Putting a spell for others not to see him is pretty tiring, so Adriel didn't bother to put one on. He found himself walking next to another school, wondering what it was like to be an ordinary person going to school every day. Something was pulling him to that lifestyle and he couldn't tell what it was- the simpleness of everyday life or the cluelessness of humans about everything happening beyond them. Maybe it was the mortality part of it - living with a limit, knowing your boundaries. The yard had already been cleared out and he was about to keep walking when he noticed someone running up the stairs with a ton of books and notebooks in their hands.
Adriel turns around and sees a blinding white light around the person who is already at the doors. His jaw dropped as the light kept blinding him for a few seconds, his eyes wide open. The person stopped for a second and glanced over at him. With a lot of concentration, he restricted the light and saw a polite smile vanishing before the glory of silvery hair. Frozen, for a moment, Adriel kept walking with a million thoughts swarming up inside his head.
Since he was walking around there every day, he knew when the earliest students came out of their classes, so he came back later and stared across the road at the building's entrance. The mysterious white light hadn't shown up yet but he was determined to wait. After a while, the light came out of the building, not alone this time. It was surrounded by fading lights of golden and a touch of red that was coming from the people surrounding her. Again, he needed a few seconds to restrict the brightness of the light and to see the person coming out. It was a girl, short with long silver hair. Her eyes were light blue and her skin looked silky in the light. Mesmerized with her beauty, he stared before realizing she was staring right back at him. He kept walking back to his place, expecting he didn't see her right for the first time, that he only imagined it in the morning, but the second time... The second time seemed more real to him.
Crossing streets, navigating the narrow allies, he couldn't stop thinking about her, about the light surrounding her. Angles don't exist is what he kept telling himself, but without a question, she was one. She had to be. That light was a part of heaven that he was a part of once. The stories, he imagined, are a hoax. Demons, yes, but angels? Here on Earth? Impossible. But why not?
The next day he was there again. And the one after that. And the one after that. Not believing what he saw, it seemed like every morning he woke up he wanted to prove himself wrong - that it couldn't be possible, but every day he was more and more sure. She's real. He even made himself invisible to come closer and see if she was real up close. Every day, whenever he thought she would just... disappear, she was there.
It was Friday morning and Adriel was passing the building again. It was more of a routine after two weeks than anything else - just to see the light and the person casting it. He thought of many reasons for this phenomenon - angels, faith, demons playing around with him, angles messing around, his end as a servant of God, a spell... the list was endless. As he was sitting on a bench opposite the building, suddenly, the girl was crossing the street toward him, burning his eyes more and more as she was coming closer, "Hi."
As usual, he didn't bother with invisibility and he'll pay for it. It struck him now that staring at her like that could make her think he was a stalker, or something worse. Those thoughts hardly ever occurred to him because of everything he'd already seen - murder was one of the better options he could be accused of.
Zaylie: Hi.
She stood right in front of him and put her hand out, "I'm Zaylie."
He shook her hand carefully - if she was an angel she could burn me. "Adriel."
Zaylie: I saw you across the street a few times.
Adriel: Yeah, I go to work this way every morning.
Zaylie: Oh. And if I may ask, why are you just sitting and looking at us all the time?
Adriel: I'm really not. It's just that I get emersed in my thoughts sometimes.
Zaylie: Still... an odd place to be.
Adriel: That's true, I'll just take a longer route from now on.
Zaylie: No, no. By any means, just walk around, at least you're something pretty we can look at.
She suddenly sat down beside him and pulled some candy out of her pocket, "Want some?"
Taken away by her bluntness, he continued looking in front of him with thousands of questions in his head, "No, thanks."
Zaylie: So, you go to school somewhere around here?
Adriel: No. I work a little further from here.
Zaylie: Cool. And what do you do?
Adriel: I work in a storage unit.
Zaylie: Must be hard.
Adriel: Yeah, some days are really bad.
Zaylie: Hm.
Adriel: And why are you here, exactly?
Zaylie: Well, you seemed like you're our age and kept staring into us so might as well ask you why.
Adriel: And what exactly is your age?
Zaylie: 20. And yours?
Adriel: 21.
At least that wasn't a complete lie.
Zaylie: Cool. I wanted to ask if you want to get some coffee sometime.
He smiled, "Sure. Why not."
She stood up, "Cool. What do you say right now?"
Adriel: Now?
Zaylie: You have nothing better to do but stare at my friends and I don't have to be home anytime soon.
He was looking at her as the conclusion was reached in his head. Humans are usually careful when it comes to strangers. She isn't, which means she doesn't have anything to be afraid of, which means someone's playing around with him. Demons probably. But it would be a shame not to play around with them too, so he stands up, "Let's go."
He's aware of the fact that demons can't really hurt him, so why he shouldn't be a pawn in their little game?
With that thought, they went to a coffee shop nearby. The day seemed to pass right through his fingers as he was chatting with Zaylie all afternoon. By the time she got a message asking about where she was, it was 7 pm already. When she stood up, he asked, "So see you again tomorrow?"
Zaylie: Can't. What about Sunday?
Adriel: Sure. Want me to walk you home?
Zaylie: With all due respect, you're still a stranger.
She leaves the coffee shop and waves with a smile on her face leaving him sit in shock for the next few minutes.
A stranger. Demons never played around with him nicely - usually by the end of the night there was a fight, which he usually lost. Living for an eternity tends to be boring when you don't fool around and that's why he "falls" for their little tricks, but this was a whole new level. Why would they spend multiple days on him? Is it possible that she's only a human?
