(A/N: This chapter contains some depiction of a mental illness. And like before, I didn't expect the turn of events this story took to be honest. Hence, reader discretion is advised.)
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"I said don't come near her," a male clad in all white garb boldly shielded the oblivious woman standing in the train platform behind him. He had his limbs spread wide and his stance indicated that he's ready to tackle his opponent if called for.
"Get out of my way. I need to do my job." Another male clad in a pristine all black suit said, almost growling at the other being. His face was hidden behind a white and gold full face mask but the tone of his voice alone was enough to show what he felt about this scene.
"I told you already, you got the wrong person! Stop targeting my human, you incompetent reaper!" He made himself looked larger by opening his lavender wings.
"Stop being stupid, angel! You are just hindering me." He tried to walk past the other but before he was able to, a crowd of people poured out of the train that stopped in the station.
When the woman walked in the train, the angel quickly jumped in too while keeping the grim reaper out. He kept his eyes on the movement of the masked being as the train began moving. His heart only settled after they had long left the station and the woman was sitting comfortably in one of the seats.
For the next three days, the angel kept his guard up especially when his human was going out. In every given moment she steps out, the grim reaper was always there, waiting.
"Why do you keep following us? Don't you have other souls to fetch? Shoo! Bother someone else's human!" The angel snarled at him before concernedly looking back at the woman, guiding her carefully through the side walk.
She had been feeling sick the past few days and finally, after much coaxing, she listened to him and decided to visit the doctor.
"No," the angel held the grim reaper back, putting a hand on his chest and pushing him back a little. "You are not going in there. You and I are staying out here. I can't have you influencing any tests she has to take."
"I have no such powers." The grim reaper answered honestly.
"I don't care. You are not going anywhere near her." He crossed his arms and stepped in front of the clinic door, blocking the only way in and out of the room.
"You're one weird angel," the grim reaper muttered after a second of silence. "Why are you so attached to this one person you will hardly remember after she dies?"
The angel was silent for a moment, contemplating if he should answer the other being. Looking at the masked grim reaper, he wondered what kind of face he was making when his tone imply nothing but curiosity.
Sighing, he answered, "That's exactly why... My memories of her will eventually fade and I will be left with nothing. But at least in this moment, I know I did my best protecting her and keeping her fromㅡ"
The clinic door opened and the two looked at the solemn expression the woman wore. She thanked the doctor and headed to the next place, following a nurse. All the time, the angel walked between her and the grim reaper who kept a few paces behind them.
"It looks like her fate changed," the grim reaper said when he approached the angel, looking up from his log book.
"Of course! I told you long ago you got the wrong person. Now, leave us alone." The angel smirked proudly, puffing his chest out.
"I will... but just for now." The grim reaper turned around and disappeared.
However, the woman seemed to get worse everyday afterwards. She was always tired but cannot sleep properly and sore in odd places, sometimes even puking her only meal out. The angel watched helplessly as his person dealt with her illness alone.
In some nights that the woman managed to sleep well, the angel kept her company and let nothing disturb her peaceful slumber. Because he knew that once she woke up, she will feel the symptoms of her ailment again. And even for a moment, he wanted her to be comfortable.
The angel had always given his person the privacy she deserved when it came to some aspects of her life. He had stayed out of the room whenever she was with her past lovers or when she's in the bathroom; even when she was talking with her doctors. He did all of those things out of his own free will and out of respect to the female he had been watching over.
But this time, he could not bare to leave her alone in that room with the stern looking doctor. He knew she needed some kind of support. Even if she could not see him, he wanted to be there for her.
"Look, there it is," the doctor tilted the screen towards the woman. "Your baby's developing well, mommy."
The sonogram echoed with the loud heart beats as both the woman and the angel looked at the black and white image on the screen. For the last three months, he had no idea that his human was bearing another life in her.
"Goodness!" The angel gasped with a gleeful smile across his face.
He was doing tiny jumps and was squealing when a realization hit him. He wasn't protecting just one soul now. He was responsible with this tiny spark of life too until they were born and given an angel.
"Make sure to keep taking your vitamins and eat well," the doctor reminded after the session. "And no more heavy lifting, okay?"
The woman only nodded with a guilty smile on while caressing her growing tummy. The angel knew why she was like that. Living alone was tough. She had to work several jobs a week and having a proper meal was hard to come by. But he knew she was doing her best. She was living the best she can despite her circumstances.
"Why are you here!?"
