Have you ever had the feeling that you’re being watched? Have you ever felt that you were being watched all the time? Lithia had felt this way many times, often waking up in the middle of the night to a dark shape hovering over her. Nevertheless, with a second glance she found that nothing more than her ceiling fan was looming over her.
That’s what happened tonight, Lithia was getting ready to lay down when she had the urge to go to her window. She would never forget what she saw. Outside no more than ten miles away in the cemetery was a glowing object hidden behind bushes. Lithia was automatically drawn to the glowing object and before she could even think about what she was doing she was in the foyer with black and white converse on. Lithia looked into the mirror to the left of her, nothing was different besides her usually blonde hair that she had recently dyed black, her green eyes were framed in a work of black eye-liner and mascara, and her full lips still had a thin layer of Chap Stick on them. How ordinary, she thought to herself as the emotionless figure stared back at her through the looking glass, nothing special, just ordinary me, sometimes Lithia wondered what people saw in her. Its not like she was interesting or pretty, just so ordinary it was almost boring/annoying. No, she had never done anything exciting or worth attention in her life, but people looked at her always, all the time, even people who hated Lithia couldn’t not stare at her. It was as if she was a being made of metal and their eyes magnets. Maybe no one really even looked at her, maybe it was just her overactive imagination and paranoia that made her think that people had to stare when she entered a room. But as usual she had the strange feeling that it wasn’t something as simple as paranoia acting up in her mind, there was something wrong with her, nothing neither she nor anyone else could explain, just something wrong with her. The Doctor had called her fainting spells she had Narcolepsy, but when she started to see things that hadn’t happened yet when she fainted they called it a “miracle” everyone else however, tended to stay away from Lithia, because she was different, a freak, they didn’t want to become a freak by being associated with her.

Indeed there was something wrong with her, she sighed and then weighed the pros and cons of leaving, pros: her mom and dad were gone at a party and wouldn’t be back for another few days and her little brother Toddy, was away at a friends house too afraid to stay home alone with her for more then an hour alone, cons: well there weren’t any except that a cop or worse the creepy crypt keeper Mr. Rosewood would find her. With a suppressed shudder Lithia acted on her impulse decision and opened the stained glass and cherry wood front door. Knives of icy wind slashed at her face threatening to cut through the thin layers of facial tissue, Lithia grabbed a white knit hat and her pair of house keys and walked outside locking the door on her way out.

The air smelt of lit pumpkins and fall leaves, the setting of the perfect night, the almost full moon shone between the clouds lighting the fog that hung around Lithia’s ankles. It was exactly one week until Halloween, Lithia’s favorite holiday; she smiled at the thought of it. She would probably go as a witch or something, not for the candy, just for the simple thrill of being someone else for a night, even if for just a couple hours.

Multicolored leaves crunched under Lithia’s sneakers like the popcorn stuck on Movie Theater floors. Lithia was almost singing she was so filled with so much joy, until she saw the light and everything around her seemed to disappear one by one, first the trees then the houses, and the moon, until nothing, but she and the shrinking light were left. Lithia felt as if someone were in trouble and needed her help, that if the light died the person in the cemetery holding it, would die. Lithia started running then and only stopped to leap up as far as she could of the fence surrounding the cemetery. She had climbed the very same gate many times before, but it had never felt so high up, she thought she would never reach it, until she was on the other side. Confused and exhilarated she shook her head and took off like a bat out of hell, adrenalin fueling her, and then she reached it, the light.

Falling, she was falling. She must have tripped over something and was falling down and down until she was sure she would hit the ground, but nothing came, no impact, no nothing. It was then that Lithia knew she was having a vision, slowly she ’ came to ’ but it wasn’t her she was seeing through, it was someone else’s eyes. Light was everywhere touching everything sparkling off of every surface possible, even the clouds the feet were standing on. Clouds! Yes, with a second glance Lithia knew that’s what she was standing on clouds, but she wasn’t standing, she was hovering. This was a weird vision, not like another she had ever had, it wasn’t a car accident that was going to happen, or a new abduction, or murder, and it was as if she was an angel. An Angel!!! She didn’t know how but she suddenly knew she was correct with her assumption. So, she was seeing through and angles eyes, and at that moment of realization is when she started to fall again.

Waking with a jolt and a pool of nasty copper blood in her mouth, probably from biting her tongue, Lithia looked at the leaf covered ground she was on, leaf covered, not cloud covered. Lithia blew out a sigh of relief when she saw the glowing figure beside her, she was about to scream when she realized it as a man. Grant it the figure looked more like a god than a man, but whatever, this was the odd light she had seen and she found it. Lithia wanted to jump for joy, except the boy/god/man wasn’t moving not even breathing from the lump she could see.

