Angel

“I’m hungry,” Erin says. “Like. Really hungry. As in. I would eat grass.”

Grayson looked behind his shoulder at her. “You’re a centaur, aren’t you supposed to eat grass?”

“No!” Erin blushes angrily. “But - I don’t know, I’m not exactly an expert on centaurs, am I?”

“It’s okay,” I say. “We’ll stop somewhere soon.” I walk to Grayson’s side.

“We can’t stop,” he says.

“Can you maybe lighten up a little? You’re being too depressing for Erin, you know she’s more of a … well, she’s the happy one and she’s put under pressure-”

“We’re all put under pressure.” Grayson snaps. “We’re the only ones who can save Lora, remember?”

“Did you think I’d forget?” I ask dryly.

“No,” Grayson sighs. “Alright, I’ll try to ‘lighten up.’ I’m just… insanely worried for you and Erin, and I feel sometimes like I’m the useless one here.”

“What makes you think you’re useless?” I stare.

“Well, you’re an angel-demon hybrid whose twin sister got kidnapped and now you’re on a heroic quest to save her from Hell and ultimately stop a war.” Grayson says. “Erin’s probably the only female part - centaur, who can read planets and will help you save Lora and the world.”

“You’ll help us too!” I say.

“I’m a normal kid,” Grayson says sadly. “I won’t make it to heaven alive, because I’m not a supernatural or mythical being. And because I’m a normal person I can’t stop a war between devils, demons and Angels and most likely gods. So… yeah. I’m the useless one here.”

I stop in the middle of the road and give Grayson a huge hug. “You’re not useless, if you say it one more time I’m pretty sure Erin will physically fight you. I’m positive you’re not a normal kid, Grayson. A normal kid would have screamed when he saw my wings and tail and horns, he would have never left the house, he would be crying right now and running back to his parents. You’re doing none of those things.”

Grayson hugs me back. “Okay, okay. Erin, please don’t fight me.”

“No one talks about my friends like that!” Erin hugs me and Grayson together.

Grayson grins.

“Erin, there’s a chinese food place over there,” I point to it. “Let’s run over to it and grab something.”

“And after that we’ll find somewhere to sleep, because it’s getting dark out.” Grayson says.

“I didn’t even notice we spent a whole day escaping. That’s not how it was supposed to go.” Erin says.

“Relax. My parents are out doing stuff right now. They won’t notice if we borrow a room or two from their summer place,” Grayson says.

“I’m just glad they have food here!” Erin says through a mouthful of leftover spaghetti.

“I didn’t know you had a summer place,” I say. “In the same town as your regular house.”

“I’ve never been here. I have no idea what it’s for. Sometimes they’ll let family members stay in it but they always leave quickly.” Grayson shrugs and pulls the blanket over the side of the bed. “Erin, this can be your bed for the night.”

“Okay,” she runs to the bed and jumps onto it. “Oh! That reminds me - I got the book still.”

“The book?” I ask, my hand on the door.

“Yeah. The one we found in the kid’s section? I still have it.” Erin reveals Heaven Exists. “I can’t believe I stole a book.”

“We’ll give it back, don’t worry.” I tease. “D’you think I can read it tonight?”

Erin nods and passes it to me.

“I’ll show you your room,” Grayson says and leads me out of Erin’s room.

I flip the book open to the first page.

Do not be fooled by where I placed this book, because it is not a children’s book. This one is for you, Ludi Crous. I know the Devil Salan has taken me, but I hope this will help you get your sister and your friends to safety.

I wish that I could help you more, but there is no more I can say on this page.

-Miss Librarian Lady.

I swallow, my fingers tingling. I nearly call out for my friends, but I don’t say their names. They’re tired. Let them rest.

How did she know? How does she know my name, and about Lora, and Grayson and Erin? How did she know we would come to the library, and pick up this book?

There’s now no doubt that she isn’t a regular human. She left the door unlocked for us to get in. She was still there so that Salan would take her instead of us. But what kind of angel could see the future? Maybe she’s not a real angel. Maybe she’s something else.

But I have other things to think of right now. As soon as I get Lora back, we’ll work out getting Miss Librarian Lady back.

She signed the note as Miss Librarian Lady. She even knew we’d call her that. Creepy.

I open the book to chapter one.

Heaven exists. I’m not crazy. I’ve been there, and I’m still alive.

I sincerely hoped this wouldn’t be a fiction.

It was complicated to get there, as I am a mortal being, a normal human. But once I’d gotten there, I was met with the most amazing sight.

