Until We Go Down

~Tenshi~

"Again!"

The older woman commanded in a thick Russian accent. Her harsh voice used to scare her, she used to wince every time her coach uttered a word to her, but she soon became used to the hostile tone of her voice.

She stood up from the ground, slipping backward on her skates and catching herself before she could fall again. This was definitely an off day for her, but she couldn't let anybody know that the best skater on the team is struggling with a simple jump.

Her coach rewinded the music, then pressed play. A light melodious ballad sounded across the room, seemingly bouncing on the sparkling ice. She let the music flow through her until she became one with the ice.

Her movements were slow when she began her dance. She relaxed her shoulders, remaining controlled as she flexed her muscles. She began picking up her speed as the song increased the tempo, circling the ice rink in one fluid motion.

She held her breath as she glided past her coach, feeling the weight of her calculating eyes pressing down on her. The corners of her mouth tilted up a little, she wanted so badly to impress her today.

She raised her arms, her slender fingertips casting frames of artwork across the wind. Her long hair whipped around her, strands falling on her face, as she twirled. Her skirt lifted in the process, revealing her long ballerina legs to anybody who dared to look. As she came out of the turn, she glanced briefly towards her coach.

What she found, she'll always regret looking.

It was then, she learned, that she could never be able to please her coach in this lifetime or the next.

天使

"How is she?"

"Sleeping."

"She does that a lot, huh?"

"Shut up! You're going to wake her up."

"Well, I'm bored."

"Deal with it, Henry."

"You deal with it..."

A long pause hung in the air before someone spoke again. The walls were silent, the only noise being made was the sound of faint breaths being made.

"I'm gonna poke her."

"You will do no such thing."

"You can't control my actions! I'm a wild horse, I cannot be tamed!"

"Shut up! Something just happened."

Esme slowly opened her eyes to the view of a group of strangers huddled around her. She licked her lips, dazed in confusion. Uncomfortably, she blinked them away, doing so to make sure that this wasn't a dream. She felt the overbearing weight of their eyes when they realized that she was awake.

A man was the first to make eye contact with her. He had the kindest brown eyes, she felt herself melting at the sight of them. He had a light tan from sun exposure, but no skin blemishes or spots. His brown hair swooped over his forehead as he bent down to her level, a warm smile forming on his lips. His first words are something that Esme never realized that she will keep dear to her heart forever.

"Are you okay?"

Three words.

Four syllables.

Ten letters.

Those are the first genuine kind words she's heard from a stranger in a long time, longer than she could remember.

She slowly nodded, taking in the sight of the rest of the strangers huddled around her. Most of them looked fairly normal, sporting easy smiles, but one of them stood out to her like a star in the night sky.

Her eyes were the first feature that stood out to her, ice blue. She felt herself becoming hypnotized by piercing sight of them, they seemed to sparkle in the light. They seemed unnatural, like a beautiful genetic mutation stemming from her prenatal development. They contrasted interestingly with her thick hair as if the strands had been dipped in a bathtub full of human blood. Her hair fell in waves around her pale face and past her shoulders. She tensed, her shoulder and tricep muscles becoming more defined, and tilted her head curiously.

"Where am I?"

It was a valid question, it wasn't like she asked a question in a dead language. But the strangers before her seemed shocked at her inquiry, furrowing their eyebrows and shifting uncomfortably on their feet.

The man reached out to touch her shoulder, but she flinched away. He jerked his hand back, a look of hurt flashing across his face for an instant. She was surprised at her immediate reaction as much as he was but made no effort to apologize. Instead, she was overcome with the sensation of mistrust bubbling in her core, the events of that one night rushing back to her mind.

"You're safe."

That wasn't enough. She needed more information.

The past few days have been a blur, like she had dreamt all of it. It was as if her soul had been lifted out of her body and another entity was controlling her actions. She desperately needed to know exactly where she was and who she was with.

She eyed them one by one, taking in their expressions with fierce curiosity.

"Who are you?"

Esme was looking directly at the man she had gaped over just moments before, but her question was intended for everybody. He pondered her question for a moment, as if he was unsure if he should answer it at all, but reluctantly gave in. He cautiously reached his hand over, not wanting her initial reaction to his touch to affect her, and helped her sit up. She flushed when she realized that his hand remained square behind her back, supporting her weight.

"My name is Evan," he said, offering a kind smile.

With his free hand, he gestured to everybody else surrounding her bed, smiling proudly at the group he's assembled. "This is Henry, Dante, Mavis, Kim, and Roxy." Esme knew that she would need time to remember all of those names, but she tried her best to match them with their corresponding faces.

Esme remained silent, partially because her throat was dry, but mostly because she was still in a daze. She desperately wanted to go home, to crawl under her blankets and try to forget the events of this past week. But she had no telling of where she was, or how far away her apartment was. She wasn't even entirely sure if it had been a week.

Her head was spinning.

Her mind was numb.

She needed answers.

"Why am I here?"

Evan caressed her forehead gently, possibly checking for any signs of sickness. Esme wondered if she showed any symptoms, but ignored them when she realized to herself that she didn't care anymore. "We saved you."

"Why?"

He bent down to her eye level, his gaze fixed upon her. The pupils of his brown eyes dilated slightly, he flashed a small grin as he spoke. "Because it was our duty to save you, Esmeralda Cantor."

Esme furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "I never told you my name."

"We know everybody's name," Evan countered. "Or at least the people we save."

Esme fixed her eyes on everybody else in the room. None of them had spoken yet, which she found to be a bit unsettling. But they all stared back at her with a military-focused gaze, as if they were staring right through her, without actually looking at her. "How?"

"Because we are Tenshi."

天使