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  I had the urge to follow it, so I entered down the forest trail and began to walk as the voice got louder.

  “Come, Charlene, we must speak with you…”

  Chapter Three

  The forest was thick with foliage as the scent of pine and maple mingled in the air. Tall trees shadowed the ground with their leaves, and the wind began to pick up in swirling motions as I went deeper into the forest.

  I continued to walk down a steep, wooden trail buried with broken branches. Careful with each step, I peeked through the forest glade. Although the voice was muffled and sporadic, I could feel myself getting closer.

  “Come, Charlene…”

  I followed as darkness seemed to follow along with me.

  Suddenly, rays of light pierced through each tree trunk. I came to the center of the source.

  There they stood—angels of God.

  “Delmara!” I cried out. She was with two others—for protection. They did not speak.

  Delmara was truly beautiful with her long white hair and amethyst eyes. Her skin looked translucent. I could see veins stemming down along her arms and was captivated by her smell. It was as if fresh magnolia petals had just fallen off their branches. Her bright neon-white wings spread out over the two other angels beside her. It was like she was protecting them.

  “Charlene, my child, you’ve committed a lie,” she said softly, and yet her lips didn’t move.

  “Please, Delmara, it was only to save her,” I pleaded with her as I dropped to my knees, begging her to forgive me.

  “You must know that lying will create truth. You are no longer trusted on this mission.”

  “Please give me one more chance! I beg of you.”

  Swirling winds circled around us, and I could feel my body rise off the ground. I was being carried away.

  “Just one more chance. I promise you I will save her.”

  Suddenly I descended back to the ground, feeling powerless as if someone had been pulling me down. Curled in the fetal position, I cradled myself from the flying debris. Dear God, Save me!

  I closed my eyes for but a moment, opening them again only to see she was gone.

  Once home, I pulled the shades and blinds shut, surrounding myself in blackness. Somehow it seemed comforting in the dark. There I lay on the bed, hoping to regain my strength. I had to prepare for what was to come, and yet I had no idea how to brace myself for what that truly was.

  I couldn’t sleep, nor could I think straight. My mind had become a tunnel of scattered memories. I thought of my first life and when I was young. I remembered dancing around with my mother on the cold, hard tiles of the kitchen floor. She was making dinner for the two of us. My father had left us when I was only three years old.

  At the time, everything seemed perfect. It wasn’t until years later when she met Adam that things started to change.

  My mother was in a fog when it came to Adam. He could do no wrong, yet I could see he was controlling her in each step she took. He wouldn’t let her do certain things—things she used to love, like writing poetry. That’s how I got into it. She taught me how to express myself through the gift of word, yet her words were left unspoken, unwritten. Slowly, she grew distant with me as Adam dictated her life.

  It wasn’t until I ran away from home and had my son that she left him. It was as if God himself sent us a sign. We had a new beginning, my mother and I, but after Drake was born I fell into a deep depression. I couldn’t believe what had happened to me. I had become a mother at seventeen and hadn’t the first clue how to take care of my child, so I moved back in with my mother.

  As I tossed and turned in bed, I had the sudden urge to write. It had become my only outlet from this state of turmoil, and it was the only thing that somehow released the pain.

  I took a seat at the computer desk, opened my laptop and began to type. When I was finished, I posted it on the poetry site in the hope of letting Jesse deeper into my world. I had posted For Her, My Soul. I read through the poem again:

  There’s too much space in my soul—the black

  spots that trickle down after glancing at the sun

  too long, remind me of how much is there.

  The cool breeze between the blades

  of the ceiling fan swirls my thoughts around

  the room, whispers of a presence,

  stronger than myself. I am moved by the way

  the wind shuffles the blinds and taps against

  the window like wind-chimes—a childhood melody

  of ice cream dreams and pastel chalks

  littered on sidewalks. Of how the rainbow-colored

  dust rises and carries me to a place

  where I’ve met my soul once or twice before.

  She reminds me of the space between our breath

  and is waiting for us to become whole again.

  As I sat there remembering my childhood memories, when everything felt like a dream, an I.M. popped up on my screen. I recognized the username LostWriter immediately; it was Jesse.

  LostWriter: How are you?

  DemonGirl: A little shook up, but I’ll be okay.

  LostWriter: I read your last note; you wanted to tell me something?

  DemonGirl: Yeah, but it’s not important now. How is Sarah?

  LostWriter: She is recovering and should be out of the hospital in a few days.

  Good, I thought to myself. That would give me enough time to figure out how to reach out to her. My senses told me she was still in danger. It wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.

  LostWriter: I need to see you, Charlene. I think it’s time we finally meet.

  DemonGirl: What about Sarah? Shouldn’t you be supporting her through this?

  In a way, I didn’t want to see him. I wasn’t ready, and I still didn’t have my metamorphosis under control. Even though it had been a year, I was still a fledgling to my new life. I didn’t always change at the same time.

  LostWriter: I am supporting her as much as I can, yet Sarah needs more help than I can give. Why are you so concerned about her anyway? I told you before, we are only friends now. It’s over between us. I am in love with you.

