War Angel
Chapter One: Disgust
The wall behind me rumbled as the angry swarm of deadly bullets assaulted it. I hid behind my knees and covered my ears, praying for it to end quickly. Shouts and confusion enveloped a small group of soldiers as bullets rained down on them. I sat, weeping in the corner trying not to watch them. The first soldier fell to the ground, clutching his dying body, willing to pick himself up and fight for his country once more. That is when he saw me.
I sat motionless in the corner as we stared at each other. Everything went silent in the chaos for an instant. He began to reach out towards me as a faint smile spread across his tortured face. Then bullets screamed through yet another soldier and hit the wall directly behind me shattering the stone behind my back. The man turned to see the cruel world around him once more but when he turned back, I was gone.
I ran, screaming, my sadness upon the attacking men. I wanted to rip their hearts out and blind them with their own painful bullets. They were killing fathers, brothers, husbands, sons. Didn't they see the pain they brought into the world and didn't they see the fate they have brought to those few men protecting what they had left of each other, wouldn't they see that that very fate was to be brought down upon them also? I hated it. The whole idea of war disgusted me as it had no meaning. The only thing war was supposed to do was to eliminate humanity; to extinguish its number and population only for more children to be brought up to kill each other over and over again. Some sick form of entertainment.
My screams didn't reach them. I stood behind the man raining the most bullets upon that group. I wrapped my arms around the man's shoulders and cried into his back.
"Please stop." I was unheard to his ears. I hugged tighter only to find myself crying louder. I was only thrown back into the world I tried to leave along with its horrific memories. That person said I have a mission, that there was a job for me and I couldn't leave. If this was the job for myself then I don't want it, I would have rather burned in the depths of darkness than have to live this cruel life again.
I could hear the dying man's cry over the screeching machine guns around me. He called to me. I left the man I had my arms around and ran further away. Chaos was everywhere. The city was abandoned in panic and the sadness it left behind came crashing into my mind. If you could find evidence of a peaceful time here, you would have found a miracle. I saw no miracles here or in any other battles. I only felt the fear and panic of the soldiers on either side of me as they became sacrifices to their own country's desires and everything under the grey, muggy skies.
Chapter two: Peace?
My death was fast. I had been escaping with my family before the invasion of my city. The sirens had begun to scream early in the morning. My mother cried as she hurriedly gathered my two younger brothers out of bed. I packed a rough bag of clothes and forced my sleepy body out onto the icy streets just as everyone else did. My little brothers grasped at my nightgown. Mother was behind us when the rush of uneasy citizens hit the street. We all moved in one direction; East.
The neighboring countries had already agreed to house the families fleeing from the rubble. All we had to do was get there. There had been previous evacuations done by the opposing military; however, tonight seemed different from the moment I stepped onto the streets. People didn't stay calm, they ran towards the train station.
"Where did Momma go?"
I didn't have time to confirm our mothers whereabouts before the first gunshot rang out into the dark sky. That's all it took and people panicked. I heard the first screams and felt the crushing of stampeding bodies. The two tiny hands grasped firmly in mine seemed so far away as I tried pulling my brothers closer to me.
We were to slow, I found the three of us began to fall behind as the crowd thinned. The machines behind us grew louder and soon metal monsters and guns mounted in trucks appeared over the last of the heads. It was no longer an evacuation. Bullets rained down on us and I heard a screech accompanied by the jolt in my right hand. My littlest brother collapsed to the ground, lifeless. I screamed out, scooping up his his limp body into my arms and ran with my brother dragging along behind. People had no pity in the blindness of panic. Bullets found their marks with deadly accuracy. There was no way to escape the horror. I pushed my brother into a corner and covered him with my body. We sat there, clinging to each other with our youngest still, lifeless brother and waited.
The machines didn't go away and the screams grew faint. We could hear the soldiers raiding everything around us. The thud of their boots and the clicking of machines told us we were not yet safe. My brother didn't dare move for fear of being found. It made no difference.
I remember their rough hands dragging us out. My brother kicking and screaming but a blunt thrust to the back of his head silenced him. I screamed and began biting and kicking. They took my brothers from me. Rage blinded me. That's when I felt the first hit. It hit me through the lung. I gasped and the raging energy took over. I fell over my dead brother, bleeding over him and cried. A soldier pointed a gun at the back of my head and I looked him in the eye. I don't know what I did but he pulled back the gun; pain controlling his face. I felt another gun at the back of my head and I died, staring at the sad man.
