Two days passed—and they passed slowly. Drearily. Achingly. There was nothing to do. There was nowhere Kaitlyn could go. She had books to read but she couldn't focus. She had food and water and all her basic necessities met but she felt like she was full of holes. No matter how much she drank, she thirsted. No matter how much she ate, she hungered. No matter how much she slept, she was always so tired.

The angels could sense that something was going on, just like Jacob always could.

'Speak to us, Kaitlyn,' Zeke said, his orange eyes troubled. He crouched beside her as she sat amid her blankets. 'We can help.'

Kaitlyn opened her mouth, then shut it, looking away. 'No, you can't.'

There was nothing they could say that would make her feel better. They could say all they wanted about how her family was safe in heaven. They could say how her parents knew only happiness and peace and love—but it wouldn't be enough. She had to hear the truth from the source. She had to question Satan directly. But no matter how much she slept, he wouldn't appear. It was the first time in months that her dreams had been her own. And she knew he was tormenting her for what she'd done. For leaving him in the lurch.

Only two days had passed—and it felt like forever.

Where was Jacob? She felt his absence like an ache in her chest. She really needed him.

The third morning dawned cloudy and drizzly. It was the kind of weather where it was both cool enough to pull on a sweater and warm enough to take it off minutes later. Kaitlyn sighed as she gazed through a partially-boarded window. The gloom of the outside mirrored the gloom of her insides exactly.

'Kaitlyn.'

Kaitlyn turned.

'We must leave.' It was Zeke. His beautiful head was tilted back as he gazed towards the ceiling, his dark hair falling down his bare, muscular back like a silken waterfall. His eyes were blank as though he was somewhere else. Kaitlyn looked around at Samuel and saw he was doing the same. Catherine and David were somewhere outside keeping watch, and she wondered if they were all communicating with each other.

Kaitlyn prickled with fear. Whatever they were talking about, she could sense it wasn't good. 'What-what do you mean, leave? I thought we were going to stay until Sunday.'

Samuel levelled his head. His yellow eyes flashed. 'We must go.'

Kaitlyn jumped when Zeke suddenly seized her wrist. She hurried after him as he tugged her towards the church's rear entrance. Slinging a bag over his shoulder, Samuel followed them. They had just fled outside when they all turned at the sound of a car pulling up at the front.

'You sure it's not Jacob?' Kaitlyn said hopefully.

'It's not Jacob.' Samuel yanked open a door of the pickup and slung his bag inside.

'What about the rest of our stuff?' Kaitlyn said as Zeke pulled open the rear door and helped her inside.

'We leave it.'

What about David and Catherine? What about The Fallen finding them? Did they have another church to get to? Didn't they want her to put on her blindfold? There were so many questions Kaitlyn was desperate to ask but the angels were clearly in no mood to answer them. Zeke slid in beside her as Samuel took his usual spot behind the wheel.

The doors slammed shut. The engine roared. Kaitlyn bounced in her seat as they drove down an uneven dirt track. It felt similar to the route they'd driven down when they'd first arrived. Kaitlyn strapped on her seatbelt. She glanced back but no one was following them. All she could see was the church vanishing behind the trees. And she saw she'd been right—it was a demountable.

Kaitlyn gripped onto the door's armrest. Her heart was racing and her nerves were making her feel like she desperately wanted to urinate. It didn't help things when Samuel kept looking through the rearview mirror. It was made worse still when Zeke kept looking over his shoulder. Every time they did, her heart jumped.

She felt so sick.

'What's going on?' she finally blurted.

'They've found us.'

'The-the Fallen?'

'No. Your police.'

'The police?' She looked over her shoulder again but only saw more dirt track. 'But what do they want with us?'

Kaitlyn bit her lip. It was a stupid question. It was only a few days ago when Father Bartholomew had cracked his head open in her living room. She remembered the news on the radio: there is a suspect involved in the three deaths who police are yet to question ...

'What happens if they catch us?'

'We can't let them catch us,' was all Zeke said.

