Chapter 9
605Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmfikwYVLlU
The teen years passed by in a blur of classroom lectures, mindless gossip, and days of procrastination. Edith grew and blossomed with the passing of time. She graduated high school and got a part-time job working as a cashier at a local grocery story. Since her break-up with Derek, she had not bothered with finding another boyfriend. In fact, she found that she was far happier without a boyfriend and was much, much happier spending time with her friends.
Mable and Raum were still close by in their animal forms. They had become friends, in a sense; oddly so. As indifferent as the demon might have seemed towards the angel’s presence, the occasional friendly glance and caring touch he’d give her on a few rare occasions said all words. He cared. He was evil, ugly, nasty, and vile, but he was one of very few demons that had the ability to care if they chose to.
There was, however, still something that tethered Raum to the reality of why he was here, in the first place. The ticking of Edith’s clock woke him up. It made him realize that he wouldn’t be here had Edith not been born. It reminded him that if that child did not exist, he wouldn’t have met Mable and he’d probably be elsewhere; being tormented in Hell or sitting somewhere bored out of his mind somewhere else. But worst of all, it reminded him that time was running out.
On days when he was feeling particularly morbid, Raum would stray away from Mable to a nearby field where ravens normally gathered to feast on the dead things that had been drug off of the road. Like a shepherd tending to a herd of sheep, Raum kept a watchful eye on the ravens. While he never joined in on their feeding frenzies, he did stay with them, and he’d idly wonder to himself, if ravens were the eyes of the devil why were they so focused on things that were already dead?
On one day in particular, the demon was running these thoughts through his head when suddenly the heads of each raven lifted in unison and they turned their beaks towards Edith’s house. Raum looked too to see if he’d see anything that could possibly attract interest, but he saw nothing but the house. The ravens didn’t fly away, they didn’t caw, they didn’t even move; they just stared.
When he looked back to the house, Raum realized that Edith was getting into her car to leave for work. From a distance, he could see Mable gesturing for him to follow. That’s when he knew.
Today would be his last day as the angel’s partner.
---
There’s a saying when you’re driving that says, “Don’t drive faster than your guardian angel can fly,” The way Mable saw it, that saying rang true. She was flying as fast as she could to keep up with Edith’s car as she sped down the route that she regularly took to work. Raum’s wings were working equally as hard to keep up, as well.
“We should have taken the back seat,” Mable commented, “It would have been a thousand times easier.”
Raum nodded in agreement, but didn’t say anything. His attention was mostly focused on Edith’s car and the way that it moved. It swayed from left to right, so much so that the tires of the car would hit the rumble strips going down the centerline and to the sides before it’d drift in the opposite direction.
“What on earth is that child doing?” Mable inquired.
The angel peered in through the driver’s window. Much to her horror, she realized that Edith’s eyes were not focused on the road, but on the screen of a cell phone between her hands, which were resting on the steering wheel. What was worse was that the car was also picking up speed and Mable was struggling to keep up with her. Raum was hardly breaking a sweat. He looked back at the angel and grabbed her hand.
“We have to keep up with her!” he urged, “Put your back into it, Mable!”
The loud blaring of a horn caught their attention. Edith’s car had now drifted completely into the other lane and was in the path of an on-coming semi-truck. In an instant, Raum morphed into his physical form and beat his wings faster, trying to get ahead of Edith’s car.
“Raum, what are you doing?” Mable asked hastily.
The demon only gave a brief glance back to her, “I’m going to buy the child some time.”
Once he had managed to head off the car, Raum turned. Moments later, a dull smacking sound was heard as his body collided with the windshield. The noise had definitely woken up Edith, and it had also made her drop her phone. It was enough time to make her realize that she was in the wrong lane, but not enough time to move back over all the way. The semi-truck caught the left side of the vehicle, causing the car to spin out of control and eventually flip over into a ditch.
Mable was mortified. She flew over to the wreck as fast as she could and searched for Edith. She found the teenager freed from her seatbelt and lying sprawled across the dashboard. The angel searched for signs of life and breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that she was still conscious and breathing.
The driver of the semi-truck was on his phone, calling for help. Many other people had pulled over beside the wreck and were doing the same. The extra help gave Mable a moment to fly back over to Raum, who lay just fifty feet away.
“Raum! Raum, are you okay?”
The raven rolled himself over until he was standing on his wobbly legs.
“I have a headache,” he replied, “But you shouldn’t be so concerned about me. You should be with Edith right now.”
“She’s all right. There are people with her now that are calling for help.”
In the distance, the sounds of sirens wailed in the distance. An ambulance along with police cars and fire trucks were pulling up to tend to the accident.
ns3.22.68.17da2
