Forgotten Souls (The Saving Angels 2)

Twenty minutes later we were once again assembled on the sand facing Haniel. Despite my jokes this morning about it killing me, I was pretty apprehensive about another round. By the looks on Lynn and Sam's faces, I could tell I wasn’t the only one. In fact the only one out of our entire group that looked relaxed was the flipping seven foot Angel that would be assaulting our emotions in a moment.

Haniel had spent the entire night outside. I wasn’t sure if he actually stayed on the beach or went somewhere else.

"All right, let's begin. Remember Guides, though the images may be disheartening, use them to your advantage. They are there to help make your job easier. You must focus on changing the pictures they have, thus giving them back an emotion other than the one they initially had," he said, preparing us for another round.

I closed my eyes and focused on the task at hand. I felt the emotion that Haniel was sending slowly creep toward me. I steadied my breathing and prepared myself for today's onslaught of pictures.

I cringed when the first picture flashed before my eyes of a sad child huddled in a corner, only to be replaced with another of a man clutching a belt in his hand. In the next image, the belt sailed through the air. I jerked back in horror, trying to get away from the sting of the belt. My sudden movement caused me to lose my balance as disorientation set in. I tried to steady myself, but the flashes of pictures and the foreign emotions had thrown off my equilibrium, sending me in a heap to the sand.

I tried opening my eyes, but the sky was spinning out of control. My only shot at relief was to clamp my eyes shut and focus on getting my bearings back. The pictures of the poor defenseless child huddled in the corner and the monster that clutched the heavy leather strap remained engrained in my mind's eye.

"Krista, are you okay?" Mark asked.

I opened my eyes to see his anxious face hovering over mine. "Yeah," I said, struggling to sit up. "That totally sucked," I said dryly, looking around at my friends to see how they had fared. Lynn and Sam were both still standing, though they were deathly pale. "Why am I always the one lying around?" I asked, trying to make a joke of it. Mark reached a hand down and I grabbed onto it so he could haul me to my feet.

"So, do I get an F for that attempt?" I asked Haniel as I dusted sand of my backside.

"An F?" he asked puzzled.

"You know, like an F for failed attempt," I said, realizing that trying to explain the dynamics of the grading system to a celestial being out of the human realm was a little difficult.

"I am confused. You did not fail, you responded appropriately to seeing an image for the first time. How did you feel seeing the pictures?"

"I felt sad and a little scared. And mad." I said.

"Yes, now if you were there how would you fix the outcome?" he asked, pressing for details.

"I would want to comfort the poor little girl and get her far away from the situation," I said, confused at what exactly he was asking me.

"Exactly," he said. "You would want to help her. As a Guide, your gift gives you the ability to help her. She has already suffered the abuse, but you have the power to help her move on and leave the despair behind. When you encounter forgotten souls, they will be emotionally damaged. Abbadons use this to their advantage. They prey on the suffering of the forgotten souls, intensifying their anguish, making them more susceptible to evil."

"How do I do it?" I asked, finally understanding what he was telling me.

"You take the images you see and you change them to what you would want to see. Your soul will take over, replacing their negative emotions with your positive emotions. You will forever change the way they view that image from that day on. They will not forget their past, but they will finally be able to release it."

"Okay, I think I understand," I said, looking at Sam and Lynn.

"Me too," Sam said, sounding relieved.

Lynn nodded her assent, also.

"Very good then, let us begin again," Haniel said in what I could have sworn sounded like a proud voice. Though I knew I was imagining it. In the short time that we had been around Haniel, I had come to realize that he was a blank slate emotionally.

I closed my eyes and mentally prepared myself for the images that were headed my way. This time I was ready for the picture of the scared little boy huddled behind the couch. My heart went out to him the instant I saw his frightened face peering around the sofa. His image was replaced by a mean-eyed drunk hurling a beer bottle toward the couch, striking the child in the head. I ran across the room, desperate to shield the defenseless child from more harm. The emotions I felt - despair, betrayal, misunderstanding - hit me one after another like arrows piercing my body. I reached down to pick up the child and suddenly the image repeated, only I was now the target. I ducked to try to avoid the oncoming bottle and felt myself falling backwards.

I landed hard on my butt as Haniel once again retreated. "Crap, I suck at this," I said, exhausted from the mental abuse I was suffering. I glanced around and saw both Sam and Lynn also on the ground. "You too?" I asked, smiling a little at the grimaces on both their faces. It pretty much gave me an idea of what I looked like without glancing in a mirror.

"Krista, very good," Haniel said, standing over me.

"What," I asked, confused yet again. "What do you mean very good? I'm sitting in the sand again!" I said, letting my frustration show.

"Krista, you were able to make contact. Your attempt was quite remarkable for such a young and inexperienced Guide. It will not be long before you will be able to erase the images altogether. You have embraced your lead role extraordinarily well."

"Wow, you got to the little boy?" Sam asked awestruck. "I couldn't seem to make my feet move. They felt like they were sunk in cement by the fear I felt."

"Same here," Lynn said, clearly frustrated. I couldn’t blame her. Lynn always seemed so invincible, it was hard to believe that she suffered from the same fear Sam and I felt.

"Again?" I asked, rubbing my sore backside as I slowly got back on my feet with Mark's assistance once more.