Shun

I pressed the button on the top of my phone to lock the touch screen. Relief flooded me to know that Alice had made it to Runo's safely. The dream I had where she was in danger still lingered in the back of my mind. She was walking down the sidewalk in the dark of night. Behind her was a shadowed figure with glowing red eyes. I had thought Tristan's had looked evil, but this figure's eyes almost looked demonic.

I tried to yell out to Alice for her to run, but my words were stopped in my mouth. The figure was closing in on her, and before I knew anything, she had been pinned against the brick of a wall. The nearest streetlight illuminated her face, but not her attacker's. A set of black wings unfolded from his back and dwarfed any I had seen. If this was a Fallen, I had seen none like him.

The feathers started to fall off of the wings, and all that was left were the stick like bones underneath. Alice was trying to scream, but he had his hand over her mouth and muffled her cries for help. I tried to run and help, but just like calling out to her, it was pointless. The attacker lifted up his free hand and caressed her face. I could see tears flooding down Alice's face, and she looked at me. Her eyes were asking why I wasn't helping her. I tried to tell her, but I couldn't speak.

She looked at me like she had been betrayed, and turned away from me. The attacker, turned around to face me, and Alice dropped to the ground. Not moving. The mystery figure threw his head back and laughed. Then, he dissolved into the darkness and was gone. That was when my body had shot up in my bed, and I was in a full cold sweat. I had frantically looked around for my phone and texted Alice. Hoping that she would answer.

She hadn't texted back for almost an hour, but I was still relieved that I had a response from her. The dream had felt so real. Even after twenty minutes of being awake, my hands were still shaking. I wanted to go and make sure Alice was ok with my own eyes, but it would take me forever to get there and foot through the storm. And if Runo spotted me, I'd be bombarded with phone calls of her yelling at me for a week. I slid out of my bed. The carpet was soft under my feet, but was cold.

I had discovered my heater had turned off some time ago. I turned it back on and walked down stairs, making sure not to wake any of my Clan mates that were sleeping. I didn't know how many had made their ways back to the tenement building. Probably not a lot, because they didn't like flying in snow storms like I did. All of the downstairs was empty when I walked through.

I was feeling a little jumpy after that dream, and didn't want anyone sneaking up on me. I made my way into the kitchen next, and poured a glass of ice water. Sitting at the kitchen table, I looked out the window. The storm had started to let up and the sky was growing lighter with the coming dawn. A drop of water sloshed out from the glass, and I saw how badly I was shaking.

I hadn't ever been so scared of something like a dream in my lifetime. It wasn't just watching Alice get hurt and me not be able to do anything. It was the thing that was attacking her that did the most freaking out on my part. If it was any kind of angel, I had never seen or heard of it. There might be a reason if it wasn't just something made up in my mind. Normally people would turn to something like Google for this, but the internet didn't know any real stories about angels and things like that. Only what other stories have said for hundreds of years, and what people think they know.

I made my shaking hands clench the glass I had set down on the table. I just wanted to know if what I saw was some kind of missing angel or a species that had been banished thousands of years ago. I'll ask Kiba tomorrow. I realized I'd have to cancel plans with Alice to do that. I could always wait to ask Kiba the day after, but not knowing anything about what I saw in my dream was eating my alive. Alice should understand if I cancel, right? I decided I'd cut the day short, and just tell her the truth that I needed to consult with Kiba.

Alice

Sleep was something unreachable to me last night. Anytime I did doze off, I was faced with some strange dream about Damien. I'd stayed awake most of the night so I wouldn't have him invade my thoughts while I slept. I shuffled down the steps, still in my pajamas. The smell of breakfast filled the café. It wouldn't be open for another hour or so, and Runo's parents always cooked breakfast for us before they opened up. Runo was sitting down in one of the booth, still in her pajamas as well. I took the seat across from her and buried my face into my arms and laid my head down. "Alice, are you ok?"

I looked up and smiled. "Yeah. Just didn't sleep much last night. I had some pretty weird dreams." Mrs. Misaki walked up to us and set down a plate of eggs and oatmeal. She told us, "When you two finish up, you need to go and get changed. Last thing I'll have is my girls running around in their sleeping clothes for the customers." Runo and I both laughed and ate our food.

I had finished before her and gone back up to my room. I put on my good jeans and a purple long sleeve. Before going back downstairs, I swiped up my phone and flipped it opened. A little reminder flashed saying for me not to forget my day with Shun. Mr. Misaki then unlocked the door to the café, and wiped down all the tables one last time. The bell over the door then chimed, and Dan walked in.

Kind of early for him to be up, isn't it? He placed a quick kiss on Runo's cheek, for he saw her dad looking at him from the kitchen. Dan took a seat at one of the tables and waved at me. I waved back. The bell chimed again, and Shun walked in. I saw Runo's hair stand up a little at the sight of him, and she cut me a look before sitting next to Dan. I liked the fact that Runo's parents didn't watch me like hawks when Shun was around. Although they weren't that approving of him either.

But they had no say since they were mainly just people I was staying with. Shun placed his lips on mine, and I noticed something was off about him. He looked pale, and tired. "Shun? Everything alright?" He kissed me on my forehead and said, "Yeah. It's just that dream had kept me up most of the night." Same here. We both had our arms wrapped around each others waists.

Shun bent his head down slightly and whispered into my ear, "I have to cut our day short. I want to go and ask Kiba something." I felt my body tense up at the sound of Kiba's name. Nobody else had seen or heard the things I had come from Kiba. He was nothing but trouble. "Shun, I don't think that's such a good idea." He put some distance from our faces and looked at me.

