© Jojo B 2018

All rights including those in copyright in the content of this story are owned by Jojo B. It's Illegal to steal and/or copy.

______________________________________________________________________

Flaws and Feathers

Chapter 7

None of the boys had told me whether they had physical seen anything near or around me, leaving the mystery unsolved. It was starting to bother me, not knowing what was going on. I rubbed the back of my neck as I frowned lightly, sitting on the bus home.

Nathan had said he would calm down. He had said he wouldn't cause trouble. Well - Cassiel had made him say that, so I didn't exactly take his word for it. The reason why I hadn't insisted that Nathan didn't come home with us, was because I had seen how much they boys meant to each other. They had been separated for whatever reason, and had just got back together. I didn't want to kick them out when I knew they had nowhere to go, and no money. So the only solution was Nathan coming back to the cabin with us. I would have to talk to Gwen about it, because I didn't know how long we could support them using our pocket money.

As soon as Micah was found, or maybe sooner, we would get the answers we needed and have no more secrets. They could get jobs and earn their own money. Eventually they would have to move out, because I doubted we could hide it from our mother forever.

By the time we got back to the cabin, it was close to the end of college. Gwen would be coming home soon, and Joe a couple hours later. I let the boys enter the cabin without me, wanting to be alone for a moment. Nathan hadn't apogised for being so rude, and neither had I for calling him by his full name - which he clearly hadn't liked. I didn't really care.

Walking alongside the lake, I felt the damp earth spring a little under my steps. The weather was cool, not cold. Kind of like the calm before a storm. Though I was hoping it wouldn't rain again so heavily, unless I was indoors. Looking over the still water, I saw a light fog settle above the surface, pierced by the tall reeds.

My mind was solely on that presence I kept on feeling. Now that I was confident that it wasn't all in my head, I was more determined to find out the reason behind the strange sensations. It felt like a person, not a thing.

"Am I going crazy?" I muttered to myself as I crouched down, looking out at the rippling water.

"No."

My muscles immediately stiffened at the sound of another person standing right over my shoulder. At first I thought I might be hearing the voice of the unknown suspect, but then I looked over my shoulder to see Cassiel there.

"I felt what you felt," he looked down at me, his blonde hair tightly tousled by the gentle breeze.

"Are you talking about that electric shock, or what I felt that I can't even explain," I looked up at him helplessly.

Cassiel let out a soft sigh before bending down next to me, facing the lake.

"What you cannot explain," he replied.

"Do you know what it is?" I kept my hazel eyed gaze on him, knowing that he had to know something.

Cassiel went quiet for a while, his blue eyes fixed on the murky water in front of us. He was so still, and if I looked closely enough it would even appear as if he wasn't breathing. His silence made me think he says mentally debating ether or not to tell me something, but then when I saw his shoulders deflate, I knew I wasn't going to get any proper answers.

"It is hard to explain," he ended up sighing again. "And it is not my place to say."

I rolled my eyes and glared down at the ground, not even bothering to say anything. My hands took hold of a smooth rock that lay in the damp earth, and I rubbed the mud off it with my thumb, enjoying the gliding motions across its surface.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cassiel get up to his feet, still gazing out across the lake. At least he had confirmed that what I was feeling wasn't all in my head, I thought to myself.

"See you inside," he murmured as he turned to head back to the cabin.

"Whatever," I muttered under my breath as I stood up to throw the stone at his head. Lightly. Of course.

Cassiel didn't even flinch when the solid egg sized stone bounced off the back of his head. He glanced over his shoulder to send me a dark look, and I smiled back cheesily. His skull must have been made out of titanium or something.

I stayed out by the lakeside for a little while longer, before going back home. I wasn't in the mood to approach Nathan again. I knew Gwen would be back from college by then, so I figured I would give her a little update about the new addition.

Kicking my muddy boots off by the back door, I picked them up to carry them through the house to the boot room. Knowing myself, I wouldn't clean them later, so there was so point telling myself that I would.

Grabbing a snack from the kitchen, I jogged up the stairs and went straight to my sister's room. Gwen was sitting on her bed with her guitar on her lap, literally about to strum a chord, when I barged in.

"You never knock," she stated blankly, putting her guitar aside on the bed.

"Why would I?" I arched a brow at her before scoffing and sitting on her desk chair. "How was college?"

Gwen regarded me with an unimpressed look because I had skipped classes, "The usual."

