'Cynthia, you know you are doing a big mistake right?' she reprimands

I keep my head bowed, picking at a bead on my moonthread gown, not daring to meet her eyes, afraid that she could look into my soul.

'Cynthia, look at me girl,' she holds me by the shoulders and turns me roughly, tilting my face up so that she could look into my eyes. The glint of liquid jade stuns me for a moment as I can't look away.

'You are in love? How do you say that?' the lines of aging deepen on her face.

'He is different. I feel comfortable around Dylan. I haven't been this complete in years as I'm now, after her came in my life, or rather I in his -' I pause.

'It's natural to feel that kind of attachment to your human. You're his guardian after all. You'll feel like protecting him, accompanying him, comforting him and what not. But that doesn't necessarily mean you're in love! You are deluding yourself young lady and as your mentor, I won't let that happen. ' her eyes glow like burning amber, full of hurt and resentment.

'I usually don't remember if I ever let anyone dictate my life!' I swat away her wrinkled hand.

'You're too young. Foolish - naive -'

'I can't help my feelings, can I? It's not the protective instinct.' I interrupt the long rant that was about to begin.

I have a different kind of warmth in the pit of my stomach when I see him. My inner self does a pirouette in tutu when he crinkles his eyes and gives a gorgeous smile to someone, his bottomless dark eyes alight with a playful mischief. He can't see me though, as we angels have the powers to show ourselves to the ones we want to.

I can't actually fathom what my feelings for him are. But they are more, something deeper, some connection which lingers on, even if I try to forget him.

'But if the good Lord -' Sybille turns her head towards heaven in reverence.

'The Lord will never cause agony to his children. If he really is omnipresent, he must have known my feelings by now and thrown me out.' I argue, more to myself than to her.

'I don't think it's worthy of my time to argue with you, now that you're bent upon defying me for a filthy human?' her wings flutter, making stardust fall on my lap, glistening in the pale moonlight.

She floats up from the rooftop, looking down at me in disdain.

'Then leave, ' I turn away, willing my own wings into action and descend on to the manicured lawn and slip through the walls into the house.

Silently I float to the bedroom and move to the edge of the bed. Dylan is wrapped up in his covers, his face the picture of calm.

The mellow light filtering through the drawn blinds, is lighting up his messy copper curls, making it a heavenly scene. He appears almost ethereal. He could've been the angel instead of me.

I sigh, laying my head on his pillow beside him, his light breath ruffling my hair. He stirs a little.

He's a restless sleeper. Sometimes he has nightmares and wakes up screaming. He utters incoherent gibberish which I can't make head or tale of.

Sometimes as he thrashes about in sleep, I go and envelope him in a hug and and feel him calming down in my invisible arms.

Can he feel my presence? Doesn't he ever realize something odd, something uncanny about the way all dangers avoid him?

Can't he feel the pull? The invisible threads binding my heart to him, my immortal one tugging at the staccato beats of his mortal one.

I cuddle up beside him and hug him to sleep.

-----

'How can you stoop so low as to fall in love with a mortal?' his voice seems to be echoing through the vaulted ceilings of the 'Hall of Judgment'.

'And she even lost the power to fly. What a shame!' exclaims another member of the jury.

I will my wings to open up, but they hang limply on my back, looking dull and lifeless, all the stardust having left me.

'And you were going to reveal yourself to a mortal if I'm right,' another grave voice speaks. 'It's good that Raziel here saw you and hauled you away right in time before you could do more damage.'

I raise my head to give one glance at the blond boy with midnight blue wings who sits on one of the pews, all smug.

I give a tug at the brass shackles on my wrists and immediately crumple to the floor as a excruciating pain rips me apart. It is a pain a thousand times worse than when my mortal life ended.

'No use trying to break free. Those chains are cursed, just made for creatures like you who defy the order of heaven.' the seraph conducting the trial informs, his voice cold and distant as if he'd be anywhere rather than judging my case.

'Yes, I love him. That's why I wanted to reveal myself.' I argue.

'And does that earthly being reciprocate your feelings?' someone snickered.

'Well, you all never gave me the chance to test that, isn't it Raziel?' I raise my head and looked at him straight.

If I'm going to go down, I'll go down with honour. I have never been the person to play hide and seek.

Raziel has the courtesy to look ashamed.

'Well, seems like you'll get plenty of chance to test that out now. Beg before us and we may consider sending you back to earth or we're condemning you back to the depths of hell.' the judge droned in his emotionless voice.

'I'm not going to beg before you because I did nothing wrong.' I assert, even as the chains dig into my wrists, drawing blood.

The pain is easy to ignore, but the court must listen to what I have to say.

'Is falling in love a crime? Even higher beings fall in love?' I ask.

