Dominion by Melody Manful

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I Dare You.Look Over Your Shoulders.Do You See Them?They are behind you...They are always behind you.Abigail Cells had a nightmare the day before she met Gideon, the new guy in school who has every girl drooling just to be near him. In her nightmare, she was murdered by a magical creature. As she gets to know Gideon, she begins to remember pieces of her nightmare, and was shocked when Gideon turned out to be the creature from her nightmare. Who is Gideon really? Should Abby allow herself to fall completely for him, or is he the next disaster waiting to happen?

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Dominion
Melody Manful

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Find the author on twitter @melodymanful and Goodreads. For more information, glossary, original music and contact, visit the author’s website. www.melodymanful.com Illustrations by Daniel Kordek (front cover and medallion) and Andrey Kaliuzhny (back cover print edition: rose) Copyright © 2012 – 2013 Melody Manful All rights reserved. ISBN: 0615739458 ISBN-13: 978-0-615-73945-8

PROLOGUE

I should have called the police the moment I woke up, but what was I going to say? “Hello? 911?
Help! I think I’m going to die because I had a dream that I died.” Yeah, even in my head I sounded ridiculous. What happened to me was horrifying, but no one read about it in the newspapers because it never happened. “It was only a dream.” That was what everyone kept telling me. But everyone was wrong. I died that night. I was murdered in a firestorm. One single, white lie wasn’t supposed to bring with it a lifetime of obstacles. I lied. I said yes when I was supposed to say no. I committed a crime. I should have been handcuffed, sentenced to life in prison, executed even. Anything would have been better than the punishment I served because of that little white lie. “You’re such a terrible liar, Abigail.” This was what everyone I knew said whenever I tried to tell a lie, but then again, everyone I knew then knew nothing. I wasn’t crazy. No, honestly, before I found myself in wacko-land, I was a walking ray of sunshine. Everything in my over-idolized life was perfect. Until he came. First, I thought, Finally, someone to chase away the monsters underneath my bed . But as it turned out, he didn’t come to chase them away. He was the monster. He was also my guardian angel.

BETTER THAN A HALLELUJAH
*Gideon*
“You see what power is – holding someone else’s fear

in your hand and showing it to them.”
Amy Tan –The Kitchen God’s Wife.

“...

Shouldn’t have been the—” A woman on the phone rushed by without noticing me because she

quite literally couldn’t see me.

I stood, invisible, beside a traffic light somewhere in New York City, staring at the cars passing by and at the people running for shelter because of the heavy rain pummeling the city. A Lumenian guardian angel stood beside me with his énas, a seven-year-old boy named Paul. The boy and his mother had been shopping for a new school bag, and his guardian angel was stuck following them around. Paul was like the puppeteer, the guardian the puppet, so wherever the boy pulled his strings, the angel followed. Times like this made me realize my happiness in being a different kind of guardian angel—the kind who did everything but guard. “Gi-Gideon,” the angel stuttered the moment his eyes met mine. He knew what was coming. As a Grandinian angel, it was my job to try and hurt the human being guarded, and it was the Lumenian angel’s job to try and save the human. I never missed a target, so whenever the guardian angels sensed my presence, they knew that their end was near. Paul and his mother, a young woman in her early thirties, stood in front of me among a crowd who waited for the walk sign to change. Paul was circling his mother and singing a childish song. She pulled his yellow raincoat’s hood over his ball cap. The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the waterspout. Dammit, I had the boy’s stupid song stuck in my head. Down came the rain and washed the spider out. What was the next line again? Oh yeah… Out came the sun and dried up all the rain. Typical human nature for the sun to show up and dry up the rain. And the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the spout again. That’s one stupid spider. Ahead on a busy road, a Ferrari braked at a red light, rock music rattling its closed windows. Two punk teenagers sat in the car bobbing their heads to the song. Looking at the young boy and at the sports car, I snapped my fingers. Instantly, the walk sign changed to the white silhouette of a person walking. Without looking or waiting for his mother, the little boy pushed through the crowd at the curb and sped his way toward the street. “Paul!” the boy’s mother shouted, running after him, but the boy was too far ahead. She forced her way through the crowd, hurrying to reach him. I looked at the boy and snapped my fingers once more. Instantaneously, the Ferrari surged forward with force toward the boy. His guardian angel appeared beside him. I could hear him whispering, “Turn and go to your mother, Paul,” but the boy was young and stupid, not listening to the voice in his head that was supposed to be his instinct. The driver tried to brake, but the car fishtailed through the intersection, with the teenagers yelling in

panic. The boy’s guardian angel tried to stop the car, but it all transpired too quickly. The driver blared his horn as Paul froze in shock upon seeing the car. The Ferrari accelerated and veered right, the driver still blowing his horn. His mother screeched for him to get out of the way. But in a fraction of a second, the gap between the little boy and the car closed. There was a loud thwack as the car collided with the boy. His body flew into the air, and with a harsh thunk, he hit the ground. The car’s horn continued to blare. The humans around me started screaming in shock as Paul’s mother reached her son. Her eyes were fixed on the boy, who lay in a pool of his own bright blood. “Paul!” his mother sobbed. People on the sidewalk crowded the scene. Everyone who saw him grew tearful. I, on the other hand, stood invisible, analyzing everything. Humans! I never understood why they automatically felt sad for people they didn’t even know. The boy’s guardian angel stood now, staring at me with fear. I was sure he knew what was coming; I knew he’d heard about me. All angels had. “Gideon, please…” Those were the angel’s last words before the ball of fire I threw burned him to ashes. I didn’t take a second look at the boy or the ashes of his guardian angel as I flew into the air. I could hear the sirens wailing, drawing closer to the scene of the accident, but I didn’t wait around to find out what would happen next. At full speed, I flew away from Earth and made my way home. Home. I’d heard that it’s where the heart is, but since I didn’t have a heart, it became where my family was. It didn’t take me long to reach my home planet Grands. Grands was located at the mid-point between Hell and Earth. The planet was a realm covered in darkness. The surrounding cities in the kingdom looked dead, clinging to it like forsaken slums. The kingdom was filled with smoke and dust. Everything was in ruins. The atmosphere was always foggy, and awful howls and screams were often heard. Grands was ruled by a monarchy: King Daligo, his wife, Queen Lailah, and their daughter, Princess-something–I didn’t remember. We Grandinians were a race of dark angels who brought trouble and harm to the humans on Earth. I was on my way home when I heard noises coming from below me, so I took a detour toward the noise. Upon arriving, I saw four Grandinian angels, hovering in the air. I could see they weren’t a day older than thirteen. “No, from what I saw, they had two teams. I think they called them Barcelona and Real Madrid,” one of the boys said. “Where I was, the children had a football.” The moment the angel said this, a football appeared in

his hands. “And I saw one of them watching others play on his computer, and the players were in a stadium. It looked like this.” At the snap of his fingers, one of the children manifested a football stadium. Now they hovered in the middle of the stadium. “So, how do we become this Barcelona and Real Madrid?” another one asked, looking around the stadium. “I can teach you—I know a lot about human football,” I said, approaching the boys. The moment their eyes met mine, fear flashed on their faces, and they started shaking. Angels’ fear of my presence was old news. A huge picture of me hung in our town square to warn angels about me. I eventually got tired of burning every twelve-foot-tall version of myself that I saw, so I’d decided to let it hang there. “Gi-Gideon,” one of them stuttered, moving backward. They were so frightened that I was sure they forgot they had wings and could fly away. “Hey.” I walked over to the angel who said my name. “First day on Earth?” I asked, but no one answered me. They were too busy trembling. I walked over to the one who held the football. “I could teach you guys how to play.” I took the ball gently from his hands. “We…we just…please don’t hurt us.” The angel I took the ball from was brave enough to speak. His friends remained frozen. I smiled at his innocence. “English football—soccer—isn’t painful. American football, on the other hand, is quite painful.” I turned to his friends and said, “Come closer. I’ll show you how it’s played.” The angels didn’t budge. “You know, football has coaches, and coaches hate repeating themselves.” Still the angels didn’t move. I was sure they had also forgotten how to walk. This didn’t come as a surprise, because, most angels seized up when they saw me. Only a few were ever brave enough to try and fly away. “I don’t bite.” Although my voice sounded annoyed, I wasn’t. “Look,” I said, and then made myself appear in the middle of the field. “It’s simple. You make teams and then—” I was faster than the angel who flew into the sky. I was already in front of him before he could get away. “You’re a clever one, aren’t you?” I shoved him. He plummeted toward the field. I hated when they tried to get away from me. “Anyone else want to run for it?” I asked the remaining three. I smiled as they quickly shook their heads. “Come closer then.” I flew to the angel on the ground, and this time, the three angels walked over to their friend. Their bodies quivered and tears filled their eyes. I started spinning the ball on one finger. “Do you guys want to see a really cool trick?” I made the spinning ball leave my finger so that it spun in the air above us. “Don’t take your eyes off the ball.” The angels slowly lifted their eyes. This time, I heard their hearts racing. I backed away from them,

feeling their pain made me strong. With my eyes still on the spinning ball, I made it descend slowly between them. When it reached the position I wanted, a smile tugged my lips, and without a word, I hurled fire toward the ball. There was no time to scream. The moment the fire hit the ball, it exploded everything in the vicinity, leaving nothing but ashes. “That was a nice game,” I said to myself as I took once more to the sky. When I reached my house, I didn’t enter immediately, simply because I didn’t want to see my little sister, Valoel. My family and I lived in the Forbidden Forest. Well, it was more like I built a house in the forest, and because everyone was scared of me, they automatically called it the Forbidden Forest. My family tagged along because of the saying, “Blood is blood.” I didn’t know what that meant, but through the years, I had learned to accept that it meant, “Gideon, we are going to annoy the hell out of you.” I turned and looked around me. The place was quiet. Grands wasn’t a silent kingdom, there was always some sort of noise disturbing the peace. However, I assumed the Forbidden Forest was quiet because of me. Creatures were afraid to come to the forest because I lived there. I breathed deeply before pushing open the door of our house. Valoel hovered in midair, reading a teen magazine from Earth. To her, humans were the most fascinating creatures alive. My little sister was a know-it-all smarty-pants whose purpose in life seemed to be annoying me to Hell. For some reason, she always seemed to know what I was about to do and what I was thinking. And to make matters worse, she had somehow turned my room into her private hallway; she passed through whenever she wanted. I cursed the day she was born as I walked into the main room. My father, Eson, sat beside a flickering fire, and my mother, Gradla, sat on a chair beneath Valoel, who was hovering in the air. My family knew the only thing I did when they were home was ignore them, so they did the same whenever I was home. “Son.” My mother stood. Okay, so we were not doing the ignoring thing today. “How–how was your day?” she asked. I didn’t know why my mother even bothered speaking to me when she was clearly scared of me. I wanted to answer her, to tell her about my day, but how could I have said, “My day was awesome. I went to Earth and killed a little human boy and his guardian angel.” Yeah, I was sure that wasn’t what she wanted to hear. So, I said what I always say, “Why do you even bother, Mother?” I turned to Valoel when I noticed she hadn’t said a word. Perhaps she was finally scared of me, just like the entire race of guardian angels. “So?” Valoel started. “Did you get me something?”

I really didn’t like her. Hoping to get Valoel to shut up, I created a flame in my hands and hurled it toward her, but it hit the ceiling. Valoel appeared at the other end of the room. “All you had to say was no,” she said playfully. How did she do that? I thought. “I’m just faster,” she said, answering my thoughts. Like always, I pretended I spoke my words out loud because frankly, I knew only one angel who was able to answer the thoughts of others, and her name wasn’t Valoel. “Son.” My father turned his attention to me. This was new. My father rarely talked to me. Ever since I could remember, he acted as if I didn’t exist. He never talked to me about anything, asked if I was doing fine, or even said hello. I didn’t blame him though, who wanted an evil angel as a son? My mother, on the hand, was brave, she always asked me how I was doing and tried to make small talk whenever I was home. “Oh, come on!” I exclaimed. “We’re not going to have a father-and-son talk, are we?” I teased. “If so, I already know what you’re going to say: No alcohol, missing curfew is a crime, and…oh, yes, don’t get a girl pregnant.” Earthly human rules applied here at home as well. “I nailed it, didn’t I?” I glanced at my wrist as if I wore a watch. “Look at that! I missed curfew. I better get to bed then.” I made an attempt to walk away. My father hissed, “The king.” I slowed my pace. “He wants you at the palace at sundown,” my father continued. “Tell him I’m busy.” I kept walking. “Gideon!” he called again. “This is important. You need to be there.” “I can’t.” As guardian angels, we only went to the palace to be assigned to a human. And since I always killed the humans I guided, I practically lived at the palace. However, today I didn’t feel like going to the palace for another assignment. “You have to be there. It’s important,” he said. Why did he think he could tell me what to do? “I said I’m busy.” “But Gideon, this is very—” I didn’t hear the rest of my father’s speech because at that point I had reached my room and locked him and everyone else in my family out. The only thing inside my room was a magical telescope. Every angel had one; it was to help us keep track of the humans whenever we left Earth, which was every day after the sun set. I hardly looked through mine because to me, humans were boring, clueless, and flat-out ridiculous. I didn’t like them, so I killed them, and no one dared tell me to stop because everyone was scared of me.

STATE OF GRACE
“There’s no easier way to say this,

but I’m the best, not because I say so, but because your fears tell me so.”
Melody Manful

In the distance, the Grandinian palace looked like a forsaken fortress, its tall towers shrouded in
shadows. As I flew toward it, the only illumination I saw was cast from two wooden torches flanking the main entrance. I flew until I reached the tower, and I landed at full-speed in front of the immense turret, creating a hole approximately three feet deep in the dirt and filling the air with dust. With my dark wings spread behind me, I lifted myself and emerged from the hole. The moment my feet touched ground again, heat emanated from my body. I stepped forward, leaving a trail of burning footprints. “Gideon,” a shaken voice called from behind me. I turned around, catching the eyes of a girl robed in a hooded gown staring at me. Apparently, the circus was in town. “Can I help you?” I asked, folding my dark wings into my back. “No, I—” the girl started saying, but stopped. I heard her heart racing in fear. “I’m…my name…I’m Princess Sela. Daughter of King Daligo. My father requests an audience in the Great Hall.” Daligo sent his daughter to welcome me? He sure as hell knew how to appoint a welcoming committee. “You’re her? The princess?” I asked. Sela was said to be the angel around, but looking at her, all I saw was another pathetic angel on the verge of collapsing from her own fear. “Well then, your Highness.” I bowed. “My greetings.” I stretched out my hand to greet her properly, but the very moment I did, Sela zoomed into the sky. I couldn’t help but smile. “Relax, I’m not here to hurt you. Well, now that I’m thinking about it, I just might do that.”

I turned and walked over to the main gate. I pushed it, and immediately it crumbled into a heap of dust. I stepped onto the palace grounds and glanced up at Sela, who hovered in the sky. “You coming, Princess?” I walked toward a transparent door that led into the palace. Even though I was always at the palace, I had never been inside the Great Hall because that area was private. I always met the king in the Assignment Hall, which was another fancy name for an office. The first thing I saw when I entered the Great Hall was a black grand piano that stood at the far left end of the hall between two vast, golden marble arches, with statues of ornamented creatures beneath them. Gold-tinted walls were adorned with intricate, golden carvings and antique paintings. The yellow-and-brown marble floor glittered with gilded flourishes and a black-and-brown design of the Grandinian coat of arms. Our coat of arms was a golden shield with a pair of angel wings extending from each side. A diamond located in the center was segmented into four pieces, each piece representing one of the four neighboring worlds. The northern most section represented Lumens, the eastern section Earth, the southern section Grands, and the western section was for the Underworld. The vividness and orderliness of the interior of the palace took me by surprise because Grandinians were supposed to be evil. In the middle of the hall, an oversize golden table surrounded by ten ornamented granite chairs hovered in mid-air. Carvings of lions holding swords in their teeth adorned the tops of the chairs. Huge chandeliers floated in the air beneath an enchanted red sunset. There was no ceiling, but when I looked skyward, it appeared as if the heavens were close enough to touch. The inside of the palace reminded me of an ancient Greek palace, particularly Mt. Olympus’ architecture. Somewhere, a symphony played, and angels sung sweet olden melodies. Everything I looked at seemed to be laden with gold. It was ostentatious, and I hated it. I had no idea why a smoggy and cold place like Grands would have a beautiful hall when the rest of the palace looked nothing like this room. “Where am I?” I asked, thinking the door had been a portal to another realm. Like Lumens. Lumens was a kingdom located between Earth and Heaven. I had heard that Lumens was an enchantingly beautiful kingdom. The sky was always blue, and there was laughter everywhere. I had never been to Lumens because I couldn’t stand to be around people who were selfless and good. There, King Babylon and his wife Queen Charmeine ruled. They had a son, what’s-his-face. “This is the Great Hall.” Sela landed, puffing out her gown. I laughed. “Nice try, Princess.” This couldn’t be the inside of our palace, because Grandinians were evil, and nothing beautiful came from us. “Okay, where’s the catch?” “Humph…I’m not sure what—” “This is a joke, right?” I explored the room, walking over to one of the statues and pacing around it. “Is this a reality show host?” I pointed at the statue. “Because his face looks familiar, and it’s not

Alexander the Great.” “This is the great…great…” Sela murmured. “What?” I was confused. “This is really the inside of the Grandinian Great Hall? What the hell?” When I first entered, I had thought it was a cover-up, but then I thought someone was trying to make fun of me. “What the hell happened? Did you rent it out to Aphrodite as a camp?” I’d have understood if they did because Aphrodite was, after all, the goddess of love and beauty. The moment I asked this, I heard Sela’s heart pound violently. I appeared right beside her and smirked when her heart stopped altogether. “Are you scared of me?” I leaned into her and gently placed one of my hands on the back of her neck. “Is this really the inside of the Grandinian palace?” “This is the…” Sela paused. I waited for her to continue, but she didn’t. “Well, then.” I moved my hand from her neck to her shoulder. “How about this?” Before Sela even blinked, the hall looked like a bomb had exploded. The chairs were wrecked, the piano and pillars lay shattered on the ground, and smoke and dirt filled the air. Now if I’d entered and seen the Great Hall like this, I’d have been right at home. “It looks much better now, don’t you think?” I leaned closer into Sela. “We should—” I bent and whispered in her ear. “We should have dessert.” The moment I said this, a male voice called out from behind. “Father,” Sela gushed and quickly flew away from me. When I turned around, King Daligo stood with two guards behind him. The guards froze in fear the moment they saw me. “I think we’ll hold off that dessert for later,” I said with a forced smile. “My lord.” Sela bowed to her father. With a wave of the king’s hand, the hall returned to its original beauty. I walked over and sat on one of the chairs, propping my black army boots on the table. “You may leave, my Princess,” Daligo said, and with a bow of Sela’s head, she disappeared. “Hai chiesto per me?” I asked the king. “Yes, I did call for you.” “Well, I haven’t got all day.” “You’re here because of the énas you killed this morning after you Shifted,” the king explained. “Shocker! I didn’t see that one coming.” The angels from Lumens were guardian angels who were sent to Earth to guide the humans. The human of a Lumenian was called énas—meaning “one,” because the guardian angels became one with the humans they were assigned to. Grandinian angels, in contrast, went to Earth and tried to harm the humans the Lumenians protected. The whole point of this, of course, was to keep life balanced. Good versus evil, the living versus the dead, right versus wrong.

To keep the balance fair between our two kingdoms, King Daligo’s job was to make sure that he assigned each Grandinian to an énas, but we didn’t have to stay with the énas we were first appointed to; we could move to another énas if we wanted, and this was called the Shift. Some angels chose to Shift when they became bored with their assigned énas or just wanted to have fun with another énas. “As if killing that énas wasn’t enough, I learned that you killed four Grandinians after that,” the king continued, turning to the paintings on the wall. “Well done, Captain Obvious.” I stood and walked toward the artwork, seemingly to admire them. “So tell me, who did these paintings? Was it someone blind?” Daligo glanced at me in surprise. “Or was it you?” This time he laughed. “Gideon, the Elders are not happy,” he said after his laughter died out. Although Lumens and Grands were different, we were still connected because a powerful immortal family who lived in Guardian Paradise, a domain which was said to be located between Lumens and Grands, ruled both our kingdoms. These powerful immortals were known as the Elders. They were said to have descended from the first king of Grands and first Queen of Lumens. Their purpose was to make sure the two kingdoms flourished and did the jobs they were born to do. Since the family was immortal, the parents would cross over to the land of the dead when they thought they had served their purpose as rulers and they were sure their children could take over their ruling duties. This happened from generation to generation. Personally, I found it incredibly stupid that someone would knowingly give up immortality. The current Elders had a daughter, and her name was Madalong. She was said to be the heart of our kingdoms, she could foresee the future, read minds, and travel through time. There were also two princes —twins—called Sun and Moon, who were the very reason why our worlds were balanced. I had never seen the Elders or their children, nor had I ever stumbled across Guardian Paradise. “The Elders have asked me to inform you that killing the humans is against our laws,” King Daligo continued. Did he just say laws? People still made those? I didn’t understand why the king would expect me to follow anyone’s laws but my own. “You move from one énas to another, killing each one, and this isn’t how things work,” he explained. “You are only supposed to harm them, not kill them. This behavior of yours…” I spaced out. I saw the king’s lips moving up and down, but all I heard him saying was, “Blah-blahblah…I like talking…blah-blah-blah…humans.” “Wow,” I said, stopping the king from continuing his monologue. “Seriously, are you trying to talk me to death?” “Maybe it’s time we paired you with a Lumenian whose human would be impossible to kill.” What was that supposed to mean? “Dreaming again, I see,” I said with a smile, thinking the king was out of his mind if he thought I

couldn’t kill a guardian angel’s énas. “I assume you know who Tristan is,” he said, choosing to ignore the fact that I was mocking him. When I heard the name, I guessed where his speech was going. Of course I knew what’s-his-face, everyone knew Tristan. Tristan was the prince of Lumens and was well-known as the most powerful Lumenian alive. He was caring, selfless, compassionate, and hosts of other qualities I didn’t have, which I considered a good thing. At the age of five, I was named the most powerful and evil Grandinian angel alive because everyone was scared of me and because I hurt all the angel children I played with. Tristan was named the opposite because even at the age of five, he was powerful enough to heal all the children I hurt. Basically, he was Mr. Save the Universe, and I was Mr. Destroy the Universe. Like sweet and sour. And that was one of the reasons why I didn’t like him. He was everything I loathed. “Tristan?” I asked. “Never heard of him,” I said, flashing the king another mocking smile. “Tristan is the guardian angel all the Grandinians want me to appoint them to,” Daligo said. “Because they see him as a challenge, and those I appoint to him see themselves as worthy. Here in Grands, it has become a race for all the Grandinian angels to Shift to Tristan and his human so they can try and defeat him. They find it to be the ultimate challenge because no one has ever defeated Tristan,” Daligo continued. “The angels always Shift to him just to get a chance with him. Many have tried to harm the humans he guides, but they all have failed.” “You didn’t summon me here to tell me how awesome he is, did you?” I asked. I knew about Tristan’s power. I had never Shifted to him, because for some reason, I could never find him on Earth. Some angels I could sense, but never Tristan. It was as though he didn’t exist. “The Elders and I have decided that you should Shift to Tristan and his human because he’d be difficult to defeat,” the king said, a smile playing on his lips. “Really?” Was this the king’s idea of a challenge? “You want to pair me with the prince?” “Last month, we assigned Tristan to a human named Abigail Cells. She is seventeen. It’s her final year of high school. She lives with her mother in San Francisco. She’s a very caring and loving girl, volunteers for a lot of charity work, and we consider her one of the more unselfish young people on Earth.” I nearly gawked at him, but I stopped myself short of looking ridiculous. Really, I didn’t understand. Tristan was guiding Miss I-Care-About-the-Freaking-World-More-Than-My-Life? “Her mother is famous and consequently very busy,” said Daligo, looking out the open window as he spoke. “And she barely has time for her daughter.” He paused. “Not that Abigail needs the guidance. She is guarded twenty-four seven by human bodyguards. But like all humans, she needs a guardian angel.” In other words, Tristan wasted his time guiding a spoiled, rich girl who was constantly surrounded by people.

“Here’s all you need to know about her. I think a little challenge would be good for you.” The king snapped his fingers, and a notebook materialized out of thin air and flew to me. I caught the notebook and placed it on the table in front of me “I’m honored and all, but I don’t—” The king cut me off. “I thought you’d be up for it, but it seems even you don’t think that someone as powerful as Tristan can be—” “Your kingship,” I interrupted. What the hell was wrong with him? Did he seriously think I was afraid of what’s-his-face? “I’m up for the challenge. I just don’t like being told what to do. And it seems as if you’re telling me what to do with this particular assignment.” “I’m merely doing my job by pairing you with the prince, but of course…if Tristan becomes too challenging and you can’t handle him, you—” Daligo didn’t finish what he wanted to say because the flames I threw hit one of the nearby guards squarely in the chest, and he instantly burned to ashes. I didn’t wait for the second guard to panic. I appeared in front of him and ripped his heart straight out of his chest. The angel fell, twitching at my feet. “No!” the king shouted in horror and disbelief. At the sound of Daligo’s scream, someone rushed into the room. “My lord,” the angel said, clearly shaken. I turned around, and there he stood. Tristan.

DARK SIDE
“It’s the wish they make on a star.

It’s the dream they have from afar. It’s a price that’s only paid in blood. It’s a hunger that tastes like victory. It’s dominion.”
Melody Manful – ‘Dominion Theme Song’

Tristan? Why Tristan? What the hell was what’s-his-face doing in our palace?
“Tristan,” the king said, hurrying over to him. “I’m fine.”

He didn’t look fine. I could see that he was stunned. The king looked at me, his eyes opened wide with grief. I assumed he was trying to process what had happened. Well, my lord, I wrapped up your guards and shipped them off to Pleasantville. “Want a chair, my lord?” I threw in a smile for free and dropped the guard’s bloody heart on the ground. A moment of silence in which we all stood still, staring at each other. Tristan and Daligo looked forlornly at me as if my ship had just arrived from Hell. “All right, you guys win!” I shouted as if we had been having a staring contest. “If you’ve got something to say, let it out.” “Gideon,” Tristan finally said in the form of a greeting. “That’s my name,” I sneered. “Don’t wear it out.” “It’s been a long time,” Tristan said. Was this guy for real? Of course, it had been a long time. The first time I met Tristan, we were both four. The only reason we talked then was because we felt a strange, but strong, deep connection to each other. Tristan was curious as to why he felt such a connection to me, and he had asked me if I felt it, too. I had. Neither of us could explain it, so we chose to ignore it. The last time I saw him was a year ago, when he tried to stop me from killing some innocent angels who were on their way home from Earth. Of course, he’d tried, but he wasn’t able to save them all. One small victory for me. “Apparently not long enough,” I grumbled. “Tristan was here to…” I waited for Daligo to continue his sentence, but he didn’t. “Well, if this little rendezvous is over, I’ll go grab some dinner now.” I didn’t wait for an answer. When I snapped my fingers, I found myself at the center of Grands. The center of Grands, more commonly called the town square, was where angels and other creatures from different planets came to shop and sell their wares. It was a lot like New York City. Creatures from many planets came to the town square. Aside from the market, there were also museums that displayed articles from Earth so the younger creatures could learn about humans. This way, if they ever visited Earth, they would know how to blend in. The angels who were older and no longer went to Earth told tales of their journeys to the visiting creatures. Gods from Olympus came to talk of their purpose on Earth. Athena loved coming here and teaching others about the lives of humans and other species from around the universe. Creatures also came here because although the Grandinians brought havoc to the human race, they weren’t evil creatures, and they were kind to others. There were very few like me—those who chose to be evil to others. Most of the visitors were as peaceful as the Lumenians. However, I only went to the town square for one reason: to kill.

As I stood in the middle of the marketplace, no one spotted me because they were all too preoccupied with goods and with each other. Young angels chased one another through the crowd, shouting and laughing. Some of the people were mesmerized by an earthly house hanging in mid-air. Women, mostly, picked through colorful clothing from different planets. “Gideon, what do you mean by grabbing some dinner?” Tristan again! Seriously, did he live in Grands now? Tristan landed across the marketplace in his angel form, glimmering as brightly as ever. His huge white wings stretched out behind him. “My lord,” I bowed down to him, “I think I wasn’t clear on that part.” I then explained, in the most patient voice I could master. “My fault. Please allow me to clear things up.” Heat emerged from my hands as I conjured a ball of fire. I launched the fire straight toward a couple of angels who stood beside a table, admiring a computer. When the fire was inches from hitting them, it turned to ice, frozen in mid–air. “I think I got it,” Tristan said through his teeth. Someone shouted my name. Panic ensued. “Good,” I said, clenching my own teeth. I threw another fireball at the escaping creatures, and again, Tristan stopped it. I threw another, which barely left my fingertips before it evaporated. I growled in anger. My whole body heated, but I knew it wasn’t the fire burning me from the inside. “I can’t let you hurt these innocent creatures,” Tristan said, staring at me from across the marketplace. I glared as anger boiled through me. “That’s a shame.” I took two steps closer to him, put my hands together, and hurled a flaming orb at him, but it froze, thawed, and sprinkled to the ground before it could reach him. I released several at a time, throwing flames in every direction so that there was no way he could stop them all. Displays shattered, creatures screamed as the flames burst against their bodies. The screaming made me happy. I turned, walked away from Tristan, and approached the creatures still stumbling in the chaos. Black dust swirled behind my every step. My footprints burned holes into the ground. I turned full circle to admire my destruction. “Gideon!” Tristan shouted as he waved his hands. A circle of air shielded some of the creatures. Was he challenging me? I threw a fireball toward the circle, but it evaporated the moment it reached the barrier. I tried once more, and again it evaporated on contact. “They are innocent!” His voice, filled with pain, echoed through the marketplace. “Innocent?” Anger rippled through me as I pressed my teeth together, clenching my fists. “No one is innocent.” Tristan landed right in front of me. “Right now, I see you hurting them for no reason, and that makes them innocent.” I released a humorless laugh. “You tell Daligo I accept his challenge.” Our faces were so close by then that my red eyes reflected in his blue ones.

“I guess I’ll be seeing you tomorrow,” he said. I pulled away from him and took a quick look around at the smoldering embers. A few bodies lay strewn across broken displays and crushed pottery. “Save me a chair.” I hurled flames every each way, and as much as Tristan tried, he couldn’t stop all of them. I smiled as painful screams filled the air around us once more. I glanced at Tristan, who was too busy protecting creatures he didn’t know, and hurled another ball of flame toward him. He spotted the flames within milliseconds, and with a flick of his hand, the flames spun back toward me. I jumped out of the way, barely escaping my own creation. This time, when I opened my hands toward Tristan, flames weren’t released, but rather dark smoke. Tristan stopped the smoke between us, combatting the dark haze with a blue smoke of his own. I pushed with all my strength, but he countered. Surprisingly, the blue smoke started to move closer to me, emanating powerful heat that burned against my skin. I’d heard Tristan was powerful, but not this powerful. His smoke crept closer and closer to me, and I feared I might lose. But, then again, losing wasn’t an option for me. I braced myself for the pain and then released my hold on the black smoke. The moment I did, Tristan’s smoke hit me hard in the chest, sending me crashing through the tables and computers behind me. Tristan’s blue smoke hurt. I felt as if I were literally on fire, my whole body weakening, and although I grew stronger on pain and was standing in a marketplace filled with pain, I couldn’t regain my strength. I forced myself to stand. Anger burned through me, hotter than even the flames I released from my hands. Using my mind, I was able to inflict pain onto others. I lifted my hand, causing a little girl trying to escape to float into the air. The girl screamed in pain as I mentally tortured her. “Gideon!” Tristan shouted, and by the time his voice died out, the little girl was safely on the ground beside him. I raised my hand again, this time levitating two angels, a women and a little boy. They screamed together as I brought down my hands. Tristan stopped them, too, in mid-air before they could crash into the ground. I wasted no time in creating another fireball in my hand and swiftly hurling it at Tristan. This time he was too late to stop it. The fire hit him dead-on. I smiled as the flames formed a circle around him, and he yelled. Some of the angels shouted his name and rushed to his aid, forgetting that I was there and that the danger hadn’t passed. Of course they wouldn’t want Tristan to get hurt. No one wanted Tristan harmed because he was a hero and the only effective weapon against me. It took Tristan mere seconds to free himself of the flames. Although he was in pain, I knew he

would refuse to leave. I didn’t want to be the weakest link and leave, even though I was also in pain, so I did the one thing that I could think of. “Until tomorrow, your highness.” I hurled a ball of fire toward the angels beside him. I didn’t wait to see if it burned anyone, which I doubted it did. I snapped my fingers, transporting myself out of the town square.

YESTERYEAR
*Abigail*
“Oh what a selfishly beautiful thing this life would be

if I were to actually live, love, and breathe for none but me.”
Melody Manful

I’d been on this road before. I’d driven on it more times than I could count. My personal trainer,
Logan, and I drive on this very road every month. I was no stranger to this drive, but today, I didn’t even recognize the road signs we passed by, although I knew each and every one from memory. I made it my mission to look nowhere but out the passenger side window, but I still felt like the car was crawling at a snail’s pace. The ride only took forty minutes when I rode with Logan: today, however, it felt like it was taking years. Maybe it was because I was nervous, or that I had a chunk of schoolwork waiting at home for me, or it might be the fact that I was sitting next to my father, Brian Cells, a man who everyone believed had died fifteen years ago. The story was that my father died in the army when I was just two, but that story was a cover-up. “How was school?” my father asked, and I turned my head to look at him. The moment my eyes met his, I looked back out the window. “Same old, same old. They talk, I listen,” I whispered. “That sounds like fun,” he said, and then more awkward silence followed. The real story also happened fifteen years ago. My father, who worked for the CIA as a secret agent at the time, had his identity compromised. He was followed to the house he shared with my mother and me

and had almost been killed trying to protect us; my mother had been badly wounded from a gunshot. After the incident, my parents and I received new identities. In the reports the police released afterward, both my parents and I were pronounced dead. My mother and I moved to San Francisco, away from our home in Beverly Hills, and the CIA hooked my mom up with a job at one of the biggest fashion houses in San Francisco. Three years later, she opened her own boutique, and twelve years later, she was one of the most well known designers with her own fashion empire, Cells. The public called her “the goddess of fashion.” My mother wasn’t worried that my father’s enemies might recognize her, always touting that she refused to live her life in fear. I loved my mother’s bravery. My father, meanwhile, had received a new identity from the CIA and promised to stay away from us for our safety. He was working on an important case at the time and couldn’t stop anyway. Eventually that case led to another and another, until he decided to stay with the CIA for good. “So, how has training been going with Logan?” my father asked to close the awkward silence that had ensued his earlier question. At this point, I wasn’t even sure we were on the right road, although I was pretty sure the road to the training center hadn’t changed since the last time I was on it. Logan McCartney was my personal trainer. He was in his mid-thirties. Before my father hired him as my trainer, Logan worked for the U.S. Marine Corps. He wasn’t built like some of the troops I had seen before; however, he was a good trainer and very handy with technology. The coolest thing he’d taught me, aside from how to shoot a soda can with an arrow and a gun, was how to hack into computers. It wasn’t in his job description for training me, but I’d begged him to teach me, and he couldn’t resist showing off. Our training sessions mainly took place in a field behind our house. Logan and my father had installed reactive targets there for archery and gun practice. Once, Logan made me stand in the rain for hours shooting arrows: luckily for him, my mother was at one of her charity events. When I wasn’t shooting arrows or bullets, I was throwing up my fists during combat training. “Good.” I finally answered my father. “Logan is a really good teacher.” Expect for the time he’d made me run a marathon while he followed in a car, eating and drinking water I’d begged for. “It’s good to hear you say that.” I wanted to continue the conversation, but I didn’t know how I was supposed to respond to that statement. It wasn’t because my father and I had nothing to talk about or that I was surprised to have my allegedly dead father in my life. Frankly, the thrill of having a secret father was gone: my mother told me the truth about my father when I was eight, and ever since then I’d been more than happy to have him around the few times he was able to visit. My father came to visit once every three or four months. He’d wake me up in the middle of the night, and we’d sit and talk for hours. Sometimes he’d stay for months, but other times he had to leave minutes after he arrived.

During his long-term stays, we tried to act as if we were a normal family, as if he were always around. We’d go ice-skating, he’d help me with my schoolwork, and he even taught me how to play the piano. He had loved music when he was young. One time when he came home several months ago, there had been a problem with my mother’s car. He and I decided to fix it for her, but when we were done, the car wouldn’t even start. We still laugh about that. The longest time I’d ever spent with him was three months, during a vacation at a remote resort in Mexico. We were away from everything and all the distractions, and I had loved it. Today, however, I was nervous because I knew what awaited me at the end of our car ride. One disadvantage of being in the CIA was the fact that he had enemies and would always have them, enemies that he had to protect my mother and me from, so that what happened years ago wouldn’t repeat itself. My father’s fear of either me or my mom getting hurt again had driven him to hire Logan to train me, so I could protect myself if anything were to happen while he was away. I was thirteen when he came to visit with Logan. My father told me that although I was watched twenty four hours a day by my live-in bodyguards, he needed to be sure that I’d be able to defend myself if his safety got compromised again and if someone found out the truth about my mother and me. From that day onward, Logan trained me in combat, guns, archery, and anything else he thought I’d need to survive if I were kidnapped. I seriously doubted I’d get kidnapped because my bodyguards followed me everywhere I went: the only place Felix and Ben didn’t follow me to was, well, school. “Are you nervous?” my father asked, and again I made the effort to turn to him and keep a conversation going. My father looked different every time I saw him. Scanning him now, he appeared to have lost weight. A bandage tightly circled his left bicep. “I’m all right,” I lied. All right was the last thing I was. I should have stayed home with my mother. She didn’t want anything to do with training and the CIA. She even told me I could stay home with her if I didn’t want to come out with my father. I couldn’t tell her I wanted to stay because I knew she, too, wanted me to be able to defend myself if something were to happen. The road we were on led to a CIA training center somewhere east of San Francisco. Logan took me there once a month so I could practice my skills and use the advanced training facility they had. Shooting paper targets and soda cans at the back of our house was nothing compared to the CIA’s technologically advanced targets. Sometimes, I faked being ill just to get out of going, but Logan always saw through my pretense. “You know you didn’t have to agree to come with me.” My father had sensed the deceit in my voice. “We could have stayed home and played a game of cards or watched football—I hear Jake and Danny talked you into becoming a fan of football.” It was amazing sometimes how much my father knew about my life, especially since he was never home. But then again, I could hardly be surprised, not when I knew that the gold wristwatch I wore twenty-four-seven had a tracking device embedded in it.

“I’m fine, dad.” Another lie I hoped was believable. “And Jake and Danny are pretty convincing.” Jake and Danny were two of my best friends. “So, Ronaldo or Messi?” he asked. I didn’t understand why guys thought girls only liked football because of Cristiano Ronaldo. “I’m a Barcelona fan, dad,” I said, finally finding a little energy in my voice, although I could tell I sounded defensive. “Barça is a good team, and that’s why I like them. Though it doesn’t hurt that Messi is an amazing player.” “So it has nothing to do with how hot you girls think Ronaldo is?” This time I allowed myself to catch his gaze, and I held it. “Seriously dad, it’s all about the game.” Again, my voice sounded defensive. My father smiled, and I couldn’t help asking, “What?” “That’s the first time I’ve heard you take an interest in anything and talk about it with a little passion.” Wasn’t it a shame, though, that all we could talk about was football? But then again, what were we supposed to talk about, the fact that I walked around waiting for something bad to happen because he imprinted that idea in my head? “I talk about a lot of things I’m passionate about.” I looked away from him again. I couldn’t tell him that I wasn’t truly passionate about anything, because he took that right away from me when he handed me one, one that involved guns. Suddenly, the car came to a stop. I glanced out of the window and saw the familiar old, seemingly abandoned warehouse. Suddenly all the air in the car seemed to have disappeared. I couldn’t breathe for fear of collapsing if I did. I didn’t want to disappoint my father. Logan and I had been training really hard, and from what I’d heard, my father was this brilliant, hard-working, awesome secret agent, and I was pretty sure he expected me to be just as good as him—or at least appear half as good. He needed assurance that I’d be able to take care of myself, and if he found out that all those years of training were a waste, he’d be disappointed in me. I definitely didn’t want him to be disappointed in me or worried about my mother and me. “You coming, princess?” the door to my side of the car opened. I hadn’t even noticed that my father had stepped out and walked around to my side. I swallowed my fear, got out a “yes,” and with shaking hands pulled myself out of the car. I had put on my training outfit before we left. I followed my father into the warehouse. The outside of the warehouse didn’t look like much. It seemed old and abandoned. A tall, chain-link fence surrounded it on all sides, and rusted barbed wire clung to the top. Signs warning of Danger and No Trespassing littered the fence. The inside of the building, though, was a different story. The first time Logan brought me here, I had refused to believe this was where we were supposed to be before we entered.

“Just relax,” my father said as he pulled open the door to the warehouse. When we stepped inside, we entered a musty, ruined space. Broken pieces of wood and bricks surrounded us. I watched expectantly as my father pushed aside one of the slabs of wood and a hidden keypad appeared on the ground. First the keypad asked for my father’s thumbprint, and after that his password. He punched in the password, and I turned just as the hidden door into the training center opened. My father took my hand in his, and together we entered. The moment we stepped into the hall and the door closed firmly behind us, all the lights turned on and machines roared to life. “Welcome, Agent V,” a machine voice announced my father’s arrival. I followed my father down the hall. The training hall was divided into three sectors. We stood at the forefront of the second sector, where the more advanced training equipment was located. The first sector had excise machines, boxing bags, mats for push-ups, sit-ups, or whatever work out one chose, as the first sector was the warm-up sector. The last sector was the all-in-one sector. The sector was made up of different-sized rooms, some of which contained broken electronics that the agents had to fix. I was pretty convinced that there were bombs somewhere. There was also a swimming hall. The first time Logan took me there, I thought swimming laps was the only thing I’d have to do, until he asked me to hold my breath under the water. That day, I found out that one minute and five seconds wasn’t good enough. There was also an indoor shooting range. A small emergency room was filled with shelves of medicine. There was one room that contained only metal spikes fastened to the walls, and the only way to go from one end of the room to the next was to swing by them. Logan and I usually stuck with the basics, but on days when he wanted to push me to my limit, he gave me more advanced tasks. “You ready, princess?” my father asked. Saying no would have been an understatement, so I simply went with a nod.

