Chapter One: My Soul Mate
"I sought for Love
But Love ran away from me.
I sought my Soul
But my Soul I couldn't see.
Then I sought You,
And I found all three."-Unknown
“It was about, I’d say, 12 years ago. I had never seen a heart more beautiful and more fragile than hers.” The night and its eternal darkness swept around him, alone was crested upon his forehead. “I never wanted any harm to come to her. I just wanted her to be safe. I wanted to protect her, always.”
It was a serene night, with a warm gentle breeze that blew through the trees, just enough for them to begin their intoxicating song. He sat amongst the branches of a very old and lagging willow tree. It was a perfect spot to spy on her with his big and beautiful gray eyes.
She was 7 then, a wonderful age, he thought. She was an orphan before she was adopted, by a rich and wealthy family, which nearly owned half the town. He was all she had, up until her adoption. He remembered late at night, she would wait for him, and open her bedroom window. He would listen to her, no matter what she had said. She talked about her dreams most oftenly. About how some day, he would come for her and take her away from everything that was bad. He was her prince. “Angel,” is what she called him, so it was Angel, he was named. He too longed to take her away, from everything that would one day come to harm her. But there was no way for him to stay with her. The last night, before her adoption, he came to visit her, one last time.
“I thought you would never come.” She said, embracing him softly with her feathery soft arms. There had been tears dangling from the corners of her eyes, which slid down her cheeks, and finally to the floor.
“I will always come.” He said. He wiped the sides her face with his gloved fingertip. “You know that I would never leave you…”
She smiled, that same irresistibly unforgettable smile, that he found was all too hard to look at.
“Tell me of you dreams, my love.” Kneeling before her, he waited for her to answer, but instead, she frowned. And for the split moment, he felt the whole world broke into pieces, like shattered glass. He had never seen her unhappy, and his heart stung, as if she had stabbed him. ”What is the matter, my love? Were your dreams bad?” He gently wrapped her hair around her ear, which had fallen in her face, blocking the view of her remarkably beautiful green eyes. Though he hated the sight of her tears, they seemed to enhance the beauty of her eyes.
“No. I did not have scary dreams, Angel…it’s just that…” She turned to look at her room. Looking beyond her, he noticed everything had been packed up. All of her toys and dolls had been put into large moving boxes. All of the artwork he had become so fond of had been taken down off her walls. The room was bare, all except the bed she was to sleep on. “ I was adopted, Angel. It’s a really nice family. They have a big backyard, and they said I get to pick out a puppy. I can’t wait to live in my new house. They have lots of pretty rose plants that I can pick flowers from….” The tears began to flow more heavily than before, making her unable to speak.
“I thought you wanted to have a new family, my love. Why are you so sad?” He asked, wiping the tears away from her eyes.
She looked up at him. Staring deeply into his soul. The tears still poured from her eyes like the rivers that flowed in the Garden of Eden. So beautiful, so holy and pure. “It’s not that Angel. I don’t know if I will ever get to see you again! I don’t want to leave you Angel! I love you!” She embraced him, this time, with more loving force than he had ever felt. All around, the earth stopped moving. Everything ceased to exist; all he wanted to do was hold her. And he did. He held her, lovingly against his chest, running his fingers through her velvet blond hair.
“Please my love. I will always be here. No matter where you are. I will be in your dreams, and one day, I will come and take you away. Just like you have always dreamed.” He stood her out in front of him. She stared up at him with such admiration, and such love, that he smiled. “I have to go now, but know…” Before he finished, he cupped his hands around her tiny face, and pressed his lips sweetly to hers. The breeze swept around them, passion and destiny unfolding, swirling and diving in an endless array of romance; there wasn’t a love that would ever out match theirs. He pulled away, slowly, savoring every moment of this painting of sweet bliss. “I will always be watching.” From behind him, he handed her a single red rose. She grasped it in her fragile hands, and smiled.
She handed him her favorite hair ribbon. “I noticed your hair always blows all over the place. This always helped me… do not forget me, Angel, please?”
“I will never forget you...my love.” He kissed her forehead, and disappeared into the night sky holding tightly to the tiny pink ribbon. He watched her from afar, as she held the rose to her heart, returned to her bed, and retired.
He waited for her to fall asleep. She was dreaming now, far away. Long past her child years, being carried off by her prince.
