by Wendy Owens
He decided he would take the moment for what it was, a happy one. He turned his head slightly, planting his nose directly into her auburn hair, taking in a deep breath; she smelled of peaches.
Sophie pulled away and looked up at him, her brow furrowed. He wondered what she was thinking.
“Did you just sniff my hair?” she asked, no longer whispering.
“What?” Gabe gasped, not sure how to reply. He never imagined he would get caught sneaking a quick smell.
“Hey, who’s there?” a voice called out from beyond the trees.
Realizing the floating lights were fading and the music had stopped, the two looked at each other, alarmed. Although, Gabe actually preferred being discovered by the clerics over answering Sophie’s last question.
Sophie grabbed his hand and cried, “Run!”
Gabe followed fast after her. They ran through the courtyard and back through the archway. Then they raced up the stairs from which they had come, all the way past the library, down the grand corridors and straight into Gabe’s room, slamming the door behind them. Throwing their backsides against the door, they both panted heavily in an effort to catch their breath.
They looked at each other. Gabe worried that he was about to be asked again about his inappropriate sniffing habits, but instead Sophie burst out laughing. They both fell to the floor giggling hysterically and Gabe felt a rush of relief.
Once they regained their composure they made their way to the front of the fire on their hands and knees, collapsing in front of it, exhausted from their narrow escape. A moment later, Gabe watched curiously from his spot in front of the fire as Sophie searched around the chair until she found a bag she had tucked away earlier.
It was a faded pink canvas and covered in ink doodles. He saw scribbles of clouds and rainbows with flying unicorns soaring around in random areas on it and thought it fit Sophie’s day-dreamy personality perfectly. From inside, Sophie pulled out boxes of candy. There were sweet tarts, gummy bears, Dots, licorice, jelly beans--the ones with all the weird flavors, mini peanut butter cups and Whoppers. Gabe began to laugh.
“What?” Sophie asked defensively.
“Nothing,” Gabe replied, smiling. “I just feel like I know so much about you.”
“Like what?” her voice dripping with skepticism.
“I know you love books, dancing, and you really love candy!”
Sophie leaned over, punching Gabe in the arm. “Shut up, I have a sweet tooth.”
“Clearly,” Gabe retorted motioning to the mountain of candy boxes.
“Just hush and eat,” Sophie commanded.
Gabe was actually pleased she had brought snacks. Eating one meal a day, no matter how large, was not good for anyone, but especially not for him, a growing teenage boy. Gabe started in on the licorice while Sophie went straight for the peanut butter cups.
“So ...” Sophie began after a few minutes of candy pilfering had past. “What do you think of us so far?”
Gabe still had a lot of questions. He certainly had not drawn any conclusions about the guardians. One thing he was sure of, though, was that he was quite infatuated with Sophie.
“Ummm ... well, hard to say really,” Gabe tried to think of an answer that would conceal his crush. “Everyone seems really nice. Just a lot to take in, ya know?”
Sophie nodded, flowing right into the next question.
“So, Uri was telling me you live in a group home for boys?” Gabe was impressed by her forwardness and a little embarrassed at the same time.
“Yeah, I’ve been in several foster homes as a kid, but now St. John’s Home for Wayward Boys is home for me these days.” Gabe was careful not to sound too bitter about his plight in life.
“Do you like it? Do you have friends there? Do you miss it?” Sophie rattled off the questions with barely a breath between them.
“Wow, umm, gee,” he replied, laughing at Sophie’s rapid fire of questions. “I’m not sure I would say I like it. It’s not good or bad. I suppose they feed me and the priests that run it seem nice enough. Just the kind of place you keep your head down and get through your time, you know?”
“Sounds like prison. Do you have any friends you miss?” she asked the question again.
“I suppose the closest thing I had to a friend was Dominique, my roommate. We ate together sometimes, but he’s a pretty big metal head. We don’t really have a lot in common, I suppose,” Gabe explained, wondering if Dominique had even noticed his absence.
