Page 16 of Out of the Blue
Unless.
‘Hey, wait a second.’
They turn around. I blink at them, my mind wrestling with my tongue. I shouldn’t tell them this. I’ve only just met them, and I don’t know if I can trust them, but then they’re obviously pretty passionate about Beings’ rights, so surely they wouldn’t –
I’m already saying the words.
‘I think I know something you might want to take a photo of.’
TEN
‘Holy shit.’
‘Jesus Christ.’
‘Rufffff!’
Perry leaps on to the sofa, curling up on the Being’s lap. Her gaze flickers from Allie to Calum and back to me, her expression a mixture of fear, panic and amusement. The twins stare from the doorway, their faces frozen in shock. I grin and flop on to the sofa beside the Being, like it’s no big deal. Like I’ve been hanging out with angels all my life.
‘You hungry?’ I ask, and her eyes light up when I hand over the box of Tunnock’s Teacakes that I stopped to buy on the way back to Shona’s. ‘Remember to take the wrapper off this time,’ I add, grinning.
Her smile is a little hesitant – but she’s not freaking out and trying to jump through the window, so that’s something. She rips into the cardboard, her audience by the door forgotten, and pulls two biscuits from the packet.
Calum runs his hands through his hair. ‘This is insane.’ His camera hangs heavy around his neck, forgotten. ‘This is in-bloody-sane.’
‘How did she . . . ?’ Allie’s mouth opens and closes, the words snuffed out by shock. Her face has gone from cream to bone white behind her freckles. ‘Where did you – how – what thehell?’
They sit down on the carpet, kneeling in front of the Being and me like little kids at story time. Their expressions rotate between shock and sheer wonder as I tell them the story, but they still look as if they can’t quite believe me – as if they expect the Being to pull off her wings, wipe the metallic sheen from her face and admit that it’s all a hoax. I don’t blame them, really. If I hadn’t seen her tumble from the sky myself, I probably wouldn’t believe it either.
‘What are you going to do?’ Calum asks, once I’ve finished explaining how I smuggled her back to the flat without getting caught. ‘Are you going to hand her over?’
Allie gives him a light punch on the shoulder. ‘Of course she’s not!’
‘I didn’t mean to the Wingdings,’ he snaps, rubbing his arm. ‘I’m not saying you should sell her for her blood or anything, but there are research centres who would take her. Apparently there’s one just outside Edinburgh,’ he adds, looking at me. ‘They could help her. They might be able to work out why they’re falling too.’
‘No one knows who’s running those centres,’ I say. ‘There’s no telling what sort of weird experiments they might do to her; she could end up with ears on her back, or her hands and feet swapped over. Or the cults might be behind them – can you imagine if the Standing Fallen got hold of her?’
Calum shrugs. ‘What other option is there? She can’t stay here forever.’
‘Can we stop talking about her like she’s not here?’ Allie says loudly. She flushes and crosses her arms. ‘Sorry, but I hate it when people do that. Just because she’s not speaking, it doesn’t mean she can’t understand us.’
‘You’re right. Sorry,’ I say. I give the Being an apologetic smile, but she just stares and unwraps another teacake.
‘Do you think she understands you?’ Calum asks me, before quickly turning to the angel. ‘Sorry, I mean, do you understand us?’
The Being wipes the marshmallow from her mouth and reaches for a third biscuit. After a moment, I clear my throat and reply for her.
‘I don’t know. Sometimes I think she does, but other times it’s like she can’t hear me at all. She seems to like the radio though.’
As we talk, Calum’s fingers edge towards the button on the top right of his camera. I promised him a good picture to get them here, and Allie was intrigued enough to go along with it, but looking back I really shouldn’t have: the flash might freak the Being out, and if somebody happened to flick through his camera and see the photos . . . Calum has obviously had the same thought, because instead of framing a shot, he slips it into his backpack without a word.
‘Can I take a look at your wing?’ Allie asks her suddenly. ‘Maybe I can help. I mean, obviously I don’t have any experience in angel anatomy, but, to be fair, neither does anyone else on the planet.’
Playing an awkward game of charades, I gesture at the Being to lean forward. Confusion flashes through her eyes, but she slowly copies my movement, allowing Allie to see the damaged wing. Her face contorts in pain as Allie peels back my shoddy bandage work.
‘This is pretty bad.’ Allie’s face is suddenly serious. ‘It looks like she’s been mauled by something. She must have lost a ton of blood – did she?’
I nod. ‘Perry licked most of it up, and I think the rain must have washed away whatever was on the ground. I didn’t keep any of it for myself.’