“They are only dreams now, my love. But soon, I will come, and we can be together, I promise.” He pulled back his hair, and wrapped the ribbon and ending it in a bow. And with that, he walked along the streets, alone. But not without the ambition that he would see her time...soon...
“Gimpy?” A voice called to him. He heard the call, but was too involved in his memory to call back.
“Gimpy, Gimpy do you hear me?” Again, the voice called, but the memory was just too beautiful…he must stay asleep….he must…
“GIMPY WAKE YOUR PRETTY DAMN SELF UP!” Screamed to voice, and he jumped from the seat at which he was sitting, and fell to the floor. “Finally, my gosh man, you sleep like a boulder!” The deep voice he recognized at once, his brother, Jack-A-Nape. Who, on normal accounts, is known only as Kain Sebastian Boch. He was cool, calm, and collective, during the day. And a God damned women hell hound. Who lived only to please women, and then please himself with their bodily organs. He was sexy as God could make a person, which made women, weak at the sight of him. Kain was very popular among the women, but he had his way just the same with men. He loved his brother, but hated him ten times more.
“I told you to let him lie there. He’s going to go all hey-wire when he realizes that Gilead is already well on her way to her job.” It was a women’s voice this time. Parafinnium Jacoba, his sister. She was the most sinister of the three of them. She preferred only women, and works in a Dominatrix house, where she oftenly found her victims. Beautiful young women, who were virgins before she, got a hold of them.
“You stupid fucks! You aren’t supposed to let her out alone! You should have gone with her!” He yelled.
“I don’t see why you are so worried about her. She’s just another human, besides, if she fails, we kill her, and get a new one. Simple as that. I wouldn’t mind getting rid of her this instant. I know some very acceptable women who I’m sure wouldn’t mind taking her spot.” Kain added. He had never truly “liked,” Gilead, but she got her job done quick, quiet, and simple.
“She WON’T fail, and we WON’T kill her. Now if you’ll excuse me, I am going to make sure she is all right. If the police or anyone found out what she was doing, it could lead back to us. And I’m sure this is something you don’t want happening. You would think after 800 years, they would find out what we are doing, I sure by now, they have caught on.” Angel added importantly.
“Well, lucky for us, there aren’t any 800 year old police after us.” Jacoba announced, and Kain snickered.
“Don’t be too sure of yourself, sister. If the almighty has found a way to keep us on earth to serve him, The Sacred Meiji have found people themselves, put on earth to serve them. I am for certain they are still at large.” Angel had had enough, as smart as they were; they still had much to learn about life, or, at least, unlife.
Angel walked out into the dark of the night, bent on finding out where Gilead had gotten herself. This gave him plenty of time to think. A task he had a hard time doing without thinking of Gilead. She had grown so much over the many years, and it had been a blessing to witness it. It was a bothersome that he could not recount his true feelings for her to her very face, but instead, live a lie in this whirlwind maze of heartache. He wished everything could be as it was. That 7-year-old girl that waited for his visit every night. But he knew, all his memories would stay just a forgotten page in history that would haunt the depths of his soul until her very passing; and from there he would spend his nights mourning over his lost love one. His soul mate. Yet it hurt him to have her so close, and yet, at the same time, so far away. Every night he would watch her, sleeping in peaceful harmony, knowing she would never know. Never know about her past, lost in the present, and searching blindly for her future. And he could do nothing to stop this madness. If anyone knew what he had felt for her, he could not protect her any longer. He had a mission himself, this unholy ball and chain dragging him deeper into sorrow.
Lost in his own dismay, Angel looked up and down the ally ways hoping desperately to find Gilead. Sure enough, there she was. Standing silently over a body sprawled out over the floor. The clattering of the knife swam through the ally way as she dropped it to the floor. She did not move, almost searching for the ability to cry. Angel approached cautiously, as she stared blankly at the dead man’s body.
As he stood directly next to her, she spoke. “He didn’t even scream, I wonder why?”
It sounded to angel as if she presented him a question, and yet, as if some satisfactory understanding was something she had hoped to receive.
It was as if...he had expected it...” She bent down and thrusted the dead body on her shoulder. “He will never again be able to re-think his thoughts on life. I have stolen every emotion that he will ever feel. But do I care? I am uncertain. I don’t know why I don’t feel sorry for him, maybe there is something wrong with me. Is there, Angel?”
