The Devil's Apprentice by Patrick Stewart (polar express read aloud TXT) 📕

left the apartment was because he’d run out of beer. That, and he figured dinner would be nice too. The guy with the wings had his eyes on the blonde. She was gorgeous and with her skirt torn off, her green sleeveless top just about covered her lacy panties. She was a sight to see, but the angel seemed bored.

“You have wings, right?” Alex asked him.

“I already fucking told you, dumbass. Yes, I have wings. I’m a fucking angel.”

“You’re a rapist, is what you are,” the girl yelled at him.

“I haven’t raped you… yet,” the guy said menacingly.

The blonde turned sharply and glared up at Alex. “You’re going to just stand there and listen to him threaten to rape me?”

She had a perfectly valid reason to voice her concern. But Alex ignored her for the moment. “Why can I see your wings but she can’t?”

“You both bore me,” was the angel’s response.

His wings flapped magnificently. Alex thought he would fly away. But he didn’t. He walked down the pavement towards him, and as he passed Alex, he glanced at him distastefully.

“Insect,” he muttered, then pushed Alex in the chest.

The angel didn’t put much effort into his shove. But it was enough to send Alex flying across the road. He slammed into the door of a parked white Ford Fiesta, shattering the glass window.

Alex lay against the damaged car door and stared up at the sky. His vision was blurry and he struggled to breath. His chest felt like it had caved in. In the background, he could hear screaming. He wanted to get up, to walk away from this, because that’s what was running through his mind. He needed to get away. This wasn’t his fight. That was a fucking angel. It could crush him like a bug if it wanted to. Alex needed to run. But he was afraid to move, afraid to try, fearing that he might find out he couldn’t.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. A face came in view, and as his vision cleared. He realised it was the blondie. She was really pretty.

“Hey, are you okay?” she dropped on the tarmac beside him.

Alex shook his head. “I think I’m dying.”

“Don’t be so dramatic,” the girl replied.

Alex didn’t think he was being dramatic. He’d just been flung across the road as if he actually were an insect flicked by a giant. Worse still, he’d crashed into the metal door of a car. He was sure his internal organs were ruined.

“What are you doing?” Alex mumbled as the girl moved her hands down his legs.

“Feeling for broken bones,” she said. “You’re not bleeding that much. I think you might be okay. Do you want to try sitting up?”

The answer was a no. Alex did not want to try and sit up. But he figured she’d accuse him of being dramatic again. The pain in his head, the throbbing, the nausea, it was subsiding some. Pressing his palms against the tarmac, Alex lifted his bottom up. With some help from the girl, he climbed to his feet. Feeling faint, he leaned back against the car.

The good news was, there didn’t seem to be any broken bones or huge amounts of blood pouring out of him. “The fuck happened?”

“Well… I think that guy… the one that was sexually assaulting me? I think he… he sort of shoved you in the chest and…” she made a flying motion with her hands to indicate how he’d flown across the road.

“You didn’t see the wings?”

She shook her head. “I do believe you though…”

Alex supposed she would now after seeing what had just happened to him. He glanced around. The guy was nowhere to be seen. In fact, the whole street was empty. Alex thought it a little surprising that not a single person had come rushing out of their houses to see what the noise was about…

“Who was that guy?” Alex asked, groaning as he straightened his back. “A disgruntled ex?”

The blondie made a face. “He’s a random stranger. We were walking past each other. I thought he was cute, so I smiled at him. Next thing I know, he’d grabbed me and pushed me against the wall. He stared into my eyes and… everything after that was a bit of blur until you came along.”

“Should we report him to the police?” Alex asked absently, still wondering about the guy’s wings. They weren’t fake, he was sure about that. And the glow he had… an angelic glow… He’d said as much too, that he was an angel. This wasn’t the first instance either. A week ago, Alex had come across Jamie… and now this? Were angels and demons real?

“Let’s get you off the road, and maybe to a hospital first?”

It was probably a good idea, Alex thought, as he stared at the damaged door. The glass was shattered and the metal door frame was dented. With the help of the girl, her arm around his waist, his over her shoulder, they walked to the pavement when Alex heard the sudden ringing noise.

It was his phone.

Alex fished it out from his back pocket. He was surprised that it still worked. The screen was completely shattered and the frame was squashed. He could just about make out the name.

It was his dad.

At the best of times, Alex tended to ignore his dad. The guy was a pig. And right now, he had more important things going on. For some unknown reason, he felt an urge to answer this time. Alex sighed. He was going to regret this. It took him three attempts at swiping before it worked.

“Hello?”

“Alex? It’s your dad.”

“Yeah, I know it’s you. What do you want?” he muttered.

“I’ve done something terrible Alex. I’m going to die today.”

Chapter 3