The Guardian Under My Bed

Chapter 3

"Kastiel," Arthur said and I looked up. "I'm going to tell you a story, that ends with you being here, but" Arthur looked at me concerned, "It began with your parents"

My parents? I sat silently, not knowing how to answer or feel. Half a year ago, I had come home from school and found an already open letter addressed to me on the counter of our kitchen with a wad of cash which was about six thousand rand. I hadn't thought much about it since I knew my parents would explain everything when they arrived back home. Even when they were not back the next day, I didn't panic since they were often away for periods of time busy with work. When the following day came with men knocking on our door to evict the house I realized that something really was wrong.

I couldn't get hold of my parents via phone and I only just managed to grab the money on the counter and run away before they could call child services on me. No ways was I going to stay in some orphanage. Turns out the fees for my school were cancelled too, so even if I wanted to go back, I couldn't, not to a nice school like that anyway. At first, I didn't understand, I was their beloved daughter, I mean sure maybe sometimes I misbehaved but that was rarely without cause.

In the end I only felt anger, I decided to start working on my own, I didn't realize how little six thousand rand was when you have to take care of all your living expenses on your own. I was treated like a slave at the hotel I worked, with pay barely above the minimum wage. I finally decided that even if I saw my parents, no matter how desperate I was, I was going to pretend I didn't know them, and maybe rob them too because why not? They robbed me of a bright future. "What about my parents?" I asked indifferently.

"Well," said Arthur "Our family is in the business of looking after human children, we guard them from danger, but in your world, we are most commonly thought of as 'The monsters under your bed', at the time, I was in charge of your father, Hank" Arthur closed his eyes as if remembering a troubling memory. "It was then when I made a mistake. Your father was a very curious child and he found out about me one night. It was a stupid mistake really, forgetting to turn my TMD to silent."

Arthur sighed, rubbing his eyes, "I was discharged from guarding him immediately and the boy soon forgot about me, and the matter was resolved, or that's what we thought anyway."

Annabelle rested her hand on her tired husband's arm and she continued his story, "The young boy meanwhile grew up and met a young professor who seemed to have all the answers to his questions."

Something still confused me, "I'm sorry to interrupt but, there are millions of stories of child abuse and deaths, where are you guys then?"

"Ah" Arthur said "That brings us to the next part of our story. There are humans that aren't quite human. On certain days our two realms are closer than usual. A child born on these days usually has some type of.. um.. lets say ability. These abilities can be anything from having a knack for knowing when it will rain to being able to hear people's thoughts."

Wow, I thought "So am I one of those?"

"I'm getting to that" Arthur smiled, "Now there is an organisation called The Holy Retribution who has come to know of our existence and they think of the the gifted children as abominations, their soul existence is to slay these poor kids."

"That's where we come in!" Faust grinned and I smiled at how proud he was. "Yeah that's right," he said when he saw my expression, "We're pretty badass"

"Now," Annabelle began and we all focused on her "As you should have gathered your father is one of these gifted children, and although he was safe as a child, he was targeted by the organisation and was snared by your Mother, Jennifer Pines, the daughter of the current head of the organisation. Everything was going planned and Hank was going to be handed in to the organisation for a new experiment, but then something happened that no one quite foresaw" Annabelle smiled mysteriously with a sparkle in her eye, "Can you guess what?"

"They fell in love?" I wondered out loud.

Annabelle chuckled, shaking her head "To think one mind that was brainwashed from young to hate something so intensely could be changed by one person.. That is what I call a miracle."

"But, how do you all know about me?" I questioned quite irritated, I was still miffed about my parents leaving me and talking about them did not make me any fonder of the memory.

'Well, through all this time I was still feeling guilty for my mess up" grimaced Arthur, "So since I didn't have a child to look after, I started looking after you, just in case the organisation would find your parents. But a few years later, my boss asked me to come back to work and Faust took over."

"I see" I processed slowly, "So.. does that mean I have powers too!?"

"Its very unlikely" smiled Arthur. Dammit.

Arthur yawned loudly and we all realized it was quite late. "I think its time to sleep" Annabelle laughed at Arthur's exaggerated yawn.

"Where's Kastiel going to sleep?" asked Faust.

"WIV ME, WIV ME!!!" yelled Kienan.

"That's for Kastiel to decide" Annabelle grinned.

Kienan looked at me with the biggest moon eyes I had ever seen, "Pweeaaasseee" and Oh my sweet baby cheesecakes I had never seen anything that adorable in my life.

"Yes" I answered, a manly man tear forming in my eyes.

As I lay in the small bed that night with little Kienen, I wondered what my future would become and if I would ever see my parents again, no doubt the organisation had caught up with them and they ran. Maybe I did miss them, just a little bit though.