Chapter 1

 Sariel walked the dark street, having bid her elder farewell. Her blonde curls bounced with each step, her round face a beacon of light in the dim street, visible only by moonlight. Her dress was simple and white, ruffling slightly in the chilly October breeze.

She had never seen a place like this. Tall, metal buildings with little glass lights. Her sky blue eyes swept over everything around her. A small park, with metal bars for climbing, metal sheets for sliding, and plastic animals for riding. She knew all of these things existed, and watched them from above, but she didn't know their names. She had never paid attention.

There weren't children playing there, which confused her. Was it because it was... What was the word that the elders had taught her? Night? She was sure that was it. It was going to be difficult to remember all of the words for the things that Heaven did not have. It was never dark. They never needed parks to amuse themselves. Watching the other angels do good was all the entertainment and learning that they ever needed.

Sariel wandered to the park while she thought about where to begin. There was a squeaking noise, and she realized that this park, like many other she had seen, had swings. Or at least, she thought that was what they were called. She trotted over to them, each swaying in the wind, and sat on one, the cold seat against her dress. A single streetlight, bulb flickering and threatening to burn out, shone flourescent light upon her.

Creak. Creak. Creak.

The chains that held the seat made that sound with every movement that the child made. She was too absorbed in her own thoughts to notice the sound that would grate on most people's ears.

“Maybe I should start knocking on doors,” she thought. “No, that wouldn't work too well... People sleep at night.” She thought hard about it, swinging slightly, letting the cool night air brush over her arms.

Across the park, on her nightly jog, Lauren couldn't hear anything over her headphones. Her long, brown hair, pulled back into a ponytail, swayed back and forth behind her as she ran. She ran in the same park every night after school, just to get a breather. It wasn't a very long path, so she always jogged the entirety of it. She was almost finished for the night wen she remembered the path that lead to the playground.

She saw the curve of the path ahead, and just around the bend lay the playground. She sighed, a little fatigued from a long day of school, ready to retire for the night. She continued on, and began to pass the playground, not noticing Sariel anymore than Sariel noticed her.

The streetlight above the angel brightened, flooding the area with light. Lauren noticed it out of the corner of her eye, and turned to look at it. She saw a beautiful little girl sitting just by the light, swinging slowly, all by herself. She looked to be somewhere around eight years old. By the pole, she thought she saw a tall shadow sweep by. As she squinted to get a better look, the lightbulb exploded, showering sparks down to the ground.

She ripped the headphones from her ears, and listened. All she heard was the swing's usual noise.

Creak. Creak. Creak.

“Little girl,” she asked into the darkness. There was no response. “Hello?” She heard speech. It wasn't anything she could decipher. It was too fast, whispering, and she didn't think it was English. Latin, maybe?

Sariel sat, still swinging, not daring to answer the woman that stood before her now. She did not turn around, as her mentor had asked. She heard him talking to the demon, who she could swear had been breathing right down her neck. It was good to know that he was still watching over her. She wondered if he would get in trouble. They weren't supposed to protect their charges anymore. Not while they were on Earth.

“Leave this child alone,” he said, “She is not yours for the taking.”

“Oh, but she is. You have put her here on earth, and we can take them if we wish, just like all the others you left.” This voice scared Sariel, with its deep rasp, and cruel tone. It was nothing like she had ever heard before. No one in Heaven sounded like that.

“You will not have her.”

Lauren, who was trying to listen to the conversation, still could not understand any of it. It was like the wind, but she could swear she could hear voices in it. Suddenly, there was another flash of light, very different from the streetlight going out. In that instant, Lauren could see nothing. Her arm raised to her face, shielding it from whatever the light was.

She lowered her arm, and gasped as she realized that the girl was just in front of her. Her eyes were blue as a summer sky, and her smile was as bright and cheery as any she had ever seen. Lauren leaned forward, putting her hands on her knees, smiling back at the child without realizing it.

