19: to conceal

~~Angel~~

I wished things were different for us all. I wish that Mauraline would have grown up with her mother instead of Week. Yet, would her fate be better or worse than it was now? Would she have had to grow in fear of Zayn or would she have happily been at Rose's side her whole life?

I was before her and watched her head tilt to the side. She reminded me nothing of my sister, instead she was an empty vessel for whoever was holding her. It instilled pain and fear into my heart. If Zayn was powerful enough to hold the head archangel, would he be able to hold an archdemon? Not just any archdemon, but the head one?

I braced for her hit once I saw it coming at me. It took a lot in me to right myself again and keep in the air. Her powers must have grown, because a hit like that before would never have caused me to become this out-of-sorts.

Her dull eyes were locked on me, but they remained dazed and unfocused. For a split second of studying those eyes did I see the flash of silvery-blue I loved so very much before it disappeared again and become that foreign silver I hadn't seen in so long.

"Rosie... It's your sister, can you hear me?" I asked. I saw the flash again and she dropped her hands limply to her sides. Below us, the battle raged on. No signs of any other of the archangels other than her in the sky.

"An...gel?" her voiced asked. Part of me felt joy at her voice coming out of her. I craved it. Some foreign part that was awakened relaxed at the familiarity. I let my wings guide me back to her and stopped right before her. I reached out and touched the black on her face. Again, the flicker of recognition before she let out a blood-curling scream. I felt the pain before I registered what had happened.

The laugh rang through the sky as I spit out the pooling blood in my mouth.

"Angel!" Week's voiced called to me. For once, I heard the missing fear in his voice.

"Poor Angelina. Dying at the hands of the sister she swore herself to protect." I didn't have to look at him to know who was speaking to me. "Guess it's time for the demon girl to fall," he said, taking his hand and placing it over Rose's glove covered one. Slowly, he guided her hand to pull the heaven water dipped dagger from my abdomen. "Now, my darling, it"s time for her to fall."

I grabbed her glove and took it with me as I fell, then I noticed the silver band on her hand. A growl ripped through my throat. I saw Week trying to get to me, then I saw Kai. His eyes were angry as he tried to rip to me. They were both going to be too late, so I fell and let the hole take me. The inky abyss welcomed me as I entered Rose's mind.

~~~~~~~~~

I couldn't tell how long I wandered in the darkness of her mind. It had to have been a while before I saw the silver chains that held her. Except, it wasn't completely her. "Damn you, Zayn!" the girl yelled. I recognized then what she was, she was the demon half of Rose.

"Rosie?" I asked, and saw the part I hadn't seen in a long time face me. Her silver eyes were focused solely on me.

"Angel!" she called back and stood from her kneeling state to attempt to run to me. The shackles on her wrists held her in place even as standing up.

I walked to her and rested my forehead against hers. She relaxed to my touch and I noticed a shimmery stream down her eye. I stepped back and stared into the golden crest that had appeared in her eyes.

"I missed you," she said, a small smile gracing her lips. "You accepted the position, you're so pretty as an archdemon."

"What is the crest, Rosie?"

"It's the forcing mark. He's controlling me as the demon half, but the angel half is locked away deeper than here. You have to get her. You have to get Evangeline!" the girl cried.

"Who's Evangeline, Rosie?" I asked, placing my hand on her cheek.

"She's what the angel half calls herself when we're split. It from when the demon and angels sides of me merged. You have to get her, she's the only way we can get out of here." Her voice was frantic as she tried to get even closer.

"I'll find her, okay?"

~~~~~~~~~

I walked even farther. This part of her mind was no longer just inky darkness, now snow was covering the view which seemed to be a mountain range.

At the top was a silver cage. That had to be what I was looking for.

Yet once I reached it, it was empty, with the door slung wide open.

A child's giggle called me forward. Deeper was a forest with a clearing, the snow falling lightly. What seemed to be a shadow version of Mauraline was running around the clearing with her mother watching her, a giggle ringing out of her. In the center of it, was a single red rose that was frosted over, but seemed to have survived the snow and the initial freeze up here this high in her mental mountains.

"Rose!" I called and ran to her across the clearing, waiting for some kind of response, yet I received nothing. She was trained on Maura. "Rose?" I asked again, and she finally looked at me.

