I don't need no proof when it comes to God and truth Who: Isaiah Williamson and his mother, Adrie (NPC) When: Lunchtime Where: The Williamson house
Now that morning had come and the rumors of demons were true, the house was much quieter than it had been the night before. Almost everyone could feel that the demons were indeed back - it felt like someone had taken Isaiah’s stomach and tied it into god only knew how many knots, twisting it every once in a while for good measure. His mom, his sister, even Winifred had assured everyone that the wards were good and would hold out for the time being, but that did little to ease up the tension in him.
Instead, Isaiah was doing what he did best - cooking. His dad had offered to help, but Isaiah refused, needing to do the work himself. And, whenever he needed to take his mind off something, making bread was always his first choice. Kneading the dough in his hands, knowing he was creating something out of nothing, it was soothing somehow. Keeping busy meant he couldn’t think about not flying, too, because he was already twitching from having his feet stuck to the ground for so long. No flying, no riding his motorcycle, stuck inside the house - all factors that would surely drive the falcon in him off the wall after a bit.
From the kitchen he could hear the TV on in the living room. The younger kids had been watching movies earlier, but now the news was on. Isaiah could understand the need to know what was going on, how bad the damage was, but he couldn’t face that right now. Hell, when he couldn't even watch SportsCenter without some mention of demons, then he knew it was big. So, he tuned it out, focusing on the dough in his hands, forming it into a ball and folding it over itself, over and over again. He’d know when it was elastic enough, ready to shape and bake.
The sound of a glass shattering was enough to startle anyone, and Isaiah ran out of the kitchen to see what had happened. His mother was standing in the living room, broken water glass at her feet, jaw dropped, staring blankly at the TV. “What’s going on?” he asked, the news showing footage of a demon attack in Ann Arbor, thankfully not of anyone he knew.
It took half a second for Adrie to find her voice. “The angels are back.”
Isaiah blinked. “What?”
“The angels.” She grabbed the remote and, thanks to the magic of DVR, rewound the footage to show him the clip again. “Look, here.” Off to the side of the screen, so small it would be easy to miss, there it was - bright white wings attached to a brunette woman’s back, and she took off running in the opposite direction from the camera. “My father had wings like that,” she continued, unable to take her eyes from the screen. “I haven’t seen that in years, but I know what it is. She’s an angel.”
All his life, his mother rarely talked about her parents. Isaiah knew his grandfather had been an angel, yes, and he also knew his mom had been disowned for mating with his dad. He’d never actually met them, and Adrie had been the only one to attend his grandparents’ funerals - and even then, it wasn’t like she was exactly welcome. Isaiah himself had never seen one, though he knew they existed. Hell, his mother was half-angel herself, so if anyone knew about them, it would be Adrie.
Still, that didn’t mean he could just accept it. He was busy tilting his head to the side, watching the figure over and over again. Even in his hybrid form, those wings were bigger than is. Wasn’t there a kind of vampire with wings like that? “You’re sure?”
“Absolutely.” Adrie’s hands were shaking, and she had to set down the remote in order to still them. “The angels, they’ve been gone for... a couple years? I had no idea what happened, but I knew they’d left. That, if my father was still alive” - Adrie’s voice faltered for a second - “that he was unable to return to his plane of existence.”
His plane of existence? There was so much about this that Isaiah didn’t know, had never thought to ask before. Now, it was overwhelming, more so than he’d expected it to be. “But he’s not around anymore,” and good thing, because angel or not, Edward Wormwood hadn’t done right by Isaiah’s mother and that would never sit well with him. “So it’s not like there’s anyone related to us flying around up there just looking to stop by and have tea.”
Adrie just looked at him. “Of course there is,” she said. “Didn’t it ever occur to you that I had a bigger family than just my parents and my brother?”
“Did you ever meet them?”
“No, but I heard stories.” His mother looked away then, and as she did Isaiah could see the start of tears in her eyes. She’d been torn away from her own family for quite some time, and while she knew she was happy here - with her husband, and her children - that was a hard thing for anyone to deal with. Adrie had always been something of a bleeding heart, and the news was just bringing up an old wound all over again. Who knew if any of their angelic family would even want to come see them?
“Mom.” Isaiah put his hands on her shoulders, and guided her to a seat on the couch. “It’ll be all right.” The words came out automatically, but Isaiah had no choice to believe them. Whatever was coming for them, his family would face it together. It was, after all, what they did when the demons first appeared and if nothing else, the angels had to help with that. “It’ll be all right,” he said again. “I’ll clean up the glass and we’ll just see what happens.”
That afternoon, the news confirmed it: The angels had returned. And all the while, Isaiah couldn’t shake the feeling that, maybe, one of his own ancestors might come down and find them after all.