Flying Without Wings

The junkie, turned mysterious ally, was waiting for us under a great willow tree on the far side of the park. He was dressed all in black and the soft red glow of his cigar was our lighthouse is the huge ocean of a park, it lead us to where he was waiting. He gave a nod when he saw us coming and sat down on the wet grass and motioned for us to as well. He crossed his long skinny legs and looked just as awkward as Bastian had. The two of them sat next to each other like perching crickets.

“Hey lads, glad you made it.” he said blowing a smoke ring up into the night, “grab yourself a bit of grass don’t be shy.” Monty was still standing, his lined face was full of mistrust. Marvillo on the other hand bounded right up to him and licked him on the face, something he never usually did with strangers. “This is a cute tyke, friendly fella. I was thrilled when I felt him on the tram the other night. But not as thrilled as I was to see you were well, I was surprised you didn’t recognize me, because I know you do remember me don’t you Audrey.”

“No I don’t suppose I do, although you have got a very familiar face.” She started eyeing off the man.

“What do you mean you felt him?” I cut in, was this man claiming to be some sort of psychic?

“Just as I said, I could feel him, his presence, I knew there was one on the tram, just had to find out who had it, then I stumbled across Audrey and Monty fussing over you two and knew you must have one. I have a strong bond with Angha, even ones which aren’t mine, guess that’s why I’m so good at what I do.”

“Sorry did you say ones. As in you have more than one Angha? And your face, I do know your face don’t I.” Audrey leaned forward to try to make out the man’s face, it was pale in the soft light of the silver moon.

“Yea love I got more than one, I’ve got four at the moment, they sorta transferred to me when their humans sacrificed themselves to save them, but that’s another story. All you gotta know is that I’m here to save them, all of them and you know me because we have met before, more then met. Audrey it’s me Humphrey, Humphrey Bradshaw.” He looked into Audrey’s face as he said his name and gave a little nod. “You been alright love?”

Audrey clutched her heart and stared at him. Her usual flirty personality diminished and she looked devastated, her face was white and her eyes wide. She repeated Humphreys name over and over again shaking her head in disbelief. “How can it be you? I saw you die. Gomez saw you die, you were gone.” She leaned forward and felt his face, she looked at his arms, his hands, and grabbed at his chest before embracing him and sobbing on his shoulder. He held her tightly and started to whisper into her ear.

“But how, how can this be? Where is Gomez does he know?” Audrey cried pulling herself back and looking into his face before plunging into his neck again.

Monty told us who this man was claiming to be, Humphrey, was Gomez’s little brother, the little brother that had died seven years ago fighting to save his Angha. Audrey and Humphrey had been very close, even though he was just twenty three at the time. He was as passionate as anyone when it came to fighting for the Angha and he was always willing to die for the cause. Humphrey and Gomez were the ones that first left the Zimrugh Saviours and started the Angha Soldiers when everything started to go bad a decade ago. They had known before anyone else that Dr Salem was evil and that the Zimrugh Saviours, as they knew it, was being destroyed. After trying to over throw Dr Salem the Bradshaw brothers were cast out onto the street. Humphrey had felt the pain and suffering of the Angha’s before anyone else, the inexplicable bond he had told him they were under threat, he had always had a way with the creatures. So they formed the AS and a few years later a war between the two sides erupted. When he had died in battle Gomez had left Audrey and gone back to the Zimrugh Saviours. Leaving his wife and all the other Angha Soldiers proved to Dr Salem and Zenasia that he was ready to join them again, as an ZS. Some people say he went crazy when he lost his brother, others say he was always with the Zimrugh Saviours and was just using Audrey and Humphrey to gain information. When Humphrey died it was a great loss and was the death that ended the war. People started to lose faith in what they were fighting for, and each other, the members of the Angha Soldiers were losing too much and had to stop fighting.

“But how do we know you’re even Humphrey. You died; we all saw it, even I saw it. You were blown to smithereens right there in that house.” Montgomery’s voice started to shake as he pointed back towards house 36. “It was awful, a kid being blown up like that.”

