From Heaven

Standing on top of the skyscraper as the rain and wind rushed down to Earth, I looked down at the masses of people.
"Can you see them yet?" A soft male voice asked from beside me, "Your Victims?"
I shook my head, I couldn't see them and I also couldn't understand what he was on about. All I knew was that I was on top of a skyscraper in the evening in a storm while wearing nothing but skinny jeans and a vest. I could also feel my wings poking out beside my shoulder blades.
"They're white." The boy said referring to my wings.
I looked down again, "How will I know?" I whispered.
"You'll see their L.R coming from them."
My head whipped around, "I'm sorry but what is their L.R?"
"Light Radiance." He said, smiling a little underneath his soaked long brown hair that was half covering his blue eyes, he was also shirtless and only wearing a pair of jeans. His long cream wings fell past his waist.
"But how will I know?" I asked.
"Look down." He instructed me taking my hand. I looked down and saw a golden shimmering light radiating from a small group of people.
"I see it!" I whispered excitedly then I came crashing down, "But...it's all around a group of people."
"It happens. Point 'em out, I'll fly down and take a look." He shot a smirk at me.
"Alex... won't they notice a guy with wings swooping down beside them?"
"No."
"Oh, really?" I asked somewhat sarcastically.
Alex smiled and put a hand on my shoulder, "No way. You're the only one that can see me."
I watched as my guardian Angel, Alexander, swooped down towards my Victims to see who they were. That was another thing I didn't understand, why were they called Victims? Alex is a guardian Angel, not a Dark Angel. Guardians guard people, not hurt them or put them in any danger. I'm also a Guardian (in training, that is), so I know what I need to do, apart from the exception of not getting killed with me. I'm still fully alive. Which means people can fully see me; they just can't see my wings. Yeah, Angel wings are invisible, even Dark Angel wings. So are Halos, not that I know of any Angels who have Halos.
Alex flew back to me and looked straight into my eyes, "Your Victims...are also your friends. You have to save them, or just make them happy. Think you can do it Rose?"
"Yeah. I hope so." I smiled back at him, "Catch you later, bro."
"Yeah right. I'm takin' off now."

I watched him fly back to Fayth, the city where Angels live. Turning around, I exited the skyscraper roof the way I'd gotten onto it, through the building itself. As I walked down the steps leading to the building's front entrance I tried to think of who my Victims could be, I really hoped that it wasn't Kumiko Harrell. She and I were no longer best friends on account of how super competitive she was. In fact, now I didn't even think she liked me anyway.
I made my way out of the building and into a crowd of people on the street; I looked across the road and saw my friend's L.Rs shimmering around them. I ran across the road, almost getting hit by a car, and made my way over to them, sliding to a halt next to Cordelia Haze. Cordelia was my maybe best friend who could always make me laugh; she was also a bit mental and sometimes a bit too mature for her own good. She had mid-length raven hair that was set in spiky layers and was wearing a skinny white Queen t-shirt, skinny jeans and boots. I looked around at my other friends, their Light Radiance was all jumbled together to make a golden shimmering mist around them, making them all appear a thousand times more beautiful than normal. I shook my wet hair out of my eyes, "Hey guys." I muttered looking around. Sabryna Evans smiled at me and returned my "hey", John Channing just nodded at me; Natsuko George (Japanese transfer student, crazy about boys) smiled and stepped closer to John. Cordelia flashed a brief smirk in my direction and then turned to the group. "What are we going to do then?" She asked.
Natsuko sighed, blowing some of her (dyed) blonde hair away from her face, "We were going to go to the cinema, remember?" She laughed, looking up into John's face. John stepped away from her; his face was set in a way that once you knew him, you'd know it meant that he was thinking.
I couldn't say anything to him; I couldn't ask how he was because he'd just block me out as soon as I tried to help. That was his problem with me; I was always trying to 'fix' him. Sometimes, I wished that I could just live on Fayth with Alexander and his angelic friends. On Fayth, nothing could hurt me. It was then I heard it.
