Who was this man?

Angela had been observing him for days, and yet she could not seem to discover a single thing about him. He appeared to be fairly reserved, although every once in a while Arella was able to catch his eye, to which he responded with a half-smile, revealing his perfectly aligned, white, teeth.

Maybe Angela just wasn't thinking straight. After all, she had been nearly killed for the sake of a demon who didn't even show up. The violet-eyed girl was definitely still shaken, and often woke up in cold sweats and fists clenched, but Angela was dead set on finding out the identity of this man. There was something different about him, something special. He was captivating, mesmerizing in every way imaginable, and she hadn't even said two words to him yet.

Angela spent hours at a time trying to figure out the origin of this man, why and how he had arrived the way he did. When the girl had first been initiated into the cult, Brother Blood had explained some potential things that could occur when performing rituals and such. One of those things was interdimensional entanglement, or entwinement. Sometimes when this problem took place, creatures from other dimensions besides the intended one were accidentally conjured instead of the person or other entity that was originally meant to emerge.

Angela had gone over it over and over again, and that was the best explanation she could think of. This mystery man had to be a result of inter-dimensional entanglement.

But that, however, did not answer the question of why the cult's routine rituals were not being performed any longer. In the days that followed after the chaos and conundrum that had taken place in the backroom, nobody had been reciting chants, nobody had been lighting candles, and even the dark, brooding robes the people of the denomination used to don twenty-four seven were coming off. The rules seemed to just vanish.

Angela, of course, kept her robe on with the exception of the hood, waiting for rituals to begin again. She did not know why they had ceased, but she determinedly vowed to be ready when they did.

The knife was sitting on her neck. She could feel her veins pulsing against the icy metal of the blade, heart pounding so hard she was sure the one behind her could hear it. Surrounding her, eyeless people with black holes for faces hissed, "The gem was born of evil's fire. The gem shall be his portal. He comes to claim, he comes to sire; the end of all things mortal."The edge of the knife pressed harder against Angela's neck. She knew she was about to die. She should have never run away from home. ...

The knife slashed across her skin.

Angela sat up on the church pew, gasping, tears and sweat dripping down her face, hands clammy and moist, stomach churning and heart banging. Her hands immediately flew up to her throat.

Whew. No cuts, no blood. Angela, you're fine, she chastised herself. Go back to sleep, it must be really late-"Are you alright?"

Angela almost had another heart attack all over again. "What?"

She squinted her eyes and peered around the black cathedral. "Who is it? I can't see you...please come out." Angela knew she sounded like a child, but she hadn't had anyone ask her if she was alright for so long she was willing to crawl into anyone's arms.

The owner of the voice did as asked, and faded into visibility.

It was the man.

Angela could have picked out those luminous phoenix eyes within a crowd of ten thousand people. He strode from behind a pillar on the opposite side of the church toward a quivering Angela, who was visibly startled by him- him- being so near her.

He took a seat beside Angela, who stared up at him wide-eyed. She was sitting up now, balled up hugging her knees to her chest.

"Are you alright?" the man repeated.

Oh, God, his voice. It was so deep and strong, yet felt comforting and safe at the same time. Angela felt secure and warm around him despite barely knowing him, like she could confide in him and tell him everything she had locked away in the back of her brain. All her anxiety and fear and nightmares seemed to evaporate the second he sat down beside her.

"I-not really," she admitted, feeling a blush make its way across her pale nose and cheeks. Angela pulled her fuzzy blanket further up around her, propping it on her knees.

The man didn't ask what was wrong, instead sitting in silence for a few seconds. Then he tilted his head down and looked directly at Angela, who gazed back up at him, eyes glowing.

"It will be alright," the man whispered with a reassuring smile. Slowly, he put a fibrous arm around the much smaller Angela, who instantly relaxed, feeling his warm touch.

And for the first time, Angela felt loved. Not like a parent, but like more than a parent. She shifted closer to the man and rested her head on his broad shoulder.

It was the best night of sleep she had recieved since she'd run away from home.

Angela and the man were sitting on the altar of the church, talking. It had been three days since that night they'd shared, and Angela was in pure bliss. Now that she had someone to confide in, everything came pouring out of her: stories of her faults while in the cult, tales of her running away from home, and even the occasional story of her earlier childhood.

Even the man, who still had not revealed his name to Angela, had begun to share stories of his own life. He confessed that indeed, he had more than likely shown up due to inter-dimensional entanglement, and before that he'd lived in the dimension of Calazar as a field hand. He had two brothers, both of which were several years younger than him, that used to pull quite a few mean tricks on him as kids, one of which involved fooling him into drinking cow urine by telling him it was an elixir that would allow him to live eternally. Both Angela and the man shared a good laugh over that story. It was one of the first times Angela had smiled, let alone laughed, in months.

They told each other jokes, played games with one another, and spent late nights awake together on the church pews, chatting, sharing secrets, and ignoring the other sleeping people trying to shush them.