“Are you lost, little girl,” she asked, as she had not seen any adults anywhere in the park during her jog. The dazzling white teeth that showed through the small girl's smile made her forget about the whispers from only moments prior.

“No,” Sariel replied simply, eyes examining the older one's face thoroughly. Her gaze came to rest on the woman's eyes, which were a deep, chocolate brown. They were warm, welcoming, kind. This woman was good. Sariel could trust this one.

“Where are your parents,” she continued to question. She felt Sariel's piercing gaze, and it seemed like she was looking into her soul. However, it wasn't quite as disturbing as how she had heard it was.

“I don't have any.”

“You have to have parents,” Lauren said, not sure how to respond properly. It was strange, and she couldn't explain it, even to herself, but for some reason, Lauren believed her. Maybe it was her angelic face, or her sweet, sincere-sounding voice. Lauren simply did not feel like this child was capable of lying.

“Its kind of a secret. I can't tell you.” Sariel wasn't really certain how to talk to people like this without it sounding awkward.

“Well, my name is Lauren,” the older one replied with a smile. There was a small voice in her head telling her to take care of the child. She had never really been the maternal type, so why was she thinking that way? Lauren felt like this child needed to take the child into her apartment. Like she needed to take care of her. Like it was her job.

“My name is Sariel,” the young girl said, interruping Lauren's thoughts. “Nice to meet you.” Her smile reassured Lauren that she needed to watch out for this little one.

“What a pretty name. Would you mind if I called you Sarah,” she asked, finding the name Sariel beautiful, but very strange.

“No, that's fine.” To Lauren, the girl just seemed like a Sarah. The girl began to look down to her feet, seemed somewhat worried. She shuffled her feet, and wrung her hands.

“Well... If you don't have parents,” Lauren hesitated, debating if it was right to take this child into her home. The tiny voice in her head, which she was sure was not her own, pushed her to say it. “Would you like to come with me? I have a little apartment, just up there,” she continued, pointing to a nearby building, about halfway up.

Sariel simply nodded shyly, keeping her eyes locked to her feet. She could see the things in the darkness around her, and she didn't like being out in the open like they were. It wasn't safe.

Sariel was pleased that she had found Lauren so early on. It was somewhat ironic that the woman had come to her while the angel was so worried about how to find someone to stay with. She was still internally panicked about the demon that had followed her before. If her mentor hadn't been there, then she would have been captured, with no way of escape, and no way to spread the miracles she was meant to do.

The demons were smart, unfortunately. They knew that the angelic children would have to perform miracles. Saving lives, preventing tragedies, spreading overall happiness; deeds of that sort. If they couldn't complete their miracles, then they would be left on Earth. They could become demons themselves if exposed to the darkness in the world for too long, or better yet, become meals.

Sariel shuddered, not wanting to think about what becoming a demon would be like, or what being their meal would be like, either. She just wanted to go with Lauren and rest. She felt much more sapped of energy than she ever had when she was in Heaven. There wasn't too much to worry about up there, so she supposed that was it. The angels in Heaven never had to worry about demons eating them.

As she and Lauren walked in silence, she also thought of her friends that had been brought down to this chaotic and unsure world. She wondered if they had been targetted as soon as they were alone, too. The night around her seemed to surge with horrors, and she could swear that she was seeing demons around every corner. She tried to keep focused on Lauren, who walked just ahead, leading the way to her hopefully, warm, safe apartment.

After a few minutes of hearing nothing but shoes hitting the ground, Lauren broke the silence.

“Well, here we are,” she said, jamming the key into the lock, the clicking echoing lightly in the hallway. The door opened into darkness, but, opposed to how she had been feeling moments earlier, she was feeling rather calm. A warm breeze swept out of the apartment and over the girls, reassuring Sariel that she was safe.

Sariel's vision was flooded with light as Lauren reached into the crack of the door, and flipped on a light switch. She didn't see anything lurking in there, causing her to smile slightly, and let out a sigh of relief.

