Angels and Demons

The Guardianship Ceremony

"Bernadette, come on!" the voice of my older sister, Henrietta, called from outside my bedroom. "You're gonna be late to your own ceremony!"

"I'm coming, Henrietta!" I yelled as I finished adjusting my headdress. "Just give me a minute."

If you may recall, the greatest honor any angel could have was becoming a Guardian Angel when they finally became of age. Well, I had just had my 28th annual cycle, or as you humans refer to as a birthday. This meant that I was finally of age to receive my wings, my divine gift, and my first Guardian Assignment. I have been waiting for this moment for twelve years now, and I knew I had to set a proper example for nit just my family, but for all the other angels in Heaven and the Souls of the Departed.

I had finished getting ready for my Guardianship Ceremony and went to show my older sister that I was finally ready, but the stern look on her face was proving much otherwise.

"Look at you:" Henrietta began to judge my appearance. "Halo unpolished, feathers ruffled?"

I rolled my eyes at her as I fixed my tail feathers. "Just be glad I covered up my freckles."

"I still don't get why you're so insecure about them." she rolled her eyes and pulled me out of my room. "I mean, your friend has her mole."

"Yeah, but that makes Claudine look more professional." I remarked.

"Come on." Hen told me. "Gloria won't be pleased if we're late."

We walked our way across the Heavenly Sky, in this obvious case the clouds above the Land of the Living, to get to the Great Hall of Judgement, where I was to be presented in front of the Lord and given my first Guardian Angel assignment. My mother and older sisters before me all had their first assignments given there, and now it was my turn to receive my first one. I was a little nervous but had to hide it. It's unnatural for an angel to be nervous, after all. All my sisters knew that.

Once we got to the Great Hall of Judgement, Henrietta and I were escorted behind a large gold curtain. Where we saw our other two sisters, Evangeline and Cornelia waiting on us.

Evangeline was about a decade younger than Henrietta and was blessed with our mother's beautiful golden hair, blue eyes, and rather curvaceous body. She was the more energetic of the four of us, always making us smile whenever we're feeling down. Which explains why she was gifted the gift of joy, which gives her the ability to show her humans' their deepest and most joyful desires to keep their spirits up.

Cornelia, on the other hand, was about five years older than me and only three years younger than Evangeline. She had the same auburn hair as me, but the same green eyes as father. She also inherited our father's healing powers, but with her assignments, she never got the chance to heal her humans' broken hearts. Cornelia says that she's cursed and is rather dark about her assignments, always saying that her humans were too pathetic or lonely to deserve to have an angel. Unfortunately, she was mostly right, because every human she had either committed suicide or had died tragically while she was guarding them. It's sad, and I only hope she gets a better and more lucky assignment.

As for our eldest sister, Henrietta was the more professional one out of my sisters, you all just read that. She inherited mother's disregard for anything fun unless it was about a guardian assignment and our father's white hair and striking green eyes. She kept everything in line in our family, especially whenever I used to sneak off to the Underworld. In short, she was as the humans like to call, a snitch. And it doesn't really help that she has the gift of tongues, an unfortunate and annoying gift that allows her to get humans to confess their secrets and snitching on themselves.

As for me, well, I had no gift. Yet. I was told that a few months after receiving my first assignment, I would be able to receive my gift, just like all the others did when they received their first assignments. Which could range from anything, from an inherited ability from my parents or a whole unrelated ability. I just had to be patient, that's all.