hey Eva... Is Alice

still with you?

Eva

No, she's not with

me. James just

dropped me off a

few hours ago.

Why'd you ask?

A cold sweat ran down his back. He knew she was in trouble... he knew just like that. He remained calm trying to collect his thoughts. The girl he loved, had she gotten caught? But he didn't want to panic. It would only waste more time and he needed answers from Eva before she changed her mind.

Felix

Oh? Because

Alice isn't home

yet. Didn't you

drop her off?

Eva

No... We didn't

drop her off. She

kind of fell asleep

at the cinema.

We wanted to

take her home but

she wouldn't

budge. So the new

guy that's from

our school ended

up taking her

home.

Felix

So who is this

new guy? Do you

know his name?

Eva

I think Alice said

his name was

Azrael or

something?

After Felix read the name Azrael he stopped texting Eva and grabbed a couple of things he thought he needed. He knew exactly who Azrael was. Azrael was an angel and not just any angel... The Angel of Death. He came in many forms. As the grim reaper. As an Angel with black wings and many more other forms. Basically anything people thought Death looked like he could take the form of.

Felix knew Azrael had done something and came to the conclusion that he had kidnapped Alice. And we all know he did but Felix didn't. So he went on a hunch that Death had taken her.

"It's my job to protect her..." Felix shouted to himself in anger, he was angry at himself, "and I failed her."

He was sitting on Alice's bed with all the things he had gathered for this quest. It was now his mission to save Alice.

"No, you didn't." Said a voice.

"Yes, I did and now I think that maybe I'm not worthy to be her protector... I was supposed to protect her and now she got kidnapped. I was supposed to prevent this from happening. Not allow her to get kidnapped." He said now not realising that someone was in the house talking to him. He was just so worried about Alice, he hadn't noticed.

"Get your head out of your ass and stop self pitying yourself. You can't blame yourself for this. It was out of your control." The voice replied. Felix still not realising the voice wasn't in his head.

"No, you wrong. I could've stopped this. I could've been there for Alice but I wasn't. Damn, Union. I should have been by her side instead of doing my other assignment... she's more important. She's my first priority. But I made her second best. This is my fault." He continued. "It's my fault. This is all my fault."

"Is moping about it going to change anything." Said the voice again. "You'll get her back, you always do. You can't stop things like this from happening but you can rescue her from it."

"You're right." He said now thinking to himself. "Wait a minute... Who just spoke?" He said finally realising he wasn't alone. "Show yourself." He continued speaking, looking into the darkness of the room as his voice echoed. He was in attack mode.

"It's me you idiot." Cara said walking out of the shadows. "If you going to be her protector start by putting the lights on. It's easy to hide in this house when the lights are off."

"Thanks I'll keep that in mind for next time." Felix said. His sentence dripping with sarcasm as he backed down from his protective stance.

"There shouldn't be a next time." Cara said clearly annoyed by his sarcastic tone. She was leaning with her back against the wall.

"Why are you here, anyway?" He said now in a serious tone after placing his face in the palm of his hand. He was face palming. "Shouldn't you be watching us from that crystal ball like you always do?"

"Well, I can ask you the same thing." Cara said. "Why are you still here. Shouldn't you be saving Alice?"

"Yeah, you right I should but I have to figure out where she is first, genius." Felix said slightly mumbling to himself and beyond annoyed. He sighed.

"That's what you say." Said Cara in a cold tone, her voice full of sarcasm. "And yet, you were moping around like a little pussycat just a few minutes ago. How pathetic." She continued as she made sure to burn him. "That I had to come all this way just to knock some sense into you." She said now gesturing to herself in triumph. "All I hear is excuses, excuses."

Felix was really not in the mood for all this so he just ignored Cara's nasty remarks and continued to speak about what was most important to him at this point in time. Which was... finding Alice. Well, her location to be exact.

"He could have taken her anywhere... another realm even. There are about five portals here on earth that humans can't enter and then there's still the barriers and to make matters worse he's the Gate Keeper. The Gate Keeper of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory... (Also known as the realm of monsters). To be more specific he could have even taken her to the After Life." Felix spoke on.

"But if he entered a portal we would have known." Cara said with wide eyes. "Union keeps track of all of them. And there is no way he can take her to the After Life, that's all three realms in one. Her body would disintegrate. She can only cross the three gates of the After Life if she is fully transformed but we both know that hasn't happened, yet."

