That night, at the stroke of midnight I heard my mother awaken. The floors of our house creaked, alerting me to her movement. I crept from my bed to the sight of her in a white bathrobe, approaching Jahil as he slept. I watched as, to my horror, she dropped the robe her body on full display. Elena took his hand caressing it down her chest, from her collar bone, down her breasts, to her slender stomach. As he touched her, Elena's body transformed.
"My love, my king," Elena's voice echoed, her back glowed blue and her abdomen began suddenly growing until she resembled a woman in her third trimester of pregnancy, "I offer myself to you as your bride." She kissed him but as she did, she stabbed him in the back of the neck with a large shimmery nail. It penetrated with a sickening crunch.
"AUSTIN!" I screamed.
Austin got out of bed and attempted to grab Elena but she was protected by a blue force field. He was violently thrown back landing hard on his shoulder.
I ran to his side. "You can't break it?"
"Did you want to try? She's pregnant with a demon child, and now she's attempting a siphon!"
I carefully approached the force field. As I gently touched the blue energy I closed my eyes and prayed. "Dad, I'm really scared. If you can hear me, please send help."
The room started to shake. A glowing line appeared in front of me. It began to crack open little by little until it resembled a portal.
A tall male angel emerged. He had a slender face with deep set eyes and long blonde hair. The angel grabbed Elena by the waist enveloping her with his wings. He glanced at me and Austin before exiting the way he came.
We rushed to Jahil's side. His eyes were pale and milky. "Austin? Sunny?" He reached out his hand, searching the empty space. Jahil had gone completely blind.
Day 1: In addition to the blindness Jahil was suffering chronic seizures. But most alarming was that his body was coming apart. Any injury that was healed using his powers was now un-healing; his leg, his back, his newly fractured ribs and sternum. Worst of all was his head.
I watched as Austin changed the blood soaked bandages. "In Ohio my father was caught trying to unionize migrant workers on a soy plantation. After shooting my father in the leg the land owners stripped him naked. Both my parents were sentenced to one hundred lashes each. I was forced to watch- then it was my turn. To spare my suffering and possibly my life my mother offered herself. The land owners could do whatever they wanted to her. Her only request was to be able to die in my father's arms."
I was standing in the doorway. "That's horrible."
Austin nodded, "No shit. My father was forced to watch as my mother was brutally raped. When all five men were done with her they told my father to hold his little whore. My father held her in his arms sobbing. Then one of the men fired a single round that pierced my father's skull passing though into my mother's heart." Austin paused to kiss his father's forehead, tears streaming down his cheeks. "And then I watched as my parents' bodies were set on fire."
"Austin, I'm so sorry," I said, still too afraid to take a step in to the room.
Day 2 was my turn to cut school. Jahil was barely able to consume food, so as the result he had little to no energy. I tried to offer him small sips of water but the act of swallowing proved to be incredibly painful. The way his face and throat contorted, it was as if he was trying to swallow a handful of thumbtacks. I spend the majority of the day sitting outside the door. I felt sick and ashamed. I didn't deserve to be the one to save him.
Day 3, Austin and I were in the backyard taking in the beauty of the freshly fallen snow Austin was smoking while I held a cup of coffee. He had procured a few needles of morphine, to allow Jahil to sleep. "How fucking oblivious are you, Sunny? You're meant to be with him, you're meant to save him!"
I started fidgeting with my cup. "I have a crush, I'll admit that, but really, your dad is what forty, fifty?" I wanted him, I wanted him with all of my heart but I was afraid. What if I couldn't save him, what if it was too late?
Austin shook his head. There were tears welling up in his eyes. "Try five thousand!"
My hands froze. My coffee cup fell to the ground, shattering. "What did you say?" There was no way. But there was. His magic, his beauty, Jahil was not human. That realization hurt more. He was precious, like an endangered species. I knew he needed me.
Austin placed a hand on my shoulder. "That was a fact I was never meant to reveal. It's his most intimate secret: something he would have told the woman who was destined to be his bride."
"You're fucking with me."
"You've seen it with your own eyes! The markings on his body; symbols that have not been seen since the time of the Mayans," Austin pleaded. "And he loves you. You can't deny that."
"What's the catch?" I asked. My real question was: what would happen if I failed? Did I run the risk of hurting him even worse?
Austin bit his lip. "You might not survive; any human who has sex with my father goes up in flames."
"Oh, of course," I said with an eyeroll.
"I'm serious, as a child I witnessed it with my own two eyes." Austin's voice choked with tears. "It had been a cold day in North Carolina. My mother was struggling with headaches, or something I don't really remember. I just know she was too sick to make love to my father, and it was tearing her up inside."
"I don't understand."
"He needed to be at full power for the revolt against the land owners. So he took a sacrifice. It was the most gruesome thing I had ever seen- up to that day anyway."
My mouth was hanging open. "How and why did you witness that?"
"It was ceremonial, my father is a God!"