Angels With Demons

"Kenna! Please listen to me! You have so much to live for, so much going for you in your life!" , the tall blonde shouted out to her friend. She stood atop the largest building in the entire city of Chicago; the Willis Tower. Kenna had been contemplating her own demise for some time now, and was very secretive of her plans but Mirabelle had been clued in by Kenna's own mother as to what she might have been planning to do.

"Just leave me alone, there's nothing to live for anymore, don't you see that, Mira?! It's all just a repetitive cycle that only ends when you leave this world!", the fiery redhead shouted out at the top of her lungs.

"Please, just get down from there, Kenna!", Mirabelle shouted. "Please, think about how devastated your mom will be! Think about what I will go through! I'll be completely lost without you!", she sobbingly finished, holding out her hand to her best friend. "Please, Kenna... Don't leave us like this..."

-

Mirabelle and Kenna were friends from the very first day that they met each other. Two very different girls, one outspoken and impulsive, the other painfully shy and contemplative. Mirabelle was small, much smaller than any of the other children in the first grade class, and Kenna had noticed that she didn't speak to anyone unless she was spoken to. Kenna wasn't the kind of child to let something like that go without being investigated further; She marched right up to the little blonde girl and asked her exactly what was her problem.

Mirabelle didn't know what to say to the freckle-faced little girl staring at her like she was some oddity to human nature. She said nothing of a reply, but stared at the girl with her head tilted in blank confusion.

"Why don't you talk? Is there something wrong with you?", the outspoken little girl asked. Mirabelle shook her head as her ringlet curls swayed from side to side.

"Well then why don't you talk? Are you dumb?", Kenna asked. Finally the blonde haired, blue eyed little girl spoke.

"I just don't speak unless I have something useful to say..", she trailed off, looking at the little redhead with sparkling, clear eyes.

"Well it's not nice to just not talk! And it's weird!", Kenna shouted with a look of contempt crossing her lush, light green eyes.

"It's not nice to go up to someone and say things like that either.", the seemingly frail doll of a little girl spoke quietly. Kenna was taken aback by that reaction... If anything, she expected the blonde to cry.

"Well..!", the redhead retorted, trying to think of something else to say. "At least I don't have curly hair!", she finished, crossing her arms.

A gigglefit erupted between the girls, as the atmosphere, once tense, loosened up completely. Kenna was the first to speak after that.

"So your name is Mirabelle, right?", she said. "I'm gonna call you Mira then!", Kenna said with a bright, carefree smile, though lacking the front teeth. Mirabelle returned the expression with a slight smile of her own.

"And your name is Kenna... I'll just stick to that, I guess.", the little blonde girl spoke softly.

"Yep! We're going to be really good friends, right?", Kenna smiled once more.

"Maybe.."

-

It was then, that their friendship had started, and now, here they were so many years later, one threatening to end her life for the sake of what exactly? Mirabelle really didn't understand why her friend was so adamant about ending her life at that moment... Perhaps she wouldn't learn the reason in that lifetime.

"Mira!!", Kenna shouted as the young blonde woman lost her footing by way of a strong wind that whipped through the air.

"Kenna!", she screeched, reaching out for her friends hand. She touched her fingertips to the redhead's. Mirabelle withdrew her hand knowing that if she were to grab her best friend's hand, they would both fall to their deaths.

The blonde's face was fear-stricken, but she closed her eyes as she fell throw the air, accepting what her fate would be.

"MIRABELLE!!", Kenna screamed as her friend floated down... Floated. The time stood still for Kenna and all she could do was watch helplessly from the side.

"God no! I'm so sorry!", she screeched as tears fell down her cheeks and looked away as the blonde's body hit the pavement down below.

-

"So we'll be friends always, right?", Kenna asked the blonde. It was just before her thirteenth birthday, and the two were less than happy about being teenagers soon.

"Of course! Unless I'm being dumb and decide that some boy is more important than you... Smack me if I ever think that way, okay?", Mirabelle giggled.

"I couldn't...", Kenna spoke softly. "And if I do anything dumb, you'd better call me out on it, okay?", she spoke, holding out her hand with her pinky extended.

"I'll try to.", Mirabelle replied, hooking her own pinky finger with the redhead's. A pinky promise to always be there for each other, through thick and thin. They shook on it, smiling at each other.

Kenna always knew that her feelings for Mirabelle surpassed what would be a 'normal' friendship.