TASK FORCE
“Funny thing is, we always hide our bruises,

Always forgetting, the scars would show.”
Melody Manful

Okay, you can do this, Abigail. I mean, how hard could it be to climb a rope?
Well, this rope looked more liked a fishing net with bigger holes. The first time I made it to the top of this particular rope without falling, I bought myself a tub of ice cream. It was more like my bodyguard, Felix, bought me ice cream because I couldn’t go into the store on my own without getting mobbed by the paparazzi. “You understand the task ahead?” my father asked me, already taking his position behind a punching bag. The task he was talking about was more of a challenge, really. We were at the part of the building where training equipment such as the rope were located. And a stone wall was built in the middle of the room. Behind that, the floor was divided so that big holes lay between the floors, approximately eleven feet deep with nets at the bottom. Each hole was about six-and-a-half feet wide. The thought of even attempting to jump across them scared me, and the nets below did absolutely nothing to calm me down. There were three holes to jump before we’d reach the single rope that had to be climbed in order to reach the quiver and bow that were placed on top of a wooden platform sticking out from the side of the wall. After we got a hold of the bow and quiver, we’d have to race behind a black line, where we’d have three chances to shoot at a red button that was fastened underneath a screen that was counting down the ten minutes we had to complete the task. The challenge was to make it through all those steps before the countdown stopped—the real challenge for me was to try to get close to beating my father. The CIA agents had to repeat the exercise over and over until they got it. I tried it once whenever I was with Logan, but I’d never even made it past the third hole: I always fell down. We had to warm up before we started the challenge, which consisted of punching a big, red boxing bag followed by hand-to-hand combat with my father. I quickly wound a wrap around my hands to protect them from the punching bag. “What does the winner get?” I asked as my fist connected with the punching bag. My father, who was holding the bag, took a step back and steadied himself so my next punch didn’t take him by surprise. “The loser tells mom he or she broke that lamp in the sitting room yesterday,” he said with a teasing smile. “But you broke it,” I argued, taking another punch at the bag. “You were that one who knocked it down.” “It was an accident.” He defended himself. “Sure, if you call flying through the air at top speed just to be the first one to get the TV remote an accident, then yes.”

“Still an accident.” He winked while I counted punching the bag, this time three direct punches in a row, before I took a breath. “You punch heavier than you look. Logan must have been teaching you well,” he complimented as my hand collided with the bag again. I continued hitting the bag for almost half an hour as my father commented on my moves and made suggestions on how to improve, and he handed me a water bottle when I finished. Right after the short water break, we moved to combat training. It was here that I’d be able to show off any self-defense skills Logan had taught me. My father tossed me a pair of boxing gloves and tightened another pair on his own hands—at the intensity with which we trained, we’d be bruised all over if it weren’t for a little bit of padding. “Your arm needs to be lower.” He took hold of my arm and bent it into the position he meant. I didn’t say anything in response. I learned this trick from Logan the last time I’d begged him to cancel one of our training sessions; because I wanted to hang out with my friends, he’d bargained, saying that if I could knock him down during one-on-one combat, he’d give me the day off. He’d started off by letting me beat him until the last minute, at which point he took me down, and I’d earned myself an extra session for losing. I didn’t want to lose and disappoint my father or brand Logan as a not-good-enough teacher. “Lower your elbow.” He didn’t wait for me to do this myself: he did it for me. “Now, try and block my arm.” When my father swung his arm, it didn’t hit me in the stomach; instead, I blocked it. “Good,” he said as I blocked his fist once more. I could see from the way he threw his arms that he was going easy on me. “Twenty bucks if I take you down,” I said as I blocked his fist from hitting my jaw. When I said this he laughed, and then he stopped fighting. “Seriously?” he asked, shocked. “Sweetheart, I don’t want to take your twenty bucks.” “But I wanna take yours.” And with that, I ran my fist straight into his jaw, taking him by surprise. He groaned in pain, and then his fist passed by my chin, inches away from contact. “I wasn’t ready.” “Sorry, I didn’t know the enemy would wait for me to be ready before he beat me to death or shot me,” I said with a fake smile. “You asked for it!” and just like that, I was groaning with my hand on my stomach. I knew my best friend Sarah’s father came to her cheerleading competitions and cheered her on; mine took me to abandoned buildings and beat the crap out of me. “You do realize that I’m your daughter and also a girl, right?” I asked, as I stood upright and swung my hands toward my father’s face. “You don’t hit like a girl, and the enemy is going to hit you even harder when he learns you’re my daughter.” Touché. This time around when I blocked my father’s fist, he blocked mine too, and we continued like that

for about five more minutes. Sometimes he managed to swing a blow at me, and other times I got him. None of us looked ready to give up and declare the other a winner. “You tricked me into thinking you were bad, didn’t you?” my father asked when my next blow landed on his stomach. “No, I would never.” I crouched down so that his fist flew over my head, and then I threw another punch at his stomach. I didn’t wait for him to pull himself back up when I struck a punch that landed on the side of his face. He pulled up and swung his fist toward my face. I assumed he’d do that, so when I blocked his blow, I didn’t let go of his hands; instead, I immediately placed my foot forward for leverage and pulled him toward me so that he tripped on my legs and then bang, he fell, and I won. “Yes!” I rejoiced, suddenly getting a little hopeful. Maybe I could win this, maybe I could do this after all. “Have you considered a future here?” my father asked as he stood up. “What happened to Princeton, Yale, or Harvard?” I asked. He and my mother had already mapped out my future—the very future they were afraid I wouldn’t even have. “Those are still part of the plan,” he said, and then he started moving toward the rope. I trailed him and gently took a pair of gloves he held out to me. Looking at the fishnet rope stretching above us, I inhaled deeply. I could climb: I’d done it more than enough, but I was shaking because of the tiny, little known fact that I was afraid of heights. I hated anything that involved heights. The thought of sleeping with a gun didn’t even scare me as much as the rope in front of me did. “Justin, start the countdown,” my father said, staring at one of the cameras behind us. I knew there was someone there, watching us. There had to be someone watching the building and the agents at all times, because sometimes the agents needed quick medical care. I managed to take one more deep breath before a gong went off, signaling the start of the challenge. I couldn’t see the big screen because it was further up ahead. My father had almost reached the middle of the rope by the time I got the courage to start climbing. “You’re not letting me win, are you?” he asked, stopping so that I could reach him. “And I’m serious, loser gets mom’s angry stare.” I knew that stare, the one that said more than words could. Suck it up, Abigail. I breathed in and started climbing. When I reached the top of the rope, my father was already descending on the other end. I inhaled again quickly and told myself that I wasn’t going to collapse, and then I went down again with no problems. I felt so happy when my feet touched the ground. At this point my father was already using the metal spikes on the wall to climb up. “You are too slow, Abigail,” he said when I managed to make it halfway up the wall. He was standing underneath me, having already gone down. What my father seemed to be forgetting was that I hadn’t gotten the years of advanced training and field training like he had. I was only just starting.

“Are you trying to make me win?” I asked nonchalantly to cover my sadness that he was talking to me in his not-so-impressed voice. “You wish.” And then he started climbing up again. This time around, I pushed myself and made it to the ground before he did, but when he reached the hole, he jumped right to the other side, leaving me standing still. “Are you letting me win now?” he teased. I went back a few steps. “You wish.” Then I sprinted and jumped. I was pretty sure I would land on the net below like last time, so when my feet actually touched solid ground, I was more surprised than my father. “You did it,” he said, and then both of our eyes flickered toward the next hole, and we started running toward it. We both jumped at the same time: he landed perfectly, and I almost fell, but luckily for me, my father reached down and caught me. “Twenty more bucks to whoever wins!” he said, and then we started running again for the final hole. The moment both our feet touched solid ground at the end of the last jump, we rushed toward the rope and started climbing. My heart felt like it was nearly jumping out of my chest because I was dangling on a rope in midair, but I refused to stop now. My father and I both reached our quiver and bow at the same time. We both threw the bow and quiver to the ground below and started climbing back down. He was fast going down. He had his bow and arrows and was rushing toward the black line before I reached to grab mine. “Shoot all three arrows into the red button on time and you win,” my father said, and then he lifted his bow up with an arrow loaded. I finally saw the timer, which flashed twenty seconds until the game was over. My father’s first arrow went straight into the red button. I quickly shot my own and felt delighted when it also hit the red button. My second arrow shot into the center of the red button moments after my father’s landed perfectly beside his first one. “Five. Four…” my father’s last arrow landed in the red button, and he rejoiced. “Three. Two…” I shot my last arrow, but the timer buzzed right before my arrow landed in the red button. “I am awfully disappointed in you for breaking your mother’s beautiful lamp,” my father said. He proceeded to place his bow and arrow on the floor and do a victory dance that I hoped for both our sakes he didn’t do with people around. “You know, children pick up on what their parents do, so if you’re asking me to lie, I might just lie at some point…” He cut me off with a “don’t even go there.” Then he walked over to me with a smile on his face and

took the bow from me. “I’m so proud of you,” he said as he put my bow on the ground. “I’m really, truly proud of you,” he said again as he threw his arms around me. It was now that I realized my body hurt from the combat training. “My little girl.” He pulled away. “Look at you, all grown up.” I believed from the tone of his voice that he was proud of me. “Logan is a good teacher,” I told him. “And I’d take care of Mom, so don’t worry when you leave. Nothing will happen to us.” “I’m worried about you, too, honey,” he said. “And I never wanted you in my crazy world. When you were born, I dreamed of riding ponies and having princess tea parties with you. And now, you’re not my little girl anymore.” My father sounded sad, and I knew he regretted the life that we were forced to live. “Dad.” I forced a smile. “I’m all right. Besides, ponies and princesses are overrated.” He smiled. “I’d still have loved to attend a tea party with you,” he said, pulling me into another hug. I winced against his chest. “Maybe next time,” I said, hoping those three days he’d spent with my mother and me weren’t the only time we had with him. “It’s a date,” he whispered, still holding on to me. I wanted to pull away from him because my body ached, but I didn’t, because hugging him was something I wished could happen daily. “I’m on a break for two months, so I’ll be popping in often.” I felt my spirit light up with happiness. “Can’t you just stay with us?” “You know I can’t.” I knew that would be the answer the moment I opened my mouth to ask the question, but I couldn’t stop myself from asking it anyway. I couldn’t let go of the hope that he would one day say yes. “Come on, let’s clean up and get you home to confess,” and with that we went to work cleaning up after ourselves. The ride back home was much more fun and relaxed. We talked about different ways I could tell my mother that I broke her lamp. He talked about some of the places he’d been, and I told him about my friends and things my mother and I did while he was away. When we got home, my mother took one look at me and started telling my father never to take me anywhere near the CIA training center again, but of course, she always said this. I took the opportunity to tell her that I broke her lamp, but she didn’t even care, she just continued to grill my father. I hung out for a while with my parents and then said goodbye so they could have time alone together. My mother was always happiest when she was around my father, so I made sure she was able to spend time with him alone whenever he visited. When my parents were together, their happiness was infectious. Everyone around them smiled because they looked so in love. I loved seeing them together

because whenever my father was around, our lives felt complete. I was glad my father was going to be dropping in and out for two months. I would be able to spend more time with him, and my mother would smile without pain in her eyes. The only time I saw my mother happy—besides the times my father came to visit—was when she was with me. I was the center of her universe. She lit up when she talked about fashion because she loved it, but whenever I smiled or laughed, she automatically did the same. It was the same for my father when he was with me. He loved when I was happy. Every time he came to visit, he constantly tried to make me laugh. I loved seeing them happy, too, so I attempted to do whatever would bring them happiness. Going back into my room, I didn’t think much of my pain. Instead, I was delighted with my father’s pride in my training skills. I’d trained with Logan for years. The first time Logan handed me a gun, although it had been empty, I freaked out. We started my training with paintballs and empty guns until I was ready to train with a real gun. I didn’t understand then why I had to learn to use those weapons just because of my father’s work, but now I did—the world was a battlefield, and I was born right in the middle of it. Now I could hold any weapon without flinching. Training with Logan wasn’t something my mother was happy with, especially when it came to guns, but she couldn’t forbid me to learn because she agreed that I needed to be able to defend myself. However, she herself never trained. I suspected it was due to her aversion to weapons. The scariest thing about knowing how to use all those weapons was how much I was always tempted to put my knowledge of them to the test. I didn’t share this desire with my mother. What she didn’t know wouldn’t kill her.

INNOCENCE
“We live and learn to share good laughs.

We try and we cry to play sad songs. We stay and we go to say goodbyes. And we hate and love to share memories.”
Melody Manful



Abby, is everything all right up there?”

Crap. “Yes, Mom, I’m almost done!” I jumped off my bed and hurried into my walk-in closet. For some reason, my body wasn’t hurting anymore from training the previous night. My mother was launching her pre-spring collection, an addition to her fashion line Cells. Although I knew she was still sad that my father left, she wasn’t about to miss the after-party. She asked me to get ready for the party, but instead I took a shower, called my friends, and rushed into bed to read Romeo and Juliet for the millionth time. I grabbed the first dress I saw upon entering my closet. I was in luck; I had retrieved a red, short Alexander McQueen dress. I tugged it on and then snatched a pair of black Christian Louboutin pumps from a shelf and rushed into my bathroom. I quickly brushed my hair, slipped into the heels, and dashed out of my room as fast as I could. “I know you don’t like crowds, honey, but please smile for me tonight,” my mother said when I came downstairs. She stood together with one of my bodyguards, Ben, who was a dapper thirty-threeyear-old with thinning blonde hair. Ben clutched a camera in his hand. “Mom, I’m happy for you,” I said, repeating a response I’d said so many times before. I hated being famous and having to smile and pose for the paparazzi, not to mention being an accomplice to their cheesy fake stories. Sometimes I wished I could trade places with a regular person, but then I remembered that I should be grateful for what I had. “Smile, Abby,” Ben said as he snapped a picture of my mother and me. “You look beautiful,” he added, and my smile disappeared. The camera’s flash reflected on the chandelier hanging between the double staircase, reminding me of all the cameras that were probably about to invade my space. “Stop saying that, Ben,” my mother teased. “Abby still thinks she’s ugly.” “Abby, you know beautiful doesn’t just mean having good looks,” he said. “You’re brilliant and caring. And that makes you beautiful.” “I have the media talking about everything I do all the time. At school, it’s like I’m parting the Red Sea when I walk down the hall, and kids keep showing me magazines and asking for beauty tips.” I hated being a part of the chaos, but my mother and Ben just laughed. “They do that because you inspire them,” my mother said, just like she always did when the topic snaked its way into our conversations. Couldn’t someone else inspire them? Why me? I wasn’t surprised my mother said this, even at the age of forty-two she looked like she was thirty. She had dark, wavy hair that cascaded down her shoulders and golden brown eyes like mine. She’d always been the cool, beautiful mother. She graced the covers of a lot of magazines. I’d lost count long ago of how many times she’d been named the most beautiful or one of the most beautiful women alive. Each year her name was at least mentioned in that category.

“I just want to come home and be Abigail, not a beauty queen…just me.” “So innocent, so adorable.” My mother posed for one last picture with me. I wasn’t innocent or adorable. As a matter of fact, I was sometimes the opposite of the loving, caring, role model Abigail that everyone knew. The public loved me because I was charitable. My fans loved me because of my mother—it didn’t hurt that I’d inherited her sense of style and her friendly nature. My family and friends loved me because I was Abigail. And by my friends’ and family’s definitions, Abigail meant a clumsy, loving, caring, awkward, and selfless young lady who would do anything for those she loves. Yes, that was the Abigail everyone knew. However, there was another Abigail, too—one who liked the rush of danger and playing with guns. I didn’t quite understand her because she was nothing like the Abigail that everyone loved. That other, secret Abigail was lethal.

Jump—don’t jump—jump—don’t jump—jump—don’t—
“Abigail!” my best friend Sarah shouted my name, jerking me back from my reverie. Damn, I should have jumped. I looked around, only to realize I was in a restroom. I could hear music booming in the background. I knew I was at the party, I just didn’t remember how I arrived. “You weren’t planning on sneaking out through the window, were you?” Sarah walked toward me. “Do you have a ladder?” Although my friends and I were close, they didn’t know about my training. To them I was the luckiest girl alive. I had a mother who loved me, and we were rich as well. I didn’t tell them about our past; after all, what was I supposed to say? “Hey, by the way, my father isn’t dead, he’s not allowed to see me because he’s a secret agent, and he has to stay away from my mother and me because his presence would put us in danger.” Yeah, I was pretty sure that conversation would be a shock. So, I did the only thing I could—kept half of my life hidden. “If you make me miss this party, I’m going to kill you.” Sarah frowned, snatching my lipstick and bag away from me. For the first time, I noticed her beautiful, gold, strapless, satin Cells dress. Sarah looked gorgeous as always with her hair fanning out around her shoulders. I’ve always admired her beauty, her big brown eyes, and her flawless dark skin. Black was indeed beautiful. “You can go have fun, and I’ll join later.” My lie did not convince her. “Abby, let’s go,” Sarah ordered, clutching my hand and pulling me along. Sarah managed to get me out of the restroom despite me dragging my feet. When we came out, I remembered why I ran away. The music was too loud. The place was filled with noise, the press, cameras, and guys who only wanted to date me because I was famous.

I didn’t want to be there because of the press. Sarah didn’t let go of my hand until we reached my two other best friends, Jake and Danny, two funny seventeen-year-olds whom I loved having in my life. Jake was a charming skater boy and the kind of person who’d been to detention more times than I could count. Danny was handsome and brilliant, and he mostly had a calm nature. Sarah was the cheer captain—understanding, loving, and beautiful. Me? I was just the rich, famous kid. When I saw that Jake was dressed like a descendant of Shakespeare, I forgot my escape plans. What was he thinking? Danny teased. “Dude, Shakespeare called, and he wants his outfit back!” We broke into loud laughter. When the laughter faded, a cameraman snapped my picture, and I again remembered why I didn’t want to be there. “You’re thinking about going home, aren’t you?” Sarah knew me all too well. “Why?” They stared, waiting for an answer. “Why?” Sarah demanded again. “Every guy here wants to dance with you.” “I don’t care if every guy here wants to dance with me. I just want to go home.” This wasn’t a lie. I’d rather be at home watching Discovery Channel. “Besides, guys just want one thing.” “And what is that?” a voice from behind me asked. “Excuse me.” The voice that spoke sounded sweet, like a heavenly symphony, and even though the place was packed with noises, I didn’t hear anything except him. “Hello,” he said, and since I was sure I couldn’t avoid responding, I slowly turned. My eyes went straight to the stranger’s big, black, army boots, then up to his rough-cut jeans, then to his ebony shirt and black leather jacket. Finally, my eyes reached his face. I couldn’t breathe when I saw him. Everything about his chiseled features spoke of danger, even his messy, dark hair. I unabashedly stared. He was unusual, reminding me of a painting of an angel. So beautiful, yet every bone in my body told me to run away from him. I didn’t know why, and I didn’t want to find out. I sensed raw danger. Beware of the angels you invite in, for some are only demons in disguise, I thought. I pushed the warning aside. “I didn’t mean to disturb you.” His voice enchanted me. “My car just broke down, and I was wondering if I could get directions to the nearest bus stop.” I could see his perfect lips moving, the colored lights glinting off his dark hair, but I didn’t hear anything else he said. Bus stop? How did he get inside the party? There was a guest list, I had helped my mother with it, and this stranger wasn’t on the list, was he? He stared at us, waiting for someone to answer, but we all stared silently back at him. He cleared his throat. “I hope I’m not crashing your party.” “Of course not. Besides, a party isn’t a party until someone crashes it,” Danny finally answered, and as he pushed me aside, I came back to life. “Can you show me where I can find a bus stop?” “Of course we can,” Jake said, taking over. “Abby is about to go home, and she can drop you off at

the bus stop. She drives right past it,” he added with a big smile on his face, as if he had just done me a huge favor. I knew he only offered because he knew my bodyguards would be there. He would never have allowed me to give a stranger a ride. The stranger turned and looked at me, and then I did the worst possible thing I could think of, I smiled at him and blushed. I’m escorting the most drop-dead gorgeous guy I’d ever met to the bus stop? Maybe he’d ask me for my number. Wow, I scared myself with that thought. I was usually not the girly type. I’d never had a boyfriend, and I’d like to think it was because I didn’t have any privacy. I’d never even kissed a guy before. “That’s nice of you. I’m Gideon,” he introduced himself. I didn’t remember any Gideon on the guest list. Looking at him, I knew he probably bribed the guards at the front door. My behavior disturbed me. A lot of hot guys had asked me out on dates before, and yet here I was, speechless, because of some stranger. “The...me...car is…ready out,” I babbled. He grinned. I didn’t even know what I was talking about. No one did. “Sorry, I meant, the limo is…outside,” I corrected, shamefaced. More awkward and embarrassing moments followed. He asked why I had a limo, and Jake took it upon himself to tell him that I was the daughter of a famous designer and then proceeded to ask if he’d been living under a rock. Sarah, who stole a moment with me before I left with the stranger, told me how hot Gideon was and how I was to make sure he asked for my number. I understood that this was her way of telling me I needed a boyfriend. With the thought of giving a stranger a ride, warning alarms went off in my head. After I said goodbye to my mother, who tried to get me to stay without succeeding, I returned to Gideon. “I’m ready,” I told him. We left the party, and I led him to my limo. I asked Ben to drive him to the nearest bus stop. We climbed inside the back and Ben pulled away from the curb. Silence filled the limo. I felt the staring eyes of the stranger beside me. When I turned and looked at him, he smiled. Surprisingly, I found myself asking, “What?” Then I quickly looked away. “My question—you never answered me.” He reached out and closed the privacy screen in the limo, separating Ben from us. My heart jumped even faster, unsure of what Gideon was doing. Could this be one of those nights when I would wake up the next morning and ask, “Damn, did I do that?” “What,” I swallowed breathlessly, “question?” He looked as if he didn’t know he was charming. “You said guys only wanted one thing,” he said. Then suddenly he had my hands in his. My heart pounded. What was he doing? “What do all guys want?” He was defiant now. It was my turn to talk. “They…I mean, they only want…” I turned away from him and took a few deep breaths. “They want to…fool around…I mean have…fun?” I ended with a question and pulled my

hands away. Really, Abby? Why not spell it out? I could shoot a can off the top of Logan’s head without blinking, and I was speechless because of a guy? This must be what happens when you trade dolls for guns, I thought. “Fool around?” He laughed. I couldn’t explain how wonderful his laughter sounded, but I felt like moving toward him, getting closer to him. “Are you for real?” Gideon laughed again. Please, God, let us reach the bus stop before I collapse out of shame, I prayed. “I didn’t mean…” I took another breath. “I guess it’s…you know…” I looked away without continuing. Honestly, even I didn’t know what I wanted to say. “Is there something on my face you don’t want to see?” he asked. I had been avoiding his gaze because I was trying not to freak him out by staring like a creep. “No human does that around me. But you’re quite different.” He sounded disappointed. “So, you were saying?” “Boys…they want…fun?” And wait, no human does that around him? My mind flashed another warning. “I thought boys liked to eat.” “Eat?” I laughed unexpectedly. “What are you talking about?” “I killed your driver.” He killed my driver? What was wrong with his guy? We were almost at the bus stop, and I totally didn’t get his humor. “Excuse me?” I asked, suddenly feeling uneasy. Why was he ruining the mood with this crazy talk? “I said I killed your driver.” His voice sounded indifferent, and he looked at his fingers rather than at me. So much for wanting him to ask for my number. “What? You killed my driver? You’re funny.” I leaned away from him to tell Ben to remember to turn because we were nearly at the bus stop. I pushed the automatic button that lowered the glass between us, and then I screamed. As soon as the glass lowered, I saw Ben’s head fall onto the steering wheel, yet the car continued to drive on its own. The horn blared as Ben’s head smashed into it. The car raced past the bus stop. My heart nearly burst out of my chest. This time when I turned to look at Gideon, it wasn’t passion that I felt. It was stark fear. I struggled to speak. “What have you done? Who are you?” Immediately, his lovely green eyes darkened. And then he reached out for me. I screamed for help, but there was no one around to hear.

AVALANCHE
“The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a heaven of Hell, a hell of Heaven.”
John Milton

I’d heard that there’s a feeling one gets when one senses death, but I didn’t feel it.
Although I was freaking out and desperately wishing I hadn’t left the party, I still didn’t have the intense emotion that was supposed to make me fight for my life, even if for another second. I was too overcome with shock to feel anything else. Instead, I started to wonder if they had books in Hell. I’d surely need something to pass the time there. I could order them, I thought. Surely, Hell must have a good Internet connection. Besides, what were the chances that Satan didn’t allow phones in Hell? Maybe I would go to Heaven when I died. I figured there I’d have everything I wanted with just a wave of my hand or the blink of an eye. Wouldn’t that be great? All the pizzas I could eat. The next thought that crossed through my mind was all the training I’d had, and for nothing. Every fight instinct I’d learned was lost in the wave of panic and shock. As I tried making sense of what was happening, I realized that I was still screaming for my life. I didn’t understand. A few seconds earlier, I was riding with a hot guy to the bus stop, and now I was in the car with a murderer. “What…?” I muttered, unable to string together a complete sentence. “I told you I killed him,” he said, and the next thing I knew, he was beside Ben on the front seat. “And stop screaming. I haven’t even hurt you yet.” Finally, my senses kicked in. I yanked on the door handle in an attempt to escape. Locked. There was no manual unlock button for me, either. My chance of survival dropped drastically with each passing second. “Who are you?” I demanded. “If you’re looking for Satan, you’ve found him.” He swiftly appeared beside me, and I flinched. I had no idea how he was able to move that fast. He

was more than human, that much I knew. He took my hand. “You look scared. You want me to stop the car?” he asked and then smiled charmingly. I swear if it weren’t for the fact that I was on the edge of doom, I might have continued to find him attractive. Instead, I wanted to shout, “What does it look like?” in answer to his question, but I was too focused on getting away from him. “It’s really too bad,” he said, cupping my chin in his hand. I tried to wrench myself away from him, but he held my chin rigid. Chills invaded my whole body as fear took over. I felt a deep loathing for him. “Tell me how you feel.” He stared into my eyes. “Is your heart jumping out of your chest? Are you terrified? Bad for you and good for me, because your fear and pain are what I feed on.” He pulled my face closer to his so that we were mere inches apart, and I felt as though he were siphoning energy from my body. I felt my body rapidly weakening. I couldn’t tell what he was doing to me or why I couldn’t pull away from him, but there was one thing I knew for sure: I was losing my breath, and fast. He laughed. “This is fun.” Then he shoved my body against the door. I gasped. With my eyes brimming with tears, I gulped air into my lungs. The car rushed onward at top speed without anyone noticing. I couldn’t speak or move. I felt like a stake had been shoved through me. Gideon’s dark eyes pierced me. I wanted to shout, to scream for him to stop, but I felt helpless against his will. “Abigail Cells.” He leaned forward and gripped my face with his hands again. He smiled beautifully and my breathing became slower. “I am going to kill you.” My eyes widened, and a second later, there was a deafening crash as we collided with something solid. My body flew from the seat and hit the dividing wall that separated the driver from the rear compartment. My head slammed against the hard interior, causing dark spots to dance in my vision. Gideon acted as if nothing had happened. I pushed myself off the limo floor with shaky arms and winced as I gingerly touched the side of my head. When I glanced out the window, I saw the front end of the car smoking. Before I knew it, Gideon was outside the limo, standing beneath the tree the limo had crashed into. Flames erupted from beneath the hood. This time when I yanked the door handle, it opened, and I fell to the ground outside. I crawled away from the car, coughing. “It’s nice out, isn’t it?” he asked. We were in the middle of nowhere. The highway was gone, and all I could see were hundreds upon hundreds of darkened trees. I coughed violently and surveyed my surroundings. Taking off my high heels, I stood upright. “Do you know where we are?” He walked to one of the shaded trees and leaned against it with his hands clasped together. “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

I turned to the limo. Ben. Gideon approached me. I tried to move away, but as soon as I took a step back, I bumped into something and whirled around, only to gaze into Gideon’s now deep-gold eyes. I trembled as fear raced through my heart. “I’m going to kill you one way or another.” His dark, untidy hair fluttered in the breeze and his dazzling golden eyes turned molten red. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.” Before I could respond, he stood beside the burning limo. I looked around the forest. Run, Abby, I told myself as tears cascaded down my cheeks. I sprinted toward the edge of the forest as fast as my legs would carry me. I didn’t know where I was running to, but I knew I needed to get as far away from Gideon as I could. I knew it could be a matter of seconds until he caught up to me, but I couldn’t let that happen. Panic built in my chest. My heart thumped, and I struggled to remember all my training lessons with Logan. Twigs snapped beneath my feet and more scratched against my skin while I ran. I didn’t try to protect myself from the raking branches—they were the least of my worries. I stopped momentarily, sucking in air. There was a cold and uncomfortable voice whispering all around me. The voice shifted constantly. I turned left and right, and I still couldn’t see what called to me. I squinted in the darkness. The voice grew louder, and then I saw it. A shadow without a face. I rushed on, my bare feet crashing onto roots and stones. The branches slapped against my arms and face and my fatigued body dripped with blood and sweat. My lungs burned. Suddenly, I stumbled over a tree root and crashed to the ground. There’s nowhere to run to, Abigail. But I could stay and fight, Logan had taught me that much. “All right!” I shouted, ignoring how my heart jumped uncontrollably. “I’m not scared of you.” That was a lie. “Where are you?” I yelled. I had no weapon to fight Gideon, but I was determined to do whatever I could to survive. “I’m not afraid!” I lied again, pushing myself off the ground and standing. My lungs burned from my panicked exertion. My feet throbbed with cuts and blisters. I limped a few steps and then stumbled again. I tried to stand, but this time the pain stopped me. I tried to crawl, but my hands were raw and bleeding. “I’m still not afraid of you,” I said through my tears. I was about to shout out to Gideon again when I heard footsteps. I thought about giving up, but I realized I didn’t want to die in the middle of nowhere. My body was still, streaks of blood oozed from scrapes and scratches on my skin. I sat on the hard soil, tears running down my face. “Don’t ever entertain strangers, Abigail,” I heard my father’s voice say in my head. I wished I’d listened to him. I felt movement around me. Someone was coming forward, closer and closer, step by step. I turned

around and there he was, standing in front of me as if he had been there the whole time. Without warning, my body flew into the air and then slammed onto the ground. Pain raced through my limbs, and I groaned. Gideon approached me. “You’re a brave one, aren’t you?” I struggled to catch my breath. “Still not scared of me?” he asked. Before I knew it, my body was forcibly lifted again. This time, Gideon’s right hand clenched my neck. He choked me, and his blood-red eyes fed on my pain. I struggled uselessly. I folded my fingers around his hand, but I had no strength left to stop him. “Let me make it easier.” He threw me into a tree. I cried in agony as my broken body crumpled to the ground. I couldn’t stop coughing as I fought to regain my breath. I shifted my eyes back to his. As I stared at him, his hands began to glow with red-hot fire, and without warning, he hurled a ball of flames toward me. I cried out as I saw my own refection in the flames, and then— I died.

STRANGER THAN FICTION
“One ought to fear those things

only that have power of doing harm, the others not, for they are not dreadful.”
Dante Alighieri – ‘The Inferno’



Abigail!” my mother called, jolting me from my sleep.

As I regained consciousness, I felt the aches in my body, pain from last night’s training. It was a dream. The party. Gideon. All of it. I opened my eyes, wheezing and sweating on my bed, my heart still raced. Had I been…burnt to ashes? I exhaled as I realized I was safe in my room. My bed sheets were damp with sweat and looked as though someone had spritzed water all over them. I tried to fight down the panic as I inhaled a few deep breaths. For a second, I ignored the worried look on my mother’s face. I moved my hand to my head,

feeling the lingering pain caused by the limo’s wreck. A sense of danger still pervaded the air. I tried to remember what happened in the dream, but the more my mind grasped at the remnants, the faster the dream faded. “Bad dream?” my mother asked concernedly. I nodded. “I think so. I don’t really remember what it was about.” Was I still dreaming? When I looked outside my window, the sun was setting. “What time is it?” Had I slept through the party? “About ten minutes until we leave for the party,” my mother answered. She sat down beside me on the bed. “You all right?” I wasn’t all right, and for some reason I felt uneasy, but I knew the perfect answer to her question. I faked a smile, looked down from her gaze, and then said, “Yes.” It was a lie I hoped wouldn’t come back to haunt me. I got dressed for the party with the help of my mother, and we left. My friends attended the event, so the evening as a whole wasn’t as terrible as I originally thought it would be. I only had to be careful that no one spotted me wincing whenever someone hugged me, because I didn’t want to deal with any overly curious questions. After the party, my mother made us hot chocolate, and we sat and drank it in the living room while watching cartoons. We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing and watching girly chick-flicks. She was happy about the positive reviews she received on her pre-spring collection, so we went out for dinner Sunday evening to celebrate. “I’ll see you guys after school,” I told my bodyguards, Ben and Felix, as they dropped me off at the front door to school, Monday morning. In order to attend classes without them, I wore a wristwatch that countered as a tracking device. When they left, I counted the seconds until my friends arrived, and luckily for me, it didn’t take long. “What’s up, people?” Jake asked as he entered the classroom, his skateboard tucked beneath his arm. I looked up at the sound of Jake’s voice. Danny and Tristan followed close behind. Tristan was the new guy as of last month, and Jake and Danny had befriended him, so he’d become a part of our group. The first time Tristan walked into our classroom, all the girls had stared at him, dazed. He looked like a guy who’d walked straight out of a fairy tale, the kind of tale where the prince was described as the first blossom of spring, the first hope of dawn, a new beginning. I was pretty sure the only place Tristan could have fallen from was heaven, a place that could only hint at his indescribable, unimaginable good looks. Handsome truly wasn’t a sufficient description. It didn’t even come close. “Good morning,” Tristan said to the classroom as he walked in. The guys walked over to me. “Good morning, Abby,” Tristan said, sitting beside me. Danny and Jake took their seats in front of us.

“Morning,” I mouthed. Jake put his skateboard on the floor and tossed his school bag beside him. When I looked back over at Tristan, our eyes met. He smiled at me, showcasing yet another indescribable feature, his perfectly brilliant teeth. No one should be that handsome. Tristan unnerved me, but he radiated a feeling of peace, of being free whenever I was near him. It was as if he took all my worries away whenever I was close to him. Danny said, “Tristan, where were you this weekend? You missed the best party ever.” “I was busy,” Tristan answered. He turned to me and asked, “How was your mother’s launch party?” Jake answered before I could. “She wouldn’t know because she was too busy trying to hide out most of the night from the press.” “Yeah, what was up with that?” Danny asked. Since I wasn’t in the mood to explain myself for the millionth time about how much I didn’t like the press, I faked a smile and shrugged. I reached for my bag and winced, feeling pains all over my body. “Can I see that?” Tristan asked, looking at my wristwatch. I stretched my hand out toward him. The moment his hand touched my wrist, the pain in my body disappeared. My entire body stopped aching. I yanked away from him and bent down to the same position as I had done when I reached for my bag, and to my surprise, I felt no pain. What the hell just happened? I looked at Tristan, but all he did was smile. I pulled my sleeves up to take a closer look at my arms. I squinted to see if the red spots I had from climbing the ropes were still there, but there was nothing. “I had…” I paused as I realized I couldn’t remember what I wanted to say. Did I have something on my arm? I didn’t even know why I was staring at it. I hastily pulled down my sleeve, not really sure why I had shoved it up in the first place. “Are you all right?” Tristan asked. “I need to pee,” I blurted. I quickly put my hand over my mouth just as my friends and Tristan broke into laughter. “I meant…yes,” I whispered in embarrassment. I stood and rushed to the door, avoiding eye contact with everyone as I hurried through the classroom. Hurry up, Abby, I told myself. I hoped that by the time I got back, Tristan would have moved to another country. Yeah, that was not going to happen, but seriously, could the situation have been any worse? I really should have looked before bursting out of the door because the very moment I rushed into the hallway, I slammed into someone. I didn’t apologize at first. I kept my head bowed to hide my shame and tried to breathe. As I glanced up, my eyes caught the victim’s black motorcycle boots. I continued

moving my gaze upward toward the person’s face. The second my eyes met his, I froze. “Gideon,” I whispered as the flickering memory of my nightmare came rushing back all at once. Everything stopped. My heart pounded so loudly that I was certain it was about to explode. I remembered almost everything. The guy from my nightmare was named Gideon. I remembered him introducing himself, asking for a ride, and then chasing me in the forest—and I remembered him killing me. But I couldn’t picture his face at all. The Gideon from my nightmare was still a mystery. “Excuse me,” the guy said, and I immediately pulled away from him and looked up. I was shaking. “I am so…so sorry.” “Do I know you?” he asked. The guy in front of me looked just as inhuman as Tristan, only Tristan’s opposite. From his black jeans to his dark plaid shirt, everything about him looked unnatural. The difference between his attractiveness and Tristan’s was that when I looked at Tristan, I felt free and happy, but when I looked at the guy in front of me, his cold eyes sent my flight instinct into overdrive. “No. No, you don’t,” I answered awkwardly and then hurried past him down the hall. I finally slowed down, but I kept on walking, smiling and waving at the people who passed by me, until the world around me spun in circles. The faces in the hall dissolved, becoming unfocused images. I might have kept on walking if Sarah hadn’t spotted me and pulled me back to reality. The moment she spoke, the morning bell rang. “Where are you off to?” she asked. “I was just…out for a walk.” I wanted to tell her about my nightmare, but I didn’t want her to make fun of me for getting spooked because of a bad dream. “I can’t wait for tonight. The concert is going to be awesome.” “What concert?” Her brow furrowed. “You forgot? You bought the tickets!” I had forgotten all about it. We’d made plans last month to go see one of the hottest bands in the country. They were coming to town to play to a sold-out crowd. I gave her an apologetic look. “You are coming. Jake and I have a plan to sneak you out of your house.” I smiled. “Of course I’m going, especially if you can actually sneak me out.” When we entered the classroom, Sarah found her desk. I breathed in deeply before walking back to Tristan and sitting down. He smiled at me before he turned toward the board to pay attention to Mr. Bernard, our history and English Literature teacher, who just then clapped for silence. “I’m going to divide you into groups for our Titanic memorabilia speech, which if you all remember, is this week.” Mr. Bernard said. One of the students murmured, “Oh, no.” “Speeches are due before the week is over,” Mr. Bernard finished.

“Mr. Silas, you and Miss Cells will be group one,” Mr. Bernard said, looking at Tristan and me. “Miss Tate, you and Mr. Duran are—” Mr. Bernard was interrupted by the sound of the door as it busted open. Everyone looked toward the noise. Standing in the doorway was the guy I bumped into. The moment I saw him, my heart dropped. I prayed he was lost and wasn’t in our class. Frankly, I didn’t understand my uneasiness upon seeing him. He gave me bad vibes, but on the other hand, he was totally hot. “You must be Mr. Chase,” Mr. Bernard said, and the boy walked toward him. “I am,” he answered. He looked around the classroom, and his gaze stopped on Tristan. To my surprise, Tristan looked like he knew the boy because he gave him a half-hearted smile. “You’re late,” Mr. Bernard said, and the boy looked at the clock on the wall. “I was actually here before the bell rang.” His eyes moved to mine. “Miss Cells can vouch for me.” I froze at the mention of my name. I wondered how he knew my name, but then I remembered I was known pretty much everywhere—the price of being famous. “She bumped into me and ran off.” Someone please shoot me now. A few people chuckled. Jake cast a backward glance at me and grinned. “You’re excused this time, Mr. Chase. Find a seat. I’ll assign you to a group.” “Mr. Chase can join Jake and me,” Danny volunteered. I wasn’t surprised. “It’s Gideon,” the boy said. “Gideon Chase.” “What?” I blurted out in surprise at the mention of his name, and then all eyes turned to me. Gideon? His name was actually Gideon? Why Gideon? “Miss Cells, are you all right?” My outburst had obviously startled Mr. Bernard. Gideon stood beside him, confused, but the moment his eyes met mine, he smiled as if he knew why I was scared. “I—I’m sorry, I didn’t—” I looked down in humiliation. Maybe it was just a coincidence. This guy couldn’t be the same Gideon from my nightmare. “Well,” Mr. Bernard continued, “take a seat, Mr. Chase.” Gideon walked through the classroom and paused beside my table. My heart took a violent leap as he bent down and whispered into my ear, “Breathe.” And then he walked away to an empty desk, leaving me completely breathless. My first impression of Gideon was dangerous. My second impression of him was that he was hot. My third impression of him was murderer, because if he was anything like the guy from my nightmare, he was going to kill me.

RING THE ALARM
“Today I blinked,

and accidentally fell in love.”
Melody Manful

Even though I wanted to deny it, Gideon’s presence unnerved me. Could he really be the guy from
my nightmare? I didn’t have prophetic dreams, did I? I tried to shake off my unease. After all, what was the new guy going to do, ask for a ride and kill me? No way whatsoever! I stole another glance at him. Mysterious, good-looking guys weren’t killers, right? History class ended, and we were given only five minutes to get ready for our next lesson, English Literature, which was also with Mr. Bernard. Those who didn’t have literature with him left while others joined the class. I couldn’t concentrate when Mr. Bernard started teaching again. I wanted to turn and see if Gideon was staring at me, but I decided against it. Within minutes, I’d decided to avoid him, forever. Eventually, the bell rang for lunch. Some of the students rushed out like a pride of hungry lions. “Doreen, baby, walk with me,” Jake said as he walked toward Doreen and wrapped his arm around her waist. “Ewww!” Doreen pushed Jake away. “Don’t ever touch me again!” She glared at him and walked briskly away. Jake stared after Doreen with a puppy dog face. “She so wants me.” We laughed. Out of all the girls in school that he could have a crush on, he chose Doreen, who didn’t even want to breathe the same air as him. “Yeah, in your head,” Danny teased. “Aren’t you coming?” Tristan asked, looking down at me. His voice pulled me out of my thoughts about Gideon and my nightmare. I looked up at him. “Go on ahead.” I cleared my throat and looked down, careful not to say anything else and push my luck since that was the most comprehensible thing I had said to him all day. “Should I stay with you?” he asked. I quickly looked up to make sure Tristan was talking to me. His eyes were on me. Say yes, Abigail! “Hmmm…” I choked on my words, my mouth felt suddenly dry. “That’s okay.” I looked away from his intense gaze. I wanted to take back my words, tell him I meant to scream yes. But my shyness wouldn’t let me.

