Chapter 4: •03•
"I really am sorry," Abbie said from behind the curtain. Isaiah pulled the old, worn t-shirt over his head and tossed it on the bed beside him. He carelessly grabbed the carefully folded black, long-sleeved shirt that sat on the end of the bed, slipping it over his head. Jayce had grabbed Isaiah some spare clothes — claiming that the ones he was wearing were no good anymore — which he was grateful for.
"Abbie, this is the fifth time you've said that in the last ten minutes, I think he gets it," Jayce groaned as Isaiah slid off his pair of pants.
"But I still feel really bad," Abbie said, guilt lacing every word she spoke.
"We know." Jayce sighed. Isaiah could feel him pinching the bridge of his nose on the other side of the curtain. He slid on a pair of dark Jean's.
"I've never done that before, both to people I know and people I'm just meeting for the first time," Abbie said.
"We know," Jayce said, irritation starting to build up in the back of his throat.
"Now, just the thought that I…" Abbie groaned. "New guy I'm really sorry!" Isaiah let out a laugh as he pushed the curtain to the side, his pair of dirty, old clothes carelessly folded and placed on the end of the bed. He could care less about how they looked, he just wanted to get out of that room and stretch his sore legs.
"It's fine, honestly," he said, smiling down at Abbie softly. "It's a simple mistake that anyone could've made."
"Exactly," Jayce said exasperated, motioning to Isaiah, "and it's not like you were the only one to do it. I'm just as liable as you and I still know how to give it a rest after the first time I apologize."
"It's not my fault that I overreact and need constant reassurance," Abbie retorted, crossing her arms over her chest as she stared Jayce down with a hard expression. "Which is exactly why I'm going to make it up to him."
"Yeah?" Jayce asked, cocking his eyebrow. "And how, exactly, are you going to do that?" Abbie raised her hand, her mouth opening as her words got lost in her throat. She closed her mouth, lowering her hand as she thought. She was quiet for a while before she spoke.
"I don't know exactly, but new kid, you better be prepared."
"Yeah, for the six-course meal she'll make you from scratch and all of the pampering, like she's your own personal servant," Jayce teased with a laugh. Abbie sent him a hard glare.
"He's joking, I would never draw that much attention to you," Abbie said calmly with a small nod.
"Oh yeah, 'cause she can't cook. She wouldn't be able to do something that big," Jayce jabbed. Abbie slammed the heel of her hand into the side of his bicep.
"I can cook," she said, reassuringly.
"What? Microwave dinners?"
"Okay, Jayce if you don't shut your fucking mouth in two seconds I will fling you across this room," Abbie barked, turning to face Jayce as she jabbed her finger towards him. Jayce let out a hearty laugh.
"Can't admit that I'm right, huh?" Abbie raised her hand, flicking her wrist at Jayce. His full body flung against the wall like a giant gust of wind had pushed him back, knocking the wind out of his lungs.
"Bitch…" Jayce groaned, slowly picking himself back off the ground.
"I warned you," Abbie said, unsympathetic as she raised her hands. Isaiah could see a small smile inching its way across her face, but it was gone before it got a chance to grow any.
"Doesn't mean you had to go through with it," Jayce retorted, making his way towards the door. Abbie turned to Isaiah, silently motioning him to follow, before she went after Jayce.
"Eh, you couldn't die from that impact anyways." Abbie shrugged her shoulders.
"Doesn't mean it didn't hurt," Jayce complained, pulling the door open.
"Stop whining you big baby," Abbie said, walking out of the room. Isaiah followed closely on her tail.
"No, I don't want to," Jayce whined from behind the two. A small, quiet thud of the door closing sounded as he made his way next to Isaiah. Abbie just rolled her eyes.
"Welcome to the rest of the Detroit headquarters, new kid." Abbie motioned to the giant room in front of them. The walls were smokey grey, three levels of large glass windows lining them. The ceiling was made out of pure glass, exposing the bright blue of the midday sky. The flooring was a smooth, grey cement with four black, leather couches sitting in a circle in the center of the room, a rectangular, wooden coffee table sitting between them.
