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cupids | chapter 1

I watched two teenagers fight through what seemed like a glass window. I had done this a lot lately, to try and recognize emotions again. It became easier by the day, while my perspective of my own feelings seeped into nothingness. They had told me that would happen. The teenagers' voices were muted, beyond my range of hearing. I turned to Penelope, watching her blue eyes flit to mine. She didn't smile, she didn't move.  

Penny had an angelic appearance. Her face was slim, still, and pale. She wore a white silk slip dress that ended just above the knee, paired with small platinum flats. It was always the same, with her bleach blonde hair twisted into french braids. They were long, twirling around her body like ropes, and ending near her feet. It gave her a sort of ethereal appearance. 

She was like a mentor to me, since I had died. 

I was much more simple than Penny, with short brown hair and brown eyes. Since arriving here, I always wore a white blouse and khaki pants. Never any shoes, never any jewelry. That was how I was identified, since I wasn't really and angel. This wasn't really a heaven either. Just entities, floating along to keep the world in check. We existed in the void, beyond the understanding of any human or other mortal.

Penny and I were part of what mortals would call "cupids". Our jobs were much different though. When two people fell into or out of love, we were there. Our jobs were to collect the parts of the people's souls that fell when they fell out of love. When people fall in love, we gave the fallen pieces of their souls to their love. Complicated enough, given that for the past month I'd been watching other cupids do this same job. Plus, there were tons of exceptions. You had to be inhumanly good at reading emotions to do this job. Well, at least from what I'd seen.

Penny had done this for millions and millions of years. She was retired, teaching newbies like me how to take away the souls of those who were foolish enough to love.

It was a part of being alive, I had learned. 

To be a cupid, you had to have never romantically loved. Believe me, these loons knew exactly when you had or hadn't loved. It was simple enough, considering I had no idea how to tell when someone was in love. For some reason, I would just know. That's how cupids were.

You'd think a cupid would have to loved before, but that was never the case with anything.

I died when I was seventeen, in a car wreck. As a regular teen, I had been on my way home from a party with two other friends. I'd been the one driving. My friends made it, which was one of the best and worst things I ever had to go on with. Maybe I'd see them again someday, but I'm sure the cupids had a way to avoid that too.

"Eve?" Penny said, her soft voice ringing throughout the stark white room. It had no ends, no beginning. I turned to face her, eyes down in respect.

"You have been training for a while now," Penelope told me, inspecting her nails. She wasn't coveted, just bored of sitting here for eons. I nodded, fiddling with my own hands. Sitting in a blank white room was just as interesting as it seemed.

Penny sighed, "We're sending you out for an easy task." She took out a small white velvet bag, with the name "Elliot Tom Lee" stitched into it. It was tied with a golden rope. From what I had learned, inside that bag were parts of the soul of whoever "Elliot" was.

She got up, hair waving behind her, and approached me. I knelt, as anyone would in the presence of an ethereal being. She placed the bag in front of me, and then returned to her white chair. It was really hard not to laugh at something like this, but after laughing once and being locked in an all black room for a week, I learned not to.

"You'll give these to Elliot's partner. They won't know, but you will. If you fail," Penny looked me in the eyes now, "both will lose a larger part of their soul."

I nodded, taking the bag and slipping it in my front pocket.

To anyone else, losing a part of your soul is concerning-- but not as important as it is to me and the other cupids. To me, every shard of your being depends on the fulfillment of your life. How you go through life decides the roundness of your soul. We all want to be remembered. Those who do things to be a good person, rather than to be remembered, are the people that really matter to the world.

Nonetheless, I had a job to do. I nodded to Penny, closing my eyes. A pain like being burnt alive seared through me. This was the process of getting from the void to the mortal realm. Of course, just switching realms was no easy or fun task. Penny had mastered transferring beings between realms, which was easier than getting all the cupids to do it themselves.

When the pain dulled, I let my eyes open again.

This would be the first time that I would see the real world with my own eyes again. Though no one could see me, it was just as amazing as when I was living.

I ignored this, focusing on the task at hand. A teen boy sat in front of me, holding a pair of pliers. He was cute, with full rosy cheeks and hazel eyes. He wore a pain grey tee, paired to matching grey sweatpants.

He was concentrating on a glittery maroon electric guitar. His hands guided new strings onto the instrument, his eyes not moving from his task. He eventually sat back to admire his work. A warm smile spread across his face.

Just then, a bedraggled girl burst through the door.

"Are you done yet?"

•••

So, I start another book that I may or may not finish. What do you think? It's confusing, but it'll get easier to understand as it goes on. The chapters are shorter for impact, by the way. Love you guys!~