Angela had never felt so happy. It was as if her life was a cloudy, stormy day just like the sacrifice day, and somebody had gone and pulled the sun out, pushed the clouds out of the way, and dried up all the rain. This was her someone. This was her person. He was something to live for.

Some days later the pair decided to go out. The sky was cloudy and grayish, but the man had insisted he take the girl outside of the wretched church for once. Brother Blood had not been heard from in weeks, so Angela joyfully agreed to go.

Now, instead of a black hood and a dreary robe, she wore a snowy white dress with short sleeves, ending just before her elbow, that puffed out just a bit, and were slightly transparent. There was a thin ribbon below her cleavage area, tied into a little bow. There was a similar but slightly thicker ribbon around the top of her waist. The main dress ended around her knees, and from there it was a transparent area much like a slip that fell around her ankles, nearly to her heels. This part had small white flowers dotted all across and around it, leaving just enough space in between each design so that it wasn't clumped together. It was an outfit she had taken with her when she'd first run away from her home, and she did not consider it flattering, but the man; to himself, thought it made her look magical. He regretted his decision of putting on nothing but a beige sweater and denim jeans. It made him feel much like a student of some sort.

As they walked, hand in hand, past the doors of the dingy, worn down church, the man told Angela with one of his half smiles, "I know a place where we can go." He turned to look into her lilac eyes sincerely. She was so beautiful to him. The hair that was "ratty" to her was silky and glamorous to him. The white skin that was "gross" and "weird" to her was beguiling and elegant to him. The ruby gem embedded in her head that was "stupid" and "pointless" to her was magical and graceful to him. And her eyes- the bewitching eyes that were "creepy" and "freaky" to her were alluring and irresistible to him.

She was absolutely perfect.

Angela regarded him lovingly, though she quickly tried to conceal it. "Take me away," she announced playfully, releasing the man's hand and giving a dramatic sweep of her arm into the breezy, dewy air.

Azarath was a typically golden-skied dimension, everything bathed in a beautiful, nostalgic shade of yellow. But this part of the dimension where the girl resided was usually dull and gray, which caused Angela to stay inside almost every second of every day.

And somehow this man changed that. The colorless day suddenly seemed like sunshine with him around her. She knew she probably felt too strongly for him since they'd only known each other a little over two weeks, and besides, there was no way he reciprocated her feelings. He was him, and she was... well, she was she. And that wasn't good enough for anybody, for herself...let alone this man. She felt a slight pang of sadness knowing she would never get to hold him, to hug him, to...

Angela quickly shook those thoughts out of her head. She was not going to allow herself to be remorseful over someone who was likely just being nice. It was weird how infatuated she was with him, anyway, she thought. Even her nightmarish hallucinations had stopped because of him. She didn't even know his name, but it was clearly something he was not going to disclose unless he absolutely had to.

The man and Angela were quiet the whole way, not awkwardly. She didn't even know where he was taking her, but the silence just felt right, at least to Angela. The sound of his breathing felt like a hug. She was safe with him.

Soon the two approached an open field, full of tall green grass and trees outlining the shape of the meadow. There were tall yellow flowers spread out across the pasture, and baby blue birds chirped with glee and fluttered among the trees, cerulean darts between the evergreens. The man turned to Angela and smiled at her, waiting for her to comment on his special place. He desperately wanted her, needed her to like it.

Now he'd never admit it to the reserved, timid Angela, but he wanted her more than anything. He needed her. Angela truly believed there were no desirable aspects of her, externally and internally. But the man saw much more than she did. The soft curves of her hips and waist, along with her fairly sized chest, were almost impossible to tear his eyes away from. He saw inside of her a sweet, vulnerable young girl. She was too ravishing, too innocent to resist much longer. Which was why today was the day he needed to ask her.

Angela, beside him, was wide-eyed in amazement, turning this way and that to take in the entire view. The meadow was easily the most gorgeous place she'd seen in months since being initiated into the cult. She'd never been one for outdoors, but she figured this was the exception.

Before she knew it, a laugh flew from her lips. "This place is absolutely perfect!" She temporarily forgot about her reservations when it came to herself and spun around, her aesthetic dress flying with her, disturbing a squadron of lavender butterflies beneath the tall grass, sending them all flying into the air around her. They gave her the appearance of a fairy or perhaps a princess, one of those that could speak to animals. The butterflies seemed to sense Angela was not a hostile person, and one even lingered behind, placing itself on Angela's black hair.

Angela didn't scream like many other people would feasibly do, instead she giggled again, a light, tinkling sound that was like music to the man's ears. "It likes me." She smiled gleefully, and the butterfly fluttered its wings and lifted itself from her hair.

Angela impulsively turned and called, "Goodbye!" to the departing butterfly. Then she twirled around back into the man's direction, who was watching Angela intently. She was unequivocally mesmerizing.

