Angels Have Acne Part 2

The sky is dark. Not a wind breaks the stagnance of the atmosphere as Rubin hovers through roadways. A cataclysmic mass of zombie-like ghosts roams the tar. Oblivious, ordinary humans walk through them which causes the ghosts to vanish with only an ashy breeze left to commemorate their presence.

Gloom encompasses the skyscrapers similar to Westville's own. Roused from his slumber by Noe's rising agitation, Daniel pulls up his glasses in an attempt to confirm that his vision is not deceiving him. Feng Mian and Rosalind look onward as Rubin continues to solemnly soar.

"Where are we going?" Daniel voices his question.

Rosalind snaps back, "I don't know if you've forgotten because you're scared or whatever but if you could just go fu-"

"To find our soulmates," Feng Mian eases the gas pedal off of Rosalind. Looking around, "My soulmate is nearby," she begins to bounce on the balls of her feet. "Can you feel yours?"

Rosalind clears her throat. "I can sense that mine is close too."

Feeling her throat tighten, Feng Mian tries to stretch out the stress taking her neck hostage.

A dry swallow scrapes down Rosalind's throat.

"Over there," they both point to a tall building which Rubin flies up and lands on.

Before Rubin has fully settled on the roof, Rosalind and Feng Mian fling themselves off of her, scale the building, and leap into an open window at the top floor.

"Shall we?" Noe softly asks Daniel.

"We shall."

Noe manipulates the air around them and they glide down the building, descending through the same window Rosalind and Feng Mian disappeared into. Following Rosalind's violent footfalls, Noe easily tracks them.

The lights in the hallway are astoundingly bright.

"What if he really is the same?" Rosalind asks Feng Mian.

"Impossible," Feng Mian groans breaking out into a sprint with Rosalind at her heels.

The end of the hallway draws near as the two continue to run. Though the strain of running does not affect Ephrenes, Feng Mian begins to pant acutely, sinuses closing up.

Suddenly, they stop.

Feng Mian loses all the blood in her face as Rosalind silently rubs the flesh attached to her skull.

The world turns upside down.

Entering the threshold of the last hospital room, a private hospital room, the two slowly step to either side of a hospital bed. An ECG scanner rhythms the pulse of a boy drowned in hospital blankets, head seeping into the hospital pillow beneath him like a skeleton. His body makes ribbons of the hospital gown that peeks over the white hospital sheets.

Feng Mian all but stops breathing and Rosalind's eyes reflect the pits of the fiery inferno she has been thrown into. The two look upon their soulmate.

At first, Noe does not believe his eyes.

"What are you doing in here?" a male nurse rushes into the room.

Everyone except the boy in the bed startles but the male nurse trains his eyes solely on Daniel - the rest are invisible.

"Is this patient comatose?" Daniel asks the nurse.

Immediately, Feng Mian manipulates the nurse's emotions to elicit an answer.

"Yes. He has been comatose for four years following a train accident."

Feng Mian chokes out in plea, "Omniscient, Father, please make this disappear."

Rosalind flinches.

"Jinn Ma, a student at Sympathy Boarding School for the Misguided in Westville, was traveling back home to Northville. Due to an unreported oil spill, his connecting train to Northville derailed. Two teenage girls went missing. There were no survivors. Jinn Ma arrived at our emergency room in cardiac arrest and after twenty hours of operation miraculously entered stability.

"As there has never been a case quite like his, medical professionals are torn on whether he can be considered comatose or in a vegetative state. Today, the chances of him waking up are perpetually 0.01 percent. Even if he was to gain consciousness, he would be completely brain dead." Blinking, the nurse walks himself out of the room.

Rosalind and Feng Mian take either of Jinn's withered hands into their own.

Upon contact with Jinn's skin, they tumble onto the ground.

~

The tunnel walls are grimy with tiny cockroaches scrambling between the cracks. Underground tunnel railway tracks running for thousands of miles bridge Westville, Norville, Southville, and Eastville together; the only method of travel between the domes also used to transport food, water reserves, and oil.

In the middle of the thousand mile tunnel, Rosalind merges with the shadows of the tunnel, a mass of black jeans and jacket hidden behind a bench at the crossover.

This must be her memory, Rosalind thinks.

Two U-turns facing each other are at the base of the tracks. These complete turners are used when the two trains, traveling from their ports and running head on towards one another, stop and allow passengers and cargo to be crossed over to their opposing train. From there, the passengers and cargo ride to their destination.

