Angels - Part Twelve

**NOTE** This will more than likely be my last post of 'Angels' for a little while, because I'm taking a break from this and starting up something new and different, but I WILL still be writing this, just probably not posting it up much.
Sorry for the wait guys!
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Chapter Twelve

True to his word, Zane woke everyone up at sunrise. Not that he had to wake me up. I spent the entire night with Zane sitting by the fire keeping watch and talking about everything.
It took everyone about half an hour to pack all the tents and quickly shove some food in their mouth and we were off before the sun had completely risen.
It was a nice morning, it wasn’t cold, which meant we weren’t shivering our asses off walking, which made it a hell of a lot more comfortable walking.
Amber had taken the lead and was navigating us all, and Zane had chosen to take the end, and I had opted to walk with him.

"Zane?" I asked.
"Yeah." Zane replied looking at me.
"Why do you think that I had that dream?"
"I don’t know. I have a few reasons."
"Like?"
"Like you just had a nightmare."
"Or?"
"Or maybe it was something more. But I don’t know. It could’ve been a hallucination. It could’ve been anything."
"Yeah, maybe." I replied quietly.
It wasn’t a hallucination. It was too real to be one. And I had it twice. And there was no way that it was a nightmare, or even a dream, it was too real for that.
Maybe I just snapped and went crazy.
I don’t know. All I know is that I hope it never happens again.

We walked for a few more hours and then Amber decided we could have a break.
We were all exhausted and soaked in sweat. The day had gotten hotter and hotter and it felt like it was just going to keep getting hotter.
"Hey guys. We’re almost out of water." Noel replied.
"How much do we have left?" Amber asked.
"We’re down to three bottles." Noel replied.
Shit. We needed those three bottles till we found another stream. And in this heat we all needed water more than ever.
Solomon started to talk to himself in another language and Mutatta joined in.
"What are they saying?" Amber asked cautiously.

"I don’t know. Sometimes they do this, but I can’t understand them. I think they are talking about water, I recognized the word for water. They’re speaking too fast for me to pick up anything else." Noel replied frowning.
"Maybe you can get Mutatta to use his powers to make it rain. Make either of them do something helpful, it would be a change." Amber replied, muttering the last bit under her breath.
Noel glared at Amber and looked back at Solomon and Mutatta. Mutatta up and walked over to Noel and switched to another language, speaking low and fast. Noel stood there nodding her head and replying every now and then.

"Okay. Mutatta wants to teach Ash how to use her powers right now. He reckons times like this will make the pressure to learn how to do something harder on Ash. He reckons that if he pushes her a little, the need for water and will to survive will make her want to do it even more and should push her enough to actually do it. This was how he learned to do this stuff with his powers." Noel replied, looking at Zane, then Amber and then me.

"Okay. Well, we don’t have the time to do this. We need water right now. We are down to the last of our supplies and we can’t afford to waste precious time teaching Ash something she may or may not get when we should be out there trying to hunt for some water so we don’t die." Amber replied.
I could see where she was coming from, but she should stop being such a bitch and let me learn this. I needed to learn to do stuff like this.
"It’s Ash’s choice." Noel replied looking right at me.
"Well, how about we split up, half of us go look for water and the other half stay here?" I asked.

It was the only idea that would satisfy everyone.
"Okay. Who is going where?" Zane asked.
"Um, Amber, Solomon and Zane are going to go look for water. Noel, Mutatta and I are going to stay here and try to learn this." I replied.
"Wait. I would feel better if I stayed with you guys too. Maybe I can help or something." Zane replied.
"Look guys, shut up and decide what’s happening and hurry up and go do it so we can find some water." Amber replied.
"Okay then. Amber, Solomon, you two are going to go look for water, and see if you can find some food or a place to rest for the night while you’re at it. Zane, Mutatta, Noel and I are going to stay here and try to teach me my powers again. That's fine with you?" I asked Noel.

