City of Angels Book 2

Chapter 2: Another Chance

Often while on earth, waiting for my next passenger, I found myself seated on that bench in the park outside that specific coffee shop. I could still see Freen in my mind's eye and the twinkle in her own eyes. I watched the way she effortlessly flowed from one seat to the next and start a conversation I still did not hear.

I was so jealous then. Another human emotion that caught me off guard, but how could I not? If the great Source of all that exists ever made anything perfect, it was the flawlessness of Freen Sarocha Chankimha. She could have been an angel herself and I would worship at her feet.

Whenever I returned home, I got scolded by Irin, reminded that I only had one duty to perform and I could not let any emotion get in the way of that. It was easy for her to try and convey that message as she had never felt what I had felt. Irin's job was to warn wayward travelers of the outcome of their lives should they not change. She never got attached or experienced emotion as her travelers were never really desirable with all of their problems. I wish she could perform my duty for just one day.

"You were supposed to fetch her and bring her here, not hang around and play pretend, Becca." She always reminded me when I felt stuck, pining over Freen. I knew she was right. I broke the rules and now the rules had broken me. I was stuck as an immortal being with mortal emotions.

Then one day things changed.

"There is one way, Becca." Irin said, though with a deep warning tone to her voice, the one she used when she delivered messages on earth. "You fall. Permanently. You become a true mortal with no more acces to the hereafter until you die. No wings, no ferrying souls, no speaking to angels unless they appear to you. You'll have to fully survive as a mortal and suffer the same fate they all share."

That didn't seem too bad, though the thought of losing my divinity was a bit of a scare. However, I knew there was a catch. There was always a catch. "But how do that if Freen is dead already?"

Irin smiled and looked at the forever garden. "We can send her back, memories erased. But Beck, we're talking about a parallel universe here. Things will not be the same."

I contemplated the implications of what Irin had told me, but in that moment it was hard to care. I could see Freen again. I could build a life with her. I could hold her every night and show her my love every day. I could be her setting sun and her rising moon. I could be the tides that rush to meet her feet. I could be the immense warmth that encapsulated her for our mortal eternity.

"If not the same, how will things be?" I pondered. That little tidbit could change all circumstances for both myself and Freen.

Irin looked at me with pity in her eyes and placed a hand on my shoulder. "She won't remember you, but you'll remember her. She won't be quite the same and you'll be left carrying the burden of that. Your story will have to start all over again."

A chill ran down my spine then. Freen would be completely unaware of me and I'd have to win her over again from the start. I was up to the challenge, but still a piece of my heart broke. What we had was beyond beautiful, beyond transcendental, beyond life and death itself. But I still felt determined. No such love was ever made to die. An unfathomable love like ours had to find its way back to us.