"When the rain falls, it's like Heaven's cryin'... you're wrong about that by the way... make life...worth living..." Alexander's voice in my mind, whispering advice. He does that sometimes, in fact, he does that too much.
"Uh, I think I have some money..." I said, digging into my pocket. I was right; I had just enough to see a movie.
Natsuko glared at me, "Well we were going to see Touch of Beauty." She hissed at me.
"I'm only going to the cinema if we can watch Transformers." Cordelia said, putting her point across sharply as usual.
"Sounds cool." I said, looking at Cordelia. John just made some sort of noise and nodded. Sabryna nodded too.
"Fine." Natsuko spat, "We'll go and see Transformers. God! It's such a boy's film!”
Sabryna, Cordelia and I laughed at her before we all made our way over to the cinema.

After the film we were all sitting in the McDonald’s across the road, talking about everything. We eventually got onto the topic of how sensitive we all were.
“Well, I don’t know, I guess it depends with me. I never cry at movies, no matter how sad… but other things put me on the verge of tears, sometimes.” Cordelia smiled as she helped herself to another French fry.
“Oh my God, I’m super sensitive, puppies make me cry!” Natsuko announced gleefully picking sesame seeds of her burger bun.
“No you don’t.” Sabryna answered, “You cry at soppy movies like Titanic and then say you wish a guy was there to hold you.”
“Well…I’m a sensitive person.” I said, chewing thoughtfully on a French fry.
“Oh, shut up.” Cordelia laughed, “We know how sensitive you are, you cried when Optimus died.”
“Oh, thanks!” I answered back, laughing a little.
“I’m kind of sensitive,” John said, “I think a lot.”
Natsuko giggled, I rolled my eyes. “John, that is an understatement, you’re always thinking,”
“And what’s wrong with that?” he asked.
“Nothing!” I laughed, “Anyway guys, I have to go now.”
I walked out and to my house alone with only my iPod to keep me company. I unlocked the door and walked up to my room, as soon as I went to sit on my bed, I screamed. Someone was already sitting on it, eating a bag of chips.
“Alex!” I gasped, clutching my heart.
“Oh, hey there, want a chip?” Alex asked, smiling at me from my bed. I noticed he had a t-shirt on now.
“No, I’m good thanks. What is it?” I asked, coldly.
“What?! Can’t I just visit you?” Alex laughed.
“Alex, everytime you’ve visited me, it was always to bring bad news. Even when I was happy, you came and said that you were proud of me and happy for me but you still told me to hold onto it while it lasted!” I blinked back the tears in my eyes, “It turned out not to last long, but I still tried to enjoy every single precious moment and then you came again and told me to keep smiling. That’s how I knew that my time was at an end.”
I felt Alex’s arms come around my waist holding me tightly, his head on my shoulder. “I’m sorry… I was only trying to be… good enough.”
“Good enough for what?” I asked, shocked that he was crying too.
“I only wanted…to be good enough…to be your brother, Rose.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, wondering what he meant by ‘being my brother’. I don’t have any other siblings at all.
“I can’t tell you, I’m sorry. I really wish that I could.” Alex lifted an arm and brought his hand to my face, gently wiping away all my tears and tear tracks.
“Why can’t you tell me?” I asked, turning to face him.
“It’s… complicated.” He answered, shaking his short shaggy brown hair around as he shook his head slightly.
“I can deal with complicated, Alex.” I told him, holding onto his forearms.
“Not this kind of complicated.” Alex sat back down on my bed, sighing, “If I told you, it could break you and I don’t want that to happen at all.”
It’s not often you get to see an Angel looking defeated and like they’ve just had the worst day ever, but looking at Alex then, I couldn’t help feeling sorry and a bit awkward around him. He looked almost as if the whole world had come crashing down on him and he was still crying. I decided not to push his strange comment anymore and instead got out all of my DVDs, even the lame Disney ones.
