Angel (Part 5)

Part 1: http://www.razyboard.com/system/morethread-the-beginning-introduction-lithia-203...
Part 2: http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1428713
Part 3: http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1437254
Part 4: http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1441479


„Don’t worry about me! I’m fine!“ he grunted sarcastically as Emily slammed another shopping bag into his arms, adding to the already enormous heap. She went to the next market stand without even giving him the comfort of her hateful smile, instead cheerily conversing with bargainers, stalling for time and much aware of the effect this had on Kuro. Regardless, he followed her around and took everything she was throwing at him, physically and mentally.

Finally, after what seemed like the longest day to Kuro, Emily took a seat beside the town central fountain smiling up at the sun that settled in the sky in a thirty degree angle above the ground. Kuro dropped everything in his arms onto the ground and almost fell down beside her of exhaustion.

“Careful! You might break the vase we bought!” she scolded, finding a rather cold glare on his face that secretly pleased her because she had finally managed to wipe the wicked smirk off his lips. Full lips they were, she noticed in that instant, shaking herself out of her thoughts when realization dawned on her and she was left starring at him like a stalker.

“What is this stuff anyway?” He asked, removing the five pieces of gum he had shoved in his mouth.

“Don’t tell me there’s no gum where you come from?” she replied.

“Gum? How does it not break to pieces when I chew it?” he asked stupidly.

“Are you serious?” Emily remarked in disbelief but as she received empty glances she shook her head and continued. “It’s a special, chemical I’m guessing, substance that makes the particles stick together so it’s….everlasting!”

“Hm, interesting” he said looking down at the white rubber between his fingers and stuffing it back in his mouth. “So! Are we done shopping? Or do you have some more bags to add to the bunch?”

Emily thought long and hard for something, anything that she could add to the budget after seeing his mischievous smirk reappear like brown grass that had been watered overnight. She hated that smirk, or so she thought because at the same time the same exact smile made her wonder what it would be like to kiss him; which was probably the main reason why she hated it. Suddenly she found herself thinking of things much more impure than shopping, as a matter of fact, what she was thinking had nothing to do with shopping whatsoever.

She turned her attention away from him, ashamed of what she was thinking, but unable to repress the thoughts. Her entire chain of thoughts was interrupted as the mood surrounding them dropped from mid-summer to a cloudy grey. Everyone in town was looking up at how suddenly the clouds had taken control of the sky, as if they had pushed the sun aside and filled the whole with their filth. Among all the villagers, only one was at ease and completely unsurprised by the swift change in weather. Only one hadn’t gotten to his feet and starred at the evolving clouds in wonder and anxiety, only one had the same smile on his face as always; Kuro.

“No, I think we’re done shopping.” Emily stated swiftly, glazing at the sky with wide eyes, completely bedazzled by how unexpectedly it had changed its course. In this part of the world, such sudden weather was extremely rare and therefore won an enormous attention. Kuro pulled himself to his feet and began picking up the bags after he was inspected his fingernails long enough. He looked at Emily simply, with a grin of intention as he nudged his head at the forest edge to the right of the road.

“Come on I know a short-cut home. It’s about to get ugly.” He offered. Emily quickly accepted, without a single word of complaint for the first time, realizing that he was more right about this than he could ever be about the ingredients of Gum. He pulled her into a very narrow parting between the trees and they disappeared behind the thick coat of leaves into the forest. As they walked in deeper, the narrow space widened enough for them to walk side by side.

“So you’re religious?” he asked, breaking the silence.

“No. Not religious, I just…have my own beliefs.” She commented.

“But you believe in God?” he continued.

“Well yea. What’s not to believe?”

“God isn’t exactly something there’s proof of…isn’t that enough reason to have doubts?” Kuro bellowed.

“Do you believe in God?” Emily changed around the scenarios, not wanting to be questioned.

“Of course, but that doesn’t mean I worship him.” He explained.

“Do you believe in Lucifer?” she asked, surprised as he stopped walking and starred at her with eager eyes. “What? What did I say now?”

“No, just…people don’t call him that usually. I mean it’s been long since I heard someone use his name.” he remarked.

“And what, may I ask, is so significant about me calling someone by their name?” Emily asked dully.

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” He started walking again, “So you think God is all good right?”

“I don’t know, I would like to think so. Yes, maybe. God made this world didn’t he?” She said clawing a cobweb out of her face.

“It made some of the world, other things were made by others…” Kuro interrupted.

“Yes but those others have God within them, so it’s like he made it.” She defended.

“No there are some things that even God cannot touch or create. It is merely an energy force with its own limitations.” He argued.

“Ok why do you keep saying it?” she exhaled sharply.

“Why do you keep referring to God as he?” Kuro asked.
“Well because….what else should I refer to God!” she said.

