Hey, I'm sorry it took longer than I expected to revised this story with my senior year and personal problem my life was kind of messy. But it was all done for the best and finally my laptop has risen from the death too, I could publish this. Anyway, give big smiles and hugs for my betas, Team-Emmet-Cullen and Silvereyed Angel, that work so hard to repaired my disorganized story into this beautiful pieces. So get on with it, thank you for reading.
Disclaimer: I didn't own Twilight eventhough I dream of it everynight.
Chapter 1. Fascination
Humans are simply fascinating. The way they live their short, pathetic time of life. But no matter how rude, arrogant, or smelly they were, they are simply…fascinating. This is not my first time, wondering about what it is like to eat, to breathe or to simply feel the rain drop on to your hair. Something about them always tugs my lip upward, or leaves me stunned. The way they curse whenever they are late to a date. Whenever I'm about to take their loved one's soul, well even though they don't see me doing that, I always watch the way water run down their cheeks from their eyes. I recently found out that these are known as tears. Some substances that come out when humans feel sad, hurt, in pain, remorse, or frustration. I watch as the sparkles in their eyes suddenly disappear; I watch as their screams echo in the street, at hospital's waiting rooms, or beside their love's deathbed. It never repulsed me like it does to my friends. No, humans were never repulsing; they were fascinating.
Time has no effect on me and my kind. But I do wonder what it feels like to grow up and fall in love. I wonder what it's like to wear a beautiful wedding dress and said 'I do'.
"Why is she crying, once again?" I asked my guardian once,confused, as we watched a wailing little girl, barely three years old, but the beautiful tears running freely over her face. She sat on the ground, while her mother tried to calm her down, petting the brown, bouncy curls out of her face. I didn't understand why.
"Because she fell." My guardian replied.
Confused, I said, "We fall every day but neither of us are crying." She sighed, stroking her dark color hair out of her face. It's hard to play babysitter to a newborn of my kind, I guess, because we don't know anything about other creatures besides our own kind.
"You see the red liquid over her knees there? That's called blood. Whenever humans are bleeding, they're in pain and sometimes it's unbearable so they cry. Is that enough?" She explains boringly. I can't help; it's not my fault that humans were so confusing.
"Anyway, we can't cry, honey. It's emotion that causes crying and fortunately we don't have to deal with those silly emotions." She smiles warmly and starts heading north towards the beach.
I don't have any other option, other than to follow her. At the end of the day, we always come to the beach; release the souls we've gathered that day, assuring them that its okay and their loved ones will be waiting at the other side. After that, we'll enjoy the sounds of nature, the way light flickers around the sun when it's going to other places to share its warmth, the noise that the wind creates, the waves that plays with sand, offering us the most beautiful piece of music. The music of nature. It is even more beautiful than Mozart or Bach or any other musician that humans have ever heard. It soothes me and banishes any questions about humans.
"You should be heading to the city hospital. It's a lot easier with the human, who already knows that they're going to die. I'll be at the train station. You have to wait until dawn, you understand, or you'll fail and their soul will be lost because you are not yet trained to work at night. After that, I'll meet you wherever you are. Remember don't go anywhere at dark."
My annoying guardian ratted again. Sigh. I know my job. I guess they really can't get over the fact that I'm still a newborn. Or rather, a newborn to our kind. I'm 14 years old and to humans, at least, I wouldn't be considered a newborn at that age. But for my kind I'm still a baby. How can I? My guardian is 315 years old and there are others who are far too old for my liking.
So here I am, heading to the city hospital, guarding my soon-to-be lost soul, while my guardian is going to take part at the train station – apparently, there has been an accident there and it's getting quite messy with the scattered soul so they need every elder they can get.
I don't like the hospital much; it's surrounded by many of dmy kind, the newborn, especially whenever accidents happen like now. So it is kind of crowded for me, I often lose my way.
Room 367.
This consists of a lot of adolescence who are diagnosed with lung cancer. Michael Campbell. He is often called Mike, pale complexion with black jet hair and small figure because of all the medicine that is taking over his body. He decided to ignore the man in the white uniform's advice about chemotherapy and enjoyed the rest of his life traveling with his family. He was loved by many people – you can see from the table beside his deathbed, there are a lot of beautiful pictures of him laughing with his friends and family. A stack of get-well cards scattered around the coffee table beside the chair I occupied. There are flowers beside the black box... what it's called? Television, I think it's called. I think some humans call it a 'TV'. The flowers look beautiful. And I like their smell. I reached out and touched its petal and brought it to my nose and inhaled. Exhaled. Inhaled.
"Do you like it? It's my favourite; I like it a lot more than jasmine." A voice asked.