Heaven is made of clouds and gold, and it is always sunny. There are huge castles that somehow glow with happiness and enjoyment. Each castle contained one family, the last name written on the door. I was looking for my family. I had missed them so much since my last family member died.

But I soon found the biggest castle in the entire civilization. And who should come out but the Gods. Any god from any religion was here. They all existed.

It was a little frightening, but they smiled and explained I could not be in heaven, for I was not dead. They let me find my family, and stay with them for one week. Then they told me I had to go back home, and I did.

But instead of going to earth, I made it to the animal heaven, which does not have a specific name. I saw all sorts of adorable animals. Any animal that died was here.

I flip past a few chapters until I make it to Chapter seventeen - How I made it there.

“Finally,” I say.

I had been waiting for this day forever. The North Star was positioned perfectly above the largest maple tree in the world. It happens to reside in my hometown, luckily. I climbed as high as I could, and reached my hand up as if to touch the star. I heard singing, and I went very, very hot. I closed my eyes and when I opened them, I was there. In heaven.

Earlier I had said it was hard for me to get there. This is true. First, I barely knew anything about how to get there, and I feared to ask because they’d think I was crazy.

Second, the highest branch was weak. I barely stayed in the tree.

Third, while soaring up to heaven, I had felt like my skin would melt off. It was that hot for me.

I feel a sharp pain on my left, and I look at my side. In my excitement, my wings had popped out, and I was feeling the pain from my burn. I didn’t know how to heal burns, and no cold water would help me.

But I’m too distracted to feel the pain for long.

“GRAYSON! Erin! I FIGURED IT OUT!”

If this author was right, we’d be in heaven by the next morning.

“Yeesh. I don’t like the sound of being burned alive,” Erin says while reading the last part.

“You won’t be, though. You’re not a human.” Grayson says. “Um, Ludi I might sit this one out -”

“I’m pretty sure you’re not normal,” I say. “You’ll be fine.”

Grayson shrugs.

“I’ll look outside, see if I can see the planets.” Erin says. “Mostly so I feel like I can do something to contribute.”

“Of course you can contribute!” I say. “I mean - uh, thanks…”

“You okay?” Grayson frowns.

I turn and grin at him. “We’re so close to making it to heaven! To saving Lora!”

“Yeah,” Erin looks down.

“Tonight, we’ll go tonight when the North star is above the tree.” Grayson says.

“Where’s the tallest maple tree in the world?” Erin asks. “How do we climb a tree if we don’t have a tree?”

“Huh,” Grayson frowned. “I don’t know.”

“Well, the author said it was in his hometown,” I say, holding the book up. “We just have to find out where he was from.” I read the name. “Bernard Georgson?”

“Look at the back of it, they normally have a description of the author on the back.” Erin says.

I open the book. “Nope. All it says is I SWEAR I’M NOT CRAZY.”

“You can search them up on the computer,” Grayson offers.

“Thanks,” I say while we follow him to another room. The computer sits on a black desk, leaning against a brown wall. No windows.

“My parents have a summer home - doesn’t mean they like nature.” Grayson doesn’t look at us.

The buttons are satisfying when I push them down to search up Bernard Georgson.

“There we go,” I say when the website loads instantly. “Great connection.”

“Click on that,” Erin points.

“Crazies of the twentieth century?” I ask.

Erin shrugs. “It has his name in the description. While you two read that, I’m going to go make some food and maybe brush my hair.”

“Top of the line hairbrush in the bathroom,” Grayson points out the door with a bored expression.

“Here we go, here we go!” I say. “Click this website - that’s an offensive title…”

“Yeah,” Grayson closes his eyes and taps it.

“Touchscreen?” I ask.

“Only the best for my family,” Grayson answers.

“Mr. Bernard Georgson was returned to his home near Oakview in a town called Summer Valley - Grayson! We’re in Summer Valley!”

“I hadn’t noticed,” Grayson says sarcastically. “But which tree? There’s bound to be a hundred maple trees here.”

“Better start looking,” I say. “If it’s possible, I want to be in heaven by tomorrow.”

“There’s another one!”

“That’s a spruce tree.”

“Oh. That’s why it looked different.”

After two hours of wandering around measuring maple trees, we were finally at the last tree in Summer Valley.

“Should’ve come here first,” Grayson stares at maple Middle.

“How big d’you bet it is?” I ask.

“Twenty feet maybe?” Erin tilts her head to the side.

“Nah. At least forty.” Grayson squints at it.

“I can’t measure,” Erin laughs.

