save y(our) soul

“Rise and shine, Linda,” Taehyung entered the building, slamming the door hard and loud on purpose, causing a flurry of emotion from the girl in the chair. “If you slam the door again, I’ll cut off your hands and hang them in my limb collection.” “You have a strange preference. Why didn’t you inform me that you were my mentor for the duration of my stay on Earth?” Kim came closer, standing in front of the girl, who folded her arms and put her foot on her leg, listening attentively to the angel. “I don’t know, I didn’t even think about it.” “What a great sponsor I have. And most importantly, responsible.” “Shut the hell up,” Linda smiled sweetly at him, meeting his sarcastic smile in return. “A couple questions and you’re free to go. I can’t call my planet? I tried calling my uncle this morning, but no luck.” “Yes, you can’t. Though you can come to me and politely ask me to let you make a call,” Taehyung only covers his face with his palms, sighs dejectedly, remains silent for a couple of seconds, and then speaks: “Super. Another question: will all the tasks be as easy as yesterday? If so, it means that I will be coming home soon. Or is there a catch somewhere?” “Each angel or demon is given different tasks of varying complexity, I do not know what it depends on. A couple of days ago, an angel returned home, whose tasks were similar to saving a cat from a tree. Or someone had to prevent the overthrow of the government.” Taehyung asks her a couple more questions, gets a smattering of answers, and turns around to leave the room as quickly as possible. He hadn’t really learned anything, which was making his mood worse and worse by the minute. It is easier for him to act when he has some knowledge, but the fact that he will have to use improvisation frustrates him. Improvisation often helps, but it also hurts. It’s like a game. You decide to do one thing and it doesn’t work out, then you have to quickly come up with something else, hoping it will help. The angel turns into the nearest corner, where the shadow lives, to examine the message that came to the phone with the task. Taehyung looks around and opens an SMS with the data of the next person, whose description surprised him and made him freeze in place for a second: Name: Li Miyeon Age: 5 years old Feelings at the moment: playfulness, joy, happiness. Location: Restaurant “******” next to the roadway. Kim is already starting to shake just from the realization that it is a child. He also doesn’t know what will happen to the child, whether he will have to save it from a fall and a broken knee or prevent it from being kidnapped and abused. Taehyung catches a cab and points to an address where a surprise prepared by fate awaits him. The terrace of the restaurant turns out to be somewhere seven meters from the road where a huge number of cars pass because this is the center of the city. He immediately gives a good slap to the designers, architects and all those who worked on this restaurant and its location. Summer, a family holiday, alcohol, lack of supervision, a child left unsupervised by parents feeling free to act: all of these lead to bad consequences. Taehyung drinks the coffee he ordered just so there would be a reason to sit down. He keeps a close eye on the people coming and going, trying not to miss anyone. He’s nervous because he’s afraid of missing a child or someone who has something to do with what might happen. While he was looking for something, before he knew it, he had drunk his coffee and the waiter came over to pay. He took out cash to tip the waiter for his quick and efficient work. As soon as the waiter left, he heard a woman’s voice: “Miyeon! Where are you? Miyeon, mom’s here! Come here!” The woman shouts in a voice that can be heard both inside the restaurant and on the terrace itself, causing people to turn around. Taehyung runs up to the panicked mother, who is running from place to place looking for her daughter, and asks: “What’s wrong?” “My girl, my daughter! I only left to go to the bathroom, and when I came back, she was gone. I told her not to go anywhere and especially not to listen to any people.” “Fuck,” Angel inhales and exhales deeply, realizing he missed the baby. “I know it’s hard, but trust me, I’ll find her. What is she wearing?” “She has a blue dress with white daisies, a ponytail and white shoes. I’m begging you, please find my girl. I’d give anything to find her,” the woman walked over to Taehyung and rested her forehead on his shoulder, whispering a quiet “please”. Kim takes off and runs out of the restaurant, and immediately stops, looking around because he doesn’t know where to go next. If he runs in the wrong direction, he will lose a huge amount of time, which he tries to avoid as much as possible. On the right side of the subway, which means there will be more