after hours of explaining to me a reality of existence there was one thing i still had yet to wrap my head around. 

i walk beside toby shoulder to shoulder. all i'd wanted to do was shut my brain off and disappear. it was dark by the time we'd left the woods and i was afraid i'd trip in front of him. 

"can i ask you something?"

"nephillim can be-"

surprised i look at the outline of his face.  "-no not that."

"sure, why not." toby glances at me sideways. "you're taking this exceptionally well for someone who's destined to destroy the earth."

i laugh at the absurdity of his comment. "oh, trust me. im freaking out on the inside. im just trying to get perspective before i run for the hills." i only half joke. 

all of a sudden it gets quiet again. i wasn't certain what i should feel. toby was convinced i was a bastard child that was going to kill off humanity. pretty freaked out summed it up. 

aside from the apocalyptic doomsday i got the sense toby wasn't concerned by trivial matters. 

still, i was bothered.

"That wall that you have up needs to come down can you do that? No secrets." i still didn't know how far he would go to keep the future from crumbling. 

"Yeah yeah I can." toby said falling silent.

"Wow. I'm so glad we had this talk." i said sarcastically.

Oh yeah sure. He was a bit of a stick in the mud but he had his moments. Too bad people never thought of him in the same light i did. 

"Has anyone ever told you that you have a charming personality?" Maybe if he had a friend then he would loosen up a bit. "And Death glares don't count." 

Eyes glazed Toby looked sideways and kept walking.

At first my reaction was so maybe he's pretending like I don't exist. But then he shook his head like he was thinking of something else that must have been important. 

and to think if I wasn't already looking at him I would have missed that short nod of his head that I'm sure he would not have liked me seeing. Vulnerability and all that.

toby wasn't much of a mystery. What shocked me was how quick I put two and two together. I may not have seemed like the type but I wasn't a peoples person. That alluring energy you hear about, yeah, I propelled advances. 

Me caring was new.

So Toby wasn't the guy you ran to your problems with. He had the same qualities we all had. Though inconceivably complex he was a person I suspected with great amount of depth and character that set him apart. 

Natural charisma, so not his forte.

And yet I wondered. Like a yapping small dog I was curious.

Toby frowned. "What." He reacted like a big mean dog. Confused at my lack of distance and annoyed that I didn't shut up and let him be.

"I don't see it." i carefully studied him in the dark knowing he couldn't see my eyes trail across his face. 

as we followed a narrow pathway i'd walked under a tree that sprawled its long branches freely, without boundaries, like a magical fairyland underneath. 

Already he looked annoyed. An awkward silence settled over us and I hurried to fill it. 

"what makes you believe i'm somehow connected in all of this?" i ask toby unconvinced i was half angel. "from what i know my father was a dead beat truck driver who bailed when i was three years old trust me my dad was no angel."

much to his credit toby remained patient as he spoke to me. "do you remember what you first said to me?" he asks me in a soft whispering voice.

i didn't understand what his clothes had to do with it but i nod anyway. "yeah." i say.

"normally being spotted in uniform is never a concern."

"uniform?" that strange word left my tongue hanging in the air between us.

"standard craftsmanship of the trade that can easily be cloaked thanks to a little invisible spell." 

"so, you are." i draw out the question for him to finish and when he doesn't i exhale my frustration.

toby shoves both hands deep in his pockets and jumps down three sets of steps with ease. i didn't try to show off because i was afraid i'd break an ankle or something. 

toby turns his chest towards me and grabs my elbow to help me make it down the stairs.

i felt like my body was going to fall backwards when i got to the last step and toby grabbed me by the small of my back just in the nick of time. for that brief moment that our bodies touched i could feel a tingle of warmth spread and butterflies fluttered in my stomach when i'd realized how near our mouths were to colliding.

the hand that somehow had made its way on tobys chest just before i thought i was going to fall and break my head burned. in that instance nothing had ever felt intimate. when i could finally think straight i'd retracted my hand and cleared my throat as toby put enough distance between us that i couldn't decipher the look in his eyes.

"you asked me what i am."

i nod eager and impatient to hear the rest.

"i'm a senior." he smirks shoving branches from hitting me as i followed him through the thick of the woods and into open flatland.

i shove him on the shoulder catching him off guard. "stop being humble, its annoying." i sigh when he doesn't tell me who he really is. "fine. whatever. but the least you could do is give me one name." i lift a finger at him. 

in all that time we'd never once discussed himself and i was starting to suspect why. was it possible that he was working for the other side?

toby looks taken aback. "you're amazingly persistent." 

i smile when toby caves despite much resistance.