Chapter Three: Confusing
"Get up now."
The sound unrecognizable to me yet comforting. I couldn't hear anything nor could I see it. Nothing was everything, forever invisible to my senses. I felt calm, drifting through nothingness. How long was I there? It didn't matter, nothing mattered anymore. Then I felt it. What was it? A hand. Stroking my hair? Yes, my bead rested in someone's lap as they stroked my hair. I silently played with the zippers on the dark green cargo pants. There was grass now, too and sunlight.
"You have to go back." Said a voice. I don't want to. I like it here. Is this what peaceful is? My new white dress glowed in the sunlight as I looked up. The sun blurred their face but I had a feeling I knew them.
"Is that you, Papa?"
Gone. I shuddered on the broken remains of what looked like a playground. A dark, grey sky hung itself over a damaged city. Dazed and confused I stood up to find my naked body covered with dirt and scratches. Where was I? Someone ran past me. I turned and found myself in front of a massive tank. I screeched and ran before it could crush me. Now men were everywhere. No, not men, soldiers were running through the streets, killing each other in a mess of confusion.
"Grenade!"
The explosion wiped out fifteen men easily. As the chaos moved on, my body was indestructible. I walked over them.tears in my eyes, I looked down and recognized the closest face. I bent down and stroked his bloody cheek without thinking.
Chapter Four: Lost
The days merged for me. They were always that same muggy dawn without the sunrise. War zone after war zone. I don't know how I managed to wander every mile I did and still end up in another war field. I went from desert scenes immediately to some modern world torn apart by the same machines in every place. Different faces. Same results.
The people around me continued to see through me, deaf to my cries. I wandered around meaninglessly. I don't no how long it's been since I began wandering but every now and then I catch a glimpse of the future. That future; however, to me is never coming. I cannot recognize what it is about these glimpses that proves my future, but every time I see it, the tightness in my chest grows and the fear in the pit of my stomach threatens my whole body to flee. Yet, within these battlefields, I have found that I fear the only place I feel I belong. Beside these dying soldiers, I feel I have some sort of connection with them. I see their souls and occasionally they see me too, but I run. When someone smiles at me or moves towards me, I run away.
I drift, pained by their cries. Are they trapped here like me? What did we ever do to deserve endless torture? I was different. Not matter how hard I tried to connect with them, I couldn't. I knew I was here forever, but something told me I had to do something. It wasn't fair. What was I supposed to do?
Chapter Five: Despair
In my daze of wondering, I stumble into yet another war. The old village had been destroyed but bombs and tanks. Landmines covered every square foot of the earth and I hid once again in the corner as soldiers were shredded. Time and more time passed me as I remained in the same battle. Someone was humming. That comforting voice? It was in my mind, as clear as the sun I used to know. Easily heard over the screaming of missiles and roar of machine guns.
Then, that streak of white light passed my eyes again. The same glimpse of my future. The fear clasped at my throat and I covered my ears to stop the humming, but it was inside. I screamed and threw myself away from the piercing white light. That humming, the fear, the flashes. I chased them wildly grasping at the tattered jacket I was given when I first awoke. The fear boiled into anger, anger into hatred. i chased with the will to die.
I saw the final flashing glimpse of my future and it overwhelmed me. I looked down at the sudden pain in my chest to see a crimson flow running down the jacket. I turned back in shock. a man dropping his rifle. A man running to see me as I stumbled. A man who just tried to kill me, trying to save my life. This man was my father. Did he really see me? Was my father the only person alive who could see me? If so, why did he shoot me? I stepped out of my hiding place to see my father clutching at his only troop's chest. His troop was dying. I hugged my father's back, crying when I felt a hand of my head. The strong clear brown eyes of that man stroking my hair. "I'll tell him, you're safe." The spirit of my father looked down at my weeping real father.
The white flashed by again and I was blinded. War. I cannot stop it. I screamed out and grasped at the man my father shot. " Stay here! Protect my father!" He cradled my face, stroking my hair. "Don't let him die! Please, he's all I have left to protect." I sobbed into the poor man's bleeding chest.
"Your daughters here." Whispered the dying man to my real father. "She's a sweet girl."
My father sobbed as he tried to stop the blood flowing. I knew it was meaningless. I cried, knowing this man couldn't protect my father. I cried, knowing the fate of my father was going to meet him soon. I could do nothing. The man's soul drifted as he drew his last breath. His hand reached out and patted my head. "Stay strong," He pulled a chain from his pocket and fastened it around my neck. I looked at it and saw that on it was a locket, rusted shut from age.
