Guardian Angel

Chapter 2 - Daniel

Daniel knew the look on Melody's face all too well. In his attempt to cheer her up he had managed to disappoint her. He had no idea what he had been thinking fifteen minutes ago when he had decided to do something that was strictly forbidden. He had not been lying to her. He had really wanted to see her smile.

She smiled rarely these days. On her forehead she was wearing a constant frown. Her lips mostly formed a straight line. Once in a while she moaned softly or cried silent tears in her white pillow.

Daniel had seen it all before. He had been in charge of protecting people with hard lives before. But for some reason this time he couldn't just stand by and watch, even though he knew he had to.

Melody didn't deserve all of this. She didn't deserve the constant pain that was consuming her brain. She didn't deserve people calling her ugly and uninteresting. She was far from ugly and far from uninteresting. The world she was living in was just a hard place.

A place that couldn't handle her kindness and her love.

"Yeah, I know. I acted like an idiot tonight." Melody talked to who knew which imaginary boyfriend.

Daniel had lost count of them, but he was aware that all those imaginary boyfriends could never replace the real one she was not so secretly wishing for.

"My mind comes up with another imaginary boyfriend and I immediately assume he's real." She rolled her eyes and held out her hand when she took a sharp turn to the right.

Even though having to witness her struggle through life was not the most pleasant experience, Daniel didn't need to do much to keep her out of unexpected trouble.

Melody never crossed the street without watching. She didn't cycle with music in her ears and even when the streets were dark and empty she held out her hand, for that one car that could probably come out of nowhere.

Maybe that was exactly what made it so hard to be her guardian angel. He couldn't be the kind of guardian angel she actually needed. He couldn't be the one making her life brighter and better. He couldn't be the one giving her hope when it felt like the entire world was against her.

"Yes, I'm only twenty-one. I'm still young. Blabla." Melody sighed and a tear escaped her eyes. The tear glimmered in the moonlight and Daniel was taken by surprise by the beauty of it. "Everyone keeps on saying that. Everyone keeps on saying that I'll meet my prince charming and that someone out there is ready to love me. Why does everyone my age have had several someones already, while I'm still waiting for my first? How is that even fair?"

Daniel had to admit that it wasn't fair. But one thing he had learned during his many lives as a guardian angel was that life wasn't fair.

There had once been a man in France. He had been working for the king. Year after year he had done exactly what the king had asked from him. He had cleaned the stables. He had even given up the hand of his daughter in marriage. Never had he asked for anything. Never had he asked for more food, for a better home, for more days off. One day he had woken up in the dungeon of the castle. Someone had spread the awful lie that he had been the one stealing the silver candlestick from the dining room. No matter how many times he told the guards that he was innocent, the next day they had executed him on the market place in front of the palace.

The moment the neck of the man had been broken, Daniel's wings had opened the little scars on his shoulder blades and had carried him back home. He had not heard the rumors and lies that had been spread about the man after his horrible death. It wasn't hard to imagine however what they had been telling about him.

"And if there is one more person telling me to just think positive, I'm gonna scream and shout!" She took a deep breath, not realizing that she was already screaming and shouting and probably waking up the entire neighborhood. "Positive thinking is nothing but tricking yourself into believing that tomorrow will be better than today." She took a deep breath and she jumped of her bike. "And somehow tomorrow always ends up being worse."

Daniel knew that it was his fault that she was talking like this right now. He had wanted to give her the best night of the last few years and now she hated her own imagination. If he could have done so, he would have showed his face again, but breaking the rules once had already been one time too many.

"I'm just gonna go to bed, okay?" She turned her face to the boy she was imagining next to her when she parked the bicycle and opened the door leading towards her room.

Maybe her talking out loud had been exactly why he had done it. Why he had all of a sudden made himself visible, why he had held out his hand and had invited her for a dance. Not once had he been tempted to do something like this, but every time she had talked to no one in particular, he had been the one listening.

Her wishes weren't even that big. She had talked about wanting to fall in love, wanting to know for sure that there was someone in this world capable of seeing her as someone special.

Actually it was a general wish. A wish all humans seemed to have, even the man that had been executed because someone had accused him of something he had not done.

Daniel knew that everything happened for a reason.

Melody had the disease she had for a reason. Melody had been meeting the people who had lifted her up and the people who had brought her down for a reason. Everything she was going through and everything she would go through happened for a reason.

It was a reason Daniel didn't understand and sometimes he wished that someone would tell him in advance what kind of life was waiting for the person he was supposed to guard. He would like to know if they were going to live a happy life. He would like to know if they were going to live a sad life. He would like to know if they were going to grow old or if they were going to die young. But for him everything was as much of a surprise as for the humans he was looking after.

"No, don't worry, I won't turn my laptop on." Melody entered her dorm and she fell down on her bed. Slowly she took of her jacket and Daniel leaned against one of the walls to watch her. She dropped the jacket on the floor and then she took off her shirt.

Daniel stared at her slim figure, at the pink bra she was wearing, at her fingers opening the button of her jeans.

When she had been a freshman in college she had always been prepared for unexpected things to happen. She had always made sure to wear matching underwear, just in case. But after a couple of months she had slowly given up hope and had stopped caring. Right now she was wearing a boxershort in a strange shade of blue.

Daniel turned his face away when she clicked her bra open and he only looked back at her when she put on her sleep shirt. Carefully he used the tip of his finger to push the teddy bear next to her bed, causing it to fall on the floor.

"O! Sorry, I was almost forgetting you! I'm sorry!" Melody never wondered how her stuff ended up on the floor. Maybe it was because she managed to make a mess within a week after cleaning up.

The floor of her room was covered in clothes and pieces of paper. On the walls hung drawings made by her friends. The books she reread over and over were placed on special shelves above her bed.

The guardian angel part of him hated her room. There were everywhere things she could fall over and he had to make sure to always be by her side in case her foot would slip. And even he couldn't prevent that a little too often her skin ended up bruised and harmed.

"Sleep well, little Winnie." She whispered and she closed her eyes. She had pulled up the sheets until they were touching her chin and she turned to her left side and curled her legs up. She would probably turn around a few times before she would really fall asleep, but Daniel walked towards her bed and carefully sat down at her feet.

He liked watching her when she was asleep.

It was the only time of the day she almost seemed calm and happy, a little smile playing around her lips while she was dreaming one of her happy dreams. "Sleep well, Melody." He whispered, knowing that she wouldn't hear it and would think she was imagining his voice if she would. "I'm sorry about giving you false hope."

She turned around to her left side and placed her hand under her cheek. A few moments later she was snoring softly.