"i've gone by lots of names." he says as a matter of fact.

i roll my eyes. i didn't mind prying it out of him if that's what it took. "okay, then." i say grinning. "the first name you ever called yourself." 

there was no point in dragging it out any longer. i'd always been curious and i never learned that sometimes being ignorant was a blessing in disguise. and yet not matter how many times i'd gotten burned i still liked to ask the big questions. 

for a while toby stares straight ahead expressionless. 

i leave him alone by giving him space and time to sort out his thoughts. judging from his deep state of thinking it was the right choice to make. 

i keep my eye on him just in case. his face was, blank, stoic, clean-cut. 

we'd stopped walking for some time now. it was dark and i couldn't see much beyond the sidewalk but i could hear crickets in the background and that settled my nerves. i didn't like being outside when it was dark. from the time i could speak clear sentences staying indoors after evening hours became an unwritten rule somehow.  

toby looks over at me finally. "Michael." he says watching my reaction unfold.

i make a sharp trill noise with my lips. "wow. that sucks." after hearing what i'd just said i apologized with a heavy conscience once i'd realized how offense it might have sounded. "no offense." 

he wasn't as disturbed as i'd thought he would be. in fact he seemed mellow. his reaction was as if i'd explained my hair wasn't just traditional black it had shades of charcoal grey and deep cobalt blue streaks. 

"you just became exposed to the world through our eyes and yet are familiar with biblical legends?" he asks. "i don't know if i should be offended or impressed."

"growing up with a step-dad for a preacher there was low tolerance for even the slightest act of minor disobedience. when i came of age i read the bible front to back cover. to spite my parents i brought home this encyclopedia of spirits: the ultimate guide to the magic of fairies, genies, demons, ghosts, gods & goddesses." i grin. "you can imagine how well that went."

toby grins. "im not surprised to hear that you never gravitated toward doctrine versus put together by insolent humans. virtually everything published in record is fictitious." he says with extreme dislike.

i couldn't help smiling. he was uniquely impressive. i never met anyone quite like him before. "if you care so deeply then why not do something about it?" i didn't know if starting to like him was a good thing or not. i guessed only in time would i be able to regret my choice.

"because it would be inappropriate." toby continues walking in a breeze. "Normally I don't bother with the fallen. I'm neutral and i'm sure you're aware that my position isn't exactly a favored one." 

"If that's a nice of saying people don't like you I could understand why. What? You're not the friend type. Why are you talking to me anyway?" 

"Because I don't know. You're not like other people. You don't know what's good for you."  

i catch up with him as i followed the crooked dirt path down the small hill. 

toby looks back at me and shrugs. "over time decoding of biblical text becomes lost throughout language translation." 

i keep up with him never once mentioning my dorm is the other way. he knew the place better then i did. i figured maybe he was taking a detour.

"you must be cold." toby offers me his jacket.

"huh?" when i look down i noticed my arms were crossed. huh. i must have been deep in thought not to have noticed that i was shivering. "not really." 

i sigh when he puts it on my shoulders anyway. 

"you're giving me a headache." i confess with a grunt.

toby smiles widely. "how so?"

"seriously?" i look up at his unchanging grin and sigh wishing i'd kept my mouth shut. wishing i had hot cocoa to warm me up. 

"your hostile approach doesn't work on me. when you act like you're better than everyone on campus i know you're covering up how you really feel."

what i said held risky consequences because of tobys naturally unpredictable behavior. nevertheless, i could handle it if he ignored me the entire way back. i've endured the worst of his tantrums. 

"let me get this straight." toby says gesturing at himself. "you're insinuating that beneath all this i'm really a nice guy. or something like that." his eyes radiate confidence.

i grin liking that part of toby would never go away. "or something like that." i say playfully.

he turns serious. "do me a favor. don't ever repeat that. after all, it would be terrible if people thought i was nice."

i express my amusement. "whatever you say." i didn't want to think about the forest or the body we'd found. "can i ask you something?" i had to get it off my chest once and for all. 

"you already did." toby eyes me sighing. "if i don't let you you'll just keep bothering me. fine, i'll allow it."

"if you two are brothers why do you and Wesley hate each-other?" although, to be fair i supposed hate was not the proper word to describe their sordid connection.

beside me toby sulks. "you're getting a little personal." toby says digging his hands into his pockets. 

i grin. "sorry. you dont have to tell me."

toby grunts. "its fine. i'm just not used to anybody taking an interest in my past, that's all." toby glances back at me real quick but there wasn't any playfulness to his features. "we've never seen eye to eye. Ancient history. Dont concern yourself over it."

the conversation ends and toby doesn't say anymore. i was grateful for the silence and didn't feel any need to cram words together.

even though we found masons body i knew i would be seeing him again. i'd wondered if chanel would help mason since he was all alone out there. i felt like there were a few things she could teach him.

as i walk up a flight of stairs i realized i had no idea where toby was taking me.

"what's going on? are we taking a detour?" i was blindly following him through an empty hallway like a hopeful girl.

i was beginning to speculate he was dodging the question for no reason but to annoy me.

"don't you trust me?" toby says.

i snort looking around. "is that a trick question?"