*********9 YEARS LATER**********
The rain poured down heavily to the earth and gave beats of drums as it landed on roofs. The once dry and sunny day suddenly became dark, cloudy and wet. All the students were forced to remain inside the school. At least DreamHigh High school was big enough, beautiful enough and Luxurious enough for anyone of the kids to not complain...Anyways... school wasn't over yet.
Grade 11 ruby was filled with students who were the not-so-smart ones, although not dumb either . The smart ones could be counted. It had always been that way in the school.
the next teacher walked into the class. she was the mathematics teacher. Mrs Edwin was strict with her classes, really really strict and she always took the students attendance. math was compulsory. no kid could run away from it, but if they did Mrs Edwin found a way of trapping them. a perfect attendance meant 20 free marks in the examinations out of hundred obviously no kid would want to miss that. miss a class and prepare to say bye to 10 of those free marks.
"Jennie Walker?" She called out.
"present ma'am" A small voice replied from the middle.
"Tristan Lucrei?"
"Here" A deeper voice from behind replied.
"Lucia Lambert?"
Jennie quickly turned around remembering Lucia hadn't come yet. " Lucia Lambert?" Mrs Edwin looked up and around the class
Jennie looked around confused on what to do. Immediately without thinking, Jennie raised her hand "umm.. she's not in school today ma'am, she's out sick".
"What a shame...she was my best student".
"Umm... she's not dead yunno". Tristan yelled and this aroused laughter from everyone in the class and annoyance in the teacher. Mrs Edwin looked at the boy with frustration in her eyes "you see me in my office later young man".
"Hopefully" Tristan added and rolled his eyes, he wouldn't go, everyone knew that.
Honestly, Mrs Edwin was as tired as she was frustrated of the notorious boy. She couldn't wait for her class to be over even though it had just begun.
****************
A girl was sitting on the roof of an abandoned house. The busy roads of the not-doing-so-well parts of LA were just underneath her feet. No one would suspect a thing as it was normal for people to be seen there...just chilling. She wasn't in her uniform so no one would think of her as missing school.
She looked happy, even though she was a bit scared. She was tired of everything, and everyone except her best friend though. The harassments, The slaps, the tortures, the bullying, all the pain. She just wanted to get a break from everything. She closed her eyes, trying to recall all the good times she had with Jennie. Even though they were not a lot as she was not allowed to leave the house except for school, she made sure to treasure every happy moment she had.
Lucia remembered the time when Jennie had thrown a very little party fit for just two for herself and Lucia, even though it wasn't a special day. Or the time when they skipped school, and stole candy from a store and ran away hand in hand, laughing with the owner who was right behind chasing them. Well, eventually he caught them and made them pay with interest.And also the time when Jennie had bought them matching best friend hoodies. Jennie spent money for the most ridiculous things.
Tears rolled down her eyes, she closed them and tried to oppress the feeling of wanting to leave and continue live. She got the encouragement she needed to jump when she remembered how her stepmom made her go hungry for three days during the holidays for being slow to open the door, and that was not the only time she had gone hungry. It had happened several times but what could she do? she was only 16 and didn't know how to speak or stand up for herself. All her self-esteem had been killed right from when she had been a kid. She remembered when she had first started her period when she was in class at 12 years, She had been stained and instead of people trying to help her they took pictures and made silly comments about her. She was posted on social media like she didn't have a life of hers. She was so embarrassed that she hid in the toilet for the whole day in school for a while week. And when the school confronted her stepmom about her absence, she was made to cook, and clean for the whole day and ate nothing. unfortunately it happened on a Friday. So her punishment continued through Saturday and she was allowed to eat on Sunday evening.
There had been a lot of things that had happened and she definitely wasn't ready to experience them again...she wouldn't. She opened her eyes, smiled,. closed them again. Feeling the urge to suddenly change her mind, she felt sick and didn't have the mind to jump anymore. She opened her eyes and wiped the year off her face as she shook her head. She couldn't do it anymore. She stood up to leave but as soon as she did, she slipped and fell off the three storey building. In a swift second she saw her whole life flash before her eyes, she couldn't scream as shock and fear had gripped her hard. She waited to feel herself land hard on the ground, waiting to feel the pain that would send her to other place. But surprisingly she didn't feel herself moving again, she was confused wether or not she was dreaming, then for a split second something bright flashed before her eyes and disappeared as soon as it appeared. She felt fine on the ground, no injuries, no pain, nothing, just the bare ground.
At this point, she was definitely sure she was hallucinating and her psychological dameges had affected her senses. She wasn't sure if she was dead or alive anymore, she didn't know whether to scream or cry. She was dumbfounded as shock had gotten the best of her.
People who had seen her fall from the roof quickly rushed towards her. A lot of questions were being thrown at her with no space to even answer with lot of comments.
"are you okay?"
"she isn't hurt?!"
"what happened?"
"OH MY GOD"
"She's not even hurt"
"This is a miracle"
But she didn't reply to anyone, She wasn't even listening, she was too busy asking herself questions too. "What was that? Aren't I supposed to have landed forcefully on the ground and died, I'm not supposed to be able to think or ssay anything. What in the world was that?..this seems familiar."
And without looking back or responding to anyone, she ran away.
**************
"I'm sorry...I couldn't just watch her die".
"How many times do I have to tell you that you should watch her die, you should watch anyone die and not do anything about it, it's part of your work as an Angel".