“God doesn’t have a gender or a shell…it’s just particles that stick together, sort of like gum; without a true form.” Kuro smiled.

“Aren’t you an all knowing of the sorts yourself?” she rolled her eyes. “Then tell me Einstein…what in this world is not God-made?”

“That!” he said, nodding straight ahead since his hands were preoccupied. Emily looked where he was nudging to find a black, hunch backed creature-like form sniffing at the grass in the distance. She strained her eyes as if it would help her identify the distorted figure, but nothing changed its outline. Its coat looked more like a plastic bag than consistent of fur or scales.

“What is that?” she asked cautiously.

“We call them Kal-El, they feed on the souls of the deceased, or so legend has it. In feeding they absorb all the pain and hurt that soul has experienced and in doing so become more dangerous because their rage increases. Besides, if those teeth as much as touch your skin it rips it open; that is why no one has managed to touch it.” Kuro explained.

“So you just leave them to suffer by themselves?” she asked stepping forward slowly, away from Kuro and towards the Kal-El.

“It’s their destiny to suffer, there’s always a sacrifice in taking life without the living person’s permission. This is their consequence.” He stated, his eyes nervously moving between her and the beast which she was steadily approaching.

“So they only look this horrible because of what they eat and because people ignore them? I mean I know people ignore them…I’ve never seen anything like it and I think if I had I would remember it.” Her eyes cautiously fixed on the beast, which was sniffing the earth so violently, taking another step towards it.

“Emily, I highly doubt walking towards it after a thousand years you’re gonna make any difference except that your hand or possibly your head might be missing.” Kuro persisted.

“Every animal no matter how big or small wants attention, if you don’t give it attention then obviously it will turn into something vicious because it knows no other way!” Emily defended, stepping closer yet again. This time the beast stirred from its mono-realm and snorted up at Emily as she drew fearfully closer. She was shaking in anxiety, knowing fair well that she was probably doing something idiotic, but something made her step closer again.

The beast reared up in a mixture of high and low pitch bawls that sounded smoky and uneven. She leaned her upper body back in shock, but in the same moment made the intent decision to face her fear, and in doing so pushed herself forward. The Kal-El reared up again, landing on the ground heavily with a rumbling impact that made Emily jump and flinch in fear but she never stopped in her path.

Her hand shakily extended, closing in on the Kal-El nervously as it reared up again calling out in its mother tongue like any prey or predator would if it was cornered by a stranger. Daringly Emily stepped forward again, her fingertips almost reaching the beast’s nose. It remained grounded, viciously sniffing at her warm fingers with its cold breathe. It snorted at the unfamiliar scent of kindness, having only ever been approached with abuse or cruel intentions, slowly moving closer to Emily.

Suddenly it’s black, ashy jaws parted and shed light to the needle thick fangs in its gap, growling at Emily in new found hate that could not have been drawn from anywhere but a vengeful past. Emily swiftly pulled her hand back and noticed that in doing so she scared the Kal-El and made it rear up again. Quickly countering her action she extended her hand again, frowning at the pain sheathed in the Kal-El’s eyes, starring at it in indifference.

Almost instantly the Kal-El came to a halt and stare down at the offering hand in anguish. Even though the climate was fairly warm, the Kal-El’s breathe exited in a sulphuric smoke because it was so cold. The smoke wrapped around Emily’s hand as it began sniffing at her once more, leaning its head to the side into her hand as if seeking comfort.

Kuro watched from a distance with a slanted smirk as if once again he knew something she didn’t. He watched her continuously, ignoring the beast that was accepting her attention and changed its ravenous personality traits for a single human. Emily’s face quickly evolved into a deeper frown as she touched it for the first time and her hand was engulfed in an ice-like cold as her hand easily went through the Kal-El’s maw and came back out the other side. Even though their contact was on different realms, the Kal-El enjoyed the contact apparently because it closed its eyes and waved in and out of her touch.

“You were right….she’s the one” Kuro spoke silently to himself, or so it appeared at first glance. If one were to take a closer look, the distinction would lie in a single black raven that calmly rested on Kuro’s shoulder with its bulgy yellow eyes tightly fixed on Emily. It lingered on his shoulder for a while, staring at Emily as her hands soared through the Kal-El and her face was filled with sorrow that very much resembled that of the Kal-El. After a while however, it fluttered off into oblivion, having seen enough.

Kuro’s eyes didn’t flinch from their fixed position on Emily as the raven flew off in haste. Only after it had gone did his eyes stir from Emily to the sky to observe the clouds that were following them and bringing forth a most unexpected and unusual storm. As his head went down again he jumped as he saw Emily stumping towards him with an angered expression.

“It has to be God made, it feels pain so it has to be touched by God!” she rebelled against his words.

“It isn’t. Furthermore God banned it from Eden because it wasn’t made by God’s power…and cursed it to an ever-life of sorrow and regret.” Kuro explained with a dead smirk.