Noel nodded her head, but Solomon obviously wasn’t as happy to spend some quality time with Amber though, because he immediately started to murmur under his breath what I could only guess were insults. Man, this guy was kind of pissing me off.
Amber shrugged in reply and looked at Zane questionably, like she could guess what had happened between us at the lake.
"Okay, let’s start this shit." Noel replied smiling at me.
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When Noel explained to me that Mutatta would show me how to get my powers back without my wings, I thought that it would be easy. You know, like because I had powers before re-learning them would be easy.
But man, was I wrong.
We had been practicing for two hours and I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t even move a pile of leaves.
"Concentrate." Noel replied.
I frowned and focused on the pile of leave in front of me. If I could move just one leaf, just one measly leaf, my life would be complete.
"You’re not concentrating hard enough. Focus." Noel replied.

I frowned more and bit back a snarky retort, blocking out everything and focused on one leaf right at the top of the pile.
"Move. You. Son. Of. A. Bitch." I told the leaf, concentrating harder than I ever had to before when I had my powers.
"Concentrate. Block everything out and concentrate." Noel replied.
"If you tell me to concentrate one more time I will feed you every, one of those fucking leaves." I replied, breaking any focus I had worked up.
I looked back at the leaves and tried to re-focus, throwing all of my anger at it.
"Try making a motion with your hands. Before you may have been able to move it without moving a muscle, but now you are still gaining your strength back. Try moving like this." Noel replied, showing me some whole body movement.

"You want to sort of build up your energy into this, and then push the energy out through your hands at the end. Get it?" Noel asked.
I nodded my head and started to imitate her.
"I feel like a dickhead."
"Just try it."
I started the motions again, focusing all my energy into my movements. I could feel my powers faintly moving in me, following my movements.
I pushed my arms out, expecting the leaves to scatter everywhere.
But nothing. Not even the leaf on the top moved.
"Son of a bitch." I screamed at the leaves.
"Don’t worry. You almost had it, I could feel it. You lost focus at the end though. Try it again."

I glared at Noel and stood into the most fierce body stance I knew.
I must’ve looked pretty scary because she immediately backed away, fear flashing in her eyes.
I walked towards her slowly.
"If you say one more positive thing, or tell me to focus and concentrate one more time, I swear to God I will stab you in the throat." I replied icily.
Mutatta walked up to Noel. It was obvious that he could sense the tension in the air, and the fight brewing. He was going to stand up for her. But I didn’t care. If there was a fight, I could probably take out them both pretty quickly.
I felt a hand reach out and grab mine and pull me back.
"Ash, you don’t want this. Believe me." Zane replied.
I yanked my hand out of his and stormed off into the bushes.
I don’t know what came over me. I’ve never snapped like this so quickly over nothing. It was like I was someone else entirely.

I kept walking deeper into the forest, looking for a clearing so I could practice some more by myself, without all this positive shit around me. If I were going to get my powers back anytime soon, I needed to practice by myself.
I found a small clearing, just big enough to practice. I walked right into the center of the clearing and stood in my beginning pose.
I started with the motions, focusing all of my energy and anger into it and blocking out everything around me, focusing on a tree about three meters away from me.
I focused my energy into my movements and pushed my arms out.
And that was the moment that I felt like God.

When I pushed my arms out the strongest gust of wind followed. The wind was stronger than any wind I had ever been able to control. It was so strong it completely pushed the tree, pulling it up from the roots and tipping it onto its back landing with a massive THUD!
"Holy shit." I whispered.
I didn’t know that I could control this much energy. I didn’t know that my powers were this strong.
I looked down at my hands, amazed at what I had just managed to do.
How the hell did I manage to control more power than I had ever wielded before?
"Are you okay? What happ-" Noel yelled as she came running through the trees, panting heavily.