“Do we really have to measure it? It’s so…so so tall.” I look up at it and nearly fall backward.

“Do you think the office people will know how big it is? I mean, surely they would want to know all about it, in case some tourists or something come over.” Erin wonders.

“Who would tour here? When there’s places like the Great Wall around?” Grayson asks. Erin shrugs.

“Yesh, let’s just ask the office people.” I say.

“Do I know how tall it is? Um, of course I do!” The office lady scoffs. Her name tag says Lena. She puts the hairbrush away and self consciously fixes her glued- on eyelashes while glaring at our dirty clothes like they personally offended her. “Let me - um, it’s about…”

“I don’t think she actually knows,” Erin whispers in my ear. I smirk.

“Hey, um - Lena, right?” Grayson leans over the desk and stares at her. His face looks like he’s holding back laughter. “It’s kinda urgent that we know about the tree, so… if you don’t know we’ll forget it in a second. We just need to know how tall it is.”

Suddenly, Lena turns around and apparently forgets we’re here. “Amele! Amele c’mere! These pesky kids need to be escorted out! They’re bothering me!”

Grayson rolls his eyes. Erin raises an eyebrow.

A short, smiling lady comes out. “Calm down, Lena, they just have a question.”

“Why are office ladies always girls?” Grayson asks.

“That’s - That’s not the question we want to ask,” I wave a hand at him. “Do you know how tall the tree is?”

Lena scoffs. “Yes, I do know, haven’t I told you already!” She leans into Amele. “These kids… they’re always in here, claiming I don’t know anything! The audacity! Do you like that word? One of my friends said it and I thought it was the bestest.”

Amele points to a printer in the corner and Lena hobbles over to it on seven inch heels. Grayson gapes at the shoes. “Does she walk in those all day?!”

“Don’t know how she does it,” Amele sighs. “How tall is the tree? Um, no one really knows how tall…”

Grayson mutters something under his breath.

“But I think the biology teacher does,” Amele says. “Mr. Yacht. Second floor, last room on your left.”

“That was nearly an enormous waste of time,” Grayson reminds me.

“Yep.” I nod.

“That lady Lena? I - I -” Erin starts to laugh. “Those shoes - bestest!”

“Don’t mock an office lady!” I say to Erin while climbing the stairs. “Respect the adults!”

Erin looks down.

“The audacity,” I sigh.

Grayson and Erin laugh. As we turn the corner we see a large window.

“Oh my gosh, the day flew by! It’s dark out already!” I stare outside.

“Let’s just guess that this tree is the tallest one.” Grayson says.

“I can believe that,” Erin says.

“Then we’ll climb it tonight,” I say. “I’d feel better knowing for sure, but we are running out of time.”

“Yup. Can we go now?” Erin asks, staring down the hall. Grayson and I follow her line of sight and see a student walking down the hall.

“We look like we survived a tornado, and we’ve been missing for nearly a week,” Grayson hisses. “I sincerely hope this isn’t someone we know, but it probably won’t matter anyways.”

“Ludi?” Says the student, walking closer. Her hair is long and orange and she looks surprised.

“Welp.” Grayson sighs.

“Uh, hi Harley…” I say.

Her face turns white and she backs against some lockers. “I - I don’t want any trouble, okay? I’m - I’m sorry, - where’s your sister - I mean -”

“Please calm down, I can’t understand you.” I say. “Lora… Lora’s been kidnapped.”

“By who?” Harley asks.

“Our uncle,” I say. “Harley, I don’t want to panic you, but you might be the only other one who believes us. There’s a war coming. Between Angels and demons. Lora’s in Hell, and we have to get her back. Don’t tell anyone we were here, please.”

Harley’s face changes. “Lora’s really in hell?”

Grayson, Erin and I nod.

“That’s why we’ve got to hurry. Every second we waste she could become more and more evil,” Erin says.

She bites her lip. “Lora’s a good person, and it’s incredibly hard to change a good person. Don’t worry too much about her becoming different, because I don’t think it’s possible.”

I smile. “You’re a good person too, Harley.”

“I hope I am now,” Harley says. “If you hurry, no one will see you. Go save Lora.”

I smile at Harley once before chasing after my friends.

“Let’s go home, grab something to eat, and then we’ll climb the tree,” Grayson says firmly.

“Yup!” Erin skips outside.

“You seem happy,” I say.

“How are you not? Everything is going PERFECTLY! Harley’s nice and Lora won’t go evil and we found the tallest tree to climb so we can go to heaven and save Lora!” Erin grinned from ear to ear. “Come on, you can’t say you’re not at least a teeeeny bit happy!”