Lithia crawled closer to it and almost gasped at its inhumane beauty. His face was perfection, every inch looked as if sculpted by an old master, his eyes- and Lithia said his, because its chest was bare and a marvelous sculpted chest that seemed to be glowing with a fading inner light, was exposed- were closed and a look of pain was spread across his face. As if moving in front of her eyes the guy’s hair was changing from an almost golden blonde to a pitch black-as-night-without-a-moon color. Lithia didn’t know what to do, she had always been the one passed out not the bystander, and she had no clue what to do for this suffering man. She almost touched him, but he looked as if he might break or poof away at the slightest change in wind, none the less the weight of her slender hand. Lithia stood up and looked over at him breathing heavily trying not to pass out again. The man looked as if he would die at any moment the light was disappearing faster and faster in front of her eyes, she had to do something, or he was going to die.

“Hello, can you hear me?” Lithia’s question that was supposed to come out sounding strong, confident, and loud came out in barely a quivering whisper, what if he dies? Lithia thought and her eyes welled up with tears for this stranger. She couldn’t think of anything else to do, frustrated she slumped back down to the ground and started crying. That’s when the man got up.



Slowly he regained consciousness, first in his feet, then his hands, and then finally his head. But none of that mattered or had to do with how he got up and out of the tar like water that had engulfed him. Oh, he knew what the price was all right, a life for a life, his soul sold forever. If she hadn’t come to his rescue then he would have died, he would have be happy, it would have been a privilege to die protecting her.

He had known who it was the second she entered the graveyard. That’s when the black tar like water swallowing him whole started to break apart, because she was near him, how could she save him though? Hadn’t he already paid the price to save her? If his soul was gone then why was he able to wake up? Confused he stood up and looked around, that’s when he saw Lithia crying like she lost someone important to her, but she didn’t even know him. He knew her alright, probably more than any of the humans that had known her since she was little, exceptionally more than that human boy that she had become infatuated with. No matter he could deal with the human boy, no more than an annoying mosquito to him than anything else, and the boy would be easy to deal with.

He tried to stand but almost fell over, disgruntled, he stood up again, this time using his arms for balance, and walked over to the crying girl.



A strong hand came down on Lithia’s’ shoulder, immediately she stopped crying. She looked up expecting to see Mr. Rosewood standing above her, his skinny, veiny hands gripping her she almost gagged thinking about his nasty boney stumps clutching her, a dab of dried spit crusted to the side of his wrinkly mouth, man was she wrong. A very handsome man with unbelievably blue eyes, so blue they were indescribable, they looked like something created in a top secret laboratory specifically designed to stun anyone who came in contact with them, he had a long narrow face with a strong jaw line a little black stubble tainted his upper lip and chin, his silky hair that was as dark as a starless night sky, swooped across the right side of his forehead lightly caressing his right eye, it was straight and hung just under his chin. His hands were muscular and large, her whole shoulder fit into the single hand he held it with, his chest was bare and like she had thought before, looked as if it were sculpted by Michelangelo himself, the golden light had vanished without a trace leaving a dark residue that seemed to hang in the air around him. He was wearing white drawstring pants that had splotches of black on them. The most predominate feature of all, the one thing that stood out among every other amazing detail were the two wings that were so black they seemed to have been cut right out of reality, but at the same time they appeared as silky as his hair.

Shocked she scooted back and asked him if he was okay.

I fall out of the sky into this human cemetery and my inner light goes out, and she asks me if I’m okay? He thought to himself finding it odd that she hadn’t ran away screaming in terror. It was obvious that she had seen his wings and the change he went through as his inner light went out, so then why did this silly human stay and ask him the same question she may ask any regular person? She treated him as if he were just a normal person rather than an immortal being that had in theory ’gone over to the dark side’ . He had to answer her, it would be rude not to, but her innocent beauty bewitched him almost as if she had cast a spell to make him paralyzed and tied to the ground that he currently stood on.


