“I'm sorry for your loss.” A man in uniform stood in front of a woman with a look of sorrow in his eyes. Then he turned to the boy next to her. “James, your father was a friend of mine. He died saving this country and protecting you.”

A teenage boy looked up from his gaze at the floor. His black hair covered half his face as a teardrop fell from his brown eyes. The man in uniform turned around to salute as the gunshots rang. James looked up into the sky. There seemed to be a glimmer, but he couldn't trust his tear filled eyes. He couldn't take it.

He ran into the wood near the cemetery. He ran until he couldn't hear the called for his name anymore. Then he fell to his knees and wept. When he thought he could hold back the urge to cry, he stood up and started to walk. His plan was to keep walking; forever walking. There was nothing left for him back there.

A twig brook to his right. The curiosity was too much to handle. He turned and walked toward the sound. When he lifted a branch out of his view, his troubles and tears disappeared. There lay in front of him was a girl. She lied on her back her long blonde hair was spread out around her. She was barefoot with a long white dress. That face could soften the hardest of hearts; James wondered what her eyes looked like under her eyelids. The last thing he noticed about her was the red on her pale arm.

He got down on his knees next to her, took off his tie, and rapped her bleeding arm. She started to stir, then moaned.

“It's alright. You're bleeding, but there's help not too far from here.”

She turned to look at her rescuer. Their eyes met. Her bright blue eyes froze him for a couple seconds. Then her eyelids once again cover their secret. He picked her up and walked back to his Dad's burial. He couldn't help it, but he had look at her now and then. She seemed to give him strength. When he finally reached the cemetery, a crowd came running toward him. His mother in the front of the pack.
“She's hurt, Mom, we have to get her to a hospital.” He struggled to hold her with heavy breaths. The man in uniform came to take her form James.

“No. I'll take her.”

“What happened?” The worried look on his mother's face made him weaker.

“I... I don't know. I was walking in the woods when I found her bleeding. She's really weak.” They rushed her to the hospital. James held her hand the whole way there. He felt as if he knew her, but he had never seen her before. In his mind, he knew he could never forget that beautiful face. He almost kicked down the hospital doors when he carried her in. A nurse came took her on a bed and rushed her away. James tried to followed, but the nurse told him to wait in the lobby.

After what seemed like hours, the nurse came into the lobby. James jumped up and ran to her.

“Is she okay?!” The urgency in his voice surprised even him.

“We don't know, yet. She's been shot; we found the bullet still in her arm. Usually an arm wound isn't fatal, but she's reacting as if she's never been sick before in her life. The wound got infected and it's spreading to other parts of her body. We're keeping her alive, but if she doesn't heal she will die.”

James sat back down to think for a moment then looked at the nurse. “Can I see her?”

“Are you family?”

“No, I found her alone in the woods.”

“Well, maybe you can get her to tell you her name. She won't speak to us at all. Maybe she'll talk to her hero. Come on.”

James followed her into one of the hospital rooms a couple floors up. He froze when he saw her laying there. Her eyelids still hid their secret, but she wasn't as he saw her before. Now there were black lines on her as if someone was coloring her black.

“It's like nothing we've seen before. I'll leave you two alone.” The nurse walk out of the room closing the door behind her.

He walked to her and put his hand on hers then sat in the chair next to the bed. He kissed her hand then put his head on the bed. After a few moments of crying he felt a hand on his head. James lifted his head to see those bright blue eyes that froze him before.

“You're so beautiful.” She smiled and there was almost a glow to her.

“You understand then? Great, because I have too many question and not enough time.” He sat on the edge of his seat now holding her hand in both of his.

“Call me Angel.” Her voice was as the chime of tiny bells.

He smiled and couldn't stop. “Angel. I like that,” he paused for a moment “Why do I care for you so much?”

Her smile faded and she looked down at their joined hands. “It's hard to explain.”

“I'll stay here all year if I have to. The nurse said you were shot. Who shot you?”

She leaned in closer to him. “Don't blame them, it was an accident. They don't even know they did it.”

“Who?!”

“I'll tell you if you get me out of here. They can't save me; only you can.”

James gave her a confused look. “Me? How?”

“I can't tell you. You have to find out on your own or it won't work. Listen to me! Once they find that I'm ill with a sickness they've never seen before, they will test and test on me and eventually they will find out...”

Urgency was building up inside him. “Find out what...”

“AH!” Those black lines grew and traveled farther across her body. Her scream was so loud that the doctor followed by a few nurses came in. The scream was so ear piercing and for James heart piercing. It was so hurtful to see Angel in so much pain.

James! That wasn't his own thoughts. It was almost like the voice of his conscience, but instead teaching him right from wrong it was calling his name. James! Help me! Get me out of here! If you leave me in here I will die! Another scream interrupted the voice. Save me!

He looked at Angel's screaming body and the doctor and nurses swirling around her trying to help a helpless girl. A girl they couldn't help.

“It can't be.” He took a few steps back then ran down the hall, down the stairs, and into the lobby and embraced his mother, but the voice kept calling.

James! Save me! James!

To be continued...