“Yo, Gideon, care to join us?” Jake called to him. “Later. I have to take care of something,” Gideon said. “We’ll save you guys a chair,” Jake said. Danny followed Jake outside, but Tristan hesitated before following. He glanced at me one last time and then left the classroom. I turned to Sarah. “What?” I asked, looking at her playful expression. “I think someone likes you.” She nodded toward the door. Sarah had been saying this ever since Tristan had invited me over for an early dinner two weeks ago. It wasn’t a date, though, because my bodyguards were also invited. And we didn’t even talk about ourselves; we talked about schoolwork. Tristan intimidated me—that much I’d admit. I always felt shy around him, but then again, he had that effect on every girl I knew. “Tristan doesn’t like me.” If only my voice didn’t sound overjoyed, she would have believed me. “Are you kidding? He was asking to spend time with you.” Sarah smiled knowingly and then turned around, fanning her face. “Wow, Gideon is burning up the place.” “Go and bring back a fire extinguisher.” I played along. She laughed and walked out. “Gideon, do you want a tour of the school?” I overheard Doreen asking Gideon. Gideon asked, “Who’s asking?” And I looked up at them curiously. “Well…” Doreen leaned on Gideon’s table, facing him. “I am,” she said, and I could only guess why she was in that position. “Well, I am,” Gideon said, and I almost snorted. “I know this school by heart. There was a map in the student brochure.” “Well…” Doreen stood up, reached into her left bra cup, and pulled out a card. “Call me if you change your mind. I’ll be waiting.” Gideon took the card. “I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you,” he said, placing the card on the table. “Don’t count on it,” Doreen said in her sexy voice—the one I’d heard her use whenever she wanted something from someone. “I’ll see you around.” “I hope not,” Gideon answered, and although I couldn’t see Doreen’s expression, I was sure she was surprised and maybe a little embarrassed. “They always come around,” Doreen said and then turned and walked out the door. “What a jerk,” I mumbled as I collected my things. “Now, Miss Cells, that’s a bit judgmental, don’t you think?” At the sound of Gideon’s voice, I froze. I didn’t know when he got there, but Gideon now stood directly beside me. I had been a good four seats away from him. Breathe in, breathe out—I thought I might collapse. Maybe if I closed my eyes and prayed really hard, a meteor would crash into Earth. Worst-case scenario, but it would be the best thing that could happen to me given the situation.

“Do you have a sight problem?” he asked, and then without warning, he sat down beside me. “Excuse me?” “It seems, Miss Cells, that you have a hearing problem, too,” he said as he took my history book from the table. “I don’t have a hearing problem, and there’s nothing wrong with my eyes.” I was going to apologize for calling him a jerk, but he could just forget it. “Are you sure?” he asked. “You did run into me.” He opened my book and started flipping lazily through the pages. “I was—” I decided to leave the pee thing out of it. “Go on, I’m listening,” he said, his eyes focusing on the contents of the history book. I had no idea how I went from wanting him to disappear to talking with him. Now I wished I had only thought he was a jerk rather than saying it out loud. “I was—” “On second thought, don’t tell me,” he cut me off. “You don’t have to be rude,” I replied, snatching my book away from him. I stood. I didn’t want to go outside and have people stare at me, but if it meant I’d be away from Gideon, I’d take it. He stood, too. “I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that I’m not—” “Used to thinking before you speak?” I finished for him, feeling a surge of confidence. He smiled. “No, I was going to say not used to human conversations.” “Human conversations?” I asked. What the hell was that supposed to mean? “I’m pretty sure nonhuman creatures have brains, too.” I shoved my books into my bag. “I know what this is,” he said as I shoved my laptop into my bag. “You’re angry.” He dangled my notebook in front of me. “What gave that away?” I snapped. “Your heartbeat.” I wasn’t expecting that answer. “So, where are you taking me?” Gideon asked, a cocky smile playing on his lips. “I figured since you bumped into me, you owe me a tour.” “I’m pretty sure I heard Doreen offering to take you.” “Eavesdropping doesn’t suit you, Miss Cells.” He handed me my notebook. “Abigail,” I corrected. “And I wasn’t…” Suddenly I couldn’t breathe because he stepped closer toward me. “Abigail.” Gideon leaned toward me. My heart started thumping. “Breathe,” he whispered, and then he proceeded to tuck a loose strand of my hair behind my ear. The sound of him speaking my name was alluring. My name on his lips brought with it an accent I hadn’t heard before, making the name itself seem intimate and special, as though on his lips it made sense. Come back to Earth, Abigail!

“I…I can’t take you on a tour.” I turned away from him and untucked my hair from behind my ear in an attempt to hide my face. I glanced up at Mr. Bernard, but he stared at a book in his hands. His focus was lost on us. “Why not, Abigail?” Gideon asked. I zipped my bag. “Because,” I breathed out, shaking off my sudden shivers, “I’m trying to avoid going outside, and you’re…” A stranger. A jerk. Scary. All of the above. “That doesn’t sound like enough of a reason,” Even though I was kind of annoyed at him, I wasn’t completely immune to his charm. “Come on, it won’t take long.” “I just…” I just can’t because you freak me out. “I’d like to give you a tour, but frankly, you’re kind of a jerk.” He sat on the table. “Heard that this morning.” “And arrogant.” “My middle name.” He smirked, making my heart jump. “Are you a serial killer?” I asked without thinking. His smile quickly disappeared before returning with less enthusiasm. “Miss Cells, that’s an odd question. But no, I’m not.” His green eyes watched mine. I dusted myself off just for something to do and slowly shrugged on my jacket. My eyes met Gideon’s, and the moment they did, my heart took a violent leap. I was sure he heard it, but he studied me calmly. I didn’t know what else to do, so I grabbed my bag and started to walk away. He called after me, “Jake likes her, doesn’t he?” “Who, Doreen? Yes,” I answered. “I’d rather have a friend than an enemy,” he said, his eyes still on mine. “Why are you telling me this?” “I’m telling you because you think I’m a jerk,” he answered. “I wasn’t trying to be. Jake seems like an awesome person, and I didn’t want to ruin any chance of becoming friends with him. That’s why I had to decline her invitation.” Okay, so maybe I had misjudged him, but it still didn’t explain why he was rude to me. “I have to go,” I whispered and continued to the door. “Miss Cells?” he called again, pushing away from the table. “You forgot this one.” He pointed at one of my books, which was still lying on the table. “The sight problem I was talking about.” He tipped his head to the side and smiled at me. He was being a jerk again, but he was a handsome jerk. “The jerk thing I was talking about,” I smirked and walked back to him. I reached out for my book at the same moment Gideon did, and our hands touched. In that second, it was as if the whole world stopped turning, and we were the only two people caught in the moment. I felt the heat of his palm, and my whole body warmed as my pulse climbed. Suddenly it felt as if the air between us electrified, amplifying Gideon’s touch and making me feel as if he were touching every nerve

in my body. Gideon was the first to pull his hand away, breaking the connection. “I…” I was tongue-tied. “I…” I had no idea what I wanted to say. “Your...” Gideon gave me the book. He didn’t continue what he was saying; he only stared at me, confused. I was confused, too. “Thanks,” I whispered and then rushed out of the classroom. The moment I stepped outside, I breathed in, not remembering at what point I started holding my breath. What the hell just happened?

TITANIC
“You give a lonesome heart, someone to love.

You give a sad heart, a memory to smile about. You give a hopeless heart, something to live for. But what do you give a broken heart?”
Melody Manful



Gideon, let’s bounce!” Jake said as he walked toward the door.

School was over, and the classroom was almost deserted hardly two minutes after the bell rang. Only my friends and I remained in the classroom, even the teacher was gone. Danny, Tristan, and Jake were now friends with Gideon. It had been less than a day since he came to school, and already they acted like best friends. Sarah, on the other hand, would have befriended Gideon despite his intentions. She had texted me about him all day, and each message included the word hot. “You’ll love this pizza place,” Danny told Gideon as he joined the group by the door. Sarah, standing beside me, nodded in agreement. “It’s a shame you and Tristan won’t be joining us,” she said to me, winking. “Like I said, I’m busy all week, and I only have time now to work on the Titanic speech,” I replied, explaining yet again how busy my life was. The rest of the week was filled with dinner plans with my mother, reading sessions at the library, and training.

“What is it you’re so busy doing, Miss Cells?” Gideon asked smugly. He knew I hated it when he called me Miss Cells, but he continued doing it anyway. I gave up trying to correct him. I sounded annoyed when I answered, “None of your business, Mr. Chase.” “Gideon is just fine, Miss Cells.” Gideon irritated me, and I didn’t know how the others could stand being around him. Maybe what bothered me most was the fact that it was only me he annoyed. Throughout the day, everything that came out of his mouth was antagonistic. He had joined my friends and me for lunch, and although I didn’t protest his joining us, I didn’t want him around me. Sarah sensed the tension between Gideon and me. “What is it with you two?” she asked. Gideon answered first. “It seems Miss Cells is bitter that she can’t join us.” My friends laughed and agreed with him. I felt my face turning red with anger. “I think we’d better go before she explodes,” Gideon said—again to my friends’ agreement—and their laughter increased as they followed him outside. Sarah hugged me, but I stiffened in her arms. “See you guys later,” she told Tristan and me, laughing as she walked out. “I hate that guy,” I whispered. “I heard that!” Gideon shouted from the hall. I walked over to the classroom door and slammed it shut. Tristan, who was laughing too, stopped instantly. “Is he getting under your skin?” “Getting under my skin?” I retorted. “That son of a—” “Titanic,” Tristan interrupted, stopping me from saying what I wanted to. When my eyes met his, we started laughing. And that was all it took for my anger with Gideon to subside. Since we had been assigned as partners on the Titanic speech, Tristan and I started working, and about an hour later, we had a full, seven-minute speech that sounded good. “Okay, so you take the last sentences,” Tristan said as he pointed at my laptop screen where the speech had been typed. I read my lines aloud, “The Titanic was like a kingdom that people didn’t know they were building. When the Titanic was built, it became a dream that people couldn’t believe was coming true. When the Titanic sank, the aftermath became a war that people didn’t know they were in. The death of the people aboard the Titanic became proof, the survivors of the tragedy became voices, and their voices became a weapon.” Tristan started clapping when I finished. “I’m imagining this is what will happen after we finish the speech,” he said. We laughed.

“Hopefully,” I said. “Mr. Bernard said the speech has to be a minimum of ten minutes, so we still have three more minutes before we can hope for an A.” “We could focus more on the 1997 movie directed by James Cameron,” Tristan suggested. “What do you think?” “That’s an idea. Maybe we should act out the last scene. You know…it’s the sacrifice that Jack made that became so popular.” Tristan closed my laptop, and then he took my hand and led us to the front of the classroom. I started laughing when I realized we were actually going to act out the scene. “Ladies first,” he said, and I giggled. “Hmm…right, okay…Jack, I love you,” I whispered and laughed afterward. “This is just awkward. We aren’t actually going to act out the scene in front of the whole class, are we?” Tristan stepped closer to me. “Winning that ticket, Rose, was the best thing that ever happened to me.” His expression sobered me. “Hmm…” I mumbled. Tristan took both my hands in his, looked me straight in the eyes, and said, “You must promise me that you will survive—no matter what happens.” Immediately my smile disappeared. My cheeks flushed as I realized how close together we were standing. “I—” Tristan cut me off and continued, “You must do me this honor.” He sounded so sad that it made me sad, too. His words reminded me of the reason why I cried whenever I watched Titanic. “Promise me, and never let go of that promise.” At this point, we were so close together that I could feel his body heat. I whispered, “I promise.” I stared up at him and continued, “I’ll never let go. I’ll never let go.” Then both Tristan and I slowly leaned closer into each other. The closer we got, the louder my heart pounded. Soon, our faces were inches apart, and I could feel his breath against my lips. Our lips were inches away from touching when Tristan pulled away. “That is definitely an A-plus,” Tristan said as he let go of my hands. “I’m a good actor. I didn’t even know that I could act.” And just like that, I was pulled back to the real world. Act. The whole thing was an act to him. Now I could tell Sarah I knew for sure Tristan didn’t like me. He didn’t even look like he was affected by how close we were. I faked a smile as I walked over to pack my things and said, “Yeah, I didn’t know I could act either. I don’t think we should do it.” I couldn’t stand being that close to him again and knowing that he was only acting. “Why not?” he asked. “Unless Mr. Bernard says we can’t, I don’t see why not.” “I’ll go check and see if he’s still here and ask,” I said, pulling my bag over my shoulders. “I guess that’s it. I’ll see you tomorrow,” I whispered, more to myself than to him. I didn’t wait another second

before hurrying out the door. I couldn’t believe I had allowed Sarah to plant the idea that Tristan liked me into my head. Now that I knew he didn’t, it kind of hurt a little, even though I never really did believe her in the first place. I walked slowly to the teacher’s lounge to ask Mr. Bernard if we could act out the scene. I was ready to beg him to change his mind if he said yes. On my way, I decided to call Sarah and set her straight —Tristan definitely didn’t like me.

RAPUNZEL, RAPUNZEL
*Gideon*
“What a shame, that all we ever learned to do

was to live and wait to die.”
Melody Manful



Did you two nerds win the Nobel Prize yet?” I asked the moment I reached Tristan.

I’d met Abigail in the hallway on my way back, but she couldn’t see me because I was invisible. I’d watched as she made her way to the teacher’s lounge. I wanted to follow her, but I spotted Tristan lingering in front of the classroom door and changed my mind. Tristan reentered the classroom and I followed. “Not yet,” he answered, and for once, he didn’t sound like happy Tristan. I didn’t care to ask what was wrong with him. “How did it go?” he asked as if we were having a friendly conversation. Since I had nowhere better to be, I played along. “Oh, cool. Jake and I had a ‘who can finish his bottle of water first’ competition, and guess who won?” I sat down on one of the chairs. “Me.” I pulled a new phone from my pocket and tried to work it; I had to have one in order to seem normal. “How’s that coming along?” Tristan asked, and I looked up to see him eyeing the phone in my hands. He walked over to where I sat. “Who are you, the phone police?” What was wrong with this guy? I wanted to punch him in the face, but I needed him around for my big plan. I went back to studying the phone, trying to locate the settings, but I wasn’t sure which part of the

screen I was supposed to touch. How did humans have the patience for these? “You know I’m not going to give you a chance to hurt the girl, right?” Finally. I thought he was never going to bring her up. “We’ll see.” I propped my legs on my desk. “Please don’t hurt Abigail. She has enough problems of her own and—” I faked a laugh, cutting Tristan off. “You mean the fact that her father is part of the CIA and everyone thinks he’s dead?” I asked. “That doesn’t sound like a problem to me.” I knew Abigail feared me. Throughout the day, she’d been looking as if she’d seen a ghost whenever her eyes met mine, but I wasn’t worried. I was certain that before sunset, Abigail Cells would be dead. My first impression of Abigail was that she was intentionally clueless. And then I thought she was brainless and irritating. I still couldn’t figure out how she knew my name before I’d even introduced myself, but none of that mattered since she’d be dead soon. “I know the Elders thought I’d be a challenge for you, but you don’t have to be here just because of what they think.” Was he kidding me with this? He thought he was a challenge? “Don’t flatter yourself. I’m here because I want to be, your highness.” “I know you want to hurt me,” Tristan said as if it were something new. “I don’t…” Tristan’s lips kept moving, but I tuned him out. “Okay, all right…that’s cool.” I should have brought some pillows for this show. He could talk for hours. “You’re not even listening to me.” “And we have a winner.” I snapped my fingers, turning myself invisible, and disappeared. When I reappeared in front of the school, I observed as Abigail waved and smiled from inside a black limo. Other students watched intently. The adoration she received was ridiculous. A second later, Tristan appeared beside me, and we flew invisibly behind the limo as it pulled away. I had one problem, and it was the fact that I couldn’t stop thinking about when Abigail’s hands and mine touched. I tried to push it out of my mind, but I couldn’t. For some reason, when our hands touched, I felt as if Zeus had thrown one of his lightning bolts my way. Seconds later, I felt something different—a new, empowering feeling. “Felix, is my mother home?” Abigail asked. After about fifteen minutes of driving, the limo was arriving at a luxury mansion that stood on a cliff in front of us. “She’ll be late today,” Felix answered. An automatic metal gate opened the moment we reached the mansion, allowing the limo onto the patterned concrete driveway. Topiaries lined the driveway leading toward the two-story mansion looming ahead of us. I noticed a tennis court behind the trees to our left and an iron-and-marble gazebo decorated with Greek caryatids on our right.

A water fountain bubbled in front of the main entrance to the house. In the middle of the fountain, a life-size Greek marble sculpture of a woman held a large scalloped shell with both hands as water overflowed it. Underneath the sculpture, streams of water spiraled high into the air, reaching the shoulders of the woman before falling back into the basin. The limo parked in front of the mansion and Abigail stepped out, saying, “Thanks for the ride.” Then she walked toward a baroque-inspired covered portico. Tristan and I followed her into the house. The first thing I saw when we entered the grand foyer was the double wrought iron staircase. The two-story, sky-lit foyer boasted a vaulted ceiling, which was crowned with intricate moldings. I looked down at the contrasting marble-and-stone floor. “Do you want something, Miss Cells?” Ben asked. “No, thank you,” Abigail answered politely. I turned from her to look at some pictures of her and a woman who I assumed was her mother. I imagined the other miscellaneous people in the portraits were also family. “Call us if you need anything,” Felix said as he walked in and stood behind her. Abigail nodded and passed through an opened door across the room. Tristan and I followed. The room Abigail entered was classic. It looked like one of those fancy human restaurants, very tidy and unique. There was a long dining table in the middle and a flat-screen TV hung on the wall beside a glass cupboard filled with gilded silver plates. Abigail didn’t stop when she entered the room; she went on and opened another door. A woman with dark hair and a sunny face was already in the next room, standing behind a deluxe double oven. “Hi, Morgan.” Abigail greeted the woman, who I assumed was the house help. “How was school, honey?” Morgan walked over to Abigail. “It wasn’t bad.” She made her way to a chair. There was a glass door close to where Abigail sat, and from where I was standing, I could see a veranda behind her. Two chairs sat on the veranda as well as a little glass table. A swimming pool was just beyond the veranda. I glanced at Abigail as she wordlessly gazed at the pool. She seemed lost in thought because she didn’t even notice when the woman placed a sizeable bowl of ice cream in front on her. “Are you okay, honey? You look a bit tired.” “I’m fine, Morgan.” Liar. “Well, eat your ice cream. I made your favorite—strawberry-vanilla swirl.” The ice cream looked disgusting to me. Seriously, I didn’t know why humans enjoyed eating all that rubbish. We angels had a different appetite, while the Lumenians gained strength by feeding on the happiness and love around them, the Grandinians grew strong by feeding on the weakness, sadness, and pain of others. I, on the other hand, inflicted pain and fed off it.

Abigail ate three spoonfuls of her ice cream without looking at it. Morgan watched her silently from behind the counter. “The children’s hospital called,” Morgan said. “They can’t wait to see you Friday.” Suddenly, Abby’s face lit up. “I can’t wait, either,” Abigail said with a smile. She ate another spoonful of ice cream. “I ordered them new books and toys. They should be here tomorrow.” What a waste of space she was. Abigail’s phone beeped. She grabbed it, glanced at the screen, and smiled. As she read through the message, her face clouded. I looked over her shoulder and glanced at the message. 411!!!! It’s on. 2nite. Concert at 8:00 XD. C ya soon. Kiss, UR BFF Sarah *w* “Thanks for the ice cream, Morgan. I have some homework to do.” Abigail said and hurried out of the kitchen. Tristan and I followed her up the double staircase and into her bedroom. Abigail’s bedroom was a roomy suite, which included a small sitting area containing a bookshelf, sofa, TV , and another shelf packed with DVDs and CDs. There were two open doors that could be seen in her room, one led to her walk-in closet, the other to her bathroom. A pair of french doors led to a balcony with tall columns. The view overlooked the beautiful garden below. Abigail went into her bathroom minutes after she entered her room. The shower turned on, and I walked out of the bedroom and onto the balcony, where I decided to pass the time by pretending I didn’t notice Tristan’s presence at all. All angels were supposed to give humans privacy when they were having private moments. This meant that whenever they were undressed, we gave them their privacy. Since I only came to Earth to kill them, that part wasn’t my problem. “Where is it?” Abigail shouted from inside her closet. I walked back into her room. Tristan walked into the closet. I vacillated but followed a few seconds later. Abigail was carelessly throwing her clothes around when we entered. She was already dressed in a black tank top and a simple pair of skinny jeans. “There you are!” She pulled a band T-shirt out of the mess. Abigail put the shirt on and dialed a number. A familiar voice, Sarah, told Abigail they were coming to get her soon, and operation “Sneak Abigail Out” was in action. After Abigail ended the call, she hurried into her bedroom. Looking into her schoolbag, she took her watch out and put it under her pillow. She then started yanking off the bed sheets one by one. Once the sheets were on the floor, she carefully placed them back on the bed, one after the other. Laying her pillows in a line down the bed, she then situated her sheets over them. As soon as she did this, the bed looked like someone was sleeping on it. She smiled to herself and went out on the balcony.

After a while, she sat on the railing with her hands tightened around the stone edge as she dangled her legs. Tristan went out, too, standing a few steps away from her and staring into the distance. I saw this as an opportunity. I wanted to kill Abigail at the concert while she was having fun, but I was bored and hungry. I looked at her questioningly, wondering what harm I would choose to do to her. It took less than five seconds before the best idea occurred to me. I smiled, and without looking at Tristan, I walked closer to Abigail. Without a second thought, I shoved her hard from the balcony railing. She screamed as she fell.

HELL ON WHEELS
“Give them hell, give them heaven,

and all they’ll do is forget when you’re gone. Give them mercy, give them grace, and they’ll only pray, when all hope is gone.”
Melody Manful

It took Tristan barely a second to realize what I had done. He zoomed past me as Abigail’s scream
rang out. Strength filled me. I knew Tristan wouldn’t be able to catch her without having to draw attention, so nothing could go wrong. One moment, Abigail was seconds from hitting the ground; but the next thing I knew, she had landed perfectly on her feet. What the hell? I didn’t understand why she wasn’t dead. Daligo didn’t tell me Abigail was also going to be a challenge. Was I tricked into this? I was about to ask Tristan if Abigail was more than a human, when I saw the lights disappearing from his fingertips, indicating that he had somehow managed to save Abigail from breaking both her legs. Abigail took a second to catch her breath, and then she scanned the balcony, took her phone out of her pocket, and pressed it to her ear. She looked at her legs when she took the first step. She walked around the house and spoke into the

phone. “Logan, I want a full sweep of Cells mansion.” She kept glancing over her shoulder as if looking for someone. “Where are you? Well then, please make the time. This is important.” Abigail ended the call and slid her phone back into her pocket. Tristan stood behind Abigail, magically calming her down and healing whatever pain she still felt in her legs. Abigail looked around her once more before she silently made the long walk toward the front gate. When she arrived at the gate, she furtively passed the night watchman, who was busy cheering on a football game. An old Toyota pulled over the moment she exited the gate. Her friends were wearing the same matching T-shirts. Abigail climbed into the car. “How did you get out without your bodyguards?” Sarah asked. Jake didn’t hesitate before driving away slowly, leaving nothing but the soft echo of the car’s engine. “I sneaked out and tip-toed through the front gate,” Abigail lied. Tristan flew along the side of Jake’s car, and I flew behind it. The city of San Francisco felt alive. The streetlights were lit, stores illuminated their products in windows, neon signs beckoned customers, and buildings were darkened except for a scattering of glowing office windows. People walked on the sidewalks, enjoying the evening breeze. Around us, the lights from cars brightened the busy highway. “This concert is going to be epic,” Danny said when Jake pulled the car onto the main road. “It’s a shame Tristan couldn’t get a ticket,” Jake kept his eyes on the road. “We’ll bring him back a shirt and some pictures,” Danny said. “I hope I get an autograph after the show!” Sarah squealed and then turned to Abigail. “I’ve been meaning to ask you, why do you act so weird around Gideon?” “I don’t,” Abigail said. “I’ve had a rough day, that’s all,” she added. That was her excuse? Maybe I should scream at her in class and run off tomorrow and see how she feels about it. Why did this even bother me? I needed to kill something! Abigail and her friends didn’t stop talking as they drove through the city, the car filled with laughter and happiness, making me weaker and Tristan stronger. Soon the car came to a stop at a traffic light. While Tristan was busy laughing and listening in on Abigail and her friends’ conversation, I scanned the area around the four-way intersection. The first thing I saw was a white moving van in front of the traffic across the street. The driver inside looked bored. Arise, all evil, I whispered to myself with a smile as I eyed the van. I magically pulled the van with my mind, moving it forward. The driver immediately grabbed hold of the steering wheel and tried to

pump the brakes. The driver shouted as he crossed lanes, smashing into vehicles. I glanced over my shoulder just in time to see Abigail and her friends spot the moving van. I heard their screams. They struggled to open the car doors, which I made sure were locked tight. Their faces filled with panic and fear and I smiled wider. Tristan waved his hands, and the van stopped just before it could ram the next car out of its way. The driver immediately turned off the engine and snatched the keys out. I clenched my fists in anger. Did Tristan have to save everything? “Must you do—” Tristan didn’t finish what he wanted to say because a passing car veered into the oncoming cars. He immediately vanished and reappeared near the car. I was controlling the street, and Tristan’s interference only made me angrier. “Gideon!” Tristan shouted as he stopped a car I was trying to crash into another. I sent more cars colliding in the chaos. Tristan waved his hands again, and the cars stopped. Again, I moved one of the cars toward Tristan. This, of course, was a waste of my time because the car stopped right beside him. I turned to the moving van again. I cranked the engine, and the driver gawked at the keys in his hands. He panicked as the van jerked forward, tossing him around. Abigail’s friends screamed louder, jerking on the door handles and banging on the windows for someone to let them out. Abigail, however, was staring at the van, dazed. Tristan whipped around when he heard the screams. He saw the van plowing toward them, and then, once again, the van skidded to a halt. Glaring angrily at Tristan, I conjured a ball of fire and threw it in his direction. His eyes weren’t on me. Luckily for me, it was too late when he saw the flames. I smiled as the fireball knocked him nearly twelve feet backward, smashing him across cars and into things until he finally landed hard on the ground. People screamed in panic when they heard the loud noise that Tristan’s body made when he hit the ground. They, of course, couldn’t see him; they saw only the char the fire caused. The street looked like a battlefield. People were crawling out of their totaled vehicles, and some of the cars had flipped upside down or lay on their sides. Some drivers struggled to get out, and others weren’t even moving. “Jake, wake up!” Sarah’s panicked voice grabbed my attention. I turned and looked at Jake’s car. Jake had collapsed. I supposed he was in shock. Danny and Sarah still struggled to get out of the car. And Abigail looked steady as she continued to gaze at the stalled van. I made the van move forward once again. The driver tried jerking on the steering wheel, but it didn’t respond. “Come on, move! Dear God, help me,” the driver cried in what I was sure was his last prayer. “Move!” he shouted as the van rushed toward Jake’s car, knocking the parked vehicles out of its way. “Get up, Jake!” I heard Danny shouting. “Jake!” I admired my handiwork. To make things more interesting, I inched Jake’s car forward.

“What the—?” Abigail seemed to be the only one who noticed that Jake’s car was moving. I knew nothing could go wrong now. Tristan was still on the ground, and I was about to hit the jackpot. Three. Two—what the hell? “Impossible!” I shouted, looking at Jake’s car. Just as the van was about to crash into his car, the car swerved and lurched forward. It skidded to a stop out of harm’s way. I appeared beside Jake’s car, furious. In the driver’s seat, Jake was still unconscious, but Abigail sat in his lap, holding the steering wheel. What the hell?

BEST FRIENDS FORNEVER
“They say I’m evil because

I have no heart and can’t feel, but how can I feel when they kept taking, pushing and asking much of me until I gave them my very soul?”
Melody Manful

Abigail let go of the steering wheel and crawled into the backseat.
Did Abigail steer them away? She couldn’t have. Shock couldn’t begin to describe what I was feeling. I was surprised—and surprise wasn’t something I experienced often. I couldn’t think straight. No normal human could do what Abigail just did. What was she? The street filled with cries and chaos. It didn’t take long for police cruisers and ambulances to arrive. Paramedics rushed to help the injured. This time when she tried the car handle, the door opened. Abigail stepped out of the car and surveyed the surrounding hell. Sarah and Danny climbed shakily out of the car, tears streaming down their cheeks. My eyes searched the crowd until they found Tristan’s. The moment our eyes connected, tears started falling down his cheeks. The night sky rumbled, the roll of thunder pierced every heart and brought sadness into the soul of everyone around. Except me. I just thought the forces of the universe were kissing up to him! Suddenly he was right in front of me. “Are you happy now?” Tristan asked, clearly pained by the destruction I had caused. “Does this make you happy?” He pointed at the chaos around us. “Ecstatic. Do I win a prize?” “You’re just…” He paused, clenching his fists. “Just…” His blue eyes abruptly turned gold. “I’m what?” I asked, stepping closer toward him when I realized he wasn’t going to continue his little speech. “What, are you too good to tell me how awful I am?” “No, you don’t deserve even that satisfaction!” He transported himself to Abigail and her friends. My breath started coming on too strong as anger built up inside me. My body felt enflamed. I clenched my fists, letting the burning rage inside take control. Instantly, my right hand ignited and I hurled the ball of fire straight toward Abigail. Half a second before the fire blasted Abigail, Tristan’s hands snatched it from the air. Before I could inhale another breath, he stood in front of me.

“Enough, Gideon!” Tristan shouted. “Oh, I’m just getting started,” I snarled, staring him straight in the eyes. “I came here for the girl, and she’s still alive.” “Then I suggest you come up with a more brilliant plan, because this one is pathetic,” Tristan said, challenging me. The fire in his hands evaporated into air, and he was gone again. “That is one angry prince.” I turned around at the sound of D’s voice. She stood behind me, smiling as if there weren’t chaos going on around us. She wore an erotic, short red dress with a seductive smile on her face. Around her neck dangled an ancient crystal necklace that glowed every time a soul died—which was every second, so the necklace never stopped shimmering. D was the only friend I had. She was the Grim Reaper and the keeper of the Underworld. As the Grim Reaper, it was her job to lead dead souls to the Underworld, where they’d cross over. And her being here meant she came to take the souls of those I just killed. “And he just made one angry Gideon.” I made an attempt to go over to Tristan, but D stopped me. “Patience, handsome. You aren’t going to get anywhere near his human by being Gideon.” “How the hell am I supposed to kill her then?” “I suggest if you want to kill the girl, you befriend her first.” I frowned, puzzled. That was the dumbest idea I’d ever heard. Why the hell would I waste my time befriending a human? “Trust me, it would be brilliant,” she added. “Tristan isn’t going to leave her side, and the only way you will even get close to her is by joining her circle. As a friend.” Her plan didn’t seem dumb when I realized she was right. “The prince did say I needed a new plan.” I freed myself from D’s grip, my anger fading. I didn’t know how the whole friendship thing worked, but this was a challenge I couldn’t pass up.

The plan was simple. Befriend her.
Find her weakness, make her vulnerable, and then kill her. When I arrived at school the next day, reporters had surrounded the grounds. I heard Abigail’s name floating around as they discussed her heroism to the cameras. What the hell was going on here? What did I miss? I snapped my fingers and found myself outside our classroom. “Abigail,” Sarah was saying, “I didn’t know they were reporters, and you didn’t say not to tell anyone you saved us.” There was no way Abigail could have saved them, and if she did, how did she do it? What kind of a human was she, anyway? “Sarah, it’s all right. I’m fine,” Abigail sighed, lifting her head. She didn’t sound fine to me. Only a few students paid attention when the teacher began teaching. Abigail lifted her head to look at the board. Before I knew it, the school bell was ringing for lunch.

“Remember to do your homework!” the teacher called as students filed out. Abigail, her friends, Tristan, and I were the last students in the room gathering our books. “You want to get some lunch, Abby?” Tristan asked. “Or I can grab you something.” “I’m fine. Go on ahead,” she said. “I’ll join you later.” Tristan hesitated, showing me he didn’t want to leave Abigail behind, but when Danny nodded his head toward the door, Tristan didn’t argue. They all looked regretfully at her before they walked out of the classroom. Befriend her. I repeated the words in my head before I stood and made my way over to her. The moment I reached her table, Tristan appeared in the room, invisible. He was everywhere! “It seems it’s just you and me now, Miss Cells. How about that tour?” I asked, and once again I took a seat beside her. I pretended not to notice Tristan. “It’s just you, actually. I’m leaving,” Abigail said as she turned to look at me. “So was that a yes to the tour?” I brought it up again. Abigail stood. “I take it you either haven’t heard the news or you don’t care.” She started packing. “You aren’t grilling me with questions, so which is it?” “Oh, I heard about what happened. It’s everywhere.” I stood and stepped beside her. Tristan also took a step closer, but I continued to ignore his presence. “I heard you’re the new Wonder Woman,” I added. “Unfortunately,” she said, annoyed. “I just wish…” she paused, her voice trembling. “Sorry, I can’t think of the accident without feeling sad—all the people who died and those who were hurt…” Her voice cracked. This friendship thing was going to be more difficult than I thought. I had to listen to her whining? “How did you do it?” I asked, following Abigail to the door. “You were in the backseat, and Jake was unconscious. The van was seconds away from Jake’s car and—” I paused, catching the surprised look on Abigail’s face. Oops. Abigail jolted to a stop and turned to me. “How did you know that? Even Sarah and Danny didn’t see what happened because they were too busy freaking out.” “I…” I was typically skilled at lying, but at the moment, my mind froze. “I supposed that was what happened?” That was the best I could come up with? “Were you following us?” she probed. “Yeah, I’m a spy.” Suddenly, I was pinned to the classroom wall with Abigail’s forearm pressing hard against my throat. How had she pinned me so fast? “Are you a spy?” she demanded. I could have easily broken free, but I didn’t. Instead, I faked pain and acted as if I were trying to

escape from her grip. I didn’t even want to think about what was going through Tristan’s head at the moment. To think she did all that in heels. “I…I…” I pretended I was choking. “Abigail, you’re—” “Who are you? Did someone send you here after me?” I’d give the girl one thing: she was different, entertaining even. “I…no…” Her arm tightened around my neck. “Then why did you say you were?” she demanded again. I’d had enough. I swiftly grabbed her by the waist and broke away from her grip, changing our position and pinning her to the wall instead. “I am not a spy!” I shouted. Our bodies were so close now that the fabric of our clothes touched. “I was only kidding! Where the hell did that come from?” Come to think of it, how did she learn to do that? She was stronger than she looked. I read from the book Daligo gave me that she trained with some military guy, but I didn’t think it was anything serious. “Kidding?” Abigail hesitated. She seemed distracted by our proximity to each other. “Why…why would you kid about that?” I could hear the thumping of her heart, each beat faster and louder than the last. “I…” I didn’t know how to answer her question. “Because I…” My eyes met hers. “Because I…” I could feel her breath against my lips. “Because I…” Her brown eyes looked so confused and…beautiful. That thought shocked me, and I immediately pulled myself away. Where the hell did that thought come from? “I’m sorry about that.” She picked her bag up from the floor. “I heard spy, and I assumed you were one of the paparazzi.” That was her excuse? “So you go all karate crazy on every paparazzi guy you see?” “Well, if you hadn’t freaked me out by knowing what happened, I wouldn’t have gone all karate crazy on you.” She sounded vexed. “You freaked me out.” Then, I did something I never thought I’d do. I laughed. A real laugh; it sounded so alien to me. “You nearly choked me to death because I freaked you out?” I asked, still laughing. What the hell was happening to me? “Now you’re just exaggerating,” she said, and then after looking at me, she too started laughing. “Okay, so maybe I overreacted. Just by a little bit.” “You think?” “You know you still freak me out,” she said. “I’m still wondering how you knew all that.” “You show me around campus, and I’ll tell you.” This was befriending her, right? Not blackmailing. “Well then, Mr. Chase, this is the chemistry lab, and that concludes our tour,” she said, already

laughing again. She knew how to play this stupid game better than I did. I couldn’t help but laugh with her. “I must say, that was a nice tour.” “I know, right? I should open up my own touring agency.” Why was I still laughing? Now I was freaking myself out. “That’s a nice sound. You should laugh more,” Tristan said. I had completely forgotten that Tristan was in the room with us, and the moment I heard his voice, I got so livid that the next thing I knew, Abigail was screaming because the glasses on the lab shelves had shattered. I had no idea why I did what I did next, but the moment the glasses exploded, I used my body to shield Abigail, protecting her from the airborne shards. “Oh, my God. Gideon, are you all right?” Abigail asked, spinning me around and searching for any injuries. “What happened? You saved me.” “I’m fine,” I said, not really sure if I was. Did I shield her because I wanted to befriend her? That must be why. “Maybe there was a chemical reaction or something?” Tristan stood beside Abigail, his face unreadable. I was sure he was just as shocked as I was that I had protected Abigail. “Come on, let’s go get a teacher,” she said, opening the door for us. “Are you sure you’re all right? I can take you to the nurse if you’re not.” Was I all right? Because in my perfect world, I didn’t laugh, and under no circumstances did I save people.

MIND THE GAP
“Great! Now I’m becoming one of those guys

with hearts and flowers and… feelings.”
Melody Manful

Three days!
It had been three days, and Abigail Cells was still alive! Yesterday after my attempt to befriend her ended up with my saving her, she calmed down a little

around me. And now as I sat with her and her friends, including Tristan, she didn’t look like she minded having me around. With a little magic, I made sure she forgot about my knowing how she saved her friends, so she didn’t ask me about it any further. History class was in a few minutes, so Tristan and Abigail decided to rehearse their Titanic presentation. Danny, Jake, and I suddenly realized we hadn’t prepared for the project. The guys started freaking out, talking about how Mr. Bernard was going to give them an F. “We are toast,” Danny moaned as he pulled his schoolbag away and snatched Tristan’s textbook. “We’re using that,” Abigail protested. “Really? All the extra after-school work and you’re still not done? What are you two doing, writing a freaking novel?” I asked, and her friends laughed. Abigail looked offended. “At least we have a novel. What do you guys have?” she asked. “We have something,” Jake said. “It’s a surprise.” Tristan and Sarah tried to get us to tell them what it was, but we refused because even we didn’t know what it was. “Gideon, what is it?” Abigail asked, slightly lifting her eyes and catching my gaze, and then it happened—I babbled. “We…hmm…we’re just messing with you. We don’t have anything.” I was completely and utterly —well, I didn’t really have words to excuse my behavior. “Way to keep a secret, man,” Danny said as the bell rang for class to start. It was no surprise that Tristan and Abigail got an A. Actually, Mr. Bernard had said, ”A-plus-plus,” and then he gave Jake, Danny, and me an F because we didn’t have anything. I’d written The Titanic is sinkable on a piece of paper, and we had read it out loud in unison. After school, Tristan and I invisibly followed Abigail to the community library where she read to the after-school children. “I know what you’re doing, Gideon,” Tristan said. “You’re trying to befriend the girl just so you can—” “Kill her faster?” I finished Tristan’s pathetic assumption with a wicked smile. “Give yourself a pat on the back, handsome. That’s correct.” Abigail looked so happy reading for the children. “Gideon, don’t hurt that poor girl because of me.” “Do I need to take a seat for this?” I asked. “Is this the part where you lecture me about good guy stuff?” “Please don’t hurt her,” Tristan pleaded once more as if he didn’t hear me. “This is really sad,” I whispered, more to myself than to him, as I saw how distressed he was over Abigail’s life. What about his life? Right, he didn’t care about his life. “I’d love to stand here and chat, but I’m on a mission,” I said with my eyes on Abigail. “Gideon, what are—?” Tristan didn’t finish because I disappeared behind one of the shelves, made

myself visible, and then quickly rushed into view. “Is there room for one more student?” I asked the moment I reached the area where Abigail sat with the children. Abigail looked up quickly when she heard my voice. “You’re too old, aren’t you?” one of the children asked in a tiny voice that made me want to slap the hell out of her. “I’m sure there’s room for one more. Class, this is Gideon.” Abigail made space on the floor for me to sit beside her. Tristan remained where he stood, staring at me without even blinking. “You seem to be everywhere,” she said the moment I sat down. “I came to borrow a book and saw you guys,” I lied. “And here I was thinking you were allergic to books,” she teased. “Now that you mention it, I think I’m allergic to school books.” Abigail was about to say something when one of the boys asked, “Is Abigail your girlfriend?” “Yes, and I’m going to kiss her right now.” I made a slight movement toward Abigail, and all the children started making noises of disgust. “Ewwwww!” Abigail smiled and then quickly looked away from me. I winked at Ben and Felix, who stood quietly off to the side, appearing amused. “I have a question. How does it feel to fall in love?” a little girl asked. Two of her front teeth were missing. How the hell would I know? Everyone was quiet, so I knew I had to answer. “Well,” I cleared my throat and tried to remember all the cheesy sayings I had heard about falling in love. “It’s unexplainable.” I looked at Abigail, which turned out to be a stupid decision because when my eyes met hers, I felt a stir of emotions in my chest. “And unexpected,” I whispered to myself.

CHASING DAWN
“Watch your thoughts; they become words.

Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”

Lao-Tze

I remembered when Thursday mornings meant getting breakfast at the town square just before I left
for Earth. And by getting breakfast, I meant killing innocent creatures for the fun of it. This Thursday morning, however, the moment the sun rose, I stormed out of my room as if someone was after me. “Wow, Gideon, slow down. Where are you going?” Valoel asked the moment I rushed down the stairs. I stopped. My entire family was in the living room, and all of them stared at me. “I…” I looked from my father to my mother and then to Valoel. They wore the same look on their faces—surprise. “School. I’m going to school. You know, to try and kill Tristan’s ènas and stuff.” And then without waiting for them to respond, I raced out the door. “Is he all right?” I overhead my mother asking. “I don’t know. I think so,” Valoel answered. “Can you find out if he’s okay?” My father asked, and not wanting to hear more, I flew into the air. When I arrived at school, I stopped in front of the main gate before making myself visible. Since I couldn’t sense Tristan, I knew Abigail wasn’t at school yet. I paced in front of the main gate. The students who passed either smiled or stared at me. I had formed a plan—follow Abigail to the library, and when everyone was busy having fun, kill her unexpectedly so Tristan wouldn’t know what was coming. I could pretend to be involved and let the children play games that would get them to laugh, which would also encourage Tristan to laugh and feel happy. Just when he would least expect it, bang! I’d kill Abigail. Five minutes passed as I paced, just waiting for her—the longest five minutes of my existence. I was about to give up when I spotted Abigail’s limo pulling into the parking lot, with Tristan invisibly beside it. When her limo stopped and Abigail got out, her eyes quickly found me. She smiled and waved. I did the same, until her mother got out of the limo and signaled for me to come over. “Mom, this is Gideon. Gideon, my mom,” Abigail introduced. I stretched out my hand and greeted her. “Nice to finally meet you, Mrs. Cells,” I said politely, and Tristan, who stood beside Abigail, smiled at me. “So, you’re Gideon,” Mrs. Cells said, looking from me to her daughter. “The boyfriend from the library?” Abigail blushed. “He—” Her mother cut her off and turned to me. Suddenly, I felt as if I were in a spotlight. “A librarian

called yesterday to remind Abigail to bring her boyfriend today because the children requested it,” Mrs. Cells said. “A boyfriend whom I was told is named Gideon.” I didn’t know what to tell Mrs. Cells, and the situation would have been much better if Tristan wasn’t standing beside Abigail and grinning at us. “Mom, would you just—” “So, are you and my daughter dating?” she asked, ignoring Abigail. Based on the expression on Mrs. Cells’ face, I knew she wanted me to say no, but I was pretty sure no would be the wrong answer. I breathed in. “I…Abigail says I’m a jerk, and unless I can prove otherwise, I can’t answer that question.” After I said this, both Abigail and her mother gawked at me. “Honey, is he a jerk?” Mrs. Cells asked with a teasing smile. We both looked at Abigail. “Hmm…he is…well, you know, he’s…don’t you have work, Mom?” Abigail’s mother and I laughed. “All right, I know when I’m not wanted.” Mrs. Cells turned to me again. “I’ve got my eyes on you, young man.” She gave Abigail a goodbye kiss on the cheek and reentered the limo. Abigail and I stood and waved as it drove away. “That could have been worse,” I whispered with my eyes on the limo. Abigail looked shy and awkward as she responded, “Way worse.” We started heading into the school with Tristan close behind us. The day went well—too well. I spent every moment with Abigail and didn’t get any chance to kill her because Tristan was everywhere. When school was over, I found myself at the library once more. One moment Abigail had been leaving school and saying goodbye, telling us she was going to the library, and the next moment, I was telling her I wanted to join her because the children loved me. What I didn’t tell her was how much I didn’t like them back. Felix and Ben had both stared at me when Abigail said I was going to be riding with her to the library. Inside the limo, Abigail kept looking at Ben and then back at me, as if she were waiting for something to happen. I asked her what was wrong, but she said it was nothing. Tristan followed us invisibly to the library. The book Abigail wanted to read to the children had been delayed in shipping, and thanks to me and my big mouth, I suggested we make up our own story. We had come up with a ridiculous tale about a pirate captain, an evil stepmother, a beautiful maiden, and an awesome knight. Now it was up to us to act it out. I still couldn’t believe the fast, unexpected twist in my plot to kill Abigail. How had I let four days go by without killing her? Was I going soft? Why couldn’t I just get rid of her? Had I even been trying hard enough to get rid of her? Of course I had. So why the heck was I sitting beside her with my hand in hers, playing with a bunch of useless children?