witnesses, but on the other side it can also play into his hands in the form of getting lost in the crowd. On the left side of the street, you can pass through there, staying in the shadows, and there will be fewer witnesses. Taehyung chose to run to the left, speeding up as much as he could. His lungs burned unpleasantly and phlegm gathered in his throat, making it terribly uncomfortable to run, emotions running high, fear taking over. He honestly admits that he’s scared right now. What will he say to this woman if he doesn’t find the child or if he finds her corpse? He asks people passing by about the little girl, but they all just shrug their heads and shrug their shoulders, making Taehyung curse everything. Angel runs wherever he can see, his strength is gone, but he keeps running, keeps looking until he comes to a crosswalk where little Miyeon is squatting not far away, smiling at some man sitting next to her. He slows his step and stealthily tries to approach the jerk and the girl to snatch her from his grasp. But the whole world seems to slow down as the man throws a couple of candies into the roadway and points his finger, enticing her to step out there. And she is a small, trusting, loving child who steps onto the main road where drivers honk when they see a little button going straight to the candy bar. Kim runs up to him and punches him in the jaw, trying to put as much force as possible into the blow, but he can’t risk the girl’s life and waste valuable time just to punch the asshole in the face. The asshole takes off without retaliating and runs away faster to avoid getting caught. Except that Taehyung is great at memorizing faces, and his facial features are preserved in his memory, and this man seems familiar to him. At the same time, Miyeon squats to collect candy, not paying any attention to the passing cars, not realizing the danger of the situation. Angel tries to shout to the girl, but she can’t hear anything because of the noise. If he gets hit by a car, he’ll get off with a light scratch that will heal in just a couple seconds, because angels are invulnerable to that. Human pain, and things that can kill them, there’s no way they can kill or seriously injure an angel. They can only be killed or harmed by the same angels, demons, higher-ups, and there are a couple other things besides: the sickle of Death, the angel blade, anti-angel symbols. So Taehyung goes straight to her, receiving loud honks and a solid checkmate in return. He equalizes his breathing only when he picks up the little girl in his arms, who is upset about the candy falling out of her tiny palm. Kim walks off the roadway onto a regular path, dropping Miyeon to the ground. As they walk back to the restaurant where her mom is sitting, he explains to her that under no circumstances should she leave with strangers, and that she should listen carefully to what is being said. When Miyeon runs into the restaurant, shouting “Mama,” she bursts out of her seat and runs toward her, picking her daughter up in her arms, holding her tightly against her and crying quietly. Taehyung feels relieved, glad that he was able to prevent the disaster. The woman thanks him many more times, prying what she can do for him. But he just waves her off and says he doesn’t need anything, and goes to the bathroom to confirm the assumptions he made while listening to the thanks. Standing in front of the mirror, he pulls up his sweater to look at his back, and smiles sadly when he doesn’t find the second star. It had alarmed him back when he’d saved the little girl, because the first star had appeared almost immediately. So he hadn’t fully accomplished what needed to be done. Taehyung decides that the point is to get rid of the bastard, and to do that, he needs to find him. He leaves the restroom and walks over to the woman, who is holding Mien in her lap and watching her eat. “I’m sorry to bother you,” his mother moved away as soon as she saw Taehyung, making room for him. “No, no, sit down. Are you hungry? Let me order for you,” the woman started flipping through the menu, looking through the dishes, until Kim stopped her by putting his hand on her shoulder. “Calm down. It’s all right,” she lowered her eyes to the floor and remained silent. “Tell me, maybe you know: have there been similar cases?” “As far as I know, there’s a man wanted for stealing children and doing something to them. Definitely something scary.” Taehyung leaves the restaurant after a few more details, intending to go to the police station to find out more about the man and give a statement. While he was waiting for the cab, he found information about the man on the Internet, which said that he had about seven murders of young children on his hands, all of them between the ages of four and five, and all of them brunettes. Angel emphasized those