Evelyn walked closer, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder.
“Venus, are you okay?” she asked.
I looked around, remembering where I was. It was like waking up from a dream.
“I’m… I’m fine.” I gasped. “I don’t know what happened. Something must’ve—”
“It’s okay, Venus. I know you can see spirits.”
A chill went up my spine.
“No, I don—”
But my words were cut off by someone walking into the area where we were— the back of the store.
“Hey, is everything alright? I felt death in here, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t V,” said the newcomer. The voice definitely belonged to a male.
I looked up at the blonde haired man with a frown on my face. Who was he? Why was he there? What did he mean he felt death? How did he know who I was?
He was looking at Evelyn and I turned to look at her, too, but she was glaring at him.
Did they know each other?
I felt something burn within me. Did she really bring a boy to the store the first chance she got? If she so much as thought of doing anything inappropriate… I would lose my mind.
“Who is he?” I asked her.
“No one important,” Evelyn said. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Not important?” the guy scoffed. “I’m her guardian angel!”
My head swam and my breathing became erratic. I swore for a moment I saw stars in my vision.
“What the hell, Angel?” Evelyn hissed.
“What? It’s a joke, Eve, lighten up.”
“Someone just died,” I breathed. “And you want to make jokes?”
His words finally registered into my brain and everything was deadly silent up there.
He said he was an angel, but then he said he was joking. But how was he able to get inside? We’d locked the door before starting closing duties. And he said he felt death… Would it really be hard to believe that this guy (and perhaps Evelyn by association) was an angel?
Given everything I’d discovered up until now… No, it wouldn’t.
“I can’t take this right now,” I said, pushing myself up from the ground and limping to the front of the store.
Pain blinded me every time I set my foot down but I kept going, wanting nothing more than to get out of there. I couldn’t deal with more surprises.
Mrs. Millie was dead.
Behind me, I heard Dash hiss at the pair— at the angels.
I reached the end of the street and made to cross when a car shot out from around the corner. My heart crashed against my chest as I watched the white suburban head straight for me.
I was yanked from behind as the vehicle swerved down the street and turned another corner, disappearing into the night.
My breathing was rough against my throat.
“Venus, are you okay?” I could feel Evenlyn’s breath right by my ear but her voice sounded like it was miles behind me. I looked back at her and she let go of my sweater. “Why don’t we go somewhere you can sit down?”
When I was finally able to come down from wherever my mind had gone, I was sitting in a booth somewhere with a strawberry ice cream cup in my hands. In front of me, Evelyn and the guy— Angel— were mumbling to each other.
My foot was throbbing with pain inside my cast and tears welled up in my eyes from the constant ache. I took a deep breath and focused on my surroundings. Looking around, I noticed none of my stuff was there. I needed my things.
“You’re angels,” was what came out of my mouth instead.
Their heads snapped towards me.
“It was a joke,” Angel said, shaking his head.
“With the things you said and the things I’ve seen, I’m not sure I believe that.”
“What have you seen?” Evelyn asked.
“I’ve met the devil, I’ve seen his hellhounds. I know he brought me back from the dead.”
“You met Lucifer?” Angel asked me, but his glare was directed at Evelyn.
It didn’t miss my attention that they didn’t look at me like I was crazy. They really were angels.
She shrugged. “You only told me to keep demons away from her— I did. But I’m not going to get in Satan’s way.”
“Why are you keeping demons away from me?” I asked, looking between the two. Evelyn raised her eyebrow at Angel and he shrugged.
“Lately some demons have started doing their own thing,” he said. “Going against Lucifer and such. Because of your connection with him, they were bound to come to you.”
“I’ve never seen demons.”
“Exactly,” Angel smirked. “Because we’ve been keeping them away.”
“But I only met Evelyn two months ago?” I questioned. And why hadn’t I seen Angel before, if they were both supposedly keeping me safe?
“I’ve been around longer than that,” was Evelyn’s only reply.
“Okay… So why are they rebelling against Lucifer?” I asked. Evelyn flinched at his name.
“I’m not sure,” Angel shrugged. “He does a pretty good job of keeping his demons content.”
I shifted but stopped when the pain made me see stars. Now that I wasn’t fueled by anger, my foot was being a bitch.
“How do you know?” Evelyn glared.
Angel shrugged and reached for the ice cream in front of him. “Unlike you, I don’t hate demons. It's nice to converse with them every now and then.”
“As if,” she scoffed. “They’re regular spirits who kissed Satan’s ass enough to get promoted. Why would I lower myself to talk with someone like that?”
Angel rolled his eyes. I picked up my spoon and dug into my partially melted ice cream.
“So if you’re angels… Does that mean you’re taking Mrs. Millie with you to, uh, Heaven?” I asked. I felt my soul momentarily leave my body as I muttered such bizarre words. What was my life anymore?
Evelyn looked at the table and Angel shook his head.
“We don’t deal with that,” he said. “The one who would know is Tim.”
“Who’s Tim?”
“He’s a reaper. But he’s also one of the few who decides where a soul goes once they die, so he would know for sure where your friend is going.”
“So is he behind schedule or why was Mrs. Millie at the shop instead of...?” My throat closed.
“She’s most likely not ready,” Evelyn spoke around a spoonful of ice cream. “Mrs. Millie went to the store after her death so she must be waiting for something there.”
My stomach dropped. I felt like my body was being submerged into ice water.
“Is Mr. Alan going to…?” I couldn't bring myself to finish the sentence.
“Most likely,” Evelyn muttered, frowning at her spoon.
Mrs. Millie was dead and Mr. Alan would probably be next. Okay. My mind was on the border of a breakdown. My breaths were coming in little gasps as I tried to focus on something, anything, to help calm me down.
I shifted in my seat. This time even my head hurt as my broken foot protested.
Angel noticed my wince and tilted his head at me.
“I jumped out a window and fractured my foot,” I answered. “It hurts. Especially after applying weight on it today.”
“Why would you jump out of a window?” he frowned, leaning down to look at my casted foot.
I sighed. “Because I wanted to leave the house?”
Angel smirked at me. “You’re something else, Venus Evans.”’
I stuck my tongue out at him and put another spoonful of melted strawberry ice cream into my mouth.
With a chuckle, Angel lightly tapped my foot with his. I felt a crack in my foot. Instinctively my foot twitched and I was surprised when there was no pain.
I lightly jiggled my foot around but felt nothing. Looking up at Angel, he had a small smile playing at the edge of his lips. I tapped my foot against the floor and smiled when the pain didn’t climb up my leg like it had been doing for the past few days.
“Thanks?” I said, so in awe, it came out like a question.
“No problem,” he said, taking my cup and drinking the ice cream.
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