He just stared at her. Sadly, there was something wrong with her, and even more sadly, it was entirely his fault. Sure, he would have her for the rest of her life. But she will never again be able to laugh, or cry, or even smile for that matter. It was decided a long time ago that she must be flushed clean of every emotion she was capable of feeling. She must be cleansed of every past memory she held dear. But he would give up his heart, his soul and every power he possessed just to change it.
“Angel? I asked you a question, is there something wrong with me?” She asked. Her voice was monotone, and it frightened him.
“Forgive me, Gilead, but there is something wrong with you. You ask too many questions. Now, lets get back home before someone sees you.” He pushed her foreword a bit, just so she would start walking. His heart was drowning in agony as he watched her walk, without care, without life, without anything. She was just a body. He spent his life protecting her, and now he had turned her into a thoughtless, emotionless, zombie. And he hated himself for it.
When they arrived at home, Gilead tossed the dead body upon the counter. Silently, without question or regards, exited to her room.
“What’s with her?” asked Jacoba.
“She’s always like that. But, hey, I like her like that. Gilead, are you hungry? I’m for certain there is plenty for you.” Kain asked, a giant smile wedge across his face.
Angel shot him a look of disgust. Taking away her memory was far too much, but mocking her was beyond the limitations.
“No thank you, Sir. I am afraid I must turn down your offer, and retire.” She gave a short bow, and walked up the dark oak stairs to her room.
“Trade her for someone new? I think not.”
Angel regarded, and walked up the stairs after Gilead.
Gilead sat in the darkness, the only light seemed to emanate from one single lighten candle. She stared at it, expression less, watching the flame flicker from her every breath. She looked helplessly around the room. Searching for something, anything that she could find, but there was nothing. She got up and began undressing.
Angel watched her. Her naked body clearly defined by the candle’s light. He wanted nothing more than to hold her right now, and tell her everything would be alright, and everything would be better. And then, make love to her. Show her that she is not some mindless slave, but a woman full of passion, the women he had always known her to be. But instead...
“Your boobs seem to get bigger every time I see you.” He said perverted like. This was the only interaction he could have with her. Playing the perverted freak she had known him to be. But he wasn’t a freak, and he wasn’t perverted. He wished he could scream it out to the whole world how much his heart longer for hers. In hopes that, she too, felt the same. But, he knew that it would never be. For her ability to love, was far from found.
She stared at him, not taken aback from him watching her in such an unformal meeting. “I do not understand your humor, you had just seen me last night. I do not think that my body can grow in a matter of one day.”
“Oh but it can. I can tell every small detail about your body.”
She put on her silk bathrobe, which he had insisted that she wear at night, for it had enhanced the beauty of her perfectly elegant body. She stared at him.
A cold shot ran through his body. That stare, that same face. The one he had seen all those years ago. It had to have been mere coincidence that she stare at him this way. For he was certain that she would never remember that night. He walked up close to her, staring deep into her eyes. Those beautiful fields of endless plant life. He reached behind him, as he had done before, and pulled out a rose, identical to the one he had given her those so many years ago. She reached for it and braced its body with both her hands. Nestled safely on top of his, and that same warming glow that had emanated from their first kiss, swept around the room as if being able to walk for the first time. He could not bare it, and let go, turning from her with such force, that it blew her hair in front of her face. He turned to see her, but all he saw is the face of the little girl he promised to protect, he promised to always watch over. Those big beautiful eyes, the long silky blond hair, and her body made of pure porcelain. He felt himself compelled to her, like raindrops on a winter morning. He extended his arm and gently placed her hair around her ears, so her face was not covered by it. Angel reached down into his pocket and pulled out a small piece of satin pink ribbon. He pulled her hair back and tied the ribbon around it. Her cheek so close to his, their skin just barely touching. He felt his body heat rising, his heart was racing; it had been so long since he had been this close to her.
“Where did this come from?” she asked solemnly.
He smiled at her. And yet, it was fake, though, she would never tell. “Someone very close to me, so take care of it for me.” He added.
Angel bowed shortly and bid her goodnight. He opened the door, only to catch a glimpse of her press the rose sweetly to her heart, and lay her head down to fall asleep. “ I am going to keep my promise, my love...”