Standing in front of him outside the delivery room was the same masked grim reaper. The angel quickly ran toward the room's door to block him from ever coming near it.
"Calm down, angel, I am only visiting. I have another soul to take," he replied sitting on the bench and checking his watch. "Although his doctors are doing their best, his time is running out fast."
"Why can't you wait in his room then? Stay away from my humans. There will be two of us guarding them in a few minutes. You have no place here, reaper."
"Your human is still currently under my jurisdiction, angel. Sooner or later, I will come for her and you will have to deal with it."
The angel made a face at him. "Not if I can keep her safe and you away."
Unaffected, the grim reaper tilted his head up at the angel from where he was seated. Their eyes met but both did not want to back down. After a few minutes, a faint sound of a cry rang and the angel broke their staring contest before hurrying back in the delivery room.
"Why is no one still assigned to guard you? Where is your angel, little one?" The angel leaned down at the giggling baby on the bed. "They sure are putting a lot of pressure on me by doing this."
He was so sure that another angel will arrive the moment he was born. And yet, there he was, alone with two people to look after. A mother-and-child tandem nonetheless.
"So, you can see me, huh?" The angel said, hovering over the child who kept laughing while looking up at him. "You sure are one happy soul, little one. Look at those cute dimples. I can watch you all day but your mother is just so accident prone. She needs me more than you do."
The baby babbled back as if trying to respond to the angel's grumbles. He held both his feet up to his face in a mix of incoherent sounds, pools of drools, and high note shrieks.
"Yeah, yeah. That's right," the angel responded, pretending to understand the child. "She's been a handful since she's your age. How she managed to roll off her bed three times a night is beyond me. Who, you ask? No one else but your mother!"
The angel had kept his eyes on both of them everyday. Each passing year, he watched over how the woman continued to live the best she could for her and her son. And at the same time, he watched the child grow up into a young capable man.
"No. This can't be happening." The angel gritted his teeth while pacing back and forth. "How am I suppose to watch over you two if you're sending him away?!"
He roughly scratched his head as he watched the woman neatly folding her son's clothes into a luggage. Her son, on the other hand, was busy putting some of his other things in a box.
"I can't just leave my person here. But this child is also vulnerable. What do to do? What to do?! Should I fly back and forth? Yeah, I guess I could do that... but that pesky reaper is coming by more often... I can't let my guard down on that one. Someone tell me what to do..." He continued to rumble, looking concernedly at his humans.
"Mother," the son suddenly said, catching the woman and the angel's attention, who both turned to his direction.
The young man smiled, showing his deep dimples, and sitting beside his mother. He had that same glimmer in his eyes whenever he beamed at her.
"I know you're worried that I'll be alone somewhere. And that you wouldn't be able to be by my side if I ever need you. But still, thank you for allowing me to do it for my dreams. Regardless of where I am, I will always be your son who loves you the most in the world."
With a sniffle, she sighed and smiled back at him, biting back the tears that dam her eyes and enclosed her child in her bosoms.
The angel was left stunned to his feet. From across the room and just in a brief moment, he saw the child's eyes met his before returning his mother's embrace. And with that, the angel realized that he was not yet needed by the child.
He was walking her home after they sent her son back to college for his final year when the familiar masked grim reaper appeared in his peripheral vision. This time, he purposely ignored the other being as he had his arms wrapped around her, comforting and shielding her.
They walked like that until she entered the small house she had lived in for her entire life. Outside her door, the angel was standing with his back to the grim reaper. He dare not look back as he quietly asked his question.
"Are you just checking on her again?" It was soft, as if even uttering a word will hurt him.
"Kind of," the other replied. "Her name came up in my list again. And, it won't be long, angel. I suggest you start preparing too."
Without another word, the angel entered the threshold, leaving an empty alleyway behind him.
"Mother," the son called out to her as soon as he climbed down the bus but she did not answer.
The woman only sat there, under the waiting shed, rocking herself and staring off the distance. She had not paid a glace at him even when he stood in front of her. Not until he held her hand and called her once again.
But even then, she only looked at him irritably, pulling her hand from his grasp. She murmured something inaudible with knitted brows and a sharp glare before standing up and walking away.
"Hey! I said not to go out on your own. How come you never listen to me now..?" The angel flew right beside her, trying not to feel bad for the child.
Over time, the condition she had worsened. She found the slightest things irritable and sometimes, she failed to do certain chores she had been doing since she was young. Wherever she went and whatever she did, the angel feared she'd hurt herself in some odd way. Thankfully, her son had stayed with her and did the things she couldn't.
