2/II. When Answers Aren't Enough (Remastered)

“Peace? How can I feel peace? Where are Michael and Raguel?” Raphael opened the doors to the soldier’s quarters.

He already felt the dread setting in. He could not locate Michael and Raguel after that suggestion from Raguel to cheer Michael up.

He followed on to the room of Raguel, no sign of him. Then he opened the door of Michael’s room near the throne room, no sign of life.

Gabriel hurried straight from the throne room to Raphael sitting at Michael’s bed.

SFX: Tok, tok, tok *Knocking on door

“Raph, you there?” Gabriel sounded worried as well.

“Yeah, come in.” Raphael didn’t have time to think.

Gabriel pried open the wooden door and spotted Raphael sitting at Michael’s bed.

“What is it?” He’s curious as to why the messenger suddenly knew that he’s in Michael’s room.

“Michael and Samael…” Gabriel replied, but the names that came out of his mouth raised Raphael’s anxiety much higher.

“What?” Raphael jumped in fear instinctively.

If those two come together against Heaven, there’s no stopping them. Raphael cringed at his thoughts.

“You need to go down on Earth.” Gabriel firmly gave a command.

“Earth? They’re there? Am I the vanguard?” Sweat dropped heavily from Raphael’s face, would he be the scout for another Rebellion?

“Vanguard? What? No.” Gabriel got confused as well – his message was not quite clear yet and Raphael was guessing with his answers as well.

“Then why Earth? I thought Father threw out the rebels down on the centre of Earth, Hell?” Puzzled with the response of Gabriel, Raphael tried to pry open the mystery of his statements.

“Yes, but this is a different matter.” The messenger tried to clarify himself. He shook his head in disagreement with what Raphael concluded.

“Then, why did you mention Michael and Samael?” It seemed that Gabriel need to spell it out even more.

With the doubts and betrayal around the them, the Host of Heaven and even the Archangels became always on guard with such thoughts and statements about war.

“I think… I think Raguel’s in danger.” Those words set off both surprise and confusion on Raphael.

The rebels were already thrown out and punished, how would one of them be still in danger?

“You think?” He was still sceptic. He squinted his eyes and crossed his brows to think and think of other ways that the angel of justice may be in danger from.

“I have this heavy feeling in my chest. Raguel and Michael seemed to be missing in the Silver City.” Gabriel continued to explain the feeling he’s getting.

“You got that right, wait, who told you?” Raphael grew curious. Gabriel is the Throne, a messenger, but definitely not all-knowing.

“Jophiel told me you were looking for them, so I instructed all Powers to drop everything and look for the two inside the Silver City.” The Archangel of the Throne appeared to have abused his power to garnish an order that’s not from God directly.

“And Jophiel confirmed that they’re not here.” But Raphael understood the urgency of the order, and asked for the results of the search.

“Yes.” Gabriel’s reply didn’t satisfy the curiosity of Raphael.

That was anticlimactic, Gab. He thought to himself.

“Then, I need to hurry and go down on Earth.” Raphael breathed deeply and raised his brows as Gabriel agreed with his suggestion.

“Go. Please.” He pushed the angel out of Michael’s room and out of the throne room into the gates.

Raphael brought out his yellow-greenish angelic wings and dashed down to Earth’s atmosphere.

As he landed down to dry land, and sweetly talked to the plants living in the Garden connected on the ground.

The roots have the ability to locate and sense other moving living creature, or perhaps a shining one, an angel.

“Roses, one of my beautiful creation, can you talk with the others as I fly high and try to locate my brothers?”

“Yes, my creator.” The beautiful scarlet flower with piercing thorns spoke back.

Compared to Raphael’s telepathic powers to plants, Michael’s is more extensive as he can communicate with all living things – moving or unmoving.

SFX: Wap, wap, wap *Wings flapping

Raphael ascended to a certain height, but still cannot locate his brothers.

Where are they? I can’t see them anywhere. He looked far at the east, west, and extended his vision to the south and north, but, nothing.

“My liege, our creator has arrived asking for you.” The roots connected beneath the earth reached one of the plants near Michael.

[Liege: master, lord]

A vine stuck at the side of the river caught Michael’s attention.

“Inform him that we are here at the bank of the River of Euphrates.” Michael muttered quietly, he was still in a bad mood, but he knew that Raphael was getting worried that he followed the two down to Earth.

“Yes, my liege.”

With Raguel, still unconscious, maybe Raphael can help with the seizures, I really don’t want to heal him nor go near him, especially now. He simply thought.

“Archangel Raphael, the liege is at the bank of the Euphrates river, with the Archangel Raguel.”

“Bank of the river? Thank you, Rose.” The angel of nature simply smiled at his creation and went on his way to the bank.

“I’m happy to be of service.”

SFX: Wap, wap, wap *Wings flapping

Raphael quickly headed to the North of the Garden, surveying the river stretch, and spotting two glistening beings at the right side near to where he was gliding over.

He softly landed near Michael and tucked away his wings.

“What happened? Why is Raguel seizing?” His questions irritated Michael more, but the angel of mercy decided to stay quiet, for now.

