Guardian of the Fallen

DAY 1 of the Awakening

It's been 7 years, 7 months, and 7 days since the Angels fell. Dead...Exterminated... No one on Earth knows what happened. Their tattered wings lined the streets as chaos followed. The memories of that day haunt me every second I’m awake, and every minute I’m asleep. I can’t shake it.

The memories replay in my mind, as they always do. I was outside walking my dog, when she started squealing as if someone had attacked her. Soon after, a sound like nothing I'd ever heard before ripped through the sky. Screams of tortured souls and extreme anguish. The Fallen Angels. Blood began flowing from Max’s ears. Wailing dogs could be heard from everywhere. People stopped to console their tortured pets. I felt a tingling in my ear, but nothing to the extremities of what the canines were feeling. The pain didn’t last long, as the animals accepted comfort from their owners. And then I saw them. Hundreds, thousands, of bodies falling from the sky with their massive wings folded as the air engulfed them. Bodies racing to the earth like weaponized corpses. I saw one hit and destroy a car with a family in it. The family inside never had a chance. And then another, and another, and another. Dead... Dying….Everything was destroyed in an instant.

And now today, the world still wants to know…"WHY DID THE ANGELS FALL?" No one knew how important they were until they were gone. Random acts of luck were no more. People were just SOL. My Mom included. My mom always taught us to look to the left and the right when crossing the street. How were we supposed to now to look for random tires flying off cars driving down the road? Random crap began happening over and over and over again. Trees falling on people from a brush of wind; folks tripping over their own feet and dying. Life is a mess.

Even though everything sucks, I feel like I'm the only one with almost a little bit of luck. I swear I was touched by an Angel. Or close. An Angel literally fell at my feet and with his dying breath handed me a heart shaped silver pendant. I think the locket is keeping me safe. Forget that, I know somehow the locket is protecting me. There is no way to explain accidents that happen right in front or behind me, but nothing ever happens to me. I keep it hidden away, because I know if anyone realizes it's value, my luck and my life would be over. Humanity was lost, due to the fall. Acts of kindness no longer existed. Any item from the old world that represented luck, became a source of theft and trafficking. A box of Lucky Charms could score you a cool $50,000 on the black market. That's if no one axed you before you made the sale. Isolation was the key to living a post apocalyptic life.

For me, everything was fine, until the locket woke up. I could feel it pulsating on my skin with a heartbeat cadence. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Its weight was breathtaking and the heat was overwhelming. I tried to pull it away from my skin, but it started burning through my flesh. I pulled harder as it started grinding its way deeper into my chest. The pain was beyond epic proportion. I could feel it grinding through my insides, as if someone manually pushed a dull stake into my heart. I didn’t want to, but I knew I was going to die. And then it was all gone. The pain and the necklace. All that was left was a heart shaped burn on my chest. Somehow the pendant was now in me. I tried to cough and beat my chest. Big mistake: my insides were on fire and my back radiated pain. I had no idea what was happening to me. One second I was me, and the next, I could feel the soul of every Angel inside of me. Inside the necklace. My eyes became anew and I could see the parts of the world that were unseen. I was confused. A voice reverberated in my soul.

"Find the chosen and replace the fallen. The battle awaits."

And with that, I passed out. Dead to the world.

DAY 2

I woke up with wings today. And I’m not talking about the fried chicken kind. Real life, golden fur sticking from my back...WINGS. What the freak is happening to me?

"You have been chosen."

The voice reverberated from every pore of my body multiple times, echoing like a game of ping pong. (Chosen...chosen...chosen...chosen...)

It’s official. I’m crazy. I just want everything to go back to normal. It doesn’t even have to be pre fall normal, just pre crazy normal. I sit down on the floor lost in my own thoughts, but the others consume space in my brain. Sensing my distress, Max tries to comfort me.

“Find them...Find them...Find them.”

I do the best thing I know how to do. I get drunk and sleep for 3 days. I want the noise in my head to go away but it won't.

