I grabbed my keys and went to the door. As I reached for the knob someone knocked on the other side of the door so I waited a couple seconds and then opened it. It was my dad and he was not happy. “Thanks for ruining my weekend, turd.” I knew by the tone of his voice that I didn’t need to ask how I had done so. “I told you to fill your sister’s car’s tank. Now I have to go fill it up myself.” I had filled it. My sister would always drive halfway to the ends of hell to go hang out with her no-good boyfriend. She had surely burnt through a fortnight’s worth of gas in less than a week; Again. “You’re just useless. I could not have gotten a worse son.” He said as he slammed the door before leaving. The feeling was mutual. I was sitting on the edge of my bed again. Filled with rage.

“Want to leave this place? Uriel’s voice sounded like a godsend for the first time.

“Yeah, let’s go.” There I was. Talking to the voice inside my head. We had a date. I had finally gone insane.

“No, I mean. Want to leave for good?” The proposal caught me off guard and I couldn’t think of an answer. I heard the sound of my dad’s steps coming close. “Your mom is not coming till Monday. There’s soup in the fridge. Don’t wait up.” He screamed from outside my door. He would surely go drinking with his friends from work after picking up dear old sister. Great! I’d be long gone when he came back.

“Will I need clothes?” I asked. “No.” Uriel answered bluntly. “Money?” I had some cash but not enough to start a new life and certainly not the one I deserved. “Just enough for the bus.”

“And, where are we going?”

“Chase bank. 865 2nd street.” It was right on the edge of the city. It would take me a good two hours to get there by bus. Three with Saturday noon traffic.

Before leaving with nothing but my wallet, my watch and some fresh clothes on me, I wrote my final goodbye to my family and left it on the living room’s coffee table.

“I’m sick of all this farce and all of you. I won’t be coming home soon. Don’t look for me.”

I didn’t need many words to deliver the message I wanted them to receive. I left my phone on top of the letter so that they couldn’t even try calling me.

The sound of cars and the people walking on the streets gently washed all the rage inside of me as I peered through the window of an oddly empty bus. Somehow, I was not afraid. I had just left my house and I didn’t even have the means to survive through the weekend but, for some reason, I had a feeling that everything would be okay. One of the few passengers on the bus got down and as the bus passed her, I saw her face and it reminded me of Ana.

“So, this girl I met yesterday. Ana. Who is…” I swallowed hard. “Who was she?” The whole ordeal still felt like a dream to me.

“She was a friend of mine, too.” The last word in Uriel’s reply seemed to have a different tone. “She was such a whiny girl.” Uriel continued. “She would get depressed and beat herself over the silliest things. She wanted to kill herself so I let her die.” The usual soft tone in Uriel’s voice did not ameliorate the grimness of the things she said at all. “You let her?” I inquired. “Yeah. She couldn’t die unless I let her. She was my friend. And so are you Arin.” I was about to ask if the same deal applied to me but her words made me think that it did and in a second of doubt, Uriel continued talking. “It’s great that we met before she killed herself, isn’t it?” I wasn’t sure I agreed with that. “It’s really sad that she killed herself. She was a bit of a drag but I think we would have made a great team. I like you more though so all’s well that end’s well.”

“Is that so?” I asked with a smart-ass tone. “What makes me different from her?”

“She was a sad girl and she didn’t want my help. You, on the other hand, are just angry. I can definitely change that.”

I had more questions, of course, but our stop was coming and I guessed the best way to grasp the extent of Uriel’s power was to test it. I figured there would be time to get all the answers I wanted soon enough.