"Elizabeth Rose Calder." The middle lady called my name. The other two, old girls stared at me with their piercing grey eyes. I stepped forward and pulled my gown with me. Lifting it slightly to get up the high steps, I finally stood, only a couple of feet away from the trio.
"You're eighteen. Born on the 13th of September, 1944. Lived with your parents, Marianne Alison Johnson and Henry Peter Calder. And your younger sister, Savannah Rose Calder." The middle lady looked up, to check all that was correct. I just nodded, to reassure her that, that was me.
"Cause of death, was, a carriage accident?" I nodded, remembering it clearly.
_~_
'Beth!' I heard Savannah squeal. I searched for her. Looking for her small figure. Her pale blonde hair. Her blue eyes. I finally found her kneeling down beside the rode, looking for pretty rocks. She held up a beautiful, gold rock in her hand. Etched on it was a small, five-pointed star. She handed it to me and picked up the rest of her collection. I tilted my head, in curiosity. 'Isn't that strange?' I smiled, running my fingers over the small stone. I slid it into my purse, for safe keeping. I heard the rumble of a carriage coming so I began to clear the road. But, I was too slow.
'ELIZABETH!' Savannah screamed in terror. I felt the impact, seconds after it actually happened. I heard my ribs crack and as I hit the ground, I saw Savannah's petrified expression. Her hand covered her mouth, which I presumed was open in shock. Tears were falling from her blue eyes and the rocks in her free hand fell onto the road, rejoining the rest. I felt the gold stone in my purse get heavy, as if reminding me it was still there. My whole body was aching in pain. Closing my eyes, I heard, voices of the men in the carriage, my sister screaming, and my heart pumping slowly. Before, it stopped suddenly. And I could no longer feel anything.
_~_
'Place anything you do not want to keep on this platform please." She spoke again, bringing me back to the present. I began to give her all my belongings that didn't have any importance to me, until I was left with; my silver charm bracelet, my ruby necklace, the gold stone, and my engagement ring. I was directed to a small room covered in silver and gold. In it was a chair, in which for me to sit and a statue of an angel. One of the wings were broken and bloody and the other was white and fluffy.
'I am the statue of Judgement.' A voice spoke to me, in a monotone. 'I will decide whether you are to be a living or dead angel. You do not have a choice. Do not try to fight my decision. This is not a discussion. Embrace the afterlife I give you, It will be the only one you get. If I choose you to be living, you will turn right. If I choose dead, you will turn left. If I cannot decide you will go straight.'
I nodded and sat down in the chair with my hands folded in my lap. I wonder what my family were up to. They would be devastated about my death. Savannah would be the worst. She wouldn't speak or eat, like she did that time when my father didn't buy her a horse. I waited for at least half an hour, until the statue spoke again.
'I cannot decide..' I scrunched up my forehead, giving myself wrinkles. Was I good or bad? I didn't care really. I stood up and walked straight ahead. I was just about to run into the statue when I found myself falling down, through clouds. There was nothing above or below me except white fluffy clouds.
'What's happening?!" I screamed, trying to push the clouds away so I could see properly. I grabbed onto a cloud and held on tightly.
'I am Fade. You are now a fader. A fading Angel. My sister, Fate, could not decide what to do with you. So she gave you to me.' A man about 25 walked along the cloud and helped me up onto it. He had a pair of gold wings with white and black highlights. On his neck he had a small gold circle just under his ear, like a tattoo As he touched me, I felt my back tingle and I grew a pair just the same, and a tattoo as well except mine was a small five-point star instead of a circle. His brown hair had gold highlights and his bare biceps had gold bands around them. Everything about him seemed 'Golden'.
'We are 'Fading' Angels because there are only few of us. Seven to be exact, counting you. And we are very lucky. Tell me, does this star mean anything to you.' He said tracing the small gold tattoo on my neck. His touch felt warm against my skin and I nodded. I pulled the stone out of my purse and showed him the carving. He smiled and his perfect, white teeth glowed. Fade brought my attention to his gold necklace, which had a gold ring on it.
'See. We're lucky. We were all given a sign, just before we died. We don't know why of course. It's one of life's many mysteries. Which is funny because we solve all life's mysteries. So everything becomes clear and we can help make life great for the human's below us. That's not all we do though. We help keep the balance between good and bad. We are nature, love and just pure awesome.'
As he filled me in, I noticed the clouds around me turning into people. Five angels approached us. Each with gold wings and a gold tattoo below their right ear. They smiled at me. There were three girls and 2 boys. Two of the girls had blonde hair while the other had dark hair like mine. The two boys both had blue eyes but one had blonde hair and the other had black.
'These are the other Fading Angels.' Fade said smiling. He gestured to the dark haired girl. 'That's Shaarlotte.' Her tattoo was a flower, a rose to be precise. 'That's Grace.' He pointed to the blonde girl with beautiful green eyes. Her tattoo was a dolphin. The other blonde girl, Alyss, had a music note. The blonde boy, Charles, had a sort of wave, like the ocean. And finally, Arthur, the dark haired boy had the sun and the moon joined together.
'Now each of our tattoos represent the thing that makes us special. Shaarlotte, is 'Mother Nature' to the humans. She grows plants and stuff. Grace is like Shaarlotte's sister, she makes sure all the animals are okay, stuff like that. Alyss conducts like a huge orchestra, she makes sure there is music, and noise so the world is never silent. Charles controls the ocean and Arthur makes sure day and night come around when it's supposed to.'
'Wow. That is really quite amazing.' I said in amazement. I wonder what mine meant. It was a star. I wonder what my special power was.
'What is yours?' I asked Fade and he smiled, rubbing his hand together and then clapping. A huge gold circle appeared in front of him. At the top of the circle was a baby. Then a child/teenager, an adult and finally an elder.
'I am the circle of life.' He waved his hand and it disappeared in as he pushed through it. 'What am I then?' I asked Fade and he shrugged.
'We'll figure it out soon enough. For now we better get you settled in.'
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I changed out of my gown into something I would never be caught dead in, on Earth. An apricot singlet and short, blue denim shorts. Fade told me that we have all of the next couple of centuries clothes way before they do.
He showed me the cloud village that the seven of us lived in. We each had a home of our own and we could decorate it however we pleased. We all ate our meals together in a building called the 'dining hall'. If we wished to visit either the dead or living angels, all we had to do was jump of a cloud and the clouds would take you there.
Fade explained to me that we were the neutral angels. We didn't have sides. Living angels cared for humans. Dead Angels only cared for animals. Living angels liked the day. Dead angels liked the dark. It was either the living angels or the dead angels. But, in reality it was all ours. The fading angels. Once upon a time there was actually thousands of Faders. And back then we were called 'Angels.' Just 'Angels'. But, the living and dead angels killed us off after the Fate War, because we were extremely powerful and a threat. That's why we were renamed 'Fading Angel's' Because we faded away until there were hardly any of us left.
It was all rather interesting. As a human, I hadn't thought that something like this was going on. I didn't have any reason to suspect it. Except for when Niall came to town and then disappeared a month later, with my brother, Benjamin.