"I'm Jayce, by the way, Jayce Ortiz." The three of them weaved their way through the clutter of people that were scattered along the floor of the room. Isaiah couldn't take his eyes off of anyone, scanning over each person with equal curiosity and shock. Antlers, horns, and animal ears stuck out of the top of some heads. Animal tails hung from the bottom of some backs, and the legs of goats took over the entire bottom half of others. Some people looked just like him, looked normal, while others looked deathly ill. Their skin was as white as fresh snow, no signs of color anywhere. A chill ran down his spine as they glanced over at them with lifeless, red eyes.
"I don't think we got proper introductions out yet. The shrimp over here is Abigail Walters," Jayce said as he led the way towards one of the four long, dark tunnels that sat in each corner of the room. Abbie sent him a small glare from around Isaiah.
"Isaiah… McCarthy."
"Oo, a nice, fancy, traditional biblical name," Abbie fawned, lightly clapping her hands together. "My guess is that you're of angel descent."
"Angel… descent?" Isaiah looked at Abbie, his eyebrows furrowed.
"Yeah… you are a Mélange, aren't you? Or are you a Bronze?" Abbie took a few small steps away from him, disgust starting to move across her eyes.
"I…" Isaiah fell silent, not sure what to say. He was so confused, his mind starting to hurt as he tried to understand and connect everything he heard. At his silence, Abbie slowly peered around Isaiah.
"You didn't tell him anything, did you?" She asked, giving Jayce an are-you-serious look.
"I didn't really have all that much time to tell him anything before you barged in," Jayce said, ignoring Abbie's look as he walked ahead. "Also, I was waiting until he met Jamison before we told him anything. Jamison would be able to tell if he was a Gold or a Bronze and then proceed to explain what he needs to know based on what standing he is." Abbie picked up her pace, matching Jayce's as she looked up at him.
"Well, you still could have introduced him to the organization," Abbie countered, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Okay, next time we have a potential coma patient I'll completely ignore you barging into the infirmary, and all of your shouting, to tell them about Silverless," Jayce said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Silverless?" Isaiah asked, quickening his pace until he was right behind the two.
"Yeah, it's our fancy crime, and evil-doing, fighting organization to protect everyone from the embodiments that are trying to take over the world!" Abbie said, punching the air in front of her with a smile plastered to her face.
"To put it simply," Jayce responded, turning his head slightly to look at Isaiah over his shoulder.
"Okay..?" Isaiah's mind ran more, his eyebrows furrowing harder as he tried to comprehend what they were even saying.
"Don't worry, Jamison will explain everything in more detail," Jayce reassured.
"Who's Jamison?" Isaiah asked.
"He's… kind of like the boss. He calls all of the shots," Abbie said, pushing open a large set of dark wooden double doors that sat at the end of the tunnel. It was covered in intricate designs, similar to the ones on the infirmary door.
The two sauntered into the room and over to the staircase that sat in front of the door. It was a fairly large room, the walls lined with dark green bookshelves filled with thousands of books. The floor was a tiled emerald green, a large, wooden table with a dark green tablecloth sitting directly in the center.
"Ah! Jayce. Abigail. My two favorite pupils. Tell me, how did your last job go?" Isaiah's eyes were drawn to an older man standing at the end of the table, books scattered around him on the floor. He had short, peppered hair, his white skin starting to wrinkle as he looked at Abbie and Jayce with happy, warm grey eyes.
"It went splendidly Jamison!" Abbie said, walking down the stairs with Jayce next to her and Isaiah following close behind.
"We located the pixie hive easily and were able to capture their queen without causing too much damage to her. She's sitting in a jar in the holding ward right now, though she's still a little delirious," Jayce said, the three of them walking over to the man.
"Remarkably done!" Jamison rejoiced. "Now, when you have time, make sure Janine knows to send word to Ravana and Levi the moment she's back to her senses. We still don't have a good enough lead on what the Sins are planning, so we need to choke out any information we can get out of everyone."
"Yes sir," Abbie and Jayce said in unison, standing next to him. Isaiah stayed back, standing closer to the wall. He got a strange, unsettling feeling from this man, one he couldn't explain, and one he didn't want to risk causing things to turn south.