Kaitlyn gripped onto the armrest more tightly, suddenly missing Jacob so terribly she could have cried.

Pine leaves scraped against her window. The truck jerked to one side as it hit a deep pothole. With some difficulty, Zeke reached for the bag in the front seat, unzipping it and retrieving his sweater. He tossed Samuel's into his lap. Zeke pulled his on while Samuel focused on the road.

Then the trees pulled back, they lurched over a bump and Samuel spun the wheel so sharply that it thrust Kaitlyn up against the window. The wheel spun through his hands as they straightened onto a real bitumen road.

Kaitlyn sagged back into her seat with a gasp.

'Are you all right?' Zeke said, gripping her knee.

She nodded, though her heart was beating so hard she felt it in her teeth. 'Have we—have we lost them?'

Samuel suddenly cursed. Did angels curse? Kaitlyn looked over her shoulder, and her heart leapt in her throat. Blue and red lights. And then she heard it—the wail of a siren, muffled behind the pickup's windows but undeniably real. Kaitlyn sank into the seat as Samuel floored it. She felt nauseated. Her stomach was in knots. Her mouth was dry. She'd been a good girl all her life; she'd never dealt with the police before. Even now, despite everything she'd been through, it all suddenly felt so real.

The police. She was being chased by the police. They were in the middle of a police chase! They thought she was a criminal!

All Kaitlyn could do was bite her lip and grip onto Zeke's hand tightly. 'What if they catch us?' she asked again.

But this time there was no answer.

Samuel was a pro at driving, the wheel spinning smoothly through his confident hands. How an angel came to know how to drive was a question Kaitlyn hadn't yet asked.

In the end, however, his skill didn't matter. Two more bends and he was forced to stomp on the brakes. Kaitlyn lurched against her seatbelt, then fell back.

Up ahead was a barricade of police cars. Kaitlyn's eyes widened. So many flashing lights. So many people. So many police! Guns. They had guns! And they were aimed straight at the pickup.

Kaitlyn glanced over her shoulder. The car chasing them pulled to a stop a safe distance behind them. A second car followed suit. On either side was dense bush.

They were stuck.

A man shouted something through a loudspeaker but Kaitlyn's ears were ringing so loudly she barely heard a word. All she could do was watch as Samuel pulled on his sweater. She turned her head as Zeke spoke something to her. His forehead was crinkled up—she hadn't seen him so worried before. And his hand felt too tight around hers. Kaitlyn watched as his mouth moved—but no sound reached her ears.

'Have no fear, for God is with you,' she read on his lips.

Kaitlyn's heart lurched. 'You can't save me?' Her voice didn't sound real, slow and distant, as though she were speaking through a broken radio.

'We cannot hurt a human,' Samuel said in a strangely muffled, distant voice. He looked over the seat towards her. His yellow eyes seemed to blaze like little suns. Behind him, through the front window, Kaitlyn watched as several police officers approached the car, their weapons raised. 'Keep calm. We will get you back.'

Keep calm. Keep calm. Such an easy thing to say. Such a difficult thing to do.

'Get me back? What do you mean you'll get me back?' Kaitlyn said desperately, gripping tightly onto Zeke's hand. Turning her head, she stared in horror into Zeke's amber eyes. 'You said you would keep me safe.'

Samuel turned away as though in slow motion. A weird fog descended. Her ears began to ring more loudly. Doors opened. Men shouted. Samuel was the first to leave the truck, followed by Zeke, his hand releasing hers.

'No!' She tried to reach for him only to find a stranger standing in the doorway—uniform, hat, belt ... gun.

He said something to her but his words didn't register. He was hard to see, the sunlight reflecting sharply against the side window. Vaguely, she thought he almost looked like an angel. When she didn't move, he reached for her.

'No!'

She turned her head as the other rear door yanked open with a bang! revealing a second officer. Kaitlyn froze as she stared down the barrel of his gun. In a daze, she slowly registered what they were shouting. 'Get out of the car! Get out of the car!'

