The boy's eyes caught hers for a while before he suddenly took a step back.

"Who are you?! What's happening?" The boy yelled out in fear, trembling alongside his dog which barked frantically beside him.

"I don't mean any harm!" The angel took a step back as well as she felt terrified upon receiving the harsh welcome. The angel was about to lend her hand as an offer for comfort to him when suddenly, a rough tug brought her to fell backward.

Her body was throbbing. She desperately searched for the source of the pain until she recognized the thick liquid which was descending down from her wings.

It bled.
Her scar bled terribly. After what she had done, the angel knew she deserved the punishment. Thick liquid tainted her feathers, running down towards the edges before it dripped onto the ground. Meanwhile, the gaping scar felt burnt as it throbbed, and by every second, it felt like someone was caning her back.

She squirmed, trying to grip onto the ground in hope of regaining her strength to endure. Only when she felt the cold surface did the little angel realize she had been pulled to what was once her home.
She was waiting for her trial.

Every angel who dares to do anything against The Order is destined for a death sentence.
But death for angels is not the kind that we acknowledge it to be. It is not the freezing, out of the body experience. With wings still intact, these creatures are thrown out of the clouds. Fallen angels, that is their new name. The unfortunate beings who had lost their home, their grace, and their title. They simply had lost everything.

But not that day.
The angel was put on a probational period thanks to their mercy. Yet one more mistake, and that was all it took to lose all which were hers.

So the angel continued to do her job, still standing underneath the giant oak tree every once in a week. The scar healed, leaving a permanent mark on her back as a sign of disobedience. 

The boy still walked by the giant oak tree, but he always kept his gaze onto the ground until he had walked past the towering tree. Somehow, he looked intimidated. 

The little angel smiled sadly to herself. But who was she to hope he would be brave enough to see into her eyes?

The angel had never felt so empty.
Not because of the boy's fearful gaze that she had to endure ever since their unfortunate encounter. It was because of something else she didn't understand.

"Your probational period is almost over, little angel. You will be freed very soon."

The sentence echoed at the back of her head as that afternoon when her eyes met the familiar blue grey eyes.
He was sitting beneath the oak tree, wiping his tears away furiously.

"You must be careful, little angel."

He stared, his eyes seemed lost, "Are you my guardian angel?"

The angel's attention was pulled down to her hands as she felt a sharp sting. She wasn't underneath the sun, but her hands possessed an odd glow. What was happening to her?

"Many before you had failed." The warning echoed at the back of her head as she couldn't avert her gaze from the boy. He was curled into a vulnerable position, and his eyes were red with tears.

"I need your help," the boy desperately begged. The angel clenched her fists tightly. She was very afraid of what might came upon them. She was scared about what she might did.

"Just one touch and that is it."

"I just lost my mother. What shall I do?" the boy sobbed, and the angel felt something stubbornly tugged on her chest. It grew bigger by the second, persistently squirming in her chest.
"Please help!" at the silence she presented, he wept, "Please bring back my mother. I need her. I can't lose her yet!"

Angels do not have the authority to bring back the dead.
But the angel knew she could stop the storm inside the boy with just one touch.

One touch that could throw her off the clouds into her downfall. The little angel shut her eyes once the memory of the sharp pain on her back intruded her headspace. But she knew the sight before her would haunt her to eternity if she didn't lend a hand.

Her lips were sealed shut, and she dug her nails deeper into her palms, fearfully hoping she could stop the clamorous quarrel between her head and her heart.
If angels could bleed, her hands would be a bloody mess by then.

Yet instead of picking the storm inside of him away, the angel blew a breath of air and hastily left him behind without another gaze.

"The wind shall give him a tight embrace I cannot deliver. It shall blow away his sorrows, and it shall wipe his tears away for me."

Author's Note!
Phew! 3 chapters done, a few more to go then.
How do you like the story so far?
Do let me know, because what is even a writer without the helpful criticisms, right? 

I'll see you on the next one :D

-, Cts.😜