As the poison began to take effect, I felt an emotion that I didn’t think I could ever feel towards my mother-- fury. Why couldn’t she fight to love me? Why couldn’t she just try and be like a normal mom? I could see she was conflicted about what she was doing but why wasn’t she strong enough to stop herself? I hated her at that moment. I hated her for being weak. I wanted to throw things. I wanted to throw her.
But I was already too weak to hold my head up, let alone throw things. Beads of sweat formed on my forehead. She wiped my face with her cool hand. I leaned my head back. The room was spinning. The pain ripping through me held me captive. I couldn’t speak for fear that I would vomit and choke on it. I could only look at my mother and plead with my eyes. As my airways began closing I choked out my last words:
“Mommy, you love me.”
Then right before I closed my eyes, I looked in her face once more. And there I finally saw the truth; she hadn’t loved me all these years, she’d been trying to love me. Those are two very different things.
I would have gone away with my father. Maybe I would have stopped trying and accepted my mothers for who she was. Maybe if I had faced that fact I would have lived longer. Maybe.
None of it mattered now. It was too late to do anything but close my eyes. The last sound I heard came from my mother. She was sobbing loudly. At first I thought it was because I was dying. But as I listened closer, I realized her cries weren’t that of sorrow and regret; they were that of a woman who had finally, finally found peace.
*************************
The sound of Thomas’ voice pulls me out of the vivid memory and back into the bleak present before me.
“You think they arrested her?” he asked.
“Trisha was a lot of things but she was never dumb. I’m sure she gave them some story. You want to know the stupid thing about all this is? I miss her all the time.”
“You think she misses you, don’t you?”
“Of course she does. She’s on Earth being eaten alive by regret.”
“You actually think your mother’s sorry for what she did to you?” he asks.
“My mother made a mistake.”
“She made a choice.”
As you may have guessed, Thomas isn’t the kind of guy to sugarcoat anything. I’m the same way. But that doesn’t mean I want to hear what he has to say; at least not about this. I kiss him to get him to shut up. Several intense, fervent kisses later, he pulls away and says, “I need to go.”
He doesn’t give me an explanation; which is fine because I don’t require one.
He gets up, buttons his shirt, and puts his coat on. The look on Thomas’ face as he heads out the door says we are back to business. In an official tone he says “’bye, Guardian.”
My reply is equally official.
“Good bye, Rage.”
**********************************
CHAPTER TWO: TIME WASTERS
As soon as Rage left, my cell phone vibrated. I reached over to the dresser and without looking at who was calling; I press the ‘reject’ button, sending whoever the caller was straight to voice mail. I’ve been doing that for six days now. According to my phone, I had missed forty-eight calls.
I should have just turned it off but I couldn’t bring myself to do that; I had to keep it on. That meant I hadn’t completely abandoned my team. Who knows, maybe I’m just fooling myself. After all, I’ve been in this room for days and have yet to check in with them.
But as bad as my behavior is right now, it could be worse. I could have given into my desires and stayed on the other side of the world where I had flown to at first. But I came back to the States. I could have said, “To hell with this mission” and settled in as humanity faced certain obliteration, but I didn’t. I was sent here to do a job and I meant to see that through.
I’m not like the human girl, Emmy; I can’t sit and boohoo all day just ‘cause some guy broke my heart. None of that even matters. He is just some guy; I am just some girl and things like that happen everyday. Actually, I’m sure every second there is some guy breaking some girl’s heart and vice versa. Does that mean the world stops? No. Everything just keeps going regardless of what’s going on in our personal lives.
I’m not going to sit in the corner writing poetry and listening to Adele just because Marcus left me. So what? He never loved me. It was all just pretend; just like with my mother. And look at how well that turned out.
I wish I had known then what I know now; I would have driven a knife into that woman’s cold heart a long time ago. I would have done that for no other reason than to stop her from being so damn weak.
I hate the thought that I could or would ever show weakness. How has being weak ever helped anyone? Yeah, the love of my life has chosen another girl. But does that mean I have to give in to fits of rage and sobbing? Please.
All that being said, I should get up and attend to my duties as the second-in-command. I get up and look at myself in the mirror. I’m gorgeous. I have skin the color of night. My hair cascades down my shoulders in perfect dark loose curls. My heart-shaped mouth is full and soft to the touch. I’ve been able to literally stop traffic with my smile. Never has there been a more beautiful person than that of the one I see when I look at myself in the mirror; Beauty, what a waste of time.
The only thing that is an even bigger waste of time is love. I doubt love ever truly works out. That’s the very reason why we Guardians are here on earth; we’re here to clean up the mess that some guy who was in love made a long time ago. His name is Julian and his flagrant disregard for the rules is the reason this all started.
Millions of years ago, Omnis, the source of all good, created humanity. But humans could not appreciate the things he had given them. So he decides to introduce suffering, pain and loss of life. He reasoned that humanity would be more apt to appreciate the grace he had given to them, knowing that it could, in fact, all be taken away. But he was unable to bring himself to let his favorite creations suffer, so he created an independent council.
