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"My Guardian Angel"

The story of the last Grigori

VISIO

"VISION"

Flashback

A boy lay on his bed, his arms behind his head, his eyes closed but his lids were tattooed with eyes. He was humming a tune and his voice echoed around the cave he was in. He loved the sound of it. He loved the sound of his voice.

“Mihī vērē placet!” A woman’s voice interrupts. She said that she really liked it, pertaining to his voice. The boy sits up. “Quid agis?” She asked, “How are you?”

“I don’t sense a presence here.”

“It is because I am not here but I am inside you.” The boy screams in pain, holding his head and when the pain dissipates, an image becomes clear to him. “You can see me now.”

“How? I am blind.”

“Because I am in your mind and don’t even think of fighting me off because I don’t want to hurt you and I can make you feel pain.”

“Why are you here? Why are you doing this? How did you do this?”

“You are The Keeper and I am in need of your service.”

“You should have come here if you needed something from me! You have no right to intrude in my mind!”

“I said I don’t want to hurt you!” The boys screams in pain and holds his head again as he feels a piercing pain inside of it. He was planning on closing his mind to her but she anticipated it. The woman was powerful. His own power was futile against her. The boy was quite scared now. He was on his knees, panting from the excruciating pain she just made him feel. Her face becomes clear to him and he noticed that she was quite beautiful. Her eyes were pleading for him to understand and that she regret hurting him.

“I am not here to take something from you if that is what you are scared of. I am here to hide something.” She says. He looks at her hands and sees a gold box with silver chains around it.

“I only keep memories. I have no room for things!” He was furious, even insulted that the woman would even think of mocking his duties as “The Keeper”.

“This is a memory…a memory that I don’t want you to see but it is something that I should forget.”

“Should…meaning you are obliged to forget but you don’t want to.” The boy said. “There are many things that we should do but it does not follow that it is also what we want. What are you hiding, angel?”

“You don’t want to know.” The woman ’s eyes began to change into the darkest shade of black. “Trust me, we both should hide this.”

“You are…” The boy breathed out the words but before he could continue, she nodded.

“They are coming for me. I have to go. Please, guard it well. Don’t let anyone take it, not even me.”

End of Flashback

A lone angel stands by a cave amidst the ocean. Angry waves collide with the rocks, splashing water around the perimeter. A simple human wouldn’t be able to stay on his feet as Zephyr, the west wind’s force even hindered a celestial from coming close to the threshold.

“Pastor egressus est!” She called out but her voice drowned out in the sound of the crashing waves. When there was no answer, she repeats, louder. “Pastor egressus est!” She meant, “Keeper, come out!”

The Keeper, the name explains itself, is the guardian of memories of the immortals. He dwells in seclusion, in a cave that will only reveal itself to celestials who seek to be relieved of a compelling memory. Being immortals, came the burden of seeing the past, the present, the good and the bad that came with it. To endure these recollections without being a hindrance to their judgement, the Seraphims created someone that will unload them. Blind, so as not to see the bearer of the memory, and mute so as not to reveal anything. But his mind, can see clearly, more than what the eye can and his mouth will only speak nothing but the truth. 

He was a celestial, but neither angel nor human.

“Pastor egressus est!” She called out again. “I am a descendant of the Archangels! A guardian of humans!”

Chaerin felt the Zephyr calm down and the water around her begins to disappear, as well as the rocks below her feet. “Illusion?” She thought to herself and opened her wings. Her surroundings morphed into a mountain top hidden by the clouds. The threshold now closer to her.

“Intrant!” A loud voice echoed around her. Slowly, she tread her way into the cave. As soon as she stepped into its dark hallway, torches began to light her way. She followed where it lead, careful not to touch anything. The walls had murals but she couldn’t understand what they meant, the floor seemed like glass, and when you look up, a beautiful painting of an angel rests on the ceiling. Chaerin noticed that there was a tear on the angel’s cheek.

She reached the end of the hallway and looked down. She was at the edge of a cliff, on top of a waterfall of some sort. “Should I jump?”

“You can go back around, you know.” Chaerin hears the voice again. Her eyes dart to the water cascading below her. The bottom was pitch black. She opened her wings and leapt to get to the bottom. As she descended, she noticed that the water around her was  disappearing and when her feet touch the ground, she was in open air. A japanese inspired garden, and in front of her was a young man, smiling. His hair was lazily combed over his head, his eyes, closed but his lids were tattooed with eyes,  and his red lips upturned into a smile.

“I thought I was going to wait for a millennium for you to get here.” She hears him but he wasn’t moving his lips. “Don’t be surprised, I am mute but you can hear me.”

“Your eyes are tattooed with an eye?”

“I can never open them.” He adds. “I am blind and mute. Only those who opens their mind to me can hear me.”

“Can you see me?”

“Can a blind man see?”

“But you can speak!”

“In your thoughts, I can speak. How were we supposed to communicate? I don’t think you know sign language.” He smirked. “What is your name, angel?” Seungyoon continued when Chaerin remained quiet.

“I am Chaerin.”

“And I am Seungyoon.”

“You’re just a boy?”

“You’re one to talk. You have lived for centuries yet, you’re just a girl.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Did you come here just for that?” The Keeper asked. Chaerin was trying to get over her shock upon seeing him. Tales about The Keeper never revealed that he was merely a boy. He seemed happy with the company but with her empathic gift, she could feel his loneliness. He grinned and held her face, as if scrutinizing it with his tattooed eyes. 

“Oh…you are empathetic.” His grip on her face became tight and his voice sounded vicious. “Don’t even try to feel what I feel or you will regret it.”

“I came here to ask you about something.” She said condescendingly and Seungyoon let go of her.

“Last time I remember, all I had to do was out the memory from you then you leave. That’s easier, you know.”

“I don’t have a memory that I want to be out of me.” She replied with the same tone as he was using. Seungyoon grinned.

“Are you sure?” He asked. “It seems you have a lot of woes, Chaerin.”

“I am a friend of Youngbae. He said he was learning from you.”

“He’s reading my books. He’s not learning from me.”

“He said you were trustworthy.”

“It is my duty, my obligation. If I wasn’t trustworthy then we'd all be in damned because of the secrets that we keep.” He raised a brow at her. “Stop wasting my time, what did you want to ask?”

“What do you know of the Grigori?”

“Do I look like an encyclopedia to you?"

"Please, I have no one else to ask."

"Last time I checked, they are extinct like the dinosaurs.”

“Yes, I know but what were they?”

“Why the sudden interest?” Chaerin noticed that his voice became clipped and serious. Suddenly, she felt scared.

“I chanced to see a book in the human world about them. I was curious if they were real.” A half truth. Chaerin tried to look for a book in the human world that could answer her queries, after Sandara's other self, appeared before her.

He didn’t trust her. He knew she was keeping something from him. Chaerin knew at once. He was trying to get into her head but she was prepared for this. She has hidden her encounter with Sandara in a safe place. A method that only powerful angels have mastered, she practiced until she bled so that the memory was hidden in her feather.

“You know her.” Seungyoon suddenly said. “You know the Grigori.”

“What?”

“I never forget a face when I see one.”

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