Jennifer Murgia: Angel Star

“Did you figure it out yet?” he asked softly. His voice melted into my walls.

“You were there, in my dream, but not just my dream.

You were really there.” I couldn’t bring myself to elaborate. I was still having a bit of trouble digesting this, even if it was a dream.

“All the other times…you’ve kept me busy.” He held my face in his hands just as he had done in the car and I felt a soft, delicious dizziness overtake me.

“But it’s not over yet.” Garreth slowly walked over to my window. “He is like a hungry animal, playing with the prey he is about to consume, toying with us — waiting in silence.”

“Who?” I edged my way closer to the window. Just beyond the glass I could barely make out a dark haze in the distance, moving away at a thunderous speed.

But, as quickly as I took note of the shadow on the opposite side of the glass, it retreated.

“It’s morning.” He quietly changed the subject.

I followed his gaze, and sure enough, the sun was just coming up over the trees. Dawn. Where had the night slipped away to?

Garreth lifted me gently, placing me on my bed.

“I’ll see you in a few hours. I’ll explain everything then, I promise.” He bent down to kiss my eyelids and they closed at his warmth. His scent lulled me back to sleep for a little while longer.

And then he was gone and I slipped into another dream, inconceivably sweeter than the last.

I slowly opened my eyes to the sun streaming through my curtains in brilliant patches of different lengths. Its light blinded me as it stretched its splendid glare across my eyelids and cheeks. For a moment, I was still lost in the most perfect dream, lost in the warm light radiating from Garreth’s chest.

My limbs felt heavy, largely due to the position I had fallen asleep in earlier at my computer. It was only as the sun was beginning to rise that I had found a more comfortable spot, in Garreth’s arms, as he carried me to my soft, warm bed where he tucked me in before retreating with the pale intrusion of morning.

He left, promising that he would explain. I certainly hoped so. I found myself still struggling with all that had happened in the predawn hours. I pulled myself from my warm covers and stood up. Methodically, I pulled a pair of worn jeans up over my legs and found a clean, not-too-wrinkled T-shirt from my closet. The night played over in my head as I combed through my hair with my fingers in an effort to smooth it before twisting it into a ponytail.

It was my mother’s rotation to work a Saturday at the library. After going downstairs to the kitchen, I found her note waiting for me on the kitchen table next to a small stack of coupons. Her rushed penmanship apologetically informed me she was once again working late and asked if pizza suited me for dinner.

Apparently, she approved of my sparkling housekeeping and was reluctant to have me mess it up again.

I sat down at the table, playing with the coupons. I couldn’t stop myself from looking at the ticking clock that loomed over the kitchen sink. I wondered how long it would be before I’d see Garreth again, hoping for some reality in last night’s nocturnal visit.

I decided not to put myself through any more torture and went upstairs to shower and get dressed. I tried my hand once more at a makeover; my mother’s stash of cosmetics was just too enticing to stay away from now that I knew the effect it had on others. I felt clean and awake, capable of facing the day.

My thoughts drifted back again to the one I had deliberately pushed to the back burner of my subconscious. As if on cue, the doorbell chimed in the hallway. Garreth stood on the porch, smiling, and my heart thudded hello.

“I see you’re ready.” His chuckle touched his eyes.

“Why wouldn’t I be? You’re supposed to keep your promise today,” I said quietly, remembering last night so vividly in my head.

A smile instantly came to his lips and he took my hand, leading me out to his car. My heart quivered behind the safety of my ribcage. I had no idea where he was about to take me, no idea what explanations he would fill my heart with — my soul with. I only knew that I trusted him.

We drove along a winding road in comfortable silence, occasionally asking each other the small questions we had begun to store up in each other’s absence: favorite color (his white, mine brown), favorite books, movies, songs, etc. I noticed that his CD collection was as extensive as mine and our tastes were strikingly similar. We kept the conversation simple, never straying toward anything that would allow last night to make further sense to me. It crossed my mind that perhaps it was only a dream. A very vivid dream. But then I looked at him and I knew it had been real. The very fact that he had come for me confirmed that.

The center of town was at least a mile behind us now; the houses were thinning out as we sped along. Finally, we slowed and turned left onto a narrow road that, surprisingly, I had never noticed before. My hands began to perspire. I stole a quick glance out of the corner of my eye at the beautiful boy next to me, wondering how I could have lived here my entire life and not know where the heck we were headed right now. I frantically noted the absence of a GPS on the dashboard as the lane narrowed even more. We followed it slowly, burrowing our way deeper and deeper into the thick, overgrown greenery that stretched before us.

One moment we were in the glare of brilliant sunlight, and the next in the dimming, mocked grayness of night.

When the veil of the forest began to smother us, I looked up through the open roof of the Jeep in time to see the flanking limbs choke out the rest of the sun.

Within what seemed like seconds we were in another world.

Garreth stopped the car in a clearing and stepped out, appearing cautiously excited as he turned to me, his outstretched hand at the ready for mine. The soft ground crunched slightly under the weight of my sneakers and my door shut with a stifled echo. I realized my mouth was hanging open. It was as though we had stepped into some fairy-tale forest one only reads about, a magical place untouched by time.

“This is amazing.” I stared at the lushness surrounding us.

“One of my favorite places in the whole world,” Garreth said with a smile.

The thick trees absorbed the sounds of our intrusion, covering our presence in the blanket of pine and damp earth. The sun forced its way through the canopy of conjoined oak and hemlocks, teasing its lazy light between the heavy branches.

Garreth led me forward, taking my elbow as we carefully picked our way through the crazy maze of underbrush and twigs, leading us up and over gnarled roots and hollows that twisted out of the earth and pushed the soft mulch carpet to its limit.

I looked all around us. It was breathtaking but unrecognizable as my eyes adjusted to the green cavern we were trailing through.

“Where exactly are we going?” I asked a bit hesitantly.

“You’ll see. We’re almost there.”

Every now and then a twig snapped somewhere in the density surrounding us. I would stiffen but Garreth never let go of my hand.

As if the woods weren’t awe-inspiring enough, a perfect little stone chapel soon stood before us. When I walked around the square building, I was reminded of a miniature one-room castle. A single Gothic stained glass window was set into each of the three walls and a heavy wooden door, arched and aged, took up its fourth. Although the gray stone slab above the door frame was engraved crudely, it was still legible and proudly bore the name Saint Ann’s.

“Coming?” Garreth’s voice startled me. He was waiting at the top of the stone landing, his hand on the well-worn, tarnished doorknob.