On her good days, the woman would laugh and smile at her son with no care in the world, chatting with him and even cooking for him. However, those days became far in between as the months went on.
"There are a number of factors that could've caused her dementia. Unfortunately, we don't know which one," the doctor informed the son. "She comes by for her annual check up without fail but other than that, she never mentioned anything else."
The young man took a deep breath as he glanced at his mother. She had thrown a fit earlier that day before coming to see the doctor. But now, she seemed calm as she held onto his old stuffed animal.
The angel had grew sadder everyday as he kept watch over her deteriorating body. He could still feel the warmth of her soul burning insider her. However, the vessel it was in wasn't holding up anymore.
Until he finally came in and stepped right beside the angel who was crouching over her frail shell. He slowly lifted himself off her the moment he felt the other being enter the premises.
"You did well keeping her safe for this long, angel," the masked grim reaper said, patting the angel on his shoulder. "But I will have to take over now."
The angel stepped aside with his head hanging low but he still watched. He had no idea how many times he had witnessed the process nor how many of his past humans he had to hand over to a reaper. And yet, he was sure he cried for all of them.
The grim reaper pulled his white and gold mask off while calling her name. His face morphed into someone and his voice changed as well. He called her one more time before the woman's eyes opened and immediately landed on his face.
She beamed at him with her usual sparkly eyes and wide lips. The grim reaper helped her up, holding her hand while her gaze was fixed on him.
"Do you have any lingering things you want to do first?" he asked her.
She nodded. "My child... I want to properly say goodbye first."
"Go but make it quick." The grim reaper released his hold on her hand and she walked to the next door room.
The angel wordlessly followed her as if on instinct to do so. He wanted to give them space but he also wanted to stay by their side even until the very last moment. So that if ever there come a chance that the young man would wonder what his mother might have felt during her last moments, he could convey it to him.
She sat on his bed, leaning over the young man she raised alone. She ran her fingers upon his forehead, brushing the raven strands while watching him sleep.
"I have to go first, my sweet child. You have always been the light that I never knew I needed. I love you so much. And whatever the future might hold for you, I will forever be proud to have you as my son."
She kissed him for the last time, adding, "Having you is the happiest moments in my life."
After they returned, the woman looked back where her body laid motionless. She sighed as she approached it, tidied her bed hair and smoothen the blanket over her body, making it look like she fell into an undisturbed peaceful sleep.
"Is that all you want to do?" the grim reaper asked once more.
"Please make sure he finds the safe under the floor boards beneath my bed," she answered straightforwardly. "The documents of the house and lot and a saving account in his name are all in there. I wanted to make sure he's set even after I'm gone."
"Iㅡ" the angel suddenly said, as if he was jolted awake. "I can help with that. That child has always been good in listening to what I say."
The woman acknowledge his offer.
"Let's go." The grim reaper held his hand to her again but she shook her head then turned to the dejected angel.
"Thank you for always being with me," she said softly, noting his large frame and the delicate features of his sad face. "And my son too."
"I only did what I have to." The angel answered in a loud voice, surprising even himself. "I only did... what I can."
A tear rolled down his cheek and the woman reached up to brush it away.
"I know. I always knew there was someone with me. Whenever I feel down or alone, there will always be a sense of comfort that will envelope me soon after. Even in my darkest days, I felt it. At first I thought it might be my parents but somehow, it was different. And I was right. It was you all along."
She smiled at the angel and placed both her palms on his shoulders to pull him down her eye level. He let her and he knelt down in front of her, succumbing to his current emotions.
"So, tell me, is true that there's really a place full of blooming flowers waiting for us?" she asked looking down at the crying angel.
He nodded, sniffling and wiping his own tears. "Yes, there are many kinds of beautiful things out there. And you get to enjoy them to your heart's content."
"That's good to know. Thank you again." She leaned forward, giving him a peck on each of his cheek and a tight hug. Like the ones she often do to her son.
The angel returned the gesture before releasing her to the waiting grim reaper.
She accepted the reaper's hand and slowly a blinding tunnel opened. The reaper guided her towards its entrance. While doing so, she looked back one last time to wave at the angel before letting the grim reaper pull her into the light.
When the tunnel closed, the angel was left staring at the wall where his person disappeared into, muttering to himself.
"Next time, I hope to see you happily playing in that field full of flowers."
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