That was the voice of Angel Damel. He was in charge of all the guardian angels, he ensured that all the angels followed the rules of the realm, anyone who disobeyed was cast to earth or in a serious situation cast to hell, the the devil would choose wether he became a demon or would suffer like humans. He, like every other angel was on White robe, but his had gold inscriptions on it and humans would find this priceless. He held a gold staff which represented authority. The staff was only for angels who were put on charge. But the only kind of angels whom he was in charge of were the guardian angels. These ones would be sent to humans, new born humans who would need an angel to direct his or her spiritual life, and as the almighty sends an angel, the devil sends a demon.
No angel was allowed to meddle in human affairs unless the almighty sent one by himself, other than that, it was against the rules and that attracted punishment. These guardian angels are only 'Guardian angels' until the human they guard dies, after that they are promoted for a job well done or reassigned if not well done. And now Elman was facing trial for one of the worst offenses in Angel realm, Meddling in human affairs without the permission of the almighty.
Elman was speechless after the comment of Angel Damel who was trying his best to maintain calmness within himself and the others that were there to witness.
Damel took a deep breath in, closed his eyes and released the breath.
"Elman," He started "you do know it's a serious offence to meddle with human life affairs, and you have done this before and wyou were let go with a warning, this is a very grave offence. If she had died you would have led her here to be judged but instead you saved her and almost messed up the human nature of death," he paused allowing what he said to sink in " I know that it is hard to watch your human die, go to hell and suffer. I have been a guardian angel before, it's extremely hard to see your human at the verge of death and not being able to do anything about it, but we are only angels. We were given the powers we have to do whatever the lord tells..." he stopped again to breathe. "Have you prayed to him?".
There was a slight pause "yes" Elman answered.
"Have you been responded to?" there was silence once again, Elman shook his head slowly. "No, not yet"
The angels looked at themselves with slightly sad expressions on their faces and back to the judged. Not having a response from the lord meant that he was either going to give up being an angel and cast to earth or give up both and cast to hell, the decision was Damels' to make. He ruled and judged without emotions. Elman had witnessed trials of other angels when he was newly created, he knew how emotionless Damel could be when it came to breaking rules. He had also witnessed a lot of angels being cast to hell and being replaced so he knew there was no escaping this time around. But he wasn't scared , not at all, as long as he knew he tried to do what felt right to him. That was one thing about Elman, as long as he felt whatever he did was right he was never apologetic for it and this made him different from other angels.
"Well, Elman, you know what not having a response from the lord means right?"
"yes I do".
"Fine then ...I shall be the judge of your fate and I..." He paused a little to bring in suspense "..have decided that"
"Wait!" was the next thing they all heard and turned suddenly to see who it was, they all gasped at seeing who it was.
"Archangel Gabriel..."Damel said with shock as it was rear for an archangel to appear at trials. "...it is an honor to have you in our presence..what is it that may have warranted such a divine presence this day?"
The Hefty looking angel said nothing except stare at Elman who didn't have the courage to look up at one of the high ranking angels in the eye as If he was an equal. He was one of the most popular angels and also one of the oldest living. He was in the Holy book and was very well known as the messenger of the almighty. The other angels looked up to him, angel Michael and Angel Raphael.
"I have only come as the messenger I am for the lord to pass a message, Angel Damel".
"and what would that be?"
"The message I have is in regard to this new angels judgement "
As he said this, murmuring was aroused and it only took one look back to retire the silence. Angel Damel was suddenly very interested in what The archangel had to say as this was not usual.
"He will be cast to earth...as a human"he paused for some reason and every other angel was held in suspense "But he may retain his angel powers"
This was shocking. Damels mouth was opened in shock he wanted to ask questions but who was he to question an archangel who may also not know why such a judgement should be passed on.
"he", The archangel continued "will be there for a limited period of 365 days...he will be given a chance to prove his worthiness of being an angel again... within those 365 days , he is not allowed to use his powers to meddle in human affairs, neither is he allowed to fall in love with a human and if he doesn't prove himself worthy...he will be cast to earth to become a demon".
All the other angels present were shocked at the judgement. This was really big as no such judgement had ever been given to any angel in history.
Elman looked lost and confused, he was the first angel in history to have such a date and there was nothing he could do or say. He didn't have the power to say anything as he was just a guardian angel and nothing else.
"That is not all....". A heavy silence followed
"he must hide his identity and must not be discovered, he will be given a mark on his wrist which no human must ever see...and still continue his work as a guardian to the human girl Lucia Lambert although she will be reassigned another spiritually, if he is close to a person who suspects his identity, the mark would glow brightly and if it's reason for glowing is even understood by the human...the number of days he's supposed to spend will reduce...and he will have no clue of how many days were removed ...also....once you commit a sin, a feather in your wing turns black, if all your feather turns black before the end of 365 days... he'll be cast to hell immediately. These are the conditions he had to fulfill in order to remain an angel."
Elman didn't know how to react. He blinked severally and raised up his head to Angel Gabriel but avoided eye contact with him.
"But...if..I do go to earth..."
"you WILL go to earth" Damel intervened.
"I'm sorry... WHEN...I go to earth...what will I do?.. where Will I stay?...how will I live?"
"The lord has provided a home for you on earth...you will live as a human, if you like you can go to school or do nothing but..you must live righteously as the angel you are" Angel Gabriel replied and Elman was quiet, the judgement was too much, how was he supposed to watch over the girl and not get discovered. He was not going to let Deman (Lucia's Demon) to have her.
"are there any more questions?" The archangel asked .
Angelo shook his head in response.