I hesitate. But then I grin and begin to skip with her. Even Grayson copies her.

Erin’s right. Finally things are starting to look positive. Maybe we can save Lora. Maybe it’s not impossible.

We stare at the tree. In the dark, it looks taller than ever.

“It’s not midnight, so the star shouldn’t be above it yet.” Grayson checks a watch he snagged from one of his parent’s drawers.

“We’ll start climbing anyways, by the time we get up there it’ll be too late.” I say. “C’mon.”

Climbing the tree is hard. Erin isn’t the greatest climber, and sometimes I needed to snap out my wings just for some balance. I wished I could simply fly up it, but my scorched wing complained when I flapped once. But finally, we make it to the very top. We put our backs against the top branch to even out the weight.

“Yay! We - did - it!” Erin says between pants.

“Don’t look down,” Grayson warns us.

“I am the last person on earth that is going to look down,” Erin says.

“Are you looking down?” I ask.

“Yup!” Erin says weakly. “Maybe I should climb back d-d-down!”

“You’re a centaur and you’re scared of heights?” Grayson says, surprised. “I mean - you’re a centaur! You’re all mythical! And you’re scared of heights?”

“Heights and spiders,” Erin finds my hand in the darkness and squeezes it tightly.

“Ow, Erin!” I say.

“Sorry!”

“Don’t worry, the star’s nearly in place.” Grayson says.

I frown when I notice his voice wavered. “Grayson, you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he says scaredly. “I’m just a little … nervous, that’s all.”

“You’ll be f-fine!” Erin stammers. “I hope it’s skin-melting hot for me - I’m cold as heck!”

I make a face. “That - That really does not make any sense at all.”

“I know but I’m a little panicked right now!” Erin squeaks.

“Close your eyes,” Grayson suggests.

“That makes it worse, ’cause I’ll fall off!” Erin exclaims, scandalized.

“In about five minutes the star will be over us,” Grayson says.

“I need it to hurry up,” I say, struck by a sudden nervousness. “What if Salan still followed us, and he sees us now?”

“You are NOT helping me Ludi!” Erin screeches.

“Shh!” Grayson hisses.

Suddenly, we hear yelling below us.

“Oi! What’re you kids doin’ that high in th’ tree?!”

“Oh for the love of,” Grayson growls as he looks down. “Cops.”

“Night patrol?” I frown. “I didn’t know they did that.”

“Since we vanished off the face of the earth according to our parents I’m assuming they’re looking for murderers or kidnappers,” Grayson says.

“Oh, it’s Jason!” Erin says, and waves. “Hi Jason!”

“Erin?” Says a different voice. “What are you doing up there?”

“How many cops are there?” I ask.

“Four or five, too dark to be sure.” Grayson twists his neck around. “We got two minutes now until we’re in heaven.”

“Uh,” Erin tries to answer ‘Jason’. “Um. A science experiment?”

“What?” I make a face.

“Um… about the amount of force it takes to shatter a… watch screen?” Erin continues.

“A watch screen?” Says the first cop confusedly.

“Isn’t there a better experiment you could try?” Asks a third one.

“That’s what I told her because I don’t want to smash my watch!” Grayson nudges Erin.

“Yeah! We’re gonna - um, we’re gonna just do it now! And - um, climb back down!” Erin says. “Quick, Grayson drop it before we get sucked up to heaven!”

“Why do I have to drop it?” Grayson whines.

“Because they’ll be suspicious if you don’t!” Erin hisses.

“They aren’t already?” I stare at her from behind my shoulder.

“I’d hit you both if I wasn’t scared of falling to my death right now,” Erin groans through her teeth. “Just drop the dang watch!”

Grayson slowly takes it off his wrist and tosses it to the ground with a cranky attitude. It falls to the ground and smashes open, sending class and small cogs everywhere.

“I hope you kids plan on cleaning that up,” Yells a fourth cop.

“Why aren’t we in heaven yet?” I ask.

“Because it’s not time yet!” Grayson growls.

“So, uh, just climb on down there, Erin!” Jason yells.

“Uh-huh, just a moment! My friend has to - tie his shoe!” Erin says.

“You are on a roll today,” I groan.

“You two could help instead of leaving it to the terrified female centaur of the group!” Erin glares.

“You’re the one that knows a dude here!”

“Only ’cause my parents got him outta jail once!”

At that moment, bright white and gold light shoots down toward us. We all scream in unison, including the cops. I close my eyes and feel the tree branch lowering beneath me and everything turns to pure white light.