Chapter 6

Chapter 6:
~~~~~~~~~~
Molly's parents stared wide eyed at the feathers that left a trail from where she was sitting to the front door, where they stopped abruptly.  Ashley didn't know what to do besides stare at the empty chair that used to sit her best friend.  She had no idea what she would have done to cause this, inside berating herself for being so open.  Suddenly she felt panic rising in her chest.  She was beginning to feel like a deer in the headlights, and the look on her face must have alarmed Molly's parents because they were on their feet and on her side of the table in two seconds flat.

"Wha... what... what did I do?"

Ashley could hardly get the words out.  Her throat was incredibly dry and her voice felt like it belonged to someone else.  Violet and John both took a side and hugged her firmly but not too hard as they knew she was still suffering from her injuries that occured not too long ago.

"She's just blowing off steam," Violet whispered into Ashley's ear.  "she will come back when she's ready.  We both promise it was nothing that you did wrong.  Please don't ever think it was you."

Ashley turned her head towards Violet, whose smile seemed to light up her whole face.  Knowing the woman's words were true, she felt lighter and felt the panic disappating as she realized that the woman was right.  Molly wouldn't abandon her, she just had to step out for a moment.  She'd be back before her appointment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Molly's legs could only carry her for so long before they started to give out.  She ran and spread her wings until she picked up speed and waited for a breeze so she could take flight.  She had not used her wings for this purpose in such a long time that the stress of her 16 year old body nearly caused her to take a nosedive within the first 5 seconds of being airborn.  But luckily the familiar movements came back to her like a second nature.  She tried so hard to be as normal as possible, she hardly ever used her wings to fly.  Usually they were used as an extention of her arms, or just sit pretty while she either walked everywhere or road her bike.  She forgot it in the park yesterday, hopefully it would still be there when she came looking for it.
Right now she just needed to get away from the ground.  The ground was a black hole ready to suck her into it until she forgot who she was.
How could that man... how could he... do those things.... to his daughter?!?  Her parents raised her to be as in the world as she could be and it's not like they never talked to her about the hard things.  She knew about the different kinds of abuse, although she never understood what would inspire these kinds of actions.  All she ever knew was love.  And faith, and happiness, and peace.  Sure, she knew what tears were.  They were flooding her face right now.  Her mind was a mess of images -- all her dreams of the past few months flooding back to her -- and she scolded herself for not recognizing the man as her best friend's father.  She could not stand that she didn't recognize the screams as Ashley's.  How could she have overlooked that fact?  The only reason why she had an idea was that the last dream had been the worst one.  She had seen Ashley's face.  She didn't want to admit it to herself until she heard the words come out of Ashley's mouth, but the evidence was right there.  If Ash hadn't of said anything, she would have had to, just for her own peace of mind.  But there was nothing peaceful about this.

Jeff Blackfield would have to pay.  He was already paying for his actions right now, sitting in the county jail.  But who knew how long he'd be locked up?  The evidence might have been literally all over Ashley's face, but her father had money.  And connections.  And no conscience.

Molly contemplated all of this as she flew across her small town.  Normally she would have loved this, how freeing it was to embrace who she really was; an angel.  Her mother gave birth to her naturally but she knew that she was sent from up above.  She remembered her life up in heaven, knew the other angels' names and even got to watch humans and sometimes intervene.  She fell in love with her parents before they even met each other.  She knew that Violet would make an amazing mother, and that John would be a great dad and loving husband.  She knew he had never touched a woman in anger in his whole life and never would.  And that Violet, although kind hearted, was not a push over and would be a tough but fair disciplinarian. It was love at first sight for Molly as well, the first time she laid eyes on her mother, when she was about 3 hours old.

She flew over all the trees, taking in the view of the people on the street as they looked up at her flying above them.  A few people waved and she waved back but for the most part everyone went about their business.  She had a destination in mind but it would have to wait until later.  She could sense that it was almost time for Ashley's doctor appointment and there was no way she was missing that.  She flew over the park and saw that her bike was still there.  She was surprised but also grateful as she attempted to land.  It had been a while since she had to use her wings to land her from a flying position and she nearly took out some kids playing on the swings as she made her landing.  The parents freaked out a bit until they realized that none of the kids were hurt, then ran up to her to see if she needed help.  She let herself be helped up to her feet by these kind people, and as she looked into their eyes she felt they were familiar but she knew everyone in town and they were definitely not from around here.

"Hi, I'm Molly," she said, grabbing a hand of one of the parents and engaging the father in a firm handshake.  "I thought I knew everyone in town."

The woman, a very strikingly beautiful woman who had to have been about midthirties but did not look a day over 25 cleared her throat.  "We heard there was a girl here who had angel wings and we knew we had to live here."

Suddenly, Molly felt extremely uncomfortable.  It wasn't that the lady made her feel uncomfortable, it was the fact that someone would actually move to a town because of her.  "Uhh, yeah, that would be me."

The man, who had remained silent and who could not turn himself away from her wings, spoke next.  "We're the Turners.  Our kids are Elizabeth and Connor, and we heard about you on the news."

"Why would I be on the news?"

"You are best friends with a girl named Ashley Blackfield, right?" The man asked, curious but obviously more than acceptably interested.

Molly didn't want to have this conversation anymore. She could see where it was going.  The Blackfields were a very elite family, coming from very old money.  They were one of the founders of the town. Mr Blackfield had only been put into jail one day ago, how could it be on the news already?

"Look at the time, I must be leaving.  It was nice to meet you," Molly said fast and before the family had time to answer, she fell back on her heels and ran to her bike, jumped on and rode as fast as her legs could carry her.