What was wrong with him? Lithia had asked him a simple question, couldn’t he respond? It didn’t matter if he didn’t answer within the next five seconds then she was going to leave for home and forget everything she had witnessed tonight. He was still staring at her, an expression of confusion was sculpted on his perfect face, if she hadn’t known any better then she would have thought that he was a headstone for an unlucky inhabitant of the ‘hotel for lost souls’ as her Pappy had put it one Halloween night before he died. Just thinking about here Pappy made Lithia’s eyes sting, she was closer to him than her own mother who seemed to either be working or schmoozing their bosses and co-workers. Lithia felt bad for Toddy, Pappy died before he was born so poor Toddy never got much attention unless it was by herself or a friend’s parent. Her father and mother had separated when Toddy was born, ‘things just weren’t working out’ her mother had told her the night her father left; it was too bad that they couldn’t have figured that out before they had two kids. The last time she had seen her father she was ten and it was Christmas, that year her father had gotten into a terrible accident and has been in a coma ever since, its been eight years and he’s remained the same, with no improvements, Lithia visited him three times a week, four if she was able to make the hour commit it took to got to the hospital. Lithia was in the car with her father and the paramedics had said that it was a miracle that she had survived without a scratch. They used to live in sunny California where the sun always seemed to make you smile and it never got cold enough to snow, that all changed the year of the divorce, her mother had wanted to move as soon as the papers were signed, but there were ‘the matters of the children left unattended to’ as her mothers lawyer had put it, her father had just said that her mother could keep them, that she needed them more than he did to get over the divorce, so long as they visited on holidays. He re-married a year after to a young collage student, she had brunette hair and a fake tan, she was only five years younger than him, but it annoyed Lithia more than anything, how could he find happiness only a year after he left us when her mother could barely stay in one state long enough to meet a total loser and get her heart broken? They had moved eight times since she was ten, they had lived in eight different states, one always more different than the next, now that she was eighteen they had moved to New York State, a very cloudy and glum state indeed, it appeared that the only sun they got was in the summer for three months and then the clouds came in.

“I’m fine thank you,” The rich tenor voice was like a seductive slap across the face, instantly she returned to the present and saw that the man was now moving towards her again. Her heart rate accelerated to match his fast pace Lithia thought it was going to rip right out of her chest; her breath came in silent little pants as his beauty mixed with something dark fluttered towards her.

Once he was directly in front of her he scrutinized her as if testing weather she would run away or not, when she made no movement he dropped into a crouch and offered him her hand. She looked at his hand and with some hesitation took hold of it with her own shaking hand. He helped her up and steadied her with his hand because she begun to tremble and felt so weak kneed that without his help she probably would fall.

“I’m Lithia,” she finally managed to say.

“I’m Chaos, its nice to finally meet you Lithia,” His beautiful blue eyes captivating her, her chest was growing heavy and it was beginning to hurt to breathe. He looked as if he was eighteen or his early twenties, but at the same time he looked like a creature that had been suffering for incomprehensible years.

“You came from up there,” Lithia said as she stupidly flailed her arms towards the sky, “didn’t you?”

Chaos’s face hardened then hesitantly he answered, “Yes, I did.” His eyes were suspicious as if he half expected Lithia to run away or worse, jump into his arms gushing about how incredibly hot he was (even though he was incredibly hot).


“Cool,” was her reply. “So you probably have no place to stay do you?” She didn’t wait for a response she just kept talking,
“So why don’t you come back to my house and you can stay there for at least one night.”

“Uh, yes, that would be acceptable,” his face was nonchalant, his body guarded, it was as if he was a being incapable of emotions. Then again that could be what he is.

“Okay,” she tried to say just as nonchalantly, “My house is a block or two away from here, you need to do something about your, uh, wings though.”

“I see, it’s not normal here,” and with no more than the faint squinting of his eyes his wings fell flat agents his back.

“Yeah, that should do until we get you a shirt,” Lithia shrugged, “well follow me.”



Chaos could have led Lithia to her own house, he didn’t need to be shown how to get there, he had been to her house many times, not that she knew that. He took one step forward and fell right on his face.

“Um, here,” Lithia’s perfect hand was held out to him, two inches above his own hand. Chaos reluctantly accepted her help, but instantly regretted it the moment their hands touched. It felt like what he would imagine fire would feel like as it burned away at the flesh of his hand. He snatched away his hand and almost fell, when instinctively his black wings flung out on either sides of him helping him remain balanced.

He could hear the noise Lithia’s slender hand made as she slapped her forehead. “I thought we were clear on the whole no wi-”

“Crystal, my apologies Lithia.” Chaos straightened his posture and tucked his wings back to being agents his back.

“Oomph,” Lithia ran into her mail box and would have fallen right on her butt if Chaos’s instincts hadn’t stopped her. Inhumanly fast, Chaos’s arms flung out and he caught Lithia before she fell onto the leaf crusted pavement. “Uh, thanks Chaos,” she smiled fully at him and his heart caved in on itself, or at least it would have if he had a heart.

Chaos was so mesmerized by her smile that he could only shake his head in acknowledgment.

