Entanglement

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Phil POV

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"Phil? Can I talk to you in my office?"

Those words are what caused my head to shoot up from where I was staring at a pile of population graphs, attempting to organize them by time period. I knew our lowest had been three years ago, our highest a hundred years ago, and yet I couldn't figure out where all of the middle sections went. I hated that just because I was now considered an angel within a higher power, I was expected to be good at organizing things. Unfortunately, my talents remained in communication and cooperation.

I was thankful for Korey's request, because it most likely meant something more exciting than numbers on crumbling papers was going on. Staring at them for hours was something I definitely did not enjoy, no matter how important Heaven deemed it.

Before even checking to see if I was following, Korey turned around and returned to the room he spent all of his time in. I stood up gracefully, brushing off my thighs out of habit before placing my work down on the table. I couldn't help but smile as I noticed the way angels looked at me as I walked by, with recognition and respect. Despite how used to it I had become lately, the feeling of being important was one that still managed to make me beam.

"What's up?" The question came calmly from my lips as I sidestepped through the door, expecting a report on crud numbers or a time slot request.

The angel, who was sitting down, motioned for me to do the same. I sat in the chair across from him, furrowing my eyebrows when he let out a sigh, one that informed me that the news he had was not usual news.

Before I could ask again, he spoke, "We have a problem."

I let out an exasperated sigh at the words, refraining from throwing my hands into the air. "Really? We've gone so many months without one of those. What is it this time?"

"It's the crud population again. The demons just can't get it together," Korey's eyes looked nervous, and I couldn't understand why the situation seemed to be a bigger deal to him than it usually was. "They're killing too many humans and not enough cruds."

I resisted the urge to shrug. It wasn't that I didn't care, but the problem occurred multiple times every year. What I didn't understand was why he was acting like this was a completely new, catastrophic event. It seemed like he was overreacting about everything lately, and had been for months, ever since the first time Heaven had placed a limit on demon's killing. Yet the object of his nerves remained a secret. "What do you want to do? Call a meeting?"

"I'll have Alfie do it," He decided after a moment. "I just hate that we have to keep scolding them; one day they aren't going to listen."

I nodded slowly, knowing that he was deciding on Alfie since I wasn't his go-to "do this for me" angel anymore. I was now the person that did all of the important tasks, and despite how Korey seemed to find this important, I had other things on my mind, and Korey knew that.

"You can continue what you were doing," He continued, finally meeting my eyes, which glinted as he shot me a smile. I couldn't tell if the gesture was meant to reassure me or him. "I just wanted to inform you in case it grows into something more."

"It won't," I stated. "They've been listening for months; I don't think they'll mess it up now." Before he could indirectly disagree by sighing once more, I turned around and left his office, frowning. If any Premiers noticed the seemingly upset look on my face, they didn't say anything to me about it. Most knew that I had a tendency to stray away from cheerful, smiley, angelic actions, but because of my new place of higher power, no one chastised me for it; people had stopped questioning me.