Michael’s not answering. What happened? This only happens when Michael is… is… searching for memories. “Raguel maybe in danger.”, that’s – that’s what Gabriel said. Is this what he meant? The Archangel of Virtue, once again, drew conclusion from whatever imaginative world he created for himself.

“What happened?” Michael tried to evade Raphael’s inquiries.

“Heal him, then carry him back home.” Michael’s cold attitude resulted in an awkward situation between the two.

The heavy ambiance made it impossible for Raphael to retort from that order. He only sighed and put forth his hand.

“That’s the plan, heal him. Why haven’t you?” He looked disappointed at Michael but already began healing Raguel

Apart from Oracle, Creation, and Telepathy, Michael also can heal with a much greater power than Raphael.

“I don’t wanna go near him right now. I’m-” Raphael kept his eyes on Michael, and he can see the frustration and desperation in Michael’s eyes.

He knew something happened between the two that made Michael upset and uptight, but there was no reason that Michael would ambush Raguel with his powers.

The two grew closer as Raguel became the third Archangel after the Seraphs, Cherubs, and the Ophans were created. He’s been Michael’s right hand man since the angel of mercy was anointed ‘Captain’ of the Host of Heaven.

“Mike, you can tell me anything. Please, just let me know how I can help you.” He wanted to clear the air and to have a reasonable and calm discussion with his brothers.

“No one can help me. What’s done is done.” Michael rose on his feet and deeply sighed, then turned his eyes to the bright yellowish moon.

“Mike, that’s not true, okay, we can help each other. I can always heal you, if there’s a wound that you’re not showing me.” He retorted, he knew that there was a wound that he cannot heal – the wound of the heart, but nevertheless, Raphael offered his open hand to Michael.

This healing is taking all my energy! He turned his eyes back to Raguel, that appeared to still be unconscious.

“There’s a wound in my heart that even you cannot heal, Raph.” Raphael can feel Michael’s despair in his tone of voice.

He then turned to Raphael, like tears wanting to flow on his cheeks. He timidly smiled in frustration and hesitation.

I actually felt really crappy for that silly suggestion. Raphael only smiled back as he tried to comfort his brother.

“Mike, you know we’re all here for you-“

As Raphael tried to console Michael, a shadow moved quickly past affront of Raphael and punched Michael so hard in the face, he flew several hundred feet across the river.

SFX: CRASH! *Michael’s body hit the ground, terraforming the Euphrates river into two.

“YOU, Raguel!” Raphael’s shout echoed through the bank.

That’s why it was taking me all my energy to heal this guy, he sucked my energy right out.

Despite knowing what Raguel did, Raphael stood unmoving, he can only heal and communicate with plants, what else was he going to do if two of his strongest brothers began clashing in front of him?

Raphael was called the angel of healing and nature for his power of Heal and Laws of Nature, while Raguel was called the angel of justice for his strong sense of justice and the warrior angel for his power of Berserk (turning critical moments of despair into insane strength and stamina for a limited time) and Absorption (absorbing the energy of others through direct contact and making it your own strength).

“I… I thought I was gonna die.” Raguel gasped for air while holding his fist up. His hand smoked in the mach-speed that hurled at Michael’s face.

“What was that? Wh- Wh- Why did you punch Michael? He told me to heal you, YOU KNOW?!” He slowly approached Raguel who was still struggling to breathe and explain the situation to the previously unconscious angel.

“Raph? Why are you here?” Confused and puzzled, Raguel curled his brows and tried to understand what just happened.

“Why did you punch Michael?” Raphael tried to make sense of what was happening as well, and shook his head while attempting to calm Raguel.

“He… he was going through my memories, WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!” Raguel exclaimed in fear, his hands trembling visibly.

SFX: Phuh*

Michael jerked and spew blood from his mouth.

“That… was kind of painful. Maybe, it was your way of waking me up, or something, Raguel.” Michael rebutted in anger. Eon’s clearly taking over, his right eye was turning completely white and the angel of wrath reverberated his battle cry across the whole river.

“Raph, get away. NOW!” Raguel still concerned, he warned Raphael to move away from their battle field.

Raphael, dumbfounded by what was happening between the two, tried to fly away as soon as he can, he was just able to barely jumped out of the force field that Michael created as he flew mach-speed back to Raguel and punched his gut – one-punch man style - to the other opposite end of the river.

SFX: UGH* Raguel coughed blood out of his mouth.

“Aaaaah, damn, you’re both crazy! What’s happening?” Raphael hit the grass near the bank and cushioned his fall.

These two buffoons managed to change the Earth’s crust in two single hits. What power!

He darted his eyes to the new terraformation visible from the Euphrates bank.

The plants located near the banks were harmed in the wake of the fighting of the two brothers, and Raphael as at lost for words.

His beautiful creations - the fruits and the trees in the garden, were destroyed by two rambunctious immature powerful creatures.

“STOOOOOOOOP!” He walked right in the middle of the two with his hands stretched out, as soon as they flew right face to face with each other.

