Year 1997

Jennie’s POV:

     I’ve been wandering around for years, trying to find a place to settle down. After her death back in ‘94, I was told to wait around on Earth for a bit because it wouldn’t take long for her to return next time. I’m guessing something big and devastating is going to be happening soon and that I would have to prepare for whatever is to come. After the demons had released the plague onto Earth, we fought side by side, long and hard, to get rid of the overpopulation of demons that were in the area. When we found out that the key to curing the plague was her blood, she did not hesitate to sacrifice herself in order to save humanity. Unfortunately, after her heroic death, humans continued to be ungrateful. They praised and thanked their gods but continued to sin, feeding into the demons’ energy so they can grow in strength and continue to wreak havoc.

     It’s been three years since she’s gone and I still have no idea when she would return. Usually, when it takes a long time for her soul to reincarnate, the Higher Ups would give me some assignments to keep me busy. This time, I was only told to wait around without anything else to do. SInce I had nothing to do, I went traveling around the world, revisiting places I’ve been to see how things have changed and to enjoy some places the humans love to travel to. I was in Las Vegas, Nevada when I bumped into a classmate of mine; we had taken Guardian classes together when we were young beings. After catching up a bit, she told me that she heard some guardians gossiping about how Daniel had received an order to report to South Korea. That was when I realized that 50 years had passed and it was time for that soul to be awakened.

     I quickly made my way to South Korea after that and had no idea where to begin looking for Daniel. Daniel, like me, is a special Guardian. We were created at the same time and from the same essence. We were created to become guardians of two special souls. The soul that I am responsible for is the soul of a female warrior, who is only awakened and reincarnated on Earth when there is an imbalance of good and evil. There is no time limit or consistent schedule as to when her soul gets awakened, unlike other souls. Her main purpose is to fight evil when the Higher Ups feel like they can’t handle it themselves. She’s basically their ultimate weapon to restore peace on Earth. Like all other souls, her soulmate was created from the same essence that she was created. Daniel is the guardian for that soul. Her soulmate’s soul is only awakened every 50 years after his death. There were only a few times when the two were able to be together since there weren’t many times they were awakened around the same time.

     Since Daniel was ordered to report to South Korea, I can only assume that her soulmate’s soul is going to be reincarnated here. The only thing I can do now is to wait around until I can sense his presence when he’s finally born. Then, I will be able to find him and Daniel.

Daniel’s POV:

     I’ve arrived at a hospital in Busan, South Korea, where I am to report to an angel who possesses the list of reincarnated souls. I found him standing to the side in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Next to him, was a reaper. I made my way to him and received my assignment. Indeed, his soul has been awakened and he was scheduled to be born in two days. After I’ve received my assignment, I went down to the lobby and took a seat in the corner. The only thing left for me to do now is to wait for his mother to come into the hospital to give birth to him. I hate this part the most.

     I don’t like being in hospitals because there’s usually more deaths than births that happen here. Even in this lobby, I can see reapers waiting on the side to collect their souls. Some reapers even have a few souls waiting with them, until it’s time to go. Unlike the popular beliefs amongst humans, reapers do not wear all black, a black robe, or even carry around a scythe. Over the years, humans have mistaken demons as reapers and have portrayed them as such. Usually, demons would feed on the negative energies that humans give off and when they are close to death, they can catch a glimpse of the demons that is feeding off of them. If they live to tell the story, they usually say that they’ve seen a reaper coming to retrieve their souls.

