SUNNYVALE

(82) THE STORY OF THE ANGEL IN LOVE

Crystal finds herself  propelled into Ingrid's memories, and not just some random ones: 

As the angel was then twelve years old, she was sitting on her own in what looked like a classroom, as each kid was assigned to a particular seat, away from each other. Not sure to have guessed right, Crystal also thought she had recognised baby Danielle, Pernille and Nichelle, as well as another girl - probably their friend Kadi, who hasn't showed up in Sunnyvale yet - maybe she was dead too, just like Danielle and Lieke. 

Before them, another angel-kid was getting beaten by their master, pulling feathers out of their wings one by one, making the pain last longer. The other kids were staring at the ground, afraid they might be next. 

Ali Krieger enters the room, followed by Alyssa Naeher, who seemed to enjoy the pain she was feeling all around the room.

"This is what happens when you small and meaningless angels don't follow orders of the divinity" Ali exclaims, in quite a mood this day. While Ingrid stares at the ground, Ali walks toward her, grabs her chin, makes her look up, before saying: "You, come with me."

Nodding her head slowly, Ingrid follows her out of the room, before facing the older woman, the Goddess of Creation, who was messing with young angel's heads since forever.

Smirking because of how shy the little girl was, Ali just grabs her chin and orders:

"Look at me in the eyes, and tell me what you were created for, girl"

Ingrid directly follows the order, before saying in a low voice:

"Serve the Goddess and the higher-ranked celestials, even if it means I die"

"Good girl" the brunette lets out, letting go of Ingrid's chin. While the latter looks down, Ali adds: "You are a promising one, Engen - just not good enough, not quite as good as Leòn."

Ingrid nods her head, beaten.

The scenery then changes, as Crystal feels her whole body being filled with eternal pain and then nothing, as if Ingrid had suppressed all the pain and sorrows from when she was 12 and more and felt just nothing - or didn't allow herself to feel anything else than boredom and void. 

Crystal's body seems to be propelled into a sensation of a big dive, until she sees Ingrid, three years later, feeling something for the first time.

"Angels have soulmates, Ingrid" Mapi says, while they, along with Pernille and Nichelle, were having a break from a security round of the Silver City. 

"I know, but I just can't see how that would happen to me - I don't have a heart, remember?" Ingrid lets out, annoyed.

While their friends and them were fading a little, Crystal's body changes directly, as if she was diving into yet another scene, where Ingrid was only a few months older than the last small memory. 

Ingrid and Mapi were flying over Sunnyvale a few years back, sent by their masters in order to verify everything was normal within Heaven and Hell's mock town, that emprisoned the souls and personas that were not worthy of inhabiting in neither. Lost people - most of them humans, or so they thought - wandering a city that did not properly exist. 

There had been a disturbance within the timeline of Sunnyvale this morning, hence the two angel's presence. As they were flying over the city, they chose to land near Eastside High School, where the descendants of heavenly creatures were attending the local school. The air was heavy and the sky was blue - it was noon.

This is when Ingrid saw Julie Johnston for the first time.

The effect was quite immediate and so strong that it took the dark-haired by surprise (Crystal can feel it throughout her body) : it was like she had seen the sun for the first time, as well as the warm feeling it would make people feel on their skin. Julie's long, wavy blonde hair and her intense blue gaze immediately made her lose her breath, as her cheerleader's outfit would only highlight her body's perfect shape, that immediately attracted Ingrid in a way she did not know she could be attracted to someone. Everything around the blonde seemed blurry, as Ingrid almost missed a step and caught the barrier in extremis. Mapi throws her a confused look, but when she sees her friend's eyes she immediately knows what is going on.

Ingrid blinks, as her best friend says, grabbing her arm:

"This is the most intense feeling you're ever going to feel, Ing" Mapi slowly says, knowing this feeling oh too well. As her friend throws her a terribly confused look, the blonde immediately adds: "No need to fight it: it will never go away."

As she looked on the verge of fainting, Ingrid just whispers:

"B-but, that's... impossible"

Mapi smirks. 

"Right, tell yourself that" she lets out, amused, "alright, we better inspect the West as well"

"Sure."

But, as Mapi immediately flies away, Ingrid just throws an ultimate look at the blonde, knowing very well that she will never be able not to look at her anymore...

Sighing, she follows Mapi onto the sky.

Crystal removes her hand from Ingrid's arms, tears rolling down her cheeks - what she witnessed was so beautiful, so strong, that it reminded her at what she was feeling toward Shelina.

She then stares at Julie, before smirking: if only she knew how much Ingrid loved her...

*** 

The streets were dark, as an abnormal fog was floating around the empty alley. 

Feathers were flying from the ground, up and down, until they would reach a body lying down on the ground. 

The young woman - or rather, creature, given her broken wings lying on the floor as well, as she was unable to put them back inside of her body - grunts, her chocolate brown hair tied in a ponytail softly brushing her face with the wind.

Wining in pain, she manages to get up, before staring at the sky, now only understanding that she could never go back from where she came. 

Her wings, absolutely silver-like, finally retract themselves, making her feel the pain even more, as the girl looks down at her hands. 

Inside, a little piece of paper she had written herself:

YOUR NAME IS JESSIE FLEMING, YOU LOST YOUR MEMORIES, YOU ARE HALF-ANGEL HALF-DEMON, YOU NEED TO FIND CRYSTAL DUNN AND SAMANTHA MEWIS IN SUNNYVALE - 

TRUST NO ONE