“It’s me gramps, I wasn’t killed, it was all part of a bigger plan, we needed a way to safely retreat. You’re right too many people were dying and me and Gomez had this contingency plan from the start, we knew the day might come when we would be losing and we would need to do something drastic to save as many Anghas and Angha Soldiers as we could.”

Audrey violently twitched out of Humphrey’s neck again. “Gomez! Where is he? I’ll kill him myself! And I’ll kill you, why didn’t you tell me?!” Her feistiness had returned and she was shaking Humphrey with rage.

“Darling Audrey, Gomez is still on our side, the plan was for him to get in with the Zimrugh Saviors, he is a spy for us, he knows everything that is going on and he knows how to save the Angha. Trust me, he never wanted to leave you, he always said he would rather die than hurt you but he needed to save you, and me. You weren’t a part of the plan, this plan was in place before we met you and loved you. This was his strategy Audrey, he still loves you, he wants to save you, and he knows where Mavis is.”

“What, you faked your death so Gomez could become a Zimrugh Saviour, do you have any idea of the pain I have been through these seven long years. The two men I loved most both taken from me in one day, I’m half the women I used to be.”

“You are still the best women I know love, we both knew you would be strong enough to carry on without us, we couldn’t tell you, you had to actually grieve so no one would suspect Gomez’ as a spy. It had to be done.” Audrey slapped Humphrey across the face and then tried to punch him, Montgomery held her back and she fell into a sobbing heap into his lap, mumbling the name Mavis. “I can see that is probably enough for tonight.” Humphrey dabbed blood from his lip and rose to leave. He turned back and pointed to Audrey’s timepiece. “That hasn’t ticked for a while has it? But you never threw it away, I know you can feel she is still alive. Mavis is in that house, there is a lot going on in that house. When it’s the right time, and you are in the right room, it will start to tic again.” He turned and left without another word. My mind was racing and I looked to Montgomery for answers. They were all intertwined, the Angha soldiers and the Zimrugh Saviours, they all knew each other, had such history. I felt like an outsider from a different land, everything was new, strange. Audrey slowly started to speak again, her voice was shaky with rage, or sadness I couldn’t really tell. She told us that the day he had gotten Mavis her mother had given her this time piece. When she was given the pocket-watch it wasn’t ticking, it had been Audrey’s mothers and it hadn’t worked for years. Audrey’s mother had told her that it would slowly start to move as their bond grew and one day it would tic with Mavis’ heartbeat, so Audrey would know she was always safe. The day that Humphrey died and Gomez left, Mavis had gone missing too. Audrey didn’t realise until she had gotten home that Mavis was gone. Audrey had looked everywhere but didn’t know whether Gomez had taken her or if she had died in the battle. The ticking of her watch started to slow down until eventually it stopped altogether. She knew then that she would probably never see Mavis again. But the watch had started ticking for her once before, and she held onto it for all these years, hoping it would start ticking again.

“I have dreams that I’m stuck inside a giant clock tower, there is ticking all around me and I can see Mavis, but she is running away from me, she keeps disappearing into the floorboards and every time I get down to the right level she disappears again. All I can hear is the loud tic of the clock, over and over again.” Audrey was gripping the pocket watch so tightly that her knuckles were white. Carefully Montgomery put his wrinkled hand onto hers and pried it open. He gently pulled her up and kissed her on the cheek.

“Humphrey is right, that’s enough for tonight. Let’s go, we can decide what to do next in the morning. Are you two coming?” he turned and looked at us.

“No not yet.” Bastian could tell I wanted to sit in the park a little longer. I loved being outside with nature.

“Well how are we supposed to get in? We don’t have a key.”

“Oh.” I realised that lets go meant lets go back to our house. Bastian picked up Marvillo, he had fallen asleep at was snoring peacefully, and pulled me to my feet too. He kissed my cheek, just like Montgomery had done to Audrey and we hailed a cab. I was surprised that Montgomery and Audrey had decided to stay at our house, but was also glad. They made me feel safe, they made the house feel like a home.