Centos' Return

“You know they will come for me,” Angelica told him softly as she lay on his chest. She had known for some time the danger they were both in. Her gift alone made her an outcast; people always thought she was weird, they couldn’t see what she sees. She spent her whole life adjusting and understanding her gift; but it wasn’t until her love for Gaylen bloomed that she fully understood her path.
“I will not allow any harm to come to you; my father will not interfere.” Gaylen began rubbing the strayed hair from her forehead as he continued, “I lost you once, I will not lose you again.” She couldn’t explain the love she felt for him; it was a connection neither could understand nor deny. As her gift grew stronger and she understood her purpose for the lost souls, Angelica let go of any fear she had where Gaylen was concerned. He was a Spiritual Orb after all; so if anyone could understand her, it was him.
Catching a figure out of the corner of her eye, Angelica slowly sat up and began staring. “What is it,” Gaylen asked as he watched her. Sliding the sheet slowly to the side as she got out of bed she whispered, “I don’t know.” It was a frail looking woman, maybe in her thirties, she was wearing a dirtied whits sleeping gown. Her hair was very muffled and her feet were bare; the dark under her eyes paired with her pasty white skin solidified Angelica’s thought, she was a ghost.
“Who are you,” keeping her voice to a low whisper, Angelica approached the young woman but she did not respond. “It’s okay, I can help you,” it was always the same thing; ghosts would come to her and most would not speak at first. They preferred to show her things in order for her to help them. This time was different; this time Angelica fell to her knees, she couldn’t breathe. Gaylen, seeing her fall and grabbing her throat, jumped out of bed and ran to her side, “Angelica! Angelica, what’s happening?” He was frantic, he had seen her interact with ghosts before but never did they physically harm her.
Angelica never took her eyes off the ghost as she continued to struggle to breathe; and just like that the ghost was gone, leaving Angelica confused with the taste of smoke in her mouth. Still trying to catch her breath she placed her hand on Gaylen’s arm trying to get up. “Are you okay? What the hell was that?” Gaylen asked, helping her to her feet. She made her way to the bed and sat down where he met her with a glass of water.
After taking a sip of water, Angelica said, “I don’t know. I don’t understand, I think she is trying to show me something? It felt so real.” She continued to scan the room looking for the woman; but she was gone. What could she possibly be trying to show her? She laid back down on the bed and wrapped her leg and arm tightly over Gaylen with her head on his chest. He began slowly rubbing her head trying to help calm her. Spirits usually do not get physical and that concerned Gaylen greatly. Although he rarely got involved with her gift, this time he thought it might be a little different; this time he may have to intervene.
The next morning he found her in the kitchen making breakfast; she was so beautiful. The sun shone brightly through the window making her hair look like gold was blended in with her dark hair. She had her favorite jazz music playing as she poured a cup of coffee, “I can feel you, you know,” she giggled as she turned and handed him his coffee. He forgot sometimes that it didn’t matter if he were in his Orb phase, she always knew where he was. She had told him before that he always seemed to give off this auro that she could see; like golden flecks floating. He phased back into human form as he reached for his coffee, smiling he said, “you seem much better this morning. Given any thought about our visitor last night?” “You know I have; it just doesn’t make sense. It really felt like I couldn’t breathe; and I don’t have a clue what the smoke taste meant.” Shrugging his shoulders he responded, “maybe it has something to do with her death? Maybe the choking sensation was how she died?” Shaking her head as she turned to put the dishes in the sink, no, it had to be something more; and she was going to find out what.
The steam from the hot water fogged the mirror as Angelica soaked in a much needed bath. She hadn’t seen the woman in two days; maybe she didn’t need her help after all, but then why show herself? Gaylen has been gone for a week now and she missed him dearly; he was off checking on his most recent assignment and would be back within the next couple of days.
Drifting off she was startled awake as she heard a loud crash coming from downstairs. Quickly jumping up and wrapping her bathrobe around her she grabbed the bat that was standing against the wall; a small non-deadly weapon she kept by her bed just in case. She slowly and quietly crept down the stairs, her eyes were dashing around the room as she got to the bottom of the stairs trying to figure out where the noise came from.
