Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
She continued to run, her steel-toed black combat boots making tapping sounds on the rain-soaked pavement underneath.
Is she here or not?! I’ve been running around this city for the past three days looking for her! This wasn’t getting her anywhere! Her partners only told her the town’s name and that they’d be coming to pick her up today!
Damnit, damnit, damnit! She continued to pump her arms as she remembered her assignment: “'Find her and keep her from their grasp.'”
How the hell am I supposed to do that if I can’t even find her?! Her normally indifferent face was twisted in anger and worry with her fists clenched lightly as she glared ahead into the darkness of the back alleyway behind the busy street. She started to question her friend’s information even thought she knew better.
Suzie better be right about this or so may the deities help us…
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was a perfectly normal night aside from the ‘being-watched’ feeling that had been making Joyce shiver for the last twenty minutes as she walked down the wet suburban road towards her quaint suburban house. It was nighttime, the star-filled night overhead giving an obvious clue to anyone who was wondering. It had rained not two hours ago; the storm passed over her city and the clear sky was a blessing that was usually received after such weather.
She continued to walk down the street-light lit road as her mind wandered back to the weird dream she had two nights ago:
“Bye, Alice!” Joyce Reilly waved cheerfully to her best friend, swinging on her backpack as she walked away from her friend, making her way from the bus stop to her home. It was a Friday and Joyce was eager to get home and watch one of her favorite animes. She sighed contently as she looked both ways before crossing at the crosswalk.
Chin length brown hair sway slightly in the wind as cheerful brown eyes looked forward as she hummed her favorite anime’s theme song, getting excited. “Today we finally get to learn Mieu-chan’s secreting ability!” The sophomore almost squealed in delight.
HONK!
She gasped as she looked over, her expressing turning into one of horror as she saw the huge truck merely ten feet away… five feet away… two feet away…
That’s when she woke up, sweating in bed, panting with her fists clinched tightly. She leaned up and glanced around in a panic. Her room… good. She let out a sigh of relief as she tried to calm herself down and go back to sleep.
“But seriously,” She scratched the back of her head as she continued, “Who dreams of dying?” She asked rhetorically. She wore sneakers and khaki shorts along with a white t-shirt with the print of a puppy on the front.
The fifteen year old stuck her tongue out, “Heh, that’s so gloomy. And if there’s one thing I’m not, it’s gloomy!” She huffed enthusiastically as she nodded her head at her own statement. “I promised to live the rest of my life as optimistically as I could!” She threw her fist into the air, “Nothing can bring me down!”
“Aww, the poor thing doesn’t know she’s dead.” Joyce turned around to the benevolent voice and turned to see a woman who looked almost… angelic. She had long blonde hair, crystal clear blue and white-feathered wings sprouting from her back, the wings unfurling as she jumped off the ledge and floated onto the sidewalk in front of Joyce. “Hello little one.” The woman said, leaning down slightly to the girl’s height.
Joyce narrowed her at the newcomer, backing up slightly, “Mom said not to talk to strangers.”
The blonde beauty merely smiled pleasantly, not offended, “I’m not a stranger, young one. My friends and I are merely guides.”
“’Guides’?” Joyce asked, her natural curiousness winning over the warning signs blaring in her head.
“Yes,” The blonde looked behind Joyce, causing the young girl to follow her gaze only to find two more white-clad woman (one brunette and one raven-haired) behind her with equally gentle eyes. “These two are also your guides.”
“To where?” Reilly asked, turning her attention back to the first woman.
“Why, Heaven of course,” The blonde smiled.
“Pfft!” Joyce started to laugh, causing the three woman to look at the young girl, clearly confused. “You three are stupid! I’m not dead!”
The first woman sighed, “Denial’s not a good thing, young one.”
“Look, I’ll show you,” Joyce said, pinching her arm hard and making a slight yelping noise when it stung, “See? Things shouldn’t hurt when you’re dead.”
“Little one, have you dreamed of your own death lately?”
Joyce paused, thinking back to the truck dream, “Yeah… why?”
“That was your death,” The blonde explained. “God gives people a couple days to say their final good-byes before we’re sent to pick them up. Though, I suppose you just went about your daily life, yes?”
“You… you mean I’m really dead?!” Joyce yelled loudly. “I can’t be dead! There’s so much I wanted to do!” She covered her face with her hands and continued to ramble. As she did this, she didn’t notice the brunette give the blonde an urgent ‘hurry up’ expression.
“Er, y-yes well, perhaps you can do that in Heaven? But we really must be going,” The blonde said, sounding almost anxious.
She reached down to get one of Reilly’s shoulders, only for the teen to fall of her knees just before contact was made, “What abut my family?! What about my friends?! What about my anime collection?!”
“That last one was a tad materialistic…” The blonde trailed off, before regaining her composure, “In any case, we must get out of here soon!” She reached down and grabbed the girl’s shoulder, only to recoil back in alarm.
BANG!
Her cause of alarm was a gunshot. She looked down to see a smoking, black bullet hole a mere inch away from her foot in the sidewalk.
She looked up, her eyes no longer benevolent and holding smoldering hatred, as if the past ten minutes were purely an act. “Who--?!” She couldn’t complete her sentence as she dodge yet another bullet.
