Damien was gone. After my declaration he vanished into thin air. It had been a week. The longest week of my life.

No explanations, no response, nothing. I had wanted peace for so long and now that I had it, I hated every moment of it. Every second dragged on. What was wrong with me?

I still had more questions than answers.

Why had my guardian angel become a demon? What had he done to deserve that? I had no idea although I had put together a few theories but I needed someone to confirm them.

I wasn’t even sure if Damien was around he would be able to.

Even Parker pulled me aside to ask where he was.

“I don’t know.” I shrugged.

I felt so much more vulnerable without him and I had no idea why. He had been such a fixture in my life for so long and I hated to admit I missed him. Even when he was rude, temperamental and at times even cruel.

I couldn’t stop thinking about him as the white light who had saved me. My guarding angel. My mind was still going around in circles trying to figure out why he had gone from that to a demon set to return me to hell. But I couldn’t figure out why.

And the only person who could possibly give me the answer was gone.

“You okay?” Parker asked, with a frown as he studied me.

“I’ve just had a lot going on right now,” I told him. I didn’t want to go into the details.

My focus was on his aura which was darkening every day. It was concerning me but I dared not mention it to him. I didn’t know what it meant even if I suspected it was something terrible.

I couldn’t exactly tell him I thought he was dying when he looked so healthy.

“How are you?” I asked.

“I’m fine.”

The grey aura told me he wasn’t but I didn’t know what to do so instead I didn’t do anything. My more pressing issues was the missing demon.

I sighed. “I better get to class.”

“If you need to talk you know where I am,” he offered.

I nodded. “Thanks.”

I walked away from him, stopping a little further down the passage to look back over my shoulder to see Parker disappear into a crowd of students. Feeling a sense of apprehension and nostalgia I hesitated before I hurried to my first class.

It wasn’t easy to concentrate on anything. My mind was fixed on where Damien was and the possibility he would never return even though I argued he hadn’t fulfilled his mission to return me. Guardian angel or not, he was a demon who had to complete his task.

But Damien wasn’t the only boy on my mind. I found myself thinking about Parker and every time I caught a glance of him during the day, the sight of his aura was a reminder that there was something very bad that was going to happen to him.

It made me feel very alone. I knew something was wrong but I didn’t know how to fix it or even if it was possible to fix it. There was also a struggle on whether to mention it to Parker but how could I say anything when I wasn’t even sure.

I was relieved when school ended and I headed out of the school entrance.

I caught sight of Parker who was on his way to his car. When he saw me, he waved and winked at me. I smiled as I stood with my backpack over one shoulder, students walking past either side of me.

Time seemed to slow down as I watched him. His lowered his hand. With each moment that passed time seemed to get slower and slower. My eyes held his. The sky above him began to darken and the wind began to blow. Trees moved with the wind as Parker’s eyes no longer seemed to be seeing me.

I took a step forward.

In the darkness behind Parker something moved closer. My eyes fixed on the movement behind Parker. When a large figure walked slowly out of the darkness there was no mistaking who it was. The figure was nearly four feet taller than Parker, dressed in large flowing robe with a hoodie hiding any features. There was no face, just darkness. The dark figure held a scythe in one hand. It was the grim reaper.

As the grim reaper neared Parker I tried to warn him but there was no sound and I couldn’t move. I was fixed to the spot, only able to watch as Parker stood a still as a statue while the grim reaper approached, the skies above him darkened in sync with each step.

No one else seemed to see what was happening, and I was the only who was staring at the reaper who closed the distance to Parker with unhurried steps, knowing Parker wasn’t moving and wouldn’t be able to escape him.

I screamed but Parker remained unmoving, he was staring passed me. Whatever had happened had immobilized Parker but there was something more. His eyes were unseeing, like there was something missing.

I screamed again, trying my best to alert my friend to what was happening.

Then the reaper stopped. His attention moved from Parker to me. When his gaze hit mine I felt a true shiver of fear, icy and bone chilling. The scream died in my throat and I couldn’t make another sound.

The reaper studied me for a few moments before he changed his direction and began to walk toward me, Parker forgotten.

It was then I realized, I was the one in trouble now as the darkness headed in my direction. There was nothing I could do but watch his approach with growing fear. Was this how everything would end for me? Damien’s task would be completed by the reaper. My time on earth was coming to an end as the darknesses enveloped everything as it moved closer. I even lost sight of Parker who had been sucked up into the darkness that was slowly approaching me.

The fear I felt outweighed anything I had ever felt, even the fear that had gripped me when I been about to drown.

The reaper moved without stepping, it was like he was gliding slowly across the ground. His approach only focused on me, passing by everyone else.

I held my breath when he stopped in front of me. I felt the death and despair in his presence. Was it the emotions left over from the souls he had collected, had their heightened emotions stayed with him leaving an aura of death that followed him?

He seemed to study me for a few seconds as I remembered to suck a breath in. Fear pumped through my veins into every cell in my body.

I couldn’t even put a thought together. Everything in me was concentrated on the reaper standing in front of me, the darkness had stilled behind him. The sun still shone over me but there was no warmth in its light.

The reaper’s arm lifted and a skeletal finger neared me. I tried with all my strength to avoid his touch but it was pointless, I couldn’t move at all. All the energy I exerted was for nothing as the finger slowly touched my upper arm. A pain shot through me and I hissed staring at where the finger rested on my skin.

It felt like it was burning something into the skin on my upper arm. The skin sizzled and burned like a fire. I closed my eyes fighting through the pain with every breath I took.

Then his finger lifted but the pain remained on the raised skin. I took a closer look. It was some sort of symbol burned not the surface of my skin. Raised in a burn.

My attention went back to the reaper who stood silent and unmoving in front of me. Then he turned and began to walk away from me.

What had just happened? My mind was scrambled and I was unable to put a coherent thought together. The fear and suffering began to wane with the distance to the reaper who was on his way back to Parker who still stood in the same place as before. The darkness receded with each step he took closer to the Parker.

There was nothing I could do as I stood still, my arm throbbing with the burned symbol in my arm.