The Tenth Year

Chapter 2 - Gabe

It started as an itch at the back of my throat. The feeling steadily spread through my entire body, finally coming to rest at my eyes. Every time one of them turned I had the same feeling. I rolled my eyes, because it meant I had to leave the comfort of my bed soon.

I exhaled. Finding the strength to wake up that early in the morning always seemed so hard. Moving slowly I managed to pull the covers off me and dragged my feet to the wooden floor. I stood up and stretched, yawning deeply.

I never understood exactly how the Curse worked but I knew that much: People changed when they woke up in the morning. When they changed I got the itch. But only when I wasn't asleep.

People changed all around the human world. Their mornings were not my mornings. That meant that for nine years, almost every single moment of my waking life I got the itch. An itch that lead me to the newly changed people, an itch that wouldn't go away until I found them and dragged them back to our headquarters to join our forces.

I stumbled across the floor to my bathroom. I needed some cold water to wake myself up. Even though I'd spent an eternity in Heaven I had come to find the human inventions very comfortable, running water being one of them. I splashed the cold water against my face, and then looked at my reflection in the mirror. I didn't pay much attention to anything but the four small parallel scratch marks at the right side of my jaw line. I couldn't forget the day I got that scar even if I wanted to. The constant reminder on my face refused to let me let it go.

I got back to my room and put my armor on. I decided to eat something before I tried to find all the humans that changed during my night's sleep. Angels didn't need food or sleep, but both were two things I found myself enjoying for the past nine years.

"One more year," I told myself as I walked down the stairs to the kitchen.

After a few seconds of making my coffee and a toast I realized that the house was empty. Bar was always up earlier than me, always eager to find the new recruits for his master. I, on the other hand, had grown tired of flying from one point of the human world to the next just to find some new recruits. What was the point anyway? We already had changed almost the whole human population into angels. The few that remained were gathered like terrified mice in their underground traps. They thought we didn't know, that we had no idea they were trying to find a way to break the Curse. They were ignorant little mice. We knew. We just didn't care. There was no way around the Curse. One more year and all of the humans would get turned into angels. Still, we always had our eyes on them. Being the watchers of humanity, we could sense them all. Every single one of them, and there weren't that many to sense any more.

I purred myself a huge cup of coffee as I devoured my second toast. I loved food. It was one of the few things I'd miss when all was over. Still, winning the Heavenly War against the dark angels was enough to keep me happy for eternity. Once I finished my breakfast I made my way to the front door. The house Bar and I were sharing for the past nine years was big enough for ten of us but still it felt like a mousetrap to me. I didn't like being confined in four walls. It amazed me that humans could go so long living in these things or, even worse, underground.

I opened the door and stepped out. The neighborhood had been abandoned for years and it reminded me of the Death Lands I once visited. I was about to take flight when a new itch started spreading all over my body. Another human had woken up to find their eyes turned white. Once the itch rested on my eyes, I decided to start my morning routine. Travel from east to west. That was the main reason I choose this house at what people called the West Coast. Every morning I would wake up and then start collecting people from Australia and Asia, make my way to Africa and Europe, and then come back home to America. It was as good a plan as any, and it worked.

I stretched my wings and then moved them slowly. I needed to warm them up before the big flight. A tingling feeling crossed my face. It wasn't the itch, it was something different and it came from my scratch mark.

I brushed my fingers over the four small marks. Nine years ago, I got this mark. I could have easily healed it but I decided to keep it. I could never fathom what drove me to that decision, but I learned to live with the mark. Bar used to make fun of it. He laughed at me for getting scarred by a little girl, but once he met her he told me that she managed to surprise him as well. He never told me what had happened between them, but ever since their encounter he seemed always eager to do his job, while he used to be even more bored than me.

With one swift move I took flight. I kept on gaining height until I could see the whole continent. The tingling of my scar made me thing of the girl that did it. I wondered what she was doing at the moment. I mentally reached for her. I could still feel her presence. Still human. I didn't know why but the thought made me smile. I was waiting for the day she would go through the change. I was also hoping that I'd be the one to collect her. Waiting for the inevitable meeting made my heart race, but I had a lot of work to do for the rest of the day, so I put the thought of her aside and flew to the other side of the earth.