Rosalind has waited for days for the next round of trains to arrive. Her lips are white with hunger. Half a meatbun is stashed away in her pocket for the next bay. Until then, she must endure.

"Why am I back here?" she asks herself.

When she blinks, the scene becomes one of passengers exiting and boarding opposite trains. Upon the bench which Rosalind hides behind, a young man sits.

"I can't believe I have to go home. Father says I'll never take over the Ma Conglomerate anyway," Jinn tilts his head backward.

Feeling a strange tug towards this boy, Rosalind flinches as she rises and takes a seat beside Jinn.

As she surveys him, Jinn rises and enters the Northville train.

That feeling arises in Rosalind again; if he goes in there, the boy might never get out.

Immediately, she runs, limping as she drags her left leg behind her, into the train. She passes all the carriages and barges through the door into the front car. "Hey, dude! It's smelt like oil for the past few days. I think there's a spill up ahead," Rosalind points toward the rail leading back to Northville.

"What's a rat doing on this train?" the elderly conductor manning the controls eyes Rosalind up and down.

"We're sorry, Sir. We'll get her out of here this instant."

"I agreed to this job because I was told only the high class would be seated. I avoid interacting with these scum," he spits at Rosalind, mustache curling. "They only bring dirt and rodents."

An onboard service personnel apologizes as he takes Rosalind's upper arms. "Let's go."

Carted away, Rosalind ignores the need to protect the boy on the bench and allows herself to be lead by the serviceman.

A young girl in bright clothing enters her vision.

"Leave us," the girl instructs the serviceman and he obeys. "You can smell the oil too," Feng Mian, a stranger then, states at Rosalind.

Shaking off Feng Mian's gaze, Rosalind responds, "None of my business."

Before Rosalind has a chance to get away, Feng Mian blocks the passageway and informs Rosalind, "I just met a boy that I want to protect. You will help me do so."

"Um, I didn't ask. Is there something wrong with your brain?"

"I have... Nevermind."

"You have what? Common sense to let me pass? That would be nice."

"You are unkind," Feng Mian flings the beautiful shawl adorning her cultural Japanese wear and lets it fall upon her elegant left shoulder.

JOLT.

"The train is moving," Feng Mian says.

"I can feel that, dimwit."

"Oh no," Feng Mian gently pushes Rosalind aside and tries to open the door to the conductor but it has long been locked. "Where has the serviceman gone? We have to stop the train."

The wheels on the train clug and grind forward, reaching the upper limits of modern speed instantaneously.

"They're not gonna listen to a kid like you. Just let it go," Rosalind huffs.

"I am fifteen years old. People stop being considered children at twelve." Feng Mian casts her eyes back onto the door and bangs her fist against the door, "We have to stop the train!"

"Heh, good luck with that," Rosalind steps away from her and looks around the near-empty carriage in search of a place to hide until they arrive in Northville. She cannot trust this unusual girl to keep her shielded until they get there.

Feng Mian turns back to Rosalind and persists, "The train will crash if we do not stop it. You will help me stop it."

"No, I will not. What you gotta do is stop being so weird and leave me alone."

"Feng Mian! Come back here. You know you're not allowed to roam around by yourself!" a man in a pristine suit comes clambering toward their carriage.

Feng Mian resolves, "I will have to do it mys-"

The train overturns.

Another shift in atmosphere occurs.

Rosalind finds herself standing in a field of tall green grass that thistles up to her thighs. An enormous oak tree in the distance tangles up towards the sunset sky.

From behind Rosalind, Feng Mian's voice enquires, "Were you just in that memory with me?"

"Yeah..."

"Who is it?" Jinn's voice calls from a few meters ahead.

Rosalind and Feng Mian walk forward.

Sitting up, Jinn marvels at them, "I've never seen anyone in here with me before."

The two Ephrenes silently stare at him.

Curiously observing the manner in which light reflects from their skin, Jinn asks, "Are you guys angels or something?"

Still their stares continue, padding over Jinn's features.

Jinn points at Rosalind's face, "Is that a pimple on your chin? I guess you can't be an angel."

Tumbling out of her awe, Rosalind explodes back into herself, "Angels have acne too, you know!"

~

Noe lets Daniel back onto his feet as they rush forward to save the two Ephrenes from banging against the floor. Once they are secured, he unzips the pocket in space that he had stored 'A Guide to Ziraethean Myths and Legends' and begins reading.