Unranked

Chapter 21

Ten minutes later, I was seated in the Julia's humble abode still bleeding crimson blood.

"Look J-Nine," She started, still rummaging for the first aid kit. ",maybe we should just go to the hospital?"

I shook my head. "I can't. Not until I figure out what's going on."

She returned to my side with the first aid kit. She tore my ruined alb away and began to clean the wound on both sides. I watched as both dried and fresh blood disappeared.

Under all the blood, the insides of the wound glistened golden.

"What the..." Julia stopped for a second before continuing to clean the wound. "Nine explain. What's going on? What are you?"

It's bleeding, I thought, but red blood. The inside of the wound, the inside of my body, was golden.

Body of an angel but still bleeds like a mortal, I said, rather amused to Harry.

Perhaps it's just a process. Your half angel and half mortal, Harry agreed.

"I'm an," I struggled to find the word to best describe my situation. ", abomination."

"An abomination, hey? Of what kind?"

As usual, I didn't know how to answer her. I was under strict orders from Harry not to tell her about the Angel thing and yes, I am still calling the old version of me Harry. I figured that it would be confusing to call that one Josh since there are so many Joshua's in the world.

Moving on, I decided to ignore Julia's question all together. "Why are you helping me?"

Nine, you have a choice to make, Harry interrupted. Dwelling in the past will unlock many things including pain. This step that your taking now...you may not be able to take it back.

"Were you serious about not remembering me?" Julia paused for a moment, letting just a bit of hurt into her voice.

I nodded. "I don't remember anything even my death."

She thought about this for quite some time, probably trying to figure out how to respond to that.

Here we go...

"I believe it was when I was four or five, we were going to the same preschool." She began, her eyes dating over. "You were a real troublemaker especially when the teachers decide to read the Bible. You just couldn't keep your mouth closed. You'd jump out and shout at the top of your lung how much you hate it."

The bible? I wondered.

A sort of book divided into two. Harry answered. One side tells of a messiah to come, the other the messiahs story.

Jesus? I guessed.

"That branded you as a outsider slash rebel but a few others and me, admired that. We become friends." Julia concluded, a small smile growing. "That's how we met. We went on through high school together but after, you moved away. I think it had something do to with your parents then next thing I knew, the grapevine was claiming that you had died."

You hated religion even when you were a child, mused Harry.

"Do you know what happened? I mean how I died?"

She shook her head, suddenly sad. "No one ever knew. Your parents never told anyone and people who were supposedly close to you didn't have a clue."

Dead, I thought. Without anyone knowing why except maybe...

I grabbed Julia's hand, shocking her. "Did I have a girlfriend or someone special? Someone I spent my time with?"

She shrugged. "That's the best I can do with a first aid kit. I guess you will have to stay still for awhile to heal properly. To answer your question, I don't know."

And you? Do you know?

Like I said before, only when you long for the information and at least have a small part, you can unlock the memory, Harry answered. The small part of the memory which you obtained is like a key. You use it to unlock the rest of the memory or in this case the door.

"Was there ever a girl, one with blue eyes around me?" I attempted again. She shrugged then her eyes widened.

"Wait a moment, there was a time-" She started but would never have the opportunity to finish as someone rang the doorbell.