"Oh, Angel, when did you get here?" she asked, her dull eyes falling back to her daughter, a small smile dancing on her lips.

"Rose, what are you doing?"

"I'm watching Maura. She's been growing up so fast. Zayn will be here soon, then we're going out to eat for her birthday," she replied, waving back at Maura when the girl excitedly waved at her. Something hit me then.

"How old is Maura today, Rose?" I asked, hoping I was wrong.

"Maura is four today, don't you remember, Angel? You just gave her a doll," she said, dazed.

"Rose, wake up." I demanded. She turned to me, her eyes gaining only a tiny bit of recognition in them. "You're dreaming. None of this is real, don't you remember?"

"What are you talking about, Angel?" the image around us flickered for a second before it became stable again.

"This isn't the truth of what's happening! Don't you see? This is wrong!" I screamed at her, hoping for a response, but she just went back to training her eyes on Maura. "Rosie?"

"Oh, Angel," she said again, turning herself to face me. "When did you get here?"

I froze. Inside, I realized talking to her was a lost cause. She would just reset herself to this moment, content to this happy image in her mind.

I turned to the image of Maura and noticed the dark magic surrounding her for the first time. Someone was messing with her and making her see an image of something not truly in front of her. Someone wanted her to remain obedient and remain here in this place.

It was at this moment I truly realized how broken she became just because we didn't go to save her. I watched the image reset again and collapsed to my knees.

"Rosie, I'm so sorry. I was a fool," I laughed slightly. I noticed the crease between her eyebrows as if she was trying to figure something out. "I knew you were in pain. Constantly. And yet, I let you suffer and I watched you break. It was the worse thing I'll ever experience, because you're my best friend. You're the girl I search for every morning and come up empty because I miss you so much. You're the one that I couldn't accept that you were truly gone, because I always had that feeling you were just waiting for me to come get you and restart again.

"I knew you were gone, Rosie. I could see that I was losing you. That all of us were losing you. The image began to blur at the edges again, but I kept going. Her eyes were finally starting to focus on me as I spoke. "I didn't want you to turn your back to me ever again, so I fought for the power you were supposed to inherit, just to remain in your gaze. Then, I was so close to being able to get you back, for you to become mine again, and yet the truth of what I pushed off is facing me and laughing. Fate is laughing at me, Rose," I said, tears clouding my own vision. "All because of a stupid joke. All because I wasn't ready to accept you were leaving me behind again, and I can't face that. So please, Rosie. Come back to me."

I felt arms wrap around me and I let her stay like that with me until my vision cleared. The mountains and the clearing were gone, all that was left was that single red rose and the blackness.

"I'm sorry, Angel. But I can never come back to you," she said, placing her head against mine as I felt myself breaking.

"Yes you can! You always-"

"Angel, I can't leave here. I'm doomed to be here, in this place for all eternity." The mountains and the clearing came back. The snow just beginning to fall again. The whole scene was the same except that Maura was gone this time. "If I leave, he'll put me back in the cage, and he'll kill you all. That's why I have to stay here. For good."

"No," I cried as she left me. Rose walked to the red rose and bent down to touch it. The petals melted away for a second and became silver and metallic before she pulled away.

"Leave, Angel."

"No!" I cried again as she threw me back into my own consciousness.

I felt myself break again. She threw me away.

Zayn's laughing rang as I opened my eyes to see Week and Kai standing in front of me with Maura laying against my chest, asleep. Levi was bent to the ground with us, ready to grab us and run if necessary.

"Did you truly think that would work, little archdemon?" he asked me. Rose was by his side, her eyes still unfocused, but her hands had begun to twitch. "Don't you get it? Rose is mine now. She's never coming back!"

I hated his cocky laughter. I shut my eyes to the shrill sound of it just until it abruptly stopped.

I heard his cough as I opened my eyes.

And saw Rosie's knife in his gut.

"It's your turn, Zayn," she said, flying him into the air. At that second, Maura took a gulp of air and searched for something.

Maura's eyes landed on her mother and I saw light coming to them.

"Now fall," Rose's voice rang, as Zayn fell from the sky.

Every one of the angel warriors stopped and began to retreat. As Zayn's body hit the earth.

Then Rose began to fall.