  It was the first time he actually wrote that. I thought I would be elated to hear it from him, yet for some reason I felt apprehensive. Something didn’t fit right. Why did he want to see me so badly, and at a time like this? I began to wonder why he left Sarah in the first place. He never mentioned it to me why they broke up. I sensed her deep love and affection for him as if it was my own, like I was the one intruding on their relationship.

  DemonGirl: Maybe it’s too soon, Jesse. I hope you can understand…

  LostWriter: Sounds like you are getting cold feet on me. Why, Charlene? Talk to me. Don’t you love me?

  DemonGirl: I do, it’s just I need to sort some things out first. We will meet soon.

  Evening grew into night, and I could feel my body changing as the room started to spin. I watched my skin crack and bleed. The warm, blue blood flowed down my legs and arms and coated me in hard scales. My eyes hurt with excruciating pain as I began to see red spots form. I could hear my wings splitting open on my back as if someone had unzipped my skin, and the bones in my hands and feet snapped into shape and began to form into claws. The lamp tipped over and broke as my wings continued to expand, knocking it down. My teeth swelled into fangs, digging into my lower lip, and then, all of a sudden, everything stopped. I was fully formed into the demon I became. I had the urge to take flight again.

  I opened the balcony doors, looking out into the black sky embedded with pearl-like stars, and then closely scanned the ground, making sure no one was there. The neighborhood was like a ghost town where I lived. I liked it that way. I couldn’t risk being seen by people I knew, so I had to be cautious.

  I perched myself on the railing of the balcony, took a deep breath and opened my wings. Once I started flapping them, I let go of the railing with my clawed feet and took flight into the night sky.

  Chapter Four
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  I soared up into the night sky, flying above the Pacific Ocean. The fresh scent of the salty sea engulfed me with submerging emotions. It was as if I was drowning in the ocean air, yet I had wonderful feelings of freedom and escape, then something caught me by surprise.

  The billowing smoke singed my eyes as I began to descend. I was falling hard. It felt like the winds were burning my body and peeling my skin off. I had to regain control fast. Instantly I reacted, stretching my wings out and parachuting myself in the air. Gliding down against the sand, I was able to land safely as my clawed feet raked across the soft surface.

  I noticed someone had made a bonfire, but no one was there. Searching the area, I could smell alcohol above the burnt fire. Littered bottles of whiskey were strewn about in the sand. I continued to walk along the shore until I heard something deep within the forest.

  As I peeked through the trees, I saw a large image dancing around a fire. Spiky shadows flickered in the light, and I couldn’t make out his face. He was covered in some sort of animal hide.

  “So, it is true,” he whispered as he stopped dancing. “Come, join me.”

  He looked directly into my eyes while I stood a good distance away. I was shocked and surprised I’d been spotted, yet I was drawn to him. As I got closer, I could see he wasn’t a man, but a beast of some kind, similar to my demon-like features. However, his skin was smooth, and his eyes seemed hollow. What I thought was a cape of animal hide was his wings.

  “Who are you?” I asked, staring in amazement.

  He laughed deeply and smiled with a wide, snarling grin. “He did not tell you?”

  “Who didn’t tell me what?” I was getting confused. I was beginning to feel light-headed, like I was the one drinking from those whiskey bottles. The winds were starting to pick up again, and I felt a swaying motion lift my body as I began floating in mid-air.

  “Shall we sit?” he asked, raising one hand to his chin. He looked more human than I did. Where I had claws, he had hands and feet. He towered over me and motioned for me to sit down on the rock near the fire.

  “You like?” he said as he caught me staring at his skin. “Every year they reward me in one way or another, and as hundreds of years pass, I become stronger.”

  He was handsome. In the dark he could almost pass for being human. His hollow, mirror-like eyes were mesmerizing. I could see a deep burning fire of energy inside him. His pretense stimulated me, yet drowned me with emotion at the same time.

  “What are you?” I asked, continuing to stare with enchantment.

  “I am you. You are me. We are the same you see.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  He was talking in rhyme and riddle. The more he spoke, the deeper I was drawn to him.

  He raised his hands, motioning for the fire to increase. It began to grow larger as we stood there, yet it wasn’t hot—in fact, it made a cooler breeze amongst us.

  I could see a vision in the fire. It was of a man in his early twenties, handsome, with long hair and green snake-like eyes. He was walking hand-in-hand with a slender woman across a cobblestone street. The time seemed to be set in the early 1600’s.

  “She was my soul-mate—the love of my life.”

  I watched the fire grow as the vision came clearer into view. There she was, standing on the corner with him. Her long flowing hair flapped in the wind as she held onto her bonnet. They walked across the street together, and he mumbled something in her ear as he gestured to the flowers in the window on the other side of the road. As he walked up to the shop and entered, she smiled from outside the window. He was picking out some daisies for her. Suddenly, as he looked up, he saw her lying on the ground, her body crushed. A horse-drawn carriage rounded the corner too fast as it toppled over her, and then the vision was gone.

  “He took her from me; that is why I decided to take my own life. Four hundred years later I remain here, a beast. He is no God of mine.”

  “Who are you?” I asked again.

