~Chapter 21~

   Why can't my visions come sooner than they do!? Always in the early morning! No no no can't see tomorrow the night before, oh no! That would make things too easy!!! Ugh!! Woke up this morning to see Adri crying and Caleb flying and black as night feathers and harsh words and god! It hit me so hard I started crying just for Adri's pain!
   Now I stood at the corner of her street where in my vision I saw Caleb speak to her, then turn and leave. I walked down the street where I saw her walking with those terrified eyes. Knocked on the door she had stepped out of and shown a sad smile to the sky. Then the girl who's eyes were still red from the tears that she had no doubt just wiped off her face opened up the door and looked at me with those sad eyes.
   I walked right past her into her house. "Okay, I've got pizza- half olive and half pineapple, just how you like it-"
   "Lil-"
   "-two giant bags of Doritos-one nacho cheese and one cool ranch-"
   "Liliana-"
   "-four tubs of Ben&Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream, and two boxes of Oreos."
   "That's great, but-"
   "I also stopped by Blockbuster; I got Peter Pan with the real people, Pan's Labyrinth, the first three Indiana Jones movies, and the first four Harry Potters. I know it sounds pretty vigorous, but I think we can watch 'em all if we get right to it. Now come on, get out your sleeping bag, we're going all out sleepover here."
   "Liliana!"
   After finally setting everything down, I looked up at her. "What?"
   "What about school? It's Tuesday. Not only that, but it's still 9 a.m! What are you even doing here? You should be at school!"
   "So should you! And yet you're not. Don't worry about explaining, I already know," I pointed to my head, "I understand why you don't want to go to school, and there's no way in hell I'm leaving you alone. Plus, come on, missing one stupid day isn't going to hurt me. Now do you plan to stand there and just stare at me, or are you going to help me set up the movie and get this sleepover started?"
   Adriana looked at me in amazement for a few moments, as if searching for something to say, but eventually her eyes got watery. She just walked over to me and wrapped her arms around me, crying into my shoulder.
   "I love you, Lil," she said between sobs. I stroked her hair.
   "Love you too Adri."

~Chapter 20~

   She's crying, I thought. Part of me wanted to rush back to her, put my arms around her, tell her I'm sorry, that it's all okay, that I'm here for her... That I'm here...
   But I didn't.
   I couldn't. She wasn't there for me when I needed her. That showed it all. She never truly loved me, these tears are just her frustration, her wishing that she could get me back on her side... It's all for the war.
   Right?
   "NO!!!"