“Lithia! Where were you!” a small voice came shouting out of the Acerbis house hold. “Zach had to go to the hospital because he swallowed a magnet off of their fridge and then I got home and you weren’t here and I got scared and -” The little boys small thin face went pale and his brown eyes the size of golf balls.

“Toddy!” Lithia squealed, obviously she was not expecting him to be home.

“Who’s that?” Todd pointed to Chaos as if he weren’t even there.

“Toddy that’s, well that’s an angel, his name is Chaos and I think, that I may have saved him.” Chaos couldn’t believe it! She told the truth to this child who Chaos wasn’t sure could be trusted.

“Sureee,” Todd dragged out the word as a smile spread out across his face, “or is he just your new boyfriend?”

“No Toddy! Just…here Chaos spread your wings apart, show Todd that I’m not lying.” Lithia pleaded.

“But how am I to trust a small child I do not even know?” Chaos asked.

“I’m not small I’m six and a half years old, and I’m not a child my name is Todd, Todd Acerbis. But you can call me Toddy, everybody does.”

“My apologies, uh, Toddy,” Chaos said looking down at him.
Then he looked at Lithia and into her pleading eyes and with a sigh chaos spread his wings, stretching them so that they went over his head and then straight out from each side.

“Wow! Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow!” Todd screeched as he jumped up and down, “you really are an angel!” Chaos was about to answer him when the little boy ran up to him and gave him a huge hug knocking Chaos to the ground.

“Toddy!” Lithia screeched.

Todd looked up from his perch on Chaos, “What, I just gave him a hug!” he screamed back at her.

“Its okay its okay, holey moley,” Chaos said picking Todd and himself up off of the ground.

“Is Chaos staying the night at our house?” Todd asked.

“Yes,” replied Lithia.

“Yay!” Todd jumped, and for the first time since Chaos had fallen, he started to laugh.



The sound was like a bass drum being hit in an unforgettable melody, Lithia’s heart skipped two beats itself, and her head flung around until she found the source of the beautiful music. It was Chaos, and he was laughing. His beautiful stone face had softened and he looked like a regular guy simply delighted by the smallest ounce of joy produced by a little boy jumping up and down because Chaos was staying at their home. Acceptance, that’s what the angel was feeling, maybe for the first time ever, maybe Lithia had more in common with this immortal than she had imagined when she first saw him. Just because he was an angel didn’t necessarily make him perfect or accepted by everyone.

“Li Li!” Toddy cried, “come on, me and Chaos are gonna make some hot cocoa!”

Lithia looked up and smiled at her little brother his chocolate brown hair was disheveled and curly, the wind blowing it around his small face. His deep eyes reflected the same brown color as his hair, his mouth was spread into a huge grin with a couple of teeth missing here and there, which Lithia had to come up with ‘tooth fairy’ money for because her mother had been on one of her famous dates that resulted in tragedy and another move. At the moment Toddy had rocket ship pajamas on with his comfy cloud slippers and his teddy Boobear was clutched to his side like always.

“Sorry Toddy,” Lithia said with a smile as she jogged towards Chaos and her brother.


Once Lithia had gotten inside the house and shut and locked the door she felt dizzy. She turned and meant to call for her brother, but her voice broke and vision blurred. There was nothing she could do, she was going to pass out and probably going to have a seizure and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it, perfect, she thought just as she crashed to the ground.

Hurry, hurry, hurry. The thought was repetitive, haunting the brain that summoned the words. The door was locked; a masculine hand pulled out a pocket knife and shakily went into the keyhole trying to open the front door. Suddenly she knew something was off, this was Lithia’s house, but why was she, or rather the person she was seeing through, trying to break into it? It made no sense.

Finally! Finally, the door gave and creaked open and the inside of the semi inviting house was reveled, now all she had to do was wait, but where?

*****************************************************


Todd was getting the marshmallows out of the cupboard when Chaos had the feeling that something was off. He looked at the kitchen from the bamboo flooring to the granite counter tops that were sitting on top of cherry wood islands and cabinets, nothing in the kitchen was amiss, but there was a feeling of darkness that Chaos felt was almost tangible. Then he heard the thud come from the front door.

Todd screamed when he heard the noise then looked at Chaos. Chaos simply ran for the door, the whole concept of walking and running was starting to finally click in his head. When he got to the door he saw Lithia convulsing on the ground bloody foam spewing from her mouth.

“Chaos what’s wrong with Li Li!” Todd screeched.

“I think she’s having a vision.” he said in a husky breath as he dropped to his knees. Lithia wasn’t just sputtering out blood because she had bitten her tongue; she was gagging and vomiting bloody foam all over the floor. “But she’s loosing a lot of blood.”

“That’s bad! We need to call 911,” Todd cried.