Kaitlyn's hands were shaking as she struggled to unclip her seatbelt. It felt like she was moving through oil. The belt snaked away, the officer's hands were upon her—they were so big! So angry!—and she was suddenly out of the truck and on the ground.

The moment her cheek slammed into the road, everything caught up into real time with a startling crack! Suddenly she could hear properly. Suddenly she could see and move. Everything seemed to be happening so fast. People were shouting. Sirens were screaming.

'I didn't do anything!' Kaitlyn cried when the officer yanked her hands painfully behind her back. Cuffs! He was putting on cuffs! They were surprisingly heavy and cold against her wrists. 'I didn't do anything!'

Where was Zeke? Where was Samuel? She tried to look around but the officer shoved her face into the road, shouting for her to "stop moving!" It hurt her nose. The bitumen scraped against her chin and forehead. It felt hot.

'Jacob!' she cried.

The officer yanked her to her feet. She staggered drunkenly. The world felt topsy turvy. She felt sick. If they made her do much more, she was going to vomit.

She saw two officers: the man who'd cuffed her—and a woman. The man held her as the woman patted her down.

'You have to listen to me,' Kaitlyn gasped. It was hard to speak, her mouth dry, her heart hammering. Her tongue kept tying into knots. 'You-you have to let me go. He'll-he'll find me. He'll find me!'

'Who will find you?' the man asked.

Kaitlyn didn't answer. She couldn't answer. What could she say?

The female officer paused with her search as she pulled something from Kaitlyn's pocket—her razor. She tossed it away before finishing up. Once she was done, they hustled Kaitlyn over to a waiting van. The man was so strong he practically lifted Kaitlyn off her feet. The cuffs bit painfully into her wrists.

'Jacob!' she screamed again. And what about Catherine and David? Where were they? Why weren't they helping? She thrashed her head around as she tried to look for Zeke and Samuel. But there was only the police—and they were everywhere. Flashing lights. Shouting men. People running about. Why were they running? Amid all the chaos she couldn't find them.

Kaitlyn was alone.

'Stop!' she screamed as the officer continued to drag her along towards the van. 'You don't know what you're doing! He'll take me and he'll kill you!' She tried to dig her heels into the road but again all the man did was lift her off her feet. The woman opened the van's rear doors. The inside seemed to yawn at her, as though it was going to swallow her up. 'No!'

Kaitlyn turned her head at a sudden bright flash. The shouting increased in crescendo. She suddenly filled with dread. What was going on? She tried to turn around but the officer held her in a vice-like grip. She couldn't see a damn thing!

'On the ground! On the ground!' someone shouted in a booming voice.

There was a loud crack! that made her duck. Crack! Crack! Crack! They were so loud they made her ears ring. Suddenly, the world tipped and Kaitlyn's knees slammed into the road. Pain shot down her shins. Then she was shoved against the road again, her cheek burning against the hot bitumen. She felt the heavy weight of the officer on top of her as he screamed for her to "get down!"

There were several more loud cracks before Kaitlyn suddenly realised what they were—gunshots.

No!

In sheer dread, she lifted her face—and that was when she found them: Samuel and Zeke. Though they were no longer the Samuel and Zeke she knew. She flooded with both shock and relief. Now they were shining white figures that were so bright she could hardly look at them. Side by side they stood, their incredible feathered wings outstretched to their fullest breadth. She hadn't understood how truly big they were until now.

'What the hell?' the officer hissed.

The shooting stopped. A sudden hush fell.

The light continued to blaze brighter and brighter, forcing her to turn away. Forcing them all to turn away. Kaitlyn compelled herself to turn back, squinting. Even as her eyes burned, even as her head ached, she looked. They were no longer men but towering pillars of light. Then they started beating their wings. Powerful, slow beats that kicked up dust and sent small rocks skittering. The hats of nearby officers blew off. Kaitlyn could feel the breeze even from as far as where she lay. She watched, they all watched, as they lifted into the air.

Where were they going? Why were they leaving her? She wanted to cry out for them but she couldn't make her mouth move.

Soon they glittered like stars in the bright blue sky.