   The pain and suffering in her scream was like snapping a cord somewhere inside me. It hurt. A whole damn lot. Physically and mentally.
   And it also woke me up.
   Damn it. Another of those dreams. According to Kris, they're sort of real. Adriana is trying to contact me through my dreams, make me feel sorry for her, make me believe her and come back. I guess our spirits are connected that strongly through the past life.
   I took a deep breath. That's not going to happen.
   In some dreams she tells me I'm not really me right now. Well, she's wrong. Like Kris said, she never knew me in the first place. Didn't love me, only used me. Like Kris said.
   I got up and walked out to the kitchen area where, like every morning, Kris and Daisy were already up. Daisy was making something that smelled good and Kris was just sitting at the table, waiting. When he saw me, he smiled.
   "Good morning Caleb."
   I grunted in response as I sat down and held my head in my hands.
   "Had another dream?"
   I nodded.
   Kris was quiet for a while, then said, "I might know how you can get her to stop."
   I looked up at him. He looked cautious and maybe a little fearful, though I wasn't sure since he never seems scared of anything.
   "There's something I've been meaning to talk to you about actually."
   At this I sat up. Is the mysterious Kris finally going to reveal a few secrets? Tell me what's happening?
   "You remember I mentioned a war, right?" Kris asked slowly, as if choosing his words carefully. Daisy left the stove and whatever she had been cooking and sat down beside Kris, eying me curiously.
   "Yeah...?"
   "Well...I'm not exactly sure how to explain this..." Kris looked to Daisy for help.
   "It's no ordinary war," she said, "it goes back to your past life. That's about when it started."
   "What countries is it between?" I asked, wondering how on Earth Adri could be mixed up in a war. Peace-loving Adri.
   Kris and Daisy looked at each other. "Not countries," Kris said.
   "States?"
   "Think bigger..." Kris murmured.
   "Continents?" No way, this would be in the news or something.
   "Bigger..." Daisy whispered.
   "There is no bigger unless you're aliens or something."
   "Um...not exactly..."
   "We're...sort of..." Kris and Daisy shared a look. "Dead." Kris said.
   I just stared at them blankly.
   Then I tried to laugh.
   But they were completely serious. "What."
   "Long ago, we died, and our souls went to Hell. We're demons. But you, Caleb. You died long before us, and were an angel, married to Adriana, as king and queen of Heaven. But you were being deceived by her. She was good at first, that's why she was of Heaven in the first place, but she became corrupt with power, and used you. See, Heaven and Hell had once coexisted. We were at peace, no war, no agitation. Really, we were all contempt with our afterlives. But then I realized Adriana's corruption. I saw that she was deceiving you, and was going to warn you. But before I could, Adriana waged war on Hell to stop me. But, knowing that angels would reincarnate were they to be killed, I took one last desperate attempt to save you. I distracted the rest of Heaven with a main attack, and in the meantime, went directly to you and Adriana. I attempted to kill you, so that your soul may be saved and reborn without her evil, but she got in my way. I was going to simply take her prisoner so that her immortal spirit would not cause trouble, but I accidentally killed her, causing her to reincarnate. And after that, you tried to kill me, since you loved her, so in self-defense, I had to kill you. I kept a small hope that maybe she would not be tainted in this life, but it appears that she was. This is why I stepped in to save you from falling for her tricks once again. Yes, I purposely killed you with negative and hateful feelings towards her and your own love to make you become a demon like us, but it was only to save you, and hopefully end this damned war once and for all. With you on our side, we may have a chance to defeat them and finally restore the order that once was."
   I stayed silent for a long time while I soaked it all in.
   I wasn't so sure I trusted his words. It all seemed to correlate with the images I had in my head, his story of Heaven and the war and him killing us, but something didn't seem right. I couldn't see his face in the images. Why? Why couldn't I see his face?
   "So what does this have to do with my dreams?"
   "Well," said Kris, "you can go tell Adriana to stop it in person. See, you have the ability to visit Earth. Demons aren't trapped in Hell, just like angels aren't trapped in Heaven. We can visit and look like normal humans. So, you could visit Adriana and tell her to stop calling you."
   See Adri? Am I ready for that? It's been kind of hard without her, am I ready to face her yet?
   "How?"

~Chapter 19~

   "Caleb... Come with me," I said, hand outstretched towards him. The look he gave me was severe, scary.
   "When will you let it go?" He asked. "I don't love you."
   I fell to my knees as he walked away, tears streaming down my cheeks. "NO!!" I yelled after him, but he kept walking, going, leaving, fading into the distance, leaving me alone to fade into the darkness surrounding me...

   I sprung straight up from my bed, heart racing, gasping for breath, just like you do in those dreams where you just died and wake up the second you're about to hit the ground after falling off a cliff or something. Another one... I sighed and shut off the alarm clock that I realized had been what woke me up in the first place. Another stupid day of school I have to get up for... Not like I'll learn anything. I haven't been able to focus at all, ever since Caleb... ever since Caleb left me...
   Caleb...
   After finally getting up and ready for school, I opened the front door to my house, expecting to see the rain that had been plaguing the sky for the past week. Instead, I found a beautiful clear blue sky, with only a rainbow betraying the secret that there had been rain. Well, at least there's nice weather today... If nothing else...
   I stepped out into the daylight and began my walk to school.
   And then I saw him.
   At first I thought I must be imagining things. Then I considered that maybe I had somehow been transported back in time a month or so. Hell, I'm the reincarnation of the queen of Heaven, why not? But it wasn't. I wasn't imagining things, nor had any time leap happened.
   Caleb was standing at the corner of the sidewalk, waiting for me, just like he used to every morning.
   There's no way...
   His eyes found me and stayed on me as I approached him. "Caleb...?"
   "Adri." His voice was flat, emotionless. It stung, but the very familiarity of it healed a little cut inside me. Only a little one.
   "Are you really Caleb?" I asked cautiously. Is it really possible that maybe he came back? Made the change? Realized the truth?
   "I'm always really Caleb," he said with a little condescension. All those questions I just asked? No.
   "No," my voice cracked with the coming tears, "the last Caleb I talked to wasn't really him. And neither are you."
   Finally some real emotion came to his face. But, it wasn't the kind of emotion I wanted. He became mad at this statement. Rage and annoyance thick in his voice, he asked, "And how would you know Adriana!?" I winced at my full name. So serious, so formal, so...hurtful... "How would you know what's really me and what's not!?"
   My instinct to yell back kicked in. "Because I know you! I know you better than anyone else!" The tears broke free from my eyes.
   "No you don't! You never knew me Adriana! This is me! Right here, right now, this is me!" He paused, I said nothing. "Whoever you thought you knew doesn't exist." His voice had calmed a little bit, but the anger was still present. "So stop looking for him."
   Before I had a chance to respond, Caleb turned from me and walked away, quickly turning the corner. I rushed after him, but when I ran around the corner, I didn't see Caleb. I saw a demon. A sick portrayal of Caleb, with feathered wings sprouted from his back, the slick black of night. He turned his head to glance back at me with cold, piercing eyes, then took off, leaving me alone to fade into the darkness that I almost wished was surrounding me.

