AnewI

Coda sat straight up in her bed.  Something had disturbed her.  She strained her senses to her surroundings.

It was the middle of the night.  She was among six beds that made up the infirmary located in an attic directly above the main library.  Her peers were fast asleep.  Her breathing was easy, and she felt clearly awoken like she had been awake for hours. 

Without a clear sense of motive, she moved to climb down the ladder and enter the vaults.  As she moved her head, a ray of the full moon landed on her face.  Colors of faint silver triggered a memory in her mind; nevertheless it propelled her to continue on her blind whim.  She threw on her bathrobe and one glance over her sleeping friends, and proceeded to step down the ladder barefoot.  Once she was downstairs she relaxed – Mr. Clan Bear would need a proper alarm to stir him awake, and believed she would raise no alarm.  With candle in one hand she padded up the wide staircase and stepped among the impassive shelves of books that made up the vaults.

As she searched, aimlessly, worriedly biting her lip while a scowl etched her forehead, she remembered that today was the first anniversary of her ‘death’.  She faintly remembered those silvery forms that had come to haunt her afterwards.  Her troubled face deepened.  ‘Gray Angel’ was the term those spirits had her named a year ago.  However, she had forgotten all about that, not even inkling – until now.  They had come to her today to remind her of her given title, her purpose.

But what was the purpose of the Gray Angel?

This was exactly what had compelled her to advance to the vaults in the first place; she was often to act before she knew her reason.  So now she knew that she was looking for a book that referred to the Gray Angel.  But she had no idea what in the world a Gray Angel was, thus, no idea who she herself was.

She wondered if she should ask Mr. Clan Bear for advice.  No, better ask Catch – she trusted him more.  The tension between Mr. Clan Bear and Catch was very subtle, but it was intense.  Once she’d caught on to Catch’s cool demeanor toward her teacher, she sought out reasons for his behavior.  Soon enough, she was finding Mr. Clan Bear’s bizarre habits, such as licking his fingernail when in deep thought, contrasting to her tastes and chose to keep her distance.

She pulled out a paperback volume titled ‘Angels of Assortments’, and kneeled upon the ground, setting the book in her lap.  She turned the pictures, devouring the vibrant illustrations of angels of all types – heavenly white, menacing dark, even ones that looked like gruesome monsters.  There was no gray.

Coda picked herself up, returned to browsing the shelves.

As she turned a corner, a glint of rainbow flashed in her peripheral vision.  Something magical had just caught her attention.  There was a book down in the corner nestled between two other dusty volumes.  As she moved closer she saw that it was soaked and swathed in fluttering colors of yellow to violet – the colors of the rainbow – fluttering like an optical illusion. 

When she reached out touched the spine, the rainbow flew from the book cover and surged into her arm, throwing torrents of magic through her skin and into her blood.  The spell was testing her.  She berated herself; spells cast on countless of magical books could cause her serious injury.  She waited for the toxic tingling to end – she had no idea what it was searching for.

The spell found her satisfactory; the rainbow sunk back into the threads of the book, and Coda pulled it out.  Narmaceil.  Curious.

Just then she a shadow snuck down the corridor.  She abandoned her candle but kept the book in hand, and ran to catch up with the person.  Being absolutely silent, she took one good look at him – it was Marco.  Marco was her friend – a werewolf frail in body but he was a master thinker.

“Marco?” she hissed.

His head spun around with a hunted expression on his face.  “You?”

“What are you doing?”

He paused, eyes dodging sideways.  “E-scaping.”

“Why?”

He paused again, deceiving.  “I…don’t know.”

“Are you coming back?”

“Hell no.”

“But why?” she persisted.

“Be… ‘cause.”

“Is it because of… him?”

“…Yes.”

She frowned.  “What about your transformations?”

“I’ll… lock myself up.”

Coda bit her lip.  “I’m coming with you.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” she mimicked.  “Listen, I feel the same way about him, okay?  You want to leave, I get bad vibes from the man, so… lets go.”

“But you’re wearing your nightgown,” he protested. 

“That’s oka--” she thought of something.  Her old clothes.  “You don’t mind if I go change?”

He shook his head.  “Just hurry.”

“How about the others?  They might want to leave as well, so we can’t leave them behind.”

“What if they don’t?  What if they rat us out?”

“They wouldn’t,” she began, but thought of a single person.  “Nevermind.”

“So go, hurry.”

She turned to go back to the attic, but faced Marco upon second thought.  “If we leave them here, he could use them to find us.”

He pursed his lips in worry.  “Know any spells?”