"Well, actually we wouldn't know because you're here and not watching what's happening through that crystal ball of yours." Felix said. He was angry, confused and mostly annoyed at this moment in time.

"Yeah, about that." Cara said. "There comes a time when you have to sit on your ass and just watch things and there comes a time when you have to get involved and this is that time. It's time we start getting involved."

"And how exactly are you getting involved?" Felix said raising his eyebrows with a confused look on his face. "Come to join my pity party?"

"Stop being such a ding bat." Cara said shaking her head with a sheepish smile. "You know I can help. I helped you more than once, I can do it again."

"Fine..." Felix said. "Where shall we begin?"

"I'll be the look out." Cara said. "Obviously not from here. I'll need to have my crystals on me but I'll let you know if something is up with the portals. I would do it telepathically if I could but damn, headaches are a bomber. Crystals give me more strength."

"Okay..." Felix said, "so you'll be out of the way."

"Yeah... pretty much." Cara said placing her index finger on her cheek, her head tilted to the side and looking up jokingly. "I know you wouldn't want me getting in the way of whatever you planning so I figured I'd do that instead Mr One Man Army."

"Wow... is that supposed to be an insult..." Felix said raising an eyebrow and then squinting. "We, both know I'm more powerful than that."

"Save the confidence for later..." Cara said patting Felix on the back, "you going to need it."

And without further adieu the rescue mission began...

MISSION_RA_|

(Mission Rescue Alice)

Felix got all the stuff he had gathered on the bed and put them in a backpack while Cara discussed the possibilities of where Alice could be. And their minds were soon made up. Azrael was keeping Alice in a barrier.

While portals take you to other places barriers conceal you in one place and there is no way you can escape them once you are trapped inside by the person who opened it. However, the person controlling it can make mini replicas of places inside of it but it's not really the place although you may think you are there. They were now dead sure he was keeping her inside a barrier since Union can't keep track of them.

The only thing left to do was to figure out which barrier she was stuck in.

...

And we continue where we left off...

Previously...

"Your safety?" He questioned with a puzzled look on his face. I had surely confused him. This is great because I'm now one step closer to getting him to believe the lie. Look at me the manipulator. It's going to catch up to me, isn't it? But for now let's just go with the flow. One lie after the other for a good cause and I'm home free. That's if Felix figures out what's happening. And yet, I wouldn't be here if I told him in the first place.

"Yes, my safety..." I lied... let's see where this lie goes. "Think about it..." I said acting like I knew what I was saying... trust me I didn't, not one bit of it. "You brought me here to god knows where. Imagine all the dangers. I mean, yes it seems safe but you brought me to another realm. There could be beasts outside for all I know... therefore you, as bad as you are... I would rather have you here to keep me out of harms way than whatever is out there." I said now pointing out the window.

"Beasts you say?" Azrael said laughing to himself now. I know I sounded stupid but it was the only way to make him believe me. There's that blow to my ego. Wait, did I even have that? An ego. I suffer from low self-esteem. "There's no way there can be beasts here." Azrael continued after laughing. "I mad-"

His unfinished sentence caught my attention. "You mad-" I repeated what he said exactly to the T well, what I had heard anyway. "You were going to say?"

"I was mad at you earlier." Azrael said scratching the back of his neck. As if that wasn't a dead giveaway. He was clearly hiding something... the question is what?

He paused for a bit. Was he thinking of what to say next? He was somewhat dazed. Maybe this was my chance to get some answers out of him.

"You were saying?" I said tilting my head to the side and stretching out my words in attempt to coax him into speaking while he wasn't in his right frame of mind. But that backfired. Yes, I'm calculating... but in a life and death situation like this... okay it's not that bad... but if I lose to him I have to spend my entire life with this guy. Seriously, what would you have done in a situation like this.

"I made-" He continued, stuck in his daze.

"Yes?" I said wanting him to go on when suddenly he shook his head and blinked a couple of times as if to break himself out of his daze before responding to me again.

"What were you saying?" I continued. Still trying to get him to speak.

"Oh?" He said still shaking his head. It was almost as if he was fighting with himself so that he wouldn't daze off again. "But," he continued... "now I'm not mad at you."

"See, what did I tell you. See it backfired."

Nothing...

Still no answer... or answers...

How frustrating!..

This was pretty strange... even though he's Death... even for me. He just zoned out. He looked as if he was out of it, like something was eating at him.

Was Death afraid of something other than himself...

I mean, what's more scary than death?

Was something else out there? The question is... what? What was out there...

To be continued...