~Chapter 18~

   What am I going to do...?
   First Ai, then Nolan, who was SUPPOSED TO bring Ai back. Everyone who goes to Earth doesn't come back! Soon, I might have to go there too to find out what's been going on! What is taking them so long!? Heaven needs them...
   As if listening to my very thoughts, I heard a familiar voice say, "Miranda, we're back."
   It took me a few seconds to register, so I very lamely and stupidly let slip a mindless, "Huh?"
   Then I looked up at the voice, and everything clicked in my brain as the girl with long white-blond hair and bright blue eyes standing next to the boy with the short brown hair and green eyes bent down in front of me with her hand up, waving her fingers in a "hello" gesture, and with a friendly smile on her face said, "Hey."
   A wide smile spread across my face. "Ai!" I leaped up and hugged her. "You're finally back!"
   She laughed as she returned my hug. "Sorry I took so long."
   She, Nolan, and I all sat down. "What's been happening? Do they remember yet?"
   The smile on Ai's face faded and she looked down at the ground. Nolan stood up and began pacing back and forth.
   "Well... Sort of..." Ai muttered. Sort of? What? How is that possible?
   Nolan finally spoke. "Adriana has remembered everything," he sighed. "But Caleb's memories...Well..." He trailed off. Ai spoke up.
   "We think they've just been a little mixed up."
   Before I had a chance to respond with one of the numerous question which appeared at this, Nolan raised his voice. "A little mixed up!? He's a freaking demon!" Ai flinched away from his yelling voice, but had a look of understanding in her eyes when she looked at him. For a split second I wanted to smile. They finally hooked up. Then my mind returned to the real world. Did he say demon?
   "What? How is that even possible!?"
   Nolan, who stopped pacing to stand still with his hand gripping his forehead as if it would burst, shook his head and said, "We don't know." His grip on his forehead tightened. "All we know is that it is, and Kris," he spat the name as if it were a curse word, "did it."
   I felt as though I would loose consciousness. "This is terrible... What will we do?"
   "Nothing," Ai said, voice barely above a whisper. I looked at her, worried she'd gone insane. She looked back at the door she and Nolan had just come through, which led to a platform in which people went to and from Earth. "It's up to them now." She sighed. "I hope they're alright."

~Chapter 17~

   I am going to kill her. I am sooooo going to kill her. Damn it! Where did Adri go!? After Ai and Nolan left, I explained to Adri everything which had happened, and then we both went home. But today, she didn't show up at school! I've called her and texted her and stopped by her house and asked her mother where she was, but she didn't know, so I've been walking around town looking for her for over an hour now with no luck! Where did she go!?
   As I neared the bridge overlooking the small lake in our town, I saw a girl with brown hair leaning against the railing, looking down at the fish in the lake. It's her! I found her!
   "Adriana! There you are!" She slowly looked up at me. She looked as though her soul had left her, lifeless, her face blank, mind void of thought.
   "Liliana," she said after staring at me for a few moments.
   "What's up? I've been looking for you all day." I leaned against the railing beside her.
   Her voice was just above a whisper. "I don't know what to do Lil..."
   "Adri..." She began to cry. I took a quick deep breath, then stood up straight, stomping my foot against the ground in the process. She jumped and looked at me in surprise. "Look," I said, taking on a strong tone. "I know you're sad and depressed, but crying over this isn't going to help anything! Right now, what you need to do, is stand up straight, wipe off your face, and start thinking!"
   "But-"
   "No!" I interrupted. "In the past life you were Adriana, Queen of Heaven! You were a strong ruler who all looked up to! You were strong then, and you can be now!"
   Finally, I got her to raise her voice. Unfortunately, it was in anger. "But it hurts Liliana! It hurts, so much! He left me! He hates me!! He's with them, and against us! But I love him! I love him more than anything, and-!" Her voice cracked as more tears flooded her eyes. "And he doesn't love me!"
   "Adri..." I sighed. "Adriana, he does love you. You know that! You can't for one second believe that he doesn't!"
   "But he said-"
   "They've been messing with his head, Adriana! They turned him into a demon! Who knows how the hell they did it, but they did! But he does love you and that is not going to change! It doesn't matter what they do to him, he will always love you and he will always be the Caleb that you love."
   "But he's not! Not right now, you said it yourself, he's a demon!"
   "But we can change that! He's still in there, we just have to bring him out! We can do it, together."
   She looked at me, tears streaming down her face, with a helpless look. "But what if we can't?"
   "We can." She didn't look convinced. "We will."