This council would make sure that neither good nor evil overtook the earth. Their only job was to keep humanity in perfect balance. There are three members: Death, Time and Fate. The council acts completely on its own accord.
Omnis also chose his favorite angel, Atourum, to be the source of all evil. He felt that humans needed a force as an incentive to act with kindness and goodness. Had they not, they would spend eternity with Atourum in Dife, which is the house of fire.
Both sides agreed that Omnis would take the souls of all the children to paradise. Atourum would take the adults who had committed unspeakable acts of cruelty and put them in Dife. But they could not agree about what to do with the souls of teenagers from thirteen to nineteen.
So the council placed all teenaged souls on a bridge somewhere on earth. There, each soul would choose either the path of light or the path of darkness. This act was called “The Walk”.
But the souls would not know if they were going into the light or the dark. They would simply be asked one question; do you want peace or power? The ones who chose peace would go into the light. The ones that chose power would go to the darkness, where Atourum was waiting.
The council only had two rules about the bridge. One, neither Omnis nor Atourum could know its location; and two, neither side could interfere in “The Walk.” They had to let the souls find the way on their own. To ensure that there was no interference, each side was allowed to have six Watchers.
Both sides choose six souls from the bridge for that purpose. Omnis chose six of the brightest souls and called them “Guardians.” Atourum chose six of the darkest souls and called them “Akons.” Both sides had various powers. And cycle after cycle, they would watch the bridge. Each time a cycle was over, the watchers would go to either the light or the darkness and get promoted.
Simple, right? That is until Julian, the first Guardian, and therefore the most powerful, broke the rules. He fell in love with a soul named Femi o
n the bridge. Femi couldn’t pick a side and so he helped her by pointing the way to the light.
The council found out. They held a review (their version of a trial). There, Omnis decided to send Julian back down to earth until he learned to follow instructions. Also as retribution to Atourum for what Julian had done, the council drew a map to the location of the bridge. They decided that Atourum could have it if she could find where on earth they had put it.
If Atourum finds the map, she’ll destroy every soul in sight. She would make them all go over to darkness whether they wanted to or not. This would in turn throw humanity into certain chaos.
To be fair, the council gave Omnis a chance to stop this from happening. Omnis was allowed to send all six of the “Guardians” to retrieve the map and destroy it. The council hid the map in a Triplex, an invisible coating that can hide anything by taking on the look of its surroundings.
The council placed the map on earth every six hundred and sixty-sixth year. Atourum then has one year to seek the map. The Guardians are allowed to go to earth to seek the map before she can, and destroy it.
We have two simple rules to follow in our search for the Triplex; unlike Akons, Guardians can’t kill humans. And second, both sides have to be discreet. No human is to know about the mission unless it is absolutely necessary. If the mission as a whole were to be exposed to humanity, the council will punish both sides. To get started, both sides would be given the same clue.
Well, it’s Year 666, and we the Guardians are here on earth to find the Triplex that has the map. On our first day here, we went to see our guide, The Sage. He looks like a six year-old boy, but in reality he’s a few thousand years old. He’s wise, witty and spends way too much time reading about my love life in the angel gossip rag, called the Splash.
From the minute we saw him, things started going wrong. Not to say that it’s his fault but this kid brought us nothing but bad news. According to The Sage, our leader, Marcus, would betray us. Not only that, but the clue would bring about the end of Marcus.
As it turns out, the clue wasn’t a place or a thing; instead it was a human, a girl named Emerson Hope Baxter. According to the Sage, Emerson would get Marcus to Turn (meaning switch sides). Marcus refused to believe that.
But The Sage had never been wrong. Ever. So I argued with him to let the others know what was going on. I pleaded with him as both his second-in-command and his girlfriend. It did no good whatsoever.
He was afraid that we would lose faith in him. But the six of us were fairly close as a team and he should have trusted us. After all, we are the most powerful Guardians that Omnis has ever assembled.
The most powerful among us Guardians is Marcus. He’s a First Guardian just like Julian was. He can look into your eyes and reflect your deepest fear back to you a thousand times magnified. And he also has super strength that far excesses other Angels.
Then there’s me, Ameana Jones; I’m the second-in-command. I can move things with my mind and see inside the human body.
The third and fourth Guardians are the Japanese twins, Miku and Rio. Miku is a funeral songstress. She sings a song that can kill any human being around. She can’t kill Akons but she can seriously hurt them.
Rio, her twin brother is a human mood ring. He can tell what people are feeling even if they are miles away. He also has wings that serve as shields that can stop anything from attacking us.
Like other twin Guardians in the past, the twins have a combined power, but we don’t know what it is yet. They have to be in serious danger and join hands in order to find out what that power is. The last set of Guardian Twins who combined their powers ended up blowing up half of Russia. So the twins aren’t in a hurry to find out what their hidden power is.
The fifth Guardian is Jayden (aka Jay). Jay’s power is Gliding, which means he runs faster than the speed of light. He can also “Convince.” That means he can talk humans into doing things with just the sound of his voice. But he can’t get them to reveal any secrets.
