Angel Dust - Terry Kuder III (best classic books txt) 📗

In order to preserve her daughter's sanity, she had to lie.
"I have to go with that man out there."
"Where?" Azalia sniffled again.
"We have to go to Doluc City. It's a city a little ways from here."
"Ca...can't you talk to him here?" Azalia's lower lip began to quiver.
"Trust me, sweetie. If I could I would stay here. I don't want to go, but this is important. You believe me, don't you?"
Azalia looked at her mother long and hard before answering: "Uh huh. I believe you. Are....." She was afraid to ask this question. "....are....are you going to come back?" Tears slowly trickled down her little cheeks.
"I don't know, my little darling. I don't know. This is really important though. I'm going to try to come back, ok?" She tried to smile, but her own tears deceived her smile.
"O...ok." Lily pulled her daughter closer and hugged her. During their embrace, Azalia asked: "Who's going to take care of me though?" Her voice trembled with fear that her mother would not return. She was five, but she wasn't stupid. Her mother had never used that kind of language before. She didn't know why, but she knew this man was going to cause her mother harm. Why would two adults go out of town to talk about something?
"Before I leave, I'll find someone. I promise." She pulled Azalia away from her. "Now, I need you to promise me something."
Azalia looked at her, her eyes wide with fear. "Anything, mommy."
"Promise me that you will grow up and become a beautiful young lady. Promise me that you will do all your schoolwork, listen to whoever takes care of you, and that you will do all you can to live happily." Tears fell from her face onto the floor. There was a decent size pool now.
"You have to come back, mommy. You just have to."
"I can't promise you something like that, dear. I just can't."
"But...."
"No, buts, dammit! Promise me! I don't have very much time!"
"I promise!" Azalia screamed back too frightened to argue.
"One last thing..." Lily smiled a little.
"Of course." Azalia nodded.
Lily brought her little girl closer, hugging her tightly. She held her head closer to her chest and whispered lightly in her ear. "Don't come looking for me." She got up abruptly, loosening her daughter's hold. Azalia grabbed at her, but failed to grasp anything. She watched as her mother walked out the door. It was a sunny day and the rays pierced through the opening in the door, blinding Azalia. She got up quickly to follow her mother. When she reached outside, they were gone; vanished into nothing. Azalia looked all around the town for the missing, but didn't find a single sign of them. It was as if they didn't exist.
The end of the day was drawing near when Azalia returned home. The sun was setting as she opened the door and closed it behind her. She locked the door and walked to where she last held her mother. The puddle hadn't dried just yet. Azalia fell to her knees, placing her hands to her face, sobbing softly into them until she fell asleep on the hardwood floors. The sun stained the scene with its golden light.

8

Death

I looked down, wiping my eyes. How could I have been so inconsiderate towards Azalia? How could I even think that it was a good idea to ask her questions pertaining to something that had hurt her so much? For a moment I tried to convince myself that I didn't know, but it didn't matter. My guilt had finally boiled over to what it was suppose to be when I interrogated the little girl. I sighed, looking over at Lily. She looked at the screen watching her daughter cry herself to sleep. A few tears also trickled down her face. She made no attempt to wipe them. Despite my current guilt, the images went on. The story was to continue no matter how bad I felt about bringing up unwanted memories. The image on the screen now showed Dan's house. Lily knocked on it and the story continued.
Dan opened up the door rubbing his eyes and yawning. It had been a long day for him and he wasn't really in the mood for company, but for some reason, he decided to answer the rapping. Lily stood there, sniffling. It was evident from the smeared mascara that she had been crying. At the beginning of the walkway a dark haired man stood, looking out in the woods. He had never seen him before. He must have been new to town, he figured.
"Dan, I need a favor." Lily asked before he could even ask her what was wrong. Dan's expression was that of surprise. Lily had been Dan's neighbor for the past four and a half years. She had lived with her daughter and they had quite the daughter/mother relationship that had always seemed worth having kids for. Every time he and she talked, she was always smiling. Life had seemed wonderful for her. In other words, this was the first time he had seen her like this.
"Sure, what is it, Lily?" Dan sounded worried.
"Please don't ask any questions. Just know that it would mean the world to me if you did this, ok?"
He hesitated. "....ok, sure. What is it?"
"I need you to take care of Azalia." He certainly wasn't expecting that question as seen by the sudden change of his face.
"Take care of her? I'm not sure what you mean. For how long?"
"I don't know. Look, I told you no questions. Just please promise me that you can do this. I promised her I would find someone to take care of her. We've been neighbors for four years now and you're the only one I can really trust with her. She likes you and you two get along really well."
Dan blinked a couple of times. Take care of her? It was absurd. Yet, Lily was in trouble. She needed his help, but what could he do? He leaned in and whispered to her: "Lily, do you....?"
"Dan...please." As of yet, she hadn't looked up until now. Her eyes glistened. The sun behind her brought out a beauty that he was never really aware of. She was in trouble.
"Alright, fine. I will."
"Thanks, Dan. I am forever indebted to you." She turned around and began to walk off.
"Wait...Lily...." Dan reached for her, but saw the dark haired man glaring at him. He retracted his hand. What was going on? He watched as his neighbor and some unknown man walked off, heading towards the woods. He needed to do something, but what? He closed the door briefly, before opening it back up, emerging with his bow and some arrows.

