Half (4)

“Let’s wait here for her, she must come out this way,” I said shaking my head angrily and leaning against the wall by the club doors and lighting up.

“What makes you think she’ll come out this way?” Rusty asked as he leant beside me. I shrugged and he pulled me closer to him because I was shivering slightly. He smelt of cigarettes and leather, with an undertone of Inferno. [J1] 

“You were getting high weren’t you?” I said to him,

“Shut up,” he said breathing close to my ear so my hair tickled my face. I took a drag on my cigarette and enjoyed his warmth for a moment and then the door to the club opened. Emmy’s face sank when she saw me,

“Annie?” she hissed, pulling away from Aaron and steering me away from the crowd of people that were following them out of the club.

“Interesting choice of friends,” I said, nodding towards the others.

“Shut up,” she hissed, she glanced back, “why did you bring Rusty?” I opened my mouth to reply but noticed Aaron approaching us. He placed a long fingered hand on my sister’s shoulder,

“Annie,” he smiled at me, “I was hoping to see you soon, did you enjoy my talk?”

“Going to start another riot?” I asked. His smile widened,

“Another? But I didn’t start the first one here,” he replied. In the dim light from the street light outside the club I noticed his face was pitted and dimpled with bad acne scars, giving him the look of a worn older man.

“I didn’t say you started the first,” I said, “but your little pep talk tonight might encourage another one,”

“If that happens it happens[J2] ,” Aaron laughed to himself, “we haven’t been denied freedom of speech yet,” he studied me for a moment, “I don’t see what you have to complain about anyway, you’ve got the best of everything. You could help me you know.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I can see the shadow those pretty little wings are making,”

Aaron smiled, “Yes, I have wings,” he said. I watched him for a moment, confused. Emmy looked at me, her eyes slightly out of focus. I glared at Aaron and then took her hand staring into her face, removing the last effects of the Drive he had placed on her. It wasn’t a strong one, it would have worn off completely in an hour or so and I quickly lifted it. He didn’t say anything. She blinked in a confused way for a moment and then stood behind Rusty as though afraid of Aaron and his gang of friends.

“I don’t have it easy, I’m a freak,” I hissed at Aaron turning to face him, “and if you touch her or Drive her again,” I hissed, pointing at Emmy, “I will kill you,” He smiled at me and nodded,  then turned and joined his group as they began to walk away. “And if you think I’d help someone like you!” I shouted after him, “you can think again!” He raised a hand in recognition but didn’t turn round. The high street was empty now and Rusty took Emmy’s hand as we began to walk home.

“What the hell were you thinking?” I snapped at Emmy, she shook her head slowly.

“I’m sorry Annie,” she whispered. Rusty looked over her head at me and frowned, warning me to shut up. I tutted and crossed my arms as we walked home. The lights were still on in our living room so Dad was waiting up for us. I wished he hadn’t because Emmy was still showing signs of being Driven, she stumbled every now and then and said she felt dizzy.

I had never felt the effects but a girl at school had described them to me. She said that under the Drive you felt safe, like the person doing it to you could do no wrong and they were guiding you, but after it had been lifted or wore off you were disorientated, confused and left with a feeling like you were unclean. Tainted. Used. She said it was like being drugged and raped[J3] . Apparently she had experienced both. My sick mind had wanted to ask her which was worse but Emmy had glared at me at the time as though she knew what I wanted to ask. She always knew.

I glanced at her now and my stomach knotted at the thought of her feeling that way as she stumbled again outside our front door. I thought of all the people I had subtly Driven in my life and felt guilty for it. Driving people is actually illegal and I thought about going to the Force or a Guard about Aaron, telling them about his speech tonight and about Emmy but I decided it would cause more trouble for us. Rusty was watching me as I rummaged in my pocket for my keys and then remembered that I hadn’t picked them up again.

“Here,” Rusty said placing his hand over the lock and I heard it click, [J4] 

“Show off,” I said, but I smiled at him as he let go of Emmy and coaxed her through the now open door. I shut it partly behind her. “Thank you,” I said to him, he nodded and tucked my hair behind my ear.

“No problem,” he said.

“I still don’t get it,” I said, wrapping my arms and wings around me for extra warmth. Rusty smiled,

“Get what?” he asked,

“Aaron, why would he be shouting about Demonic rights whilst he has Angelic in him?”

“Annie,” Rusty said, “his wings are black.”

“So?”  

“I’ve never seen black wings,” I looked at him and he shrugged. “Who knows,” he said, “Angelics have campaigned for us before,”  

“They haven’t wanted to start another uprising though,” I said.

“No, but this place is going to shit,” he kicked a discarded beer bottle on the pavement. The sound echoed round the empty street. I shivered in the cold night air and he gestured for me to go inside then turned, walking back to the high street and home. I watched him for a moment then entered the house. Dad was still sat in front of the television and Emmy wasn’t in the room,

“She drunk?” he asked me as I stood taking my coat off,

“A little,” I said, he nodded and turned the television off.

“Where did she go?” he asked,

“Oh just to that little pub round the corner,”

“No trouble?” I thought for a moment, then shook my head.

“I’m off to bed,” he told me, he kissed my head as he passed and went down the narrow corridor to his room. I made sure his door was closed then I went into Emmy’s bedroom, she was lying on the bed still in her clothes, her knees drawn up to her chest and her eyes closed.

“Emmy?” I whispered, she mumbled something inaudible in reply. “You okay?”

“Fine,” she replied, “perfect,” I took a blanket from the bottom of the bed and draped it over her,

“I’m sorry about tonight,” I said, “for following you,”

“I would have been fine Annie,” she said.

“He Drove you Emmy, guys that Drive girls aren’t nice,”

“You Drive people all the time,” Emmy snapped. She pulled the blanket up around her neck,

“Barely, he had full control over you, I watched it, you were staring at him like a little puppy,”

“You Drove that guy in Waitrose the other day,”

“He was taking forever to choose some mince,”

“Yes and you just made the decision for him,”

“Sometimes I don’t even know I’ve done it,”

“Maybe Aaron is the same,”

“You’re actually defending him?”

“No,”

“He knew what he was doing Emmy, why did he need to Drive you, aren’t you behind his ‘Demonic cause’?”

“You know I don’t agree with it all,”

“You called me a Serp earlier,”

“I…” she couldn’t argue anymore,

“Emmy, what is he?”

“What?”

“Aaron Jaymes, what is he?”

“An Angelic…” her voice trailed off,

“So why is he riling up Demonics?” I asked. She stayed silent,

“I don’t know,” she murmured.

“Rusty said his wings are black,”

“Black?”

“Yeah, apparently it’s rare,”

“No one has black wings. They can’t Annie,”

“Why?” she didn’t reply, “why?” I asked again.

“You know the kiddie stories,”[J5]  she said rolling over to face away from me. I was confused for a moment then I remembered a story about a black feather and decided that was what she must have been referring to. I stood up and just stared at Emmy lying still on the bed, her short hair splayed out like a halo around her head on the pillow. I left the room.