“Hey, Alex… how about a movie night? You can choose.” I told him, speaking gently. Alex’s head turned to look at me.
“I must really look pathetic, huh?” He asked, sniffing a bit.
“No you don’t, why would you think that?”
“You never let me choose the movie, Rose.”
I laughed, “Maybe that’s true…”
“Anyway,” Alex picked his chips back up and continued to eat them again, “I choose… Howl’s Moving Castle.”
“Fine.” I slid the disc in and navigated my way through the menu.
“Nuh uh! Subs, not dubs.” Alex stopped me by reaching out a hand across my face.
“Alex, you are such a weirdo sometimes, you know that?” I sighed, turning on English subtitles and Japanese audio.
“Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.” Alex laughed, winking at me.
“Oh, shut up.” I hissed back.
“Anyway, is there anyone you like now?”
“No. There’s not.” I answered a little defensively, “Anyway, Alex, how come you don’t like anyone?”
“On Fayth, there’s hardly anyone who I’d even consider spending eternity with, let alone anyone I want to be with. Our jobs put us in a strange situation, we’re away a lot.”
I sighed and flopped back onto the bed, “Guess I’ll just watch the movie.”
About an hour later, I must have fallen asleep because Alex was shaking my shoulder. “Wake up.” He whispered, “You’ve got work to do.”
I sat up straight away, shocked “Oh my God, please don’t say it’s John!”
Alex stared at me, “No, it’s not John. Why do you even still care about him anyway? The guy’s a jerk.”
“Alex, he isn’t a jerk.” I yawned, “Anyway, who is it?”
“Well, it’s Nat. She’s probably pretty upset.”
I stared at him, stunned, “Alex, how do you know all of this information?” I asked.
Alex shrugged, “She’s been calling your phone for a while.”
I stretched and reached for my phone, searching with blurry eyes for Natsuko’s number in my phonebook. I just hoped it wasn’t anything stupid, like a lip gloss emergency. I found her number pretty quickly and pressed the call button. It started ringing and just as I was about to hang up, because I was sure she was going to ignore the call, she answered.
“H-Hello?” Man, her voice sounded shaky and upset.
“Nat! What’s up?” I asked, already tugging my shoes back on and unfolding my brand new wings from my back.
“It’s…It’s J-John…”
“John?! What about John? Is he with you? Are you guys alright?!” I asked, immediately going into a panic.
“He’s…He… He’s…” Natsuko started sobbing down the phone.
“Nat, tell me what’s wrong with John. What happened?”
“He…well, I…kind of told him how I….felt. And he…he…”
“He said he doesn’t feel the same?” I asked.
“Exactly.” Natsuko said, sounding as if she was going to burst out in tears at any second, “He said that he doesn’t like anyone right now. How can he not like me?”
“Well, Nat. Maybe that’s just it. Maybe he just…isn’t attracted to you, personally.” I mouthed a ‘Yeeowch’ in Alex’s direction, earning myself a smirk from him.
“Wh-what do you mean?”
“I mean, maybe you’re not his type. But hey, Nat… It’s only John. There are loads of guys who would like to go out with you.” I kicked my shoes back off and lay down on my bed again, feeling my wings fold into my back. “Listen to me,” I said, “All you need is to get Bridget Jones’s Diary on, get a couple of really nice guys all of us girls know…”
That was when Natsuko interrupted me, “Who?”
“Ben and Jerry. Get some of that, snuggle up into your bed, eat the ice-cream and watch the film. Trust me, you’ll feel better in no time.”
Alex winked at me, “Nicely done.”
I ended the phone call and gave him a small smile, “Thanks… is that all I have to do?”
Alex sighed, “Easier for you.”
I stared at him, “Easier for me? Alex, have you forgotten that in some situations I could possibly get critically injured?!”
Alex sighed, “No, Rose, I haven’t, okay? Also, that’s why I’m here. To do my job, right?”
