Prey (7 page)

She leaves her bedroom and heads to the kitchen. Upon entering the kitchen she goes into an overhead cabinet, pulls out a coffee container, and sets it on the counter. She grabs the handle of the coffee pot, places it under the faucet of the sink, and fills it halfway. She turns to set the pot back into the machine when she’s caught off guard by a sight she hadn’t expected. Startled, Jade’s grip loosens and the pot slips free from her hand, smashing into the kitchen floor, shattering into countless fragments.

Standing right in front of her is the man who saved her life. Jade now knows beyond all doubt that the ordeal wasn’t just a bad dream. Although it’s still a tough pill for Jade to swallow, the fact that her rescuer is standing in her living room, staring back at her is all the proof she needs.

The man has shed the grimy trench coat and hooded-sweatshirt and is now wearing a white tank-top and blue jeans. His complexion is slightly pale, almost to the point where it seems to emit a soft glow. He has a thin, athletic build, which is very contradicting to his incredible strength.

Jade intently stares at the stranger’s face in total disbelief. She knew this face just as well as she knew her own. But it’s impossible for anyone to look that much alike on mere coincidence.

Jade’s mouth hangs open, her eyes wide. “It can’t be,” she said to herself. “It’s not possible.”

“It’s me, Jade. It’s really me,” the stranger spoke softly.

Jade stepped back from the kitchen counter that separated her from the stranger, (who really isn’t a stranger at all) shaking her head. “No, no, no, no, no…Alex died two years ago! He’s dead!”

Alex gradually moves around the counter and towards the kitchen’s entrance. He keeps his hands where Jade can see them, assuring her that he means no harm. “I get where you’re coming from, Jade. I wouldn’t believe it either if I were in you. But I need you to trust me on this. I am Alex Henley.”

“Stop! Don’t come any closer or I’ll scream!” Jade commanded, snatching a fork off the stove and using it for protection.

“Jade, please, I need you to hear me out, okay? There is something very important I have to tell you. If you still want me to leave afterward, I will. Promise.”

Staying on high-alert, Jade demands the man to keep at a distance. Alex steps back into the living room and Jade cautiously follows, making sure she keeps a fair amount of space between them. Something inside of Jade urges her to make a break for the front door, but something else wants her to find out more about this strange look-alike. But since the man saved her life, she figured she’d give him a minute to speak his peace.

Alex walks across the living room until he nears the sliding balcony door that overlooks her third-floor view. He stares through the glass door, admiring the rising sun as he conjures up the best way to explain why he’s come back.

“Jade, I can’t imagine what’s going through your mind right now. I know that saying you’re scared and confused would be the understatement of the millennium. But I need you to bear with me for a second and try to wrap your mind around what I’m about to tell you.” Alex turns away from the balcony door and trains his hazel eyes on Jade. “You’re in a lot danger, Jade.”

“What are you talking about? Why am I in danger? Who the hell are you?”

Alex responds, “It’s complicated. I can explain it, but I don’t know if you’ll be able to fully understand.”

“Try me,” Jade said, keeping a firm hold on her fork.

Alex takes a deep breath and explains to Jade the horrific troubles that lie ahead of her. “Jade, there’s something big about to happen, and it just so happens you’re standing right in the middle of it.”

Jade begins to lose her patience. Maintaining a reasonable distance between herself and the Alex, Jade questions, “What’s about to happen? Stop being so cryptic and tell me what it is you want so you can leave.”

With there really being no gentle way to broach the situation, Alex divulges the blunt truth to her. “There’s a clash brewing between Heaven and Hell. Not just any kind of clash, either. It’s the type of clash that could lead to an all out war.”

Jade dons an expression of pure skepticism. “A war between Heaven and Hell?” she repeated with an unconvinced tone. She sarcastically adds, “Well, I certainly don’t want to get caught up in that. Thank you for warning me. Good bye and have a nice day,”

Picking up on her sardonic gesture, Alex tries to convince Jade that he’s not insane, which is the exact opinion she has of him. “Don’t do that, Jade. Don’t dismiss me like that. I know I probably sound like a mental patient, but that doesn’t change the fact that everything I’m telling you is true.”

“Listen, I don’t care, alright?” said Jade. “You said if I listened to whatever it was you wanted to say, you’d leave. Well, I listened and now I want you to go. Now leave before I call the cops.” Jade sets her sights on the cordless phone sitting on the living room coffee table and goes for it.

Alex anticipates this motion and snatches the phone off its charger before she can reach it. “Will you just hear me out please? There’ll be people coming for you, Jade, but there not real people. They’re very dangerous, and a thousand times scarier than you’re worse nightmare. And they’re a lot closer to finding you than you know.”

As Jade listens to Alex she can’t help but think about the people who were looking for her at her job yesterday. Jade’s interest, to a minor extent, rises. After being attacked last night, the thoughts of her unknown visitors have almost been cast from her memory, but the curiosity surrounding that particular situation was revived the moment Alex brought it up.

She asks Alex, “What people are you talking about? Who are they?”

“They’re kind of like hunters. The most elite hunters this world has ever seen. They have abilities that make them all but impossible to shake, and temperaments that make them extremely volatile.”

Jade is puzzled. “What kind of people are you talking about here? Earlier you said they aren’t even people. What did you mean by that?”

Alex shows a slight hesitation in answering Jade’s question. He knows that what he’s about to tell her is going to sound outright ludicrous. Regardless of how it may sound, he decides to tell her anyway.

“They’re demons,” he told her.

A brief silence is shared between the two before Jade erupts into a fit of laughter. Alex temporarily drops his head in despair. This is the reaction he was afraid of. Any chance of convincing Jade that he wasn’t insane has probably gone right out the window.

“Jade, I’m not lying. These things use the flesh of regular people to hide their true identities. Underneath the human façade lies a beast like nothing you could ever imagine.”

“Right, I’m being hunted by demons. So if the good looking people Shana was telling me about are really monsters in disguise, then what are you?”

“Wait, who’s Shana? Is that the girl you work with?”

“Yeah,” Jade answered cautiously. “She told me I had a few visitors yesterday. One of which was a homeless guy in a filthy trench coat. I take it that was you.”

“Oh, no,” Alex muffled. “They know. If they know where you work, it’ll only be a matter of time before they know where you live.” He turned to Jade, a look of urgency in his hazel eyes. “You need to leave this place now, Jade!”

“What? Why? I don’t even know who you really are. You come in here looking like you could be Alex’s identical twin, and then you tell me I’m being hunted by demons. You beat up four guys last night like it was nothing, and now you’re standing here telling me I need to leave my home. Just who the hell are you?

“I’m an angel,” Alex responded.

“An angel?” Jade repeated in an unconvinced tone. “Is that so? You know, I might have actually believed you a little more if you said you from outer space or something, but you killed all of your chances with that demon and angel bull. I saw you last night, and the way you handled those guys…I never knew angels could be so aggressive.”

Alex moves closer to Jade, but she steps back. “Jade, I’m still the same Alex Henley you dated all through high school. Look, I get where you’re coming from, okay? Our whole lives we’ve been brought up to believe that things only worked a certain way and that’s just how it was. But it’s a lot more complicated than that. Now you’re right…Angels don’t normally do what I did last night. In fact, angels don’t do things like that at all. I’m pretty sure I’ll be getting into trouble for my actions, but I did what I did for a reason. But all that’s irrelevant right now. We have to get you out of here and we have to do it fast.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.” Jade moves toward her apartment door and opens it. “Now, I’ve listened to you and everything you wanted to say, I’d appreciate it if you left.”

Alex gives one last shot at influencing Jade to take what he’s saying to heart. “Jade, it’s too dangerous for you to be here. I’m not going to leave you here alone just for something bad to happen to you.”

Jade moves away from her open front door and takes a few steps toward Alex. “You promised that if I listened to you-you would leave. The real Alex Henley would never break a promise he made to me,” she declared.

Alex takes heed to Jade’s sincerity as he contemplates his next move. Alex walks to her couch, gathers his belongings and heads for the open front door.

As he passes Jade by on his way out, Alex stops in front of her and says, “I’ve broken a lot of rules to come back for you, Jade. You may not believe it’s really me, but your disbelief isn’t going to slow those demons down. I’m going to leave like I promised. When the time comes when you’ll need me, which will probably be soon, I’ll be here. You can count on it.”

