“I’m not human.”

“I know that,” Jessica glared at Sooyoung, and his head dipped even lower. “So, what are you?”

Sooyoung was embarrassed, embarrassed to tell Jessica that he was an angel, a guardian angel at that, who was cast down to Earth and damned to the mercy of his punishment until he finds Redemption. He didn’t want to tell her that he couldn’t love, couldn’t cry nor could he dream. He was a statue that had been made to live with himself, trapped and encased in his solid marble heart for years. And for years he had been lost, wandering around with no particular intention except to run, run away from the past which had been hounding him ever since.

Jessica seemed to notice his discomfort after the long pause. She placed her free hand on Sooyoung’s reassuringly, but he slipped it out of her reach. It stung, but Jessica managed to compose herself and brought herself to ask again.

“What are you? You can tell me,” she said softly.

“Would it matter, what I am?” Sooyoung’s head raised and Jessica could see the pale red eyes that bored into her soul.

Jessica bit her lips, and hesitantly touched his cheek. The coldness bit at her fingers and the hardness of his skin reminded her of how he could easily kill her without batting an eyelash; so easily. But she kept it there. Those fingers skimmed across his cheek to the back of his neck, where she rubbed the nape of his neck as some form of comfort. Sooyoung closed his eyes, giving in to the tingling sensation of her skin on his.

“It matters to me.”

“Stop, you have a partner, Jessica,” Sooyoung pried her hand off his neck without much difficulty and laid it on her lap.

“Partner?” Jessica frowned. “You mean…Yuri?”

“Exactly.”

“Tell me what you are. Maybe I can help you,” Jessica offered out of desperation.

Sooyoung froze. “Can you? Can you help me find Redemption?”

“Redemption? I don’t know what that is, or where to find it,” Jessica admitted sadly.

“Then you can’t help me. Unless you can tell me where Redemption is, you are of no use to me,” those words hit Jessica harder than Yuri’s harsh, senseless words.

Although they are of same tone, same words, as it spilled out of Sooyoung’s lips, it hurt Jessica like a whiplash. She winced at his words and kept silent, not knowing what to say in response to that.

“I should leave. It’s late, and I should go,” Sooyoung turned and began to walk away without a second glance until he felt something warm looping around his waist.

He breathed in hard, shudders running through his body as he felt the warm, soft creature pressed against his back.

“Tell me what you are,” he heard the muffled voice from his back.

His shoulder blades arched, but nothing came out. The glorious wings that were to spring out of beneath his shoulder blades were missing. In its place now were a couple of thick scars that marked his embarrassment. Jessica seemed to feel the unusual movement of his shoulder blades, and pulled her head back to look at the bones shifting, but held on.

“My wings…,” Sooyoung breathed, flexing his shoulders desperately in hopes to see his majestic wings.

“Wings?” Jessica touched his shoulder blades carefully, afraid that the feathered masses would spring out anytime. “Sooyoung, are you an angel?”

He laughed bitterly. “Angel? I was.”

“‘Was’?”

“I fell,” Sooyoung murmured. “I made a mistake and they took away everything I had. Stripped me off my wings, stripped me off my rights as an angel, took away my tears, took away my dreams.”

Jessica was quiet the whole time, listening to Sooyoung’s quavering voice.

“But you were an angel, and yet you feed on blood?” Jessica removed her bloody hand from the cut under her chin, her eyes darting at it and back to Sooyoung.

“I don’t feed on blood. It’s only like an appetizer for me,” Sooyoung’s shoulders heaved up and down as he chuckled, his voice steely yet brittle.

Jessica couldn’t suppress the shivers that went through her body. “So what do you eat?”

Sooyoung didn’t answer. Instead, he was racked with another violent tremor. He whirled around, grabbing Jessica by the shoulders. She almost jumped at the sudden turn, and found herself staring deep into Sooyoung’s haunting blue eyes.

“Sooyoung?”

Something’s coming…

Readers’ Note:

Cliffhanger! Sorry to leave you guys like this, but I needed something to spark off your curiosity. Blue eyes…does that give you a clue? Jessica is in danger, hahaha! What will happen now? And...I love the picture up there!! Jessica and Sooyoung are so beautiful there, but then again, they're beautiful anywhere.

Yours Faithfully
Jazzign