Sophie nodded in recognition of Gabe’s struggle to establish close friendships. She thought about her own struggle before she had come to find Michael and Uri. They continued with small talk for a few minutes.
“So how did your parents die?” Sophie asked out of the blue and without hesitation.
Gabe was so shocked by the bluntness and randomness of the question his mouth literally fell open.
“I’m sorry,” she quickly added, seeing his obvious discomfort at the topic. “Just forget I asked.”
“No,” Gabe said. “I don’t mind. You just took me by surprise.”
“It’s just ...” Sophie paused, her chipper and happy tone had become quiet and sad. “I lost my parents at an early age, too. I was nine.”
“Early age?” Gabe thought. He would have given anything to have his parents for that amount of time. He struggled every day to even remember what they looked like. He wondered if Sophie realized how lucky she was to have had them as long as she did.
“It was a robbery,” Gabe explained, the old helplessness nagging in the back of his mind. “I don’t remember a lot about that day. I know we had spent it together. I have glimpses of memories that contain a park, a playground, even a kite.”
“That’s awesome your last day with them was so special,” Sophie added in an effort to bring Gabe some small piece of comfort.
“We used to have movie nights once a week,” Gabe continued. “We would rent a family movie and then always pick up what my dad called movie candy at the store on the corner.” Gabe stopped and looked down at the ground. He felt his chest begin to ache and then constrict.
Sophie reached out a hand and touching Gabe’s arm gently asked, “What is it Gabe?”
Gabe kept his head hung low as he shook it, trying not to think about the emotions that were stirring inside him.
“You can talk to me ...” Sophie insisted. Gabe believed her; he had never really discussed that night, not even with all his different therapists. Something felt different as he spoke with her.
“I don’t know,” Gabe began, then hesitated for a moment. “It’s not really something I like to open up about I guess.”
“Have you ever tried?” Sophie asked. “Maybe it would make it better in some way.”
“Maybe,” Gabe replied softly. “But I doubt it.”
Taking a deep breath, Gabe closed his eyes and decided if he was ever going to have a little trust in someone, why not make it right now with Sophie? Without any more thought, Gabe spoke.
“It was my fault.”
“Why would you blame yourself?” Sophie asked in a soft and caring tone.
Gabe looked up at her, anger and disgust at himself splattered across his face. “I have always gotten these feelings when something bad was going to happen.”
“Auguries,” Sophie interjected.
“Yeah, I guess,” Gabe replied, recognizing the term from earlier conversations. “I had gotten a feeling that night when my parents suggested the candy run, but I didn’t say anything.”
“Gabe, you were so young. You didn’t know and even if you had said something, you don’t know if they would have listened to you. It’s not your fault,” Sophie insisted.
Gabe looked into the fire, replaying the night in his head. He was remembering clearly for the first time. Maybe this sharing thing had something to it.
“My arms were overflowing with sweet treats. We didn’t notice what was going on at the register. A man had come in a few moments before—a s
tranger demanding cash from the register. Apparently he had a gun. Not realizing what was happening we made our way to the cashier. That’s when I saw a huge container of pixie sticks.” Gabe shook his head.
Sophie inched closer to him, wrapping her arm around him in a comforting way.
“I know,” she added, trying to relay her familiarity with the loss.
“It was my fault …” Gabe whispered.
“Gabe, what do you mean?” Sophie asked.
“When I saw the pixie sticks, I reached for them and a box of Milk Duds that was balancing in my arms fell to the floor with a rattle. I don’t know, I guess the noise startled the man. He turned and pointed the gun at me. Seeing the danger I was in, my dad ...” Gabe’s chest heaved as he struggled to tell the story, the entire violent scene playing out in his mind.
“He was just trying to protect me, ya know?” Gabe added.
Sophie nodded, rubbing her hand along Gabe’s back in a circular motion. He continued, “when my dad yelled my name and moved toward me, the gun went off. Bang! Bang! Bang! The next thing I knew both of my parents had been shot and the guy was running out of the store.”
“You can’t do that to yourself,” Sophie said trying to comfort him.