“I’m just a Seer.”

He shrugged.  They were both thinking the same thing: if they wanted to leave for good, they better move fast.

With the stealth of a thief, Coda snaked up the ladder.  She set one calculating eye over her remaining peers.  Shomo the Tracker was snoring like usual; Teeln the half-Exenta was perfectly still with slumber, otherwise she’d be moving restlessly; Mars the vampire was cast under a spell to hold back his urge to prowl at night so he was set; and finally Jack, the only true human, was snoring like always.  Satisfied with their conditions, she hurried to her cot and flipped up the flimsy mattress to uncover the ragged, frayed, but tough street clothes that she had once worn.  She had two types of trousers, and two types of shirts – thick and rough in one, and thin and soft in the other.  She had no shoes from that time, so she piled up her boots along with her clothes in one arm, and hurried down the ladder.

In a minute, she was changed.  With her nightgown in one hand for safekeeping, she and Marco exited the library.  They went down the stairs, and out into the streets. 

She took one good look around the abandoned streets, and went east, Marco at her heels.  Soon they were at a bus stop, and they boarded a bus, to the skeleton driver handing over a nickel each.  They sat among the numerous vampires, without fear that they would hurt them; vampires believed the blood of children to be weak. 

“Where are we going?” Marco finally hissed after passing the eleventh bus stop; he was feeling panicked from their lack of direction.  The maliciously pale demons, dressed in fine gothic clothes, glanced leeringly at the children.  He wondered if they were to bump into Catch – he wasn’t sure if he wanted face him after escaping from the home that he had salvaged for him.  Then again, he would be relieved to see a familiar face.

“As far away as possible,” Coda answered.  She looked out the window.  “Turn your face away, now!”

Marco hung his head as low to his chest as possible.  “Why?”

“Catch is here.”

If they believed that they could hide from the vampire whom they’d known their whole lives, they were wrong.  A set of footsteps slowed, fatefully, as they approached.  Marco eyed the boots.  It was Catch.

Coda looked up at him, and so did Marco.  His expression was unreadable, but judging by the corner of his mouth he seemed to be amused.  He demanded nothing of them.  They stared beseechingly up at their old savior.  Finally, Marco burst, “Help us Catch!  We’re escaping.”

“So you’re not going out on a midnight date?” he mocked, his expression falling.

“Ew!” they both said. 

He became serious.  “Why?”

“It was his idea!”

“Listen, Mr. Clan Bear – he’s creepy,” Marco began.  “He licks his fingernails.  He never wakes up until high noon – I think it has something to do with morning.  He hides in his office when the moon is out – even I don’t do that and I’m a werewolf.  He traces our footsteps.  He traces his own footsteps.  Why, he doesn’t flush the toilet and one of us always has to do it for him!”

So, thought Catch, they suspected.  He was relieved that they could sense the evil in their prominent benefactor, even if it was small habits; he had his own reasons for disliking Mr. Clan Bear, but these were not among them.  Because of this, he believed that they had a higher purpose.  It’s time for them to move on.

“Then come with me.”

They followed him out of the bus, out on the street, and dodging into an alley so small, it was merely a space between two buildings.  At the far end of the alley, they took a right, and before them was a rickety wooden shed snugly nestled at the dead-end.  The wood of the shed was gray, and moss grew from under the eaves – why, slime even ran in green rivulets down the wooden roof.  They waited on the porch as Catch tested the door to open.

When they stepped inside, it was completely dark.  There was no odor, not a sign of life.  Once Catch shut the door behind them, the world lit up.

They seemed to be in an underwater dome.  They were in a plastic bubble, about thirty feet wide, right in the middle of a tropical sea.  The water overhead was a brilliant aquamarine, a shade of blue that they would never see in their sky.  Fish swam, darted, and squiggled past them with as many shades as a blooming garden – more, even.  The coral reef formed an intricate fence of lace stretching out in a maze, a garden, as far as the eye could see.  They were so used to a world of shades of gray that this flowering sight staggered them.

“Ahead, that door,” said Catch in their ears, “Is the Passage.  This is the Portal.”

They understood that this was their time to go.

“Bye… Thanks Catch,” said Marco, shuffling his feet.

“Yeah,” agreed Coda, a twisted expression on her face.  She relented leaving him behind.  “Thank you so much.”

They turned, shoulders set with one another, and headed to the door, their faces grim.

As reached out for the door, Catch called out “I’ll be seeing you soon!”.

Their hearts lifted with hope as the werewolf turned the doorknob, and they entered the new world with a smile on their faces.