   How can Liliana be so sure of everything? So sure that this is all going to be okay? Just because she can see the future doesn't mean she knows everything that's going to happen!
   Okay, maybe it does...
   But still! She can't see that far ahead. Just into the next day or so. So how can she be so confident that we'll be alright? She doesn't know! None of us do! Yet still, everyone is trying to tell me that I can do it, that we can do it. But what if I can't? What if we can't?
   So I asked her that. "But what if we can't?"
   "We can." You don't know that... "We will."
   Something about the tone in her voice and the look in her eyes reminded me of my days as an angel. As a ruler of Heaven, I was strong, just as she's being now. I was wise, and kept my head level during times like this. But I'd always had Caleb by my side before...always there to hold me when I cried, to help me contain my feelings, help me be strong. Now he wasn't here, and I needed him more than ever.
   But here was Liliana, being as I used to. This experience has matured her. It's time that I be mature. I can  do this. With Liliana's help, I can. We, Liliana and I, will do this.
   I looked up to the sky, and closed my eyes.
   Caleb, I'm coming for you.

~Chapter 16~

   Caleb...
   Caleb, I remember everything...About you, about Ai, about us... Caleb!
   I looked up at the sky, covered by dark clouds, drenching me in rain. Where could he be at this moment? In Hell? Would they have taken him there? I wonder what he's thinking at this exact moment... Is he thinking about me?
   No. He doesn't love me anymore...why would he be thinking about me?

   Adri...
   I don't understand...after everything we've been through...Hell, we were even together in a past life! I mean...it's a little blurry...but I can see some random flashes of memories, of me and Adri, together, happy, beautiful. And even after all of that, how could she just leave me like that!? Damn it, that man, Kris, he told me, and I wouldn't believe him. I didn't want to believe him when he said that she didn't love me enough to stay with me. But he was right. He offered, and she declined, and he was right. Adriana doesn't love me. Not like I love her. Loved her. It's time to move on...
   Yet I still couldn't get my mind off of her... Her soul calls to me... I finally under stood why it was that Adri and I were so connected, when Kris helped me remember my past. It's because of our relationship in our previous life, as King and Queen of some small island named Heaven for its beauty. There was some sort of unbreakable string connecting us through life and death, causing us to be drawn toward each other. Which is why the second I saw her, I wanted nothing more than to simply be around her... She was so beautiful...with her cute dimples and her shiny brown hair... I still remember that first day I had transferred to our school like it was yesterday... How all through the day I couldn't keep my eyes off of her, but being too shy at the time to even speak a word... Even when she approached me the next day, I was so silent at the sight of her, my tongue was dry and I could barely manage a 'Hi'. But when I spoke, the smile that came across her face was something which could have blinded anyone. Because she too had felt the connection...
   Damn!!  Here I am again, thinking about Adri! I shouldn't waste my time, she doesn't even spare me a second thought.
   "Hey, come on man, cheer up!" I looked up at the man who claimed he was my friend, Kris. His face was completely familiar, as another blurry piece of my past.
   "I just..." I started. "I don't..." I was unable to form any complete sentence with my mouth.
   "It's not worth it," he said. "Girls are stupid."
   Daisy, a girl with long pink hair who I had begun wondering could even speak, finally raised her voice at this. "Excuse me?"
   Kris rolled his eyes then turned toward her with a sweet smile. "Except for you of course." I see, they must be a couple. Like me and-
   Nevermind.
   The smile was lost when his face turned back to me. "But seriously, she's not worth it."
   "Jeez," Daisy said. "Go easy on him, he's just been through a breakup!" Then she walked over and sat next to me. With a kind smile she said, "Don't worry, he usually isn't like this."
   Kris scowled. "Like what?"
   Then I turned my attention to the room we were in. It appeared to be a bedroom, with dark blue colors all around it, such as the paint on the walls and the bed covers. The furniture, which included a desk with a lamp on it, a dresser, and a bookshelf filled with old-looking books, was all painted black. Overall, it was a pretty dark room. And I had no idea where it was.
   "Where are we anyway?"
   Kris's answer was quick and rushed. "Don't worry about that now." Something about the way he averted his eyes made me suspicious. "All you should worry about right now is what we're going to do next."
   "Do next? About what?" I noticed Daisy had looked up at Kris with a look that seemed to be a mixture of worry, suspicion, and disappointment. I wonder what's going on there...? But I didn't ask. Kris's answer distracted me.
   "About the war."