Chapter Six:Hope
Again, the white flash, but now I stood and faced it. It stood and faced me. My eyes adjusted to the blinding light only to find a frail body draped in white. Her entire being was as light as air. She held out her hand and I backed away, but she followed. I stood behind my father's soul and she stood next to a different man's soul. He smiled at her then looked at me and nodded. They clasped hands and she lifted him up into the grey sky, vanishing with a glow of sunshine.
My future flew away with that soul. I kissed my father. Tears flowed from my weary eyes. I stepped away. "I have to go, Papa." Just as I turned, I saw him nod his head. The words he muttered through his lips brought tears again and I turned and hugged him for the last time. I ran, not because of fear this time. I answered him. "I'll be okay..."
Chapter Seven: Power
I stepped onto the field. The raging fire inside of me still from the future I now had under control, but I could feel it burning me from the inside, out.The excitement that once filled my body was giving way to reality once again that I had not been prepared for.
Once I had seen it, the white light flashes were every where. Were they always there and I had only ignored them? Or was it something within myself that had revealed the truth of my existence after life?
That's when I saw her. Her golden curls bobbing in her own glow of light. The pure white dress draped over her perfect, creamy skin, those blue, blue eyes that tore into mine. The light that shone from her was unimaginably pure. She moved gracefully over the ruins towards me, jumping from one rooftop to another with nothing more than a step. On toes, I anxiously waited for her to draw nearer. I was captivated. Her hand stretched out to my cheek and from it I could feel a warmth inside of me spreading from my face and down to my toes and with that warmth came the light. It also spread over my body and everything was being washed away.
Slowly, my eyes opened and in the blinding light I could make out The beautiful white, fluffy wings sprouting from the girl's back. How badly I wished they were mine and what I could do to get them. I could feel her lifting my sad memories of the battlefield away one by one, leaving nothing but pure happiness.
The fire that burned inside of me lowered it's power to a soft light. The girl raised her other hand to my face and I felt my body become energetic with the thought of real peace. Her eyes bored into mine. Memory by memory, I was purified, my fears erased and my troubles forgotten as my own wings rose behind me.That man's face. The soldiers that smiled at me with outstretched arms. The blood running from my chest and my father's terrified look. The light inside me stopped and for a moment my gaze was diverted to my glowing body.
"NO!" I wrapped my arms around myself in panic as my precious jacket and locket faded away. I was forgetting them. All those men, fighting for no cause, killing each other and not knowing why. The icy grip on my flames reminded me of what I was here for in the first place.
Had this angel come before me when I first awoke, I would have welcomed her grace with open arms and crying eyes, but this felt wrong. My naked body trembled as I became ashamed to think I almost left everything behind. Those battlefields that had become a part of me, they were drawing me back to them, reminding me that I had something to do.
Chapter Eight: Beginning
I tore away the white dress that had draped itself over my body. Nothing that wasn't of the battle's memory would touch me from this moment on. My hand grasped at the locket around my neck and I pulled the jacket around me tighter. The fire was back and it fought the angel's light.
She pulled back instantly as the touch of my skin burned her, her eyes wild with surprise. The glow lingered on my body still and she smiled. The smile was one of relief. She no longer touched me. In fact, she looked longingly at me as though to hug me. She stepped back and she was no longer in front of me, but above me. She blew a kiss and was gone. I stood, amazed of the events. The feeling flowing back into my body and suddenly a shell exploded next to me. I stared straight, confused. I felt light; if I could fly, I would have, but I rejected the wings. I knew why I was here and so did the girl.Bullets rained down all around me and for the first time, the white flashes stopped one by one. There were five of them. Eyes staring at me. White dresses and suits. Pure, perfect wings fluttering; and my ragged worn out jacket and forgotten man's locket. At first they were unsure of me, but one tiny little, girl, she walked up to me fearlessly, took my hand and we ran.
We ran. Not for our live; for the lives of the lost soldiers. This little girl, messy brown hair, wild eyes, and a cheeky grin; she knew why I was here.
I learned from the others quickly. I watched them as they took the hands of past soldiers and guided them onward. I guided them to the lost soldiers and they guided the lost onward to peace. My feet never leaving the ground and their wings escorting the soldiers to the skies. Together we were there alongside all fighting men. We were there for them with open arms and smiling faces.
The End