     Most reapers don’t like how they are portrayed by humans, so they usually try to stay away from wearing black at all. Then, there are some who doesn’t care much and wear whatever they feel like wearing. The reaper I saw in the NICU, she was wearing a white dress. I’ve seen her around in hospitals before. She’s usually in charge of collecting the souls of newborns or infants because she is great with them and can calm them down easily. Most of the reapers in the emergency and surgery rooms here are dressed in different shades of white or blue because the color can help ease the restless souls. Reapers have the hardest jobs because it requires them to be patient and compassionate. Their job is to separate the soul from the physical body, calm or console the restless souls, explain what has happened and what will happen, and then transport them from the earthly realm and into the spiritual realm. In the spiritual realm, the collected souls will go through a program where they will be prepared to be reincarnated. I heard it takes a regular soul around 100 years to be reawakened. Souls collected from fetuses, newborns, and infants can be awakened for other purposes, such as being trained to become a Guardian Angel, since they haven’t been tainted.

     Guardian Angels are different from actual Guardians though. Guardian Angels are not allowed to interfere with the lives they were assigned to watch. They are only there to protect their humans from demons to the best of their capabilities. Unfortunately, some Guardian Angels are required to be admitted into a special program after the death of their humans, because of what they were forced to see. I’ve heard that the more suffering and gruesome the death, the longer the Guardian Angels spend in that program to recover from their PTSD. And yes, we get PTSD too. We can get attached to our humans and grow love for them. We are forced to watch our beloved human suffer in pain and not allowed to do anything about it to ease their suffering. Sometimes, we have to watch our humans die and know that we cannot do anything to help. There are times when our humans will die in horrible accidents and that image will be imprinted in our memories forever. When we fail our humans, we lose confidence to protect another soul. That is why the program is important. It helps retrain us while providing therapy, so that we can one day be confident and strong enough to do our jobs.

     Guardians, like me, are different from Guardian Angels because we can actually interact with our assigned souls. Instead of being assigned to the next soul that is being awakened like Guardian Angels, we were created and assigned to only protect one specific soul. And that is the reason why there aren’t many Guardians around; because there is only a limited amount of these special souls. Guardians also go through more training because sometimes we are required to fight alongside our humans. Like Jennie, for example. Jennie has been assigned to protect one of the most important souls that were ever created. She had gone through decades of training before she was qualified to become the female warrior’s Guardian. Jennie and I were created at the same time and we had to taken classes and trained together. Since I am protecting the female warrior’s soulmate, many demons have tried to come after him. It’s not easy being his Guardian, but it’s a lot worse being the Guardian of the female warrior. Jennie is the only Guardian who had protected the female warrior for over five reincarnations. Usually, her guardians do not last that long. That is why Jennie is special. Her powers and strength can almost match the female warrior’s and they have learned to become the perfect partners.

     A young child is sitting in the seat next to me. He’s here with his parents, waiting for the doctors and nurses to tell them what is wrong with his younger sister. Unfortunately, I already know what happened to that young girl. She’s standing in front of us while holding onto a reaper’s hand. The reaper nods her head at me, acknowledging my presence and I nod back. The little girl is saying goodbye to her family before the reaper will take her away. The young boy starts crying, asking her to stay. I look down at him, realizing that he can see her.  I look up at the reaper and she’s reassuring the little boy that his sister isn’t in pain anymore and that his sister will be taken to a place where she will be taken good care of. The parents have no idea what’s going on and are trying to calm the boy down. When the reaper tells the little girl that it’s time to go, the little girl says her final goodbye to her family and waves to me before nodding at the reaper. When the reaper disappears with the girl, a doctor walks towards the family to deliver the bad news.

     Usually, children can see us but they will lose that ability after they grow older. As a soul spends more time on Earth, it loses more of its connection with the Spiritual Realm so that they can transition to living on Earth. I’m watching the family mourn the loss of the little girl, just sitting there, not able to do anything to help them. But suddenly, I felt her presence. Jennie was close and she’s getting closer. I stand from my seat and watch the entrance. When I see her walk through the doors, she stops to scan the lobby until she finds me. She stares at me with an expressionless face for a few seconds before she smirks. I sigh, knowing exactly why she’s here. She knows that I’m here because his soul is being awakened and she remembers the bet we’ve made back in ‘94, before the female warrior’s sacrifice.