“How can God ban life from eden?” Emily growled.

“Simple, what would the world think of God’s teaching if they found out that things, life, beings can be made by powers other than God’s? No one would believe in the greatness of God’s presence and therefore he banned it so that only those vanquished to an afterlife in hell or the underworld would be able to know of its existence.” He continued.

“That’s just cruel!” She almost shouted.

“Emily, we should really get out of here” he hastened, nudging at the sky. Emily’s eyes followed his nudge with the same anger in them as before, but her expression dimmed as she the beastly storm above them that looked extremely unpleasant. Before she could have time to catch herself, her wrist, along with the rest of her, was tugged into one direction as Kuro shot off into the gathering of trees to escape the swiftly catching rain.

Just as they had begun running, the rain poured down like a waterfall, having them soaked from head to toe in seconds. Emily was fooled to think this was only one of those rain falls that passed over and refreshed the land because a few minutes later thunder and lightning took over the skies and made the storm all the more powerful. Lightning and thunder were only a few milliseconds apart, and therefore struck right behind them. Kuro noticed that at this rate the lightning would hit them sooner or later, and swiftly stepped aside under the shelter of a very protective tree, and waited.

“Once it passes we’ll be able to walk home, considering that we’re already wet.” He remarked with a humorous laugh. Emily starred at him for reasons even she didn’t quite know; but only quite. Something in her clicked as fast as a light switch when Kuro showed her the Kal-El. It suspiciously resembled what Angel was doing, but still Emily felt more agreeable to what Kuro was teaching her because it seemed so true.

Surprisingly she found herself clinging onto Kuro like a scared little girl as she finally hovered out of her thoughts. He does look good, she thought to herself, shaking her head in disgust when she realized what she was thinking.

Just as predicted, the lightning struck right where Kuro and Emily were running. As it did, Emily almost screamed in shock because it came so suddenly and left so swiftly. Her grip around Kuro tightened in trance, even though it wouldn’t really protect her if the lightning had hit them. She couldn’t understand why in that exact moment Angel came to her mind, instantly making her feel secure and safe. She looked up into Kuro’s eyes and finally realized why they appealed to her so much. She didn’t like them because they were almost grey, or because they were seductive, she liked them because she saw Angel through them.

“You ready?” Kuro asked with a raised eyebrow and a plastered smirk.

“Let’s go!” She said loudly, this time tugging on his arm and pulling him through the bushes and trees and storm. She suddenly had an enormous urge to see Angel, to make sure he was really there, and with this urge she ran through the forest until she no longer knew if she was going the right way. Luckily as this happened, Kuro stepped in and helped out until they arrived at an all too familiar road, hers.

“How did you know where I live anyway? What are you some kind of stalker?” she asked as they walked down the road through the rain.

“Some kind” he joked.

“You’re fine…” she assured, offering her friendship.

“I sure hope so, with all these bags who knows what might happen to me next” he continued humorously.

“Well lucky for you my house is here” Emily pointed, presenting her very small house. They both walked up the porch steps, Kuro carrying the bags, but as Emily was about to open the door it opened by itself with her father, bare backed, glaring at her.

“Where da hell have you been? Huh? And who’s dis? Bring home another one of yer friends? What you a tramp now? Sleepin’ around behind our backs to make more money? Is this because of that damn horse?” he said loudly and drunkenly. Emily closed her eyes, luckily standing in front of Kuro so he couldn’t see her embarrassment.

“I had to go to town for a school assignm—“ she began but her father interrupted.

“I don’t care ‘bout non o’ your school shit! I want you home in time for dinner or ye’ starve! Got it?” he scolded even louder.

“Mr. …Rose, that really isn’t necessary.” Kuro interrupted calmly this time.

“You talkin’ to me boy? Shut yer mouth you just defendin’ her cause she got you laid!” he argued, waving him off.

“Pop please, I got it…alright? So can I say goodnight?” she asked calmly, hoping he wouldn’t make a scene.

“Don’t make me get my shotgun” he mumbled as he stumbled back into the house, occasionally losing balance and almost falling over.

“I am so sorry about that” Emily whispered, facing Kuro.

“Why do you put up with it?” he asked bluntly.

“Look…I appreciate what you’re trying to do but it doesn’t change anything. He’s a stubborn old man, he won’t ever change for the likes of me, I’ve accepted that and so should you.” She explained.

“One way or another he’s gonna get his share. See you tomorrow honey” Kuro said threateningly, walking off with the bags and all. Emily was about to call after him because of the bags, and scold him for using the word ‘honey’ on her, but her father’s drunken shouts for her to come inside interrupted her will to talk. Dragging her feet, she stepped into the house and shut the door, preparing to sneak out of the window once her parents believed that she was asleep.