'Love, lust, hate, anger, these are all material feelings, base -lowly, fit only for weak willed mortals.' Raziel argues.

'So, none of the angels ever fell in love? So then you call yourselves angels? You're worse than demon spawns. If angels aren't allowed to feel emotions, how do we expect the human world to look upon us with reverence -'

'Stop it, Cynthia! Enough is enough!' It's my mentor. She has her hands balled up into fists and her fair face is flaming red. 'You can't insult the authority of the seraphs.

' If loving someone is a crime, punish me. If all the legends of the greatness of love are belittled by my little transgression, please wipe away my worthless existence.' I scream.

'As you wish!' Seraph Etherial raises his hands and I find the world around me fading into a dark mist. And with it comes the fire. The flames spurt from my body, burning me from the core as I drop to the ground thrashing in agony.

Is this how it feels like to die? But I died the day my mortality ended. What is this torture that's worse than death?

And soon the fire dies down leaving a cold numbness around me. My dress feels damp and as I put my hand on it, I discover a dark red liquid dripping on it.

Instinctively I reach out to touch my wings but find bleeding gouged spots instead. I feel my head spinning and my eyelids are heavy. I collapse as the night closes in on me.

-----

'Who are you?' a voice startles my noiseless slumber.

My eyes fly open and I immediately shield my eyes from the morning sun that blazes down on me.

A face blocks the light. A young face with copper curls and gorgeous eyes - woodland green.

'D-Dylan...' my lips tremble as realization dawns on me. It is the same man, the one that I've always loved. His soft eyes, framed by long lashes is looking at me with a mixture of awe and pity.

'Are you hurt, you poor thing?' he kneels down, gently holding my shoulders, trying to make me sit up.

'Oh God!' he clasps his hands on his mouth. I feel his gaze on my back.

'Just some knife wound. I have been attacked.' I lie, perfectly knowing all the kinds of dangers out there in the human world.

'Oh!' He takes off his jacket, wrapping it around my half bare torso owing to the bow gaping hole on my back.

'Thanks,' I mumble as he helps me up on my feet.

'Can you walk?'

I nod, staggering two feet. He caught me by the waist and to my surprise my feet leave the ground and I'm in his arms, bridal style. The close proximity of our bodies make my heart flutter and I almost forget the heaviness of losing my immortality and the shame of being a fallen angel.

I shiver slightly and he nuzzles me closer.

I put my head on his chest, bathing in the perfect bliss as he carries me to his home.

-----

'Your back, Cynthia. It is not healing!' he exclaims, rubbing the healing ointment.

It's really weird how such strong hands could be so gentle in their touch.

'They won't go away, Dylan. The wound was deep!' I say. 'Unhealing' I add silently.

Punishments leave a scar. You age faster as a mortal when you fall from grace.

'Cynthia! Where are you going once you leave my house?' he asks, absent-minded.

'I- I -' I stop dead in my tracks. I have told him that I'm an orphan with no family to go back to. But he never invited me to stay back with him. Since the time he has carried me in, there has been no moments of intimacy between us.

A pang of sorrow tugs at my heart. I left heaven just to be with him and he is so close and yet so far.

'I don't know where. But I'll go-' my words trail off.

'Look, you can stay as long as you want. I'm terribly lonely too, especially after Clarissa left.' he said, adding with a slight emphasis, 'My ex.'
The flash of pure, raw pain in his eyes, breaks something in me.

I instinctively extend my hands to cradle the side of his face, just like I used to do as his guardian angel. He stiffens at my touch, his jaws hardening.

I quickly draw back my hands.

He sighs. 'I'm sorry. It's just that -'

'You don't want me in that way. Look you don't have to take pity on me though.' I feel a sudden burst of anger as I try to sit up, but immediately clutch my side at the sudden jab of pain.

'What the hell were you thinking?' he eases me onto to mattress.

'Look Cynthia! I already had to let someone go and it still hurts. I don't usually work on things that don't work out.'

'You mean us?'

'Yes. I'm not ready. Feelings aren't the end of anything. I'd always want this friendship between us. But something more is right now not an option -' he stops.

'You don't even know that I've known you for years, do you?' I give a smile.

'No?'

'Well. I was your guardian angel -'

And I tell him. Tell him every part of the story. Every single detail of how I fell for him each day.

'You're disappearing!' he exclaims midway through the story.

I look at my hands which are sickly translucent now.

'Am I?' I waive away all the fear, boldly. 'I had known I was committing the unforgivable crime by telling the truth to you. And the punishment for it is oblivion. I'll be erased. You won't remember any of this tomorrow. It'll be as if I never existed. But you need to know -'

1999 words completed.
Written for  Romance