Obviously she saw the tree and was all piecing it together, but right now I couldn’t care less about what she thought. I just wanted to know how the hell I had managed to wield so much power. I had never been able to do anything like this. Ever.
"How the hell did you manage to do that?" Noel asked me. She looked really pissed right now, but I couldn’t figure it out. Shouldn’t she be happy for me?
Before I could answer Zane came crashing through the trees closely followed by Mutatta.

They both looked at the tree and then back at me. My guess, they had also pieced it together.
Mutatta started laughing and rambling on in another language, and for a moment I thought that Zane was about to join in, but instead he launched at me.
Zane grabbed me by my arms and pushed me to the tree behind me, pinning me against it.
"What are you doing?" I asked Zane.
He gripped my arms tighter as I tried to wriggle away, out of his clutch. He was gripping my arms so tight it was starting to really hurt.
"Zane stop! You’re hurting me!" I yelled at him.

He gripped me tighter and tighter, and I thought that my bones were about to break. I gasped in pain but Zane still held on.
"Zane, let her go. You’re hurting her." Noel said, trying to pull Zane off me, but he wouldn’t budge.
I screamed in pain as Zane grabbed me tighter and tighter. And then something snapped in Zane. He slammed my head against the trunk and I felt the pain in the back of my head and something warm trickling down the back of my head.

I could head Noel screaming something, but everything was kind of fuzzy. I couldn’t hear or see properly, everything was a blur. And then I felt my feet leave the ground and my body fly through the air and slamming into something. I heard something snap and pain immediately shot through my arm. I could hear screaming, someone telling me to get up, but I couldn’t get my legs to listen to me. They didn’t want to move for me. And then something grabbed me again and threw me into the air straight into something else. I could hear myself screaming, but I couldn’t stop myself. It was like my brain had separated itself from every other part of my body. I was picked up and thrown into something again, and then again. I could feel something warm trickling all over my body. Blood. My bones were all screaming in agony and fire was shooting up all my limbs, making everything unbearable. Then I was picked up again and slammed into something else. And then I passed out.
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I could feel pain all over my body. I wasn’t even going to bother to try to get up. If I were in this much pain lying down, I was going to be in agony sitting up. I could taste something rusty in my mouth. It tasted like shit. Blood, I think.
"Ash?" A voice said. I couldn’t pick out the voice. I think I remembered it from somewhere. I just couldn’t remember right now. Everything was blurry.
I tried to open my eyes, but they were all crusty with sleep and I couldn’t move my hands up to my face and wipe them. I was so tired and sore. I just wanted to go to sleep.
"Guys, I think she is coming around. I’m not sure though." The voice said. It was female. But I couldn’t remember who it was exactly.

I felt fingers crawl along my face and try to pry my eyes open, but even they couldn’t. Then I felt something damp rubbed across my face and the sleep wiped out of my eyes and the fingers came back, ripping my eyes open and letting the light pour into them.
I grunted as the light hit my eyes and tried to force them to shut, but they were stronger than me. It was a girl. The girl who was talking before. It must’ve been.
I tried to talk but my mouth was so dry and full of dried blood I couldn’t get out more than a few strangled noises.

"Oh. You must be thirsty. Here, drink some of this. It should get rid of some of the blood in your mouth." She replied grabbing a bottle and handing it to me.
I went to grab the bottle and gasped in pain as I felt the true pain from everywhere. There was no way I was going to try to sit myself up. I felt like someone was stabbing me with butcher knives everywhere and injecting fire into my bones all up my arm and the back of my head.
"Oh, I forgot. You must still be in pain. Take two of these and wait a few minutes, then try to move around. They should numb some of the pain." The girl said shoving two little green pills into my mouth and pouring a little bit of water in with them. I swallowed them straight away, savoring the taste of the water in my mouth.

I tried to say thanks, but it sounded more like a grunt and a strangled whisper than actual words.
"It’s okay. Don’t try saying anything or moving until the pills kick in, they should numb it down enough that you won’t be able to feel the pain as much and be able to at least sit up and talk to me. Once they kick in I will give you some more water so you can clear the blood from your mouth."
I shut my eyes in reply and started to count in my head, counting how long the pills were taking.