Minutes later, Ezebra and Lily were walking silently in the forest. Ezebra's sword flashed in the descending sun giving off the bronze hue from earlier. Twigs snapped and leaves crunched beneath the sound of their footsteps. They came upon an opening that looked familiar. It was the same one that we were in, but it appeared to have a couple of different attributes. The most noticeable was the creek that ran through the middle of the clearing. I looked at our current setting and the creek was gone. The rocks were still there, forming a path that ran into the darkness of the forest, but beyond that, it was hard to tell that it had been a flowing stream at one point in time. Another feature was that the logs weren't there.
"Why are you doing this, Ezebra?" Lily had stopped in the middle of the stream soaking her shoes. "What do you want from me?"
Ezebra turned around, smiling; his sword was now silver again. "Ah. I see now why you picked this way to go." He said.
Lily opened up her palms next to her waist. Two curvy streams of water shot up from either side of her. She took the two oblong shapes and placed them together, making them longer. The now water pole looked as if the water was still flowing through it, swishing back and forth inside its own form. The pole then began morphing. The tip of it pointed outward, appearing to sharpen as it did so. In Lily's left hand, the portion above her hand sprouted out and curved up and split off slightly into two different directions. The water pole now appeared to be a sword. She moved the sword to her left hand and put her right back to her side. Again, five segments of water shot up through the stream, stopping right before hitting her palm. They weren't as long this time. Lily turned her palm upward as the pieces floated above it. She raised her forearm to the middle of her stomach as the slivers sharpened on both ends to become needle like. The needles rotated in air.
Ezebra slowly unsheathed his sword and pointed it towards Lily. It still shined a bright silver. It was then that I noticed the character of his sword. When there was any type of light, such as the sun, it gleamed bronze. When shadows were upon it, it was silver. It was an interesting concept and I wondered about how it was possible to create something like that. Come to think of it, I should have been surprised that Lily was controlling water, but then again, she just came back from the dead. Needless to say, I couldn’t be surprised any more.
“Tell me something.” Ezebra said. “Before we begin this, I must ask you: Do you know what happens three years from now?”
Lily raised an eyebrow. “Why don’t you tell me so that we can get this over with.” She retorted, her stance unwavering.
“Well, for one, our daughter turns eight.” He smirked.
Lily’s eyes went wide. She knew what this meant. I had learned from the Angelic Sanctuary’s brief history earlier that eight was the age in which those born of angelic blood were to be taken and trained to become Angelic Guardians. Such an early age was enough time to for one to become the best AG there was. Yet, Lily had ran away from that life. She didn’t want to subject her daughter to that sort of life. She wanted Azalia far away from it. Now, it seemed that no matter what she did Azalia was going to be taken against her own will and put through that rigorous training to become something that she didn’t want her daughter to be. She knew what the last rule was too, but would her daughter, if trained at such a young age, be able to make the same decision her mother did? Would she find someone that she loved enough to