There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger.

- Charles Dickens

The first thing Kate saw was the blue carpet. Her see-through feet hovering inches above the shaggy rug as they manifested into what looked like a small apartment. Her head was spinning.

"Uhh, is it possible for a dead person to get sick? I think I'm gonna be sick" Kate put her head between her legs like they show you on those airplane safety videos and took deep breaths. Finn chuckled beside her.

"Don't worry you'll get used it. It took me a few tries." He flashed a crooked grin.

His smile had an endearing quality to it. No, Kate! As soon as the thought popped into her head she banished it. She was not about to become friends with her killer.

The old lady was already up and about, cooing to her grandbabies. The tenacity of a grandparents love. Kate smiled, watching Lilly wrap her spirit arms around a toddler playing with cars on the floor. Giving feathered kisses as she murmured sweet comforts in his ear. The boy's father, popping his head out of the kitchen briefly to scold him for putting one of the cars in his mouth, before returning to his cooking.

A little baby girl sat in her high chair in the dining room staring straight at Finn stretching out his arms and wings.

"Can she see us?" Kate leaned over whispering to him. Finn mimicked her, leaning in to meet her gaze, his leafy green eyes inches from her face.

"Why is a dead girl whispering?"

Kate huffed pulling away. He was teasing her. He chuckled amused at his own games and chose to answer her properly this time. "The younger the child the stronger their connection to the other dimensions, it's possible she could see something."

"Other dimensions? There's more! How many more?" Kate prodded. She waited, but Finn kept his mouth shut; turning to watch the old lady fawning over her grandchildren instead.

Clearly, there was a lot Kate didn't know and she had a feeling some of it she didn't want to.

"Okay, I think it's about time to go," Finn finally spoke feeling he had given a respectful amount of time for goodbyes. He moved to grab Mrs. Thompson's hand.

"I'm not going!" She swatted his hand away.

"I need to be with my grandkids! I want to stay with my grandkids!" she protested, digging her heels in like an old mule.

"Ohh for the love of god!" Kate threw her ghost hands up, before realizing her blasphemy.

"Sorry," she mumbled a half-hearted apology turning her attention to stare at a little angel statue in the families show cabinet to drown out their bickering.

"I can't force you to come with me but if you stay you could wander here for quite a while before someone else picks you up. Please, Mrs. Thompson, it's not safe for you to be here by yourself. Come with me." She could hear the impatience in his voice as the old lady refused to listen.

There was something written on the base of the statue. 'Guardian Angels live above us, to guide and love us.' Kate snorted, Well that's a load of bull. At least for this particular angel.

The angel statue started to rattle in its case. Kate blinked unsure if it was an illusion. The other figurines started clinking together the whole case shaking now. Pictures ratted on the walls. An earthquake? Kate looked at the children who continued to play unaffected, the father still stirring his sauce in the kitchen humming a tune. What is this?

"Finn!" She called out. His head swiveled, stopping mid-discussion.

"Shush. Quiet," he listened to the rattling confused for a second before his eyes grew wide.

"What, what?" Kate was nervous. If an angel was scared it had to be something big.

"RUN!" His voice was panicked. "Both of you run!"

Finn dragged Mrs. Thompson to her feet darting through the wall of the apartment.

Kate willed her little spirit legs to follow, bracing her arms in front of her face as she jumped through a wall into an old man's apartment; he sat shirtless in his lazy boy watching Jeopardy.

There was a blood-curdling screech behind them. Two shadows slipped under the door of the man's apartment swaying up to form the shape of a shadowy human figure. Their eyes hollow and hungry. One of them opened their jaw unhinging it like a snake to let out another piercing cry from the void space.

"Omg, what are those things!?"

"Oh, sweet Jesus," Mrs. Thompson cried. Crossing her heart.

"Damn it," Finn cursed. "Hold on to me!" He wrapped his arms around their waists. Opening up his wings he aimed for the window on the opposite side, flying straight through.

Kate looked back and she wished she hadn't. The shadow men were following. Their boneless bodies flapping in the sky like limp kites.

"Can't you just zap us out of here on your gold circle thing?!"

"Not when we're moving! I have to be still to summon it".

Finn mumbled a few words under his breath. A swirling flame forming in his hand shaping into a sword. He stopped hovering mid-air and turned to face the creatures.

"Get behind me"

Kate moved behind him clinging to the back of his shirt. Cars whizzed past her feet on the street below.

The dark figures slowed fanning out on either side. Their mouths opening and closing. Heads swaying back and forth like snakes as they inched closer wary of the weapon he was wielding.

"Begone." He commanded, brandishing his sword. The figures shrieked in anger. The one on the left lunged at Finn making a grab for the sword. Finn dogged pivoting and swinging to strike it on the arm. It screamed shrinking back. Finn scanned the area, where was the second one?

