Fallen Angels///11

Voices in my head...

Voices... with no faces...

Faces... with no names...

A lost memory full with waves of faces and oceans of voices.

Calling out a name...

A name I cannot hear...

Yet it seems so clear...

It calls to me...

It's calling me..

I woke up with a throbbing headache. I was laying flat on my back against the now familiar cool stone. My eyes opened slightly, adjusting to the small fire that lay besides me, keeping me warm. I took in a deep breath and sighed. My leg had a numb feeling to it, but in all, it didn't hurt. I looked around the room. Yes, everyone was still there, all of them sleeping next to fires scattered around the room. I pulled myself into a sitting position and leaned against the wall. My white pant leg now had a large tear in it and was dripping of blood. I took out my sword and carefully cut off the fabric, stopping just below my knee. My leg was no longer bleeding... there was no marking either. I ran my hand against my skin and felt it was smooth... as if nothing had happened. I just assumed that Mary had healed it up, seeing as how I remembered her face kneeling over me right before I blacked out. Ha! I knew she couldn't hate me! Score one for me, oh yeah...

Another thing I had noticed was that I even had my sword. Last I remembered, it was thrown away from me while I was crawling away from the shark... the shark... why was I fighting a shark again? Lauren!

I stood up and looked at everyone, searching for her. I finally saw her figure huddled up in a corner. She appeared to be alright... well, she was breathing... that was a good thing I suppose. I was left alone to a fire by myself in a corner to my right, farthest away from the now closed door that led us to this room. A shuffled noise came from my right and I turned to see Adrian sitting up. She smiled, her eyes gleaming bright from the fire in front of me as she stood up.

I placed my finger to my lips and waved my hand across the room.

/You don't want to wake the sleeping losers, now do you? /

She giggled softly as she shook her head and quietly walked over to the fire and sat down against the wall. She motioned for me to sit, and I took a seat in the corner and turned to face her. The fire cast a shadow the made her almost pale skin a dark tan. Still, her eyes never changed. They were like mine... forever black. She stuck her hand in the fire and pulled out a stream of fire, playing with it gently as she motioned for it to swirl and bend at the demands of her fingers. I watched her face as she first gave a look of mild concentration, then slowly softened out as she began to gain control of her new creation. I held out my hand and carefully made a small stream of air pass though her fire. It separated at first, but Adrian was able to keeps it's shape. I moved the air around in a small circle, gaining speed as I did so and trapped her fire in the middle. The flame turned with the air and soon, the two flowed as one. Adrian starred curiously at our new creation, as did I. She turned the flame at an angle so that it was free from the air's grasp. She moved it from her hands and placed it back in the fire where it came from. I waved my hand slowly as a soft wave of air came from me and encircled itself around her. Her hair lightly lifted off her shoulders as she closed her eyes and let the air move through her.

A noise came from the other side of the room and I stopped. Adrian opened her eyes and turned to look as Ariel sat up from her spot near a separate fire and glanced around the room, stopping to stare at us for a moment before laying back down. Adrian gave a confused look as I shrugged my shoulders. To hell with her, I'm done sleeping. Unfortunately, Adrian wasn't and she slowly lay down with her back against the wall. I watched her stare at the fire before she finally fell back asleep. I tried to close my eyes and drift off, but my mind just wouldn't let me. I stayed awake, staring at the fire, thinking. I thought of random thoughts like... food, food, and more food. Did I mention food? My stomach gave a small growl and I brought my knees to my chest, placing my head between my legs. I looked back up at the fire, watching as small sparks flew from its tips. Sometimes I tried to catch the sparks on a whim of air, but they always faded away.

There were three fires in the room. On the opposite wall in the left corner lay about 5 of my fellow comrades. On that same wall in the other corner lay the other 6. A small snore came from one of the guys. I couldn't see who it was, due to the dimness of the room, but I smiled anyway. Shadows danced around the room as the flames flicked in the air. A grumble came from the left corner. I turned to see who had woken up, but no one ever sat up. The shadows seemed to be growing larger now. I blinked my eyes a couple of times to get rid of the allusion. Next thing I knew, Carlos was sitting right next to me.

"Ah!" I jumped back a little and bumped into Adrian's foot.

"Shhhhh!"

I calmed down and whispered to him, "How did you do that?"

He simply smiled. /The same way you can do this, I just can. /

I looked at him, observing his body. It was just like a regular person, nothing different about it... it was just amazing to me how he could move within the shadows...

/Ok, I get it... / I looked over to Adrian who was now sitting up and glancing sleepy eyes at us.

/Go back to sleep... / I told her. She looked at me and shook her head no. /Too late, I'm awake now, so deal with it... /

I gave a small smile and a stiff salute. /Yes ma'am! /

She giggled as Carlos cleared his throat, announcing the fact that he was still there. I rolled my eyes and turned to face him.

/Well, it's nice to see you've finally woken up... /

I gave a glance around the room. /What happened? /

He shook his head and gave me a stupid look. /You blacked out dumbass... /

Oh hell-to the effin-no he just didn't! /Nah duh, thanks for the info Captain Obvious. /

He gave a smirk. I guess he just wanted to play games with my head... good for him, its nice that he knows what he wants...

