Chapter 5: Seeking Answers

Lily walked up to the door of her house. She was still thinking about the events back in the Den of Former Hosts. She couldn’t forget the vision of that black power.

She knocked on the door and pushed it open. Just as she stepped in, the troubled Linda and her mother leapt up:

“It’s her!”

They rushed up to Lily and hugged her tightly.

“Ugh, we were so worried about you! We searched for you everywhere. Where have you been?” Her mother asked with tears in her eyes.

Lily gave them a tired look and didn’t even hug them back.

“I’m sorry”.

“Ugh, you worried us sick and all you can say is ‘I’m sorry’?!” Linda put her hands to her waist. “Do you even know how much we searched for you? We looked through every corner of the city! How could you be so impulsive, running off and screaming about killing yourself?! Mom and dad were worried so much and you don’t even seem to care!”

“I said I’m sorry!”

“Lily! Don’t talk to your big sister like that! What’s with that temper?” Her mother furrowed her brow now.

“I just want to be left alone!”

Lily went to her room upstairs and slammed the door behind. Linda sighed and crossed her arms:

“She was always such a difficult child…”

“It’s all Archangel Michael! Why did he have to put Lilith in our family?” the mother shook her head. “Eh, I guess it can’t be helped… It was destiny”.

“At least he is here to look after her. It will be fine…”

Linda put a hand on her mother’s shoulder to comfort her. She tried to smile and give her hope. The mother returned a beam and hugged her tightly.

Lily entered her room and collapsed on her bed. Everything was so irritating in this house, all this love of parents and sister as if they actually cared! In fact, probably all of them just saw her as Lilith, the darkest human soul of all… Maybe that was why her mother and father named her ‘Lily’, after her soul’s previous name? No wonder she always hated her name. Bitter anger and anguish had gathered in her heart.

She looked up at the ceiling. Her frown disappeared – she recalled that black protective monster again. What was it, after all? With feathered wings, it should be an angel… But why black wings? As far as she knew, all angels had pure white or even golden shimmering wings. Black and red wings belonged to vicious demons. However, those wings were never feathered but rather scaled like those of bats’ and dragons’.

Lily turned around and looked out the window at a beautiful garden of her golden mansion.

Probably I can find some clues in our School Library?

After all, the Department of Angelic Books was already open for those who were about to graduate – the students who frequented 11th and 12th grades. That meant she had access to that department too.

This idea stuck in her mind. She stood up, but just then, caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror and widened eyes – those scars and wounds on her face caused by those boys’ fists were completely gone! How could that happen so fast, without any treatment? Right after that black power emerged and vanished, her whole pain eased… Maybe she got her wounds healed even back then, and that was why her mom and sister didn’t suspect anything? Did that blackness truly heal her? She stroked her cheeks and the eye just to get sure she wasn’t hallucinating. It proved to be true – her wounds were gone. Now there was no doubt – that was definitely an angel. Why else would it heal her? Excited by such new proofs and hopes, she jumped in happiness, rushed out of her room, descended the stairs, and dashed at the door.

“Lily? Where are you going?” Her mother’s voice sounded from the living room.

“Um…” She quickly thought through the options of how to justify her sudden burst of emotions. “I’ve got to fetch my schoolbag, I forgot it!”

She darted out without even looking back.

“But_”

Mrs. Black was about to say that she and Linda had already taken her schoolbag from her classroom while she was still gone, but just then she heard the slam of the door. She sighed and got back to knitting:

“Such an impulsive child…”

Lily ran to her school, not even feeling any fatigue, so excited she was. She had finally regained the hope of finding her angel. She wouldn’t give up on the search so easily anymore.