“That bastard killed them and then let me live, I don’t understand why he ... I wish he would have ...” Gabe clenched his fists, all he could think about was taking out his revenge on the monster that killed his parents.
“Gabe--” Sophie interrupted, “it wasn’t your fault. You were a kid; there was no way you could have known.”
Gabe nodded, knowing deep down what Sophie was saying was true, but wondering why he couldn’t shake the overwhelming feeling of blame he had carried with him all of these years.
“My dad left us when I was little,” Sophie began her story. “It was always just me and my mom. Don’t get me wrong—she was all I ever needed. She was amazing. When I was nine, she told me she wanted to throw me the biggest and best birthday party any nine year old girl ever had.”
“There were streamers, balloons, confetti, and the biggest birthday cake I had ever seen. She’d invited all our friends and family. She even hired a clown. It was going to be the most amazing event of my life. Two men had arrived to inflate the bouncy house when my mom got a call that the cake delivery driver was sick and they needed us to pick up our own order.” Sophie let out a heavy sigh as she thought of that day.
“My mom called everyone she could think of to pick the cake up for us,” Sophie continued, “but nobody was available. I can still see her. She looked at me and said ‘What kind of party would it be without a cake? Why ... no party at all.’ Minutes later we were on our way to the bakery. It was so fast; I can’t even remember the actual accident. I just remember waking up in a hospital bed, my entire life changed forever. Apparently we were hit head on and the only reason I even survived was because my bloodline had been activated and with a guardian’s natural ability to heal, I lived.” Sophie stopped, her breath getting caught in her throat.
“You know, I even convinced myself she wasn’t dead for a little while. I would wake up in the hospital and ask the nurses if my mom was there. I did it for weeks. It wasn’t until Michael found me and I came here that I really allowed myself to fully admit she was gone.”
“Sophie,” Gabe didn’t know what to say. How could he comfort her when he had the same feelings of guilt? The same frustrated helplessness.
Sophie turned and pressed her back into Gabe. She pulled one of his arms around her head, using it as a pillow as she lied on the floor in front of the fire. Gabe moved in closer, draping his arm over her side. They both took in a deep breath of air, their bodies heaved against one another in grief.
Gabe thought better of saying anything else, as he did not want Sophie to reconsider her positioning. A moment later their bodies gave into the exhaustion and they fell fast asleep in one another’s arms.
Gabe awoke, his hands tingling and pain shooting up his arm. He went to move, but saw that Sophie was still asleep on his arm. He quickly froze, hoping with everything in him to prolong the moment. He had never felt like this for anyone, honestly he had never let himself get close to anyone. Looking down at her peaceful face, he resisted the urge to kiss her.
He found himself questioning what he was doing. There was a reason Gabe didn’t let himself get close to people. They ended up dead. Sophie had almost been killed once because of him. He wasn’t sure what he would do if something happened to her.
“Good morning, love birds,” Uri’s sarcastic tone cut through Gabe’s thoughts. With that, Sophie popped up and frantically looked around, assessing the situation.
“Shut up, Uri,” Sophie said flashing Uri a nasty glare. She turned and gathered up her boxes of candy, shoving them into her nearby bag. Uri started to laugh in a deep bellow.
“I’m serious, Uri, you better shut up! Nothing happened,” Sophie insisted.
“Sure, whatever you say, Soph,” Uri said with a huge grin across his face as he flopped down on the bed, hands behind his head, ankles crossed. The arrogant pose seemed to enrage Sophie.
“Whatever,” Sophie said in a huff, grabbing her bag and exiting, without a word to Gabe.
Gabe sat there dumbfounded; he looked over at Uri. “You should learn to knock.” Gabe was annoyed his moment with Sophie had been stolen. Uri continued to smile mischievously. “You know, she’s telling the truth, nothing happened,” Gabe added.
“I know,” Uri said, sitting upright. “You’re not her type. I just like messing with her.”
Gabe sank at his words. He thought Sophie and he had an incredible connection, but Uri had him doubting that confidence in an instant.
