Eliza approached the warehouse with no small degree of caution. She saw the underground driveway they had emerged from in the yellow moving truck and felt her stomach lurch as she remembered what it felt like to sit in the back with her brother, wondering if the awful creatures were flying outside.
She had remained in the hidden realm as she walked, but thankfully hadn’t come across any more fallen angels. She had chalked up the encounter with those three as bad luck, and she was grateful she’d been able to destroy them before they could alert any of the rest of their horde. The last thing she or Jeremiah needed was a group of fallen angels chasing them when they were out alone at night with no backup.
She felt her anger rise toward Jeremiah again. When was he going to learn that his actions caused other people problems too?
Eliza looked up and down the street, and finally convinced no one was watching her, made her way across. She looked for any sign of him but found none. Eyeing the opening that led into the parking deck below, she figured she would give it a try.
Although it was just beginning to grow light outside, the garage was lit by the same fluorescent lights. She walked in, hoping to find her little brother wandering around.
Instead, she found an empty lot, except for a handful of cars parked in random spots.
She sighed, adjusting her glasses. “Come on, Jeremiah. Where are you?” Maybe we should give him a cell phone. It would make this a whole lot easier.
“Jeremiah?” she called out as loudly as she thought she could. “Jeremiah?”
Eliza walked through the empty lot, trying to put herself into the shoes of her nine-year-old brother. She saw the steps to the right, leading up to the warehouse above, and knew that was the only place she had left to search.
When she arrived at the top of the stairs, she stopped to survey the scene. The conveyor belts weren’t moving on the factory floor yet, and there were a handful of workers milling about. It appeared as if the workday was about to begin in the warehouse.
Her eyes were drawn to the door at the end of the conveyor belts to her left. There was some kind of disturbance going on. Two men were hunched over, struggling with something. Or was it someone?
Eliza was still in the hidden realm, so she stopped breathing when she saw the fallen angels swoop in from all corners of the place. They hovered over the men, encircling them in a frenzy, several of them leaning in, mouths to their ears.
She heard the scream and knew it in an instant.
“Jeremiah!”
The only thing she saw was the back of his head as he strained against the two large men in suits, who were dragging him out of the warehouse and through the small room, toward the door that led into the alleyway.
Eliza began to run, praying as she went to reenter the visible world. But by the time she got to the door, they had yanked him through it, even though he was resisting and flailing himself around.
She burst through the doorway so fast that she tripped, falling across the cold pavement. Her cheek scraped against the hard ground, but she didn’t notice the scratches or the blood.
“Jeremiah!” she called out again.
But it was too late.
She watched a black car speed toward the busy street ahead. Before it disappeared into an ocean of other vehicles, she saw a boy turn his head, looking back through the rear window.
“Jeremiah!”
Eliza looked on helplessly as she found herself standing alone in the middle of the quiet city street. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out her phone.