"Nooo!" Katie screamed.

He turned to see the shadow with its mouth wide open, like a crocodile, clamping its jaw shut around Lily's head. Fin could hear her scream in the darkness of its cavernous mouth. Without thinking Kate ran over grabbing its mouth trying to pry it off her.

Shit. Finn grabbed Kate pulling her off the shadow. This was his only chance. He flew up higher as the second one joined in the feast. He had to move while they were distracted. Concentrating he summoned a circle.

"No! No! We can't leave her!" Kate wailed struggling against his grip. "We can't!"

It was too late their bodies vanishing into the golden light, away from the screams of Mrs. Thompson's half-eaten soul.

The leap brought them to the glowing glass floor of a pyramid. Water torrented around them, teaming with aquatic life outside of its transparent walls. They were underwater. The wave of nausea didn't hit her as bad this time. Kate breathed in her surroundings awestruck by the novelty if only for a brief moment before turning her attention back to Finn.

"You bastard!" She hissed punching him in the chest. Her blow surprisingly making contact. "How could you just leave her like that!"

Finn's face was grave, if she knew him better she thought he might cry.

"I'm sorry," he whispered his head hanging low. "Once they had her, there was nothing I could do."

"What were they?"

"Amujin: soul swallowers." he explained "They feed off a soul's energy and bring it back to their queen who harvests it." She must have made a horrified face because he quickly added. "But don't worry a soul is almost virtually indestructible"

"So her soul is still alive?" the words felt weird leaving her mouth.

"Well...in a way"

"So you can save her?"

"....it's a bit more complicated than that" he signed. "Her energy will always exist but the personality and all that made her, her as well as memories and experiences are gone. Only her life force remains."

Kate felt a sadness for Mrs. Thompson deeper than she expected, not because she knew her that well. She had only just met the woman. Rather, she was riddled with guilt and the pain of not being able to help her. The woman's screams still echoing in her ears.

"You touched one, how are your hands," Finn asked, changing the subject.

She didn't notice before, turning her hands she inspected her translucent skin now speckled with grey. The lifeless colour seeping up her arms.

"Let me see," he grabbed her hands toward him. Lifting them up to his lips, he breathed on them gently. A cool white air swirled around her hand. It seemed to slow the creeping of the grey color. "Hmm, its fixable"

Kate blushed yanking her hands back. "What did you just do to me you perv!"

"Hey! I just helped you miss fussy pants! Can't you just say thank you? And I'm not a pervert," he crossed his arms mumbling the last part under his breath.

Though she felt a little bad for snapping, pride kept her mouth from uttering any kind of thank you, instead choosing to focus on her surrounding. "What is this place? Better yet where is this place?" She marveled, now taking a deeper survey of her surroundings. She peered through the glass as schools of fish swirled around in a dance moving to make way for the passage of a giant whale.

"Bottom of the Bermudas triangle, keeps humans out I guess," he shrugged.

"Wow," was all she could muster. Her perceptions of reality were twisted upside down in less than a week. A giant circular gate on the far side of one of the glass walls caught her attention. In it swirled smaller circles each flowing in opposite directions. A hazy gold light in the center beckoning her forward.

"What's that?" She pointed toward the glowing gate.

"That, my dear, is our ride. To a place where your soul can find some rest. Come," he extended his hand, "you're going to love it!"

She took his hand as they strode toward her new fate. If she had a heart it would be thumping wildly in her chest. He paused at the entrance rummaging into his pocket to grab what looked like a bracelet and slipped it on. Slowing sticking his hand in the center of the swirling circles he uttered words in a language she couldn't understand. The gate glowed blue changing color from its original pale gold.

"Ready?" he asked, looking back over his shoulder.

Kate hesitated. What awaited her on the other side of this gate? She hadn't the faintest idea, but she secretly wished it would look something like a fairytale, like the adventures of Alice in Wonderland. I guess this is it, Kate mustered all the courage she could find. Closing her eyes she squeezed Finn's hand hard, and jumped in.

***

That's all Folks stay tuned for Chapter 4: An Angel Gets Her Wings!

Comments and reviews are much loved and appreciated !  <3

~Miss Foxx

CHAPTER 4: TEASER

It was too bright. The hand clasped in front of her was all she could see; holding on tighter with each step.

"Slow down Angel boy... Finn !" Kate struggled to keep up with his marching pace.

"I'm not some rag doll you can just..." the words dying on her lips as the light gave way to a bright shining gold wall. They pushed through it , Kate shuddered as the wave of energy vibrated through her. It was warm.

"Finn..." Kate gripped a little tighter. " What is this place?" Her eyes could barely take in what she was seeing.