The Mark of a Fallen Angel

31: Stories

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"What?"
 
I sat back down on my bed and stared at him. "I said I want to know everything. Starting with Cameron."
 
He shook his head. "I think it's better if we leave Cameron out."
 
"No, I want to know. He asked me to ask about him."
 
"What did he say to you if you remember?" He demanded.
 
I shifted in my seat. Something inside of me was telling me not to tell him. I was still getting used to the new thoughts and emotions. And with Cameron, I knew so little about him... But deep down I could tell that there was something about him; the first day I met him I knew that there was something about him.
 
"Alexis?"
 
"It doesn't matter what he said," I mumbled. "I want to know about him."
 
He stared at me for a moment with a hard expression. "No." He finally said.
 
I stood up. "That's hardly fair, Gabriel."
 
"It's better if I tell you how I became this way before I tell you anything else."
 
"What has that got to do with Cameron?" I asked.
 
"It has everything to do with Cameron." He stood up and walked toward me. "Sit because this is a long story." He lifted his hands but he didn't touch me. Instead he dropped them and shook his head.
 
I frowned. Was I not allowed to touch him because of my skin temperature? Was I that hot? Not in a vain way obviously, but my skin couldn't be that bad. Maybe it was only when I got angry. But why wouldn't he touch me now?
 
I sat down and waited.
 
He moved his chair in front of me and sat down.
 
"I'm an old soul, Alexis, older than you think I am. It was 1328 in Great Britain. I'd just turned 18 and I was a part of the royal guard. I didn't look like how I did now. I had green eyes and ash blonde hair. I'd met this woman, Victoria. She was beautiful..." Sadness filled his bright blue eyes. "As soon as I met her I knew it was love. Her brown eyes were always bright; her dark brown hair flowed below her back. She was perfection. I wanted to marry her. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. So I asked and she said yes. I thought that I could never love another woman."
 
His face clouded over and he averted his gaze.
 
"Before my 21st birthday I was blessed with a beautiful baby girl, Amelia. She was 1 years old when everything started. A woman had moved into my small town. Back then there were feasts with the king where the rich would dine until their stomachs were bloated and they would drink until they staggered back to their small houses. 

"I was on guard that night, eating and conversing with the king when she walked in. Her long black flowing hair, her grey eyes and her full lips that I knew consisted of sin. Her lips curled into a sinful smile when her eyes skimmed the room. I couldn't look away from her. It was like I forgot about everything. About my wife and child and where I was. Everything seemed to have disappeared around us.

Her eyes met mine and she held it. She didn't turn away or blink she just stared. The thoughts in my head were against everything I believed in. I came back to reality and turned away from her resisting temptation."
 
His body tensed.
 
"After that night I dreamt of her continuously. I saw her almost every day and her grey eyes haunted me. I couldn't look Victoria in the eye. She knew there was something wrong with me but I continued to tell her the same thing. 'Nothing,' I repeated to both myself and her over and over and over again..." His voice cracked.
 
I wanted to get up, hug him, and kiss his pain away. But touching him wouldn't help him. This was his scar. His story. His nightmare. And it wasn't something I could kiss away.
 
He cleared his throat. "I walked out to get air one night when the woman found me..."
 
It suddenly came in a blur.
 
Gabriel was showing me his memory. It was so clear but this wasn't the Gabriel I knew. He was older, blonder. But that was the only difference. He looked the same otherwise. Except for his green eyes. They were filled with sadness and worry... And yet fear still resided there...
 
 
 
* 1331 *
 
 
 
"Why do you frown, young guard?" The woman said.
 
This woman wasn't me. I thought the description of her was me but looking at her now she looked evil. I could feel it and it made a low growl escape my lips.
 
"I am troubled." The 14th century Gabriel replied.
 
They both stood next to a long stream as the moonlight shined above them and lit the forest around them. Gabriel was dressed in a cream or white coloured baggy long sleeve shirt and dark brown pants. His shoes looked handmade of course and he had a belt around his waist that held his sword.
 
The woman was dressed in a very old style dress that covered her whole body apart from her chest where a medallion of the cross lay. How ironic.