“Come on in,” Lauren said, opening the door wider so that the other could get through. Sariel swept into the room, ducking under Lauren's arm. The warmth caressed her arms, which weren't coverd by her dress. It was soothing.

“Let me get a few blankets,” Lauren told Sariel as she shut the door, and looked out the peep hole in the door. “You can have the couch. I know that doesn't sound comfortable, but its softer and warmer than my bed is, I promise,” she continued, smiling as she walked to the small hallway closet across the room. She pulled out a small number of thick, warm looking quilts, which pleased Sariel greatly.

“Let me just spread one out here.” She sat the other blankets down on a chair, grabbing one and spreading it over the couch. “Its all yours. Bathroom is down the hall, just right there.”

“Thank you, Lauren,” Sariel said, yawning a little. She climbed into the blankets on the couch, and curled up. She was asleep almost instantly, and it felt like the cushions underneath her were like the very clouds in Heaven.

“Goodnight, Sarah,” she replied, walking to the kitchen, getting a glass of water for the little girl and leaving it, just in case. She then crept quietly from the living room to her bedroom, and sat down at her computer desk.

She opened her laptop, and pushed the “On” button for the television remote, letting the news run in the background while she checked in on some school work. She wasn't paying too much attention to the news as she typed out another few paragraphs for a paper that would be due in a few weeks time. She wanted to get a head start on it so that she could be sure to have plenty of time for her nightly run.

Of course, she would have to have the time to figure out what to do with Sarah. She must have come from somewhere, Lauren thought. If she didn't have parents, maybe she belonged to an orphanage or something. Or maybe she lived with grandparents, or maybe an aunt of uncle.

Surely the child would have mentioned something like that if it were true. Unless she was mistreated. That seemed somewhat unlikely, however. Sarah looked well taken care of and well fed. She wasn't dirty or beaten up, nor did she look malnourished or underfed. It was such a very strange thing to have a well-taken care of child wandering around on her own, acting like it was something normal.

“Reports of vandalism have been reported all across the city, this evening,” the news anchor said, catching Lauren's attention. “Small fires, destruction of property, and even injuries to civilians began to happen, en masse and almost simultaneously all around the city, around the time of nine o'clock. Out of 17 eye witness accounts, no one could identify or report a suspect or suspects for the crimes.”

Lauren looked at the time on her computer. 9:33. “They got that story in fast,” she thought, continuing her paper as the anchors began another story. “It was about that time when I found Sarah in the park.” This ran through her head a few times. Her hands stopped, their frantic writing coming to a pause.

She froze as she remembered the strange voices she thought she had heard on the wind less than an hour earlier. It was by far the strangest thing that she could recall even happening to her. Then she remembered the shadow passing over the light just when it exploded. Was that what had happened all around the city? Lights exploding could definitely fit under the “destruction of property” descripter.

She suddenly felt like there were eyes on her. She quickly closed the small crack in her blind from when she had looked out it earlier that day. Her hands shook slightly as she wrote, causing her to have to revise mistakes at a constant rate. Her heart pounded in her chest, and she felt... Miserable. Something was dragging her down, and she had no idea what.

After a few minutes of this, she slammed her laptop shut, and got up to shower and get in bed. She couldn't shake that feeling that there was someone with her. Even as she peeked out her window, she thought she saw a shadow moving in the parking lot below. When she tried to follow it, it disappeared. Like something that you can only see out of the corner of your eye.

With a heavy sigh, a drink of water, and an aspirin, she slid under her blankets and tried to drift off. It took some time for the feeling to leave her, but when it did, it took her no time to fall asleep.

Reviews

[Ridwan B. Kushal]

I like the overall theme of the story. The occult has always attracted me. I would suggest that you present more of the details through dialogue instead of the narrative, especially the part where Lauren welcomes Sarah into her home. And maybe you'll also want to tone down the description a little bit, as too many details can be annoying. Other than that, it's a great piece of writing. I'm looking forward to the next chapter.