"I'm so proud of you, my children," Jamison said, looking at each of them with a smile on his face. His eyes slowly trailed away from Jayce, landing onto his with a calm intensity. Isaiah slowly, and quietly, gulped. "And who do we have here?"
"It's the survivor we found from the house attack four days ago," Jayce said, turning to look at Isaiah.
"The vagary canceller." Jamison let a small laugh. "Come closer son." Isaiah didn't move, his heart pounding.
"Don't worry, I won't hurt you." Reluctantly, Isaiah inched forward. Despite all of his instincts telling him not to, he still moved next to Jayce. "What's your name?"
"Isaiah," he quietly said, standing a step behind Jayce. Jamison softly smiled.
"Your mother chose a splendid name," he said.
"Thank you… sir. She said it was the name my father wanted me to have."
"I wouldn't expect anything less from Gabriel," Jamison said. Abbie's neck snapped towards him.
"That's absurd. There's no way that's possible," she countered quickly.
"Of course it's possible Abigail, just look at his eyes," Jamison said, pointing at Isaiah. "Who else do you know has bright, electric blue eyes?" Both Jayce and Abbie turned to look at Isaiah, intently examining his face. It made Isaiah feel self conscious, made him want to turn around and run away from whatever fate he apparently had just been thrown into, but he didn't move. A look of realization flashed across Jayce's face before he turned towards Abbie.
"I told you it would be him!" Jayce exclaimed, pointing at Abbie with a joyous expression.
"No, it's just a coincidence. Anyone can have blue eyes," Abbie denied, shaking her head as she turned away from Isaiah.
"But no one can have the same shade he has Abigail. Only Gabriel and his direct descendants have electric blue eyes," Jamison said, his voice calm but stern.
"Pay up shrimp," Jayce said, flicking the fingers of his opened palm at her. Abbie shot a glare towards him.
"I'm sorry, but what's happening? I keep getting more and more confused that longer I'm here," Isaiah said, taking a few steps away from them.
"It's simple, really. You're a Mélange," Abbie said.
"A… what?" Isaiah's head hurt.
"A Mélange. It's a person of either angel or demon descent," Jayce explained. "Most people are of very distant descent."
"It's what our organization is mainly made up of," Jamison said. "A long time ago, demons started breeding with humans to create offspring that would be able to fly under God's radar without Him suspecting anything. These children, though they had the same immunity and life span of a human, were born with unique abilities that allowed them to do law defying acts." Jamison lifted up a book from the ground, holding it into the air. Without moving his eyes, Isaiah watched as the book slowly became encased in a layer of smooth, clear ice.
"These would come to be known as vagaries and are what makes Mélanges so different from everyone else." He set the book down on the table.
"Of course, the children weren't hidden from God for long. Not knowing how to counter the children, He instructed His archangels to breed with humans and create their own offspring. With the angel offspring, and a few demons' who refused to listen to their parents like the puppets they were treated as, an organization was formed. Over the years, more species began to join, all except for humans, or Silvers."
"And that's how the organization got its name..?" Isaiah hesitantly questioned.
"Correct. With the lack of Silvers in the organization, we just decided to be simple with naming it," Jamison said.
"Okay, but why am I so special? I'm apparently just like everyone else here," Isaiah queried.
"That's where you're wrong," Abbie said.
"After God got control over the first Mélanges, both His archangels and most of the demons stopped having children with humans. The Seven Deadly Sins continued though, having one child each to form a group known as the Netvori," Jayce clarified, slipping his hands into the pockets of his pants.
"They haven't been a big threat for the last 800 years, because they haven't been a complete seven… until three years ago that is," Abbie continued. "The Netvori has been getting stronger ever since. We've only had one thing that reassured people: a prophecy that talked about the son of Gabriel being our light at the end of the tunnel and the leader that will help us combat the Netvori."
"I still don't understand what I have to do with all of this," Isaiah confessed, taking a few more steps away from them. Jamison raised his hand, pointing at the center of Isaiah's face, before speaking.
"Isaiah. You are the son of the Archangel Gabriel, one of the only people who are the child of an angel, and our savior."
***
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