“Up here, stupid,” A cocky voice called to the three woman, causing all four on the ground to looked up onto a nearby roof. The figure jumped, clearing the twenty-foot distance in a single bound due to black wings being unfolded.
No, not black… Joyce thought, staring at the feathers. Darker than black…
A black, body-length open trench coat covered the figure’s body, a black t-shirt and black pants being under it. Jet-black hair hung down her back in layers, finally ending at her waist. Bright green eyes held a cockiness to them as they gleamed.
The three woman stared in awe as the blonde quoted, “’Wings darker than the abyss’…” She then smirked, “You must be Shaft. Mistress would love to have a word with you.”
“’Mistress’ needs to learn a concept called rejection,” A smug grin found itself on the newcomer’s face. She raised two black guns levelly at the blonde, the handle’s barrels looking like they’d be carved out from feathers.
The blonde narrowed her eyes dangerously at these words, “Mistress doesn’t take rejection very well.”
The raven haired of the trio tugged on the blonde’s sleeve, “We have no time! We can take care of Shaft next time we meet!--” She suddenly stopped talking went she felt an excruciating pain in her chest. She looked down to see her pure white clothes start to get stained red, originating from a hole in her chest. She suddenly fell limp on the ground.
Joyce’s eyes widened in horror at the sight of the raven-haired woman getting shot at- even more so when she fell on the ground and started to pool blood.
“That’s what happens when you take your eyes off your enemy. Amateurs,” The black winged gunslinger scoffed.
The brunette woman quickly scrambled, “Hurry! Take the girl and go!”
The blonde nodded, grabbing Joyce harshly by the arm and picking her up, as if she was as light as paper, “So long, Shaft! Have fun while you’re still alive!” She called back over Joyce’s protests.
“Let me go! I don’t wanna die!” Reilly kicked, trying to get free, but to no avail.
“Shit,” Shaft cursed, flapping her wings harshly in order to lift off the ground. After she succeeded, she then sped toward the blonde and Joyce, only to get cut off.
She barely dodged a small knife, the blade looking like feathers of the brunette’s wings. “Outta my fucking way!” Shaft hollered, wasting no time in sending a bullet hole through the brunette’s neck.
She zoomed past and shot with point-precision aim at one of the blonde’s arms, but the blonde move just enough to where it just scrapped her arm. Still, it was enough for the ‘angelic being’ to drop Joyce, so Shaft zipped down as fast as her wings would let her, catching Joyce just in time before the death defining ‘splat’ could happen.
Joyce’s brown eyes widened when they connected with Shaft’s bright green, “Ahh!” She yelled before squirming again.
“Oi!” The black winged savior yelled, “I’m on your side! Your side! Quit squirming!” She was having a hard time keeping a grip on the girl. Suddenly a white feather zoomed past, “Whoa!” Shaft quickly dived to avoid the bombardment feathers that were being treated as throwing knives. (Of course, this made Joyce lay stock-still, for which Shaft was internally grateful for.)
“Oi, kid!” She said, getting the attention from the girl in her arms. “This might be a lot coming from a person you just met, holding two guns, but could you trust me for a sec’?”
“What?” Can you blame Joyce for being confused?
“I’m going to throw you up into the air, shoot the fallen, and then catch you.” Shaft clarified.
“What?!” This time, it was more of an exclamation.
Shaft didn’t reply as she threw the poor girl straight into the air above her, flipped out a gun and with precise aim, was able to shoot the fallen square in the middle of the eyes before catching Joyce. Green eyes looked at the teenager, amused, “You should see the look on your face.”
Joyce was clinging to Shaft like a cat out of water.
The black winged woman floated softly to the ground, placing Reilly down before folding her wings behind her back.
After Joyce called down slightly, she looked into the street to see three dead bodies, “So… they were the bad guys?”
Shaft frowned, “A bit slow on the uptake, aren’t you?”
“But, weren’t those angels going to take me to Heaven because I’m dead?”
The raven-haired woman shook her head, folding her arms under her chest after seemingly putting her guns away inside the fold of her wings, “Nope. Those aren’t angels. They may look like they are, but their feathers aren’t white enough- they don’t have the same luster as pure angels, they’re fallen angels. And you’re not technically ‘dead’, kind of in the in-between mark.”
“Oh…” Joyce eyed Shaft suspiciously, “And how am I suppose to know you aren’t a fallen angel?”
“I am,” Shaft answered off-handedly, causing the mortal to gasp. But then she winked, smiling, “But I’m one of the good guys.” She then stuffed her hands into her pockets and started to walk off, “See ya.”
“Hey, wait! What?”
Shaft looked over her shoulder, “I just killed three people right in front of you. I doubt you’d want me anywhere near you.”
“But you can’t leave!”
“Why?” Shaft waited for a plausible excuse that she knew would never come.
“That was… that was too cool for you to leave!” Joyce exclaimed happily.
Shaft blinked, loosing her composure. Did she just hear right?...
“First you were like ‘bang!’ and then it was ‘whoosh!’ and then you did some cheesy monologue before some cool action scenes played out! You’re like a hero from a story!” Leave it to an anime otaku to get excited over gun-slinging fallens and fake angels trying to kidnap her.
I guess the initial shock-value is already passed?... Shaft questioned, watching the young teenager continue her excited ramblings.
Needless to say she wasn’t what Shaft was expecting.