Chapter 8

~Zayne Beckett~

Aurora led me to a park bench a short distance from her telescope equipment. As we walked, I noticed her intimidating wings were gone. Were they invisible? Were they able to appear at her will? Would they appear at random?

Trying to keep my cool, I asked, "Where are your wings?" as we sat down. "I'm sure I saw them."

"I hide them," Aurora answered simply.

"Where?" I wondered out loud.

Aurora glanced at me. "In my back."

"That must be uncomfortable for you. Is it?"

She hummed with a small smile. "Yeah, it is."

Her uncomfortable smile made me forget which question I was going to ask next. No matter how many times I've gone over it in my head, I kept thinking about how stupid every single one of them sounded. Such as, 'Where did you come from?'

I glanced at her again. She awkwardly looked up at the stars while biting her bottom lip. Her hands were perched on the edge of the bench, keeping her upright. I thought for a moment. She was an angel; any question of mine would've sounded stupid.

Finally, I took a deep breath, turned to her, and asked the incredibly most idiotic question I could have ever asked an angel.

"How did you die?"

I immediately regretted it as soon as it rolled off my tongue.

Aurora stared at me, surprisingly enough without a reaction, before letting out a little giggle. "I didn't think that would've been one of the first questions you had." I mentally face-palmed myself, knowing how stupid I sounded. Regardless, she answered. "I arrived at Heaven when I was just a child, so I grew up there. I'm not sure how I got there though."

Growing curious, I dug deeper into the topic without thinking. "Would you want to know? About how you died?" She blinked and I cut her off before she could answer. "Wait, don't answer that. It was stupid," I covered my head.

"Your stupid questions are just curiosity," she smiled. "It's okay."

"So, would you answer it?" I asked, turning my head towards her.

"Only if you want me to."

This is where my mind wasn't functioning. May I present, my stupidity. "Answer it. Wait- no, don't answer it. But do you want to- no, wait, don't answer it. It would be uncomfortable for you. Then again, aren't you curious? What your life was like? Wait, don't say anything- okay, next question..."

Aurora laughed, making me shut up for once during that little rant. I smiled as she continued her small fit of laughter, taking in how adorable it was.

Her laughter died down and I thought of my next question, feeling nervous. "Um..." I started, before facing her almost completely. "Do you have any... powers?"

"Yes, I do. I have enhanced senses, the ability to heal myself and others, and, well, flight. Only when my wings are out, of course." She thought for a moment. "I also have the ability to create inanimate objects. I don't really see a need for that though."

"Okay... enhanced senses," I mumbled. "Does that mean you can hear and see things from far? Can you see around corners? Can you smell things from miles away?"

"I can do all of that, yes."

"If you can hear things from far, then can you hear people's thoughts?"

"If they're close enough."

I froze. "How far is close?"

"Close enough," she gave a small smile.

I cleared my throat. "Alright... and healing. Can you just heal anyone you want at any time?"

"Not exactly. Everything happens for a reason; people get hurt for a reason, people choose this over that for a reason and other things humans do happen for a reason. It's because it's all part of God's plan for the balance of the universe."

She paused before continuing. "He guides me while I'm here on Earth. When I see someone get hurt, I would always want to go and heal them immediately. But God restricts me because it would ruin his plan for that particular person."

I considered it a bit more. "Then us meeting must have been for a reason, right? Did God make you heal me?"

Her head shook. "God only has the power to restrict me. He can't control my thoughts or actions. But you might not be too far from the truth. We must have met for a reason that falls into place with His objective."

"This is so weird... It's like you're your own person, but not at the same time." She tilted her head a little at my observation. I noticed and quickly changed the topic. "You can create things. That's- that's cool. What did you make so far?"

Aurora began listing the few things she had made during her time on Earth. It soon made me realize I was more gullible than I thought. She could be saying all of this and it wouldn't be real. How could I have known she was telling the truth?

Then I felt stupid for questioning her. I saw her huge white feathery wings with my own two eyes. What more of an explanation could there be for seeing a pair of angel wings attached to a human? Fake prosthetics? If it was fake, then how in the world did Mason end up across the school rooftop?

We continue to talk for a while after I asked a couple more questions. For some reason, I actually genuinely enjoyed hanging out with Aurora. I knew for sure, finally, why she attracted a lot of attention. She had that natural charm with people, and I was having a difficult time figuring out if she knew about it or not.