“To be honest, Alex, the job description is a little vague….”
Alex’s left eyebrow arched up and he cocked his head to the side. When he did that, I honestly thought he was going to tell me off and lecture me, instead, he laughed. His lips parted in a smile, his eyes closed and his head tilted slightly back, he laughed. His laughter echoed all around the room, it started off as a giggle them progressed into a full booming laugh that seemed to encase you with a blanket of good feelings. I wonder if Angels know they have this effect with them, the ability to make people feel comfortable and happy with them. I wonder how many Angels have the same relationship as me and Alex with their Victims, probably not many. After Alex finally spluttered back to ‘life’ he paused to wipe a fresh new tear out of his eye.
“A little vague?” He asked, still laughing.
I nodded, deadly serious, which somehow set him off all over again. I know that this is a weird thing to notice about someone who’s an Angel but he looked really good when he laughed. He just looked like a really happy, confident seventeen year old rock star. Suddenly, the laughter stopped, I looked over at him but he was still laughing, the only thing different was that no sound was coming out from between his lips.
“Can’t…breathe!” He managed to wheeze, he took a few deep breaths and got himself together, “You kill me. Well…you would, if I wasn’t already dead.”
“Alex… I’m sorry, but…how did you…?” I asked, my voice shaking as I touched upon what I was sure was going to be a raw subject for him.
“Die?” He asked, picking up another chip and chewing it thoughtfully, “Well, to be honest I was never really… no, wait. I can’t tell you. That’s for another time.”
Who knew Angels had so many secrets? Certainly not me. Alex usually would tell me stuff about his life on Fayth, the things he’s had to go through and training me to help people in the smallest ways possible. But now, when I try to put some of those skills to use and understand him? I get nothing. He knew what I was going to ask, of course he did. After knowing him for so long, that was inevitable. I’d already ruled out stabbing and shooting to the torso, maybe it was a car accident? An image of Alex hurtling through the windscreen of a car entered my mind and I shook it out.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
Alex sighed again, as if he was fed up with repeating himself, “It’s…”
“Complicated?” I asked.
“Yeah.” I could see him grappling for a way to change the subject, “I know someone who can teach you to Dream Tap.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” I asked, moodily.
“If you can Dream Tap, which you probably will, you can tap into people’s dreams.” Alex nudged me, “Come on, Rose! I know you want to try it. You’re into that stuff.”
“Maybe I am…. Fine, I’ll try out this Dream Tapping thing.” I sighed.
Alex smiled, “Great. Now choose a Victim.” He looked at me like he was trying to figure something out, “I never told you why they’re called Victims, did I?”
“No, you never.” I failed at hiding my disappointment over the fact that he was closing up on me.
“Weird story actually, the term was created by the Reapers. Most of them got banished and became Grims, the Guardian Angels eventually picked up the term and many of the younger ones started to use it as slang. In the end, everyone accepted the term and it became the name for what we used to refer to as ‘our Humans’.” Alex finished, smiling like a little kid who just answered a question from his teacher correctly.
“Grims?” I asked thoughtfully, “As in Grim Reapers?”
Alex carefully examined a chip, “That’s probably where that name came from. You do know that Death isn’t just a guy with a scythe and an awesome hood, right? In fact, there isn’t just one Grim Reaper, there’s hundreds.”
“Alex, I know. You’ve already told me, and you told me about the War.” I sighed.
“I know, and I’m sorry it’s just… well… I want you to be on your guard for Grims and Darksters.”
“Darksters?” I asked staring at him.
“More Angel slang, Darksters are Dark Guardian Angels…. What you may remember seeing portrayed as…Darklighters on Charmed?” Alex looked at the remnants of his bag of chips sadly.
“Wait, what? Those things exist?!” I asked, sounding a bit hysterical. I should explain, I used to be a huge fan of Charmed when I was younger.
“Yeah…” Alex gave me a hug, “I’m going back home now, I’ll see you soon. If you need me, call me.”