Alex leaves the apartment and Jade slams the door behind him. After snapping the deadbolts and sliding the security chain into its slot, Jade leans against the door and releases a deep breath. Waiting for her pounding heart to calm, Jade suddenly remembers her friend Shana. With all of the ongoing commotion she’d completely forgotten about her. Jade hadn’t heard from Shana since last night.

Jade walks over to her coffee table, picks up the cordless phone, and dials Shana’s number. Several rings later, a voice picks up. “Hello,” Shana came through.

“Hey, girl, is everything okay?”

Shana’s voice hints toward confusion. “Yeah, everything’s fine. Are you okay? Why do you sound like you just saw a ghost or something?”

Jade is relieved to hear Shana’s voice and even more relieved that she’s okay. Jade plops down on the couch. “In a way I think I did. Well, at least that’s what he tried to make me believe.”

“Who wanted you to believe you saw a ghost? Drake?”

“No, somebody who was claiming to be a ghost himself,” Jade answered.

“What? Jade, are you okay? Do I need to come over there?”

Realizing that she’s probably sounding just as crazy as the man who tried to pass himself off as Alex, Jade chooses not to disclose any further information on the crazy topic. “I’m fine, Shana. I’m just a little tired. Probably because of what happened last night.”

“What happened last night?” Shana inquired.

“These guys tried to attack me. It was raining so hard I could barely see, but I was able to make out a couple of them. They’re the same jerks that stay downstairs from me.”

“Oh, my God, Jade! Are you serious? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

“What happened? Did you call the cops?”

“No, I haven’t gotten around to calling the police yet. Not that I’d need to, though. There was this guy that came along and scared them off pretty good. I wouldn’t be surprised if they weren’t halfway across the country by now.”

“Thank God for that. You’re lucky that guy came along when he did. There’s no telling how things could’ve turned out if he wasn’t there. What were you doing driving in that storm anyway? It didn’t hit us until late last night. You’re usually in the house for good around that time.”

Jade stretches across the couch. “Very funny, Shana. Don’t act like you don’t know why I was out so late.”

“What are you talking about?” Shana asked, clueless.

“Oh, so you don’t remember calling me last night and asking me to come pick you up? That’s what I get for trying to do a friend a favor,” Jade joked.

“Jade,” Shana started.

Jade cuts in. “I didn’t mean that, Shana. It’s not your fault.”

Shana starts for a second time, “Jade.”

Jade unwittingly interrupts again, “I mean it’s not like you knew that was going to happen.”

“Jade.” Shana asserted.

“Yeah?”

“I didn’t call you last night.”

Jade quickly changes her position on the couch from lying down to sitting upright. “What? What did you say?”

Shana repeats, “I didn’t call you last night. In fact, I was in bed sound asleep before the storm hit.”

“You’re joking with me, right? Because I got to tell you, I’m already a little too edgy to be toyed with right now.”

“I’m not joking, Jade. Are you joking with me? First you’re talking to me about ghosts and now you’re telling me that I called you last night asking for a ride.”

Growing uneasy, Jade gets up from the couch and paces back and forth. “But I heard your voice. I talked to you for about two minutes and the whole time it sounded just like you. It had to be you,” she frantically stated.

“You’re not kidding, are you?” Shana asked. “You really think I called you last night. I swear, Jade, it wasn’t me.”

Jade is stunned at the startling discovery. She can’t believe her ears. She was absolutely positive it was Shana she talked to. Beset by the news, Jade decides to prove it to herself that Shana called her last night. “I’m gonna call you back, okay? I want to check something out.”

“You’re not leaving out again are you?”

“No,” Jade responded, “I need to check something out. I need to make sure I’m not going crazy.”

“Okay, Jade. If you need me, call me, alright?”

“Alright,” Jade told Shana before hanging up. Jade drops the phone on the couch and jogs to her bedroom. She heads to the nightstand and picks up her cell phone. She goes through the call log. There’s no record of any incoming calls from last night. Jade is bewildered. She knows she received a call last night and she was a hundred percent sure it was Shana’s voice she heard.