Darkness in the World [SAMPLE]

Chapter 1 - Guardians

        So what was it like, having a powerful Archangel as my own personal Guardian?

        It didn't feel any different, actually.

        On the surface.

        More than three years ago I hadn’t even been aware that I had an angel watching over me. And when I did get to meet him, Samuel made it perfectly clear that I wasn't supposed to use him as a "crutch" (his word, not mine) to replace regular human interactions with.

        So nothing much had really changed then, and nothing much was really different now.

        Even when “now” meant I had two Guardians watching over me, and one of them was the Archangel Michael.

        Except that, of course, Michael was not an Archangel anymore. It was a mind blowing concept that I didn't even know how to start understanding yet.

        And on top of that, there was also the equally mind blowing fact that–now that he was my Guardian–it meant that Michael was now always around me:

        Always watching me. Always listening to me. Always looking at me.

        It was pretty stressful.

        For the first three days since I learned he was my Guardian, I actually willed myself to avoid doing anything unattractive, even when I was in the privacy of my bedroom, or the shower, or the toilet.

        After all, the Archangel Michael was watching me.

        But by the third day I finally had to reassure myself that no one really looks attractive in the toilet. And my feelings of discomfort (not to mention bloating) brought me face to face with the fact that there were some very unattractive things I just really had to do, for the sake of personal hygiene and my general health.

        So on the fourth day I simply tried not to think about Michael's piercing golden-slate eyes looking at me when I shaved my armpits, or when I dropped the deuce I'd been holding onto for days.

        Supernatural trumpets did not suddenly blare when I did those things, and neither did my angels appear out of thin air to watch. 

        Then again, I knew they wouldn't.

        But that didn't keep me from stressing myself out anyway.

        It was about a week later when I knew I'd finally relaxed enough about the situation; I'd even gone as far as picking my nose (behind a tissue, of course) for an entire minute while in my bedroom... because I really, really had to (it was a slippery little bugger).

        So yeah, all in all, things were pretty much the same. Except that they weren't.

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        Sometimes I had these flashes—side-glimpses, really—that reminded me Michael was around me.

        Like those moments just before waking when I'd sense him standing in my room, watching me protectively as I slept… but then he’d suddenly dissipate the moment I opened my eyes. Or those moments when I went about my usual day, and I'd see a flash of light reflecting off his golden-bronze hair, visible just out of the corner of my eye… but when I’d turn to look there'd be no one there.

        Those were things I'd similarly experienced with Samuel before, so in a way I expected them.

        But things were different when I closed my eyes.