To the Cosmos and Back

II

GRIPHON

You think it'd be funny if a teenager was falling from the sky while screaming and then landing on someone.

Yeah, it'd be absolutely back-breakingly (no pun intended) hilarious if you weren't that someone.

"Get off of me," I said. He'd fallen on me with all of his weight, his stomach draped over my back and one of his feet was pressed against my elbow.

And then Nellie and I introduced ourselves and found out his name was Icarus and he likes to be called Ari.

"Well, Ari, I'm Nellie and the handsome gay angel over here-" she pointed to me. "-is Griphon."

"You and me," I pointed between Icarus and I, "we're soulmates," I had blurted out and I got a gag from him in response. Then I shrugged. "Not, like, romantic soulmates, though."

"Honestly, soulmates? If it's not romantic, then what is it? Isn't that what soulmates are?" Ari said in a snarky tone.

"You both radiate the same warmth," Nellie says while she sits down on the cold stone floor. "Everyone has a soulmate, but it's not exactly a romantic soulmate. It's two people that are compatible to work together. They're pretty much just partners in crime."

"Okay, great. Although, what 'same warmth'?" he asked.

I rolled my eyes. "Why is my soulmate a fucking idiot," I muttered and then let out a highly exaggerated wail. Icarus shot me a look and I smiled obnoxiously.

"Well, I mean the heat from your bodies," Nellie explains. "We all have a different wavelength of heat from each other. It all depends how intense it is and how far the heat reaches. We angels call the heat 'souls'. Your body heat is your soul, really.

"But your soulmate's heat is in sync with yours. Your soulmate is Griphon," she said like it was no big deal and flicked a piece of lint off her clothing towards me.

"Okay, cool, great. All's well that end's well. So this shit-" Ari pointed at me. "-is my soulmate." He looks annoyed. "Alright, what now? Why does this have anything to do with me?"

Nellie sucked in her bottom lip and searched the concrete wall for an answer. "Well-"

"You're an angel, Ari," I had cut in.

"This is hardly a time to be flirting," he growled at me. I didn't intend for it to come out like that so I couldn't help a laugh.

Nellie takes him by the shoulders and shakes him. "Ari, Icarus, no. You're an actual angel, like Griphon and I. You have wings, you can heal your injuries quicker than regularly, all those angel things."

That was earlier. Now we're telling him that his entire life is fake. I mean, honestly, how do you even get up right after someone falls on top of you and begin to explain that he's an angel and you are soulmates and all of their memories before today have been fabricated?

He's taking it well so far, actually. Nellie's going into great detail and explaining our situation as well.

This is how it works; angels that stray from God's path are usually thrown out of Heaven. Occasionally some just sneak out. Once they crash into earth, they can be reborn as a fetus or a thirty year old man or, in some rare cases, they can remain how they were in Heaven. There's honestly no telling how they'll end up. Nellie and I have decided that Icarus must be one of those rare cases.

But if angels who find out they are actually angels die, they'll be returned to Heaven. If they continue to live their life on earth without ever knowing they're an angel, they are just reborn once they die. It's like an endless loop.