The last Guardian is Reason (aka Reese) He could “Blink.” Which means he can appear and reappear anywhere he wants. He is Jay’s best friend. Or at least he was. He was killed in battle a few weeks ago. It hurt all of us badly. But Jay was the most affected. I’m not sure Jay will ever get over it.
We all have different powers because during our last few moments on earth as humans, we asked Omnis for what we felt we wanted most. So, during my Core, I wished that I could grab my mother and throw her. So, now as a Guardian, I can throw and move things without touching them.
Although our Cores are different, there is a theme in all our deaths; it was painful, unjust and each one of us died before our time.
But no matter how bad my death was, or any of our deaths, nothing can compare to the way the twins died. Seriously, their deaths were so bad that even Omnis thought that would have chosen to go over to the Darkness.
It has long been considered a miracle that the twins didn’t side with evil. Not one soul thought goodness remained in the twins given the ordeal they went though. I’m sure Atourum was looking foreword to having the Twins in her army. But they found their way into the light and they, like me, were chosen to be Guardians.
To the humans, we are just a group of good-looking, popular kids. Miku is about five-foot two or so with bone-straight hair, gray eyes and a single honey-blonde braid. I think of her as a Japanese version of a flower child.
Then there’s her brother, Rio. He’s chic with a cutting edge bob. His hair is the color of flames. He gets hit on by all the girls who think that they are “different” and not a part of the mainstream. And since he knows what everyone is feeling even before they do, he is very empathetic, which makes him even more appealing to the girls. But he is a very focused guy. He does not let anything get in the way of the mission. Not girls, not family, not even himself…
Jay, on the other hand, goes out of his way to get the girls attention. Not that he has to work too hard, given his looks. Jay is the hip-hop guy, if hip-hop guys had wings. His attire is almost always ‘hood-chic and name brand. He has an addiction to sneakers, cars, and again, girls. He loves to cook and he drives like a maniac.
Then there’s my ex-boyfriend, and team leader, Marcus Cane. And yes, he’s gorgeous. Even among Angels, his beauty stands out. He’s six feet tall without a flaw in sight. His eyes are rich and dark with flecks of gold. He has a broad smile that would make any girl take to her room and weep to behold him every moment of every day.
Anyway, given the kind of angels we are, and how close we are, it should have been fairly easy to tell us about The Sage’s prediction. Still, he couldn’t bring himself to be honest with the group.
Later, we found the human Emmy and saved her from a hail of bullets. So, how does she repay us for saving her life? She kisses Marcus while he and I were still dating, and hides vital information from us, knowing it could help to locate the Triplex.
I couldn’t stand the girl. Can’t you just tell when a girl is trying to take your guy? It’s all in the way she can’t stop looking at him; the disappointment on her face when he takes your hand. And the most obvious thing; she kept trying to stay away from him.
She reminds me of my mother; weak and easily broken. I swear every time I turn around that little girl is crying. I mean, please, can we just agree that the mission is a difficult one and move on?
That isn’t to say that I have no sympathy for her. We have learned things over the past few months that have turned her life upside-down. It turns out that Julian, the first Guardian who broke the rules is, in fact, her father. And the soul that Julian helped on the bridge, turns out to have been Femi, her mother.
Julian had kidnapped Femi and taken her to earth. As punishment for his actions, Omnis decided that Femi would not go to the light; she will be sent back to earth with Julian. Only each time she will look different and won’t remember him at all. But Julian, on other hand, won’t be able to forget her. And the only way he can save her and ge
t her back to the light is to stay away from her for a whole lifetime.
But Julian has been unable to do that. He meets up with Femi in every cycle, causing them to have to start all over again. In this cycle, he met up with her when she was eighteen years old. He then says he made love to her. But according to Emmy, her mom says she was raped. Julian swears that somewhere deep inside her, Femi recalled who he was. According to him it wasn’t the contentious act of rape but rather a sweet encounter between lovers.
Then the Splash kept reporting a bunch of stuff about me and Marcus that wasn’t true. Yes, it’s a gossip magazine, but it’s written by angels so you’d think that they’d be kind, right? Not even close. They lie all the time and usually about me and Marcus. It seems that us being the first Guardian couple is of great interest to the Angel world.
They reported that I was a diva and that I was taking advantage of dating the leader of the group. That was so far from the truth that I didn’t care to let it upset me. But then they got a picture of Emmy kissing Marcus. Although Marcus had told me about it, when I saw the actual picture, I threw a snow globe at his head.
It’s one thing to know that you have to put up with your guy being chased by another girl because that girl is instrumental to the mission. But to have her put her hands on him? She had no right. What kind of girl would do that? So what? Because I’m an angel she thinks she can take advantage? We come all the way down here to save her and she disrespects me like that?
I tried to be as angel-like as I could about the whole thing. But then she went and asked Marcus out on a date right in front of me. So, I did what I had to do. I threw her ungrateful ass across the room, literally. I sent her flying. Her head hit the wall; she slid down like a bird that had flown into a streak-free window. Granted, it wasn’t my proudest Angel moment but it was certainly my most gratifying.