Starlight

“Soo…you’re gonna talk or just sit here?” Jack asked Alex, placing Alex’s cup of tea on the small coffee table.

“I don’t know what to talk about,” he shrugged, “ask me something,” he smiled at Jack and reached out for the cup.

“What is this most important thing that would help me to make sense of everything?”

“I already told you and I’m not going to change my mind – you’re not ready for this,” he carefully sipped his hot tea.

“Then there’s nothing more I would be interested in,” Jack said, putting his feat in the coffee table without breaking the eye contact with Alex, “we can just sit here, I have more tea if you’ll want, we can watch tv, but you’re not leaving this place until you decide to tell me what’s this thing all about.”

“Works with me,” playful smirk appearing on Alex’s face, “so what about this tv?” he broke the eye contact contest and turned his attention towards the tv screen.

Of course, Jack shouldn’t suggest him not leaving this place. Why would he if he seemed so happy to get here. Now Jack might be stuck with him for the next two days when he need to pick Rian up from the hospital.

“You need to turn it on first,” he said, reaching out for the remote.

“Then do it,” Alex chirped like a kid whose parents had allowed him to stay up after his usual bedtime.

“And what if I don’t? Would you tell this big secret to me then?”

“Who said that it is a big secret?” Alex chocolate brown eyes returned to Jack’s.

“It seems to be a big secret if you don’t want to tell it.”

“It’s not, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m not telling this to you. Not now anyways.”

“Is it really so hard! ” his voice raises as he almost glares at Alex, making him sink deeper in the worn out couch.

“Jack…don’t make me…”

“What? You think you can just start writing me some notes and then appear in my life and think that I’m going to great you with open arms?”

“I guess not,” he whispers tracing some patterns, only he can see, on the cup.

“Then please explain me! Who are you, how do you know about me and what do you want and please don’t give me these bullshits about your mom telling you!”

Alex didn’t look up, just kept his fingers locked around the cup, staring deep in the hot liquid.

“Could you…could you please give me some time?” he finally looked up with almost teary eyes.

“You want me to excuse you in my own home?”

“I told you, I don’t know how they work here and….I need to…to check it and…”

“What is it?”

“You’ll see,” he sighed and put his cup on the coffee table, “you’re bedroom?” he looked up with hopeful eyes and Jack tried to shake off the weird feeling he got after that question and the look Alex gave him. Maybe some other time…or place…

“Yes, it’s…”

“I know,” he got up and turned his back to leave.

“Of course you do,” Jack mumbled more to himself than Alex and watched as he disappeared in his bedroom.

First ten minutes he carefully listened and tried to understand what Alex was doing there, next ten minutes he spent imagining different scenarios with Alex in his bedroom. Sure, he just met this guy and it was more than sure that he wasn’t normal, but no one could deny that he looks good. More than good. Last ten minutes he started to worry, thinking that maybe Alex had killed himself, set some trap for Jack or is filing his pockets with everything valuable he can find in Jack’s room. Not that there would be something valuable, but who knows. Maybe Alex will find something valuable.

His bedroom doors finally opened and shirtless Alex walked out.

“Okay, this is not what I was expecting for,” he half smiled, his eyes rooming Alex’s body.

“Shut up. I told you, you need to see to believe me.”

“Okay, but…I’ve seen naked guys and there’s nothing I shouldn’t believe soo…what’s so special about you? Although I can’t say you look bad, but…”

“Will you shut up! I don’t need you to tell be about all your one night stands. Believe me, I already know more than I would like to,” Alex cut him off with annoyed tone in his voice.

“Fine, I just don’t see anything you was trying to hide.”

“Because there’s nothing to see. People are just too blind to see things they don’t want to see,” he paused, breathing heavily and trying to calm down, “just please don’t freak out. I know it’s not normal for you, but this is who I am…and…yeah…don’t freak out and remember that it was your idea and you shouldn’t blame me.”

“Fine. Whatever.”

“Okay, so…maybe…you could close your eyes?”

“Why?”

“So that…maybe that might help you…I don’t know…”

“Fine,” Jack closed his eyes at the same time thinking – why do I trust him so much?

Only thing he heard was soft rustling before he felt warm air [or wind] hitting his skin, then few shaky breaths from Alex before he spoke,
“Okay…I guess you can…”

Jack kind of wanted to say something about how unsure Alex sounded, but his words got stuck somewhere in his throat at the sight in front of him.

Two big black wings were carefully folded behind Alex, longest feathers reaching down almost past his knees. He looked stronger and bigger than before, like someone you wouldn’t want to meet in the dark alley. Looking at the wings he remembered one night. Night when he heard Alex for the first time in his apartment. He had seen him. He had seen something dark and big and now he knows what he saw.

Alex carefully moved his wings, causing soft rustling to come from the feathers, the sound bringing Jack out of trance he was in.

“Okay, that was weird! Are you some kind of x man or something?”