"You love college," I grinned at her as I put a handful of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes into my mouth. "Where's the enthusiasm?!"

Gwen's face scrunched into one of annoyance as bits of cornflake sprayed out my mouth onto her cream coloured carpet.

"Vienna, do you have to do that right here?" she gestured to the box of cereal I had snagged from the kitchen.

I smiled apologetically, my glum mood already brightening when I got to irritate my sister.

"We found Nathaniel," I told her as I dug my hand into the box for another handful. "Well, he prefers Nathan. He gets pretty mad over it."

"Mad over his name?" Gwen creased her brows in confusion.

"Yeah, when he gets called Nathaniel. He doesn't like it," I said through a mouth of cereal.

Gwen blinked hard, staring at me with her lips pressed into a flat line.

"Okay, okay! I'm sorry," I held my hands out and grinned. "I'll stop, I'll stop."

Putting the box down on her desk, I resorted to swirling round on her wheel chair. Gwen seemed to tolerate it, not bothering to waste her voice complaining.

"This Nathan, is he staying in the cabin too now?" she asked me.

"Yeah," I nodded. "He's a bit...he struggles with his anger, but I didn't want to turn him away. He has nowhere else to go, and we said we would help Raphael."

"Yeah, I know," she replied with a nod of her own. "It's just the money. We can't feed them all forever."

"Yeah," I agreed. "And how long we can keep it a secret for? I mean, Joe or even Mum is bound to go to the cabin eventually."

We both sat silence for a moment as we thought it through. It was a risky thing we were doing, but I was committed. My life had never taken such an unexpected turn before, and there was still that part of me deep inside that was hoping to gain some real friends out of it.

Our younger brother's voice cancelled our trains of thought when he appeared in Gwen's doorway. Joe had a bored expression on his face as he stood there in a loose fitting hoodie and a pair of blue jeans.

"Er, when was the last time you washed those?" I pulled a face of disgust when I saw his filthy, once white socks.

Joe went to take a step to walk into Gwen's room and the two of us yelled for him to stay where he was.

"Oh come on," Joe rolled his blue eyes, putting his foot down again. "You two are so overdramatic."

"There's like three types of fungi growing on the sole of that sock, mate," I argued. "And it looks like you stepped in mustard. Like, what is that yellow thing?"

"Take them off," Gwen frowned.

"My feet are cold," he mumbled, trying to shuffle into her room.

"No," Gwen wasn't having it. "Joe, take your socks off now. Do not take another step."

Joe looked at our older sister, a hint of a playful smile on his lips as he tried to guess whether Gwen was being completely serious or not. Turned out he guessed right, and he pulled his socks off, dumping them out in the corridor before walking into Gwen's room.

The 15-year-old went to sit himself on the floor, leaning against the wall. Joe had gotten back from school earlier than expected, or I had just lost track of time whilst I had been out at the lake clearing my head.

"So?" I looked down at him expectantly. "You better have a good reason for interrupting our conversation."

Joe sent me a sarcastic look, "Well, if I remember correctly, you were both just sitting there, saying jack shit."

Gwen and I shared a glance, before her face broke into a grin. I smiled reluctantly as I rolled my eyes.

"Technically, that is true," she admitted.

"Exactly," Joe smirked as he extended his hand to say he was right.

Gwen smiled and shook her head at him, picking up her guitar and strumming gently.

"Dad's coming home soon," Joe murmured, rubbing his brown hair as he gazed at the carpet.

His words made me immediately sigh deeply. Dad hadn't made it for Christmas last year, and even though he and Mum had divorced a couple years ago, he had never missed Christmas before. He was busy with his new girlfriend, who was probably half his age and spending his money without a care. I didn't know if it was the same woman who he had cheated on mum with all those year ago, but after the affair, the relationship I had with my father was never the same. I didn't trust him. I couldn't tell him how I felt anymore. We didn't talk. He used to call occasionally, but he gave up when I refused to pick up. He could sleep with as many women as he wanted as far as I cared. Mum was rid of him and so was I.

"Forget Dad," I said with a frown. "He clearly forgot us."

"He didn't," Joe scowled at me, defending our father. "He was just busy with his business, so he couldn't make it. Besides there was so much snow in Germany last December that the planes must have been affected."

"Even if that was true, its no excuse," I scoffed, looking at my brother in disbelief.

Dad didn't live in England anymore, but he lived in Germany and travelled around Europe a lot as he ran his IT business.

