Tears...what is the point of tears? I kept asking myself. The words, my own words, kept echoing in my head for some reason, as if they were trying to tell me something. Amber...sweet Amber...I shall have no other friend...I shall shed no other tear... The liquid felt cold against my skin as I floated in my cocoon of metal and glass. I could hear them, the scientists that created me, talking and whispering amongst themselves. My thoughts drowned them out. I was in my own world now, alone and cold in the black sea of my mind. Amber... I thought once more. Why did you leave me? Why did you have to go? I could feel my closed eyes burn with tears, but I refused to shed them. "Be happy," she had told me. "Life is a wonder and precious thing."
"How can I be happy when I have such sadness around me?" The voice was not my own and it startled me. It was young, like Amber's, but rang with a different sound. The voice was a boy's, but how it reached into my mind, I'll never know. It continued to speak. "Everyone hates me...No one wants to be my friend..."
Who are you? I asked the voice, keeping as calm as I could. Are you another experiment?
"Yes...but no...I am a human, but they do strange things to me." The voice giggled lightly. "My mommy says I'm an angel though."
They? Who are they?
"Men...in long white coats with strange needles and metal things. They say they are performing experiments..." The voice stumbled along the word as if it were rarely said. "They scare me..."
I felt myself sigh, the boy's fear seeping into me. Images of a strange laboratory flashed in my mind in a dark shade of blood red. It gave me the impression the boy had seen a lot of blood in his young life as the memories flickered in my mind and died in an instant. Did...Did you send those images to me? I couldn't help but ask, still having not fully learned about my abilities.
"Yes. It was easy. All I had to do was picture it in my mind..."
A slight smile crossed my face, but it didn't last long before it faded. How can you communicate with me? You sound like no one I know...
"That's because we've never met...I think the reason we can talk to each other is because we have the same heart and spirit."
"The same heart and spirit..." It had been the first time I spoke to myself out loud, but none of the scientists heard me. They had gone, in fact, and left me alone in my little chamber of liquid oxygen and chemicals. What...what is an angel?
Again the boy giggled. Instead of replying, a picture appeared in my mind. At first, it was so beautiful; I thought I was going to break my oath and cry. But I didn't as colors filled the black and white spots, making the image even more glorious. It was of a woman, slender and lovely, with a flowing dress as blue as the sky Amber had shown me. And behind her were a pair of glowing white things that reminded me of birds' arms. Her head shown with a shining gold halo behind her long brown hair, a pair of green stones set for eyes.
She's beautiful...Is that an angel?
"Yes...Not all angels have the same face as her. I gave her my mommy's face and hair."
What are those big white things behind her?
"Those are wings silly. You use them to fly."
Wings... I mouthed the word to myself before again speaking out loud. "Wings. Angel. Spirit." Do all angels have wings?
"Yes. There are many types of angels. Like guardian angels, warrior angels, and messengers that go between Heaven and Earth."
More new words. "Guardian. Messenger. Heaven." The boy's presence in my mind gave me a sort of reassurance that I wasn't alone in this torture they called science, and the cold liquid on my skin soon felt warm, as if he were with me inside my container. A strange sadness swept over me, its source being the one fact that has made me alone so much.
I can't be your friend.
There was a pause, and the sound of someone crying. "Why not...?" His voice had risen a bit in his sadness as he tried to keep from crying even more.
Because...everyone who becomes my friend vanishes. It is as if I am supposed to be alone in my life as a...a monster.
"But you're not a monster!" The reply was quick and forced out. I could feel his sadness almost overwhelm me. "You're the only friend I have! Please...please don't say you can't be my friend...Don't leave me here by myself..."
You won't be by yourself. When you vanish, there'll be others there...wherever it is you go when you vanish...You'll get to meet Amber... Why did I say that? "Amber...Sweet Amber..." The sadness of losing her swept over me. No...I won't befriend you because you'll just vanish like everyone else.
"No! Please no!" My heart froze, hearing the boy's terrified screams in my mind. My wrists and ankles suddenly hurt, as if someone were grabbing my, but I saw no one. In my mind, I saw the struggling boy fighting back two scientists while kicking and screaming. "Please don't! Let me go! Let me go!" His struggles became fiercer and his screams echoed in my mind as he became more frantic. I could feel his terror and his pain as a sharp piercing sensation stung my arm. The boy's screams became more subdued now as his body became limp and numb. "No...Don't hurt me...Please...don't...hurt..." His voice faded into nothing.
I suddenly regretted my harshness to the boy who had spoken to me. His screams were those of torture, those of an innocent who had been caught at the wrong place at the wrong time. Though the voice of the boy had gone, I could still feel his terror and pain remain in me as if he had left it behind as he vanished. And, at the same time, I could also still feel the warmth of his happiness in my heart. It was warmth much like Amber's, which lifted my heart and sank it back down. What if I lost him? I asked myself. What if I was right and he did vanish like the others? The burning tears formed in my eyes again, I could feel them.
As I fought back the tears, I heard one of the scientists enter the chamber where my glass cocoon rested. I didn't have to open my eyes to know what they were injecting into my liquid oxygen tank. It was nighttime, time for my sleeping injection. Time for them to study my mind while I was asleep. Time for them to invade my dreams. The injection was fast working, but it still took a certain amount of time to work on me. As I felt the world around me become even darker than it already was, I pried in my mind for a certain thought I had a moment ago.
The sleeping injection finally took affect as I took hold of that single thought. It stayed with me as I drifted into the depths of slumber, giving me warmth when I was once cold and alone in my dreams that haunted me even when I was awake. Glowing gold and white lit up my black mind as the angel flew through the eternal darkness. So beautiful...So warm...I miss the boy...