Endless Nights

Again her hand flited across the page absorbed in the pen, off in her world reflected by the paper she constantly returned to, randomly jumping when an idea presented itself to her. Hair draped over her shoulders, made a curtain between her and the world. She was leaning against a tree just outside the library.             I am sitting a few feet away from her, though she doesn’t know it. Blissfully unaware of my presence, she hums a lullaby while tapping her pen against her knee.             “Claire.” I whisper her name. A wave of wind swirls around us, with a smile she looks up. Not meeting my eyes she looks around. Claire didn’t hear my voice but simply the whisper of the wind. She’s my little secret, I am her guard. So much has changed since I started watching over this young woman. The others thought it was out of obligation to the future, however I know differently. It was convenient for others to think that.             That was our secret, the one the little Claire doesn’t know of. She was important, yet that isn’t why I guard her. It is easier to make others think that was the only reason I stay near her.             Around my neck, the collar that is my prison began to heat up signaling that my shift is now over.             My time is up, I must return.             Standing, I take in the strange sight of her homeland. It has trees planted in the ground in random plots of ground. Plots of lands cover in grass that has no reason to be there, every blade manicured to the very stem which it sprouts. The buildings and roads made out of crushed rocks, made to last through the destruction of time.             With a last look at the blond human I push off the ground, my thick wings unfolding, carrying me skyward. The place that was the young girls learning place shrunk below me. It was an out cropping of buildings that the locals dared to call large.             What simple beings the humans are and yet their freedom is something that is just out of my reach.             Soon, as I began to reach the upper layers of the atmosphere, i was high enough to use the pixalizar. With a touch, my band around my neck opened the gateway to my homeland. The skies break apart and fold into a thick mass of solid air. Moments pass and the solid black wall is ready. With a pulse of pressure to my wings I fly through the hole. My body rips apart, the searing and tearing is not nearly as painful as it used to be.             All angels have to be trained to ignore pain like this. After all it was our training to pass through the pixalizer into the human realm. Needless to say, many angels quit trying for the transfer level afterward. Being a guard is never an easy job; the weak don’t belong in the human realm. The searing pain decreases as I become whole again. Moments after my wings catch the wind; the vision of Lencia commandeers the backdrop of my entrance. The Silver city. Many other people visit the Capital of the North for its splendid sights but it was the job that drew me here.             Lencia is where the Far-landers are located, or the Angels as the humans call us. We have long since been guarding the world of humans, not from some great evil that they have come to believe as the Devil but from themselves. They are more of a danger due to their pure, unadulterated energy. Their thoughts bring about new worlds; the youngest child has the mind that could change life as they know it. The only balance to their chaos is the other realms, though they don’t know it.             There are many beings that are in contact with earth, which have all adopted the human names for a joke. Those of us who choose to work through Lencia are called angels, those that work from the southern capital, Cocora are called Daemons. They are terms that we have used for thousands of years, long before what they call Christianity was born. We don’t fight with the Daemons, it’s common for siblings to go to two different cities.             Both cities have different policies on how the human world should be treated; those who believe the same tend to migrate to that region.             We work with the death tollers, middleized, cornbies, toolers, along with others. Native angels aren’t even the strongest species compared to the others, though many angels are very strong. Unlike the others, we have restrictions that are binding for our duties. However the others don’t work with the government here.             With a sigh I land at the front gate, I have to check in before my shift at the human world ends. It is required for every guardian to check in before seventy-two hours are up in the human world or a sacrifice is necessary. It is one of the many rules here in Lencia. “Hey there Brother, checking in?” Tomakee lounges behind the check-in station. His deep red hair pulled back into a tight braid, metal laced through his bangs. He is one of the more carefree angels here. Nodding I hand over my pixalizar, a device the size of my palm.             “I’m done for the day.” I walk away then, if Tomakee is here then Lester is only seconds away and I don’t have the patience to deal with him right now. I find my footfalls are level and quick, the normal gait around here.             “Hey there brother.” A hand pounds my shoulder before I can skip away. A groan almost escapes my lips, as I resist the urge to land one on his jaw. The one person I wanted to avoid.             “Lester.” I’m able to turn to him with the smallest of a scowl on my face. His uniform for travel clings to his form, making it clear that he wore it for the women. His uniform tells me he must either becoming in or going out.             He nudges himself closer to me and looks at me really close. This is normal for him; he has no essence of personal space. “You been peaking on your little lady?” Raising an eye brow at me I twist out of his arm and away a few steps.             “She’s my charge; it’s my job to check in on her.” I coldly walk away, two more hours until my meeting with our captain. Two hours to waste.             “Oh is it now. I don’t remember watching her sleep being a job for an angel.” His chuckle grates against my ears, he’s been teleprompting me again.             “How many times have I told you to keep that thing away from me?” I grind my teeth as I find the glistening alley way that leads to my quarters, Lester stops walking behind me and laughs as loud as his lungs allow him.             “Like I’ll miss the sad show of Elijah. She’ll never gain grace you know, she’ll never get to be with you.” When he’s done laughing I stop and stare at him blankly, I had never thought of trying to be with her. She is my charge; it is my duty to protect the beacons of the humans. They are the most dangerous of all humans, not from evil or foul deeds but from the naturally high energy of their souls.             Smiling slightly I tell the truth. “I have no intention of being with her, she is my responsibility. My fascination is with her future, the future that none see. Think what you will but your thoughts mean nothing to me, Lester.” After turning I say forcefully over my shoulder. “And keep that thing away from me or you will have to talk to Him and explain why your entire fleet has been destroyed.” Walking away I quickly find my dwelling in the light of white, unlike the human world our buildings are made of energy and water.             With a wave from my hand the yellow-white light wall disappears to revel a dimmed dwelling. Each of the hand full of appliances have a steady glow over their muted shapes, these have different colors and appear to be solid. Walking pass the bare resting area, I find the path that leads down. Less than an hour and I must leave my work shop. Striding down the steps I find that none of my experiments have been touched, their crisp and slightly warped bodies lie as they were when I left. Picking up the closest object I feel the fabric between my fingers.             Human clothing material.             This was the first cloth that my invention allowed me to bring over, though half of the light blue color became burnt on the travel back. Setting the fragile fabric down, I find a chair before gently plucking my pouch from my side. I will know if my experiments have been prosperous by the hair in this pouch. If it is gone, then I must continue studying the travel between our world and theirs. Breathing slowly, I unlatch the latch and slowly open the slightly glowing lid. Inside, in the folded fabric of blue cloth I’ve labored over for fifty years is a lock of sandy blond hair. Not a single strand touched by the travel’s burn.             A grin cracks my face as I slowly pull the two inches of hair from its case. Life hums through the invisible veins in the hair, human hair. I laugh as I touch it to my nose, breathing in her scent.             “I did it!” I let the words cross my lips. “I’ve done the impossible.” I begin to laugh in earnest now, setting down the lock of hair I stand so my wings have room to be free. “I, Elijah of the guardian troops have found the way to bring a human into this realm.” Then it hits me as I laugh with joy, I am the only angel in all of time that can bring a human to our world. Thousands of my kind have tried for millennia and failed; now it’s possible.               “This is going to change everything.” I whisper to myself, glancing down I see that her hair is darker than anything that has ever been in the angels realm.