"You just don't know how to forgive, Vienna," Joe went there. "He apologised."

I narrowed my eyes at him as I sat forwards in the chair, too angry to lean back anymore. The muscles in my back and shoulders were rigid as I fought to stay relatively calm.

"Do you think an apology fixes everything?" I hissed at him. "He wasn't ever really sorry, otherwise it wouldn't have ended the way it did."

"Guys," Gwent huffed and stopped playing her guitar to look between us. "There's no need to fight over it. Dad said he'll be coming to visit at the end of next month. He wants to see us and Mum clearly thinks that's fine. She's not going to stop us seeing him, he's our Dad."

I looked at Gwen as I hardened my jaw.

"He's the one who broke the family up," I glared at her. "He's the one who cheated on his wife for over a year. Why is that so hard for you two to understand? He didn't love Mum and he didn't love us either, otherwise he wouldn't have done that to us, to her."

I got up, no longer in the mood to sit and listen to them defend that man. Sure when he came I would see him, but that didn't mean I was looking forwards to his arrival. I would try to be polite, to avoid argument. Try. Heading to my own room, I got into my bed and browsed the Internet until Mum got back from work an hour or so later.

Dinner with Mum was quiet and a bit tense. I was still annoyed at Joe and Gwen, and Joe was still irritated at me. Gwen just wanted everyone to relax and calm down, so it was mostly her and Mum who were making small talk.

"So how was your day, Joe?" Mum asked eventually, her eyes falling onto him.

Joe was shovelling his fork full of mash potato, and he didn't lift his gaze to meet hers when he answered.

"Fine."

"What was fine about it?" our mother arched a brow at him, never satisfied when we gave her one worded answers when she asked about classes.

Joe sighed through his nose, putting his fork down.

"I went to my lessons and came home. Everything was okay, no problems. Not like Vienna," he sent me a side glance.

I glared back at him as he put me on the spot. He knew full well that I hadn't gone to classes today.

"How was college, Vienna?" Mum looked at me, her face already showing signs of disappointment.

I stabbed my fork into my sausage, before carving it with my knife.

"It was good. I don't know what Joe was talking about, because I had no problems either," I replied, my gaze on my plate. "How was work?"

Mum sighed softly. She didn't really enjoy her job, but I don't think it was what she did, but rather because she worked to live, not lived to work. It was a necessity, and being practically the sole breadwinner of the family, I knew it put her under pressure. Dad sent her money here and there, but it obviously wasn't enough. She was just tired, and her being stressed made the rest of us stressed. Well maybe except Joe, who seemed oblivious to such things.

"Work was alright," Mum pushed some of her brown hair behind her ear as she picked up her glass of wine. "It was a long day."

"I bet," I murmured.

"Well it's not everyone who can say their mother is a Chartered accountant," Gwen smiled, trying to cheer her up.

Mum smiled softly, shrugging her shoulders lightly, "I suppose that's true. I mean, all I want is for each of you to achieve more than I ever did. So Vienna and Joe, take your classes more seriously, okay?"

I nodded, usually irritated when she brought up my work ethic, but this time I understood where she was coming from.

"Don't worry Mum, I'll make you proud," I grinned childishly, giving her a thumbs up.

She smiled and shook her head at me, before looking to Joe, who had his mouth stuffed with food.

"Yeah, same," I just about made out his muffled words as he spoke with his mouth full.

Gwen pulled a face a disgust and I rolled my eyes at him. Joe was just a kid. I had to try not to let him get to me so much.

***

Hours later, I looked at my bed with nothing but love and adoration. There wasn't anything better than taking off your bra after a long day and jumping right into bed. I did exactly that. Throwing my bra aside, I dressed into a pair of pyjama shorts and a vest top before hopping into under the covers and rolling up in my duvet to generate some warmth.

It took me a while to actually get tired, so after a few hours on my phone, I called it a night and turned my lamp off. Turning to lay on my side, I immediately felt that presence again, behind me. Breathing out slowly, I stayed still.

"I know you're there," I said out loud, knowing that I must have sounded crazy.

It definitely wasn't Joe sleepwalking, because the door hadn't opened nor closed.

"Tell me who you are," I said firmly, keeping my back to the presence.

I was a little afraid of being disappointed if I turned over to see that there really wasn't anyone standing there, but at the same time, if I saw someone standing by my bed, I would be terrified to say the least.