“I’ll be the pirate!” Vincent exclaimed when we asked for volunteers. Once the roles were assigned, we started acting out the scenes of our story. Finally, we reached the ending, and I, playing the awesome knight, rescued the beautiful maiden, Abigail. “O wonderful knight, thank you so much for rescuing me.” Abigail curtseyed. “My pleasure, beautiful maiden.” I bowed. “Marry me,” I said and stepped closer, taking her hands in mine. “Please, marry me,” I said earnestly, and then Abigail’s heartbeat quickened, and I realized it was because I was standing so close. “Where’s the pastor?” I heard someone ask. I stared into Abigail’s beautiful eyes. What the hell was I doing? Was I sick? “I’m here,” someone said. “Dearly beloved—” “I object!” Vincent shouted, and both Abigail and I turned to him. “Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.” We all laughed, except for Tristan, who for some reason didn’t seem to understand what I was doing. He stood invisibly behind the children. “We are…blah blah…” the young pastor said. “You are married. You may now kiss the bride.” My eyes met Abigail’s, and for a split second, I wanted my lie to be true. I wanted Abigail to be my girlfriend. I wanted it to be true so I could kiss her. Yeah, now I knew for sure that I was sick! Abigail’s heart pounded faster when I leaned toward her. What was wrong with me? “We don’t...” Whatever Abigail started to say trailed off. I could feel Abigail’s breath on my lips because of how close we were. It took every bit of willpower I had to not kiss her fully on the lips. When my lips finally touched her, they pressed against the corner of her mouth. The children cheered, and at the sound of their voices, I pulled away. My eyes met Tristan’s, and the look on his face was indecipherable. Could he tell something was wrong with me, or was he as surprised as I was? After that rather awful displacement of my sanity, I said a quick goodbye and left, coming up with a ridiculous excuse that I needed to go home and help my mother move furniture. Abigail offered to drive me, but I said I’d take the bus. But, of course, I didn’t go to the bus stop or home to help my mother with her furniture. I went straight to the Underworld to visit D. I wanted to see her because she was the only friend I had. I wanted to ask her if she knew of an angel disease I didn’t know of, because I was certain I was sick. “D, open this stupid gate or I’m breaking it down!” I shouted as I retracted my wings. Every time I wanted to visit D, I had to wait behind the monstrous gate for her to open it. The Underworld was the darkest place I knew. Its huge, iron black gate extended high into the dark sky. Behind the gate lay an envelope of darkness out of which voices of unfortunate souls could be heard. The Underworld wasn’t my favorite place, but I didn’t dislike it. The sad cries and screaming were like sweet melodies to my ears. I liked listening to the cries of lost souls asking for help in a place where

help never came. “D, I swear if you—” “Relax, Gideon. I could hear you all the way from Earth!” D appeared beside me. “What’s the problem?” “Remember the human girl that I wanted to kill?” I asked. I didn’t know why I said wanted to kill, because I still wanted to kill her. Didn’t I? “Tristan’s human? Is she dead? Did you come here so we could celebrate?” “No, she’s not dead!” I shouted angrily. “She’s still alive and—” “Alive?” she asked, sounding surprised. “Don’t you have a three-day policy or something?” Worst friend ever, pointing out my failures when all I wanted was help. I glared. “Don’t you think I know this already?” “Why are you so worked up? Can’t you just kill her now or later? What’s the problem?” “The problem is that I can’t kill her!” I shouted. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I felt as if I couldn’t breathe, and the air around me was too dense, suffocating me. Was I having a meltdown? “Whenever I try to hurt her, I feel…I feel something.” “Feel something? What the hell does that mean?” “I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I wanted…I want to kiss her,” I said, and D broke into laughter. “Wait. You’re serious?” she asked. She stopped laughing after seeing that I wasn’t joking. “Well, go kiss her and then kill her. Problem solved.” “But I can’t…it’s Friday tomorrow.” What the hell was wrong with me? So what if it was Friday tomorrow? “And it’s Thursday today. Your point?” D didn’t understand the length of the problem. “Fine. Don’t kill her tomorrow. How about the day after or the next?” she proposed. “She’s supposed to get a new book this Saturday. We have to read to the children on Monday, so I can’t kill her.” “The children? A book?” D stared at me, a look of confusion marring her features. “What the hell is wrong with you? You can’t kill her tomorrow because it’s Friday, and you can’t kill her this weekend because of a book?” When she put it like that, it did sound like a really stupid, pathetic excuse. I wanted to kill Abigail —well, maybe not as much as I did before—but what if I killed her and…and I… Gideon, back away from that thought. D stepped closer to me. “Wait a minute. Don’t tell me that you are f—” D didn’t finish her sentence because I grabbed her by the neck, and she choked on her words. “Don’t you dare say that out loud,” I whispered through clenched teeth. I released her. “We have a problem,” D said when I let go of her. “Come on, let’s go hit you on the head with

something and return you to normal.” Now that was the friend I was looking for. I was actually thinking of doing the same thing. “I vote for a car,” I said as D took my hand, and we disappeared into the darkness.

DARK KNIGHT
*Abigail*
“If I were yesterday, I’d laugh at those who wish for a do-over.

If I were today, I’d laugh at those who didn’t make it this far, but if I were tomorrow, I’d laugh because I’d know the best is yet to come.”
Melody Manful

The next day at school, Gideon was waiting by the gate when I arrived. He waved me over, and I
joined him. We walked to class together. This time, I sat with him at the back of the room and we talked about the children at the library. “Come on. I’ll buy you lunch,” Gideon said when the lunch bell rung. He took my hand and led me down the hall. I didn’t protest because I was kind of used to him doing so lately. When we went to the library yesterday, he had grabbed my hand, saying that we needed to make the children believe our boyfriend and girlfriend story. Reality check: This boy wasn’t the Gideon from my nightmare. Gideon still had my hand in his when we turned a corner and walked into the cafeteria. I felt his warmth rushing through me like electricity, striking and then lingering long enough to leave me breathless. Then it faded before the strong surge returned. “You eat that human stuff, right?” I stopped walking when Gideon asked this. “I mean food.” I smiled at his add-on, because it made him sound normal and not crazy. There were moments when Gideon made me feel alive, and then there were moments when he said things that turned me back into the crazy girl who freaked out when I learned his name in class. Since I was getting used to his weird comments and no longer freaked out around him, I just wanted to escape with him to the cafeteria and forget the whole world.

“Sure.” I wasn’t hungry, but I didn’t want to say no when he offered to buy me lunch. He led me into the cafeteria to where my friends were sitting. I took a seat next to Tristan, and Gideon sat on the other side of me. I shouldn’t have allowed myself to feel the way I did, but I was a teenage girl, sitting between two incredibly hot guys who left me breathless. I was pretty sure I was allowed to feel breathless. Gideon left to grab the food. As soon as he walked away, Sarah stared at me with her I-want-allthe-details look. Moments later, Gideon returned with a tray of food, which he placed in front of me. Smiling up at him, I took the juice from the tray and started to take a sip, but the moment I did, someone shouted from behind us. Half the people in the cafeteria looked toward the voice. “Yes, I’d love to!” Behind us knelt a guy, giving a girl a bouquet of flowers. “That’s so sweet,” Sarah swooned. “What just happened?” Gideon asked. “The school’s thirtieth anniversary is next Friday, and he just asked her to go with him to the dance the school is throwing,” Danny explained. “You guys will be going, right?” “Do we have to?” Gideon asked. “No,” Jake answered, “but I’m going to be taking Doreen,” “Dude, the girl has a restraining order on you,” Sarah said, and we all laughed. “She wouldn’t go with you if you were the last guy on the planet.” Jake took a bite of his sandwich, ignoring our laughter. “Who are you going with, Danny? Asked Lois Lane yet?” “I’ll ask someone, and she will say yes.” “You forgot the fork, Gideon,” Tristan said as he looked at the salad sitting on my tray. Gideon shook his head. “No, I didn’t.” He leaned toward me and said, “You have something behind your ear.” Then he pretended to pull a fork out. Everyone at the table gasped in surprise when his hand actually revealed a fork. “Wow, Houdini,” Jake exclaimed, “where did that come from?” “Here you go,” Gideon said as he held the fork out to me with a flourish. “So, Great Bikini, are you—” Danny started. “It’s Houdini, genius,” Jake corrected Danny. “Bikini—where do you come up with this stuff?” While we laughed, Caleb, the captain of the football team and a handsome charmer, walked over to our table. A few of his teammates stood behind him. When Caleb called Sarah’s name, we turned around to see him go down on one knee. He and a few of his teammates were dressed in suits, and they all held flowers. Sarah gasped when she saw them. Caleb asked her if she would do him the honor of being his date to the dance. She screamed, “YES!” Then, one by one, his teammates handed her the flowers, and some people in the cafeteria clapped.

“I can’t believe even you have a date,” Jake said, frowning. Sarah said to me, “I so wish you would go.” For some reason, I felt sad that no one was going to do something that nice and special for me. Tristan sounded surprised when he asked, “You’re not going?” “No one ever asks me to these things. The last time someone did, my bodyguards ended up interrogating him and scared him away.” They laughed. “I’m sure someone will ask you,” Sarah said. She was always hopeful. “If not, you can share my date.” “Thank you, but I just ordered a new book.” I had convinced myself that I didn’t care about going to the dance. I would be fine staying home. After all, my father had promised to visit. “Well, I think that even though you’re not going, you deserve to have a rose.” My heart leaped with joy when Gideon said this. With a wave of Gideon’s hands, a beautiful red rose appeared. “Dude!” Jake shouted, while both Sarah’s mouth and mine fell open. “That is amazing. Teach me that so that I can do it for Doreen.” Gideon faced me. “A rose for a rose,” he said as he handed me the rose. And without as much as a breath, I did it—I allowed myself to fall.

LA BELLA E LA BESTIA
*Gideon*
“It is better to be feared than loved,

if you cannot be both.”
Niccolo Machiavelli

“ t seems as if your fake friendship with Abigail is working,” Tristan said a few moments after Abigail walked out of the classroom with her friends. “Are you going to ask her to the dance?” I looked around the empty classroom. “Oh,” I said. “You’re talking to me.”

I

“Yes. Are you planning on asking her to the dance so you can keep pretending to be her friend?” Why was he talking to me? “You give me the creeps, you know that?” Everything about Tristan made me nauseous. “I figured.” He walked over to where I sat, smiling as if he’d just won the lottery. “So?” “Why would I ask that stupid human girl to a useless human event?” I asked, quite annoyed. I spend some earthly time with him, and all of a sudden we were friends? “You know that the only reason I’m entertaining her is so that I can—” “Abigail!” Tristan blurted, and I turned to the door just in time to see Abigail run out into the hall. “Abby.” I couldn’t explain what came over me, but I ran out the door after her. “Abby, wait!” I shouted. “Stop!” With a little magic, I caught up with her. “Stop,” I said again, taking her hand and stopping her in the middle of the hallway. “Why? So you can call me stupid and…” She tried to hold back her tears. “I came to ask you if you wanted to go to the dance with me, but now I know your answer.” She freed herself from my grasp. I hated hearing the pain in her voice, hated the way I felt seeing her sad. Really? Now? Couldn’t she have asked me sooner? Wait, wasn’t I the one who was supposed to ask her? Was this a human trick or something? Was this one of those female things? Was I having a female problem now? “I didn’t…I wasn’t…” I didn’t know what to say, and seeing anger and sadness in Abby’s beautiful eyes was…I just used the word beautiful—again. I was seriously sick! “Tristan is just so annoying, and…” My voice trailed off. Why was I stressing myself over this? “Joke’s on me, huh? This past week has been…I thought there was…” Tears streamed down her cheeks now. “Forget it.” She wiped at her tears and then turned around and walked away from me. I made Abigail cry. I should be happy, but all I felt was—what was it that I was feeling? I didn’t know because it was a new feeling. Seeing Abigail walk away and knowing how I made her feel made me angry—so angry that before I knew what I was doing, I punched the locker beside me. Not only that locker, but also all the other lockers in the hall exploded. The hallway filled with flying pages of books, broken locker doors, pens and pencils, pictures, and other items. Abigail turned around and gaped at me. Her face filled with shock as her eyes traveled over the mess and then back to me. How was I going to explain that? “How—how did you—” Abigail stuttered. I didn’t blame her. I wasn’t even sure what I was supposed to say or why I had allowed myself to be so careless. Abigail stood still, frozen in place by her shock. Papers floated to the floor. “Abigail, I didn’t…” Abigail backed away and fearfully whispered, “It’s you. You’re the Gideon from my nightmare.” And then she ran. I didn’t understand why she was scared. I was about to follow her when the school principal

walked into the hallway. “What happened here?” he asked. I didn’t have time for him. I started thinking of how to get rid of him, but Valoel already had my hand. “Just play along,” she ordered. “You just ruined his school. You don’t have to kill him, too.” Where the hell did she come from? I wanted to ask, but I didn’t want to hear her talk. My mind was filled with thoughts of Abigail. “I don’t know, I…” The principal walked over to me. “Are you all right?” he asked me. I nodded, and then he told me to follow him to the nurse. He left the moment he dropped me off at the nurse’s office, and since Valoel was breathing down my neck and telling me to act normal, I had to stay and have the school nurse check me out. I sat in the nurse’s office, angry at myself for what I said about Abigail. I shouldn’t have let what’shis-face get to me. And now, I had hurt Abigail. “You almost exposed us! What’s going on?” Valoel asked the moment I stepped out of the nurse’s office. I didn’t have time for her. “I need to see Abigail.” I snapped my fingers and found myself inside Abigail’s bedroom. Abigail stood in front of a mirror inside her walk-in closet. She held a gun in her hand, but that wasn’t what caught my attention. She wore a skintight leather jumpsuit, with a belt buckle and gun holsters. Her reflection looked sad and distant. Where the hell was she going? I looked around for Tristan, but for some reason, he wasn’t there. “You look dangerous.” The moment I said this, Abigail whipped around, startled. The second her eyes met mine, she pointed her gun at me. “Gideon, what are you doing here?” Her voice was shaky, and the hand holding the gun trembled. “Abigail.” I stepped toward her, and she took a step back. “What do you want?” I hated hearing the fear in her voice. “Did you come to ask for a ride so you can kill me?” What the hell was she talking about? “I don’t know what you mean, but no, I didn’t come here to kill you. So, you can put that thing away now.” I pointed to the gun. She raised her arm, pointing the gun straight at my forehead. Great, now she was going to end up killing me, although a gun actually wouldn’t kill me. “You’re not here to kill me?” She sounded like she wanted to believe my words. Almost. “I don’t know why you’re scared of me,” I said, my voice not sounding like mine because it was a sad representation of my normal bravado. “I know you’re mad at me and—”

Abigail angrily cut me off. “What gave that away?” I could hear her heart racing, but her voice sounded stronger, angrier. “You called me stupid.” “And I’m trying to tell you I didn’t mean it!” “Didn’t mean it?” she asked in disbelief. The gun still pointed at me. “You made me feel something, and then you called me stupid. I thought we—” “Just stop!” I shouted. I couldn’t bear listening to her say that whatever we felt wasn’t real. “This isn’t my scene. I hate this—feeling so…so human. I don’t do feeling guilty or thinking about a girl. And I certainly don’t do longing for someone to talk to me, so stop making me feel this way because you’re making me angry! And I hate getting angry at you because I—I want to be…to be with you, and…be—be happy…with you!” I had no idea why I said this. Abigail lowered her gun for a second, and then she lifted it up again. “If you wanted to be with me, then why did you call me stupid?” I was never going to live that down. “I wanted to be—” she started, but I couldn’t let her say anything more. I didn’t even give her a second to blink before I appeared right in front of her. “Don’t finish that sentence,” I whispered. I knew what she was going to say—that she wanted to be with me, too, but now she didn’t. “How did—you were…” No human could do what I just did, but I didn’t care if she learned of our existence. I just wanted to make her not hate me. Abigail’s gun pointed straight at my chest. If she wanted, she could send a bullet right through me— not that it could hurt me. “Abigail, put that thing away before you hurt yourself,” I said calmly. I wasn’t scared for my life, but I was for hers. I came to Earth to kill her, and now I wanted to protect her? “But you…” Abigail’s shock lingered. “How did you do that?” she asked. “I’m not going to hurt you,” I promised. Abigail didn’t look like she believed me, and I wasn’t sure I believed me either.

HEREAFTER
*Abigail*
“Better to light a candle

than to curse the darkness.”
Chinese Proverb

Gideon wasn’t human. I knew he couldn’t be—not after what he did to the lockers in the school
hallway and his ability to move inhumanly fast. I couldn’t risk lowering the gun. In the back of my head, I wished Logan would notice that I was late for training and come for me, and then he would find Gideon. I wanted to run away from him, but I couldn’t, not when he was the Gideon from my nightmare. That Gideon caught me, no matter how fast I ran. This time, however, I was prepared and determined to fight him. I had a gun; he didn’t. I was shaken, but I was sure I could still pull the trigger if I needed to. “Abigail, I’m not here to hurt you.” So he kept saying. I might have believed his words before, not after what I had seen him do. “I didn’t mean to call you stupid. Tristan was being annoying, and I said the first thing that came into my head to get him off my back. I didn’t mean what I said.” A part of me wanted to believe him. “You still said it, Gideon.” His excuse made me angry and filled me with courage. “And then you— you did something to the lockers. And in my dream, you …” I couldn’t get the words out of my mouth. I couldn’t say, “You killed me.” “I’m not going to hurt you,” he said again. I jumped because Gideon’s voice was right beside my ear. I turned to see him standing behind me. “Stop doing that!” I shouted. Now I was one hundred percent sure he wasn’t human. Maybe I was stupid. Gideon had made me suspicious from the beginning, and yet it somehow didn’t bother me enough to stay away from him, to not hold his hand. Wouldn’t a normal person have tried to find out more about him? All I knew about him was that he moved here from Hollywood, he took my breath away every time our eyes connected or he touched my hand, and he was unrealistically beautiful. He was also funny, rude, a little weird, and sometimes charming. Did he have a family, a really cute little brother? Did he have a father who had married women fantasizing about him? Or maybe he had a dog? Where did he live? “It’s the only way I can get closer to you without you backing away from me,” Gideon said. He carefully took my hand, and I didn’t immediately pull away. “You hate me, don’t you?” Breathe, Abby! “Infinity times two,” I whispered and pulled away from him.

“Good,” he said and smiled, but the smile disappeared a second later. He walked closer to me again and cupped my face in his hands. I still had my gun on alert. My heart leaped. Electricity flowed through my veins. His face was so close to mine. My eyes locked on his, and I held my breath. No, no, no! Looking into his green eyes, I felt his breath against my lips as my heart pounded violently. I knew I wasn’t strong enough to resist the burning desires. Suddenly I felt myself lowering my gun, letting it hang by my side. I wanted to pull myself away, but I couldn’t because the truth was that although I was scared and upset with him, I wanted him to kiss me. Knowing I wasn’t strong enough to pull away, I whispered, “Please do not kiss me.” I hoped that Gideon was strong enough to resist whatever was happening between us. After another agonizing second, he pulled away. “I didn’t come here to hurt you, Abigail,” Gideon said. At the sound of his sad voice, I instantly felt silly for thinking he was going to hurt me. I dreamt that he hurt me, but that didn’t mean he would hurt me in real life, did it? “I believe you.” The moment I said this, his whole body relaxed as if he had been holding his breath. He tucked the loose strands of my hair behind my ears. My body was still shaking. “Do me a favor,” I whispered, looking up into his green eyes. “Anything.” “Leave. Please.” Gideon looked stricken when I said this. I wanted him gone, far away from me, but Gideon stood still in front me. “I…” he paused, and my heart continued its rapid beat. Just being that close to him made me tremble. “I meant no harm, Abigail.” He sounded sad, and that light in his eyes was replaced by something else—something dark. He pressed his hand gently to my cheek. I lowered my eyes, trying to find the courage to pull away. He tipped my head up so that I had to look straight at him. I tried with every inch of my body to drag myself away from his gaze, but I couldn’t. “Goodbye,” he said, and then he was gone. I looked around, but there was no sign of him anywhere. I rushed over and closed all the windows in my bedroom when I was convinced that he was really gone. I had no idea why I bothered, when he could just appear and disappear into thin air. I sunk onto the floor after that, dropping my head into my hands and crying. Gideon wasn’t human—that much I was sure of. So, what the hell was he? I had wanted to remember my nightmare, to put a face on Gideon, but when I finally had a match, I wished I hadn’t. Maybe I misinterpreted the dream. Maybe he wasn’t going to try and kill me. Maybe he simply came to break my heart. But that didn’t explain what or who he really was.

I heard Gideon’s voice in my head saying, That stupid girl. Of course I was stupid. No one had forced me to feel the way I did around him. That day in the cafeteria, no one told me to give my heart away. That day in the library, no one told me to lose myself. That night on my bed, no one asked me to long for him. And, crying on the floor, no one made me wish I’d asked him to stay.

THE STRUGGLE
“It would be easier to break,

but I’m going to keep my head high just to make you believe I’m stronger, so I can hurt in silence.”
Melody Manful

No matter what I did, sleep wouldn’t come. Instead, I stared at the red letters of the clock as they
flashed the numbers of each passing minute. The next day, I stayed in bed until Sunday evening when my mother forced me to get out of bed to get some air. When Monday came, I lied and told my mother that I hadn’t been feeling well, so she allowed me to stay home. I was no longer crippled by my fear, but I was still unsettled and sad. When I woke up Tuesday morning, I felt better than I had in days. I decided if Gideon was going to kill me, he’d have done it by now. I still told my mother I wasn’t yet well enough for school, and this time, she decided to stay home with me. It didn’t take her long to figure out that I was upset rather than sick, because I turned down every medicine she tried to give me. She asked what was wrong, but since I didn’t want to drag her into my crazy world, I said it was nothing and that I had just needed some time alone. Her way of trying to cheer me up was for us to eat a lot of ice cream and to model the new dresses in her clothing line. At first I didn’t want to do anything, but once she convinced me to try on a few dresses, I found I actually enjoyed it because it kept my mind busy. My friends stopped by to visit after school. They assumed I was sick because I had already missed

two days of classes. Tristan looked sad and distracted throughout the whole visit, but I wasn’t sure what was wrong with him. “I think something is going around school because Gideon is out sick, too,” Jake said. “He hasn’t been to school?” I asked in surprise. “I’m sure he’s fine,” Tristan said. “Well, I’m fine now. I’ll be in school tomorrow,” I said. My friends stayed a little longer with me. Sarah and Tristan walked me through what I had missed at school. After they all left, I was left with tons of homework assignments and a mind filled with questions about why Gideon wasn’t going to school. When I went to school on Wednesday, I immediately regretted my decision because I spent the day jumping at every little sound I heard. Luckily for me, Gideon didn’t show up for classes. While I was relieved he wasn’t there, I wasn’t completely relaxed. When school ended for the day, my friends and I went shopping for Sarah’s dress for the dance. The boys quickly got tired of shopping because she was being so picky about the dresses and couldn’t decide which one Caleb would like. “At this rate, only Mrs. Cells could tell you how good you look and you’d believe it,” Danny said, exasperated. Sarah instantly gave him a hug. “You’re a genius,” she told him. “Let’s go visit the fashion goddess.” We all piled into one car and drove to my mother’s boutique. My mother was more than happy to help Sarah, and when she asked me why I wasn’t going, I lied and told her it was because I wasn’t up for it. Tristan offered to take me if I wanted to go, but I told him I was too far behind on my schoolwork and needed to catch up. I pretended I was fine that Gideon wasn’t around, but it was a lie. I missed him making fun of everything, and making me feel special. I missed how he made me laugh and how he always knew what to say. Remembering the good times didn’t stop me from thinking about the nightmare version of Gideon, though. I remembered how much he scared me, and I decided maybe it was better that he wasn’t around. Whatever he was, he wasn’t good for me. After the rather long shopping trip with my friends, they said goodbye and left. My mother and I drove home together. As soon as I got to my bedroom, Logan called me to come outside for training, since I had texted and cancelled our last training session after Gideon left. “Don’t look so down. You’re making up for missing practice on Friday,” Logan said the moment I stepped unto the field. Logan stood beside a table covered with guns, arrows, and bows. “Why did you call and cancel anyway?” He asked. “Like I told you before, I had a headache.” I walked past him. It was more of a heartache, but how was I supposed to tell him I went to ask a boy out only to find out he wasn’t human? He wouldn’t believe

the truth anyway. One of the weapons on the table caught my eye. I walked over to it and asked, “Logan, is that an AK-47?” Logan smiled when he picked up the gun. “Yeah, isn’t it a beauty?” He handed the gun to me. I took it carefully. “Wow, that’s beautiful.” My voice filled with delight. “Hint, hint, my birthday is coming up.” “Girls ask for dolls, Abby,” Logan teased. He reached for the gun, but I shook my head. I wasn’t yet done admiring it. If only I could show the same interest in all the fancy dresses my mother bought me. “Screw the dolls. Let’s go blow something up,” I said as Logan handed me earplugs and shooting earmuffs. I put down the gun so I could adjust the ear protection, and then I picked it back up. “I’m guessing with the mood swings, you must have a guy problem?” Logan ventured. “You looked sad when you came out.” “What is this, Logan, a therapy session?” I hung the AK-47 around my neck. “All right, I can take a hint. I’ll butt out,” he said. “Oh, I looked over the footage from your balcony a few nights ago,” he told me as he pulled on his own earmuffs. “Definitely looks like you jumped. Dangerous, but cool.” “I guess I slipped,” I lied. I knew I hadn’t jumped off the balcony, but I couldn’t have Logan snooping around outside my room in case I wanted to sneak out again someday. “You should be careful though. It’s a long drop from your balcony.” “Got it, mom,” I teased, and then I aimed at the target at the middle of the field and fired. Some of the bullets hit the target, but others flew past it. “So, who is this guy you’re angry at?” Logan asked as he shot his own gun. I fired again. “I’m a little busy here, Logan!” I shouted over the noise. The bullet missed the target again. “Where’s your head, Abigail?” Logan asked. “You’re disgracing a very beautiful gun.” “My head is here,” I lied. My mind really wasn’t. I only came to training because I needed the distraction. I needed to get my mind off Gideon. “Let’s change guns,” Logan said and traded his gun for the AK-47. “And please, shoot the target and not the ground this time.” Even though I was trying hard to hit the target, once again, I only managed to hit its edge a couple times. Most of my bullets flew through the empty air and hit the ground. Logan let me get away with this for a few more minutes, and then he stopped me when I shot an arrow from the bow and couldn’t hit the target like he knew I could. “Abigail, your head isn’t in the game,” Logan said, and he sounded irritated. “I’ve told you again and again, this isn’t a joke. You can’t come here and not take this seriously.” “I am taking this seriously!” I shouted defensively.

“You can go inside now,” Logan said, and then immediately he reached for the bow in my hand. He turned his back on me, and he started cleaning up, making it obvious that our conversation was over. I yanked my earmuffs off, put them back on the table, and then walked into the house and didn’t stop until I reached my bedroom. Logan had never sounded so angry with me before. I felt it would be best to just leave him alone. When I got to my room, I was angrier with myself than I was with Logan. I was angry that I couldn’t stop thinking about Gideon long enough to get my head into training. He was gone, and still he remained a distraction! Thursday morning when I went to the kitchen for breakfast, my mother was already in there. “Good morning, Mom.” I gave her a kiss and then hoisted myself onto the kitchen countertop. My mother liked rooms with an open floor plan, so our black and white, modern kitchen, with its horizontal curved countertop and two huge glass cupboards, was airy and open. On the wall hung an oversize black and white photograph of me when I was little. I ate breakfast with her, and we talked about her new collection. We also talked about my father coming to visit soon, which made both of us happy. For once, I put my anger and fear aside long enough to feel happy together with her. Once again, Gideon didn’t come to school. My friends didn’t think it was a big deal. Jake and Danny said he went to a convention for bad boys. And Sarah said he wasn’t there because he found out he was too cool for school. For some reason, they all said he might have been sick the first day, but he was just milking it now. Maybe it was the fact that he wasn’t there, but I stopped being frightened of him. I actually wanted him to come back to school so I could make him answer all my questions. Danny and Jake finally asked two girls to the dance during lunch. The guys were fooling around, asking to borrow suits, and the girls couldn’t wait to wear their beautiful, one-of-a-kind dresses. I smiled and pretended to be interested in their conversations, but I felt a little sad to know I wouldn’t be shopping for a dress or even going to the dance. After school, I decided to try and move on. Well, move on, as in go home and let Logan find information on Gideon. That was if I could admit I had a guy problem and apologize to Logan for wasting his time during training yesterday. Later that afternoon, I found Logan outside. He was setting the place for our next training session. I asked him if he would help me find information on Gideon. At first he said no, but after I apologized for my lack of concentration during our last session, his face lit up. “I thought I taught you better than that, Abigail,” he said when I explained I wanted us to hack into every database we could to find information on Gideon. “No, you did. I’m not saying you should do it. I just want to use your computer, that’s all.” He didn’t say no, so I rushed to get his computer. I searched for Gideon Chase in every database I could find, including the FBI, CIA, and Interpol, but nothing came up. Well, there were other Gideon

Chase’s on the planet, but none of them matched my Gideon. “That’s odd. Is this guy an alien?” Logan joked when he tried and couldn’t find anything either. Gideon was suddenly like a mystery that couldn’t be solved. However, I loved solving mysteries. “There has to be another way to get the information we need,” I mused. “How about a sample of his hair?” Logan asked, “Or maybe Gideon Chase isn’t really his name.” Logan spouted off a lot of reasons why Gideon’s name didn’t show up anywhere. I had only one, and it was the fact that he wasn’t human.

SHADOW BOXING
*Gideon*
“If this is my punishment for hurting them,

then what’s yours for hurting me back? Answer me, Karma!”
Melody Manful

“ room.

How have you stopped going to Earth?” Valoel asked the very moment I appeared inside my

“I haven’t stopped. I’m only taking a break,” I lied. I didn’t want to go to Earth anymore, especially if my presence frightened Abigail. I didn’t understand why she was scared of me. “Well, I heard it’s because of Abigail,” Valoel said. “Well you heard wrong, because Abigail is just annoying, reckless, conceited, a pain, and…” I paused, “and she waited until I said something stupid, and then she walked in and said she wanted to ask me to the dance. I tried telling her I didn’t mean what I said, but she won’t listen!” I felt frustrated. “If you called her stupid, then why are you mad?” she asked. “I’m angry at her because she’s just a stupid human who…who is…carelessly clumsy, smart, beautiful and… when she lets her hair fall on her face because she’s shy, or when she—” I screamed, suddenly falling to my knees in pain. “Gideon,” Valoel rushed over to me. I tried to shake her off. “Something’s—something’s wrong with me.” I tried to stand. “Maybe I’m

sick.” “Don’t be ridiculous, Gideon. Angels don’t get sick.” Valoel pulled me to my feet. “There must be something wrong with me because I can’t get her out of my mind.” Abigail invaded every thought in my head. “Abigail is everywhere, and I feel…angry that she heard me calling her stupid.” I pulled myself free from Valoel. “What’s wrong with me?” “There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re just experiencing new feelings.” “New feelings?” That was her theory? “I can feel hate and anger. What more is there? There must be something else wrong with me.” “There’s nothing wrong with you, Gideon!” Valoel shouted. “You’re just…” She hesitated. “What’s wrong with me, Val?” I asked. “What?” “Gideon, you’re in love with Abigail.” The next thing I knew, an invisible force forcibly hurled me straight through the wall. I crashed down below, plummeting at least twenty feet. I had no idea why hearing Valoel say I was in love with Abigail inflicted such pain. I blinked up at the dark sky and realized no one had pushed me; I had pushed myself. “No!” That made no sense. “No, I can’t—I don’t even know what—I do not love her!” I found a little strength and stood. Valoel thought I was in love with Abigail? What the hell gave her that stupid idea? “I know you don’t believe me, but you’re not sick. You’re in love.” “Stop saying that!” I yelled. “I hate her. I still want to kill her, so you’re wrong.” I paused in agony. “I don’t love her. That’s impossible. I can’t feel anything but hate.” “Then why are you in pain?” Valoel pointed at the broken side of the house. “Because I’m angry, weak, and hungry,” I tried to compose myself. “Hello?” Both Valoel and I started at the sound of Tristan’s voice. What the hell was he doing in my house? I snapped my fingers and found myself in the living room. Valoel appeared right beside Tristan, who stood there looking around him. I walked toward him to shove him hard. I made a fist, but I didn’t even hit Tristan because he vanished right through my hand. The next thing I knew, Valoel was standing with him behind me. “I know you and I are from opposing sides,” Tristan said. “And I shouldn’t be here, but Abigail wants answers, and I’m afraid if she doesn’t get them, she might search too far and expose us.” “You’re right. You shouldn’t be here. If you’re worried about our exposure, then you take care of it,” I said. If Abigail wanted answers, why did she ask me to leave? “I didn’t mean for things to turn out this way,” he said sadly. “I know why she’s scared of you, too,” Tristan whispered. “I imprinted a nightmare in her head to make her stay away from you, but I can see it didn’t work. All I can say is I’m sorry.” And everyone said he was nice!

Sorry? Sorry wasn’t going to fix this! “I know,” Tristan said, and I stared confusedly at him. Know what? What the hell was he talking about? “I know sorry doesn’t fix this.” Tristan was reading my thoughts? Instantly, I appeared beside him. “How did you do that?” I asked, now so close to him that I saw my reflection in his eyes. “Do what? I just…” The truth of what was happening seemed to dawn on him that very moment. He looked confused, scared even. You answered my thoughts. How did you do that? I don’t know how. I just heard you as if you spoke, he responded in my head. Heard me? “And you just answered my thought.” He was quick to notice that part. He had answered my thought, and I in turn answered his. “What’s going on?” I took a step away from him. “Something is wrong here, and whatever it is, I don’t like it.” “Wait.” Valoel looked from Tristan to me. “Are you two hearing each other’s thoughts?” Tristan nodded, and then Valoel’s expression changed from shock to pain. “This isn’t good,” she whispered to herself. “This is just what I was afraid of.” She looked back to Tristan and then to me again. We stared at her in confusion. “Sorry, just thinking out loud.” “Do you feel that?” I asked Tristan, hoping he didn’t know what I was talking about. “Yeah.” I felt confused, sad, and somewhat uneasy, a feeling I knew wasn’t mine, but Tristan’s. “It’s like the first time we met when we were both four,” Tristan said. “I felt everything you felt. Why are you so sad?” “Stop creeping me out!” I shouted. It was bad enough that we could hear each other’s thoughts and feel each other’s emotions, but now he was concerned, too? “I don’t know what’s happening to us,” Tristan murmured. Join the club, freak. “Even when you don’t speak out loud, your thoughts still hurt.” “This is really bad. It’s bad enough that I have to endure you—now I have to hear your rainbows and unicorns thoughts, too. Could this day get any worse?” I felt as if I could combust into flames because of my body’s rising temperature. “Valoel, do you know why this is happening?” Tristan asked. “I…no. Maybe the king—your father—will know?” she asked. She sounded scared, too. Valoel had never looked or sounded like that. “I’ll go and ask King Daligo, and then my parents,” Tristan said. “Please don’t visit Abigail while

I’m gone.” He looked straight at me. Like I cared what he wanted. I’d visit Abigail if I wanted. Valoel seems to think I’m in love with her. I’m not visiting her anytime soon, I thought. “I won’t take long, and I’m sure you can hold off not seeing her until I get back,” Tristan said, as if he didn’t hear what I had thought. “Wait, you didn’t hear what I just thought?” How could he hear my thoughts one minute and not the next? No, did you think something? Yes, I did. “Maybe you didn’t want me to hear it?” You are a moron. “I heard that.” “Good. And I won’t be visiting Abigail because I’m going with you,” I told him. The sooner we got rid of whatever was happening to us, the better. “I don’t like you, and the thought of you in my head makes me sick.” “I’ll just wait here,” Valoel said cheerlessly as Tristan snapped his fingers and we disappeared into the darkness.

DARK VEIL
*Abigail*
“You’re fighting for your country, they said.

Your will become a hero, they said. Kill all the enemies, they said. So I fought, killed, cried and killed again. Now that I’m haunted and empty, they tell me ‘God gave everyone free will’.”
Melody Manful

As far as I could prove, Gideon didn’t exist. Not according to any database.
Logan and I eventually gave up after trying countless searches that produced nothing.

When I entered my bedroom, I did the same thing I’d been doing for the last couple of days—I watered the rose Gideon gave me. The rose was still as beautiful as it was the day he gave it to me. However, I felt as if the magic was gone because Gideon was gone. I couldn’t sleep. I stared at my walls for hours. I was about to get out of bed for some air when suddenly I heard my mother scream for help from downstairs. I instantly jumped out of bed and rushed out my door. I flew down the stairs two at a time. The moment I stepped into the sitting room, a bullet whizzed by my ear, missing me by inches. I ducked back into the hallway and at that moment realized I had forgotten my gun in my bedroom. “I found the girl. I found Agent V’s daughter,” I heard a man’s voice say. Seconds later, footsteps approached. Agent V was my father’s CIA initial, and my mother’s screams meant that my father’s worst fears were coming true—whomever he was hiding us from had just proved successful in finding us. I backtracked and sprinted into the kitchen, grabbing the phone off the wall and dialing Logan’s number. On the fifth ring, Logan answered. “Jesus Christ, Abigail, do you know what time it is?” Logan asked in a sleepy voice. “Is this about that Gideon guy who—” “Logan, there are people here,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm and failing. “They know about my father. Mom was screaming and—” I didn’t want to think about how my mother sounded when she screamed. “What?” he asked, sounding fully awake now. “Find a place to hide. I’ll be right there. Where are your bodyguards?” Find a place to hide? Didn’t he prepare me for this very moment? “Did she go back up?” I heard a voice ask, and I started panicking. “I’ve got to go, Logan.” I ended the call. I looked around me, searching for a weapon, and saw none. The best I could find, rather than a frying pan, was a fire extinguisher. I figured the extinguisher hurt more than the frying pan, and the thick white dust that it released might be of use to me as well. I grabbed the extinguisher and rushed over to hide behind the door, when I head footsteps coming closer to the kitchen. Wearing black yoga shots and a white tank top—and weaponless—wasn’t exactly how I pictured my life ending. I could feel my heart pounding violently through my top. I held my breath and peeked slowly out into the hall, through the side of the door. Two armed men were almost in the kitchen. Pressing my back firmly against the wall behind the door, I held the fire extinguisher in a ready-tosmack position. I waited for the men to enter. One. Two.

“There she—” The speaker fell instantly when I slammed the extinguisher against his head. The second man didn’t have a chance to react before I knocked him down with the extinguisher as well. He moaned on the floor. I rushed out of the kitchen and into the sitting room. “She’s here!” someone shouted, but I rushed onward toward our library without turning to look, because my mother’s room was on top of it. The moment I entered the library, I quickly hid behind one of the shelves to stay out of sight. I heard my mother’s voice pleading to be released. The shelves of books were lined like those in a public library. I peeked through the row of books in front of me. “Let her go,” Felix was saying. A man standing in front of him punched him hard in the face. Felix doubled over in pain while blood seeped from his broken nose. There were six strange men in the room. Four of them held Ben and Felix. Another one held my mother, and the sixth man stood by, watching. Okay, I could take them. I had a fire extinguisher. I could totally take… Oh, my God, I was going to die. I was about to think up a better plan than rushing in, pointing my extinguisher at them, and shouting, “Hey, let them go!” when a bullet whizzed by my head before being embedded in a book. I turned around to some more strange men running toward me. I dodged another bullet, and then I removed the pin from the extinguisher. I depressed the lever, releasing the dry chemicals into the air and blocking the men’s focus. I sprayed the powder all over the room before tossing the extinguisher aside and stepping into the gas myself. The first man who came into contact with me didn’t even have time to swing his arm before my fist met his face. He angrily swung both hands. I was too slow to move out of his reach. One hand knocked me straight in the jaw, and I groaned as blood filled my mouth. I kneed him hard in the stomach and punched him under his jaw, making him wheeze. He cursed. I dodged another blow swung my way and elbowed the nearest man. Someone punched me in my ribs. I looked up, gasping for air, and then smashed my forearm under his chin and my fist into his jaw. I turned away from the man just as another came into view from beside us, pointing his gun at me. I had only a second to move before he fired his gun, and then the oddest thing happened. I watched the bullet coming toward me, but it never reached me: it stopped somewhere inches from hitting me, and then it fell straight to the ground. What the… I had no time to freak out or thank whatever guardian angel was looking after me, or curse myself for seeing things in times like this. Suddenly, the guy who fired at me fell at my feet—dead. Okay, now I was panicking. “I want her alive!” I heard a cold voice shouting, and then more footsteps. I banished all thoughts of whatever weirdness was going on and reached down to take the dead man’s weapon. The moment I had the gun, I furrowed deeper into the smoke. I darted behind one of the bookshelves. I couldn’t really see through all the powder that clung to the

books, but I knew the library by heart, so I knew where to step. Gunshots fired into the books, and I took cover as I moved expertly through the room. At every opportunity, I aimed and fired my own gun, hoping it didn’t run out on me. I peeked around the shelves in search of the intruders. Seeing no movement, I moved from behind the shelves. I took each step carefully, ready to fire at the sight of an intruder. A bullet rang out, and I screamed as it tore through the flesh in my left arm. The pain ripped through my body. I felt like my arm was slowly tearing itself into pieces. I fired in the direction of the gunman. The bullet lodged itself in a man’s arm, and he fell back with a scream. The others came into view, and I turned and raced for cover as they started firing. I whipped around a corner and stopped. A man rushed toward me, pointing his gun at my head. I was trapped. “Hands up!” he shouted. He had a foreign accent. “Gun on the floor. Hands up!” I did as he ordered. “Do not shoot her. Andrei wants her alive,” said a man who rushed in from behind me and pinned my hands behind my back. I winced. Pain radiated from my bullet wound. The man’s grip on my hands was strong, and no matter how I twisted, even though my hands weren’t tied, I couldn’t break away from his grip. The man dragged me to where the others held my mother and bodyguards hostage. “Abigail!” my mother cried the moment she saw me. “Let her go.” My mother struggled to free herself. “I’m all right, Mom,” I lied. “Let them go,” I demanded. Someone laughed. “Hello, Abigail, I’m Andrei. Your father taught you well,” he said. He glanced at something behind me. “My men were plenty before.” He looked like one of those people you wouldn’t dare befriend. His eyes were cold, his dark-grey hair neatly brushed, and a plastic grin stretched across his face. “Let them go,” I said again, tugging against the grip of the man who had me restrained. I was out of ideas, and I didn’t know what I was supposed to do next. “How adorable,” he said. “Andrei!” Someone rushed through the open door. The only words I understood were my father’s name and Andrei’s. The language being spoken sounded like a Slavic language, possibly Russian. “It seems your father is coming to get you, we have to leave,” Andrei said as the men led my mother and bodyguards out after him. My mother screamed at them to let her go. Two remaining men followed my captor and me. The man holding me pushed me forward, but I refused to budge. I made sure there was some space between me and my mother and bodyguards before I took another step. We followed them into the connected dining and sitting rooms. I watched as the people in front of us exited the library into the sitting room, and then I promptly halted.

