Dominion (Guardian Angels) - By Melody Manful Page 0,1

quickly. The driver blared his horn as Paul froze in shock upon seeing the car. The Ferrari accelerated and veered right, the driver still blowing his horn. His mother screeched for him to get out of the way. But in a fraction of a second, the gap between the little boy and the car closed.

There was a loud thwack as the car collided with the boy. His body flew into the air, and with a harsh thunk, he hit the ground. The car’s horn continued to blare.

The humans around me started screaming in shock as Paul’s mother reached her son. Her eyes were fixed on the boy, who lay in a pool of his own bright blood.

“Paul!” his mother sobbed. People on the sidewalk crowded the scene. Everyone who saw him grew tearful. I, on the other hand, stood invisible, analyzing everything.

Humans! I never understood why they automatically felt sad for people they didn’t even know.

The boy’s guardian angel stood now, staring at me with fear. I was sure he knew what was coming; I knew he’d heard about me. All angels had.

“Gideon, please…” Those were the angel’s last words before the ball of fire I threw burned him to ashes.

I didn’t take a second look at the boy or the ashes of his guardian angel as I flew into the air. I could hear the sirens wailing, drawing closer to the scene of the accident, but I didn’t wait around to find out what would happen next. At full speed, I flew away from Earth and made my way home.

Home. I’d heard that it’s where the heart is, but since I didn’t have a heart, it became where my family was.

It didn’t take me long to reach my home planet Grands. Grands was located at the mid-point between Hell and Earth. The planet was a realm covered in darkness. The surrounding cities in the kingdom looked dead, clinging to it like forsaken slums. The kingdom was filled with smoke and dust. Everything was in ruins. The atmosphere was always foggy, and awful howls and screams were often heard.

Grands was ruled by a monarchy: King Daligo, his wife, Queen Lailah, and their daughter, Princess-something–I didn’t remember. We Grandinians were a race of dark angels who brought trouble and harm to the humans on Earth.

I was on my way home when I heard noises coming from below me, so I took a detour toward the noise.

Upon arriving, I saw four Grandinian angels, hovering in the air. I could see they weren’t a day older than thirteen.

“No, from what I saw, they had two teams. I think they called them Barcelona and Real Madrid,” one of the boys said.

“Where I was, the children had a football.” The moment the angel said this, a football appeared in his hands.

“And I saw one of them watching others play on his computer, and the players were in a stadium. It looked like this.” At the snap of his fingers, one of the children manifested a football stadium. Now they hovered in the middle of the stadium.

“So, how do we become this Barcelona and Real Madrid?” another one asked, looking around the stadium.

“I can teach you—I know a lot about human football,” I said, approaching the boys.

The moment their eyes met mine, fear flashed on their faces, and they started shaking. Angels’ fear of my presence was old news. A huge picture of me hung in our town square to warn angels about me. I eventually got tired of burning every twelve-foot-tall version of myself that I saw, so I’d decided to let it hang there.

“Gi-Gideon,” one of them stuttered, moving backward. They were so frightened that I was sure they forgot they had wings and could fly away.

“Hey.” I walked over to the angel who said my name. “First day on Earth?” I asked, but no one answered me. They were too busy trembling. I walked over to the one who held the football. “I could teach you guys how to play.” I took the ball gently from his hands.

“We…we just…please don’t hurt us.” The angel I took the ball from was brave enough to speak. His friends remained frozen.

I smiled at his innocence. “English football—soccer—isn’t painful. American football, on the other hand, is quite painful.” I turned to his friends and said, “Come closer. I’ll show you how it’s played.” The angels didn’t budge.

“You know, football has coaches, and coaches hate repeating themselves.” Still the angels didn’t move. I was sure they had also