~Chapter 15~

   "What do you mean Caleb's a demon?" Nolan had pulled on a shirt and came out to the living room with me and Liliana.
   Liliana looked at Nolan, his brown hair messed up and his eyes still a little hazy from sleeping. Then she looked at me, wearing a tiny white nightgown, my hair also messy. She raised her eyebrows at me and smiled out the corner of her mouth, void of all the panic she had just had. She turned her attention back to Nolan. "Wait, who are you?" She asked, still smirking.
   "He's..." I started. Nolan looked at me, curious of what I would say. I smiled. "My boyfriend."
   "Ooh," she smiled and winked at me. Jeez, she's thinking weird things... "Is he alive?" she asked, serious returning to her face.
   "No. He's like me." Liliana nodded. "So what-?"
   For the second time that night, someone banged on my door, screaming. "AI!!!"
   I opened the door and a crying, panicking Adriana stepped in. "Adriana! What are you doing here?"
   She...hugged me. Then she held me out at arm's length. "I remember! I remember everything!"
   "Really? How!?" Adriana spun around to face Liliana. She was immediately confused.
   "Liliana...?" She looked to me for help. "What...?"
   "Oh, Liliana is your protector. I believe she was given a small fraction of everyone's power, so she could protect you."
   "Oh... Interesting..." she said, though she didn't seem to really think that.
   "So how did you remember?"
   "I don't know... I was just sitting there, and my memories all just flooded into my mind. I think it had some correlation with-" Adriana stopped and fell silent, her tears acting up again.
   "With whatever happened to Caleb?" Nolan offered. At the sound of his name, Adri put her face in her hands.
   "Caleb! What happened to him? He wasn't himself..."
   Liliana put her arms around Adriana. "Adri... He's a demon."
   Adriana looked at her as if she were crazy. "What? How is that even possible?" She looked around, at Nolan, and then at me. I shook my head.
   "Kris," Nolan said through gritted teeth.
   "Who?" Liliana asked.
   "God damn it! That bastard!" Nolan suddenly yelled, causing me, Adri, and Liliana to jump. He sat down in a chair, trying to control his raging emotions.
   "Kris..." I said to Liliana. "He's the leader of the demons, and...he was Nolan's best friend in life."
   Nolan banged his fist on the table next to him. "I should have killed him!" I ran over to him and wrapped my arms around him, stroking his hair.
   "It's okay Nolan, calm down..." His breathing steadied as I held him.
   "Guys... What are we going to do?"
   "I just don't understand..." Adri sobbed. "How could he go with him? He killed us!!"
   "Maybe he doesn't remember that." All three of us looked up at Liliana, silent question marks on our faces. "Maybe he only brought back some of his memories, and twisted them to make Caleb evil."
   Nolan, still pissed off, said, "That does sound like something he'd do."
   Adri suddenly perked up, with a hopeful smile on her face. "Well that's great! That means all we have to do is make him remember everything!" All three of us were silent.
   "That might not be as easy as it sounds," I said.
   "Remember, Adri," Liliana said. "You're human. You can't just pray for it." She sighed. "And even if you could, he's already there."
   "Which means he has to make the change on his own," Nolan muttered.
   "No..." Adri's crying resumed. "Caleb..."
   "Hey," Liliana gave her a small smile. "It's okay. We'll find a way. You and me!"
   "And Ai and Nolan," Adri said, looking at me. I gave her a sorrowful look.
   "Actually, no..." I said. Nolan stood up and took my hand. "Heaven is in chaos without a leader. We have to go back."
   "No..." Adri whispered. I hugged her.
   "It's alright. Caleb loves you, they can't change that." I let go of her. I opened the door and Nolan and I stepped outside. "I know you can do it."
   Liliana smiled. "Hey, I'm going to see you again, right?"
   "Of course! We'll be waiting for you in Heaven."
   "Well, let's hope you don't see me there soon," Liliana laughed. I laughed too.
   "Yeah, live first. Then you can come."
   Behind me, Nolan had been muttering a prayer. Magnificent, white feathered wings branched out from my and Nolan's back.
   "Goodbye..." Adri whispered. And then we were gone.