Gasp. Is it this close? Usually, humans can't see us, except when their life is coming to an end. I mean very, very soon. Or if we choose to be seen, which I didn't. Its still midnight. Isn't he supposed to be asleep? That thing that humans tend to do whenever the stars start to show in the sky. I didn't understand why they would like to close their eyes when they can stare at the stars the whole night. And here I am, getting lost in my thoughts, while this human, Mike, was staring curiously at me.
"You can talk right?"
Why would he think I can't talk? I walked right back to the chair that I previously occupied and made myself comfortable. I tilted my head and stared back at him.
"Yes, I can talk."
"I'm sorry, but you were very quiet and I thought you couldn't talk. Are you lost? Are you a patient here too? You know, you should in your bed. The nurse can get pretty annoying when they're panicked."
Ah, talkative. I smiled warmly at him. He was trying to be nice at me, the stranger that rudely interrupted his privacy and messed around with his favourite flowers, so I guess I should play nice too.
"No to the first two questions. And, yes, I know they are pretty annoying." I smiled politely.
He looked confused and starts laughing. See that what's I'm talking about, instead of panicking and running away, humans would laugh, smile or staring amusedly at me, not that he knows what I am. Yet. His eyes were lit with a beautiful spark and I couldn't resist the urge to look into those deep eyes and bath myself in its colour. I could tell from looking into those eyes that he has felt many things he shouldn't have to feel at his age.
"Sorry, you're kind of funny you know. So you can't sleep too?"
"No, I can't sleep."
"So do you like it?"
What was he talking about? What do I like? I'm so not good at making conversations especially with the human being. I looked over at him, confused, and he pointed his finger to…the flowers. I see.
"Yes. What is it called?"
"It's called an orchid. Beautiful, isn't it? My mom bought it yesterday as she knows I like it a lot."
I nodded. This kid loves his mom. This, I understand. What I don't understand is how love works. Do humans give each other something like orchids if he or she loved you? How does it feel to be loved? Does it tickle like the wind in the sunset when I enjoyed the Music of Nature? Or is it noisy like the waves and the sand? Does it hurt like when I saw the girl earlier who was crying because of her fall? I guess not the last one because if it does hurt, then this Mike wouldn't be smiling so brightly.
Awkward. He didn't talk anymore and was just staring at the TV thing, deep in thought. I stood up and walked to the window to take a look at the beautiful scenery outside. There is a lot of glow. Inhale. Exhale. It was raining. I can smell the rain. I traced the raindrop on the window.
Finally he started to talk again. "What are you doing here?"
I'm too shy to start any conversation with the human. I simply respond to their talking and they start talking even more. I looked at him over my shoulder reluctantly as I didn't really want to take my eyes off the beautiful stars that winked at me just now.
"I keep you from the dark, I guess. So you can sleep peacefully."
"I've never been afraid of the dark. It's not really dark outside anyway; there is a lot of light outside."
I nodded again. I didn't really know how to take this situation. Again, I looked outside.
"What's your name? If you're going to stay, at least I should know your name, little Lady."
I kept looking at the raindrops, thinking about whether I should give him my name or not. I didn't have a name of course. None of us have. But this kind man had given me a name. 'A beautiful name for a beautiful lady.' That's what he said. I use it simply because it's weird to be nameless. I like to play human and humans have names. So why can't I have a name? My guardian allowed me to. She too has a name given by one of her protected souls. A loving grandmother she told me. I smiled.
"Isabella."
"I'm Mike."
"I know."
He looked at me surprised. Why? What did I said? I didn't tell him about my mission yet, so he shouldn't be surprised. I turned to him and looked at him quizzically. And then sudden realization hit me.
"Your name is on the door. Michael Campbell."
I smiled and walked to the end of his bed. He moved his legs a little bit so I could sit there.
"You shouldn't be awake at this time. Aren't you at least sleepy?"
He shook his head. Sigh. I looked at my hand. Nervous attack. That's what my guardian used to name my behaviour around humans, I later find out that is called human anomaly. So I have one connection with the human race. Not that I know what nervous is or how it feels, as we can't feel. Sometimes, I wonder whether it is good for humans to feel nervous at times, or if it is adorable or frowned upon.
"Is this my sign to go?"
I quickly lift my head and look the sad eyes of the boy who used to camp at Rocky Mountain. How did he know?
"Your appearance gave you away. At least, wear something human like. I'm not saying that the summer dress looks ugly on you. You're so beautiful and that's why I knew what you were immediately. You're too beautiful to be human."
He smiled at me. I couldn't say anything as he left me speechless. When some stranger is about to take your life away, you shouldn't praise their beauty, right? I looked down at my white dress. There was a shade of blue which was my favourite color. There's nothing extraordinary about it but I guess that's why I found humans so fascinating because they can find something extraordinary when I can't. I looked up at him trying to feel guilty because I'm going to take his soul soon, but I can't. My face remains impassive. The whole can't feel anything really annoys me.
"I'm sorry."