The moment I stopped moving, I lifted my leg and stomped hard on the foot of the man holding me. I swung my elbow into his stomach and slipped out of his grasp. I didn’t waste any time before I connected my fist with the closest jaw. I cried out as someone punched me in the nose. Another blow landed in my jaw, and then it was three against one, and they were winning. My mouth was filled with blood when I finally managed to swing a blow at one of them. I threw my fists out again, and then, reaching for one of the dining chairs, I swung it around and connected with the skull of one of the men. He fell down immediately, and I grabbed his gun. The moment it was in my hands, I fired twice at the men rushing toward me. It was after they fell to the ground and blood splashed onto the floors, walls, and all over on my body that I felt a rush of anger and pain. I just shot two men; I killed them. Finally, I knew my father hadn’t been training me just to protect myself. He had been training me to become a killer. Andrei shouted in Russian at the sound of the gunshot. Two more men came into view. I fired twice, hitting one and missing the other. He fired his gun and missed only because once again, the bullet stopped mid-air. I took advantage of the man’s shock and shot him in the left leg. I was shocked too, but the panic of losing those I loved was more compelling than whatever weird thing was going on. I ran over to the entrance when I heard my mother’s screams and the start of car engines. I flew through the front door to the house just as the cars started pulling away.

VENGEANCE
“A moment, that’s all it takes to live.

A hope, that’s all it takes to believe. A dream, that’s all it takes to wish. A blink, that’s all it takes to lose it all.”
Melody Manful

I ran back inside toward the security pad beside the front door. A password—Cells Mansion—
would force the grounds into lockdown. My hands shook as I keyed in the password. What if something happened to my mother and bodyguards? I couldn’t stand the thought of it.

After entering the password, an alarm went off. I scanned the grounds through the closest window. Cells Mansion was now on lockdown, but I wanted to make sure Andrei and his men stayed inside the main gate. I was about to open the front door and rush out, barefoot, when I heard a sound behind me. I turned and reached for my gun, but the man who had crept up behind me fired first. I didn’t even reach to react to the bullet racing toward me when a shadow stepped in front of me. A second later, the man who had fired the bullet was on the ground, and Gideon was standing in front of me, holding the bullet in his hand. “How…but…” I couldn’t find the words. Gideon had saved my life, again. “Don’t be scared,” he said calmly, but I was already freaking out. “Who are these people?” “You’re not hurt.” I took his hand and studied it. “Are you hurt?” I was freaked out, scared, and thankful at the same time. “No, I’m not. Are you?” he asked. I looked up into his eyes, and they were pure red. I stepped away from him. As I collected myself, I remembered where I was going. “My mother.” I made an attempt to run out the door. “I’ll get her. You stay here and don’t move.” Like hell I would! “I need to get her!” I shouted. I had no doubt that Gideon would be able to save my mother and bodyguards. He just killed a man and saved me, but I still didn’t trust him. “Fine.” Gideon took my hand and the next thing I knew, we were almost beside the gate. I’d have taken about five minutes on foot, and Gideon got us there with a snap of his fingers. Don’t panic, I whispered to myself, because I didn’t need to start freaking out when my mother and bodyguards were still in danger. “Abigail,” Gideon said, taking my hands and steadying me. “If I beg you, will you go back inside?” “She’s my mother!” I argued. “I need to get her to safety. My father asked me to protect us and—” “Fine.” He sounded angry when he said this. “I’m going to be right beside you,” and then he was gone. I looked around. “I’m still here,” Gideon’s voice came from somewhere beside me. I couldn’t see him, but he was there. I ran toward the gate. Upon getting close, I heard Andrei asking, “Where is the girl?” The rest of his words were lost to me because he slipped into his native tongue. “You mean to tell me that one girl—a teenager—has not only defeated my men, but you also haven’t caught her yet?” Andrei shouted, and then started ranting quickly in Russian again. I had no doubt that Gideon had killed off the rest of his men somewhere. What the hell was he anyway?

“Andrei, she is too—” The man didn’t finish because Andrei shot him in the head. “Useless people. They can’t do anything.” Andrei turned away from the dead body and walked toward the gate where another body lay. “The gate has high voltage power. How do we get around it?” he asked Felix. Two men held Felix beside one of the cars. Ben was also held by two of the men, and my mother stood beside Andrei. “I don’t know,” Felix answered. “There’s no way out.” “You will tell me a way, or I’ll shoot her.” He pointed his gun at my mother. I shouted, “No!” Once again, I didn’t have any plans. I pointed my gun at Andrei. “Let them go.” “Abigail.” I hated the way he pronounced my name. “There you are,” he said. “This isn’t fair. First, you destroy my men, and now you want me to let my hostages go?” “Did I stutter?” I asked. I didn’t like seeing my mother on the receiving end of a gun. She looked shaken. Was this how it felt for my parents? All those years, knowing what could happen. “Brave. Like your father.” “I said to let them go!” I shouted, and then I fired my gun. The bullet entered the forehead of one of the men who held Ben. The moment the man fell, Ben kicked the other man trying to restrain him, freeing himself. He then took his gun and shot him. Ben then, pointed the gun at Andrei. “This is how you play?” Andrei asked. One moment Andrei’s gun was pointed at my mother, and the next, Felix was on the ground with a bullet in his chest. “FELIX!” we shouted.

BLOODLUST
“Humanity is the word we use when we kill in the name of society.

Humanity is the word we use to make them believe we can feel. Humanity is the word we use to cover up our dreadful crimes. Humanity is the word we use to pretend we are not monsters. Humanity, humanity, humanity! There, now we are invincible!”

Melody Manful



Felix,” I whispered, knowing he was already dead.

“Your move, Abigail,” Andrei said. “I have two men remaining.” One was pointing his gun at me while the other aimed at Ben. “And you have two people as well.” He brought his gun to my mother’s forehead. “Should I shoot her first?” he asked. I turned to his two men. The lights from the gate flashed against a knife in the hands of the man who was pointing his gun at me. “All right!” I shouted, throwing my gun to him. “All right, just let them go.” The moment the gun was out of my hand, the man with the knife walked over. He put his knife inside one of this belt holes and pinned my hands behind my back. “Abigail, what are you doing?” Gideon asked. “Let go of her!” my mother shouted, but I knew she was in no position to make demands. “Open the gate, Abigail,” Andrei said, and I intentionally moved closer to the man holding me as I searched for the knife on his belt. “How do you suggest I do that with my hands behind me, Andrei?” I asked with a mocking smile. My hand finally found the knife. I slowly pulled. He smiled. “You’re clever, too.” “Thank you,” I replied at the same moment the guy holding me screamed. He let go of me, and a second later he was lying on the ground. I knew Gideon had done this small favor, so I didn’t wait before turning around and immediately hurling the knife straight toward Ben. It hit him in the thigh. Both my mother and Ben shouted in surprise. Ben bent over the moment the knife pierced his flesh. At the same time, Andrei fired his gun at him, but the bullet shot through the air where Ben had stood and landed on the ground. Andrei spoke and then shoved my mother toward a man who pinned her hands behind her back. I looked back to the man who was holding me before. I was pretty sure he was dead, and I was beginning to wonder what it was that Gideon had done to him. I was about to turn away from his body when someone hit me from behind. I dropped. “How do you like that?” I screamed as Andrei rammed his knee into my stomach. “You little…” The rest of his words continued in Russian. “Stop!” my mother shouted, screaming at top of her voice. Andrei pulled me up by my hair. “I need you alive because I want your father to suffer for what he did, but now I think killing you would be much more fun.” Andrei landed a punch to my stomach again. His knee followed, and then he threw me to the ground. Tears ran down my cheeks. I saw Felix’s unmoving body on the ground, and more tears rushed down.

I could see Gideon beside me, but he looked unable to move. He seemed like he was trying to force himself forward, but he still stood frozen where he stood. Was a normal hero too much to ask for? I writhed on the ground; my eyes were watery and my heart thumped violently inside me. Each breath came out in sharp, shallow rasps. Every inch of my body burned. Trying to suppress the pain, I forced myself to stand, but I stumbled and landed on my face. “Get up!” Andrei shouted, and once again he pulled me up by my hair. “You—” Andrei paused. We heard a gunshot. The man holding my mother lay on the ground. Andrei was distracted, so I rammed my fist into his jaw. Then I kicked him. “Take this,” Gideon said, and a gun appeared in my hand. Since everyone was busy freaking out, no one saw it, so I was the only one who was completely shocked. I rushed over to Ben. “This is gonna hurt,” I said, and I swiftly pulled the knife from his thigh and hurled it toward Andrei; it landed in his shoulder, and he cursed. “Honey, be careful!” my mother cried. “Don’t move, Mom!” I shouted at her when she made an attempt to move closer to Ben. I pointed the gun at Andrei. “Don’t!” I shouted as he started to remove the knife from his shoulder. “Leave it!” I fired my gun. It missed him only by an inch; he did as he was told. I walked over to Andrei. He smiled when I got closer. “Abigail, it’s over. He’s not going to hurt you anymore,” Gideon spoke from right beside me, even though I still couldn’t see him. I knew that the worst was over, but I wasn’t done with Andrei. “I actually like you,” Andrei said with a smile. I struck him in the chin using the bottom of the gun. “Too bad I’m going to kill you.” I rested my finger on the trigger. Logan and my parents shouted, “No!” “Abigail, don’t!” my father said as he ran over to us. I didn’t lower my gun. “Abigail, don’t.” My father pulled me away as Logan pointed his own gun at Andrei’s head. “Brian!” my mother cried, and my father went over to her. “Felix…” she sobbed, pointing at the body on the ground. “He’s gone, and…” My father let go of her and walked over to Felix. He checked for a pulse, and when he couldn’t find anything, he cursed. “Agent V ,” Andrei called to my father. “It’s a nice girl you’ve got here. She single-handedly took out all the men I brought,” he said and then turned and smiled at me. At the sight of his wickedly happy face, I struck him again with the bottom of my gun. “Abigail, we need him for questioning,” Logan said. “We couldn’t get in through the front gate because you initiated lockdown, so we had to go around the house. We’d have been here faster, but it seems you didn’t need our help.” “Didn’t need your help?” I asked angrily. “Felix is dead!”

“One person,” Andrei scoffed. “You took down all my men and—” I knocked Andrei again—hard—on his face. His nose started bleeding. “Abigail.” My father pulled me away from him. “You took him and his men down?” Logan asked, looking surprisingly at me. “Interpol and the CIA have been trying to nail Andrei for years, and you got him in one night?” “I guess now they can send me a freaking thank you card,” I said bitterly and turned away from him. I had no doubt Gideon deserved a card as well. Andrei started laughing, “She is adorable and I—” The bullet I fired at Andrei landed in the same arm where I stabbed him. He screamed. “Abigail!” my mother shouted in shock. When I turned to face her, she was staring at me as if she didn’t know me. I didn’t know who I was either because a while ago, I was freaking out that I killed someone, and now I actually yearned to kill Andrei. “You’re quite dangerous, aren’t you?” Gideon asked again. Hearing his disembodied voice should have bothered me more than it did. “He doesn’t need his arm for interrogation, does he?” I asked my father. Everyone was now staring at me as if they didn’t recognize me. I figured they were just used to lovely, obedient, good-girl Abigail. Bloodlust Abigail scared them. “Honey, you are safe, you are all right, and we are here,” my father said slowly and calmly. “Safe?” I shouted at my father. “After a bullet in the arm, having people beat the crap out of me, jumping off a moving motorcycle to avoid getting run over, and enduring this psychopath here, I’m safe?” Reality finally set in, and my body registered the excruciating pain I was in. The adrenaline was slowly wearing off. I killed people. I had killed! Suddenly I couldn’t breathe as I became aware of what I had done. Every bit of my body felt as if it were breaking into pieces. The stickiness of the blood on my skin made my head spin when I remembered where it came from. “Abigail, I…” I pulled away from my father, shaking my head. “Congratulations, Father. I guess now you can come home,” I said in a whisper. “I never wanted any of this,” he said morosely. “You wanted a killer! You’ve got one, and now you’re looking at me as if I’m a stranger. Take a long look, Father. This is me now.” And then without another word, I turned and walked away.

BROKEN STRINGS
*Gideon*
“You can run all you want,

but when your past decides to hunt you only dead can hide you.”
Melody Manful



W hat are you doing?” I demanded when I appeared in my room and saw Valoel peering through

my telescope. “I’m looking at Abigail,” she said and stepped away from the telescope. “I’m rather surprised that you helped her.” I ignored her teasing smile. “How is she doing?” I walked over and looked through the lens. Abigail lay still on her bed, surrounded by hospital equipment. A doctor stood beside her, flipping through some papers attached to a clipboard. I aimed the telescope into her living room, where her mother was crying. Her house was filled with people in uniforms walking briskly around, each person busy with some task. “Why did you help her?” Valoel asked as I turned the telescope back to Abigail. “I didn’t do much—she got them herself,” I answered. “I think you did enough.” Valoel snapped her fingers, and everything she’d seen through the telescope played before my own eyes, as though I were watching a movie. Abigail did kill some of those people. If I hadn’t seen it myself, I wouldn’t have believed she could even hurt a fly. “I did nothing,” I repeated. Abigail didn’t need a hero, and it was a good thing I wasn’t one. Still, how did she survive those men on her own? My eyes met Valoel’s, and she quickly looked away. “You did something,” I said, recognizing the guilty look in her eyes. She didn’t look at me when she said, “I did nothing.” “You helped her. You are the reason she was able to fight off those men before I arrived.” “Gideon, that girl can take care of herself.” She wouldn’t admit to helping Abigail, being her guardian angel when Tristan wasn’t around. “Fine. I helped her because she’s the only creature you don’t hate, and I didn’t want her to die.” Suddenly, I knew she had something to do with the fact that I couldn’t move when I’d wanted to kill Andrei for hurting Abigail.

“You stopped me from killing that Andrei,” I said, annoyed. “I couldn’t risk you exposing us. I had to erase you from the cameras around her house, and you killing that man in front of Abigail’s mother wouldn’t have helped anyone.” I wanted to argue, but I didn’t. “How were you able to stop me?” I asked curiously. “We are angels Gideon, we have the power to do that.” “I know, but no one can do what you did planets away.” I voiced out my thoughts. Looking at Valoel, I was starting to wonder just how powerful she might be. “How did it go? Did you and Tristan find answers?” Valoel asked, switching to another topic. “No.” When Tristan and I visited Daligo, he didn’t know any more than we did about how or why we could hear each other’s thoughts. Tristan left to try to find answers from his parents, and I went to D to hunt. After that, I had decided to pay Abigail a visit, and I arrived to find her under attack. “I need to go back in case those people return for her,” I found myself whispering, shocking myself when I realized that I sounded like I cared. “Relax, Gideon. She’ll be fine.” The moment Valoel said this, I felt as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Tristan, Abigail needs you. I said to Tristan in my head. I was sure he was still in Lumens. Why? What happened? I allowed what Valoel showed me, and what I saw Abigail do to take over my thoughts. Oh, my God. And before I could exhale, Tristan was on Earth. I saw the inside of Abigail’s bedroom through his eyes. She doesn’t look good , I thought when I saw her. She was covered in bandages. Her face was swollen, and bruises littered her entire body. “I treated her wounds,” I heard the doctor say to Abigail’s father. “I’ve given her some pain killers as well.” You need to heal her, I thought the moment the doctor and Abigail’s father left her room. I can’t. If I do it without her knowledge, she might freak out or something. So what? She’s in pain, just do it. Gideon, I can’t. To heal her, I’d have to reveal myself to her, and it’s against the law. “The law? Are you kidding me with this?” I shouted. “Still not in love with her?” Valoel asked from beside me, making me even angrier. “Don’t start with me, Val,” I said, and with a snap of my fingers, I found myself in Abigail’s room. The moment Tristan saw me, he moved closer toward Abigail. I’m not going to hurt her, Moron, I thought. I can never tell when you’re planning to give her roses or push her off a balcony. Yes, Tristan had answers to everything. I decided to ignore him and walked over to where Abigail

lay. Her eyes were closed, but I could tell she wasn’t asleep. Tears ran down her cheeks, and when I saw them, I felt something. Was it sadness? In an attempt to dry her tears, I placed my right hand tenderly on her cheek. The moment my hand touched her skin, her heart started racing, and she opened her eyes. “Gideon?” she called, looking around her. I turned to Tristan, and we exchanged surprised looks. I knew she couldn’t see me because I was invisible. “Gideon, I can feel you. I know you’re here,” she said again, and then slowly I made myself visible. “Gideon!” she cried the moment she saw me. “How did you—?” “Whenever you’re close to me, my heart races,” she cut me off and said. Oh. That was…weird. “Abby, how—” I stopped because I couldn’t bring myself to ask how she was feeling. I touched her cheek again. Her skin felt warm, and for a second, I debated on whether I ever wanted to take my hand away. “I’m sorry I pushed you away,” she said. I didn’t understand why she was apologizing for being angry with me for my rudeness, because I was pretty sure I should be the one apologizing. “I’m going to make you feel better,” I said, patting her hand. “Don’t freak out, okay?” “Don’t,” she protested as more tears slid down her cheeks. “I killed and hurt those people. I deserve every bit of pain I’m in.” “That’s a really terrible thing to say, Abigail. Those people were trying to kill you.” “Does it matter? They’re dead, and I’m not.” Her tears rushed down like rain. “Felix is gone and…” I could have saved Felix, but I had been so focused on making sure nothing happened to Abigail and her mother that I forgot there were two more people whom she cared about. Tristan, heal her now. Why can’t you do it? Tristan asked unexpectedly. In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve never healed anyone. And I don’t want to try it now on her, and… You’re afraid of hurting her? Tristan asked, sounding surprised. Just do it already. “You don’t deserve this pain, Abigail,” I told her. At the touch of Tristan’s hands, her body started to glow. “You’re going to be all right,” I said, watching as the wounds around her body started to disappear, leaving nothing behind. “I feel strange,” Abigail said, staring at the parts of her body that had been bruised and bleeding

seconds ago. She slowly sat up on her bed. “Everything is gone.” “Don’t freak out,” I said, taking her hands. “Calm down.” “I’m not…I’m fine.” She was shaking. She wasn’t fine. “Everything is going to be all right.” This caused her to look up at me. “Smile.” I placed my hands on her cheeks. They were soft. “The world looks much more beautiful when you do.” What was I talking about? “I meant…there is…I got nothing.” And then it happened again. I laughed, and Abigail smiled. That’s really a wonderful sound. You should laugh more often . Once again, Tristan forced his thoughts into my head. I really, really hope that whatever this thing is will end soon, because I ’m a breath away from ripping your heart out. Then it’s a good thing angels don’t have to breathe, isn’t it? I didn’t miss the teasing ring to his thoughts. “Gideon,” Abigail called in a whisper. “Will you please stay?” she asked. “I…” I wanted to say yes, but I stopped when I remembered Valoel’s accusation. “I…” I could stay. It wouldn’t mean that I was in love with her. “There is no place I’d rather be,” I whispered. I helped her to lean back on her bed. She scooted over, and I knew she wanted me to lie beside her. She wanted someone to comfort her, and I wasn’t sure I knew how to do that, but I could try. I covered her with a blanket and then lay beside her without thinking twice about it. I pulled her into my arms. Valoel’s words echoed in my head again. I wasn’t in love with her. I wanted to kill her, right? A while later, Abigail whispered, “I’m still a little scared of you.” I smiled. “Good,” I said and pulled her closer to me. Abigail didn’t say a word as we lay there. It took a while before her breathing slowed, and she finally fell asleep. Wow, Gideon. Any more nice gestures and I’d think you’re going soft. How can you even make jokes now? You do know that sharing my emotions means feeling happy when I hurt someone, right? Because I get really happy when I hurt someone . I felt happy even thinking that. Be careful there, Gideon, you’re starting to sound like you care. He sounded smug. I didn’t understand why he was using sarcasm to get through his emotions. I can feel your fear and confusion, yet you sound like you’re fine. I’m good at being happy. And right now, I don’t think it’s healthy to be worried, when I’m sure there’s a perfectly good reason for all of this. He sounded so sure of himself. Okay, Answer Man, I hope you get this ‘reason’ very soon because you’re starting to annoy me, and you won’t like me very much if I’m annoyed.

I’ll go home and find answers after Abigail wakes up. I listened to the sound of Abigail’s soft breathing; she looked so fragile and beautiful. Why can’t you go now? I asked. I’m not leaving her alone with you, he thought, making me feel like an idiot for even asking him that. He still didn’t trust me to be alone with her. I really, really don’t like you. I meant every word of it. It’s a shame, really, because everyone likes me. Tristan was starting to sound like someone I used to know once upon a time, someone who looked a lot like me.

DAMAGED
*Abigail*
“As a little boy, I played war.

As a young man, I joined the army. Now as a man, I kill in the name of the future, forgetting that those I kill are the future.”
Melody Manful



W ell done, Abigail. Come, sit with me,” Andrei said.

We were inside a huge, empty hall. The only things in the room aside from us were two stone thrones at the far end. I walked over to him. “Congratulations.” He hugged and kissed me on both cheeks. “What did I do?” I asked. “You succeeded. You killed them all,” he said, and then suddenly Felix was standing in front of me, blood running down his chest. I started shaking. Looking around me now, the hall was covered with blood and dead bodies. The thrones in front of me were shattered. I glanced down and screamed. My hands were covered in blood. “I didn’t…” “Of course you did!” Andrei said, grabbing me by the shoulders. “You’re a killer, Abigail. You and I are the same.”

“No…” I looked down, avoiding Andrei’s eyes. “No, no I’m not.” “Yes, you are!” he shouted. “No!” I pulled away from him and backed away. “No I’m not!” I took another step back, and then I tripped on a body and fell. Blood pooled around me, and I screamed at the lifeless bodies around me. I made an attempt to stand, but Andrei stopped me, pinning me down. “You are a killer, Abigail. Just like me. You can’t run away from it,” he whispered, his face almost touching mine. I struggled to free myself. “Get away from me!” I cried at the top of my lungs. “Abigail!” Suddenly Andrei’s voice turned into Gideon’s, but his cold face remained the same. “Abigail, wake up.” His voice still sounded like Gideon’s. “Let go!” “No!” Andrei’s normal voice returned. “You’re a killer, just like me,” he said sourly. “I’m nothing like you!” I shouted, and then I shoved him down onto his back. I grabbed his throat with my right hand. “Abby…Abigail, you—” Gideon’s voice reappeared, and he sounded like he was choking. One second I was choking Andrei, and the next thing I knew, I was on top of Gideon with my hands wrapped around his neck. I immediately released my grasp and pushed myself away in shock. “I’m so sorry,” I gasped. I was still shaking. I looked hastily around me, but there was no blood. It was only a dream. “Abigail.” Gideon reached for me. “You’re all right. It was just a bad dream,” he said, pulling me closer into a hug and letting me rest my head on his chest. Tears covered my cheeks. “I—there was blood and…I killed them.” “You’re going to be all right,” Gideon whispered again, and then he quieted and allowed me to cry. The horror of my nightmare refused to fade. Every few minutes, Gideon told me I was going to be all right. I curled in closer to him with my head still tight against his chest, and he slowly ran his fingers through my hair as I continued to cry. My father used to say: no one can force you to become a monster–you hurt someone and you create your own demons. I didn’t understand him then, but now I did. It took awhile before I stopped shaking, but my tears wouldn’t stop falling. I felt safe in Gideon’s arms, which was really ironic, because—when I met him, I thought he was going to kill me, and I had subsequently tried to avoid him. Now I was the one doing the killing, and he was the one comforting me. I was no longer in any physical pain, thanks to Gideon healing me, but my heart ached horribly. Felix was gone because of me. My father said those people I killed were rapists and murderers. He said they were part of Andrei’s mafia, and they had done everything from arms dealing to human trafficking. The CIA had arrived shortly after the incident and cleaned the house, leaving only two dead bodies

and Felix’s. The story we were told to follow was that two armed men broke in, and Felix and Ben tried to fight them off, so after one of them shot Felix, Ben killed them in self-defense. I couldn’t bear looking at my father. Whenever I thought about him, I felt unprecedented anger. I felt as if the whole thing was his fault. Why did he have a job that involved taking human lives? I never thought I’d feel so haunted. I hadn’t truly believed there would be people like Andrei who would try to kill us. “Abby,” Gideon whispered my name hours later, and I nodded to let him know I could hear him. “The sun is up, and your parents will be checking on you soon,” he said. “And don’t worry. Your parents won’t notice that you’re healed. When they look at you, they will see the wounds, but you won’t.” I decided I wouldn’t freak out. I lifted my head and looked out through the windows. Outside, I saw daylight. “Do you have to go?” I asked, sitting up on my bed. “Yes,” he answered and then got up from my bed. “But I’ll come back.” That made me a little happier. “Your parents are coming,” he said, and then he walked toward my balcony. “Wait.” I rushed over to him and wrapped my arms around his neck, hugging him tightly. “Thanks for staying,” I whispered in his ear. “I’ll be back,” Gideon whispered in return, and he let go of me. I turned to my door upon hearing my parents’ voices, and when I turned back to the balcony, Gideon was gone. “Abigail!” my mother shouted when she entered. “What are you doing out of bed? You need to lie down.” It was when my mother rushed over and gingerly took my hands that I realized my body was still covered in bandages. I felt no pain. I knew my wounds were gone, and the bandages were just there for the illusion. I played along, though, and let my mother help me back into my bed. My father stood across the room, staring at me. My mother looked from me to him. “I’ll come back and help you pack,” she said and stood up. “Pack?” I asked. My mother had tears in her eyes when she answered. “The CIA has secured quarters in Santa Rosa, and they think it would be safest for us to move there for a couple of days so they can stake this place out.” “Leave?” I asked. “What about Felix?” “The police are doing some investigating, and they won’t release his body to his family for a couple more days,” my father answered. “We need to go to a safe place.” “But…” “Honey, everything will be fine. We will be safe there. We’ll leave this afternoon, and as soon as the CIA says we can come back, we will,” my mother said. She sounded scared, and at the sound of her

voice, I knew there was more that they weren’t telling me. “There are more of them, aren’t there?” My parents didn’t answer, but their silence was enough of an answer. “I’ll go get you some food.” My mother left the room. I turned my gaze away from my father. I had a lot of questions for him. I also had a lot of answers for him. “When I was a young boy, I hated my father for not being there for me and my mother. He was always traveling for work,” my father said, and I stared blankly at him. “I swore to myself I’d never go near any job with law enforcement,” he laughed, “and now look at me. I turned out just like him.” “I think I understand that little boy,” I whispered, and he walked over to me. “I’m sure all he wanted was his father.” “Abigail, I am so sorry.” My father gently took my hand, and I saw tears slip out of his eyes. “I never wanted to put you through this.” I snatched my hands away from his and said, “Mom cries herself to sleep at night. Sometimes she never takes her sunglasses off because behind them, she hides her red eyes.” I felt teardrops on my cheeks. “Sometimes she works nonstop. She does that to forget about her pain and worries.” “Honey, I never meant—” I cut him off. “But you did, Dad! You did!” I shouted. “I wanted a father—and Mom, she wanted a husband. The night I learned you were alive, I was so happy. I pictured all the things we could do together.” I felt myself grimace at that thought of a little girl so happy to have a dad. “I pictured us playing hide and seek. In my imagination, you bought me a puppy. We went to the beach. You were at all the PTA meetings, and you never missed my birthday.” Suddenly my happy thoughts disappeared. “But, I never did get those dreams, and instead you handed me a gun and a burden. Your burden.” “Honey, I know how you might have felt and—” “You don’t know how I feel!” I shouted angrily as tears rushed faster down my cheeks. “You don’t know how it felt! You have no idea what it’s like to be a little girl and having your father trust you with the burden of protecting your mother and yourself. You have no idea how hard it was for me growing up and trying to be everything you wanted me to be.” I saw tears fall from his eyes, but I didn’t stop. He had to hear my thoughts. I continued, “Sometimes I feel so angry, and other times so sad and lonely, but I could never let those feelings out because I had to be strong. I never complained about the life you gave me because I knew it wouldn’t make a difference. That little girl you gave a gun to—all she wanted was a Barbie doll and a princess dress.” I shook my head and cleared my tear-filled eyes. “This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen,” I continued. “I was supposed to make mistakes of my own, and you were supposed to be there to fix them. It shouldn’t have been my job to fix your mistakes and your choices. Now, I killed—” I felt my throat dry up all of a sudden. “I killed those people, Dad, and now I can’t close my eyes for a second without seeing their faces and their blood. Everywhere I look, all I

see is blood.” “Honey…I am so sorry.” My father took my hands once more. “I know sorry won’t fix this, and it won’t give you back your childhood or your innocence. I never meant to hurt you or your mother. I wanted a family, and I was lucky to have both of you. I know I can never take back everything I put you through, but everything I did was because I wanted to protect you both.” As tears ran down his cheeks, I knew he was telling the truth, and I understood him. “I know you wanted to protect us, but I—” “I’d do this all over again if I could,” he whispered. “I’d do everything differently.” “The thing with do-overs it’s that they don’t exist. Second chances are just another chance to mess up,” I whispered, and he looked up at me with an even sadder face. I knew he understood what I was talking about. He’d said those exact words to me when he first saw me in training, and I had messed up and asked for another chance. “I know you wanted to protect us. I understand,” I said when I knew he wasn’t going to comment on my quoting him. “Can I get some rest before we leave?” My father nodded and headed for the door. He stopped before stepping outside and said, “Please, forgive me.” Then he walked out. I wanted to call him back and tell him that I forgave him and that if he hadn’t asked me to train, I wouldn’t have been able to save Mom and Ben, but I didn’t. Because he also once said: Forgiveness should be earned, not asked for.

ACHILLES’ HEEL
*Gideon*
“The most dangerous lies aren’t the ones they tell you.

The most dangerous lies are the ones you tell yourself, and they are the ones that hurt the most.”
Melody Manful



So, you spent the night with Abigail?” Valoel asked as soon as I returned to my room. She stood

beside my telescope inside my room.

“Are you spying on me now?” “Let me get this straight. You stayed and comforted her the whole night because you are not in love with her?” she asked smugly. “I am not in love with her!” I shouted, and the telescope caught fire. I didn’t know why I was acting stranger than I ever had, but I was sure I wasn’t in love with Abigail. I had gone to D’s after I left Abigail this morning, and we had gone out and hunted so I could get Abigail out of my head, but nothing I did pushed her out of my mind. “Lying doesn’t change the truth,” Valoel stated philosophically. I walked over to her. “Val, you know that I can torture you with my mind, right?” “I know that.” She made a sofa appear out of thin air and sat down. “I just keep wondering why you haven’t yet.” I was pretty sure her wardrobe was going to be the next thing to appear in my room. “I can’t because I don’t know what you fear, and I have never caught even a glimpse of fear or pain in your eyes.” I walked over to sit beside her. “Don’t you feel?” I made sure my words were believable, because I had a secret I wasn’t ready to tell. And the secret was that I had never hurt Valoel because, to me, she was the only family I had, since my parents were scared of me and couldn’t handle being near me. Valoel was annoying, but she was the sole reason why I came home every day—I knew I’d have someone to talk with. Saying I couldn’t hurt her because I couldn’t prey on her fears or pain was a lie. Valoel was the only creature I knew who seemed to know what pain really felt like. There was pain in the way she walked, in the way she talked, and in her smile. Once, when she was little, I came home and she flew over to me, her tiny little wings flitting about. She was just as annoying as a little kid, and when she’d almost pulled my telescope down on her head, I’d caught her and for a second, I loved holding her in my arms. I was happy for one crystal moment, until my father rushed in and begged me not to hurt her. I couldn’t tell him that I had no intention of hurting my little sister or that I just wanted to play with her; the trick was to let everyone think that I couldn’t feel at all. The trick was to make everyone believe that I was only what they made of me. Valoel laughed. “I’m not a stone, Gideon. Just because you can’t feel your heart doesn’t mean I can’t feel mine.” “Then tell me, what is your greatest fear? Have you ever felt any pain?” “Pain,” Valoel whispered. “I know more than anyone else.” Quickly smiling, she masked the sadness that started to envelop her. “It doesn’t seem like it.” Valoel stood up, “I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to distract me so I forget you spent the night with Abigail. I know you love her. You just have to admit it.” “Not that again.”

“You’re in love with her. And you can deny it all you want, but it won’t make it untrue.” “Fine, I’ll prove it!” And with a snap, I found myself crouching beside a car in front of Abigail’s house. Tristan stood invisibly behind Abigail and her parents. Hello, Gideon. Tristan forced his thoughts into my head when he saw me. I pretended not to hear him as I tried to come up with a plan to get rid of Abigail. Abigail was saying, “I know what I said, and I just wanted to apologize for blaming you.” Her father hugged her. “I am truly sorry, Princess.” “I know, Dad, and I don’t blame you. I’m happy you had me trained because if you hadn’t, I don’t know what would had happened,” Abigail said, still hugging her father. She sounded sincere. Her mother joined the hug. “Don’t leave me out,” she said, and they all laughed. Tristan smiled at the happy family. Abigail was still covered in bandages, and I knew she kept them there so her parents wouldn’t suspect she had healed. “I can’t breathe,” Abigail whispered in a choking voice. Her parents laughed, but they didn’t let go of her. “I’m serious,” she coughed out. This time they let go of her and laughed some more. Mr. Cells said, “Come on, let’s go. There’s a bit of a drive before we reach Santa Rosa.” Abigail followed her mother into the car, and as soon as her father pulled away, I followed after them. I had to prove to Valoel that I wasn’t in love with Abigail. I didn’t care if Tristan was there or not. I’d just have to kill her and get Valoel off my back. Soon the car was driving across the Golden Gate Bridge, and I still didn’t have a feasible plan to kill Abigail. I blamed Tristan, who flew invisibly behind the car, humming under his breath. I couldn’t concentrate for more than ten seconds with him distracting me. “Will you just shut up?” I finally shouted at him. He didn’t seem alarmed. He just smiled in appreciation, as if I just gave him an award for annoying me. The carefree expression on his face told me he was used to my outbursts, and they no longer bothered him. “Gideon!” Abigail shouted from inside the car. I whirled around and saw my own reflection in the rearview mirror. I quickly turned myself invisible. At the sound of Abigail’s voice, the car jerked. Her scream had taken her father by surprise. Both her parents shouted as the car began to spin out of control. The whole incident happened rather quickly. The car skidded, and Mr. Cells lost control of it. When he tried to regain control, he accidentally overcompensated in the wrong direction. A car approached them, and the driver inside was frantic. Mr. Cells jerked the steering wheel again, and the car raced at full speed into oncoming traffic. There wasn’t much Mr. Cells could do. The car speeding toward them was trying its best to avoid a collision. Before the two cars could crash into each other, Mr. Cells swerved again, and with great force, the Cells’ car careened through the railing and shot off the bridge.

I heard people screaming. All around, the cars seemed to shift into slow motion. Cars screeched to a stop, and some bumped into each other. Many of the drivers jumped out of their cars and rushed to the railing. The Cells’ car descended toward the water. I turned to see what Tristan was doing and, to my great surprise, he was staring at me incredulously. What the hell are you doing? Why aren’t you saving her? Well, my excuse is that I ’m testing a theory. What’s yours? Why aren’t you saving her? He asked calmly. I couldn’t believe that Tristan was doing nothing. I felt panicked, a feeling I was sure couldn’t be mine. I knew it was Tristan’s, and yet he was staring at me with his stupid smile still on his face, as if he didn’t feel pain ripping through his soul. I was about to attack him when I heard Abigail’s scream, and in that split second, I saw the end—a world without Abigail. I couldn’t decipher the feeling of desolation accompanying that thought, so without thinking anymore, I spread my wings and flew at top speed toward the car, hoping to save her. I didn’t know what I was doing. I have to save her! No, I don’t! But I must! My own thoughts confused me. Goddammit! In less than a second, I was beside the car. I jerked open the side door. Abigail clung to the seat in front of her when the door opened. I tried to take her invisibly, but I couldn’t do anything without her cooperation. I needed to act quickly because the car was nearing the water. I didn’t know how else to get her out of the car. I snapped my fingers, turning my body visible. Abigail’s shocked seemed to double when she saw me. I didn’t have time for any explanations. “Let go, Abby. Trust me.” I tried to pull her out of the car. She glanced at her family. Her parents were both screaming, both watching the rapidly approaching water. With another sad look at her parents, she let go of the seat, and I took her into my arms as though she were a sick little girl. She threw her hands around my neck and closed her eyes. I flew us away just before the car crashed into the water. I flew Abigail to dry land. The moment she stood safely on the ground, a force pulled me crashing into a boat that was behind us, and the boat exploded. Abigail looked around in panic as she watched the flames. I knew there was no invisible force. I got hurt because I chose to do something good, something against my nature. I figured it was the universe’s way of punishing me. I looked painfully at where the car had slammed into the water. I knew that Abigail’s parents were still trapped. I knew Abigail, and I knew how much pain she was going to be in if something happened to them. I didn’t like the idea of doing something good and ending up hurt, but I had to save Abigail’s parents —if they were still alive—so I rushed back to the edge of the bridge and dove under the dark water’s surface. The Cells’ car was already sitting at the bottom of the sea. Mr. Cells floated weightlessly in front of

the driver’s seat. I swam over to him and yanked the door open. The moment I saw Mr. Cells’ lifeless body, I knew I was too late. I wanted to pull him to the surface anyway, but I didn’t because I wasn’t sure what Abigail would do if she saw her father’s dead body. I looked around for Mrs. Cells but didn’t find her, so I swam back to the surface. The moment I burst out of the water, I saw Tristan standing invisibly beside Abigail’s mother, and he was soaking wet. Tristan’s eyes met mine, and I realized he could have saved both of Abigail’s parents; the only reason he didn’t was because of the balance of life crap King Daligo always talked about. I remembered him saying that even though we have power, we shouldn’t interfere in what didn’t concern us. I was relieved that Tristan found it in himself to at least save Abigail’s mother. Abigail raced toward her mother. Tristan snapped his fingers to dry himself. Beside him, Abigail knelt beside her mother and tried giving her CPR. I saw people running toward her, and next came the sound of the ambulance and police sirens. Several people arrived, and some rushed into the sea where the car had fallen. Abigail was still giving her mother CPR when a paramedic jumped out of an ambulance and pushed her aside. Two EMTs loaded Abigail into the ambulance to check her for injuries. “Mom!” Abigail cried. “She will be fine, honey. Try to relax,” I heard the EMT telling her. Abigail caught her breath as she tried to stop the tears from running down her cheeks. “Where is my…the man in the car?” “Calm down,” the EMT said slowly. “Calm down.” Abigail wept harder, and I started feeling weak. If I wanted, I could feed off her pain and become stronger, but I resisted doing that, and my pain consequently increased. Tristan stared at me. For a second, I felt like killing him. I needed to get away, away from everyone, but I couldn’t move. I wanted to stay with Abigail and comfort her, but I was still denying what Valoel told me. “Gideon?” Abigail called from inside the ambulance. I was beside her in a flash, forgetting my confusion and pain. She looked around her. I wanted so much to take her hands and tell her everything was going to be all right, but I couldn’t, and with that thought, I crumbled down onto the ground. Tristan was immediately beside me, trying to help me up. “Stay away from me!” I yelled. Tristan backed away, his hands up in surrender. The theory I had—it was that you are in love with Abigail, and if I stayed away just a second too long, you would realize it and save her…and I guess I was right. I am not in love with that stupid human! I yelled in my head. Are we still going with that lie? I can feel you, feel every inch of your body ripping with unthinkable pain, and yet you still look like you’re fine.

I told you, I’m good at being happy. When you have the weight of the universe on your shoulders like I do, you learn to live through anything. And as for the pain, I can’t allow myself to break down because if I do, I take the universe with me, and I can’t have that. And just like that, he flew back to Abigail. “Are you still here, Gideon?” Abigail called, looking around her. The paramedic who was checking her out looked at her concernedly, his brow creased in confusion. Abigail continued to scan the faces around her. Her mother was nowhere to be seen. It took awhile before Mr. Cells’ body was finally located. They pulled him out of the water and rushed him toward the closest ambulance. “Abigail,” I muttered under my breath as the ambulances started pulling away from the scene. I watched her grief-stricken face as the ambulance she was in followed after the rest. “Abigail…I…ich liebe dich,” I whispered, admitting at last that Valoel and Tristan were both right. I was in love with Abigail. The cars drove away, leaving me restless. All I could think about was Abigail. I felt furious and sad at the same time. I couldn’t control my emotions anymore, so I just gave up and let them wash over me. “Gideon!” D’s voice called, trying to pull me out of my stupor. “What the hell are you doing here?” Wait, D being here could only mean one thing. “D, what…no…why are you here?” “I’m here for a Brian Cells.” I felt as though something sharp was shoved into me. “No, no, you can’t take him. It’s Abigail’s father,” I told her. “If you take him, Abigail will be sad and—” “Gideon, I have to take him. And what do you care?” she asked, not understanding why I was acting like I was. “Anyway, his name has already been crossed out because he’s already dead.” “No! You have to give him back. There has to be a way. I’ll do anything.” I grabbed her hand to make my point. “You name it, I’ll do it.” “Gideon, I can’t bring him back. Once his soul leaves his body, it’s too late.” “This…this is my fault.” What the hell had I done? I managed to raise my head, only to see the taillights of the cars far away in the distance. “Your fault? Did you cause the accident?” D asked. It had to be my fault. I was the one Abigail saw. Come to think of it, why didn’t I know I was visible? “I think I did,” I answered. “Then why are you—?” “Valoel was getting on my nerves, saying I love the girl, and I wanted to prove her wrong and—” “If you don’t love her, shouldn’t you be—” D stopped herself, and I knew it was because she already knew the answer to her question.