“What do you mean I’m not her type?” Gabe asked deflated.
Realizing he had upset Gabe, Uri quickly tried to put his statement far from Gabe’s mind. “Never mind, don’t listen to me. Ready?” Uri popped up to his feet and walked to the door.
“What?” Gabe asked, still fixated on getting a real answer from Uri about his observation.
“Training, remember?” Uri asked, acting a little irritated while glancing back at Gabe.
“Yeah, I mean of course.” Gabe acted as though he had not forgotten. “I need to shower first, though.”
Uri began to laugh. “Nonsense, you’re fine. You will really need a shower when I’m done with you though.” Uri turned around and walked over to where Gabe still sat on the floor. He extended a helping hand.
“Come on, you will need a good breakfast, however.” Gabe took his hand and stood. “No promises you will be able to keep it down though!” Uri laughed again. Gabe was beginning to think he was not particularly fond of Uri’s sense of humor.
“My clothes?” Gabe asked walking toward the wardrobe.
“Don’t worry about it,” Uri replied growing more impatient. “There will be clothes at the sparring center.”
“Sparring center?” Gabe asked, unable to hide the concern in his voice. Uri didn’t reply and instead patted his new friend on the back, pushing him toward the open door. The two were off to the dining hall for what Uri kept calling a ‘breakfast of guardians.’
Breakfast was incredible, but the entire time Gabe was wondering what awaited them at this 'sparring center.' He had never been much of a fighter. He had avoided school sports like the plague. The idea of other boys' bodies being hurled at him with great force had never seemed very appealing.
Gabe’s thoughts were invaded by images of Sophie with no warning. The memories of their evening overwhelmed his curiosity about Uri’s impending lessons. As he thought about dancing under the stars and sharing intimate stories, Gabe was sure Uri had to be wrong about Sophie’s interest. Without warning, a slight smile crept across Gabe’s face.
Once Gabe finished his meal, the two boys headed across the courtyard. Uri greeted everyone they passed, causing Gabe to wonder if he knew everyone at the manor; he certainly seemed to. A few more unfamiliar faces passed before Gabe
caught site of one he recognized. Michael was in the distance, standing and talking to another gentleman. The conversation seemed to be quite intense.
Gabe studied the man Michael was speaking to. He noticed as the man shifted his weight, he seemed to be favoring one leg. The man pulled his golden hair from his face, and he recognized him as Anthony, the injured man from Michael’s office. Gabe thought Anthony appeared much stronger than last he had seen him. His stature was broad and commanding.
Gabe watched as Michael and Anthony’s interaction became heated. A second later, both men looked up. Seeing Gabe and Uri headed in their direction, they instantly turned down the opposite path. Gabe wondered if they were trying to avoid him, but decided that he was being paranoid.
Trying to not think of it any further, Gabe asked Uri, “So does everyone go through this training?”
Uri thought for a moment as the two continued through a large doorway. “I suppose,” Uri replied. “Training is tailored to each individual and what their role is. Some are healers and only healers. Some are what we call clerics and are trained in incantations.”
“What are you?” Gabe asked.
Uri laughed and then realized Gabe had been serious with his question.
“A guardian, like you obviously,” Uri said, looking a bit puzzled. “Michael didn’t explain all this to you?”
“Some of it, but we sort of got interrupted,” Gabe explained.
“I see,” Uri continued. “Well, a guardian is different. Everyone’s purpose is to protect mankind of course, but when all else fails we’re the last line of defense.”
“Yeah, I got that much,” Gabe answered remembering that part of his conversation with Michael the previous evening.
“Well, stop me if I repeat anything,” Uri continued. “A guardian is trained in all abilities: hand to hand combat, incantations, healing, creature charms …”
“Creature charms?” Gabe asked with a curious look on his face.
“Not all creatures that were unleashed on the earth chose to follow an evil path. We discovered through the years that there are some creatures that have been tricked or forced, into doing the Lord of the Underworld’s bidding. Once they escaped, many were more than eager to help the other side,” Uri explained.
