Guardian

Chapter Ten

I stared at the picture in my hands. It was a picture of me when I was seven years old. I had just lost my first tooth and my mom had decided to take a picture of me. She'd been so proud of me, despite me being scared of losing my first tooth. I had seen this picture a handful of times when I had opened these books before they had been put away up here in the attic to make room for more books downstairs. Never before had I noticed the figure behind me. 

It was the most beautiful person I had ever seen, going past models and actors. He had the palest blond hair, not too short but not long enough to hang past his ears. It was beautifully styled up, but messy at the same time. His eyes, from what I could tell, were deep blue and almond shaped. His cheekbones were sharp and his jawline was so strong that I thought if I touched it, I might cut my finger. And his smile. He had the most stunning smile on his lips. He was looking down at me and his eyes were filled with happiness and joy. He was smiling and it was directed at me. I vaguely recognized him, like he was someone I used to know. 

"Wings." I heard. But it was me, I had said it. It was my voice, using my words. 

Why had I never noticed him before? Sure, it had been a while since I'd look at the pictures, but I'd never noticed him before. 

I flipped the page again, trying to find another picture of me. I found one where I was sat on the couch, Christmas decorations surrounding me and there was a present on my lap, still wrapped meaning my mother had gotten a little too quick with the camera. I was smiling though, I had all of my teeth and I looked around eight years old in this picture. Out of the corner of the picture, I could see Paige's messy bed hair opening a present, and our old family dog sitting on the couch behind me. But then, right beside me, an arm wrapped around my shoulders, was the same boy from the previous picture. He looked the exact same as he did in the other picture, his clothing had changed of course but he looked the same, like he hadn't aged a day. And he was smiling again, looking like he was in mid-laugh when the picture was taken. 

I furrowed my eyebrows, confusion and curiosity filling my head as I flipped through the pages of the book. Every picture of me, he was there. Even in times that I didn't remember. After the Christmas picture, there were ones of me on my birthday, going to a school party, in the pool or at the beach. In every one he was with me. But after the Christmas picture, he looked a little less happy and a little more longing. 

I remembered now. Wings was my imaginary friend when I was a kid. He had a different name, I don't remember it now, but I couldn't pronounce it as a kid so I'd stuck with Wings because of his big, feathery wings. He had been my best friend because no one else would be. And he looked exactly like he did in the picture. It was stupid to admit that I'd had a bit of a crush on him as a kid. At the time I didn't really know what a crush was.

I remembered that when I was a kid, around eight years old, my parents had begun telling me that I was too old for an imaginary friend. They'd tell me that I needed to make real friends with the children at my school. Which was easy for them to say, but I'd always been a shy kid and kids at school had never really liked me. Which is why I clung to Wings for as long as I could. But one day, he just disappeared. He was gone and no matter how many times I would call out for him, he wouldn't answer me and I eventually, after weeks and months of looking for him and waiting and sometimes crying, gave up looking for him and got used to my own loneliness. Sad as that may sound. 

I grabbed the photo book and held it close to my chest. I stood up from my spot on the dusty floor and almost tripped over something invisible. I looked around for what it was and felt my heart skip a beat when there was nothing on the floor for me to trip over. Despite knowing that there was something there before. I could have easily blamed it on my general clumsiness, but I felt like I should know better now. I stepped to the ladder, turned around and stepped down onto the first step, casting one last look around the attic before I left. Once I was down the steps, I found my self hesitating for a moment before sending the ladder up again and closing the attic door. I turned around and walked to my room, still holding the book closely to my chest, like I was protecting it. 

I sat down on my bed once I knew that the door was closed and I opened the book again, this time pulling the pictures out of their slots. I stared at them a little longer, cross referencing that the boy in those pictures, was the same in all of them, the same from my memories. And it was. 

"Oh my god." I said to myself. 

My mind was brought back to the stories I had read, ones about guardian angels who look after people as they grow up. Stories I had read about ghosts, watching over kids as they grow up in the house that they had previously lived, making sure that the kid was looked after from the world unknown. Werewolf and Vampire mates, where they find a claim that one person that means everything to them. 

What the hell did I mean, this person in the back of the picture, of every picture of me, watching me be happy, being happy himself. 

"Who are you?" I asked the boy in the picture. 

How stupid was I? I couldn't have possibly expected him to respond to me, that's absurd. Please, what the hell was going on? 

"He's in ever picture of me. Every. One. Since I was born. And yet he looks the same." 

I reached to the end of my bed and clicked open my laptop. I opened a google page and began to research. The first thing I put into the search bar was Supernatural sightings. When everything that came up, I narrowed the search to legends of Guardians Angels. When a lot of things that came up in that search were old biblical things, I ran my hands through my hair and I tried the search again. 

Again and again I searched things until I came up with one search about creatures that existed. It was the blog of a person who claimed to be in a relationship with an Angel. It seemed pretty crazy to me, but for some reason I couldn't stop reading. Maybe it was because everything I was reading sounded too familiar. 

"I guess it's as best an explanation as any I get from myself." I thought for a second before lifting my head and looking around my room. Looking at nothing in particular. "Unless you want to explain it?" 

Oh god, who was I talking to? 

I shook my head to myself "Stupid question. Stupid, stupid question. God Feather you're so dumb." 

"You're not dumb. You just ask the hard questions.