The Unseen

Chapter 12

"I'm...so...sorry," I kept repeating through tears.

I knew words meant nothing when you broke your promise and failed those around you whom you cared for the most, but that was the only thing I could think of saying. Maybe if I could have remembered the rest of my past, I could have tried to justify my actions, but as it was, all I had was guilt and an empty apology.

"Shh, it's okay, calm down," Andromalius kept repeating, gently stroking my hair. "You have nothing to apologize for. I would have rather suffered a thousand wounds than let anything happen to you."

That was when I realized he thought I was breaking apart because of the injuries he sustained. He couldn't see that I finally realized that the physical pain was nothing compared to what I did to him, how I betrayed him. The one person he trusted the most.

I lifted my head to look him in the eyes, annoyingly blushing while thinking how ridiculous I looked, all swollen up and red-eyed with a running nose and unstoppable tears. Yet he seemed so calm, unperturbed, sure of his words. It made me wonder if I was ever ready to get hurt for him.

If I was, how could I have chosen to leave him behind?

"I am not talking about that," I whispered, trying to stop my sniveling by breathing deeply between my sentences. "I am talking about the past."

"Do you remember everything now?" he exclaimed, leaping a little and jostling his wound. "Ouch."

"Are you okay?" I asked, panicking.

"I'm fine, don't worry," he said soothingly. "Being half-angel and half-demon has its perks. One of them is being able to heal quickly."

"Still, you have to stop moving or Grandma will have to stitch you up again," I said, getting into a sitting position so I could stop him if he tried to move recklessly again. "To answer your question, I don't remember everything. It's just one part of the memory, like one scene from the middle of a movie or something. I couldn't fully understand everything being said, but I finally know how I felt about you."

His eyes lit up in joy, which pained me more than I would have thought possible. How could he be happy that I remembered when I was the person who broke a promise to him?

"Felt?" he asked, joy and worry clashing in an ultimate battle led in his eyes.

"I am sorry that I didn't keep my promise to you," I said, ignoring the question I didn't know the answer to.

Did I still love him?

I didn't know if the warm feeling stirring in my chest, was love.

"What exactly did you remember?" he asked, confused by my words.

"I remembered us sitting under the cherry trees talking about this and that. That was when I told you I would never leave you. Forgetting all about you is the same as leaving, maybe even worse," I said, trying to hold back from another crying fit because that was the last thing either of us needed.

Instead of getting angry or criticizing me for what happened, Andromalius took a long, contemplative look at my expression.

He seemed to have concluded that I was enough of a mess for him to be able to hold me without me freaking out. Because the next thing I knew, he held me close, gently stroking my hair.

"Angela, I never believed even for a second that you abandoned me," Andromalius whispered, his breath tickling my ear, making it impossible to concentrate on his words. "When all the demons kept telling me that I was abandoned because I was worthless, that you had used me, I never believed them."

Hearing how he had been bullied made me cry even louder. However, his presence was also comforting because it meant that, from now on, I could protect him from all those evil tongues.