"You're not mad that I cancelled our plans, are you?" I mentally kicked myself for not wording what I had said better. I shook my head. "No. I'm not mad. It's just, there's something not right about Kiba. I think he's dangerous, and I don't want something to happen to you." He rubbed his thumb along the base of my jaw and looked my right into my eyes when he said, "Kiba may seem a little off from the rest of the angels, but he's certainly no threat. But I admire your concern."

He snaked one arm around my back and pulled me even closer to him. I knew Shun could handle himself, but I didn't know how well against Kiba. And if he got hurt at the hands of Kiba, I wouldn't be able to live with myself. I had known there was something wrong about him from all the times he had talked to me, but kept it away from everyone else. Kiba was a lifeline to most of the Fallens in the city.

If you took him out of the equation, there could be a falling out. It was like Kiba had everything wrapped around his finger. As is he was the king of a game. A game that involved the lives of the people in them. I froze. He had called Tristan and Shun pawns two months ago when the last fight broke out. And he had said something about having to raise the stakes so he wouldn't be bored.

Was this really all a game to Kiba? Gambling with lives for his amusement? "You ready to go, Alice?" I hadn't even noticed that Shun was standing at the door and holding out my jacket for me to take. "Yeah. Let's go." I took the jacket and swung it over my shoulders and put my arms through the sleeves. It wasn't nearly as cold outside as it had been last night. The barrier was in plain view for me and every other Fallen or angel on Earth. But not it's people. A light flurry was falling every now and again.

Most of the snow had been shoveled away from the streets and sidewalks, but some still remained in little spots. Shun intertwined his fingers with mine as we walked back to the tenement building. We walked by one alley, and I caught the glimpse of red eyes in the shadows. I froze in place, and my hand slipped from Shun's. I was looking down the alley, but there was nobody down it.

"Alice? Why'd you stop walking?" Shun walked up closer to me and I felt his arm brush mine. Just as if his touch had melted the ice that was freezing my body, I turned away from the alley. "I thought I saw somebody I knew. I guess it was just a cat or something."

No. I was sure I saw Damien. He wouldn't be stupid enough to follow me around when Shun was by my side. Would he? Shun squeezed my wrist and said, "Come on. We're going to waste what little day we have if we just keep standing here." I nodded my head and let him pull me away from the alley.

Shun

I walked Alice out to the cab, and kissed her one last time before she left to go back to Runo's. I hated having to cut the day short, but I needed to know if what I saw in my dream was real and a threat to the coexistence of the Clan. And Alice. That was my biggest concern. I didn't want to see that kind of hurt in Alice's eyes ever again. I wanted to be able to keep her safe if that thing was real and did come after her. I walked down the alley and knocked on the steel door. The little window slid open and the usual door guard was on the other side.

Although I had been here many times, I didn't know his name. I asked, "Is Kiba here today? It's kind of something urgent I need to ask him." The guard said, "Sorry. He's not in today." I had seen this one too many times to let it trick me. I grabbed the window and told the guard, "Tell him I have all the payments I owe him." I saw the guard raise and eyebrow, and he opened the door and let me in.

"Just don't let anyone see you go back there. Or else there will be a lot of pissed Fallens." I nodded my head and slinked towards the room Kiba stayed in. Making sure nobody saw me, I knocked two times on the door. He knew if the guard let somebody know he was there, then there was money involved. "Come in." I turned to knob and slipped inside. The room was dark as usual, and I made out Kiba's shape behind a desk.

The room always reminded me of something from The Godfather or another mob related movie. Kiba had his feet propped up on the desk, and he was leaned back so far in his chair that if he went back any more he'd fall out. Last time I had seen Kiba, he had left a foot shaped bruised on my stomach and told me to keep Alice close to me in battle. A day hadn't gone by that I thought about what would of happened if I had let Alice come with me instead of having her stay with the rest of my Clan in the tenement building.

Maybe the casualties would have been a lot lower than they were. "Shun. What a surprise. Please, ask me what it is you need to know." There was a tip of poison in his voice. Like he knew why I was there. "I need to ask you about something I saw in my dream last night." A sly grin slipped across his face, and he took his feet from the table and sat upright. Keeping his elbows on the edge of the desk.

"And can you tell me what it is you saw in your dream? I may be all knowing, but I'm not all seeing." I wondered about that at times. I didn't want to dig out the image of that thing, but I had to if I wanted to learn about what it was and if it had any meaning. I described the dream from start to finish, and Kiba nodded his head. He reached into a drawer on the desk and pulled out a toothpick and stuck it in his mouth.

He flicked the end of it and said, "It was just a dream. Nothing of any significance. Purely harmless. Your mind was playing tricks on you." He was lying. He knew something about what I was telling him. My thoughts went back to Alice telling me what she thought about Kiba.

There's something not right about Kiba. I reached into my pocket and pulled out all the money I owed him for my last few visits. "Thanks for the information. You can keep whatever change is there." Kiba smiled at me and took the money and said, "Please come back soon." A ghostly chill went up my spine when I closed the door behind me. All I wanted was to get far away from Kiba as possible. Alice was right about him being up to no good.

aye. i work WAY too much. o.o lol. i wrote two chapters today. and was so picky about them. -.- with nothing else to do, i keep on writing. (again, my friend is going to stage an intervention) do check out the covers for my stories on my profile and do look at the poll if not alreadyd one so. (I know it's kind of old and stuff but oh well) read, review, and other things.