Destiny

12.

Chapter 12

"What are you doing here?" I asked, glaring at Aryan. I was more surprised than anything.

I'd never seen him in real life and it was different than my dreams. He was taller. And his features were more... perfect. He was gorgeous. More beautiful than I expected. Did I expect to see him in real life?

No.

"I can't let you kill Kellan."

"Are you kidding me? He's trying to kill me!"

Aryan took a step toward me, his hand up in surrender. "I know, I know. But you need to hear me out."

"No. I can't. Not when you're working with him."

He laughed and a female laugh sounded behind me.

I turned around and there was Lucy. Her hair was braided back and she wore all black clothes, running shoes on. Her wings were hidden as were Aryan's. She too was more beautiful in person.

"You're funny, Julia."

"Why are you here?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

"We're springing you." Lucy said.

I laughed though I was excited. I was dying to get out and experience life. Or as much life as I could get from Lucy and Aryan.

"Why?"

"Because you're in danger." Aryan said, pulling his glasses off to wipe the lens' clean.

"I wouldn't be if you'd just let me kill Kellan."

Lucy touched my arm. "Oh, sweetie. You can't kill Kellan."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "Why the hell not?"

Aryan shoved his glasses on and grabbed my arm. He pulled me into the bathroom with him. Lucy shut the door behind her and put a finger to her lips, warning me that someone was coming.

The bedroom door opened. A few seconds later, it closed.

Aryan relaxed and went back to cleaning his glasses. "We're not letting you kill yourself."

"I can take him-"

Lucy clamped a hand over my mouth. "No, you couldn't. He's a couple hundred years older than you. And he has experience fighting. You can't even fight us off in your dreams."

"Fight you off?" I asked, pulling her hand away.

"You don't have to have us in your dreams, Julia. If you don't want us, just kick us out."

"I can do that?"

She nodded, a smile on her face. "You can do a lot of things."

"Well, can I get out of here?"

"Not yet. We have to make a big enough disturbance to make it look like you ran away. Out the front door."

I laughed. "You really think I'd be able to do that?"

"You got this far, didn't you?"

I blushed. "How do we get out then?"

"The roof." Aryan said, putting his glasses back on.

"The roof." I took a deep breath. "Okay. That's completely normal. Then we just... fly off?"

"Look, I know it's a lot to take in right now. But you have to stay with us. We can chat later." Lucy said.

"Wait-we can't leave Brayden here."

"Who?" Aryan asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Kellan knows him. He knows we're friends. He'd hurt him if we left. To get back at me."

He sighed and looked at Lucy. They shared a silent stare before Lucy headed for the door.

"I'll get him. Meet me on the roof in fifteen minutes. If I'm not there after twenty, come after me."

And with that, she left.
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We walked down the hallway and Aryan put his palm on a few doors. He put his palm on one and stopped. He grabbed the keys from me and unlocked the door. He ushered me inside then locked the door.

I glanced around and saw we were in a stockroom. The shelves were lined with gloves, syringes, and cleaning products. And pills. Lots and lots of pills, all marked with what they were and how many pills were in each bottle.

I ran my hand over a bottle of something I had to take. It was an antipsychotic. "Am I gonna have to take drugs once I'm out?"

"There's nothing wrong with you. No reason to be taking pills."

I sat down on the footstool and ran my hands through my hair. I felt like I was going crazy. Full blown crazy. Not just pretending and taking pills every day.

"Lucy's going to call us when she gets to Brayden's room. So we can fill him in."

Everything was starting to fall into place and it scared me. I didn't know what I was supposed to think or believe. It all felt like another dream. Nightmare.

Aryan turned around and knelt down in front of me. He pulled my hands from my face and wiped the tears off my cheeks. "Hey, you don't have to be scared. We're not going to hurt you. I promise."

I wanted to pull my hands away from him and tell him to get away from me but his hands were so warm and soft. I felt more at ease in that stockroom, with him just inches from me, than I had ever felt with any of the nurses or doctors.

"What are you?" I asked in a whisper, afraid that if I raised my voice, someone would hear us.

"I'm an angel. So are Lucy and Kellan."

"How can you get into my dreams? How have I been able to talk to you guys?"

"All angels can communicate through dreams. Both people have to be asleep though Kellan can communicate no matter if the person is asleep or not."

"What if I die?"

Aryan looked surprised. "What do you mean?"

"He killed me in one of my dreams."

"Something's not right here. If you die in a dream, you die in real life. You should have died, Julia."

"The same way?"

He nodded.

I stared at him, unable to process what was going on. "You're saying that-"

His phone went off and he let go of my hands to answer it. "Is everything okay?" He listened for a few seconds before he held the phone out for me.

I hesitated before I took it and held it up to my ear. "Hello?"

"Julia? What the hell is going on? Who is this girl?" Brayden said, his voice shaking.

"Brayden, calm down. Everything's going to be okay. We're getting out of here."

"Julia, are you crazy?"

"Yes, but so are you. Listen, Lucy's not going to hurt you. She's here to help."

"You know her name?"

"Brayden, shut up. Just trust me, okay? We're getting out of here." I hung up and handed the phone back to Aryan. He looked surprised. Stunned almost.

I ran my sweaty palms over my pants and started pacing the length of the stockroom. "Can we go now? This room's making me claustrophobic."

A slow smile spread on his face. He got to his feet and his wings opened up to a more relaxed position.

"Let's go."