I mentally groaned when the shaking started again. Raising my hand to rub the back of my neck where my tattoo was making my skin tingle, I tried to dissipate the sensation. It didn't work. My body just started to tremble more and more, and my vision became disoriented. My heart was knocking against my ribcage furiously, and I felt fear soaking into me. I didn't understand what any of this was, and once again I was struggling to stay conscious. As my eyes fell shut and my body continued to shake uncontrollably, I heard a voice.

"Do not be afraid, Vienna. I am Sariel."

***

The next morning, I was still shaken about the night before. Even though I hadn't seen anything, I had felt and this time heard something. It was the first time hearing anything, and I was a bit relieved that it had been voice of a person, and not something inexplicable. It had been a man, and he had told me who he was. Sariel. I was excited to find out who Sariel was, if he would tell me. For some reason, I wasn't afraid anymore, but maybe that was because it was daytime and I wasn't laying alone in the dark. Though there was no ignoring the fact that his voice, although firm, had been a little comforting.

I had woken up by myself that morning, not sleeping late enough so that Gwen would have to come in and wake me. In fact, checking my phone and seeing that the sun was barely even up yet, I figured Gwen was even still asleep. My mind was racing, and even if I tried to go back to sleep, I wouldn't be able to. So instead, I sat up and faced the direction where I had heard Sariel's voice last night.

There was a small part of me that considered if I was going crazy, hearing voices and such, but then I remembered the boys in the cabin. They were a strange bunch, and Cassiel had told me that something was happening, he just couldn't say. Therefore, Sariel couldn't have been a figment of my imagination. It made me wonder if he was a ghost. That's all I could come up with right then.

"Wait," I said out loud, pausing as I reached to pick up my phone. "He knows my name."

I couldn't remember if I had heard for sure or not, but this Sariel had spoken my name too. I didn't know how to explain any of it to anyone else, let alone comprehend it myself. So the first thing that came to mind, was my best pal, the Internet.

Turning my bedside lamp on, I sat cross legged on my bed, leaning against my pillows that were propped up against the headboard as I thought of what to search. Thinking back to exactly what Sariel had said, I recalled him telling me not to be afraid. He had sounded like Raphael and Cassiel actually, with the way he didn't abbreviate his words. He had said 'Do not', instead of 'Don't'.

Do not be afraid.

It sounded familiar.

Then it came to me.

The Angel Gabriel. At school we had acted out the birth of Christ every Christmas as a child, and I remember that angel Gabriel always told Mary not to be afraid, when he first appeared to her. Because who wouldn't be scared if someone just showed up out of thin air?

Quickly, I typed up 'Angel Gabriel visits Mary', and clicked one of the first links that came up. I wasn't sure what exactly I was looking for, so I wasn't fussy. Turned out I had opened an online Bible, and I had to zoom in a little to be able to read what it said. It mentioned how God had sent the Angel Gabriel to a virgin called Mary in the city of Nazareth. It was kind of just setting the scene, until I read what Gabriel said.

"Do not be afraid, Mary," I repeated out loud. "He knew her name too."

It could have been a coincidence, but the phrase was exactly the same. Going back onto the search engine, I typed 'Angel visits people in the Bible' to see if all there was a trend. After browsing a few different sites, I came across Daniel from the Bible. I had faint recollection of the story of Daniel being thrown into the den of lions, and I was surprised to read that his story hadn't  ended there.

My brows knitted together slightly as I read quietly to myself. The verses of the Bible were written in first person, and the more I read, the more I saw similarities.

"I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless. Then I heard him speaking, and as I listened to him, I fell into a deep sleep, my face to the ground. A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. He said, [...] "Do not be afraid, Daniel.""

I didn't even finish reading what the Angel had to say to Daniel. Locking my phone, I looked across my room into space. From the story, Daniel's experience was practically the same as mine. He had been shaking and weak. Daniel had passed out, just from being in the presence of the Angel. And again, the phrase 'Do not be afraid' had been used, as well as Daniel's name.

It left me honestly thinking if I had been contacted by an Angel. I wasn't a firm believer of anything, nor did I believe that there definitely wasn't anything spiritual out there. I guess it made me agnostic. Uncertain of the existence of a deity. What I knew now though, was that I was very intrigued to find out more. It didn't matter if Cassiel and Raphael wouldn't tell me. I would work it out myself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thoughts of the chapter?

I'm sure you're all just as excited to find out about Sariel, like Vienna is!

J

X