She saw him bent down cleaning up the broken glass he knocked off the counter. Nigier wasn’t the greatest at adjusting to his phased human form and tended to knock things over in the process. “What are you doing?” She placed the bat against the wall by the door as she approached him. “Sorry Jeli, I didn’t mean to wake you, guess I will never get past my clumsy side.” Dumping the broken glass into the trash he turned to her with a look of concern, “what is it Nigier? Is Gaylen okay?” Seeing the look on his face she knew his visit wasn’t an informal one. “Yes, Jeli, he is fine,” she gained the nickname from him during his assignment to her many years ago; jelly rolls were her favorite snack and as a little girl she used to get the cream all over her face as she ate them. She loved Nigier, they were as close as her and her brother and she missed seeing him every day. “Something has you twisted up, talk to me,” she knew him every bit as well as he did her.
“He’s coming Jeli; and he’s not going to be alone,” her heart began pounding so hard she felt it would burst through her chest; stumbling back she fell into the chair and just stared. She had heard the story of her past death; one she fell upon after overhearing Nigier and Gaylen discuss concerns for her safety when she was fifteen. Yiorgos had ordered her death and Centos enjoyed the mission he set out to do. Although enemies, Yiorgos knew he had to allow Centos to carry out the death to prevent a war between the Orbs and Dark Side. Centos, was in fact, the one that exposed her love affair with Gaylen and therefore it was his right as leader of the Dark Side to carry out her death as well as Gaylen’s. Yiorgos would have no harm come to his son and Centos knew of the danger if he challenged the powerful king. They came to a compromise to spare Gaylen’s life in return for stripping him of his powers and allowing Centos to kill Angelica.
Yiorgos allowed Gaylen’s powers to be restored many years later and Centos found this to be betrayal, he broke the code. Gaylen was never supposed to regain his powers, and in doing so, Centos ensured he would one day strip him of his life.
“Jeli, listen to me, he will send his dark spirits to do you harm. He knows he cannot touch you himself; he knows this isn’t ancient times, he cannot just walk in and kill you. He knows your gift and will use it against you,” Nigier had come across the information while overseeing his assignment. He saw two of Centos’ top spirits gathered in a common neutral meeting ground. Knowing they could not see him in his Orb state he made himself invisible and floated above them; geared on making sure they were not up to no good.
“Does Gaylen know?” Angelica knew once he found out he would become enraged and try to kill Centos himself. “Not yet, I wanted to make sure you were okay before I told him; when is he to return?” “Any day now; he went to check on Stella,” she couldn’t shake the cold feeling that came over her; it was as if something was blowing cold air all over her. Noticing her change in behavior, Nigier bent down in front of her, placing his hand on her knee. “Do you feel that? It’s like an iceberg in here,” she stood and walked to the living room aiming to grab a blanket as Nigier followed. He had seen this in her before, strange feelings, changes in behavior; sometimes she seemed to just fade away, but with Centos lurking around he was not going to leave her side.
She stopped short of the couch, Nigier less than a foot away from her, she froze in place. Peering through the window, with an evil smirk, she saw him immediately. He stood there in a black trench, black fedora hat and black gloves. There was a ray of red surrounding him; his evil aura Angelica knew. He just stood there glaring at her and she couldn’t move. Suddenly the air left her chest, she felt as if she was suffocating. She fell forward; stopping herself from falling face first into the couch with one hand and grabbing her throat with the other.
Staring at him through the window as she struggled to breathe, Angelica once again found herself encountering the same smokey taste in her mouth she had a few days earlier. Nigier raced to her side, grabbing her around the waist frantically; in all his years with her he never saw her physically harmed.
The hand she had on her throat dropped to the arm of the chair as she regained her breath; terrified she looked towards the window again only to see him laugh before he disappeared. “Find Gaylen; now.” was all she said.