details in his head, because from the description, this could be a serial killer who clearly had a motive. Upon entering the station, Taehyung immediately asks to be taken to the sheriff, who will obviously know more than some of the workers here. After a couple of minutes, he is ushered into the office and sits down in the chair opposite the policeman, who, after moving the papers, folds his hands and speaks: “What are you here for?” “You’ve heard about the man who’s been killing children, haven’t you?” “Our patrol’s been looking for him since the first murder, but the bastard’s hiding and covering his tracks.” “I saw him a couple hours ago, or rather, I saved a kid from him.” “Why didn’t you call us?” “I didn’t have time. The girl could have died.” The sheriff pulls out portraits of various people, laying them out in front of Taehyung, asking him to point out the suspect. He looks at them until he sees a familiar face, the owner of which is the culprit. The sheriff asks him a couple more questions and thanks him, then tells him they’re on their own. “But I can help,” Kim said indignantly, catching the policeman’s displeased look. “This is a job for us, not for you.” “You don’t even know what I’m capable of, but you’re already rejecting my help.” “Offer something, kid.” “Do we know his name?” he nods, saying there’s a little more information than just a name. “Then we need to contact his family, talk to them.” “Dismissed. Have you considered that they might be covering for him? Or they could be in on it? Not everyone gives up their family.” “Can I see his data?” “No, it’s strictly confidential, and we can’t just hand it out to passersby. Please exit.” If Taehyung doesn’t find out something about him, then we’ll have to wait for his next offensive, and that could be who knows where and when. So he resorts to certain measures that if they find out, he’ll be in trouble and upstairs will probably freak out. But that’s the least of his worries now, so he looks into the sheriff’s eyes, and says “angelard” and then orders him to hand over the right file, and the latter, as if at the snap of a finger, goes to the closet and pulls it out. “Jerk,” Taehyung says quietly to the sheriff, who, smiling, holds out the data to him. He slaps his forehead, realizing that he’d seen this man before, when he’d attended church on Earth. They exchanged a few words and went about their business, not paying attention to each other. After learning the address of his relatives, he decides to leave as soon as possible, but before he does, he stops by the store for some things that will definitely help him. And in about forty minutes he was already standing near the door of the small house, waiting for someone to come out to the tune of the bell, which rang throughout the room, indicating that someone had come. He was greeted by a woman in her seventies, who put her hand on his chest when she saw him. “Father! What brings you here?” The woman exclaimed happily, examining Taehyung’s uniform. “I thought I’d drop in and see how my people are doing.” “Come in, come in, don’t stand on the threshold.” Taehyung makes his way into the house, taking a seat on the couch the woman points out. She offers him tea, but he declines, saying he just wants to talk and learn something. “Tell me, how is your son doing?” asks the angel, watching her reaction, realizing that this is a sore subject for her. “W-we communicate very rarely, almost out of touch, and what’s wrong? Has he done something wrong?” The woman asks excitedly, hoping he hasn’t. “No, no, it’s just that he stopped going to church, and he doesn’t say hello to me.” “He’s having a very hard time accepting the death of two people who were very close to him, so he’s been shutting himself off lately.” “Can you tell me more about that?” “Oh, his wife, sweet Lia, died in an accident a couple of months ago, and my grandson,” the woman began to cry quietly at those words, and Taehyung realized that this was her wound, something she would never be able to come to terms with. “He was killed by some crazy man. Beaten up and then killed him afterward, didn’t leave one whole spot on him,” she begins to shake from the memories, from the experience. Kim sincerely sympathizes with this family, because the loss of dear people is never forgotten, but remains a wound that often bleeds. Right now, Taehyung is faced with a choice, and each of them could lead to irreparable damage. They sit in silence while Taehyung, stroking the woman’s wrinkled hand, weighs the pros and cons. Worry lodges in his throat, making him uncomfortable, and Angel hates the position he’s in. “What I’m about to tell you may seem like crazy nonsense, but you have to believe me. Hear me out,” Taehyung pauses for a long moment and continues."Your son is killing children. It probably has to do with the loss of