One... Two... Three... Four... Five... Six... Seven...
"They shouldn’t take too long. I had them once before, when I fell out of a tree as a kid. I remember the pain I was in, and then I had a pill and it took a full five minutes for them to kick in. Five minutes! You couldn’t begin to believe the pain I was in! Oh, wait, maybe you can." She finished as I glared at her.

Twenty-three... Twenty-four... Twenty-five... Twenty-six... Twenty-seven... Twenty-eight...
"Well, once they had started to work the pain backed off pretty quickly. And once it was almost gone, I was taken to hospital and they fixed my arm. Turns out when I fell out of that tree I fractured my arm. It wasn’t a big fracture, but man it hurt!" I opened my eyes and glared at her again, and she took the hint and shut up.
God, this girl could talk.

Thirty-six... Thirty-seven... Thirty-eight... Thirty-nine...
"Umm, well they shouldn’t take too much longer. I mean, they didn’t take too long for my nan’s to kick in. Of course we gave her seven of them and she died in two minutes from it. But she was meant to. She was in a lot of pain, and that was the easiest way to kill her, and she didn’t die in pain. So that made her happy, I guess."

Sixty-four... Sixty-five... Sixty-six... Sixty-seven...
I could feel the pain easing off and my body going a little numb everywhere. It was almost enough for me to think about moving. Almost.
"And at her funeral, she was buried without a coffin, so she could be closer to the earth. It was what she wanted. She liked the earth. She used to garden all day and hated it when she got sick and was forced to stay inside."

Eighty-nine... Ninety... Ninety-one... Ninety-two...
I tried to move a little but the pain was still a little too much right now.
And that was when I felt the bile rise in my throat and knew I was about to throw up.
I rolled over onto my side and tried to ignore the pain as I threw everything in my stomach onto the floor until I was just lying there heaving up nothing but air.
"Oh. That’s not meant to happen." The girl said as she started to rummage through something. I could hear rattling.
I rolled back onto my side and groaned in the effort and the pain still in my body and acid in my throat. The pills had almost taken effect, another minute and all I would feel is the bliss numbness of my body. No more pain.

"I don’t know what to do. I need to go get help. I will be right back." The girl said as she bolted outside.
I could hear her talking to someone, another girl. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, just the hum of voices.
I heard footsteps come towards me again and something open, a door maybe? No, a tent. And it was two people this time, not one.
"I don’t know what to do." The girl from before said. I could hear the panic in her voice.

"Sit her up and give her some water. Do you think you can sit up a little Ash?" The other girl said. I couldn’t recognize this girl. But she sounded a little older than the other girl, but only by a few years.
I grunted and heaved myself up a little and noticed I was naked. There wasn’t a single piece of clothing on me. I tried to pull my legs up to my chest and cover myself up, but I was just too exhausted to do anything other than pull myself up a little.

"Get a blanket and cover her, there’s no need for her to be sitting here naked anymore, is there?" The older girl ordered. Obviously she was in charge.
I heard someone the girl leave the tent, and the older one come closer to me.
"Can you open your eyes a little?" She asked.
I grunted and opened them, squinting to keep some of the light out.
"Okay, good. Now can you feel any pain anywhere still?"
I grunted a no, but it sounded more like an aggressive sigh than anything. But obviously she understood me, because she didn’t do anything.
"Good. I am going to give you some water and then I need to talk to you, okay?" She asked.

I grunted and opened my mouth so she could give me some.
I felt the bottle against my lips and the water gush into my mouth. I had never been so happy to drink before. I felt the dried blood wash out of my mouth and down my throat along with the acid from my stomach. I kept drinking till the bottle was empty and thought about asking for more, but I could feel my stomach bloated from the water and figured I had enough.
I heard someone walk into the tent and something draped across me. A blanket, thank God I wasn’t completely naked anymore.
A girl I remember, a girl from my dreams.