  “My name is Benjamin. I used to be human once. Now I roam this Earth a vagabond in search for the condemned. We are the same, you see—you and I.”

  “I thought I was the only one.”

  “The supposed God we serve creates one demon male and one demon woman until they fulfill their destiny.”

  “How do you know this?” I asked, feeling the urge to touch his smooth body.

  “You are attracted to me, are you not?” He snickered again, clearly reading my mind. “There is hope for you yet, my dear girl. Ha—hope, is there such a thing?”

  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Had my eyes tricked me? How could this be? Again?

  “How do you know?”

  “As I said before, they reward me with a new gift, a new sense. Each year I turn, change, grow stronger, but it is to the point of no return, you see, for my human form is very few and far between as I morph into both now. The more I grow into something else, the less my chances are at becoming normal again. I fear it is too late for me, but you, ah! You have a chance. How is good ole Jesse doing these days?”

  Suddenly I felt a jolt of fear and took a step back. “You stay away from him.”

  He bellowed with laughter again.

  “How dare you think that way of me! I am your friend. There are no foes here. The only fiend is God himself.”

  I was beginning to feel dizzy again, and my head swarmed with mental anguish. I could hear a clanking sound within my thoughts. The sky was beginning to lighten, and I felt my body changing back into its human form, yet I tried holding in the stabbing pains.

  “Better get home before it is too late.”

  I closed my eyes, drifted off to unconsciousness and let my body go, yet I could still feel and sense everything that was happening to me. Dawn was breaking, and soon I would become human again. I would be stranded here on this island if I didn’t get home fast, but how? There was no way now.

  “Worry not, my demon girl, make it, you will! We wouldn’t want hope failing you now, would we?” Benjamin spoke softly in my ear as my body went limp.

  I could feel his warm hands touch my brittle body as we began to rise. I was being carried away, and he was in control of me now, yet where would he take me? How would he know where my place was?

  “Relax, I’ve got you now,” he whispered.

  Within moments I could feel my face on a pillow of darkness, and then everything turned blank.

  Chapter Five

  I opened my eyes to see that I was back home. Although the dizziness subsided, I had a pounding headache—as though I’d been partying all night. Was it a dream? It felt so real.

  I looked down underneath the covers, sensing a gritty feeling on my body, and noticed sand clinging all over me. It couldn’t have possibly been a dream, but how in the world did I get home?

  I thought again of my encounter with Benjamin. He must have taken me. I remembered how he read my thoughts. It felt draining, as if I’d been running a marathon all day. It was like he sucked all the thoughts out of me and stole my energy, yet I felt this sense of release, like a part of me was convinced with satisfaction.

  I got out of bed and glanced at the clock—7:25 a.m.

  Damn, late for work again. I needed to get ready fast, so I jumped in the shower, quickly rinsed the sand off me, got dressed and left.

  Luckily, I arrived at work on time. Even though Jan was a great boss, I was glad she had the day off. I still felt strange—as if my days were melting into each other―but pulled myself together to finish out the day. I had my doctor’s appointment and needed to leave an hour early.

  “Peggy, can you cover for me? I have to go,” I asked her as she slipped one of the orders to the cooks.

  “Sure, but you owe me one, Charlene.”

  “Thanks, I really appreciate it.”

  I got my jacket and punched out. “I’ll see you guys later,” I told the crew.

  I pulled up to the doctor’s office and took a deep breath before I got out of the car. I
t was cooler and about to rain. I feared the rain; it seemed like I changed quicker in the rain.

  I scurried to the building, opened the glass doors and walked in. Doctor Mendell was a few floors up and normally I would take the stairs, but I was still exhausted from the night before and working all this morning. I decided to take the elevator.

  I entered an empty waiting room, walked up to the reception desk and signed in. Before I could even sit down and grab a magazine my name was called.

  “Ms. Peters, the doctor will see you now,” the nurse said.

  I stepped into the third room down the hall and instantly felt claustrophobic. The small room felt closed in without any windows, and the fluorescent lights were dragging me into a deep fatigue.

  “He’ll be right with you,” the nurse said.

  I waited for another twenty minutes. My mind raced as to what to say. I remembered what Delmara said, that “lies create truth.” I didn’t want to lie, but I didn’t know how to express myself about my previous life. If I did tell the doctor, he wouldn’t believe me. There was only one way I could express it.

  “How are you, Charlene?” the doctor asked as he walked into the room, closing the door behind him. He shuffled around some papers as he took a seat at his desk.

  “Okay, I guess.” However, I wasn’t okay. I wondered what kind of little white lie would do. I was beginning to think everything I said was a lie. Feeling unsure, I paused for a moment and looked away, but his words slapped me back in the here and now.

  “What’s going on with you? How are the meds working out?”

  “Well, I am still working at Lucky’s three times a week. Jan is really good about my schedule.” I had to get the boring, mundane stuff out of the way first. It felt rude of me to just blurt out and say, Yeah, I have a problem with this and a problem with that and so on. “I think I am getting side effects from the meds.” That was definitely not a lie. I was blaming my dizziness and headaches on the meds, which could have been the case, but it could have also been from transforming into something else.