your grandson, which he never got over. I recently rescued a little girl he lured to the road and tried to make her get hit by a car. Other children he has killed in different ways and the victims all look alike, there is evidence. This has to stop.” To Taehyung’s surprise, she didn’t interrupt him, but simply listened, not reacting in any way. The woman is silent, fingering her fingers, and then she raises her tearful eyes and speaks: “What I’m about to tell you may seem like crazy nonsense,” she gathers her courage and begins, “My son and Lia had the most sincere love that can exist. They loved each other as if there was no one else in the world but the two of them. They got married, and then Lia got pregnant. They waited for this child madly: every day for several hours they talked to him, touched his belly, played with him, read him fairy tales. And when the day of childbirth came, they rushed to the hospital to meet the long-awaited gift of fate. But Lia had a heart condition and the doctors warned about the risks, saying that it was better to have a Caesarean section than a natural birth, but Leah was adamant and said that she wanted to experience it for herself. Her heart failed, but my grandson was saved. My son couldn’t believe it, couldn’t accept that she was gone, thought the child was to blame and hated him. And strangled him in his sleep a couple days after he turned five. After that, he sees all children as his son and thinks he’s to blame to this day.” Taehyung couldn’t believe what he was hearing and just kept staring at the same point, amazed at everything that was going on in this family. “You do realize that this is not normal, don’t you? He needs to go to jail, or he’s going to kill an unknown number of children.” “I understand,” she pressed her lips together, feeling guilty for everything that was going on and for covering for him. “I need you to call him to ask him to come here, mentioning that his son is here.” The woman nodded and, taking her phone out of her robe pocket, dialed the number she had learned by heart. After a couple of beeps, the man on the other end picks it up and listens intently to everything his mother is telling him. He replies that he’s on his way out and asks her to hold him back. Taehyung, meanwhile, calls the police station and asks them to send reinforcements to apprehend the suspect, and warns them to put the cars in an inconspicuous place. As he enters the house, he sees a woman looking out the window, wiping away incessant tears, and shivering. It’s hard for her to accept that the only person she has left will be taken from her, but there are no excuses for him and he should get what he deserves and she realizes that. Some demon would probably make him feel the pain that all the victims and their families have felt at his hands. And that’s actually what Taehyung would have done, but he was raised differently. Half an hour later, Kim sees the police already in place, and he hides in the kitchen, which is the closest room to where the culprit will be. There is a loud knock on the door and the woman, startled, quickly runs to it to open it. “Where’s the motherfucker?” An angry man runs into the house and looks around. “I will kill him, just as he killed the meaning of my life.” “But, son, it wasn’t his fault.” “Shut up!” he yells and points a small knife at her.” Maybe you’re covering for him, huh? That’s what I thought.” He starts to go at the woman and the woman is screaming and trying to shout for him to hear her, but because of his anger, the man doesn’t want to hear anything. He only has one goal in his mind, to kill this scumbag and now his mom. Taehyung runs up to him as he turns his back to him and wraps his arms around him. The man tries to break free, but due to the strong grip, he fails. Kim yells at the woman to run away, but he himself rolls the man to the floor and starts punching him several times, turning his mouth and nose into a bloody mess. “Finish me, I’ll find him in hell, and he’ll be there for sure, because he’s responsible for my wife’s death,” — the man says without strength, spitting blood and smiling so disgustingly, as if he’s going to get a couple of three more blows. Taahyung is lifted by the arms of the police officers who come running, telling him to go outside and they’ll take it from there. He does so, stepping outside and looking around, noticing a woman wrapped in a blanket answering questions from the investigators. He catches the eye of the sheriff, who raises a finger up and winks, to which Taehyung smiles with one corner of his lips. Angel hails a taxi and the rest of the time on the way to the hotel he thinks about nothing and pays no attention to anything, feeling soaked in the story of the day, even the burning in the area of his spine that signifies the appearance of another star.