She bounced back toward him. She was definitely channeling her inner child now, getting excited at almost everything: Angela finally was able to break off the lock that kept everything she truly was hidden away and express herself the way she should've been her whole life.

He was even more obsessed with her now.

It was time to win her trust.

Angela, still beaming like a little kid at Christmas, noticed her best friend moving towards her and stepped in front of him, facing directly into his face.

"Yeah?"

The man faced her just as directly. "You're beautiful."

Angela was quite clearly shocked at this compliment. Nobody had called her beautiful, let alone wanted to take her anywhere this beautiful, since she was a little girl in her single digits.

She blinked, taken aback. "I- thank you." Angela's heart did a few backflips in her chest. He thought she was beautiful.

Wait. Had she heard him right?

No harm in double checking. "Um, ha, you said I'm beautiful, right?" She chuckled nervously.

The man laughed. "Yeah, I did. Cause it's true." He grinned at her slyly.

Angela was still reeling at his words. Did that mean- did he want to-

The grass swayed around Angela's knees and the man's calves, tickling the both of them. The birds had gone silent, as if waiting for either one of them to say something.

"Did I say something wrong?" The man suddenly looked alarmed, wondering if he had maybe overstepped. Should he have taken it slower? Beautiful was overdoing it, right? After all, Angela wasn't the type of girl to fawn over compliments, not like that, especially since she believed so strongly otherwise.

Angela's teeth twinkled in the newly appeared sun as she beamed up at this man, her lifesaver. "No."

The man looked relieved and the corners of his mouth turned back up. "Good. Because I'd really like to be more than friends."

"Whoa." It just popped out of Angela's mouth. Just whoa.

And then she found herself smiling so much she couldn't stop if she tried.

The man saw this immediately and beamed. "So..is that maybe a yes?" The sun radiated off of his tan skin, highlighting his hypnotizing eyes even more. He was so beautiful in that moment, and Angela knew that he was the person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. The fact that she had only known him for a little while further told her that she was doing the right thing. Nobody had ever reached out to her like he did, and she'd spent very close to a year in the unfeeling church with unfeeling, stone-faced people who didn't much react to the arrival of the man to begin with. He was someone she needed so badly in her life and she never even knew. And now that he was here, she didn't think she could spend another second without him.

As for the man; he knew this was the right girl. She was perfect. Beautiful. Sweet. Young. Innocent, timid. And she had nobody, and this was his chance to be her somebody.

"Yeah...it's a yes." She felt she would never stop smiling as long as she lived. "I... "

The man titled his head like a dog waiting for a command. "Yes?"

Every cell in her body throbbed to tell him that she loved him. But she knew she couldn't, even though he had already mentioned that he wanted to be more than friends. Love was maybe a strong word to say, not right away. His judgment was probably impaired anyway, wanting to be her...significant other. She'd never seen anyone romantically in her life. She'd never been good enough before.

But now she was. She finally was. And she wasn't going to let him leave. Not like everybody else.

"I know it may be a little early, but..." Angela trailed off. Was this the right thing to do? Like she said, it was a little early-

"A little early for what?" the man queried, stepping closer. His blazing eyes pierced her heart.

"Um.." This was a bad idea. God, what was she thinking?

But she saw his open, honest face, and knew she had to finish what she'd started.

"Okay, I love you." she blurted.

The man blinked rapidly, agape.

"Crap. Crap, crap, crap. I'm sorry. I just ruined everything." Ugh, ugh, ugh, I knew it. Angela was thinking out loud at this point, just rambling audibly. "I- you know, it's fine. I-"

"I love you too." the man interrupted.

"What?" Angela blurted, astonished.

"I love you, too." the man repeated, more warmly now. To Angela's surprise, a faint blush appeared across the bridge of his bronze nose. "Look, I know it's really soon."

Angela felt a huge rush of reassurance go through her body. "I- I thought the same thing. I'm sorry, you don't have to say I love you just because I did. It's okay if you don't feel the same way." It wasn't okay, if he confirmed this, but she'd move on. Hopefully find another one. But subconsciously, she knew she would probably never find anybody else like him.

"No, I'm telling the truth." He took her pale hands that greatly contrasted with his own skin. He needed to make this sound genuine. "You're the only person who hasn't run away from me."

Angela, filled with joy, replied sweetly, coyly, "You could shove me on a treadmill and I wouldn't run."

The man, knowing Angela had completely given herself to him, lifted his arm, took Angela's chin in one hand, tilted her face up toward his own, and kissed Angela on her mouth.

His lips on hers felt like a warmth she'd never felt before. They were soft and felt good as they massaged her own lips. Angela had never thought about her first kiss too much; she had just assumed that it would never happen. It wasn't like she knew the first thing about kissing someone anyway. But in that moment, with the sun shining directly over the pair and the grass shifting in the breeze, everything came naturally.

The flutter of periwinkle butterflies came back, flying over their heads.