Forgotten Souls (The Saving Angels 2)

I flashed a smile at Sam. Obviously swearing was out. "Ooh, you're in trouble," I mouthed silently to her.

Sam clapped a hand over her lips, nodding her head solemnly, although her bright shining eyes gave away her merriment.

"Let's begin," Haniel said, ignoring my and Sam's silent antics. "I want my Guides to stand here," he said, indicating the space behind a line he had made in the sand with his foot. "Protectors, you can stand over there," he continued, indicating the sidelines.

Sam, Lynn, and I faced Haniel apprehensively, not sure what to expect.

"Now, close your eyes, and instead of casting my emotions away, you must filter them. Your emotions will work like a blanket, smothering what I cast your way and replacing it with your own," he said.

Obediently, we closed our eyes, nervously awaiting his next move.

I felt the familiar nausea from the foreign emotions Haniel sent our way. All of my instincts pushed me to shy away from them like I had done for years, but instead I faced them head on as Haniel instructed. I was unprepared for the heartbreaking pictures that flashed in my mind. The pictures consisted of starving children, passing before me at lightening fast speed, yet each one seemed to burn through my very soul. The despair was tangible, and my head spun as I tried to help tamper the emotion as it tried to consume me.

The emotional stress became more than I could bear, sending me to my knees, as I vomited the contents of my mall lunch. I put my hands on the sand trying to control the waves of nausea that continued to swirl around in me even after my stomach was empty. My head swam and my body continued to protest as I tried to recover from the foreign assault. I had suffered from the emotions of others for years, but I had never felt them try to smother mine like that before.

Mark was at my side in an instant. "Are you okay?" he asked. I nodded my head, not yet ready to open my eyes. This was different than my normal emotional sickness which I had learned to fight, this was an emotional assault.

I opened my eyes as the nausea slowly seeped away from my body. I was mildly surprised to see both Sam and Lynn in similar positions on the ground. They usually had much better control over their emotions than I did, and I was a little relieved that I wasn’t the only weak one.

"What was that?" Sam asked in a shaky voice.

"That was a touch of despair," Haniel said.

"Just a touch?" I asked incredulously. "And what the heck were those pictures?" I asked, still shaken from what I had seen.

"When you accept someone's emotions, you will get a look into why they are feeling that emotion. Each individual will be different. For example, some may have mental pictures of a difficult home situation, while others may harbor pictures of things they've done that they are ashamed of. I chose the images that you just witnessed to convey despair."

"They made me feel awful," Sam said quietly.

"The mental pictures are a great asset, they will give you crucial insight into the individuals you are sent in to save. Eventually, when you are well-trained, you will use these images to your advantage."

"Well, I guess let's go again," Lynn said with the same reluctance I felt. I wasn't overly anxious to repeat that exercise. >"My dear child, it is not an 'injustice,'" he said, picking the word from my thoughts. "It is an honor and a privilege to be matched with souls as beautiful as a Guide holds, and to be given the important task of keeping them safe. No Angel in Heaven would feel otherwise," he said, now looking at the guys with intensity. Both Shawn and Robert nodded their heads instantly in agreement. Mark delayed, almost as if an invisible hand was forcing his actions.

I couldn't blame Mark that much. It seemed grossly unfair and made it all so much clearer why his dad had turned dark. What if Mark someday decided it wasn't worth it?

Mark squeezed my hand. I'm not my dad, he said, finally allowing a thought to slip outside the gate he had erected in his mind. I should have felt relieved from his reassurance, but I felt oddly dejected.

"So, what do we need to do?" Shawn asked, breaking the silence that had settled over our group.

"We start training. Usually it would be up to your parents to help you with the technicalities. That job is now mine," he said.

"What kind of training?" Sam asked intrigued.

"The Protectors must prepare in combat training, while the Guides will learn to filter the emotions of those who need your gifts the most."

"Filter?" I asked puzzled.

"Yes. Your 'emotional gauge' as you refer to it, is better described as an emotional filter. Over the years you have learned to shy away from the emotions of others as a defense mechanism. Your gift requires you to embrace the negative emotions of others and to filter them back, void of the negativity."

"Emotional filters?" Lynn mused next to me, not sounding completely excited about the idea.

I couldn't blame her. The idea of sucking the negative emotions inside of me instead of blocking them made my stomach turn uncomfortably.

"What do you mean?" I asked

"For example, when your Protector was feeling animosity toward me a few minutes ago, you tried to soothe him with your own emotions, thus draining your own energy supply. I will teach you how to filter the same negative emotions without depleting your strength. When you are fully trained, you will learn to use those same negative emotions as an energy source," he said. "We start in the morning."

Lynn groaned beside me, she so was not a morning person. I grinned for the first time since he had shown up.