She just couldn't ever find the right time, nor the right words to say it. Now that she knew she wouldn't be able to tell her... Her time had passed as her friend left this world and her soul journeyed to the next.

She felt ashamed to call Mirabelle her best friend.. She was so selfish...

And unloving...

-

"Kristen! Kristen!", a voice called out.

Mirabelle awoke to see a heavenly figure above her. A halo of almost blinding light was all around the figure which she deemed to be masculine by the sound of the voice.

"I'm not Kristen.. I'm Mirabelle...", she spoke softly, looking about her surroundings. White.. Stark white light glowed overhead, but there was lush, green grass tickling the palms of her hands.

"Your Earthly name was Mirabelle Johannsen," the manly voice said. "Your name is Kristen.", he finished, taking the young woman's hand. He had ebony-colored hair, dark brown, almost black eyes and an olive skin color. A quite handsome combination, in Mirabelle's opinion.

"My... Earthly name?", she asked. "You act like this isn't..", she started to speak, but the painful memory of being slammed down into the asphalt came back to her. She slowly got back to her feet.

"I'm... dead?", she asked, knowing the answer already. The man nodded.

"From this day, you start your heavenly life.", the man spoke with kind eyes. "I will help you adjust to the surroundings."

"You don't look...", she started to say but was cut off.

"A fledgling?", a woman's voice asked. The blonde looked up to see a long-haired brunette with slight curls at the ends of her hair. The same olive skin color as the man's coated her skin, and she looked at Mirabelle with innocent, child-like, warm brown eyes.

"Fledgling...", she repeated the words, looking at both.

"I am Hannah.", the brunette spoke quickly. Odd, she didn't look like that would be her name.

"And I am Abel.", the man of distinctly Asian heritage spoke. He didn't look like that would be his name either...

"You've been selected as a guardian.", he spoke quickly. An accent hung onto his words at times. Mirabelle listened intently as the man explained what it meant to be a guardian. To keep the assigned person out of trouble while they were alive on the Earthly plane of existence, to do all in their power to keep that person on the right path, and to not let your presence be known to the person you are assigned to, much less anyone around them.

"Can you handle something like that?", he asked quickly as he finished all the rules of candidacy.

"I can... I think... I just want to know why my name changed, and what--", the girl formerly known as Mirabelle was cut off quickly.

"My name was Maria Catherine Acosta.", the brunette said. "I lived in the Philippines, Manila City, and I have been here since... Well, my demise.", the girl spoke.

"My name was Akihiko Kikuchi.", the raven-haired man spoke softly. "I lived in Hokkaido... Outside of Sapporo to be exact.", he finished.

"Then you two are guardians also?", the girl asked.

"No, we're higher in rank than just guardians!", the girl stated. "We are fully capable Senior Guardians. Though Abel is the first assigned with any kind of disturbance on the Earthly plane.", she looked at the man with slight annoyance.

"I can't help that I get the job done right the first time.", he stated with a blank look about his face.

"So.. If both of you are from different places, how come you speak English so fluently?", the blonde woman asked. The brunette woman and the man ceased their altercation to laugh.

"We aren't speaking your language, we're both speaking in the language that we're most comfortable with.", the man said with a slight smile across his lips.

"Tagalog in my case. Japanese in Abel's.", the woman spoke, running a hand through her dark locks.

"That's... odd, but I guess it makes sense in the long run.", the blonde woman replied, thoughtfully.

"Kristen, this isn't the world you know, this is much different.", Abel spoke. "Things that make sense here are quite impossible on the Earthly plane."

-

A day after the funeral. Kenna looked back on the memory of Mirabelle's wake; A closed casket... She didn't even get the chance to say goodbye, nor look at her beautiful face again.

"I shouldn't have... I really shouldn't have...", she whispered through her tears, looking at the photograph on her desk; Mirabelle and herself smiling in a carefree manner, taken not even a month before then.

"I don't know what I will do without you, Mira..", she spoke solemnly, grabbing onto her pillow, hugging it tightly. She closed her eyes deep in thought as tears continued to roll down her cheeks. It was true that they were the best of friends, but Kenna always felt an attraction that she couldn't explain... Mirabelle had a few boyfriends, but Kenna didn't. She felt a deep heartache to see her best friend laughing and talking to guys like it was nothing.

She felt like they might take her best friend away...

So selfish..