Repentance // Book 1: Of Angels and Men

2: Skye Thorne and the Case of the Trapped Butterfly

A/N:  Although Luna knows she's Soleil, I'll be referring to her as Luna.  She still has to pretend she's human, so... K cya xxx

Luna’s tears had soaked her pillow.  She wiped her eyes, pushing her hair clumsily out of her sodden face.  She got off her bed and opened her wardrobe, rummaged around and produced a pair of scruffy jeans and a flowery T-shirt, took off her school uniform and quickly wore her clothes.  She ran a comb through her hair and put on some eyeliner and mascara, slipped on a pair of black trainers and shoved her mobile  in her trouser pocket.

She took the stairs two at a time, and almost bumped into Robert, her brother.  He was in the middle of a mobile conversation with his girlfriend, Kathleen, and he shouted a word that probably burned a hole in Kathleen’s ears as Luna slopped half his tea on his brand new white trousers.  She dashed out of the house before he dropped the remnants of tea on her.  She’d left a note to her mother, telling her she’d gone to buy a couple of pens.  In reality, she just wanted to walk and clear her mind.

She lived in a quiet neighbourhood in Manchester, and most people kept to themselves.  She liked walking there.  Sometimes, she’d meet another passer-by, but that was it.  Today was a little different.

The sun beat down on her, and she wished she’d done it up in a bun or something.  She began remembering her  past life…

She had been an ordinary angel, not really important.  She’d been a guardian angel on quite a lot of occasions, but one of the people who she remembered mostly was Jenna, back in the 1920’s.  She was a vibrant young soul with a surprisingly unique dash to her spirit that made her  different.  That’s what made Soleil love her charge so much. 

 She was so immersed in thoughts that she bumped into someone and almost fell, had that someone not grabbed her and held her upright.  She snapped  out of her thoughts and stared at her saviour in awe.  She thought she was still dreaming.  Jenny smiled down at her.

She gasped and moved out of her grasp.  The stranger that looked like Jenna spoke, and her voice shattered the illusion of Jenna.  Jenna’s voice was husky and low, but this stranger’s voice was high and musical, and introduced the stranger as Skye Thorne.  Skye was a work of art, but not the kind of art where everything is mapped out clearly in front of you.  She was a piece of abstract art, where everything was carefully hidden away, waiting to be discovered, and only the bright colours could be made out.  Skye was as colourful as a parrot’s plumage.  Her dark brown hair was streaked with dark pink streaks, and her blue eyes where lined with thick eyeliner and smoky black eye shadow, with bright red lipstick painting her pretty lips.  Her pale skin made these features stick out, and the cacophony of colours in her clothes didn’t make it any easier to mistake her for a parrot.  She wore emerald green shorts, a purple tee and a blue waistcoat with little diamonds at the collar.  She wore a white pair of sandals, above her right ankle, she had a curious tattoo of a butterfly in a cage.  The butterfly’s bright colours against the harshness of the cage brought tears to Luna’s eyes, and she brushed them away, realising she’d been staring at Skye for too long.

“I’m Luna Starr,” she managed to say, before extending her hand to shake Skye’s.  Skye smiled, revealing a single dimple in her left cheek.  Luna felt envious; she’d yearned for dimples when she was young.  Well, she still did, apparently.  She broke the silence suddenly.

“Are you new here?”

“Yes, I’ve just moved from London, there’s too much noise there.”  Skye looked a little shifty at this, as if she wasn't completely truthful, but Luna didn't notice.

“That’s true…well, you can’t have made many friends yet, then.”

Skye looked wistful.  “I’m not very good at making friends…”