AMAZING GRACE
*Abigail*
“I know someone will cry for me when I’m gone.

Whether they are tears of joy or pain, I’m sure they’d make it count.”
Melody Manful

Three days ago, my mother had a husband, and I had a father.
My father was gone. He was dead because I was seeing things that weren’t supposed to be real. Because the CIA told the police my father was a new bodyguard we had hired, we buried him using a fake name, together with Felix. At their funeral, a fake family member who was acting as–my father’s family cried for him, but the casket we buried was empty. The CIA held on to my father’s body because my mother wouldn’t allow him to be buried with a fake name, so after his fake funeral, we had another one where he got all the respect he deserved. I couldn’t look at my mother’s face without feeling guilty. She hadn’t stopped crying since she learned he didn’t survive the crash. I hadn’t cried since I learned it. Even when I stood and watched my father’s casket being lowered into the ground, the tears didn’t come. My heart was filled with emptiness. No one dared tell me to cry. I felt as if I were crashing through invisible walls. The CIA said there wouldn’t be any more danger now that my father was gone. Andrei had sold out the rest of his team to the CIA in exchange for his family’s protection. Even though they said nothing was going to happen, Ben was still supposed to stay with us, and they kept agents around the house. After my father’s and Felix’s burials, I refused to go inside, staying outside on the field, since it was where we trained and the only place I felt connected to my father. I refused to eat and went inside only to sleep and to try to forget the world. Even now as I stood shooting reactive targets outside, the tears still wouldn’t fall. I had emptied every gun we had, except for the gun in my hand, which was also about to run out of bullets. My head was filled both with regret and a pain I couldn’t show because I knew my father’s death was entirely my fault.

It was me who had screamed and distracted him. “Miss Cells, please come eat something,” Ben said the moment he reached me. I didn’t even bother turning around to look at him. I heard and felt the sadness in Ben’s voice, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to keep on shooting and let the noise shut out the rest of the world. “Miss Cells, are you—” I whirled around. “Don’t ask me if I’m all right.” I knew that if I heard that phrase one more time, I would do something I’d regret. Was I all right? My father and a man who was like a father to me both died—why the hell would I be all right? Did it look like I was having the time of my life? My father was really gone. He was never coming back. Everyone was sad. Everyone was crying. Everyone except me. Ben’s voice sounded so sad. “Your father…” “My father is dead!” I shouted at him. My voice lacked the emotion I knew should be there, but I was numb. Numb and angry. “Tears are a luxury we can’t afford to waste.” These were my father’s words, not mine, and the least I could do was obey them. “Abby, I understand that you’re sad and angry, but that doesn’t mean you should—” I fired over Ben’s voice to drown it out. When I didn’t hear him anymore, I knew he was gone. I knew he was angry with me for trying to shut myself out. I fired another bullet, and when I pulled the trigger again and found that there were no more bullets, I threw the gun aside in anger and started kicking the ones around me. I felt like my heart was about to rip out of my chest. The only thing I could do was scream and scream until my throat couldn’t take it anymore. I sat on the ground, angry at the world, angry at everyone but myself. “Abigail, honey, please come eat something.” My mother’s pleading voice was what made me finally get up. I walked past her and went to my room without acknowledging her. I knew I was causing her pain and making her sadder by ignoring her, but how could I ever face her after taking the love of her life away from her? I went to the bathroom. When I saw my reflection in the mirror, I couldn’t stop myself. I stared at myself as tears finally ran down my cheeks. I sank to the floor. By the time I got the strength to get up from the bathroom floor, my eyes were bloodshot and swollen. When I closed my eyes that night, I prayed. I prayed that I would wake up and everything would be as it should be. I prayed for my mother, my friends, and my family. Come morning, none of my prayers were answered because I woke up to nothing but sorrow. My family was still in mourning. My father used to say, “Goodbyes are sad, but they are temporary because as hellos end with goodbyes, so will goodbyes start with hellos.” So, I closed my eyes and whispered, “Father, until I see you again—hello and goodbye.”

TRUTH OR DARE
*Gideon*
“I won’t blame you for this.

I won’t dare judge you! For it wasn’t your fault that I only saw what I wanted to see.”
Melody Manful

It had been a long week, the longest week of my life. I didn’t mean to stay away from Earth, but I
did. Now I was back in the place where I spent most of my existence, and I felt as though I were a stranger. Earth had never looked or felt so different; standing near a San Franciscan cemetery didn’t even bring me joy. I felt nothing, but then again how was I supposed to feel anything when Abigail was crying right in front of me? Abigail was standing beside her mother, and they were looking at the gravestone in front of them with tears in their eyes. I couldn’t move or even make a sound when she turned and scanned the cemetery as if looking for someone. Tristan stood invisibly beside them. I didn’t want to be in the cemetery. I had stayed away an entire week, during which I did my best to avoid everyone, but how could I stay away when Valoel was constantly breathing down my neck? She wouldn’t leave me alone until I returned to Abigail, and it was an ultimatum I couldn’t say no to. When D brought me home after the incident on the bridge, I refused to return to Earth. All I did was think about Abigail, and when I couldn’t get her out of my mind, all I did was attack angels. I told myself that I wasn’t in love with her. The reason I killed wasn’t just to forget her; it was also to convince myself that there wasn’t a new Gideon, that I was still the same old hateful Gideon. But nothing I did proved me right. I couldn’t believe that a single human was all it took to turn my world upside down. After about half an hour, Mrs. Cells left in one car, leaving a limo and two guards behind for Abigail. The limo was parked beside the cemetery, not far from where Abigail stood. The bodyguards stood beside it, watching her.

Gideon, how have you been? I missed those days when I was away from Tristan and he couldn’t force his thoughts into my head. Can’t you for once in your godforsaken life pretend you don’t exist? Although I felt Tristan’s emotions, I only caught a fraction of the pain he was in, and even though it faded after a few seconds, I had never experienced such pain in my life. I was sure his pain would kill anymore who felt it for more than a few seconds, but Tristan looked unfazed. So, where have you been? And there he went again acting like nothing was wrong. Did you talk to your parents about whatever this connection with us is? I didn’t want to feel his unbearable sorrow any longer. My father knew nothing, and my mother started crying when I told her. Why don ’t you ask your father? I can’t ask my father. We don’t ask each other personal questions. Questions weren’t the only thing my father and I didn’t ask. We didn’t talk much, and he hardly acknowledged my existence because he was scared of me. I’m sorry…I didn’t mean to— Why do you always pretend you’re fine, even when you hurt so much? I asked, trying to steer the conversation away from me and my messed up relationship with my father. Because I have to, Gideon; it’s my job to be strong for everyone, and I can’t allow myself to feel weak. I didn’t even know what the hell Tristan meant by that. You’re allowed to feel. I don’t know how the whole nice guy thing works, but I’m pretty sure you are allowed to scream when you’re hurting like I know you are. Really? Gideon, when the angels think of a savior, they think of me! When they need a hero, they call out to me! I have to protect our race and the humans from you! Tristan’s voice rang out in my head. I could feel his sadness and confusion—the feeling of anger was new to him. I can’t even have a second to breathe for myself. Whenever someone around me hurts, I hurt three times as much, so yes, having the weight of the entire world on my shoulders really hurts! Suddenly, he sounded angry. Shouting and anger wasn’t something I thought Tristan could do or feel; after all, he was normally calm, collected, nice Tristan, and it seemed I forced him to open up. No matter how much I try, I can never help everyone. I can’t protect them all, and it kills me. But, I shouldn’t complain. I’m sure you can take a break from being a nice guy, and you don’t have to protect everyone . I had no idea where the words I was saying were coming from or why I felt bad for Tristan. Was I sick again? Tristan laughed. You are really starting to sound like you care.

It’s all part of the act, Tristan, so don’t be fooled by it. “Dad,” Abigail cried. “I am so sorry. This is all my fault.” Both Tristan and I turned to Abigail, who was now kneeling beside a gravestone, crying. “No, Abigail.” I didn’t know what came over me, but I was beside her in a flash, and to my great surprise, I was visible. “Gideon,” she cried and whirled to face me. Making sure her bodyguards wouldn’t see me, I created an illusion so they’d continued to see Abigail kneeling by the graves until I left. “Are you okay?” I asked in a worried voice, staring at her curiously. I knew why she was sad. I just didn’t know why she wasn’t shouting at me for answers. “No,” she glanced at the two graves. “They’re both gone because of me.” “No, it’s not your fault.” I turned away from her. “Yes, it is, you were there…” She paused. “It was you, right?” I nodded in agreement. “How did you…?” She inhaled, and I realized the questions were forming in her mind. “You should go home.” I didn’t want to tell her who I was. Valoel had said to come see her, and that was what I was doing. Now I had seen her, and she had seen me, so I needed to get away from her so that I could start longing for her. Great plan! “You’re not going to tell me why you saved me?” “I didn’t save you, Abigail.” Immediately her sadness was replaced by confusion. “What are you talking about?” I didn’t know the right way to tell her that I actually failed in an attempt to murder her. “What are you talking about, Gideon?” she demanded. Did I dare tell her what she wanted to hear?

THE PRESTIGE
“I’m truly ashamed, and for that

I am sorry I made myself believe I could be more than I was meant to be.”
Melody Manful

I wasn’t afraid of what Abigail would think of me if I told her who—and what—I was.
“I didn’t save you, Abigail,” I started. “I tried to kill you.” She let go of me and took a cautious step back. I could hear her heart beat. It was so loud that I was sure she was about to collapse. “You…you tried to kill me?” She was in shock, but her eyes said she wasn’t about to run away, at least not until she got some answers. “Abby, I didn’t want—” “Why?” She cut me off, putting on a brave expression even though her voice shook. I looked away from her, afraid to hold her gaze for too long. “Because it’s what I do.” I hoped she would take that simple answer and let me go, but I knew her too well, and I knew she wouldn’t. “What you do?” The initial shock was gone, but she still looked uncertain and surprised. “Why?” I was surprised that she was still looking at me and asking questions. “I already told you. It’s what I do.” I didn’t understand how she wasn’t scared of me. “But why!” I didn’t know how to explain myself to her. Tristan, who stood behind Abigail, wore a stupid, unreadable expression on his face. Abigail stood waiting for an answer. I took two steps back before raising my body into the air. Abigail’s eyes opened wide, and she gasped. “You—you can fly? How?” she asked with a tone of wonder. I gave her an apologetic look before transforming into the real me. My black hair rippled. I knew that Abigail couldn’t miss my angry face and golden eyes. Behind me, my huge, dark wings stretched wildly, and to make sure that Abigail would run away from me in fear, I composed a harsh face. Abigail took a step back. “You’re an angel?” Her voice was barely above a whisper. Her face was filled with fear and shock, but unfortunately for me, she wasn’t running away. “But angels…angels don’t exist.” I didn’t understand why she wasn’t scared. What was wrong with her? “You are an angel?” She was still shaking. “But your wings are…” I waited for her to say dark, but she didn’t. Behind her, Tristan stood with his eyes fixed on me as well, as if he hadn’t seen me before. He didn’t speak, didn’t even bother to tell me I wasn’t allowed to reveal our existence to a human, but then again, Abigail couldn’t be a human. If she were, she would have been on the first flight to Mexico in order to escape me, or on her way to some mental institute to recover from shock. “Abby, I…” I flew down, and instantly, I was back to my disguise. She took a fearful step back. I took a step back myself, to let her know I wasn’t there to hurt her. I felt vulnerable and sad because for a split second, I saw how scared Abigail was of me. I watched as pain clouded her face, but instead of turning away, she inched a little closer to me.

“Why save me if you wanted to kill me?” she asked in a hush voice. I was shocked at her sudden change. She composed herself, but I didn’t know how to answer her question. “Why?” she demanded, her voice harder. “I don’t know,” I lied, avoiding her eyes. I didn’t want to look at her because somehow a part of me wanted to stay with her. So I kept my face down to save both of us the pain. But I could feel Abigail staring at me. “I don’t believe this.” I looked at her. “Angel?” she asked as she allowed her tears to fall again, shaking her head in shock. The tears tumbled down. “What are you—who—but…” She struggled to make sense of and sort through her questions. I couldn’t take the tears in her eyes, or Tristan’s sad face, so I decided to force her to run. I took a step closer to her. “You know, some creatures don’t care about this world of yours.” I threw in one of my evil smiles. I was sure she would bolt at any second, so I moved a little closer to her. I didn’t even know why I bothered, when I knew I would probably be the one to push her down. “They would rather watch the weak suffer and feed on them until their last glimmer of life dies, leaving nothing but death behind.” I continued my little speech as if I couldn’t feel her pain. “Some would rather meet you in Hell than welcome you in Heaven. And some would rather see the Earth crash and burn, and right now, I can tell you that there is only one of those creatures left, and you are looking at him.” Abigail trembled, and it was then that her fear finally emerged. She backed away. Tristan stared at us and made no attempt to step in and save her. “What are you?” I couldn’t explain how she looked when she asked this. But finally I got what I wanted, for the only person in the whole bloody universe who meant more to me than the idea of living to be scared of me. I pushed my sad thoughts aside and smiled cruelly before answering her question. “I am your guardian angel.” Abigail’s eyes grew wide. “Well, almost your guardian angel. Tristan is the real guardian, I—” “Tristan?” she interrupted in surprise. She looked up as if to see Tristan hovering above us like I had been doing moments before. “Is Tristan an angel, too?” “Yes, he’s your guardian angel. His job is to guide you from harm, and mine is to put you into harm’s way,” I answered without thinking. “Kill me.” Abigail’s shock and pain sent me crashing through four gravestones behind me. She screamed my name and rushed over as I hurtled onto my back. Tristan appeared beside her. This time he

wore the Tristan look—the one that was supposed to bring hope to everyone. Why did Abigail want me to kill her? “Gideon!” Abigail cried out when she reached me. She tried to help me up. “Are you all right?” Was I all right? She was asking me if I was all right when I just told her I wanted to kill her? “Don’t touch me!” I shouted at both her and Tristan, who was invisible beside her. “Are you okay?” she asked again as if she didn’t hear me, or maybe she just didn’t care about the danger lurking in my eyes. “He will be fine,” Tristan murmured in an angelic voice. Abigail whipped her head around, searching for the source of the voice. “Tristan,” she called. “Is that you?” Tristan became visible for a few seconds, making sure Abigail saw him before turning himself invisible again. Abigail looked back at me, confused. “Gideon?” Abigail kneeled beside me. She reached out to touch me, but I was already in the sky before she could get close. “Don’t ever tempt me again, Abby. I’m not that strong.” With that said, I flew back down. My body was burning in pain as every drop of blood beneath my skin boiled. “Why not?” She wasn’t scared; she was angry. “It’s your job to kill me, so kill me already!” Now she was provoking me. “Abby, don’t.” Tristan appeared beside her, taking her hands in his. She pulled herself away. “I don’t deserve to live!” she shouted, looking at her father’s grave. “I killed him. I don’t deserve to live, so please kill me,” she begged. “You didn’t kill him, Abby.” Moment of truth. “I killed him.” I watched as her anger turned to confusion, then pain. “I was the one who pushed you from your balcony, the one who caused the accident on your way to the concert, and the one who distracted you and took your father away from you.” I watched as her face contorted in anguish. I told myself it was better that she hated me than to know I tried to save her father and failed. “Abby, I didn’t…” I tried reaching out for her, but she pulled away. “Don’t touch me!” “I’m not here to—” “Leave,” she whispered under her breath, looking at both Tristan and me. Neither of us made an attempt to leave. I didn’t want to leave her there alone in case she collapsed or had a heart attack. “LEAVE!” This time she shouted with her eyes fixed on me. “Leave me alone, and please don’t come back.” Then turning around, she kneeled in front of her father’s grave and let her tears fall as she grieved. Tristan kneeled beside her with his hands on her shoulders, comforting her. I didn’t want to leave, but I did want what was best for Abigail, and since the humans always said, “If you love something, you have to let it go and hope that it comes back to you,” I spread my wings and took to the sky.

The world tumbled away as I listened to her screams, and then a second later, loud thunder roared and shook the ground beneath. The heavens were weeping down on Earth. I couldn’t bear the pain any longer, so I tore my eyes from her and took off at full speed into the rain. I flew all the way to a nearby tower and kneeled on top of it, burying my head in my hands as my wings stretched out behind me. My hands were burning with fire, but the rain couldn’t quench it. I was furious at myself for hurting Abigail. Bolts of lightning lit the town and thunder resounded in the mountains. I roared along with it. I wanted to fly back to Earth as soon as I reached Grands. I wanted to race back to Abigail, apologize, and comfort her. But most of all I wanted to cry, even though I didn’t know how angels cried. But soon I realized that there was no difference between my teardrops and the rain.

WEB OF LIES
*Abigail*
“If I said a prayer, it was because I needed a hero.

If I lost my faith, it was because I lost my belief. If I made a wish, it was because I lost my hope. If I daydream, it was to escape my reality.”
Melody Manful

I finally hit rock bottom.
Hearing Gideon say he killed my father was worse than everything that happened to me in the weeks I got to know him. Just when I thought I couldn’t hurt anymore, I did. “He has been like that since he was five,” Tristan told me while I sat on my bed feeling forlorn. My bodyguards brought me home from the cemetery, and I couldn’t stop shaking the whole way. Tristan was in my room when I entered. He had refused to leave, explaining to me about being my guardian angel and how he wasn’t supposed to leave, especially not after I made Gideon angry. I made Gideon angry? I had no comment for that. As a matter of fact, it was good that I was in too much shock to speak because I was sure if I had spoken coherent sentences, nothing nice would have come out. I had made the angel, who Tristan described to be worse than Satan angry, after he told me he

wanted to kill me and confessed to murdering my father? Hate really didn’t define what I felt for Gideon. Hate was just a word I was using to try and describe my emotions. Anger, hatred, and betrayal were the beginning of what I felt. I sat and listened to Tristan going on and on about guardian angels, Lumens, Grands, Guardian Paradise, and places I didn’t believe existed. I couldn’t believe that after everything I had gone through, I ended up back in my room where it all started with that terrible nightmare, but this time I was accompanied by a guardian angel. Angels? Really? That was what they were? Angels were supposed to be mythical, loving creatures sent from God to guide mankind—not like Gideon! Tristan, on the other hand, had me convinced. I hated Gideon for telling me who and what he was. I hated him for coming into my life. I hated that I ever knew him. And I felt angry and stupid for the way I allowed myself to feel for him. “The most evil?” I finally got the courage to speak when Tristan called Gideon the Lucifer of his kind. “At age five?” It was taking me awhile to comprehend what I was hearing. Gideon was even worse than I thought he was. Of course I saw his angry face, his dead eyes, and the dark wings, but I didn’t expect to hear that he was even more evil than I had imagined. I was shaking so much I was sure that I was going to collapse. My emotions left me confused, scared, angry, and sad. And Tristan wasn’t helping my fear by telling me all the stories of his world. I did ask him to tell me about Gideon, but I wasn’t expecting to hear stories straight from Heaven, or in Gideon’s case, straight from Hell. “I know this is a lot to take in.” Tristan sat beside me on the bed and took my hand. “A lot to take in?” My voice sounded fragile and foreign to my own ears. I had never felt so vulnerable or broken. My whole world seemed like it was moving in circles. “Gideon killed all those people and my father.” When I finally spoke the words, every inch of my body rebelled. All I had to do was open my mouth and scream until my lungs gave out. But I couldn’t, not because I didn’t want to, but because my body was too tired and shaken to even try to open my mouth. My throat felt as though someone was choking me from the inside, and my body ached like someone had scratched me with invisible claws. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. I forced myself to breathe, and then finally my body started to cooperate with my brain, and a little sound escaped my lips. “And then he left.” Somehow saying that last line seemed to be my problem. I don’t know why I said it, but I hated myself after the words came out of my mouth. I wanted to take them back, but it was too late. The damage was done. “You told him to go away.” The fault was mine. I wanted to yell at Tristan and tell him to go away, but I didn’t have the strength. “Angels aren’t supposed to be like Gideon,” I whispered. It didn’t matter what I thought of Gideon. He was gone. He was a nightmare. He was someone I was

glad to be rid of. Maybe I deserved all the horrible things Gideon had done to me. I was the one who listened to everyone and told myself that my nightmare was nothing. I was the reason why that accident happened. “I’d like to get some rest now,” I managed to get out. I still had my hand in Tristan’s. “Of course.” All I heard was a snap of his fingers, and I was under my covers with my head on my pillow. Tristan kneeled beside the bed and stared sadly at me. Don’t freak out. I tried to breathe. Don’t freak out. I found a new mantra. “I’ll be here when you wake up.” Tristan tried to move, but I took hold of his hand, stopping him. I wanted him to stay with me. “Lie here with me,” I said, making room on the bed for him. “At least until I fall asleep,” I begged. Tristan lay beside me and began humming a lullaby. I placed my head on his chest and breathed in. “You’re going to be all right, I promise,” he murmured. Then he kissed my forehead and put his hands around me hugging me close. I didn’t know what tomorrow would bring or if I would ever recover from my shock, but I knew one thing: guardian angel or not, in Tristan’s arms, I felt safe.

BEAUTIFUL LIAR
“We were born yesterday.

Today we will live so we can reminisce tomorrow.”
Melody Manful



Abigail, you don’t have to do this,” Tristan said as he pulled his school bag over his shoulders.

I faked a smile and lied, “Tristan, I’m fine.” We entered the school gates together. Tristan had been asking me if I was okay since I woke up this morning. Although he stood on my balcony when I awoke, I hadn’t asked him any more about the angel world. I decided to forget about it. The pain from thinking about what Gideon was, and what he had done was driving me insane. I wanted to busy myself so that I could forget about him. So far, it wasn’t working. Last night, my mother had come into my room with dinner. Upon seeing me staring blankly at my

hands, she said, “Abby, it’s been more than a week since Dad and Felix…” Her voice hitched, and she paused to stop herself from crying. Still she continued, “We are barely alive, and I’m sure they wouldn’t want us living like this, so let’s try to keep their memory alive. Let’s remember the good times and not dwell on what happened. I’m not promising that we’ll ever really get through this or that we’ll ever be whole again, but let’s try living for them, for us.” I had hugged her. We spent the rest of the night sharing stories about them. I didn’t tell her that I was partly sad because of Gideon. So when she bid me goodnight and asked if I was going to be all right, I said I would be just fine. It was a lie, but I had gotten used to saying the words for my mother’s sake. She wanted a fresh start, and I didn’t want to take that away from her. As Tristan and I walked through the main school hallway, I noticed that the lockers had been replaced. Seeing the new lockers made me remember how the last ones had been destroyed. Like always, I tried to greet everyone who spoke to me. Many people expressed their condolences for what happened to my bodyguards. No one knew that the man who died at the bridge was actually my father. When we entered the classroom, my friends were already there. I said hey to them and followed Tristan to our usual seats. It was the same old show over and over. I smiled, listened, and hoped the day would pass without me breaking into pieces. During each class, I kept looking at the door, silently hoping that Gideon wouldn’t show up, luckily for me he didn’t. My friends tried calling his phone to check on him, but they never received an answer. I didn’t bother to get into the whole human versus angel discussion or to tell them that he was gone for good. I didn’t even blink when they asked me if I knew where he was. After school that day, I let Ben drive me to the graveyard, where I replaced the old flowers with new ones. When I came home, I tried to go out to the field so I could get my mind off my father, Gideon, and everything that had happened with some training, but Tristan protested. “Abby, you can’t go there unfocused. You could get hurt,” he argued when I made my way toward the hidden entrance to the hall. “I don’t care if I get hurt,” I said. “I care, and I couldn’t bear it if something happens to you.” He looked so sad when he said this. “Fine, I’ll stay away,” I promised, seeing how troubled he seemed. My response was all it took for him to smile. The next day I did the same thing all over again. I put a smile on my face and pretended I was just fine. Gideon wasn’t in school that day either, and again my friends tried to call him. When I came home after school, my mother had left a message saying she would be at the office a little longer than normal. I figured she wanted to busy herself with work, to cope with her loss. “Abigail, we should talk,” Tristan said the very moment I entered my room. He stood with two beautiful young women. I couldn’t describe how lovely they were even if I tried. They looked inhuman. “This is Princess Sela—the princess of Grands,” Tristan said as he introduced me to the girl with

golden hair. She wore a silver crown as well. Her eyes were strikingly blue, and she wore a brilliant smile on her face. “Nice to meet you, Abigail,” Sela said in a light, singing voice. “And this is Valoel. She’s Gideon’s little sister.” My heart skipped a beat. Valoel had dark auburn hair and green eyes just like Gideon’s. She was just as beautiful as the princess. Gideon had a sister? “I’ve heard so much about you, Abigail,” Valoel said. She had a friendly face—nothing like Gideon’s. I stared at them, unsure of what to say. They weren’t exactly helping me to forget about Gideon. “Nice to meet you, too,” I said quietly. “I brought them here because you won’t talk to me about Gideon or about what happened. I figured maybe you could talk to a girl.” I didn’t want to talk about Gideon with a princess, with his sister, or with anyone else. “I’m fine, really,” I lied. “We are going to cheer you up anyway,” Valoel said, and after that, no matter what I said or how loudly I protested, they didn’t leave. We ended up watching The Notebook and The Vow. After the movies, we talked about Grands. Sela described what it was like for her being a princess. Valoel talked about how beautiful Lumens was and how she loved going there. They both talked about Tristan and how he was always there when someone needed him. I told them about my friends and my parents. When I mentioned my training, Sela asked me to show her a trick, so I did a backflip, and they clapped. I didn’t ask about Gideon, and they didn’t ask me to talk about him—they never once mentioned him. I was happy to just talk with someone who knew my real life, someone I didn’t have to hide things from. Tristan arrived later, and the girls said goodbye and disappeared. I appreciated Tristan urging me to give the girls a chance. I had enjoyed their company. “Did you have a good time?” Tristan asked as I pulled my bedcover over me. “Yes.” For once, I wasn’t lying. I did have a good time. “I wanted to ask you something,” I ventured. Tristan sat beside me on the bed. “All those times you asked to spend time with me, were you only doing that because you’re my guardian angel?” I asked. I’d wanted to know the answer to that question ever since I learned about his true identity. “No, Abigail. I asked to spend time with you because I wanted to. I like hanging out with you.” He took my hand and continued, “If I did something to make you feel otherwise, it wasn’t my intention.” “No, it’s not that. I just…I wanted to know.” I was happy that I wasn’t his burden. “Goodnight.” The next day when I went to school, I didn’t look toward the door to see if Gideon would show up. I didn’t even feel bothered when my friends mentioned him. I was happy that he wasn’t at school. For once, I felt like my life was beginning to become my own again. After school, Tristan asked if I wanted to get ice cream with him, and I said yes. Ben dropped us off

in town. I put on a hat and oversize sunglasses and was able to avoid any attention from paparazzi. Tristan and I walked around town, talking about anything and everything we came across. He bought me an ice cream, but he didn’t buy one for himself. I assumed it was all part of the angels-don’t-eat speech he gave me. I even found myself laughing while we were together. When I got home, my mother was in the kitchen with Morgan and Ben, and they were talking and laughing. The house no longer sounded dead. “What’s going on here?” I asked when I joined them. “Dinner. We’re making cookies, too,” my mother said as she leaned over to give me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Dinner and cookies.” I looked behind her to the kitchen counter that was topped with all sorts of food. “Are we having a party?” I asked. “No, just dinner,” Morgan answered. “We might have gone a little overboard.” I put my school bag down on one of the chairs. “Can I help?” I asked. “Oh yeah, you can peel this onion, and I’ll go watch TV ,” Ben said as he handed me a knife. He hurried out. I washed my hands and joined my mother and Morgan. I knew they were trying to move on, and when we finally sat down and started eating, I could tell they truly were because their laughter was real. They talked about my father and Felix without crying, and they smiled and laughed at their memories. The next day was Friday, and Gideon still didn’t show up at school. During our lunch break, Jake came up with the idea to throw a pool party at my place, so we could forget about all the bad things that had happened. “We can put aside our sadness about your bodyguards, 9/11, Hitler, and we can try to forget that awful song we heard yesterday,” Jake said, listing his reasons for throwing a party on his fingers. When he said the last part, we all laughed because we knew he wanted us to lighten up. I didn’t think having a pool party was a good idea. “Today?” I asked. Sarah answered, “Why not? I can borrow a swimsuit from you, and Danny and Jake already brought theirs.” “Did you guys plan this?” I looked at Tristan, who I knew would tell me if they did. He shook his head. “I knew nothing about this because if I did, I’d have brought a suit, too.” I wasn’t in a mood to party, so I said, “I’m sorry I—” Tristan cut me off and said, “I think a pool party is what we all need—to live for a moment.” I wanted to say no, and I tried to, but they all started chanting, “Come on, come on!” until I accepted. After school, Ben picked us all up and drove to my house. When we entered the enclosure surrounding the indoor swimming pool, Morgan brought in more food and drinks than we could ever finish. Music already blasted from the speakers. I figured Morgan knew whether she liked it or not, we

were going to make noise, so she might as well start it. Jake and Danny jumped right into the pool. Sarah started talking about how she needed to approach the water with grace or her hair would be a mess. I sat laughing as Tristan tried to reason with Sarah to give a swim cap a chance. It took awhile, but Tristan won, and Sarah decided to wear a cap. She stepped into the pool shortly after that, and it didn’t take long for her to start chasing Danny and Jake because they splashed her. “Abby, aren’t you going in the water?” Tristan asked. “No, I’m fine.” I stood and walked toward the refreshment table for a soda. When I turned around, Tristan was behind me. Being that close to him caused my heart to race. “Why not? It looks like fun.” “Then why aren’t you swimming?” I asked. “You can take off your shirt and just jump in.” Worst suggestion I ever made, because the moment the words came out, Tristan pulled his shirt over his head. “That’s…” I wanted to say I didn’t mean it literally, but the words wouldn’t come out. My eyes were locked on his body. My face felt warm, and my heart rate flew out of control. For a second, I imagined tracing my fingers along his hard stomach, feeling the heat of his ripped body, and… Oh, my God! “I don’t like water,” I mumbled, spouting out the first thing that came to mind, and Tristan laughed. “I meant I don’t feel like swimming.” He took the soda from my hand and put it back on the table. “You sure about that?” He then took my hand and pulled me toward the pool. “I’m as sure as—” The rest of my words never came out. Tristan and I hit the water. I tried to hold my breath, but I quickly resurfaced, gasping for air. “Tristan!” I smacked him on the chest. “That was so—” I realized my hand was still on his chest, and he was still holding my shoulders from helping me swim to the surface. And then I started chanting in my head: He’s just a friend. He’s just a friend. He’s just a friend. He’s just a… “Tristan, don’t you know pool water isn’t good for the hair!” Sarah saved me as she rushed over. When Tristan turned to her, I pulled away from him and found my breath. When my eyes met his again, I could almost swear I saw a smile of satisfaction tugging his lips, as if he were happy that I reacted to him the way I did.

BROKEN ANGEL
“Silence makes me want to scream.

Screaming makes me angry. Anger makes me feel lonely. Loneliness makes me want to fell in love. But love leads to a broken heart, and a broken heart screams until there’s only silence.”
Melody Manful

I spent Saturday with Tristan, talking about places we’d been and things we’d seen. Later that day,
we joined my friends for pizza. Sarah went on and on about her Tristan likes me theory, and although I kept telling her Tristan and I were just friends, she didn’t believe it. When I came home, my mother asked me about Tristan, too, and thanks to Sarah, who kept texting me about him, my mother had something to base her suspicions on. I told her like I told Sarah, that Tristan was just a friend, but she didn’t believe it. She kept telling me how I lit up when I talked about Tristan. I couldn’t tell either Sarah or my mother what was in my heart, so I decided to let them carry on with their theory. Sunday was all about my mother and me. We spent the entire day together. We cooked, watched a movie, and read some news about us on the gossip sites and laughed at the ridiculous rumors. It took some time, but it finally seemed as if the deaths of my father and Felix were now fading aches, and my mother and I were a functioning family again. When Monday morning arrived, I felt all right. I hadn’t thought of Gideon once during the whole weekend, so I knew I could put him and his angel world out of my mind—possibly forever. “Napoleon not only—” Mr. Bernard started, but he was distracted by the class door creaking open. I didn’t have to look at the door to know who stood behind it, because my heart started pounding. Even though he had been far from my mind, my body still reacted wildly to his close proximity. “Mr. Chase,” Mr. Bernard said, looking at his watch, “you’re late.” I wished a million other people stood at that door other than Gideon. “Traffic,” Gideon answered. I refused to look at the door and see him. “See me after class,” Mr. Bernard said, and then he continued teaching. I didn’t move my eyes away from my desk during classes that morning. I forced myself to think about anything but Gideon. When the bell rung for lunch, I started packing my books and supplies to get ready for the next class.

“Gideon,” I heard Jake calling, “man, where have you been?” he asked. “We missed you.” “I took a sick day,” Gideon responded. “It was more like a sick week,” Sarah said, and still I refused to look at them. I could feel Tristan, who was sitting beside me, looking at me. I knew he wanted to say something from the way he stared, but he didn’t. “Lunch time! People, are you coming?” Danny asked. Tristan stood and walked over to my friends. I was sure they were gathered together with Gideon. I kept my eyes focused on my hands as I finished packing my bag. “Abby, you coming?” Jake asked from beside me. I looked at him. “Hmm…actually, I’m not feeling so well. I’m going to call Ben to come take me home,” I said and took out my phone and dialed Ben. “You’re sick?” Sarah asked. She put her hand on my forehead as if trying to measure my temperature. “But, you were fine before.” “And now I’m sick,” I pulled my school bag over my shoulder. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” With my head bowed, I rushed out of the classroom. When I stepped outside, Tristan was already there. “You don’t have to leave. He won’t hurt you. I won’t allow him to,” he assured me. Answering him would mean talking about Gideon, which I didn’t want to do, so I said nothing and stared at my feet. Tristan walked with me outside and stood beside me until Ben pulled up to the curb. Tristan waved as the limo drove away with me tucked safely inside. When I entered my room, Tristan was there, too. He didn’t say a word, and I said nothing in return. To make myself busy, I decided to do some of the homework I’d missed from the days I wasn’t in school. I reached into my bag, and when I saw my history book, memories of Gideon came rushing into my head. I remembered the first time he addressed me and how annoyed and scared I was of him. I found myself smiling at that memory, and when I realized what I was doing, I became angry with myself. I threw the book across the room. It hit a portrait of my mother and me, knocking it down. I crossed the room to pick it up. The frame was cracked. I placed it back on my night table, beside the rose Gideon gave me. Thanks to Tristan, the rose was still as beautiful as it was the day it was given to me. When I saw the rose, I became angrier. I was angry at Gideon for making me trust him and at the way he hurt me. I grabbed my bedside clock, clutching it tightly in my fingers. “Abigail, stop!” Tristan shouted, taking the clock away from me. When I looked around me, everything that had been on my table was on the floor, and the glass covering a picture frame of my parents and me was shattered. “Just leave me alone!” I reached for the vase holding the rose and dropped it on the floor. The vase shattered into a handful of pieces, and then I reached for the perfect rose. With frenzied fingers, I started

tearing it into pieces. “Abigail!” Tristan pushed me away from the pieces of the rose and vase on the floor. “Calm down,” he said, looking straight into my eyes. “You’re fine.” “No, I’m not!” I shouted, pushing away from him. “I’m not fine. I hate myself!” “You hate yourself?” His voice was full of surprise. “Yes, I hate myself.” My heart beat like a violent drum inside me. “I ruin everything. I just can’t get anything right. I killed my father. And it’s because of me that those innocent people were killed the day of the concert. Gideon was trying to kill me and—” “You didn’t hurt those people,” Tristan said quietly. But everything happening around me seemed to be my fault. If I hadn’t sneaked out to that concert, those people would still be alive. If I hadn’t shouted in the car, my father would still be alive. “Because Gideon said he killed them?” I asked, annoyed. Shivers ran through my body at the mention of his name. “Then why do I feel like this? I’m supposed to hate him. Believe me, I’ve tried to hate him, but…I can’t.” “But I thought you said—” I cut him off. “I know what I said at the graveyard.” I remembered the pain from that terrible storm after I called Gideon a killer and a murderer and said I never wanted to see him again because I hated him. “Then why are you—?” I couldn’t let him finish. “I don’t hate him, Tristan!” I shouted, finally letting go of the terrible secret that seemed to burn a hole in my chest. I wanted to hate Gideon—I thought I did—but I didn’t. I couldn’t. All the anger I felt was for me, not for him. “I tried to hate him and pretend that he didn’t exist. I tried to tell myself to forget him, that he’s a monster.” With every word I said, I inched closer and closer to the point of no return. “I did everything I could, but I don’t hate Gideon…I’m in love with him.”

KRYPTONITE
*Gideon*
“I swear it! I didn’t do it!

Falling in love was all him! It was my stupid heart! He did it all on his own!”

Melody Manful

I knew now how it felt to be lonely.
Seriously, why weren’t evil people born with an immune button so they could shut out the feelings they didn’t want? “So what have you got to say for yourself?” Valoel seemed to be everywhere nowadays. Right now, she was staring me down like a schoolteacher. “Why are you doing this—killing every single creature you see here in Grands?” She shook her head sadly. “Do you really think you can get over Abigail by taking innocent souls?” I frowned and flew out my window without answering her. She could have my room, just like I had given Earth to Abigail. They could have everything I had. I just wanted my life back, my normal life—the life I had that made me not care, the life that didn’t make me long for a human, especially one who hated me. Yes, I knew how it felt to be lonely. To feel like if I were to yell in front of a crowd, they wouldn’t hear me. I hated that feeling, but I couldn’t get rid of it. Falling in love was one of the most ridiculous experiences that had ever happened to me. Wait a minute…it was the only ridiculous thing that had ever happened to me. “I’m guessing you’re not going to answer me,” Valoel said from beside me. “Stop following me!” I stopped flying. I may not have known where I was going, but I was one hundred percent sure it didn’t involve my little sister. It had been two weeks since I last saw Abigail. I did go back to school today, but it didn’t count because I didn’t even get to see her face due to the fact that she fled upon my arrival. I didn’t blame her for telling me to leave her alone or for not wanting anything to do with me, because in spite of everything, my actions led to her father’s death. I went to Earth this morning to tell Abigail that I loved her. Yes, I said it. Sue me! But now it seemed like it had been a bad idea. “It wasn’t a bad idea,” Valoel said. “I’m sure she misses you.” “She hates me,” I whispered. “She faked being sick and left school today because of me. If that’s not hate, I don’t know what is.” “Just keep trying, I am sure she—” I cut her off, saying, “Val, she hates me.” I spread my wings and continued flying. I flew to the Underworld to see D, since she was the only true friend I had. I would have had a guy friend if I’d been born centuries ago, when Basligon who was said to be the evilest angel before me was alive, but since Basligon died a century ago, I was stuck with D.

“D, let’s go kill something!” I shouted, standing behind the gate of the Underworld. I didn’t remember how I got there, but there I stood, yelling at the darkness in hopes that D would hear my voice and come out to play. Luckily, she appeared. “I was about to grab some lunch. You may join.” D pushed her hand under my arm. She was talking about Earth. I knew that was where she was going. I wanted to tell her I resented that place, but I didn’t want her to know that I had a weakness, and it wasn’t Tristan: it was a human. I was sure D and I killed someone when we went to Earth, but I couldn’t remember how we got there or what we did. All I remembered was it was around four in the afternoon when she said she needed to go to work, leaving me by a roadside. I heard the sound of an ambulance, but I still couldn’t discern what was happening around me. I wanted to fly back home, but I didn’t want to leave without at least seeing Abigail and knowing just exactly how much she hated me. So I flew to her mansion and invisibly entered her room. “It’s ruined,” Abigail was saying as she fell down to her knees beside torn petals from the rose I gave her. I should have left when I saw the petals on her floor, but I didn’t. I stood there, wanting to know why she looked so sad. I wondered what had happened as I glanced around her messy room. I almost asked Tristan, but for once, he didn’t seem to notice me. I watched him walk over to Abigail and sat beside her on the floor. “It’s not ruined,” he said, waving his hand over the petals. The rose magically came back together, the petals falling into their places. It was beautiful, just as it was meant to be. “I hate feeling like this.” Abigail took the rose from Tristan. “He killed my father, and I shouldn’t be feeling his way.” I felt the stirring of a strange emotion. Was it regret? No, it couldn’t be, because I was sure I didn’t know the feeling of regret—just like I told myself I couldn’t possibly fall in love with anyone! “Everything is going to be all right,” Tristan promised. Even I, who didn’t believe him, felt like he was talking to me. “I promise you.” “Why couldn’t I have fallen in love with you?” Abigail asked, looking into Tristan’s eyes, and then I took a step back as jealousy flared inside me like a struck match. Fallen in love with him? She was in love with Tristan? “Well, didn’t you?” Tristan asked quietly. I felt like I wanted to hurt Tristan, at least tell him to leave her alone, but I was frozen. I just stood there, looking at how fragile both of them seemed. Honestly, I didn’t want to hear Abigail’s answer. I didn’t want to hear that the girl I was in love with was in love with someone else, and that someone happened to be Tristan. “Does it matter?” Abigail asked as Tristan pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her. I wanted to be the one comforting her, telling her how much she meant to me, but looking at her and

Tristan, I saw what I had been too blind to see all along. Although she was sad, she was safe with Tristan. And who was I kidding? She and Tristan had looked perfect together since day one. And as much as I hated to admit it, Tristan deserved her more than I did. As a matter of fact, if there was anyone in the bloody universe who deserved happiness and love, it was Tristan. Watching Tristan and Abigail, I decided to go home. I wanted to call some friends, grab a six-pack of beer, order pizza, and then head off to a nightclub. That would have been what I’d do if I had any friends, a hankering for beer, and any dance skills. I was only able to take one step toward the balcony when Abigail asked, “What do you want, Gideon?” I turned around quickly because I was positive she couldn’t see me since I was invisible. “Gideon? Is he here?” Tristan looked around him until his eyes met mine. “He’s here,” Abigail whispered, looking around her as well. “I know it because I can feel him.” Tristan stood, took Abigail’s hand, and pulled her to her feet. I made myself visible. “I forgot you could do that,” I whispered, remembering that whenever I was near, Abigail’s heart pounded. Whether that was a good or a bad thing, I didn’t know.

BRIDGES AND WALLS
“Until now, I never believed when they said

love could get away with murder.”
Melody Manful



W hat more do you want, Gideon?” Abigail asked. This time around she looked over her

shoulder, and her eyes met mine. The moment our eyes connected, I knew I was the reason for the pain in her eyes, and it made me weak. Abigail looked beautiful as always, except her expression looked empty. “Call me if you need me, Abby,” Tristan said and disappeared. I was sure he wasn’t far away. He was far enough to give us some privacy, but close enough to save Abigail if I decided to hurt her. I approached Abigail but stopped when I was two steps from her. “I know you told me to stay away,” I started. I took a step closer, but she took one back. “I’m not going to hurt you, Abby,” I whispered, my voice trailing off.

