Paul stood above the creek looking down into the pitch. Up on that cliff the world seemed a hollow void. Nothing gave him comfort, nothing gave him happiness. The moisture trail on his face was still fresh from the tears that fell not but 20 minutes earlier. Thoughts of his parents filled his mind. Old happy times swirled like a maelstrom, teasing and tormenting him. Then the idea of going home to his overtaxed aunt and overbearing cousin pushed him into a screaming fit. He felt trapped in a life that no man deserved.
Paul wasn't always like this though. He once had a good life, the ordinary life of a modern teenager. He was never one of the goths, nor was he a jock. He did like baseball though. He never fit into the popular crowd, but wasn't a reject. He was just an ordinary young man. He had his crushes, and even his stash of magazines. Like I said, ordinary. Till the accident that changed his life. His family got off easy, it was quick for them. He was forced to endure comas, pain, broken bones and surgery. And the greatest crime, custody hearings to decide his fate. His fate that tied him to his new and unwanted family.
But standing there, his thoughts sped and sped till finally they blurred into a mesh of mental white noise. It was so loud. Too loud to take any longer, and as if controlled by outside forces he etched closer and closer to the edge of that cliff. Knowing in his head that his heart was too broken to fix. He planned to end it all. To jump and fade into the black of death. No longer a burden to his family, or himself. That was the only thing left.
"I would not do that if I were you."
The voice came from nowhere, but for some reason it wasn't enough to scare Paul. It was kind of warm. Paul turned to face the voice and saw a blur step from the shadows of the trees. He was dressed in jeans a tee shirt and a jacket. He was as normal as any other person in the midday rush. But he had a caring look. "Statistically speaking," he said. "A fall from this height wouldn't kill you, the painful internal bleeding would." He got as close as he could too the cliffs edge and looked over. "Whoa, nasty looking drop bubba, nasty." He turned his head and peered into Paul's eyes. For a brief moment there was silence. Then the man spoke again. "You got a lot of hurt in those eyes man. More than most men can handle, and more than most have the capacity to see." Paul was dumbfounded and speechless, yet he had a thousand million questions. He moved to speak but, "I know what you're thinking bubba. Who the hell is this nut and what gives him the right to interrupt my suicidal plans? You got a point, who am I anyways. But take a look down there." The stranger pointed down to the creek. There standing next to the creek was a ghastly looking man dressed in black, or was it a silhouette. It was like a man but not a man all at the same time, bright as day, yet blurry as twilight. "That there Paul, is DEATH, the Angel of death to be precise. Hi Max!" The man yelled out as he waved down to the shadowy figure.
Paul stepped back, freaked out by what the strange man just said. He looked down and he noticed that the figure had the angriest look on his face. Or at least it looked angry. Then Paul looked back at the man. "Oh, I am always pissing him off for some reason or another, but this reason is special. I have never pointed him out to a mortal before. Why do you look so freaked Paul. You were going to jump, so its only natural that death be there to take you. Well not till after the 5 hours of pain and swelling you'd endure first." The only word Paul could think of to say was "how?" The man took in a deep breath and leaned against a nearby tree. "Well, that's both easy and hard to explain. Its totally against the rules, what I am doing now. Revealing myself in this way. Talking to you, you seeing me. I'm supposed to exist in a plane of invisibility. Working in the background, doing only little things to sway you humans this way and that, as royally decreed that is... Paul, I'm an Angel. Your guardian angel to be exact, if you can believe that? Where are you going Paul." And Paul was off, running as fast as he could in who knows direction. "You are in SERIOUS trouble you know that Alex.?" Max said standing right beside him. "I know, but they've tried everything else."
.........TO BE CONTINUED
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