A couple of minutes passed and I was about to ask my last question. "Aurora," I called, ensuring I had her complete attention. "Why are you here? On Earth, I mean? Are you here to protect someone? To send a message from God?"

She goes to answer, but the park lights suddenly turned on. It startled me for a moment. Then my phone began to ring. My chest began to ache as I saw my mom was calling. I had promised her Chipotle.

"Sorry, I gotta take this," I say quickly to Aurora before walking by a lampost. I answered the phone and asked, "Hello?"

"Zayne, where are you? It's almost two hours you're gone for!" my mom yelled at me.

"I know, I know," I repeated, not knowing how long I took. "I just met up with, uh- someone."

"If you don't come back before midnight, I'm grounding you for a month."

I quickly told her I was on my way home with some Chipotle and she continued to threaten me. Eventually, she hung up.

I groaned and turned to Aurora. Before I could open my mouth, she said, "You need to get going," with a smile.

I was surprised. "How did you..." then it clicked. "Oh. Enhanced senses, right," I chuckled embarrassingly.

"The conversation will be on hold for now, so go ahead and buy your mother some Chipotle," she giggled. "She would be worried by now."

I took one last look at Aurora, before hurrying off to Chipotle. I never admitted it, but I had fun with her.

Maybe Aurora would be part of our friend group after all.

◇◇◇

The very next day, I began daydreaming.

Scary, I know.

What makes it bizarre is that I was daydreaming about laying on the grass in the park, looking up at the stars. Every now and then I would get a scene of looking at Aurora laying next to me. Even though it was a daydream, I felt protected.

It was strange, but thankfully I have Carter, who's dumb enough to splash me with half a bottle of water. "Dude, what is wrong with you?" he asked.

"I should be asking you," I glared, wiping the water from my face with a napkin.

"You've been zoning out for the whole day," Nadia says, handing me a sheet of paper once my hands were dry. "I had to take this for you in Geography class because of your daydreaming."

I scoffed as I took the paper. "I wasn't daydreaming." Looking at the page, I realized it was the consent form for our field trip.

Teachers for our grade were talking for weeks about carrying all the geography classes in the grade for a field trip to ancient ruins or something abroad. We would've been tested on ruins at the end of the term. There would also be a bit of history on it for the students who did the subject as extra credit.

It was a three-day, two-night thing, because of a lot of complications. No tours this day, no available rooms the other day, blah blah blah. Only geography students were allowed to go, and luckily, all three of us were doing that exact subject.

"Babe, did Aurora say she'd go?" Nadia asked Carter, making my eyes dart up. I hadn't known she was doing geography. Maybe I should have been paying more attention to what they talked about.

"She was going before we even got the forms," Carter chuckled.

"Hey," Aurora announced as she reached our table. "Are you talking about the field trip?"

"Yeah, we were. Would you please be my roommate? I always get paired with random people for overnight field trips, and it's not fun," Nadia pleaded, activating her puppy eyes that always got to both me and Carter.

"I thought we were already roommates," Aurora smiled.

"You're the best!" Nadia threw her arms around Aurora, hugging her tightly.

I sighed and looked back at the consent form. Three days, two nights. The first day would've been arriving at the hotel, then the next day would be the actual ruins, and the last day is when we return home, starting from the end of the week.

I'm not lying when I say I didn't want to go. There wasn't anything that seemed interesting to me about it. I didn't do history either. There was that, and the fact that I would be too lazy to pack for the trip.

When I got home, my mom asked me if I had gotten the consent form for the field trip. Even though I said no, it was like she could've seen through me as she took the consent form out of my bag.

"You don't want to go? Even if the hotel has a pool?" my mom asked.

"Nope. Not even if the hotel has a pool." I shoved my hands in my pockets and walked toward the stairs.

"Oh, well okay," she hummed. "Your cousins are coming over for the weekend, by the way."

Instantly, I turned back and gave her a pen. "Sign it, sign it, sign it."

She laughed and signed the form. When she finished, she handed it back to me. "Bring back a souvenir for me," she smiled.

"I'll see what I can get," I noted, folding the consent form neatly into my bag. I turned away to go up to my room, but...

"You're forgetting something."

I turned back and quickly kissed her cheek. "Love you."

"Love you too, sweetie," she smiles as I walk away.

Going on the field trip was not something I was excited about, but I'd do anything to stay away from wild kids, also known as my cousins.