“I beg to differ,” she said coldly. Looking at her, I knew she didn’t want me around. As much as I wanted to stay and talk with her, I knew I had to leave. “I’ll leave,” I turned to walk away. “Wait!” Abigail called, and I stopped immediately. “Why did you come back?” she asked. “I tried to stay away like you wanted, but I couldn’t.” I could hear the sadness in my own voice, and it sounded different to me. I took another step closer to her, and this time she didn’t move. She whispered, “It’s only been two weeks.” “But it feels like centuries.” I took another step forward. “I’m trying to forget you, Gideon,” she whispered with her eyes on mine. “And I can’t forget you if you never leave.” I took her hand and said, “I can’t stay away from you, Abby. I tried, and it hurts. I can’t take the pain anymore.” I knew if I didn’t say what was on my mind, I’d never get a chance to. So I decided to let it all out. “I know you hate me and—” She cut me off. “I don’t hate you,” she said, looking down at our hands. I didn’t understand why she would say this. I hated myself for the pain I had put her through. Why wouldn’t she hate me? I tilted her chin up and said, “You should hate me, Abigail. I deserve to be hated.” “That’s just it, Gideon!” Abigail shouted angrily, letting go of my hand and stepping away. “I don’t hate you. I love you!” I was speechless. I looked at Abigail in shock. She loved me? She loved me! Wait, what? I didn’t understand how she—or anyone, for that matter—could love someone like me. I was evil. I didn’t deserve love, especially not hers. I wanted to believe that she meant it, but how could I? Looking at Abigail’s beautiful face and hopeful eyes, I wanted to say it back; I just didn’t know how. “Abigail, I…” I paused, not sure of what to say. Although the words were on the tip of my tongue, I couldn’t tell her I was in love with her; they wouldn’t come out. “You can’t love me,” I said, I was a monster. How could she love a monster? “Why not?” she asked sullenly. “Do you want me to stop loving you?” I shook my head. “No,” I answered honestly. “But…I’m not who you think I am.” I was evil. I wasn’t supposed to be happy, not with Abigail. She deserved better. Yes, I was talking myself out of happiness; it was my job. “I know who you are,” Abigail said. “Tristan told me everything, and I don’t care who or what you are, Gideon.” I didn’t understand her. She knew what I was, and she still loved me? “I know you’re the most…” she paused, fighting her words. “I really don’t care.” Surely she didn’t mean what she was saying. “Abby, don’t say…” I was somehow happy that

someone told her the whole story, but how could anyone be fine with what I was? “Don’t do this,” I begged. “I tried to be scared of you. These past days I’ve been angry at you. I thought I hated you because of what you did and who you are.” She looked sadly into my eyes. “But it turns out I just hated myself for asking you to leave.” I didn’t know what to say. “Abigail, you can’t love me,” I repeated. “I love you…and you don’t have to love me back.” Who wouldn’t love her back? I cupped her face and said, “Hey, I do. I wouldn’t be standing here if I didn’t.” I hoped she’d believe my words. I loved her, although I didn’t know exactly how to express that feeling. “What if I tell you that you can’t love me?” she asked, looking me straight in the eyes. “Don’t ask me to do the impossible, Abigail.” When I said this, a weak smile appeared on her lips. I found myself smiling, too, and I slid my arms around her in a hug. “I think there’s something wrong with me,” Abigail pulled away from the hug. “I mean, you killed my father and all those people, and I still fell in love with you.” I had no response to that. Frankly, I thought she was crazy as well. How could she love me of all people? “Tristan?” Abigail called, and a second later Tristan appeared beside her. “Do you think I’m crazy?” Tristan laughed. “You lost me.” “I must be crazy because I’m in love with Gideon, and he’s…well, you know who he is.” I should have felt angry that the girl I was in love with thought she was crazy for loving me back, but I wasn’t. I would have been more bothered if she wasn’t reacting the way she was. “You’re not crazy, and loving someone isn’t a crime,” Tristan said. “What if that someone murdered your father?” she asked, turning her gaze to me. “Don’t get me wrong. I love you, and frankly, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop loving you, even if my life depended on it, and that’s why I’m scared. I mean, I must be crazy, right?” I couldn’t answer. I knew she was being hard on herself because I told her that I was the one who killed her father. I wanted to tell her I didn’t, that I tried to save him, but what was the use? It wouldn’t bring her father back. “Gideon didn’t kill your father,” Tristan said, and both Abigail and I turned to him. “What? He didn’t?” Abigail looked confused now. “After he saved you, he dived back into the water to save your father, but it was too late…he was already gone. And it wasn’t intentional that you saw him and he scared you. He didn’t mean to reveal himself.” I had almost forgotten that Tristan was there at the scene, and he could read my thoughts. “You didn’t?” Abigail turned to me. “So I was the one who distracted my father because I

screamed. And all the while I’ve been blaming you.” “Hey.” I took her hands. “This wasn’t your fault. If you want to blame anyone, please blame me.” “No, I can’t blame you. You tried to save him. You saved me, and I didn’t even thank you.” “I didn’t tell you this so you could be sad, Abigail. I told you so you’d know Gideon didn’t take your father from you,” Tristan said. Abigail walked over to him and said, “Thanks for telling me.” She hugged him. Afterwards she turned to me. “You weren’t going to tell me, were you?” I shook my head. “I have a rep to protect.” “That’s a stupid reason,” she said through what seemed like a happy voice. “I want to see it. I want to see your world.” “Grands?” I asked surprisingly. “I want to see where you’re from.” Tristan asked, “Are you sure?” Abigail nodded. “I am, so call the…” She paused. “How do you guys go back and forth? Is there a portal or an invisible bus or something?” “We’re angels, Abigail,” I laughed. “We fly, or we simply think of the place and we’re there. We fly most of the time though because we all love to fly.” “Flying?” she asked. She didn’t sound very excited, “I’m not a fan of heights.” I found myself laughing again. “And you’re in love with an angel?” Tristan asked. “I think you have a problem.” I laughed together with Tristan. The irony! I knew heights weren’t the only problem Abigail had gotten herself into. For one, she was in love with me, the evilest angel alive.

CARPE DIEM
“Of all the worst things I could do,

why, oh why, did I choose to be happy?”
Melody Manful

Abigail sat beside me on the floor of my room. Tristan had snapped his fingers and brought us all

to my house. Abigail and I had been talking about places and things, and for once, I was happy, even though she wanted answers to a waterfall of questions. “So you understand and speak every language, and you don’t sleep?” Abigail asked. I nodded, “Angels are only able to sleep when they’re little, after you turn six, you are no longer able to sleep.” “How is that?” “I don’t know. I’ve never asked.” And I wasn’t going to. “You should,” Abigail said with a teasing smile. “So Tristan is a prince. I didn’t see that one coming.” “That’s not a question, Abby. It’s a fact.” An annoying one. “All right, how about your sister, Valoel? Can she read minds?” I laughed. “Why do you ask?” “Because she answers my every thought, and she seems to know exactly what I’m about to do. I am pretty sure she can foresee the future and read minds.” “I think she’s just a lucky guesser.” “Okay, I’ve covered the basics. How about your parents—would they like me?” Abigail’s voice sounded timid when she asked this. “My parents…” I had no idea what my parents would think, given the fact that I never really talked to them, and I did whatever I wanted. “They will love you.” Abigail laughed. “You’re just saying that. Maybe they won’t like me.” I found Abigail more and more adorable as I watched her struggle to keep a straight face. “Trust me. They would like you. I think.” This made both of us laugh, “Now, my turn for questions.” “Fire away,” she said. “How many ex-boyfriends are there?” I asked in a serious tone. “I’d like to pay them a visit.” Abigail started laughing again. “A lot. There are at least fifteen, eighteen…” She stopped when she saw that my expression didn’t lighten up. “I was only joking. I…I’ve never had a boyfriend.” This made me really happy, because I was thinking of killing her exes, if she had any. “I’m glad to hear that.” “How about you—how many?” “Thousands. I lost count.” Abigail’s mouth fell open. “Kidding, none before you.” And then suddenly her face lit up, and we stared at each other in silence. After awhile of musing about the times I had spent with her, I remembered something and asked, “How were you able to save your friends that night during the accident?” “I panicked, and the next thing I knew, we were safe.” She panicked? Didn’t humans usually get married when they panicked? “You are unbelievable,” I whispered to myself.

“Did you think I was weird? That first day at school?” Abigail asked. “You know, when I bumped into you.” “Mom says if I can’t say something nice, I shouldn’t say anything at all,” I said, and both Abigail and I laughed. “Well, I thought you were rude, annoying, and…” she looked away. “Really hot, and Sarah wouldn’t stop texting me about how hot you were, so it was kind of hard for me to forget about it.” “I didn’t know you thought I was hot. I always thought you wanted to scream at me to go away because you looked like you didn’t like me.” “Well I didn’t,” she answered, almost too quickly. “Ouch.” I put one hand on my heart, keeping the other firmly clasped to hers. “The day before I met you, I had a nightmare that someone named Gideon killed me, and then your name turned out to be Gideon. Forgive me if I didn’t welcome you with open arms like my friends did.” “That’s what’s-his-face’s fault. He gave you that nightmare,” I said, “Though I did have fun annoying you.” “What’s-his-face’s name is Tristan, and I want to ask why you don’t like him, but I’m afraid I won’t like the answer.” “I hate him,” I said honestly. “Frankly, I wish he would disappear.” Or maybe die a horrible death, preferably by my hands. “That’s mean. If you hate him that much, why haven’t you told him to leave your house?” The obvious answer to that was simple. “He’s your guardian angel, and he goes wherever you go.” My answer wasn’t as simple. “And if he’s around, I can be sure that nothing will happen to you. If I decide to—” I cut myself off and looked away. “You’re scared you might hurt me?” Abigail asked. I didn’t want to tell her why I was upset, but when I turned and saw her sad face, I knew I had to tell her my reason. I nodded. “Sometimes, I do things without thinking. It’s like this darkness takes over me, and I hurt everything around me. I’m afraid that without meaning to, I’ll hurt you, but if Tristan is around, then I can be sure he’d save you from me.” I didn’t like admitting that I needed Tristan around, but Abigail was more important to me than my pride. Abigail sounded hopeful. “We can get through this though.” “At the moment, it’s taking every part of my body not to feed off you because I’m feeling weak and hungry. I want to leave and feed, but I’m sure you’d protest.” When Abigail spoke, her voice was filled with sadness. “You can’t go out there and hurt people because you refuse to hurt me. Those people are innocent,” she said, squeezing my hand. “I’m the one who is supposed to be hurt. Isn’t that how it works? If you want to hurt anyone, hurt me because—” I cut her off. “Abigail, stop saying that. I’m not going to hurt you.” “I can’t stand the thought of you hurting innocent people. If you need to satisfy whatever darkness

possesses you or feed, just feed off me,” Abigail said. “Please, it’s better than hurting someone else.” “I’m not feeding off you!” I stood and moved away from her. She stood, too. “Then how are you going to gain your strength?” she asked. “Are you going to kill more innocent angels or half my species?” She sounded disgusted. “You can’t just hurt them because you feel like it. There has to be another way for you to gain strength without killing everything in your sight.” “Abigail, I’m trying to… Hurting creatures and feeding off them is all I know how to do,” I didn’t know of another way to feed. All my life, I’d only known how to hurt people. “Then find another way,” she walked over to me, taking my hands. “We can find another way, I’m sure of it.” She was full of hope, but I lost all my hope long ago because I knew there was no other way. I couldn’t bear to see how optimistic she was, looking at me as if there was more to me than being a monster. I couldn’t tell her that I was always going to be the evil Gideon. I didn’t want to take her hope away. But, there was one thing I could do: leave now and make her decide, knowing what she now knew, if she still wanted to be with me. I pulled my hand away from hers. “I have to go,” I whispered, and with a snap of my fingers, I made myself disappear.

GALAXY DISTANT
*Abigail*
“I look at you, standing close to me.

I know what I want and it’s hard to believe that when you look at me, it’s like I touch the sky. Suddenly you’re cold on your way to fly. But I’m here you see, it’s so clear to me Our faith is written in your hands Cuz every time you’re near there’s nothing I can fear I just know we have a chance.

You’re my guardian angel, even though you bring danger and look like a stranger, you’re my guardian angel.”
Melody Manful & Angelika Vee. ‘Guardian Angels’ series theme Song.

Yesterday, after Gideon disappeared, I started screaming and praying for whomever he was going
to kill. One of the angels, who I later found out was Valoel, put me into a deep sleep. She told me that I needed to rest so that my mind would have time to process everything that was going on. I had woken in the morning, not knowing where I was, only to have everything that happened yesterday come rushing in. I went to Gideon’s room to check if he was there, but, unfortunately, he never came back home. Tristan didn’t look like he wanted to tell me where he was, and Valoel told me to stop asking questions. When I came home and found out that my mother and bodyguards hadn’t been looking for me, I learned that Valoel had created a clone of me, so to everyone else, I was home and never left for Grands. “He’s not coming back is he?” I asked Tristan, who sat with me on the sofa in my bedroom. It took Valoel a simple snap of her fingers to bring me back home to Earth. Tristan looked at me, unsure of how to respond. “Are you okay?” he asked. “I don’t want to believe that Gideon is evil. Naïve, I know. I love him, but how can I be with someone whose primary mission is to kill?” Tristan didn’t answer me, because I knew he had no answer to my question. “Why didn’t you tell me before that Gideon tried to save my father?” I asked. “I had a lot of reasons. One of them was wanting you to admit you loved him. If I’d told you right away, you’d forever wonder if you loved him because you knew he didn’t kill your father.” I wanted to be angry at Tristan, but I couldn’t. He was right. I wouldn’t have told him to go away if I’d known, but I’d also wonder if I allowed him to stay because he tried to save my father. I needed time to accept everything, and if he had been around, maybe I wouldn’t have gotten the time that I needed. “Tristan, you look weak,” I said, noticing his blue eyes slowly turning grey. He looked like someone who hadn’t slept for days. He looked exhausted. I didn’t like seeing him like that. “I’m all right,” he said. I knew Tristan well enough to know that he wasn’t being honest. “No, you’re not,” I said, remembering what he said to me when he was telling me about Gideon. “You said Gideon feeds on pain and you feed on happiness.” And then it hit me. “Oh, I’m making you weak. You’re hungry, and here I am sad.” I quickly put a smile on my face. “I promise I won’t cry or be sad.” He laughed, and for a second, the Tristan I loved appeared, but I watched his smile fade after a

few seconds. “Good,” Valoel said, appearing out of nowhere. Then, with a snap of her fingers, a sandwich appeared. “You need to eat something.” I shot her a look to say I wasn’t hungry, but she was already shaking her head in protest. Now I was positive she could read my mind. “Eat up, and don’t move. I’m borrowing Tristan for a second.” “I can’t leave her,” Tristan said. “Let him guard her for a second, and come with me. You need to feed.” Valoel took Tristan’s hand. “Eat your food,” she ordered. A second later, she disappeared with Tristan. When they left, I felt lonely, as if everyone had abandoned me. I tried to take a bite of the sandwich, but I choked on the dryness in my mouth, so I tossed it away. “Stop throwing things.” I recognized the voice immediately. “Gideon?” He appeared right in front of me. “Come here,” he said gently. He helped me up, pulling me to him and throwing his arms around me in a hug. I stepped back after awhile, remembering yesterday’s conversation. “Where did you go yesterday?” I asked, daring myself not to get distracted by how closed we stood. “I went out to hunt, but I didn’t.” “You didn’t?” I was surprised and happy. “I wanted to, badly.” Hearing the need in his voice, I believed him. I was so happy that he didn’t hurt anyone. I pulled my hands around him in a hug once more. “Have you been here the whole time?” I asked. “Yes.” He pulled my face to his. “I never left. I am always with you.” “I thought you were gone and—” I stopped. His finger pressed against my lips. He gently put his hands in mine. “I have something for you.” When I looked into my hand, I saw a very beautiful golden medallion. I smiled, as I looked up at him, breathless. I lifted the medallion. What caught my attention first were the letters G and A intricately engraved in the middle. The initials made my heart flutter in happiness. It was so beautiful. “It’s…beyond words.” I ran my fingers across the surface. “Does it stand for Guardian Angel?” He brushed my hair away from my neck and stepped behind me to clasp it closed. A second later, it adorned my neck. “G stands for Gideon, and A stands for Abigail.” I was speechless. “That’s so nice.” Why couldn’t he be this sweet all the time? “Whenever you feel lonely, just look at this and remember that I am always close. The G also represents me as the guardian, and the A represents you as my angel. So, as long as you wear this, you

will know that I am never far away. I hope you like it.” “I love it,” I said happily, my eyes locking on his. Gideon leaned toward me. I leaned closer, too, and I felt lightheaded as our lips moved closer toward each other’s. Our lips were inches away from touching when my phone started ringing. Gideon pulled away, and I cursed whoever was calling before I took my phone out of my pocket. “Hello. Abigail speaking,” I said the moment I brought the phone to my ear. “Don’t hello me!” It was Sarah. “How are you feeling? I’ve been calling you since yesterday,” she said. I opened my mouth to answer, but before I could, she added, “Don’t answer that, I knew you weren’t sick.” “Sarah, I was…” I didn’t know how to makeup a believable lie. I decided to go with a partial truth instead. “I’m fine now, and my phone was off,” I explained, taking Gideon’s hand. I didn’t want him to step away from me. I felt butterflies in my stomach as Gideon pulled me closer to him again. “Don’t play innocent with me!” Sarah knew more about me than I gave her credit for. “Gideon comes back to school and you rush home like the school caught on fire.” This made both Gideon and I laugh. “My bad,” Gideon said. He smiled and winked at me, which made my heart swoon. He grabbed my waist and pulled me closer into him so that the space between us disappeared. Wow, those green eyes… he was definitely trying to dazzle me, and it was working. “I left because…” I was having a difficult time thinking straight. My mind felt fuzzy. For a second I didn’t even remember what I was talking about. “What did that hot guy do to you?” Sarah asked before adding, “Is it just me, or has he gotten hotter since the last time we saw him?” Come to think of it, I think he got hotter every second I saw him. “And did you see his eyes?” I felt my cheeks flush when she asked this. “Green has never looked so beautifully and mysteriously hot.” “I… I…” I wanted to say I didn’t see his eyes, but I was staring right into them, and Sarah’s description didn’t do those captivating eyes justice. Gideon’s hands traced my cheek, sending goose bumps down my body. “Speak up, Abigail, I can’t hear you.” Sarah said annoyingly through the phone. “Here I am talking about how hot Gideon is, and you aren’t saying anything to encourage it. Unless you don’t think he’s hot, which would be a total lie because I have chat messages that confirm you do.” “He’s…” I paused again because Gideon had taken me completely by surprise when he replaced his hand on my cheek with his lips. I was pretty sure an alien sound of some sort escaped my lips when I felt his breath on my skin. Suddenly, everything around me started spinning slowly. “He’s what?” Sarah sounded more annoyed than before. My pulse was climbing higher and higher. Gideon’s lips left my cheeks and moved up to my free ear. “Abigail,” he whispered, “Can I… may I… I want to kiss you, can I?” My grip on my phone tightened when he whispered this. Before, my heart

had been beating so fast that I felt as if I were running a marathon; now, however, I was pretty sure it was racing at the speed of light. “Please say yes,” Gideon whispered again into my ear. My body felt like it was on fire, as Gideon’s mouth on my skin was driving me insane. “Abigail, are you even listening to me?” Sarah asked, but her voice seemed far away, “What are you doing?” “Yes,” I said. Gideon pulled away to look at me. “Yes,” I said again, and then he took my phone away from me. “Sarah, she’ll call you back,” he muttered into the phone before closing it and tossing it aside. The moment the phone left his hand, his lips were on mine. My whole body went numb the moment Gideon’s lips touched mine. I kissed him back, and he deepened the kiss, his lips sending heat waves through my body. I was on fire. I couldn’t think straight, the touch of his hands on my cheeks and the feel of his lips on mine were electrifying. I placed my hands on his chest. I could feel the beat of his heart beneath my palm. I wanted the moment to last forever, to be frozen in this breathless moment for all eternity, just me and Gideon and no one else. His hands moved from my cheeks and into my hair, and he pulled me closer into him, his lips never straying from mine. My heart pounded in my chest, racing in anticipation. I felt as if my body was an overheated volcano waiting to explode. The feel of Gideon’s lips on mine was mind-blowing. He kissed me with so much passion that I felt like I was about to shatter with happiness. I lifted my hand, brushing it through his soft, dark hair. Gideon’s hands found my waist and wrapped around it, pushing me tighter into him. I saw stars, heaven, and then… “Abigail, I made you—” My mother’s words stopped. Gideon pulled away, leaving me breathless and speechless. My first kiss. It was so worth the wait. I was still trying to make my heart slow down when my eyes met Gideon’s, and I stopped inhaling altogether. It took me a second to remember why Gideon had pulled away, and then I saw my mother. She stood in the doorway looking surprised at us. Oh, boy. I knew I was never going to live this one down. I left Gideon’s side. “Mom—” “Gideon,” my mother cut me off. “How did you get in here?” she demanded. “What is going on here?” I was so dead. “Gideon and I are…he’s no longer a jerk. He’s…my boyfriend.” My mother stared surprisingly at me when I said this. “Boyfriend? Since when? And how did he get inside?” My mother’s eyes moved from Gideon and me to the balcony. “You sneaked him up here?” “No…yes…we were just—” “Gideon, join me in the sitting room,” my mother said, and already she was walking out. Gideon grabbed my hand and pulled me after my mother. “Boyfriend?” my mother said to herself.

“I am so sorry,” I whispered to Gideon. “She’s going to kill me, isn’t she?” Gideon asked as a small smile played on his lips. “Pretty much.” I nodded solemnly. I was pretty sure my mother was now blowing the whole thing out of proportion in her head. “So, Gideon, how long have you been dating my daughter? And when did you stop being a jerk?” my mother asked without turning around as she walked down the stairs. “Where do you live? Would you mind producing a copy of your birth certificate, along with your social security number?” I knew she wasn’t kidding with her request. We had been taught to learn everything about the people around us because of the life we lived. “Do you live with your parents? What work do they do? Do you have any thoughts about college?” By the time my mother was done with her questions, Gideon didn’t know which question he should answer first, and my mother expected immediate answers.

ALMOST PARADISE
“We whisper prayers, and shout out curses

to fight these demons and hope they disappear. We hide scars, and tear through pains so we can try, and disguises all our fear.”
Melody Manful

Gideon survived my mother’s interrogation. When she finally allowed me to take him back up to
my room, she said she’d be popping in every fifteen minutes, and she stayed true to her word. “Your mother scares me,” Gideon had said the second time my mother checked on us. “It’s about time someone scared you,” I teased. My mother allowed Gideon to stay the afternoon, and she even invited him to join us for dinner. I should have known she’d use dinner as an excuse to ask him more questions. Gideon was a good guest, and he answered each question as much as he could. At every opportunity, I tried to turn the conversation away from Gideon and on to something else. Being who she was—fashionable, friendly, and open toward everyone—I was kind of surprised to

watch her deliberately torture Gideon, and just because I said he was my boyfriend. She wasn’t all, “I’ve got my eye on you, young man,” when she thought Tristan and I had something going on. Gideon did look like he was scared of my mother, because I could visibly see him thinking twice before speaking. “See you tomorrow,” I told Gideon as I followed him to the door. Shortly after dinner, my mother decided it was time he went home and prepared for school tomorrow. And since we told her his car was parked outside the gates of our house, he had some distance to walk to it. “See you,” Gideon said and then looked up at something behind me. When I turned, my mother was standing there, staring at him. “Goodbye, Gideon,” she said. I turned back to Gideon. I knew he wasn’t really going away—he would end up in my room seconds after leaving my mother’s sight—but I still wanted a goodbye kiss. I knew my mother was standing there to make sure I didn’t get it. Gideon kissed my forehead lightly and said, “Tomorrow.” And then he walked away. I closed the door behind him and turned to my mother. “Mom, you didn’t have to be so mean to him.” “Mean to him would have been asking him to leave when I found him inside your room,” she said, obviously still angry at catching us together. “No boys in your room without me in the house.” “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about him. I was going to.” “A boyfriend. I thought you and—” She stopped herself. “He seemed like a nice boy. You tell him that, and I’ll deny it. I need him to be scared of me.” “He is scared of you. And I know what you were about to say. Tristan and I are just friends.” “You said it, not me.” She took my hand, and we headed toward the sitting room. “Where are you taking me?” “To have the talk.” I stopped dead when I realized what she meant. “Mom, Gideon and I haven’t even—” “As a mother, it’s my job to have this conversation with you, so it’s either you hear it now or later.” I knew she wasn’t going to let it go. She was doing this because she had walked in and caught us kissing. By the time my mother was done with her speech, though, I was ready to sign a pledge saying I’d never have kids. When she finally released me, I went back to my room and found Gideon, his sister, and Tristan waiting inside. They broke into laughter the moment I closed my door. “I told you her mother was scary,” Gideon sounded like he was happy to have been correct. Valoel was still laughing when she said, “Now I believe you.” Tristan and Valoel left shortly after. Gideon stayed, and we talked more about his world. I made sure not to ask him anything regarding his whole evil nature because I wasn’t sure I could handle him

talking about it. When Monday morning came, Gideon and I survived my friends, too, who were surprised that we were dating, and questions began to circle concerning Gideon’s absence the week before. Sarah didn’t stop asking me why Gideon was the one who ended our phone conversation. Since I didn’t want to tell her about my first kiss just yet, I went with, ‘I’ll tell you later.’ During lunch, Sarah asked me to accompany her to the girl’s room, and I did. The moment we entered, she searched the stalls to see if there was anyone else in the room. No one was there. I asked confusedly, “Sarah, who are you looking for?” “What are you doing, Abigail?” Sarah asked. “What do you mean?” “I thought you were crazy about Tristan, but now you’re dating Gideon, who I approve of by the way, but Tristan and you have this kind of intense connection that looks like you’re both trying to fight, which FYI isn’t working because you look at him the same way you look at Gideon.” “There’s no tension between Tristan and me, and I’m not crazy about him,” I said defensively, but she didn’t look like she believed me. “Just last week, you sent me a ten-page e-mail describing his hair.” Sarah was exaggerating; it was a one-page e-mail. “I also sent one talking about Gideon’s laugh. So what’s your point?” “So, you’re in trouble. I think you like them both.” Suddenly I felt as if the room was spinning, or was it just too small with no room for me to breathe? I became claustrophobic, and my own shadow started hunting me as the voice inside my head kept whispering, “You’re in trouble.” “I’m not in love with two guys at the same time!” Tristan was easy to talk to, and I liked spending time with him, but that didn’t mean I was in love with him. “I said like, Abigail,” Sarah whispered, and suddenly I understood why she didn’t believe me. Sarah’s interrogation made me uneasy for the rest of the day. I tried keeping my distance from her and Tristan with no luck. “I’m borrowing your guardian angel for a while,” Valoel said. We were all hanging out in my bedroom. Valoel stood beside Tristan, and I was sitting on Gideon’s lap on my bed. “By the way, you and I should hang next week. I’d like to get to know my brother’s girlfriend,” she said. I blushed, which made Tristan laugh, and then I started pulling my hair down to hide my face. “I don’t really want her around you. You’re a bad influence.” We all stared at Gideon. Valoel was a bad influence, and he wasn’t? “I think you’ve got that logic wrong,” she retorted. And with that, both she and Tristan disappeared. Watching them disappear, I knew I would never get over the whole being there one second and gone the

next. “I have to go,” Gideon said. “Go where?” I was about to reach for his hand when my TV turned on. When I looked at the TV , it was on one of the news channels. “So you’ll know where I am.” When Gideon said this, I knew he was about to do something bad, something that would be in the headlines quickly. Suddenly my breath shortened, and my body shook in fear as the aftermath of an event that hadn’t even happened forced its way into my head. “Gideon, you can’t go and hurt an innocent person,” I said, getting up from his lap. I couldn’t believe he was going back to hurting the world. I felt like I had let go of one nightmare and stepped into another. “I won’t do anything silly,” he got off the bed. “Silly? Harming the world and—” “The world?” he smiled ruefully. “Abby, the world you are trying to save is a wicked world.” He shook his head. “Your world is full of greed, hatred, and pain.” He paused for a second and then continued, “You think there would be hundreds of millions of your people living on the street if your world was loving and caring?” he asked. “Brothers killing brothers, and innocent people getting murdered, raped, sold, and tortured?” “Gideon, please don’t do this,” I begged. “Please, can’t you change…for me?” And that was my plan, to change Gideon. Not for me, but for the world. I wanted him to change, to learn to love, and to stop hurting innocent people. He laughed harshly. “You can’t change me, Abby. No one can.” His voice was mean and clipped. “If your plan is to change me, then let me go.” Let him go? “You think you know the humans, our history, better than I do?” Gideon almost laughed when he heard this. “Humanity is a book, and the sad truth is that your kind read it too fast. I’m doing you all a favor.” “For heaven’s sake, Gideon, don’t you think I know how the world is? Where we are heading?” I shouted. “I’ve heard about the past, the thirst for power, and the innocent blood that’s been shed. And yes, looking at the present, the future doesn’t seem so promising. I know what’s going on, one man turning his country into a graveyard and turning children into soldiers. Children massacring their fellow students. Greediness slowly sinking us into a black hole. I’m not blind, Gideon. I can see it. I know the world is full of unthinkable evil, but that’s not all the world is. “There are moments when nations come together to help others in need. One man stands and fights for what he believes in and makes a change. The world may be filled with evil people, but it’s also filled with good people.” My voice shook with each word. “I love you so much, and it’s clouding my judgment.

I don’t know why you’re the way you are. But I know I didn’t fall in love with the Gideon people fear. I fell in love with the Gideon you are. The one you cared enough to show me.” “Abby, you—” I cut him off. “Yes, I love you that much, Gideon. More than my life, and I don’t want you to leave.” I braced myself for the goodbye and looked him firmly in the eyes. “But if you do, we are done.” I didn’t want Gideon to leave, but I couldn’t stay with him if innocent people were going to keep getting hurt. “If you leave, we are done,” I said again, standing my ground. The words scared me more than Gideon’s angry face did. “I know you can’t change in a day, but you’ll have to try.” “Abigail, I can’t,” Gideon said. He was frozen where he stood. “Yes, you can,” I assured him, hiding my fears and taking one step forward. “I know that it’s hard, but I swear, Gideon, if you leave now, we’re done.” I tried to sound brave. “Fine,” Gideon said and took a step toward the door. “I mean it, Gideon!” I shouted, and he turned around. “You take one more step, and it will be like you never existed.” I took one more step toward him. “I can help you change, one step at a time,” I promised. I waited for Gideon to say something, but he didn’t. He just stood there staring at me. I was scared. What if he left and everything fell apart? Why would he want to leave? Didn’t he love me enough to stay and at least try? I couldn’t take the silence anymore. “If you’re going to leave, please do it now,” I whispered, closing the distance between us. “Just don’t stand there making me wish for the impossible.” “You said if I took another step I’d lose you forever.” “You’re staying?” I rejoiced, my grief turning into happiness. “You are my everything, Abigail.” he pulled me toward him. “If I lose you, I lose everything.” “I love you so much.” I said happily and looked up at him. Gideon’s happy face turned a little sad, and I remembered what Valoel said. She had told me that Gideon didn’t think he deserved to be loved, especially not by me. “I love you,” I said, looking straight into his eyes. “I know you don’t believe me, but you have to take my word for it.” Gideon stroked my hair behind my ear. “I don’t get it, Abigail. How can you love someone like me?” he whispered dejectedly. “I don’t deserve it. I’ve done horrible things to innocent people and—” I put my hand over his mouth. “Gideon, I love you because you admit your wrongs. I love you because you allowed me to see that part of you that you hide. I love you because you are willing to change for me. I love you because you love me for me. And I’d do anything to make you believe that.” “I must be the luckiest guy in the universe.” When I saw the smile stretch across his face, I felt like I fought a war and won.

WHITE SATIN
“Before love grew claws and horns,

it used to have to have a halo.”
Melody Manful

I woke up the next morning in Gideon’s arms. When I left for the bathroom and came back, he was
gone. Gideon hadn’t left, though, he had just gone and knocked on the front door instead, and when Ben let him in, he asked if he could drive me to school. I almost asked him where he got a car, but I didn’t because I already knew the answer—he made one appear. After school that day, Gideon and I left for Grands. An hour later, Gideon left with Valoel and Tristan. Once again, Gideon told me nothing was wrong when I asked why they were all acting so strange. I sat on a sofa inside Gideon’s room with a book I brought along from Earth, waiting for him. I was reading it, but I kept glancing up at the door, waiting for him to arrive. I didn’t see Tristan appear behind me, and he surprised me when he collapsed beside me on the sofa and asked, “What’s cooking, beautiful?” This made us both roar with laughter. “I should leave the cheesy lines to Jake,” he admitted. “I didn’t know you were funny,” I told Tristan. “I’ve always seen you as the do and say the right words kind of guy.” “I’m funny, Abigail. I tell jokes all the time.” “You didn’t crack a joke or two when I was sad and throwing stuff.” Tristan laughed. “You mean the time you were declaring your undying love? That reminds me—you never did tell me if you fell in love with me,” he teased. “Did you or didn’t you?” All of a sudden, I felt like I was under a spotlight, the kind that was too bright for anything living. I went for clueless. “Don’t know what you’re talking about,” I murmured. And then I did the worst thing imaginable—I looked up, and my eyes met his. The situation would have been much easier if Tristan wasn’t sitting right beside me, and it would have been a hell of a lot better if we weren’t so close. Suddenly, we started leaning into each other. My heart raced faster the closer I got toward him. I could taste Tristan’s breath, the way the air

gently blew across my lips. His eyes gazed into mine, making me feel exposed. I wanted to pull myself away, but I couldn’t. The air that passed between us turned into electricity. I felt the energy traveling between his body and mine, and from the way I was feeling, I knew nothing good was going to come. I couldn’t pull away—no, that was a lie. I could have pulled away. I just didn’t want to. No. No. No. No. No! My head was thinking straight, but my stupid heart wasn’t. My voice wasn’t mine. “I…I…” I tried breathing. “I love…” And then, as if we’d both planned it, we moved closer. Our lips touched, and before I even realized what was going on, Tristan was at the other end of the room. “Gideon loves you,” Tristan said. Gideon? Gideon. Oh, my God, Gideon! What just happened? Did I just…? Did we almost…? But I– Tristan was back beside me in a flash. “I am…” His eyes were filled with pain and... regret? I tried to speak, but he was so close to me again that I couldn’t get a word out. So we sat there in silence. I didn’t know for how long. It could have been seconds, minutes, hours...with my luck, a century could have passed, and I wouldn’t have noticed. I wanted to run away. I almost cheated on Gideon, inside his own room. “I’m an awful person.” It was now that I realized one of my hands was touching my lips. Somehow half of my brain was worried about Gideon, and the other half was still on Tristan and how much I had wanted to kiss him. Tristan is just a friend. Tristan is just a friend. I thought that if I said it enough, it would be true, and the feelings I had for Tristan would turn into something appropriate. “I shouldn’t have asked you that question. And you’re not an awful person.” The guilt finally started rushing in. I wanted to find Gideon and confess that I had—well, almost— cheated. “If I’d asked you the same question, what would you have said?” I asked. This time Tristan became immobile. He just sat there beside me, staring at me with those eyes. I pretended I couldn’t feel it, but the air between us turned into electricity again as my gaze fell on his. “Can I lie?” He placed his hands on my cheeks. I shivered. Not because I was cold, but because his touch somehow amplified the current between us. I shook my head. “No, I want the truth.” I knew how I felt about him, so I wanted to know how he felt about me. He stood and said, “I can’t tell you the truth, Abigail.” He dropped down to a whisper. “Because I can’t allow myself to fall in love.” Suddenly he sounded sad. “I have to put everyone else first. And because of that, I’m afraid that if I allow myself to fall in love, I wouldn’t care anymore.” He sounded like he had a huge weight on his shoulders. “And I can’t have that because I have to care, for the sake of

everyone.” He sat back down and took my hand. “So if you’re asking if I fell in love with you,” he looked me straight in the eyes, “the answer is no. I didn’t fall for you.” The moment the words came out of his mouth, I wanted to cry. “Your first lie,” I said. “I didn’t lie,” he whispered. “I’m practicing being selfish.” And then he let go of me. I sat still. “Tristan, I—” I cut myself off because I realized we weren’t alone. I whipped around and met Valoel’s gaze. “I should have brought some popcorn,” Valoel said, looking at Tristan. They exchanged some silent words. Valoel looked from me to Tristan, and then said, “Well, try harder.” This only made me wish I could hear whatever was being said between them. Would Valoel tell her brother? “Valoel, I…” I almost forgot she could read my thoughts. “Nothing happened, remember?” I knew that under no circumstance was I to tell Gideon what had almost happened. Could I do it? Of course, if it meant protecting Tristan from Gideon’s wrath. “Well, I’ll leave you two to solve this,” Valoel said and disappeared. “I didn’t mean to put you—” I stopped because Tristan shook his head. He took my hands with a smile, and I knew he didn’t want to talk anymore about what almost happened. Knowing Tristan, he was going to blame himself forever. “I have to go,” Tristan told me. “I need some answers, and someone named D says she has them, so I’m going to pay her a little visit.” I nodded, “All right, I’ll see you later.” “Later,” he whispered. My eyes met his once more, and all I saw was sadness. He didn’t say a word, and then just like that, he was gone. I sat back down on the sofa, drowning in guilt. The aftermath of what had happened seemed to worsen with every passing second. As I sat there caught between my heart and my brain, I couldn’t help hearing a voice at the back of my head that kept saying, “Oh. My. God. Abigail. Cells. You. Are. In. So. Much. Trouble!”

DESIRE – ERISED
“Each second of my forever I promise to you.

Each breathe. Each moment, it’s yours. You’re my yesterday, today, tomorrow and lifetime.

All I ask in return is that you love me a second too long.”
Melody Manful

Guilt.
It was eating its way through my brain. “Abby, are you all right?” Dammit, Gideon could tell there was something wrong with me. I was standing by the window next to him with my head resting on his shoulder, and I didn’t know how he could possibly tell that something was wrong with me. Maybe it was because my heart was racing. Tell him. Don ’t tell him. Nothing happened. Of course something happened. Tristan is just a friend. Oh, that phrase isn’t helping anymore. Don’t tell him. Tell him. Don’t tell him. My thoughts were at war. “So, Tristan came back but you didn’t…where did you go?” I asked to distract myself. “I stopped by your house on the way back to check if your mother was home. She’s not, but there’s a new book on your bed.” I turned my full attention to him. “A book?” “Yeah, about a girl who ruined her future when she got pregnant at fifteen.” “I can’t believe my mother thinks that just because I have a boyfriend, I’m going to lose my virginity and get pregnant.” My mother’s assumptions were really getting on my nerves. “It’s her job as a mother,” Gideon said, trying to calm me down. “I’m not going to jump into bed with you, and I don’t know what to tell her to make her believe that!” “Wow, now hold on just a second.” Gideon pulled my face close to his. “You’re not going to?” he asked, and he actually sounded disappointed. “Never?” “No…I mean, yes, I’m going to.” I felt so awkward talking about my virginity and sex with Gideon. Embarrassment flushed my cheeks. “Not now, I mean, I want to, someday, but I’m not ready.” I wanted to lose my V-card someday, but not right now. The disappointed look on his face disappeared. “I understand, but can I get a date and time here?” We both laughed. “If you don’t want to wait…” I looked down. “I’m not ready, and I know that you might not want to…” “Hey,” Gideon lifted my head up. “We’ll wait as long as you want,” he whispered. “I mean, since we met each other like two seconds ago. There’s no need to rush, and I’ll wait as long as you want.” I nodded, glad that he understood. My guilt intensified when Gideon said this, he was so nice to me,

and I had almost cheated on him. “Thanks for understanding,” I whispered, and he planted a kiss on my forehead. Both of us stood quietly for a while. Gideon’s hands tightened around me, and just like that, my guilty conscience resurfaced. I felt uneasy, and my breath started coming out sharply. “Abby, are you okay?” Gideon asked again. “I almost kissed Tristan,” I blurted out, and immediately Gideon let go of me and pulled away. When my eyes met his, I felt horrible. The first thing I noticed in his eyes was something akin to pain, but it vanished too quickly that I thought I imagined it. A second later, his eyes were flashing with anger. I was a terrible person. I put Tristan in a really bad position, and I was now bringing evil Gideon out to play. I waited for Gideon to start screaming and shouting at me, but other than him standing, growling in anger, and clenching his fists, he didn’t say a word—and the worst part was that he wasn’t even looking at me. I forced my tears to stay hidden for a moment. “Say something. Please, just say something.” He turned and took a step closer to the door. Another step, and he was already in front of his door. Oh no—Tristan. “Gideon!” I rushed over to him. I took his hand, but he pulled away from me. “I know you’re mad, but it’s not Tristan’s fault. And nothing happened.” “You…” I waited for the rest of his words, but they never came. He looked livid. I wanted to take his hand again, but I decided against it. “It wasn’t my intention to make you angry. I’m so, so sorry.” We stood there for awhile, me trying not to cry and Gideon still clenching his fists. He looked furious, and the fact that he refused to say a word made me feel even guiltier. “I know I’m an awful person, and you don’t have to forgive me for this, but really, nothing happened.” I continued, “I know it shouldn’t have even almost happened. And I’m sorry it did. Don’t ever forgive me if you don’t want to, but please don’t stop loving me.” “For crying out loud, Abigail Cells, don’t put words in my mouth. I couldn’t stop loving you, even if I tried.” I rushed toward him and wrapped my arms around his neck when he said this. “I am truly sorry.” I pulled away from the hug so I could see him. “I promise it won’t happen again, and I love you, too, so much.” I stretched up on my tiptoes and pressed my lips to his. I thought for sure he was going to pull away, so it came as a surprise when he kissed me back, gripping my hips and pulling them closer to his. My guilt disappeared. I felt a current run through me when he deepened the kiss, parting my lips. A spin and my back was against the door. A wave of desire rushed through me, swelling my heart to near combustion. I reached up, digging my fingers into his soft hair, pressing tighter against him until there was no space left between us. His hands moved from my waist and up my body. The thrill was unbelievable. And I wanted more. I

pressed harder against him, bringing my hands to his chest and sliding them down his hard stomach as my fingertips traced his muscles. He moved his hands from my back and slid them beneath my top. His hands shifted from my ribcage, moving up and up. A moan escaped my lips. The touch of his hands on my body was sensational. And then suddenly he was lifting me. I wrapped my legs around his waist, my lips not once leaving his. I kissed him harder. We moved, and my back hit something soft. Gideon’s arms tightened around me, his hands were everywhere on my body. I whispered his name, moving my hips against his. His lips left my mouth, tracing kisses down my jaw, down my throat, and down, down my chest. With a single tug of my top, we broke apart, but only for the second it took for him to pull my shirt over my head. My heart was bursting with excitement. Passion. Need. Sliding his hands behind my head, he brought his lips back to my mouth, gently laying me back onto something soft once again. With each touch of his hand, I felt like his fingers burned into my skin, sending a rush of heat and yearning through me. With trembling hands, I reached for his shirt, trying to yank it away with our lips still sealed. My hands pressed against his hard, bare chest when I yanked his shirt off, tossing it away. I stopped thinking and gave myself over to my heart’s desires as it pounded loudly. Gideon’s lips left mine once again, moving down my neck until they found my chest, his lips claiming me. My body was on fire, and each touch left me craving more. The need was overpowering. I shifted, sliding my hand to the back of his head and sinking my mouth into his. He eagerly kissed me back. His hands trailed down my thighs, moving sensitively under my skirt and up to my waistline. Our pulses matched, racing, humming a tone of pleasure. I moved my hands up and down his chest, feeling the heat of his body underneath my fingers. I groaned as he tugged the waistband of my panties, my heart thumping in pleasure. I pushed tighter, gliding my hands down his chest. A sound escaped his lips, and without warning he abruptly pulled away from me, leaving me panting. Gideon was now standing at the far end of the room, his eyes glued to mine. I watched his chest rise and fall as he tried to catch his breath. It took another second, and he was back beside me on the bed. A bed? Where the heck did that come from? Gideon had absolutely nothing in his room except the manifested couch, but now there was a bed. “That was…” Gideon’s eyes moved hungrily up and down my body, the kind of hunger I knew ended with him ripping the rest of my clothes off. I was pretty sure the same look was on my face. “Put this on.” He handed me my top. My eyes flashed on my red bra. I didn’t know if it was because I knew Gideon wanted me or because of me sitting on a bed inside my boyfriend’s room, but I felt shy. I was still trying to find my breath when I slid my arms into my top. My gaze rested on his chest. “Why did you stop?” “A second longer and I wouldn’t have been able to control myself. And I know you’re not ready,

and I didn’t want to do something you didn’t want to.” My gaze was still stuck on his chest. I wanted to cross the short space between us and feel the warmth of his body once more. I wanted to… “I’m distracting you,” he interrupted my daydreaming, and his shirt reappeared on his body. Please take it off. Gideon smiled as if he heard me. Did I say that out loud? “You didn’t kiss Tristan like that, did you?” My heart stopped pounding. I managed a shake. “And we didn’t kiss,” I clarified. I searched his eyes for something other than the hunger in them, but I found nothing. “You’re not going to kiss him again, are you?” he asked as if he didn’t hear the part where I said we didn’t kiss. “No! I’m sorry. I put both you and Tristan in a—it won’t happen again.” Perhaps explaining myself wasn’t going to make any difference. “Good, because I hate the idea of someone else touching you.” The anger was starting to resurface. “I’m a very, very jealous guy who doesn’t like to share. And you’re mine, and mine only.” “I’m yours?” “Yes, mine, and don’t you ever forget that.” I found myself smiling. “Yours.” I liked that. “So, does that make you mine?” “Well, if you want to put a label on it.” “You’re a jerk.” I couldn’t stop smiling. “I really want to hurt Tristan.” That wasn’t what I wanted to hear. I was shaking my head before I spoke. “I know you’re angry, but please don’t hurt him.” “Not even a little?” I shook my head again and smiled because Gideon sounded like a child begging for something he couldn’t have. “Where did the bed come from?” I asked. If my mother saw me sitting anywhere near it, she would kill me. “I have no idea,” he said. My eyes met his, and we both laughed. I loved the sound of Gideon’s laughter; it was a sound I knew I would never get tired of. “But, if you keep reminding me of it, I’m not sure I’ll be able to control myself,” he added, and then he leaned into the space between us and pressed his lips to mine once more.

SAFE HAVEN
*Gideon*
“Better to reign in Hell

than serve in Heaven”
John Milton

“ t won’t survive,” I said, taking Abigail’s rose. She insisted that we plant it outside my window. I didn’t know why. I knew it was only going to die there, but when she kept telling me to do as she said, I reluctantly gave in—mostly because I wanted to get her away from my bedroom. After that rather wow make-out session we had, I couldn’t look at her without wanting to rip her clothes off. I was also angry, mostly at Tristan for almost kissing her, but I decided to pretend that I didn’t care. As long as she loved me, I could overlook our imperfections. Well, until I saw Tristan again, and I’d kick him hard in the face. Come to think of it, where the hell was he? “Just dig a hole,” she said. With a wave of my hand, I made a little bit of soil appear where we were standing. I was sure nothing could survive in that soil because it looked so dry. “If it dies, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” I pierced the ground, creating a hole for her. The heat that rose out was so strong that I felt like I was on fire. I pulled Abigail away from it and then planted the rose for her. “See,” she said joyfully, looking at the rose. The soil around it was sweltering, but the rose remained the same. “This rose represents our love,” she said. “Unless we lose it, it will never die. I’m sure of it.” “Come on, Shakespeare,” I teased and led her back into my room. When we entered, I heard Princess Sela and Valoel downstairs. I didn’t hear Tristan, though, so I was sure he hadn’t returned. “Look, a shooting star!” Abigail shouted, pointing to the sky. The moment I saw what she was pointing at, I froze. “That’s no shooting star,” I said, jerking her to the side. Valoel walked up to me with Princess Sela, and we both asked simultaneously, “Where’s Tristan?” Abigail asked, “What do you mean about the shooting star?” I felt a rush of guilt. “It’s a falling angel,” Valoel clarified.

I

Abigail pulled away from me as she tried to make sure she understood Valoel. “A falling what?” Valoel explained in a strained voice, “A falling angel. Every time an angel is about to die, a star falls. We call it the angel’s soul.” “So why are you asking where Tristan is?” Abigail asked. “That star, Abigail, shines brighter than any star I’ve ever seen,” Valoel answered, but Abigail looked like she didn’t understand what that had to do with Tristan. “How surprising is this?” I was quite annoyed. “Tristan forgot to tell you that he is the most loving, caring, and protective guardian angel alive?” This time Abigail’s expression swapped confusion for shock. “You can’t mean…?” She stopped and searched for words. “But he was just here.” She pointed to where Tristan was before he left. “He was just here.” “Did he tell you where he was going when he left?” Valoel asked Abigail. “He said he was going to visit someone named D because she had some answers,” Abigail answered, and both Valoel and I instantly knew why a star had fallen. Something must have happened to Tristan in the Underworld. I was surprised. D had the answers? Why hadn’t she just come over and told me? Sela, who stood beside Valoel, seemed to be frozen permanently in shock. I made a chair appear and sat down when I realized I couldn’t allow myself to panic. Tristan was probably about to die. I wouldn’t have to share his emotions and thoughts, and definitely not Abigail. Best news ever! “Who is D?” Abigail asked tentatively. I relaxed. “Evil. Like me. She’s the Grim Reaper.” Abigail looked troubled. “Why would Tristan visit the Grim Reaper?” I smiled, putting my legs up. “Beats me, but do tell me when you find out.” I laughed, and everyone turned to look at me. “You seem relaxed,” Valoel said, her fear giving way to panic. “Why shouldn’t I be?” “Because without Tristan here to guard Abigail from you, she’s as good as dead.” I hopped off my chair in shock. I couldn’t explain the pain I saw flash in Abigail’s eyes, because I was sure she knew that what Valoel was saying was true. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” I headed for the window. “He better not be dead when we find him.” I was a different angel from what I was when I met Abigail, but I could never be sure if the old Gideon would try and hurt her, and having Tristan lurk around was the only reason I thought I could stay with Abigail. I knew if I ever tried to hurt her, he’d protect her. “We need to leave for the Underworld,” Valoel said. “I’m coming with you,” Abigail said firmly from behind me.

“The Underworld is a dangerous place, Abby,” I responded. “You can die in an instant. There is more danger there than any other place in the universe.” “I’ll be fine,” she said. “I’ll get the war angels,” Sela said, and then she vanished. I asked in shock, “War angels? War?” The last time I saw war angels, they were after me, and I had to destroy the center of Grands to get rid of them. Valoel answered, “Nobody goes into the Underworld without an army.” Suddenly, I didn’t want to ask anything involving the word war. Abigail and I stood looking at each other. If there was going to be a war with the Underworld, there was no guarantee that I would see her again. “Let me take you home, Abby,” I offered with a tone that sounded more demanding than suggestive. “Don’t start, Gideon,” she snapped angrily. “I don’t want to go home. I want to help find Tristan, and I’m not leaving until we do.” “Abigail, I’ve tried very hard to keep you alive, and I am not about to lose you to a bunch of demons and unknown magical creatures.” “If there’s going to be some kind of angelic war because of—” My finger was already on her lips. “There is not going to be a war because of you.” What’s with her and Tristan thinking everything was their fault? Great, one more thing they had in common! “But Tristan! He was here,” she sounded angry and sad. “Why does my presence keep hurting everyone I care about? First my father and Felix, and now Tristan?” “Because you’re with me,” I told her. “Let me take you home.” “Not without Tristan,” she said stubbornly. Of course she didn’t want to leave without Tristan! She wouldn’t let me hit him either for almost kissing her. Why did they almost kiss? No, I didn’t want to know the answer to that question. “Let her come. We’ll need all the help we can get.” That was Valoel’s solution? “Let her come? Are you insane?” I glared angrily at Valoel. “You can’t use guns in the Underworld. That realm and ours are different from yours, but you can use a sword and an arrow,” Valoel said. Valoel wanted her to join the army? Did she forget Abigail was a human? So what if she could hold a sword—that didn’t make her the next freaking King Arthur! Was Valoel trying to get her killed? Anyway, wasn’t trying to kill her supposed to be my job? I walked to Abigail. “Abby, let me take you home. I need to know you’re safe and—” Abigail cut me off. “Gideon, I’m not leaving.” “The angels are ready,” Valoel said. Then with a snap of her fingers, we were standing in front of the Grandinian Palace. “It’s Gideon!” someone shouted the very moment we appeared. I looked up. The sky was filled with

war angels. There were thousands of them, all floating just above us. They stared at me with fear lining their faces. Some of them looked like they were ready to flee. Abigail, who stood beside me, stared at me in shock. “He’s with us!” Valoel shouted to them. “With…with us?” one of the war angels stammered. “He’s here for…for Tristan, too?” “Yes, we are all here for Tristan,” Sela answered, hovering in the air with the angels. Sela was dressed in silver armor, and the warriors around her were all dressed in black. “Gideon doesn’t like Tristan,” someone else said. “Yes, but he’s…” Sela couldn’t get a word out because all the warriors started talking at once. All of them were voicing their opinions about how I couldn’t be trusted. They were getting on my nerves, and the only reason I stood still and said nothing was because Abigail was still staring at me. I could only guess at what was going through her mind. Another one shouted, “We can’t trust him!” At the sound of the angel’s voice, I appeared in front of him and didn’t say a word as I ripped his heart right out of his chest. He died instantly and fell to the ground. Those around him quickly flew away from me. “Anyone else have some concerns to share?” I shouted at the warriors with the heart still in my hand, blood dripped around my fingers. “We…we were…” The angel who murmured this started screaming because I began inflicting pain on him with my mind. He went down on his knees as his screams got louder. In the moment, I realized how much I’d missed killing and how easy I could change into the monster I was before. “Gideon, stop!” I heard Abigail shouting from beneath us. The warriors turned to her and then back to me. “Please stop.” She looked like she just saw a ghost. “Make no mistake. I’m not here for Tristan,” I told the angels and then dropped the heart in my hand. I stopped torturing the angel beside me, and he stopped screaming. I flew back to where Abigail stood. The moment I appeared beside her, she took a step away from me. “Abigail, I…” Abigail shook her head. I could see the rest of her body trembling as well. She looked so scared. “You said you’d change,” she whispered fearfully. “You just ripped…you…” She couldn’t even get the words out of her mouth, and suddenly I regretted killing that angel in front of her. “I am changing. I’m trying to!” I said, but she just shook her head again. “No, Gideon, you just like the idea of changing!” She shouted angrily at me. “You were so close.” “Abigail…” I took a step closer, and she took one back. “Let’s just go find Tristan.” She said bitterly as she looked away from me. Valoel said to the war angels, “Sela and I will leave with half of you, and Gideon will lead the other half.” She turned back to me. “Abigail, you can take this.” She snapped her fingers, and a white,

winged horse appeared. “Pegasus?” Abigail asked in wonder. “No. Same species, but it’s not Pegasus,” Valoel laughed. Abigail continued staring at the horse with wide eyes. “All you have to do is hold on tight to him, and you’ll be fine.” “Abigail, get away from that thing. You could get hurt!” I shouted. Valoel grabbed me when I tried to reach for Abigail. “Gideon, she’ll be fine.” She went over to Abigail. “Here you go.” The moment Valoel spoke, a quiver filled with arrows appeared on Abigail’s back. The next thing I knew, there was a bow in her hand. “Valoel, have you been around her?” I pointed at Abigail as if she couldn’t see us. “The girl is almost as bad as Tristan. She’ll see all those lost souls in the Underworld and feel sorry for them, and get herself killed. She’s weak and—” Valoel caught an arrow inches before it pierced my forehead. I turned in surprise to gape at Abigail. She lowered her bow when she saw my stunned face. Did she almost shoot me with a freaking arrow? She was angry at me for killing an angel neither of us knew, and she knowingly tried to kill me? “You’re quite fatal, aren’t you?” Valoel was also staring, intrigued, at Abigail. “I guess you two are meant for each other after all.” “I told you. I want Tristan back.” Her eyes never once left mine. The Abigail looking at me wasn’t my awkward, loving Abigail. This one looked deadly. “Abigail, these arrows are poisonous,” Valoel lectured. “Next time, don’t aim it at the people you don’t want to paralyze—or worst, kill.” Whoosh. The next arrow Abigail let fly was caught again by Valoel. This one missed my heart, but not by much. “We’re wasting time talking when Tristan is out there! And I’m not missing my target one more time. I swear it!” Her eyes looked possessed. And there wasn’t a hint of deceit in her words. Valoel sounded scared when she said, “Abigail, calm down. I’m sure Tristan is all right.” All that anger was because Tristan was MIA? Wait, did Abigail try to kill me—twice—because of Tristan? I knew she wasn’t just angry because we were wasting time. She was angry at me for killing that angel. “Get ready.” Valoel flew into the sky toward Sela, leaving me with Abigail—rather, what was left of her humanity. “I’ll be fine.” Abigail said and stared at me for a brief second before she walked back to the horse. In a moment, Abigail was sitting atop the horse without even trying; then she looked into the sky and mouthed thanks to Valoel. She rode the horse into the air next to Sela and Valoel. I seriously hated this freaking turn of events, where Abigail scared me and I was off to save Tristan. Since when did saving people and wanting to protect my girlfriend become part of my daily routine?

Sela gave a sharp command, and the angels in the sky divided into two halves. I wondered what Daligo said when Sela came for the war angels, or if he even knew. I flew up to command my assigned party of angels. As soon as they saw me, they put space between us. Below me, half of the war angels hovered together with Sela. “Is there really going to be a war? Is Tristan going to be all right?” I heard Abigail ask Valoel. “Yes, dear,” she answered. “Yes, there is.” Then she focused on the war legions. “Remember, nothing you see in the Underworld is truly real,” Valoel shouted into the air, and her voice was as powerful as any true leader. Sela led the way, and half of the war angels flew after her. “Gideon! Be careful!” Abigail called. One of her hands clenched the medallion I gave her. Valoel flew in a wide arc and zoomed after Sela. My eyes met Abigail’s for a brief second before she put on a brave face and sped off after Valoel and Sela. “Anyone who finds Tristan should let me know,” I commanded the frightened angels. “I’ll kill him myself if he’s still alive.”

INFERNO
*Abigail*
“Politicians start wars.

Men fight wars. Governments win wars. But the innocents loses war For it is them who hurts the most.”
Melody Manful

Abigail, breathe in!
You can do this. You are doing this for Tristan! My father once said, “The greatest dangers you can get into are the ones you see coming. The ones that just happen are merely roads waiting to be crossed.”

Well, Dad, I literally just walked into a very great danger—how was that for a lesson? Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. I almost hurt Gideon. I didn’t mean for him to look at me as if I were dangerous. I just wanted Tristan back, and he wouldn’t quit talking about how weak he thought I was! How did I even get here? I had been a good girl. Okay, maybe not perfect, but did almost kissing my boyfriend’s nemesis merit this? I was on a flying horse, in the middle of oblivion, and I was afraid of heights. When Gideon asked to take me home, I almost jumped at the opportunity, but I remembered what my father once said: “Cowardice isn’t a dereliction of duty but rather a part of our humanity. However, only the brave ones are known for their humanity.” Gideon thought I was weak. That I would see lost souls in the Underworld and feel bad for them. What he didn’t understand was that no one was innocent once you were in a war—you were there to either kill or die. The warriors speeding in front of me were all dressed in black. Back at the palace when I first saw them, none of them wore a smile. They looked menacing. I didn’t want to turn around to see what was going on behind me. Frankly, I didn’t want to see Gideon. At the moment, he scared me more than the idea of actually heading into the Underworld. I didn’t know what lay ahead of us, but I knew from the look in Gideon’s eyes earlier that the trip was going to be dangerous. I knew if I wanted to help Tristan, I would have to stay and fight. But would I survive? A part of me wished I wouldn’t, not after I took part in the deaths of my father and Felix, and then there was Tristan. I was positive that if we hadn’t almost kissed, he wouldn’t have left. “Your father and Felix’s deaths weren’t your fault.” I had no idea how Valoel ended up beside me, but she startled me when she spoke. “And Tristan going to the Underworld wasn’t your fault, either.” “I almost kissed him, and—” I held tighter unto the horse. “It’s not your fault,” she said once more. I didn’t know what came over me. “I love him,” I whispered and then bit my tongue. “Who, Gideon or Tristan?” My heart skipped a beat. “I love—” Without waiting for an answer, she flew away. I tried to continue my speech to myself, but I wasn’t sure which name was supposed to come out. “I’m a murderer. A liar. And a soon-to-be heart breaker,” I said to no one. Pain gripped my heart, but I didn’t know if I was upset because of how I felt or if I was mourning for what I was about to lose. “We’re here!” Valoel shouted, and I looked down at a labyrinth. Underneath us, in front of an iron gate, stood who I was sure were the Lumenian warriors. There were thousands of them, all clothed in grey. When I saw them, I knew that there truly was going to be a war. And the best part was that I was

caught right in the middle of it, and if I was lucky, I’d even get to die for causing trouble for those around me. “Stay close,” Valoel told me as she helped me off the horse. I followed her as she headed over to the angels who all stood behind the gates. I could hear screaming voices around us, souls crying for help, and I understood why Gideon said I couldn’t handle the Underworld. He was right, hearing the painful cries made me want to stop and help them. “Princess,” one of the angels said, bowing to Sela. Sela asked him, “Is there a problem here?” “King Babylon saw the fallen star and sent us here, but we can’t enter because the gate is locked.” Sela didn’t get a chance to answer because Gideon’s voice called out from behind us. “What are you waiting for?” he asked irately, appearing beside us. I wanted to go over to him, but Valoel took my hand and stopped me. “The gate is locked,” Sela said, and then out of nowhere, a tiger and a lion appeared in front of the gate. I tightened my grip on Valoel’s hand. Gideon smirked when he saw the animals. “Panic and Pain,” he said. “I knew D would send you to do her dirty work for her.” I knew the story of the Underworld, and I’d watched Hercules enough times to know that Pain and Panic were Hades’ minions. What I didn’t know was that they’d be vicious animals. Gideon walked to the animals. I almost screamed for him to stop, but I bit my tongue when I remembered he wasn’t human. “Pain!” Gideon called. “Where is Tristan?” I watched bewilderedly as the animals transformed into people—a woman and a man, both approximately in their twenties. “Gideon, welcome,” the man, Pain, said with a smile. He backed away as Gideon approached. Gideon asked, “Do you want to open the gate, or do you want me to?” He didn’t wait for an answer. Instead he released a powerful flame that erupted against the iron. The gate cracked open with a loud, grating sound. “Don’t make me ask you about Tristan’s whereabouts one more time,” Gideon threatened, and then suddenly, with a flick of Gideon’s hand, Pain levitated in front of him. “He’s on his way to see D,” Pain wheezed in a choked voice. “Please don’t kill me!” he cried. There was a crash as Gideon threw Pain hard on the ground and made his way to the gate. Gideon took another step, and then two swords appeared out of nowhere. Pain and Panic blocked his way. “You cannot enter,” said Panic. “And don’t try to fight, because you’re already surrounded.” Sure enough, when I glanced around, I saw that all sorts of creatures surrounded us—the kind that looked like they’d died and come back to life. They were nameless creatures I had never before seen, not even in horror movies or my worst nightmares. All of them had dark eyes and icy breath, and they carried fierce weapons. Their faces showed anger and nothing else. I squeezed my eyes shut, blocking out the

sight of them. I figured if I couldn’t see them, then my fear would lessen. My breath was now coming out sharply. Terror raced through my body as the screaming around us became louder and louder. “Abigail, hey, breathe,” Valoel whispered beside me. I forced myself to open my eyes. “I’m fine,” I lied and inhaled deeply. “Sorry about this, Gideon, but I’m afraid no one is going home today,” Panic rasped. “It’s time!” Pain shouted. Suddenly, spears flew in every direction. Both the Lumenians and Grandinians held weapons, and some were able to shield themselves before the spears hit them. But others fell screaming from the sky. I didn’t have time to shield myself, but luckily for me, Valoel had my back. “I love killing,” Panic told Pain loudly from inside the gate as it began closing. Gideon was quick, though. He managed to blast the gate into flames again and rushed inside. Valoel, Sela, some Lumenians and Grandinians, and I managed to leap inside with him before the gate was magically replaced and closed. The area we entered looked like a battlefield. It was a large field with heat and steam emerging from the ground beneath. Valoel let go of my hand and flew high into the air. “Brothers!” she shouted, and immediately all eyes turned to her. “We have less than two minutes before that gate opens again.” She pointed to the Iron Gate. “Now hear this: thousands left for war, but only nine will return.” Valoel’s words froze me in my spot. Not one of the warriors made a sound. Gideon stood beside Sela, and both of them watched Valoel. Valoel continued her speech, “Brothers, I’m not going to promise you tomorrow. The truth is, we are going to die, and the best we can do is to take as much of D’s army with us as we can!” The warriors cheered. “Do we want our families to weep tomorrow for their loss?” Valoel asked and the warriors shouted together, “No!” “No!” she continued. “Tomorrow, we want them to toast to our victory!” The warriors shouted in agreement. “So raise your swords, brothers, and fight! Fight and kill!” The warriors raised their swords and shouted cheers. “We are at war!” Valoel threw her hands into the air, and then suddenly, the sky was filled with flaming arrows, all of them heading toward the gate. The gates blasted open the moment the arrows reached it, and then chaos started. My eyes met Gideon’s before he disappeared. I drew my sword and inhaled deeply as the chaos around me grew intense. Valoel appeared behind me. “Abby, you have to fight. Kill anything and anyone you don’t know,” she said. “The warriors, why don’t they care that they will all die?” I asked, trying my hardest to block out the cries around me.

Valoel smiled and said, “It’s simple. Any angel would rather die for Tristan than live, because without him, none of us would be alive. He’s our savior. The warriors would rather have him live to protect their families than live themselves and die with their families.” I didn’t understand. “But what are they afraid of? What is it that only Tristan can save them from?” “Gideon,” she replied, and then she was gone. She left me alone, standing in the middle of a battlefield. It seemed that whenever I thought Gideon couldn’t be all that evil, I was proven wrong. I hadn’t known Tristan or Gideon were that powerful and feared. I was terrified, but I was also highly alert. I clasped my medallion, breathed in deeply, and joined the battle. The first creature my sword slid into turned into ash, and I almost dropped my sword and ran. But, with the thought of Tristan on my mind, I moved though the creatures like they weren’t terrifying and dangerous, sliding my sword through them. “Abigail, watch—” Valoel warned, but she was too late, my hand was already bleeding from a gash. I screamed out in pain. The creature behind me, who looked like a human, smiled evilly when I looked at him. His breath was filled with smoke, and his eyes were cold, unnatural orbs. He raised his sword again, and I blocked it with mine. After I slit the creature’s throat, it too turned into ashes. I ducked just in time to avoid what looked like a green light flying past me. It hit one of the Grandinian angels behind me, and immediately the angel turned into ice. Seconds later, he shattered into a thousand pieces. Spears flew toward me from every direction. Both the Lumenian and Grandinian warriors were skillful. All sorts of colorful illuminations flew from every direction. Many creatures, both Underworld warriors and angels, fell from the air and turned to dust upon impact. There were screams of pain, and I even heard laughter. Smoke billowed from nooks and cracks. “Is that a human?” someone behind me asked. I didn’t have time to turn and look because a sword swung right in front of me. “In the name of the devil, it is!” It was Panic who answered. “But what is she doing here?” a male asked. “I don’t know,” Panic answered. “But I am about to find out.” “Abigail!” Gideon shouted my name, and I turned around just in time to dodge the arrow Panic sent flying at me. When my eyes met Panic’s, I drew my own arrow and I let it fly. I watched as the arrow went straight toward Panic, not stopping until it pierced her chest. She cried as she fell. Gideon stood somewhere at the far end of the battlefield, looking at me with a shocked expression. I didn’t have time to enjoy my victory because suddenly I was sinking. I screamed as I slipped into a tornado swirling down into the ground. “Help!”

“Abigail!” both Sela and Gideon shouted at the same time. I watched as they rushed over to me, both of them killing everything in their path. I yelled as I tried to free myself from the vortex pulling me into the earth. Gideon and Sela were almost halfway to me when Sela screamed in pain from an arrow Pain threw at her. The weirdest thing was, Gideon also screamed when Sela did. I watched as both Sela and Gideon fell on their backs. Both grabbed their left shoulder, where the arrow hit Sela. Out of nowhere, Valoel was beside Sela. Gideon looked confusedly at his shoulder and at Sela before he stood and angrily hurled a fireball at Pain. The flames kicked Pain off his feet when it hit him. Pain fell hard on his back and yelled. Gideon started rushing toward me again, but the tornado started spinning out of control, and then I was falling down, down. “Gideon!” I screamed as I fell deeper until suddenly everything went dark, and I was whirled into the deepest darkness imaginable.

IMMORTALITY
*Gideon*
“Veni, vidi, vici: I came, I saw, I conquered” Julius Caesar



Abigail!” I shouted into the darkness. There was no sign of her. I had followed her into the

tornado before it closed. I waved my hands above me, and a ball of light shaped like a half moon appeared and feebly lit the place. Looking around me, I was surprised to find myself surrounded by thousands upon thousands of gravestones. The ghastliness and silence of the surroundings didn’t scare me, but I was scared to think of what might have happened to Abigail. “Abigail!” I shouted again. I glanced around, desperately searching for a way out. I knew D well, so I knew I wasn’t going to find a huge door with a flashing exit sign above it. She loved playing games, and from the look of the graves around me, I knew she never lost. I made my way through the headstones, shouting for Abigail as I moved. Halfway through, I felt like the dark, strange world was closing in. Angels didn’t have to breathe in order to survive, but for once, it

felt as if I was losing my breath and possibly my mind. “Abigail!” I shouted more frantically, and then I began rushing through the gravestones. Hello. Anyone out there? Gideon, can you hear me? Valoel? I heard Tristan’s voice calling out in my head. Tristan? I called, finally happy to hear a sound, even if it was Tristan’s voice. Tristan, I can hear you. Where are you? I’m behind the red line, he answered sadly. You’re in the Underworld? I was surprised. The red line? The red line was the line that separated the living from the dead. Souls had to cross over it when they passed so they could enter the land of the dead. D’s job was to lead souls to the line so they could cross over. Tristan, move away from that line, I warned him. I can’t. I tried. D said only someone who is alive can pull me back to the side of the living, or my other choice is to cross over. I swear if I find her I’m going to… I stopped myself when I realized how I sounded. Do you remember how you got there? Tristan whispered no. He looked around him. I saw what he saw. He stood in a clearing. In front of him was the red line, and behind him were thousands of gravestones. I knew I had to save him, for Abigail, but I really didn’t want to. I didn’t like him, and he almost kissed my girlfriend, so I was sure no one would blame me if I didn’t save him. But then Abigail kept showing up in my head. I knew she’d be upset if Tristan died, and I’d never hear the end of it from Valoel if I didn’t save him. I literally had to pinch myself when I realized I’d save Tristan. I’m surrounded by gravestones, too. Just stay where you are, and I’ll come get you. You’re coming to save me? Gideon, I think you’re going soft, Tristan said cheerlessly. Don’t make me change my mind, I warned. I was saving him instead of looking for Abigail, but maybe by saving him, we’d have a better chance in finding her. You came here alone? Tristan asked as I made my way through the gravestones, knocking some of the stones out of my way. I wanted to tell him that I came with thousands of warriors, but I knew Tristan. I knew that if he knew only nine of those warriors would return home to their loved ones, it would kill him. Yeah. Abigail and Valoel want you alive, so …here I am. I lied. Tristan was right! I was going soft. What was with me trying to spare his feelings? I ran and ran through what seemed like a never-ending graveyard, but I couldn’t find Tristan. I went in circles. Almost half of the gravestones were in ruins because I smashed them into pieces during my search. I was covered in dirt, and there was no sign of either Abigail or Tristan. I was losing my mind,

and giving up wasn’t an option. I could just cross over and… Don’t you dare! I shouted angrily. I came here to save you, and I’m not leaving until I do. After I said this, both of us went silent. I thought about nothing but Abigail being lost. I even tried making sense of why when Princess Sela was shot and fell, that I fell, too. Can you feel that? Tristan broke through my thoughts, a little hope ringing in his voice. I couldn’t feel what he was talking about at first, but suddenly I felt his presence. I knew he felt mine. I think I can find you, I said with renewed energy, and I started heading toward the pull of Tristan’s presence. I walked for a while before I finally reached the clearing and saw Tristan. I had never been happier to see him in my entire life. You found me. Now I ’m positive you like me, Tristan said, and this time his voice was full of teasing. Don’t psychoanalyze this , I said as I rushed toward him. But before I could reach him, a scream from behind stopped me. “Abigail!” I shouted when I saw her. She was hanging in midair with her hands tied behind her. I saw that her body was covered in bruises and blood. Her eyes were bloodshot and filled with tears. I rushed over to her, but the moment I reached out to touch her, she disappeared. Tristan sounded scared when he said, “Gideon what’s going on? Was that Abigail?” “Yes,” I said and made another attempt to free Tristan, but the moment I stepped toward him, Abigail reappeared. Her appearance and reappearance could only mean one thing. “Cut the crap, D. I know you’re there.” D appeared right beside Abigail, who was struggling to free herself. The moment my eyes met D’s, I charged at her, but she vanished, only to reappear behind me. “Gideon, aren’t you happy to see me?” D asked with a seductive grin on her lips. “D, let them go,” I demanded. She laughed, “I must say, Gideon, I never imagined this day would come. You trying to save Tristan and a human.” She laughed again, and her voice filled me with rage. I turned from her and took a step closer to Tristan, but the moment my foot touched the ground, Abigail started screaming in pain. “Abigail!” Tristan and I shouted. I moved toward Abigail, but D disappeared with her again. D’s voice came from behind me again, saying, “You move, and I keep torturing her.” “I swear, D, if I—” She cut me off, saying, “You’ll what?” She smiled at me. “I can’t let you save Tristan, and I’m enjoying torturing this human, so I can’t let her go either.” I was now standing between Abigail and Tristan, both within reaching distance, but I knew D

wasn’t joking, so I didn’t move. “What the hell do you want?” I couldn’t stand seeing the pain in Abigail’s eyes. Blood dripped from her wounds, and I knew whatever it was that D was doing to her was killing her. “War,” D answered simply. “I’m tired of doing the same thing day after day. I lead souls here to the Underworld and make sure that they cross over—it’s boring. I want my freedom. I want to die and get my happy ending.” I didn’t understand her reasoning. “Here’s an idea. Why don’t you go look for a freaking new job?” “Oh, but you are missing the point. I’m bound to this job as long as those stupid humans exist.” I still didn’t get where she was going with her speech. I couldn’t bear to see Abigail looking so weak and hurt. “What has Tristan got to do with this stupid plan of yours?” I demanded. I was pretty sure the human race would be around for a long time. “I need Tristan out of the way. I can’t have him trying to save the humans when I try to destroy them all.” Finally, I understood why D held Tristan captive behind the red line. If Tristan died, no one could stop her from destroying everything. She was powerful enough to do that. “You can’t do—” Tristan started. D laughed and cut Tristan off. “Oh, poor naïve Tristan, you—” The fireball I launched hit D in the chest, and she crashed to the ground on her back. I looked away from her and immediately rushed over to Tristan. “Stop!” D shouted the moment I reached out to pull Tristan from the line. At the sound of her voice, Abigail started screaming louder than before. “Stop or I’ll kill her!” There was no remorse in D’s voice, and I knew her well enough to know that she meant what she said. Abigail’s screams echoed around the graveyard. I didn’t know what to do. “D, let’s—” “Let’s make this more interesting, shall we?” she asked through a laugh. Suddenly, she moved Abigail’s levitated body toward me. Abigail was close enough for me to save. “You can only save one of them, but either choice you make falls in my favor.” And then she laughed louder. I wanted to ask her what would happen if I were to save Tristan and not Abigail, but I knew the answer myself. I’d personally help D destroy the world if I lost Abigail. Because what would be the point in living if I had nothing to live for? D was right: whatever choice I made, I would lose. “I’ll give you a hint,” she said. “Two lives you hold. Choose for blood and save one, or choose for pride and lose them both.” I replayed D’s words in my head. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I asked, but all D answered with was laughter. If I were told to choose between Tristan and Abigail when I was first assigned to them, I’d have chosen neither. If I were to choose between them last week, I’d have chosen Abigail. Now I didn’t know whom to choose, because whatever choice I made would hunt me forever. If I chose Abigail, the world would lose its hero and savior. Frankly, it fell in my favor, there

would be no Tristan around to stop me from hunting and killing humans and angels. But I knew Abigail would be miserable if D followed through with her plans for war. She’d always cry for Tristan, and she’d blame herself for being saved instead of him. Her unhappiness would make me unhappy. Abigail finally spoke, and her voice was a tiny whisper. “Gideon, save—” Abigail didn’t finish what she wanted to say because D snapped her fingers and tied her mouth shut. I couldn’t stand it anymore. “D, I’m not—” Abigail started screaming at the top of her lungs. D shouted over Abigail’s screams. “I told you not to move!” “Stop!” Tristan shouted. “Please, stop. Don’t hurt her anymore. I’ll cross over!” “No, Tristan, don’t you dare!” My eyes met Tristan’s for half of a second. He looked apologetically at me, and without another word, he crossed over the red line and disappeared. I shouted, “Tristan, no!” But it was too late. He was already gone. “D, you—” I started, but before I could utter another word, I crashed onto my back. Abigail screamed, and the graveyard started burning.

HEAVEN CAN WAIT
“Make no mistake, when the trumpets sound.

I won’t be among the people running, praying, or crying. I’ll be the one who looks up and yells, ‘Shut the hell up, and get it over with!’.”
Melody Manful

Tristan was really gone. It should have been the best news I’d ever heard, but it wasn’t, because I
knew I’d only suffer from his absence. I got up from the ground with difficulty and looked around me at the fire that was spreading through the gravestones. “Calista, let her go!” Valoel shouted. At the sound of Valoel’s voice, I turned to see her standing in front of D. When I saw Valoel, my mouth fell open. Both her hands were burning with flames. I understood then where the spreading fire

came from. “Madalong,” D said casually, as if greeting an old friend. “Nice of you to finally show up.” Calista? Madalong? What the hell was going on? I didn’t recognize my sister’s voice when she spoke because it sounded so cruel. “Don’t make me repeat myself, Calista,” Valoel threatened. “What are you going to do? Kill me? We both know you can’t,” D said with a wicked smile. “You make me tell you one more time to let her go, and you’ll wish you could be killed.” Valoel’s rage-filled voice sounded unfamiliar to my ears. “Put her down, you say?” D asked. Within less than a second, Abigail was falling. I barely moved an inch before Valoel stopped Abigail’s body in midair. A second later, Abigail was floating inside a shimmering ball of light. Valoel hurled a flame at D, smashing her deep into the earth behind her. I started to rush over to Abigail, but Valoel pushed me back. “She’s unconscious. The light will protect her, but if you get near it, you’ll burst into flames,” Valoel told me. I looked up at Abigail. The floating sphere encasing her lit the whole graveyard. The fire was still spreading, and now more voices screamed and called for help. Dirt and smoke choked the air. I turned to my sister. I barely recognized her because the sister I knew was annoying and a know-itall. This one beside me looked lethal. I realized now she had been pretending all those years to be someone else. It was at that moment that I started to see the truth, and the truth was that Valoel was Madalong, the most powerful angel alive, which meant she was hundreds of years older than me, not to mention immortal. I wanted to ask why she and my parents hid her true identity from me. Did that mean my parents were the Elders? Were we the immortal family from Guardian Paradise? I had a lot of questions, but I knew now wasn’t the time to ask them. Frankly, I wasn’t even sure I wanted to ask them. Valoel looked around her. “Where are we?” she asked. “Are you sure you want to know, Madalong?” Valoel’s real name felt foreign on my tongue. I was angry that I had been duped. “Moon, I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you, but—” I shouted at her, “Gideon! My name is Gideon!” I felt like an exploding volcano, hatred burst inside my chest. “I know how you might be feeling at the moment, but—” “You lied to me, Valoel!” I shouted as the voices around us crescendoed. “I wanted to tell you, and I tried. I’ve…” She paused and looked around her. “Where’s Tristan?” she asked, turning to me. My eyes met hers, and then I looked down, ashamed.

“Where is Tristan?” she demanded again. I was about to answer when D’s laughter rang throughout the graveyard. With difficulty, she inched closer toward Valoel and me. “I won,” D said, sounding happy, really happy. Her face shone with the kind of happiness that made her face brighten, although it was dripping with blood. “I finally won.” “You didn’t win, Calista. We have—” Valoel stopped abruptly. “No, it can’t be…” She began shaking her head in disbelief. Whatever D’s thoughts were, it appeared as though Valoel was reading them, and she didn’t like what she was hearing. D started laughing. I looked up at the sphere where Abigail lay. She was still unconscious. “Gideon, where is Tristan?” Valoel asked. Either Valoel didn’t believe the obvious, or she wanted a different answer than the one she knew to be the truth. “He…” I turned to the red line. “He was…I tried to save him…” “Tried?” Valoel asked me with pain filling her voice. “Gideon, you watched your twin brother die!” she shouted at me, and then immediately, tears started running down her cheeks. I, on the other hand, went into shock. “I did what I could…wait, brother?” I could barely speak the words. “Twin brother?” Someone definitely owed me answers. “Twins?” If we were twins, it would mean that Tristan and I were Sun and Moon, and that was why the angels said we were the reason the world was balanced. Tristan was Sun, and I was Moon. And at the moment, it seemed the world would have to live without its Sun for quite some time. Valoel wiped her tears and said, “Calista, it’s me you want to hurt. Take me in exchange for Tristan,” Valoel offered, heading straight to D. I now understood why D brought Tristan to the red line. Immortals couldn’t be killed, but they could cross over the red line willingly, and D used Abigail to force Tristan into crossing over. D laughed, “Madalong, taking Tristan wasn’t even the best part.” She snapped her fingers, and a brown scroll appeared. I’d seen the scroll before, and I knew it carried the names, places, and dates of the souls who were about to die. “This,” D said as she displayed the scroll, “says Abigail Cells will die in exactly thirteen days.” D laughed harder. “Now, Madalong, let’s press play and watch as your little brother destroys the world for me, when he loses the one he loves.” D’s laughter grew louder and more sinister, and Valoel shouted something I didn’t hear. I had heard there comes a moment in everyone’s life when one wants to speak but the words wouldn’t come. In that moment, one would give up anything just to manage a simple shake of the head, or even a whisper. This was not one of those moments.

“Over my dead body!” I yelled and then I lunged for D. She screamed and twisted just in time. I flew past her and the ground shook as I slammed onto it. Rage filled my body as I shot back into the air. I turned in circles, searching for D. When I finally caught a glimpse of her, I launched a fireball, but before the flames could explode on her back, she stopped it and turned the flames into smoke. I watched D, aghast, as she turned and fled into the darkness. Thoughts of betrayal flooded my mind and wrenched my heart as I gave way to chasing her fading figure deeper into the darkness.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Silence please. Lights please. Cue the applause.
Now, let the gratitude show begin! This book has given me a new life. And I wouldn’t have gotten that life without the love of the almighty God, my family, and my friends. I’d like to take this opportunity to give special thanks to my mother, Joyce, who heard this story, first. To my brother, Isaac, and my sister, Rodny, who had to listen to me read Dominion aloud over and over again. I’m sorry, and I love you guys. To my awesome dad, Michael, thanks for believing in me and always being there. To my amazing, incredible editors Jennifer Moorman and Lauren Barron, you two rock! Jennifer you made Dominion the book it is now; without you I’d be lost, and words can’t explain how thankful I am. Lauren, thank you so much for jumping aboard this project and making it amazing. I might have said thank you twice, or maybe three times, but here it comes again … Thank you! Also to Steve Fortosis who spent hours and hours on this book; thanks for your understanding and guidance. Pamela Gifford, thanks for giving it to me. You’ve been a huge help! Kate Koller, you were a great help. To Andrey and Daniel, who did the front and back covers. I’m positive I’ve bothered you guys more than enough with my un-creativeness misunderstanding in the art department, so thank you guys for taking what was inside my head and creating a beautiful cover for this book. I’d also like to thank everyone who made this possible; I’ll forever be grateful. Lastly, to my awesome friends, this book is for you all. I know you all want to know what’s in my head, so here’s a grimace .

AUTHOR’S NOTE
I felt like I shouldn’t say this but I have to – I just couldn’t help myself.
Guardian Angels. I’m sure all of you have heard about them one way or another. Some of you believe in the great unknown, and others don’t. Well, that’s the beauty of life to have the will to believe in what we want to believe. This story is just a creation of my imagination; it’s what I imagine guardian angels do when they are sent to guide mankind. My late grandmother ☹ was a priestess; so growing up, the Bible has been a great part of my life. Guardian angels watching over us were just one of the many stories she told at night, although she didn’t mention there were guardian angels like Gideon (that part was my own, an infection from watching too much TV – ) It was what she said about guardian angels once that became my inspiration for this story. All her guardian angel stories described characters like Tristan, and that was how the inspiration for Tristan was born. I know each one of you have your own thoughts and understanding of what guardian angels are. This story isn’t supposed to take your own beliefs away, but simply entertain you from my point of view.

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