Everyone knows that scientists never tells the whole truth about what they’re doing in their laboratories, but they would’ve told people if they would’ve succeeded on something like that. Something like Alex!

“No, I’m an angel.”

“What? These thing are not real!”

“One of these things are standing in your living room and you’re still saying that this is not real? That I’m not real?” he sounded offended.

“Well, no…yes…but…angels are not real! It’s just a myth, like unicorns and dragons and mermaids…these are just stories! None of this is real!”

“Stories are never pulled out of the air. In every story there’s some truth.”

“So you want to say that there’re dragons and unicorns?”

“There were,” he said casually, like it would be the most common thing in the world.

“What?”

“There were unicorns. I don’t know about dragons, but about unicorns I’m sure. They were really rare and everyone haunted them because of their horn. People said that if you mix it with any medicine it’s for sure that you’re gonna be cured. Their horns were kind of magical and because of that they’re extinct.”

“If I would tell this to my professor he would send me to some psychologist without thinking.”

“Mhm…” Alex hummed, not looking at Jack, just briefly moving his wings and making them shine in the sunlight coming from the window.

Jack looked at Alex, his wings, the feathers. This thing…the wings…they can’t be real. How can he have wings? But they look real. But they’re black. Angels don’t have black wings! They’re supposed to be white!

“Why are they black?” he blurted out without thinking.

“I was waiting for that question,” Alex smiled, his eyes finally focusing on Jack, “you think that angels must have white wings, don’t you?”

Jack lightly nodded, moving his eyes away from Alex’s wings and looking in his brown eyes.

“It’s not completely a myth. There are some white angels, but they’re just as rare as the black ones.”

“And you’re the black one.”

“Yes.”

“And why are you and the…white angels so rare?”

“White angels belong only to pure people and there’s not much of those. You know people have…fucked up minds as you would say. Not many people would do something for other and not ask anything in return. People tend to think bad things, things they would do to other. Mostly they don’t because it’s illegal, but they think and that itself makes people…not pure.”

“And you, being the black angel are complete opposite to the white angel?”

“No,” he chuckled, “we’re rare because we were haunted and killed. For a long time other angels thought that we’re death angels. I know that people think of black angels the same way.”

“As death angels,” Jack murmured.

“Yeah, other thought that we bring death upon other angels and people who we belong to.”

“Great and I’m stuck with one of them,” he murmured again.

“Stop interrupting me! I’m telling you what everyone thought! That’s the past tense, listen to what I’m saying!”

“Yeah, fine, sorry.”

“So they thought that we bring death and they started to haunt us and it’s not easy to hide in our world. We can’t hide our wings because we don’t need to hide them there. We all are angels and it’s normal to have wings. Most of black angels were killed during that time and when the angel dies their human dies too. Normally that doesn’t happen, normally human dies before the angel does. When angel is killed their human suffers, because he’s left alone. He suffers and then he dies, because human can’t exist without its angel and angel can’t exist without its human.”

“Soo…when those black angels were haunted and killed, people died here?”

“Yes. To make it easier for you I can tell you that in your world it was around 14th or 15th century, I’m not sure. You call it the Black Death, bubonic plague or just plague. Call whatever you want it, but it means the same. You think that it was caused because of some bacterium when in reality it was because their angels were killed.”

“But there were bacterium’s. They’ve found them!”

“For you these were bacterium’s when in reality it was caused because their angel were killed. It was sadness. People didn’t know what had caused this, but people suffered and so did their bodies. They brought it on themselves.”

“This didn’t make any sense!”

“You know how when people think of something and they imagine that they might be sick, might have a flu or something and sooner or later they actually do have it. The same was with this, only stronger and people actually died, because as I said – human can’t exist without its angel.”

“Okay, but…this story only makes you look like death angel.”

“This would happen with any other angel and its human. It doesn’t matter what kind of angel- if angel dies, human dies, if human dies, angel dies.”

“But why did they thought of you as death angels?”

“Because our wings are kind of magical. We can ease pain with them and we're next to people or other angels when they’re about to die. We don’t bring death, we only help the others to reach the other side, we help them to ease their pain. That’s why we are called the death angels, because we’re there when someone dies. We don’t bring death.”

“Mhm…so I won’t die only because I saw you or had you in my house or something?”

“No, of course not. It’s not how it works.”

“Mhm…”

“I think it’s enough stories for now,” he smiled his bright smile, folded his wings on his back and…

“How did you do that! Where did they go!”

“People don’t see what they don’t want to see.”

“But I saw them before!”

“I don’t want you to see them anymore,” he smiled, turned around and walked back to Jack’s bedroom.

Notes

nice, warm cup of tea goes to @antivist I don't know if that was easy or not, but...I'm glad you guessed it ;D
also, I did a little research about this Black Death and I found some interesting films about it and now I want to watch them ;D

ps
there will definitely be no new chapter this whole week, because I have an exam next monday...good luck for me ^^