/You know what I want? / I looked into the fire as he replied, /What? /

My stomach gave another growl. /A sandwich... /

He gave me an annoyed look as he too began to stare into the fire. He sighed. /After you passed out, me and Alex dragged you away from the door and into this corner. We didn't know what to do, you were losing a lot of blood. Mary had just finished literally bringing Lauren back to life and was drained of her energy, and when Terry got over to you, he just looked at your leg... he wouldn't even touch it... / He looked over to Adrian who seemed to be wondering off in her own little world. I of course, was confused.

/Wait... so if Terry didn't do it... and Mary COULDN'T do it... Then... / I looked down at my leg, which was slightly colder than the other one now that I had tore off the pant leg. I looked back up at Carlos to see him still starring into the fire before looking back at me.

"You did..."

"I did?" I gave him a confused look. Adrian spoke up.

"Yeah, I was watching. I saw you bleeding fast, but then it started slowing down and then, it stopped. Mary washed away the blood with water and we it was gone, there was this bright light coming from the bite marks. I watched the light slowly get smaller, and then it was gone. No more blood, no scar, nothing." Her voice trailed off as her eyes began to droop and she gave a small yawn.

I turned back to Carlos. "That's what happened?"

He nodded his head. "Exactly the way she said. After that, we all decided to wait for you to wake up, but after a while, you never did, so... "

He moved his glance to the others who were now stirring themselves awake. I looked back at my leg and moved it close to the fire for warmth. It didn't hurt at all, although, I did feel a bit weak. I stood up, slightly limping and walked to the door. As everyone woke up, they began to stare at me as I reached the door and began to examine it. A small crack formed straight down the middle. I remembered breaking it open... someone must have put it back together. I turned around to look at the room and the hall that lead deeper into the chamber. It was dark down there, we would need fire to see. Everyone began to stand up and gather around me, not saying anything.

Carlos came over from the crowd and stepped to my side. "What do we do now?"

I looked around at the others. Most of them were still drowsy eyed. I found Lauren standing in the back next to Sam.

/Are you okay? /

She gave me a nod and glanced down at my leg. /I'm fine... /

She gave a smile as she nodded again. I clapped my hands in the air, making a loud noise that seemed to gain everyone's attention. Wake the fuck up!

"Good... everyone's awake... and alive..."

Val opened her mouth to say something but Elle nudged her shoulder and she quickly stopped before she could start. This was weird... no one was talking... at all... you weirdoes...

"Ok, why isn't anyone talking? You can't be that tired?"

There was a stir among them, but Adrian took a step out of the crowd and came to face me. "We are waiting for you to tell us what to do... "

Alex perked up a bit. "Yeah, after seeing what you did for Lauren, we decided that you aren't all that bad... you make a good leader... "

Terry gave a comment from the side. "Don't be so surprised... its only because you were braver that all of us for a couple of seconds... please don't get cocky... "

Mary gave a sigh. "We trust you... for now... so just... " She paused for a moment, thinking her words over, but Carlos seemed to say it all. "Just tell us what we should do next, and we'll follow."

I looked around the room. Alriiight! Ultimate leadership and authority... I can get used to this. Maybe I should start saving everybody's ass for now on... but... dammit... now I have to do all the responsible stuff... crap...

I stood there for a moment with a small smile on my face, not really sure what to say. Adrian came over to my other side. /So, oh great leader, what do we do now? /

I gave her a smile... and saw Logan frown out of the corner of my eye.

"Um... thanks... I guess... um... I guess for now, we should just keep going forward... and um..." Crap, I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I looked over to Logan who seemed to be enjoying my moment of absolute stupidity... I'll show him...

"Lauren, get your staff to gain a bright enough flame so that we can see. We can't stay here... there no food, no shelter and it's cold. Then faster we move, the faster we get out of here." Some nodded their heads. Ricky took a step forward.

"If we need to go faster, the Earth wielders could carry everybody on some flat pieces of stone... "

"Sounds good, that way we don't have to walk so much. Okay, you, Logan, and Sam do that. Val..."

Val gave a little squeal as she jumped from the back of the crowd. "Yes."

"I want you in front of everyone else. You are the archer, so you can scout ahead of us to make sure there's nothing to bother us."

She gave a grin and a wink, followed by an "ok" as she walked away from the crowd and over towards Logan who was the first to successful get his platform to hover. He sat cross-legged on the 10-foot long, 10-foot wide platform and held his hands gently on its surface. Ricky and Sam had done the same and now everyone was sitting on the stones. Val was on foot, bow and arrow out and ready, standing at the front of us. Behind her was Logan's platform. On it was Adrian, Carlos, and Ariel. Sam was behind him with me, Lauren, Terry and Mary. I decided that Lauren should stay in the middle, that way we could all see and the healers in the middle as well. Behind us was Ricky along with Alex and Elle to bring up the rear.

Val called up from ahead. "Everybody ready?"

A small murmur came from us as she flipped her hair and began to walk forward. Logan Sam and Ricky shifted the platforms forward and we were off, speeding down the hallway after Val who had now decided to sprint into a run. Just another trip as Alice into the rabbit hole and into Wonderland...