Crossroads by Mary Ting Page B

at all. During the time of war, the fallen captured
many alkins, including children. I rescued her from them so I take
responsibility for taking care of her—not that anyone else
wouldn’t—but yes, she is attached to me.”
    “ Since you can’t stay long
in my world, is that why I can’t stay in your world?”
    “ Yes. Crossroads is like a
second Heaven, or a place between Heaven and Earth. When humans are
in a state of coma, or have near death experiences, their souls may
wander, and sometimes they drift there, but they never cross over
to Halo City.”
    “ Unlike me,” I
murmured.
    “ Yes, unlike you. And
because you are the first, we are taking precautions; that’s why we
make you leave as quickly as possible, for your sake.”
    As I realized we were halfway home, I
became anxious, wondering how long he would stay with me, so I
changed the subject. “Will I see you again?”
    “ As your guardian angel, I
can come to you if you are in danger. I don’t want to scare you,
but you need to know the truth. They are after you for some reason,
and we suspect the only reason is that you had contact with us.
They can sense you easily now since you’ve been touched by an
angel, thanks to Davin.”
    I turned slightly to smell myself. I
wondered how I smelled to him. He chuckled loudly as he noticed
what I was doing. “No, not like smelling you,” he said laughing.
“Let me try to explain. Humans have five senses, some maybe six.
Angels have a lot more, and some more than others. Just like
humans, we were not created to have the same talents.”
    “ Wow,” I said, as I
recalled the miracles I had witnessed. Julia putting me under her
spell, turning herself from a fog-like creature into a snake,
Michael knowing the combination to my lock, Caleb putting the
storage room back the way it was, and their overall speed and
strength. I was sure I had only seen a glimpse of what they were
capable of doing.
    Then “touched by an angel” came to
mind. When Davin held me at the Crossroads to make me feel better,
he whispered in my ear that he would be in a whole lot of trouble
for what he was doing. And I remembered that there was a light
glowing, surrounding us, which instantly calmed my nerves. Now I
knew what Michael meant by being touched by an angel.
    I had already asked him so many
questions and began to wonder if he was getting tired of answering
them. He didn’t give me any hint that he wanted me to stop, so I
continued. “Can I ask you another question?” I asked
politely.
    “ Sure. Ask away. I’ve got
all night, I think.” His brow was angled, his eyes uncertain, not
really knowing how long he could safely stay on Earth.
    “ I was wondering if the
fallen has a leader or someone they report to.”
    He held a steady gaze into my eyes and
whispered, “The devil.”
    In sheer panic, my heart started
racing, and I couldn’t keep up. Either Michael realized how fast my
heart was beating, or fear was clearly written all over my face. He
placed one hand on my cheek and gave me a serious look. “I’m so
sorry. I was just joking,” he said seriously, trying to hold back a
grin.
    Initially, I was in shock that he
could joke around like this; then I couldn’t believe he was
touching my face so tenderly the way he did. Afterward, I gave him
a hard stare.
    “ Sorry,” he said again,
smiling innocently.
    At times like this, it was easy to
forget that he was not human. Regardless, I couldn’t resist his
smile. I let out a nervous laugh because anyone would be better
than the devil. He put his hand down, and we started walking
again.
    “ His name is Aden,”
Michael said gravely.
    “ Aden,” I repeated. It
wasn’t the name itself that frightened me; just knowing that
someone that evil had a name gave me the creeps.
    “ Have you ever seen him
before?”
    “ Yes. He was one of the
Twelve Angels. Aden was reassigned to Halo City just like Phillip,
Margaret, and Agnes. But he rebelled. He believed we should