Forgotten Souls (The Saving Angels 2)

"Oh nothing," I said, not wanting to complain again. I hated it when people harped on stuff, and I didn't want to be viewed that way.

"It'll be fine," he said, not having to read my mind. "We'll stick together the entire night and don't worry, everyone will be so busy living up their big night, they won't give you a sideways glance," he added, ruffling my bed head before darting into the bathroom ahead of me.

"Hey, I was here first," I said, pounding on the door and stomping my foot in frustration.

"You can change in my room," Mark said, coming up behind me with a steaming cup of hot chocolate. My mouth began to water just looking at it. "What's wrong? Oh you want this?" he asked teasingly as he handed it over.

"Thanks," I said, flushing just slightly as he gave me the once over. I always felt so self-conscious when he saw me in the morning, all rumpled looking, but he recently confided in me that he loved seeing me that way. That he would love to wake up to me looking exactly like I did now.

Knowing what he was insinuating made my body heat up each time I thought about it. The mental picture of waking up in his arms was definitely something that got my blood boiling. And by the glint in his eyes, I could see he was thinking the same thing without even entering his thoughts.

"Um okay, I guess I'll go change," I stuttered, backing up from the oddly intimate moment. "Thanks for my drug," I added, indicating my mug of liquid gold.

"No problem," he replied, still watching me with his burning gaze.

I closed the door behind me sagging weakly against it. "Hormones my butt, that guy is just smoking hot," I told Feline as I changed my clothes.

***

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.