Ghost in the Roses
Chapter 33

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Nina is gone for the weekend and so must Kai. This time, it’s his turn to meet the parents. Nina has already met Kai’s family and I must say that this is getting really serious. I can’t go anywhere on the other hand. As much as I would like to travel someplace new and explore, it’s my rotation to stay behind for dorm night duty.

Everyone who has decided not to go anywhere and stay here instead is sleeping. The halls are empty, but I still compel myself to refill the kerosene lamps just in case a sleepwalker finds themselves wandering around.

It’s a quiet night, a perfect environment for one’s thoughts to dwell and lately, there has been a lot on my mind. I wish I had someone I could freely speak to and not be suspicious of their intentions or fear of putting them at risk, but there’s no one here who’d be like that. That realization becomes a strange reason to look elsewhere. I’m not sure why, but I find myself looking up.

Angels and celestial beings are looking down right at me and I realize that I’ve wandered into the West Hall. It’s been a while since I looked up at that ceiling, but with everything that’s going on around me I don’t know where else to turn. As much as it wants to appear as a plain commissioned piece of art enchanted with settled magic, I know they can hear me.

But will they listen? I dare to test it out loud. “I know you’re here. I know you’re all here. Nothing is as it seems, I know that now. That’s why I’m so confused. That’s why I don’t know what to do. That’s why I don’t know what and who I can trust.”

It’s silent, but I’m a patient man. After all, I’m not asking easy questions.

I sigh, still waiting.

“What took you so long to talk to us? We know you saw us right from the very beginning,” an answer comes just before any disappointment is allowed to creep in.

My heart perks up.

“Hello?!” my echo bounces between the columns.

“Hello, Adrien,” yet another answer, but it doesn’t make me feel any easier.

Someone’s here with me, but I can’t see them or pinpoint their location. Could this be a hallucination brought out by desperation?

In the shadows of the columns, I spot a figure moving.

“We’ve been waiting...for a long time.”

This must be a wondering cadet pulling my leg, but I’m not in the mood for anyone’s jokes, “It’s past hours, you need to get back to your room.”

Sounds of footsteps begin and with a casual pace, my only company walks towards me.

“But I don’t go here,” it says.

Seriously? This kid is a real joker. But with everything that’s going on, maybe not. Oh, no. Is this a Red?

“You’ve got to get back, if you don’t want to lose your town privileges,” I’m really trying to figure out what’s happening right now.

“As I said, I don’t go here and never could,” the figure insists.

Quickly, I realize that this stranger is telling the truth. This is not a cadet, but not an infiltrator either. None of them can ever grow a pair of wings at a moment’s notice just like this.

“I’d never pass the room inspections with these things shedding feathers all the time,” the stranger steps into the path of the moon’s dim glow, but the lack of light does nothing to hinder the impressiveness of his wingspan.

I’m convinced that he’s of no threat, not with an angelic face like this one.

“Wow, those wings must go for miles.”

Oh dear, I’m such a dork.

“Thank you,” he smiles at my corny joke anyway.

“Who are you? I mean I know what you are, obviously, but who are you? What are you doing here?”

“I am an angel. You’re right to think that, but I’m not just any angel.”

“Then what kind are you?”

“I’m Michael, the archangel who commands the heavenly armies. I’m the one who guides a dead warrior’s soul into the afterlife. The one who heals and protects them while they’re alive and fighting.”

“You said you’ve been waiting for me?”

“Yes, I have, almost the whole fucking time you’ve been here.”

“What do you want?”

“You’re one of the very few who walked these halls and noticed us watching you from the ceiling.”

“But, Nina and Kai saw you too. I pointed you out to them.”

“They saw us alright, as many others do, but only as an illusion. But you’re one of the few who saw us and knew that we meant something greater. You’re one of the few who sees us as something...much more complex.”

“Just like Lada. That’s why she knows where the Capricorns like to hang around. That’s why Leo keeps her underground hideout a secret.”

“That’s why she couldn’t go along with the Red’s rouge plans, as much as it would’ve made sense if she did.”

“So what that I saw you for what you are. What are you doing here?”

“You asked for guidance, so I came here to warn you.”

“About what?”

“That there will be men who’ll ask you to forget us, forget that you’ve ever seen us or talked to us. They’ll try to convince you that we’re all a lie and will try to destroy any image that would remind you of us. They’ll ask you to pledge your allegiance and unbending loyalty to them and treat them as gods and deities.”

“But who’d worship such an earth-bound being?”

“Remember you said that, Adrien. Because a time will come when they will try forcing you to do just that.”

“I won’t forget.”

“It won’t be a pretty memory. None of this will be and that’s what will make it so difficult to believe in us still,” he looks down at my hands.

His notion guides my gaze and I’m stunned at what I find myself holding. The warm sensation slithering down my wrists is sickening and my trembling fingertips are dripping with a foul, amber rain. This is indeed a warning, no doubt about that. What else all this blood could possibly mean?

Am I going to have to kill someone? Is this what the future holds? Whose blood is this?

I look around in search of who might need medical help, but there is no one. There are no victims taken down to the ground. I check myself for wounds, but I’m perfectly fine.

Thankfully, this awful vision is brief and the blood vanishes from my hands without a trace, but so does the archangel. I wish I knew whose blood it was on my hands. I don’t know why Michael didn’t stick around to tell me and I hope that I won’t come to see to that and find out.

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