“And say what Todd?” Chaos snapped.

“I don’t know,” he started to whimper and little tears fell from his eyes.

“I- I’m sorry Todd, I didn’t mean to yell at you,”

“Then why did you do it!” Todd screamed back at Chaos he swung once than missed and ran upstairs to his room. Chaos had the feeling that he needed to follow Todd, but he couldn’t leave Lithia lying on the floor literally puking her insides out.

“Toddy?” she finally managed to sputter.

“Lithia!” Chaos yelled in relief, “your okay.”
Slowly Lithia sat up and looked at the mess she was lying on.

“Ew,” she said as she stood up. “I’m definitely going to need a sho-” and that’s when they heard Todd scream. Lithia turned to Chaos with a startled look, Toddy, she mouthed. Chaos nodded his head, grabbed her hand, and within a second they were on the third floor in front of Todd’s room. Chaos motioned for Lithia to stay hidden in the closet; she simply nodded and closed the door.

Chaos took a deep breath before lethally gliding inside Todd’s room. Todd was on his back on his bed, blood was gushing from a hole in his head, and a man with a gun was pacing back and forth, neither one of them stirred when Chaos had entered the room. As fast as he was capable of Chaos snuck up from behind the gunman, threw his gun to the floor and put one of his razor sharp talons - the new black ones that had grown like terrible horns from the sides of his wings - agents the mans throat.

“What is your business here?” Chaos asked the man a ripple of anger almost made his talon slice through the mans throat before he could answer. Chaos took one steadying breath then asked again with more force when the man didn’t answer.

“It just seemed like a good gig, I swear! The moms never home, there’s no father figure, the daughter doesn’t have a boyfriend, and the son was small…” He trailed off, “I have followed them for weeks and I have never seen you before, that’s not possible. I- I studied so hard!” The man was angry? This petty human theft was angry because this family had an angel to keep watch? Tough luck, was all Chaos thought when he sliced part of the mans neck open then let him fall to the ground as he ran to Todd and turned to leave to the hospital.

“ Don’t think about leaving anytime soon either, that wound is no small scratch, its not going to heal with a band-aid there girl scout,” Chaos didn’t worry about how cold and, soulless, the words came out, all he cared was that this family was safe. “You’ll need stitches, a lot of them, don’t worry we’ll make sure the doctors know where to find you, that is, if you’re still alive by the time they get here.”

A small gasp came from the hallway. Chaos cursed silently to himself. “Lithia I thought I told you to stay put!”



Lithia’s breath caught in her throat, what had Chaos just done? “Is he dead?!” she whispered horrified.

“No, but you would have been if he had been left un attended to,” Chaos said trying to make the situation better.

“Whatever, where’s Toddy? Is he okay?” Chaos had almost forgotten the little boy lying on his bed with a hole in his head.

“He needs to go to the hospital, now” Chaos said calmly.

“What happened where…that is his blood on the ground?” She asked with damp eyes.

“Yes, he was shot.” Lithia collapsed.

“Shot,” she said, “Shot where?” Chaos pointed to his head.

“He was shot in his, his, his,” Lithia’s voice broke and a small glistening tear ran down her face. “You need to take us to the hospital,” she said firmly.

“But my wings!” Chaos said, “They would be very noticeable.”

“Hide them!” Lithia screeched. Frustrated Chaos ran into the bathroom found a pair of scissors and cut off his wings. It was a very bloody and painful procedure, but it was the only way he could hide his wings from people. He could hear Lithia crying from the other room, but he couldn’t think about that now, or about the unbelievable pain shooting out of his back.


The cool night air was like an ice pack on a burnt finger, satisfyingly relieving. Chaos turned his head towards Lithia and shouted for her to grab a hold of his arm, she did as she was told and within the blink of an eye they were in front of the hospital doors.

“I cannot go any further,” Chaos instructed, “the humans here are far more perceptive than I imagined they would be, but I’ll come back later. Goodbye.”

Then Lithia was alone her little brother practically dieing in her arms. She wanted to scream, but she couldn’t find her voice, her feet felt like rubber and she couldn’t move. Out of nowhere a doctor in blue scrubs was shoved through the door, as if an invisible man had pushed him, just hard enough, so that he landed in front of Lithia and little Toddy. The doctors brown eyes lit up as she took in the Teenage girl weeping over what looked like a little boy, there was a lot of blood, but at first glance the doctor could not figure out which child was hurt.

“Are you okay?” The brown eyed doctor asked in a bass voice. Lithia nodded her head then held her brother out to him. “Oh God.” The doctor said horrified then shouted at two Attendants before Lithia passed out for the third time that day.