A tower of muscle and emotional exhaustion, hidden by a stone-cold stare, was roaming the dark corridors of the orphanage with a lantern and a security guard uniform.

The man passed by Adam and David’s room for the 20th time since the night shift started an hour ago, and put his ear against the door. He could hear both of them breathing just fine. And he could also hear David grinding his teeth.

“Damn… If the kid continues like this, he won’t have any teeth by the time he hits twenty,” he commented to himself.

The guard suddenly felt a sharp headache and closed his eyes while leaning against a wall. He opened them up again, expecting to see a completely different corridor, but nothing seemed to change around him. He looked at his electronic watch: 21/9/2016, 6 PM.

“That’s tomorrow…” he thought while opening the door to Adam and David’s room “He’s not here…”

The man sniffed the air for Adam’s scent and stopped in his tracks after stepping out of the orphanage. Crashed cars and corpses were littering the street, some of the city’s buildings were fuming, others were visibly being consumed by fire, and he could hear screaming and laughter a few blocks away, along with sirens and gunshots.

Did Earth’s humans start another war? It hadn’t even been ten years since the last one… No, he saw what war on Earth was like... This was different, more chaotic, wild... This was madness... This was... He shook his head and began to walk, trying to get back on track. He was running against the clock, after all. He had time to get lost in speculation later...

(A few minutes of tracking later)

The guard walked through a hole in a fence and continued to follow the teen’s scent through ruins and vegetation.

He found Adam sleeping on top of an old wooden bench a few minutes later, in front of a garden full of flowers he couldn’t recognize. Two ghosts were sitting next to the boy. One was definitely his roommate’s, and the other… The security guard’s eyes widen… What was she doing here? And why was she so… blurry? What happened?

He adjusted his collar, trying to regain his composure, and got closer to examine the sleeping teen. 

He was using his backpack as a pillow, his hair was completely messed up, his eyes were puffy, and his nose was red, his skin was even paler than usual and was stained with blood, dirt, and ashes, just like his clothes. 

The guard caught a glance of various dirty gardening tools, lying on a small wagon behind the bench, and glanced at the garden. Did the kid plant all of that? Wait... What was that rock among the flowers? Was that... a tombstone? 

“Hey, Spice.” the newborn ghost called, also catching the guard’s attention.

“Yeah?”

“Be honest with me… How do you do that whole talking with normal people thing?” he asked, as a helicopter passed over them.

“I already told you, I’m simply special!” She casually lied, hearing an explosion a few blocks away.

“Spice, please, I need to talk with him!” He insisted, standing up and looking her in the eye “I need him to know that I’m still here, that I’m fine! I want him to be able to see me, to hear me...” He pointed at the burning buildings in the distance “Look at this! He's a wreck! I can’t just leave him like this. I don’t want to leave him like this...”

“Ok, look. Sometimes, when a person dies, they can make a deal with a reaper and stay behind for a while before going to the other side, or give up their place on the other side entirely, so they can do what I do...” She explained, leaning back on the bench “But--”

“Ok, how do I--” he interrupted.

“But!” she erupted, glaring the boy into silence “Ghosts don’t last forever, David.” 

“Huh?”

“The energy that ghosts are made of is finite and the bigger they are, the faster it fades…” she said, looking at her blurry winds “Hiding inside Adam’s body slowed the process down a bit, but I must still have only five… six years tops left to exist. If my math is correct. And after that, I’ll disappear.” Spice confessed, making David’s eyes widen and the security guard’s heart sink “You should just go to the other side and save a spot for him… He would be sad if you just faded away, don’t you think?” she coerced with a welcoming tight smile.

“Yeah, you’re right, but…” David stayed quiet for a few seconds, scratching the back of his neck, before looking at the woman again “But, if you knew you were going to disappear, then why did you take the deal? I mean... You did know what you were signing up for, right?” 

“Yes...” She looked at her own hands and closed her fists over her knees “But I had a duty to uphold... and I wouldn’t be able to enjoy my eternal rest if I just ran and did nothing...” Her voice was quivering.

“What duty--”

The interrogation was cut short by something crashing into the garden, raising the winds and spreading ashes, loose dirt, and flowers. The security guard covered his face with his arms, and David did the same, although he really couldn’t be blinded by something like dust anymore; Spice, on the other hand, stood up and faced the wind head-on, putting herself between Adam and the silhouette covered by the mist.

The dust slowly settled, revealing a gigantic golden multi-limbed serpent dragon. It had four deer antlers made out of human anguish, a mane made of spikes that also covered its back, floating metal rings with eyes along its scaly body, and a grotesque iron muzzle with fangs covering its whole face.

“What that fuck!” David yelled, taking a step back and trying to reach for something inside his pockets, but it appeared to be empty.

The angel ignored both ghosts, and its rings stopped rotating as their eyes focused on Adam. 

The boy struggled to open his eyes and look at the bright creature. The security guard looked at him. He could swear his lips weren’t that blue just a few moments ago!

“Adam, get out of here, now!” She ordered, grabbing the boy’s arm and forcing him to stand up. But the teen just fell to his knees in less than two seconds “Come on, get up!” she said, trying to make him stand up again.

“Spice?” Adam called before passing out, slipping out of the ghost’s hands, and collapsing on the cracked pavement.

“Adam?!” David called kneeling next to him.

The guard noticed that the tips of the boy’s fingers were turning into stone. He felt a headache and stumbled back, closing his eyes.

“Adam!” He heard both ghosts scream in the middle of the darkness.

The man blinked a few times, and he was back in the dark corridor, with little to no clue as to what actually led to Adam’s death, or what happened in general… What was an angel doing there? Did it use its powers to kill the boy? Or maybe he died from something else? Adam already looked quite pale when he found him... But why would an angel try to kill him? And that chaos... Only an angel could cause that amount of destruction... But why? He suddenly remembered the way David pointed at the city before mentioning that Adam was a “wreck”... Did Adam do that?! Well, that would explain the presence of an angel... And also give it a motive to hurt him... But how could Adam cause such destruction? And why? The man never took him for the kind of person that would destroy a city for shits and giggles...

He paced around silently with a hand on his chin, trying to piece it all together... But there was no use... 

“Guess I’ll just have to follow him around and wing it…” he sighed. 

With that out of the way, he found himself thinking about the fate Spice brought upon herself. 

He whimpered, taking off his hyper-realistic mask and leaning against a wall, leaving his face covered with scars exposed to the soft moonlight that entered through the window at the end of the corridor. 

“Borialis, Borialis, Borialis…” a distant voice whispered.

He wiped his face, put his mask back on, and tried to regain his composure. He was being summoned.