But I didn't really mean it. I feel bad about that; here I am, taking his soul away but I can't really say sorry about it and mean it. I expected him to be offended or order me to leave him alone. Instead, he just smiled and took my hand in his and gave it a little squeeze.
"Don't be. I'm sick. The news is no surprise at all. C'mon, say what you have to say."
"What do you expect me to say?"
He thought about it for a moment. Clearly amused about something. I wanted to ask him what he found so amusing. But I waited instead, waited for him to explain the object of his amusement.
"I don't know. 'Hello, I'm Isabella. You're going to die and I'm going to help you to die.'"
He raised his tone so his voice would match woman voice. It just make me chuckle. What a weirdo. I just got told by a mere human how to properly greet a mortal.
"See, you have to laugh a little bit more. It brightens up your face."
I shook my head. So much for a soul. Suddenly he shivers slightly.
"What is it?"
"I don't know."
He rested his head in the pillow and starts to take a deep breath, the beep sound at the monitor shows me that his pulse has quickened. The door opened and a nurse came in with a chart and to check his vitals. She pressed the call button. I guess, she called the people in the white uniforms. A very pale young man came in with a long weird thing hanging around his neck. He looked at me for a moment and quickly checked Mike's condition. That was strange. The man looked right at me as if he could see me. I backed off a little bit and let the man do his job. He looked around like he was searching for something and then he finally shook his blond head and gave Mike pat in the head.
"What are you doing, staying up so late, Mike? You know it's not good for your body."
He looked concern. The nurse had prepared some sort of medicine.
"Don't. I don't want to be sedated tonight. I'll sleep later."
The nurse frowned disapprovingly but put the medicine back anyway. She looked at the man. The man nodded and the nurse got out.
"So tell me what kept you awake?"
Mike look at me waiting for approval, but I didn't know whether to give the approval or not. I was distracted, staring at the beautiful Blondie in front of him. I felt strange around him. There's this air around him that was different than with any other human.
"I had company, when I woke up. We talked and lost track of time. Sorry." Mike explained.
"Okay, well this girl can't be very good if she keeps you from your sleep."
Mike frowned and stared at where I was standing. Slowly, he turned back to the man.
"How do you know it's a girl?" he asked.
"Come on, I've been your age and nobody could keep a boy from his peaceful sleep except a girl. So who is she?"
Realization look clearly at Mike face and a faint blush appeared on his cheeks.
"No one."
They just stared at each other. I waited for the man to go out and leave Mike alone. But he didn't move a muscle. They just kept staring until I saw the man raise one eyebrow and Mike started laughing.
Mike sighed. "Okay...Okay... She's beautiful and I'm not saying another word." he said, the blush on his cheeks darkening.
The man moved to sit on Mike's bed and look at the chart.
"Doc... can you assure me that early in the morning, my mom and dad will be here?" he asked, almost desperately.
"Why? Do you want to introduce your girlfriend this early?" the man asked, a smile playing around his lips. The man looked up and met Mike's beautiful green eyes.
"No, but I wish I could. Just to say that I miss them."
The man's smile faltered a little. "They visited 9 hours ago, Mike. Now sleep while I text your dad about your message, okay?"
Mike sighed and nodded. The man squeezed Mike's hand and said good night. Finally I got him alone.
"You know you won't be able to make it. I have to take you at dawn." I said. I wish I could feel remorse, sadness but I just felt…nothing. Cold.
Mike looked up at me and smiled sadly. He patted his bed, silently asking me to sit with him there. "I know. I just hope to see my mom and dad even if I can't touch them anymore."
Again, I'm lost for words. I'm not good at comforting people so I just lay my head on his legs told him that I'm there and he's not alone. Apparently, he understood my pathetic effort and patted my head slightly.
"You should write something to your parents." I suggested.
I sat back and gave him some paper and a pen from his nightstand. He thanked me and starts writing and ignores me. So I decided to walk back to the window, looking at the beautiful scenery outside. The rain has stopped. It will be dawn in a moment.
"I will call my mom, if you don't mind." Mike told me.
I nodded and walk out. This is the least that I could give to him, some privacy. I waited until the sun started to rise and I walked back in.
"I'm sorry Mike but it's time"
He looked at me sadly and closed his eyes to relax himself. So do I as I take a breath and inhale. .
"Just relax, it won't hurt a bit. All you have to do is take a deep breath." I said.
He nodded and closed his eyes again. When he was ready, I stepped closer towards him and slowly took his hand in mine. When he exhaled, I kissed his forehead.
Suddenly, the monitor sounds a horrible long beeping sound. I know what this means, I have taken Mike's life. That's exactly what I am. Even Death has his helpers. An angel of death. And my name is Isabella.
So what do you think? Do you like it? Should I continue? Please I would love to hear your thought, just mind your word would ya... This is my first time. Thank you.