DAY 5

I’m out of booze. I can no longer sit in the house and try to drown out the voices in my head. I walk to the store to find more Rum. No one drives anymore. It's simply too dangerous.

As I am walking something strange begins to consume me. It’s like I know things are going to happen before they happen. I can see dark shadows following people. I know it's death.

I watch one shadow as it hovers around a woman about my Mom’s age. I know she is about to die. Ten seconds before it happens I see a kid on a bike come through and knock her over. The woman hits her head on the sidewalk and dies. Reality comes back to me, and instead of allowing her to die, I catch her before she falls. And that’s when I felt it happen. The same burning sensation I felt when the locket entered me. The woman’s eyes turned white and closed. Once the pain subsided, the woman’s eyes opened.

“Thank you, young Simon. I am Sicilia, Guardian of Hope. Thank you for freeing me. You must now free us all.”

I don’t understand what you’re talking about. How did I free you?

“Simon, you have been chosen. You have been given the heart of the Guardians. The Heavenlies were attacked by one of God’s most faithful. But he wouldn’t be God without being all knowing. He prepared the world. He’s been preparing you.”

Prepared me how. I’ve been down here barely surviving. There must be some kind of mistake.

“You are quite resourceful, young Simon. There was no mistake. The locket was given to you by the Guardian of all Souls. Upon the Betrayal, all Angelic souls were placed inside the locket before they reached Earth’s surface. By awakening us, you will bring forth a rebirth in the Heavenlies, and the curse of death will be no more. The battle will be won.”

Seems like you kinda lost the last time, what’s so different now?

“Valid question, young Simon. The poison created to kill the Angels took 100,000 years to create. In the beginning of time, a counter plan was created. The Guardian has protected the locket since the beginning of time.”

Couldn't he have just avoided all this death and destruction by offing the bad guy in the beginning, or whatever. And, what just happened with that woman? Did you just body snatch her? That’s messed up.

“When you saved her, you cheated death. That opened the gateway for me to enter while her spirit recalibrates her new timeline.”

So she’s dead?

“No, she’s not dead. She is resting until the battle ends. Upon which the Angels will be given new forms, and those on Earth will return to their vessels.”

Simple as that?

“Simple as that.”

They don’t have sarcasm in the Heavenlies. That’s not simple, none of this is simple. So are you saying I have to go around saving people so you guys can steal bodies to save the world?

“Yes, simple.”

I’m not going to do it. How about you take the necklace from inside me, and you do it?

“It doesn’t work that way, young Simon. You are the human heart recipient of the Guardians, it has to be you.”

So I walk away. I ignore the shadow following a teenager in front of me. I don't want to be a part of this. I want nothing to do with any of it. But then I see how he dies. It's too gory to witness. I grab him before it happens. Once again, his body is taken over like the other body. I have to get home. If I'm home, I don’t have to worry about feeling guilty for letting people die. So I run, but I can't outrun the shadows or the visions. I save 4 people before I finally reach home and lock myself away. I can hear the other Angels becoming restless inside of me.

“Free us...Free us...Free Us…This is the only way.

Damn, I forgot the booze. I want to be free. I close my eyes and subconsciously do something I haven’t done in 7 years. I pray. The voices become quiet and peace consumes me. I don’t understand what is happening to me, but I know if I help them, the darkness of the world will reside. I begin to find comfort in knowing that if I help, people won't die. Someone else's mother or child will live because of me. As the sun begins to set, I make the biggest decision of my life. I will help free the Angels.

"Thank you...Thank you...Thank you..."

It's kinda creepy having others inside you, know what you are thinking and feeling. But they, nor I, ever saw the man in black following me as I saved people on my way home. His neck was covered with $10,000 rabbit feet. As I prepared to save the world, he was preparing to sell my luck to the highest bidder.

Unknowingly, I had a new mission. Save lives...Set the Angels free... Don’t let the bad guys cut out my heart.

To Be Continued: