When I'm on duty, I become invisible, but that doesn't mean I am weatherproof. I zipped up my jacket and put my hands in my pockets. The night air here is so cold, it makes me want to turn around and go inside the warmth of the blanket in my apartment.
I slithered down, looking for a house with a gold tag. There's a lot of gold-marked houses on this road, and I'm starting from the one closest to me. Nothing would stop me from entering any home in my territory. Just by touching the doorknob, any lock will open, and I'll be able to enter freely.
I stepped into the house, then slowly closed the door behind me. I have been trained enough not to make a sound, and I have been very well trained to skate on my skating in every field. I'm cool, I know it. But my superiors always remind me to stay grounded. Honestly, it's kind of hard to do.
I hopped, skied a little, and tiptoed to get to the boy's side. The room was completely trashed. Toys scattered around the floor, like they've been hit by a big storm. When I got to the boy's bedside, the floating golden thread gathered over the child's head and formed a continuous inscription. Vanza zyara. Five years old.
"Hi, Vanza." I said, quietly. The boy answered my greeting with a grunt. I scooped up the now turbulent thread of gold like a thick mercury fluid, formed it into a sphere and dropped it on Vanza's head. The liquid gold has ruptured and is slowly enveloped his head.
Then, like a projection, the liquid radiates light into the air and forms a chaotic screen. At first, the image in the projections was not very clear. Like a television feed from a bad antenna. Gradually the image became sharper, it is an accelerated scene.
It's a expose on everything Vanza did in the last year. Vanza was cried. Vanza helped his mother. Vanza was playing with his friend. Vanza went to school. Vanza was sick.
I can see the feed as if it's going normal. I know every detail Vanza's been doing for the past year just by watching these shows. After about five minutes, it slowly faded away and then disappeared. The liquid gold that had covered Vanza's head, again gathered into a round turmoil over his small head.
I rolled up my left sleeve of my jacket, and touched the tattoo on my left arm. It is a feather tattoo that has a pointed point. Then I pinched it, and a feather came out and become real form in between my fingers.
I dipped the pointed tip of the feather in a liquid gold on Vanza's head, and then I took a brown scroll from my inner pocket. I looked up the name Vanza and found it. Then I started writing next it: GOOD.
The gold ink slowly seeped into the paper, and then it blackened to a crisp. It prevents me or anyone else from altering the report on my superiors later. The writing I had written on this brown scroll was permanent. Can't be wiped with anything.
I rolled up the paper and put it back where it was, and so the feather. I stared for a moment at Vanza who had his arm and legs dangling out of bed. I really want to fix his sleeping position. But regulations forbid me to touch these children. No human being in this world can know my existence. About The Ardeon.
I finished the job in three and a half hours. There's still half an hour left until it's time to go home. As usual when there's free time, I use it for a tour of the territory I'm in. Nothing special this time. Actually, there's nothing surprising about my work these days. Seeing what the children have done over the past year, deciding if they are good or bad. That is all. It seems simple and easy. It is easy, but sometimes it feels... exhausting.
I'm sitting on the roof of the right house next to the gold fence, which marks the boundary of my work. Beyond this fence, there's someone who has the same duties as me. I don't know which one. Maybe it's Bree with his fixie bike, or Lany with her skateboard. Or perhaps another Ardeon I've never met before. Ardeon are everywhere all around the world. In a place where there are children who celebrate Christmas. We, Ardeon, are very, very many. But we always work alone.
I was staring at the line between sky and earth, which was starting to glow orange, signaling that the sun was about to rise, when I felt someone was watching me. I looked back, but there's no one. I looked at my watch, I still have ten minutes before my shift ended. That means no one should be able to see me at this time, except the Ardeon of course, or the Gatekeeper, or the Supervisor, or the Angel, or my boss.
But there can't be two Ardeon in one field. And the Gatekeeper only accompany the new Ardeon. My Gatekeeper is Martin, and he cannot be here. Angels? It's highly unlikely. My boss really doesn't have anything else to do if he coming here and keeping an eye on one of his Ardeon.
I got a bad feeling. I'm grabbing the disposable Kayola Martin gave me. Each gatekeeper will give a disposable Kayola to their Ardeon. So the Gatekeeper won't have to wait Ardeon to go home, and can do anything else. This time I got a red Kayola. I jumped off the roof and landed on the leaning railing, and then I slid down. As a pair of my inline skate touch the ground, I free-range through it, looking for a wall fit to be wiped out by Kayola. Martin's requirement is, the walls should be white and not exposed to direct sunlight. That's when I heard something, darting fast behind me. Chasing me.
I looked back as I slid. No one's there. I rode my inline skate faster, seconds later, something slammed me in the back, nearly knocked me down. But I am a true skaters, and the collision just makes me flip and land right back on the asphalt.
I found a house painted white, and then I ran quickly to the lawn and wrote my destination on the wall. I heard again the sound that was chasing me, I jumped into a black hole that formed after I finished writing, before it formed a perfect painting.
I leapt out in to darkness, that vaguely becoming a familiar place. And when I already touch down to the skate park, I look back into the hole. There, a skinny, blue hand trying to catch me. It almost caught me, but then the hole started to disappear.
What was that?
***