Second Star Into Darkness

Chapter 4

Zehanpuryu peered down at his vessel. He flexed his fingertips and studied them carefully, but thought no further of his remaining appearance. He was suddenly concerned for one thing. He held the form of a human, so where exactly were... the feelings? He expected with the role of being a part of Earth, he would then acquire the emotions placed on its soils. Although, not being one to be worrisome, he assumed he would find the answer within time and began walking down the path leading from the park.

"Your home is very beautiful," he said aloud while studying a nearby, barren tree through real eyes for the first time in his life. Although, a sudden feeling of loneliness erupted inside his chest as he realized Oliver would no longer be able to answer aloud. His presence had been pushed back into a less conscious place in the back of Zehan's mind. Oliver no longer had control.

The boy's answer rang through his ears. Zehan could hear him just as Oliver had listened to him not moments ago, It is.

"Are you comfortable?"

It's... different, but I can manage, he said, but there was hesitation in his voice.

"It will be okay. I promise you that as long as the sun rises and a new day comes, you will be safe from any harm that stands ahead," the angel made the promise of one million lifetimes, even in the dullness of the moment.

He continued down the path until he reached the street Oliver once crossed to reach the park. Next, pulling information from studying Oliver for so long, he knew exactly what to do and where to go. Within moments, he found himself stooping in Oliver's small apartment building.

What now? Oliver wondered.

"We can anticipate the superiors' contact. They'll assign the first roles. Until then, I may assist you in breaking your unwanted routines and find positive routines for myself."

The next day came around quickly, if you count an engel who denies sleep and asks a million questions about everything quick. Yet, Zehan wound his way to the chilled diner in the morning where he knew he was bound to continue as "Oliver" until Heaven provided orders. So, he stood at the door watching the humans and wondering which of them were corrupted with brainwash and which of them were naturally obeying the laws. Either way, they all believed they were living in a good place, which Zehan would have to change.

This caused him to wonder what the government was really getting at, but couldn't come to a conclusion. What could such a dark force possibly get out of pretending to be good? If they wanted and had the power to destroy, why didn't they? Or maybe what they wanted was just money and power, which is what they certainly already had. Whatever it was, it was Zehan's job to stop it, with or without understanding.

But even when his real job was to fight demons, his priority at the time was to wait tables.

Throughout time, he had picked up on the basic things to do when working with customers. Just smile and say things Oliver used to say? Easy right? Eh. You get the picture of an angel not remembering how to walk instead of float trying to do things the human way, right?

But it wasn't that bad. Working hard was something he knew a lot about considering he was so used to being scorned for his actions and told what to do. He was definitely always being told what to do here, but other than a loud manager, there was not much scorning to be afraid of.

As he was finishing up serving a small group of people, his attention was brought to the bell of the door, jingling lightly before a new customer walked through.

Don't mess up, Oliver was metaphorically gritting his teeth in Zehan's brain.

Zehan's heart lept and maybe even skipped a beat as Oliver was jittering around nervously from inside.