Chapter Seven

It was ironic to invite the killer of your child to your child's funeral. Not that they knew the truth. 

Agnes was sorry that she killed Maia, but she did not regret it. She made a choice. It was terrible for Maia of course, but Agnes needed to do it to confuse the police. 

Agnes felt eyes on her again. Jin told her how someone chased him. 

"Some kind of bird. I swear I heard wings," Jin had told her. 

"Winged people," Agnes had said and laughed. 

"… weird dream. I saw a guy with wings," Alex was saying to Theo on their way back in the car. 

"A guy with wings? I saw more than one person with wings in my dream too. They were telling me something. I don't know. Strange that we had the same dream," Theo said. 

Jin said something with wings chased him. Agnes shook her head. A strange coincidence, but believing that there were winged people was stranger. 

"Did you have that kind of dream too?" Alex asked and Agnes realized she was talking to her. 

Agnes shook her head. The dreams she had were all about someone watching her, trying to choke her, or someone chasing her. The one watching her was a man, his face hidden beneath a hooded cloak. He called her 'Agnes', never 'Nes'. Sometimes she would look out her window and he was behind a tree. She would look behind her on the street and he was there. He also chased her a few times. She was not a slow runner despite her lack of practice. But he was faster. He would catch her and pin her down on the ground. He would wrap his fingers around her throat and whisper something in her ear. 

Agnes had a questionable choice in men since she found that man attractive. 

She instantly knew something was wrong as she backed the car into the driveway. It was not like anything was out of the ordinary. Still, there was this odd calmness that did not feel right. 

"Why does it feel so…?" Alex murmured. 

"I know what you mean," Theo said as he got out of the car. "It feels like we would discover at least ten dead bodies inside."

"It's the house. It creeps me out sometimes," Alex said. 

It was not normal. Something was certainly wrong. Agnes held the keys tightly so she could use them as a weapon if needed. She had a knife strapped to her thigh as well; she would not make the same mistake as to carry weapons in bags only. 

Theo slid the key into the keyhole and opened the front door. A breeze hit them in the face. Agnes told Jin to close all the windows if he left. Did he not do it?

As she stepped inside and took a look around, she knew what was wrong. 

"My god!" Alex cried. "What the hell happened?"

The couch was overturned, and so was the coffee table. Most importantly, there was blood on the floor. 

Agnes felt her entire world crumble. "Jin! Jin!" she started shouting her friend's name. "Shit! Look for him!" she barked at Theo. "And call the police," she said to Alex. 

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." They all turned at the same time to look at the man standing in the doorway. Agnes locked the door behind them upon entering. Then, how did the man open the door? Why did they not hear anything?

"Who the fuck are you? Where is Jin?" Agnes was angrier than she ever was. She wanted to lunge at the man and stab him as many times as it needed to turn him into a lump of flesh. 

"The police cannot do anything to save your friend, Agnes Raothiel," the man said. He had hair as white as snow and his eyes were very light golden. It was like sunlight was emitting from his eyes. 

"And you can?" Agnes asked spitefully. 

"How did you come in anyway?" Theo asked. He stood a step ahead of Alex and Agnes as if he wanted to protect them from this unarmed, but strange man. 

"That's not important, I suppose," the man said. As Agnes looked attentively, it was not a man, but a boy who was not much older than them, if not the same age. 

"I know you," Alex said as she took a few steps toward him. Theo tried to stop her, but she shoved his hand away. "I saw you in my dream."

Agnes wanted to roll her eyes and call her stupid, but a part of her knew she was not being stupid. It even made sense in a way. 

"Of course, you did. We tried to contact all of you. We could contact you two." He pointed at Alex and Theo. Then, he looked at Agnes. "But we couldn't contact her."

"Ah, yes, my mind is blocked from external disturbances. I did it myself," Agnes said. 

"Really?" he asked, genuinely curious. 

"No. And where is Jin? Who are you?" 

"I am Rezef. And I know where your friend is," he said. "I can tell you all about it, if you come with me."

"What if we don't want to go with you?" Alex asked. 

"Then, well, I don't want to force, but that's what will happen," Rezef said with a crooked smile. 

Such a smile did not suit an angel-like face of his. 

"We will not go anywhere with you," Theo said. "You can leave. We will call the police. They will find Jin."

"Really, a very useless choice," Rezef said. They could not even blink once when white wings protruded from Rezef's back. The wings were huge. They were flapping continuously sending a strong wind at them. Agnes was surprised to see she could blink even against the wind. 

She could not see clearly around her anymore. There was some kind of fog all around her. Someone grabbed her arm. By the feel of it, it must be Theo. 

And then nothing. Everything went white. 

When Agnes opened her eyes, she was in a white room. Alex and Theo were on either side of her, Theo clutching her arm so hard that his knuckles turned white. It was painful, but she did not pull her hand away. 

In front of them stood three people, including Rezef. Another girl with golden hair and golden eyes and a boy with red hair and violet eyes stood beside him. The girl was eyeing Theo. It was gross to see another girl ogling her brother. 

"So, these are the triplets," the red-haired boy said. 

It was strange enough to be teleported to this strange place from their home. But what made matters stranger was the fact that she knew what they were. 

Angels.