Michael and Raguel’s faces stopped right at the Raph’s palm as they were about to punch each other again.

Raphael quickly squinted his eyes thinking that he will be caught up in the fight, but thankfully, he stopped the two before more destruction ensued.

“Look! Please, stop fighting, make-up, if there’s something you disagree with each other, please do not talk with your fists. My plants, they’re getting destroyed.” Raphael’s gentle nature transformed quickly to an agitated one as he mediated between the two.

Raguel and Michael still appeared to be agitated and it became too awkward for the two to make-up.

But for the sake of justice and peace, Raguel initiated, “I… I’m sorry if I caused you trouble, Michael.” He held out his hand for a shake.

“No need. The past is already done. There’s no going back.” He slapped Raguel’s hands and didn’t go for the shake and walked away from the two.

“Until when will you wallow in despair, huh? Until when will we expect to see the old Michael back?” Raguel roared in guilt and shame.

“I told you, there’s NO GOING BACK.” Michael simply replied and shouted back.

“Rag… what… what happened.” He tried to heal Raguel’s wounds from that punch.

“Don’t… this is… my reminder.” He stopped Raphael from healing his face.

“But… your face.”

Raguel’s face became scarred with a slit alongside his left cheekbone connecting to his chin across his mouth.

-------------------- // --------------------

“As Raphael and Raguel went home, stories spread how Michael beat up his younger brother in a frenzy, again, and now, everyone treats him, with the young fledglings, a monster, they’re now afraid of him more than ever and avoids him at all costs, making Michael lonelier than he ever was before.” Arthur’s bed time stories moved Johnny’s heart to tears.

“Then… then, Arthur what happened to Michael then?” Johnny’s teary eyes became more and more apparent as Arthur disclosed to him about the story of Michael and the story of God, the Creation of Heaven, and Earth, and the angels.

On a cold, cozy night of the late winter season on January 2002, two four year old children lay to rest and slept on their king-sized bed in a four story mansion.

All alone in the room, with only the butler and the guard dogs in the mansion, they lay awake as the incarnation of Michael, the Archangel - Arthur, read the Bible to his other human twin, Johnny.

The two chubby babies tried to sleep but the sleepy fairy just would not let them be.

Arthur jumped out of the bed, and pulled out an ancient or antique book from the drawers across the room that said on the cover, “The Holy Bible”.

Johnny’s eyes glimmered in excitement whenever Arthur talked about angels. Arthur remembered the time when he was Michael and teaching the young fledglings’ swordsmanship and flying using their angel wings.

He always reminisced the times when he taught Samael everything he knew from God.

Then, as Eon entered the scene, everyone changed their behaviour towards Michael, they feared him the most. Michael has not told anyone of Eon yet, only God, Samael, and Raguel knows.

Will you look at me the same like I am a monster once you know who I am, brother, Johnny? Are you like all of them? He looked at his human twin, smiled, but contained sorrow in his eyes.

He certainly hoped not to have the same case whilst living with the humans, but he was starting to think he has been too lax with his intelligence.

The surrounding humans say that Arthur and Johnny’s intelligence quotient were not normal for four year old babies.

“Then, then, what happened? What happened?” Johnny continued to bug him with teary, sleepy eyes.

“Then Gabriel told the Seraphs, the Powers, the Dominion, the Virtues, the Thrones, and the Cherubs/Guardians to go down the Earth, to be incarnated and to live with humans.” He smiled as he quickly tried to end the story.

“What? But I wanted to know more about Michael…”

He’s a bit whiney now. Arthur smirked at his twin and puffed their pillow and invited him to sleep.

“Michael said, you need to sleep first, we’ll continue the story tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay…”

As soon as he laid his head on the fluffy pillow, the child quickly dosed away in Dream Land.

This child, in my six thousand years of visiting Earth, there is not one human interested in the angel history, save this one.

His curiosity keeps me level-headed, trying not to make the same mistakes I had on Heaven.

I was always envious of the family settings that the human can establish here on Earth, I hope I can establish something similar, but I guess having a father and mother is a far stretch for me and my twin here, but I guess, having him and Matthew, is already the greatest gift that you have given me, Father.

Thank you.

His thoughts and prayers helped Arthur sleep peacefully that night.

-------------------- // --------------------

Morning soon came as the two awoke to the smell of bacon across the bedroom to the dining room.

The cold winds kept the two kids snuggled in between the warm fluffy thick soft sheets in their king-sized bed.

“Good morning, sleepy heads!” Matthew carefully brought the breakfast platter to the bedroom along with a small table in which the kids can explore eating.

“G’morning, Matt!” Johnny seems to have a good night sleep and a good morning spirit.

“Good morning, Matthew.” A little smile came from Arthur from revealing his backstory to Johnny just a few hours ago.

“You seem to be in a good mood.” Matthew giggled casually with Johnny teasing Arthur.

“I.. I am, thank you for the food and refreshments.” Arthur set the other breakfast table from the dining room in front of them in the bed.

With their father visiting the household only twice a year, and their mother always out on some errand and her job, the two became closely acquainted with the mansion’s head butler.

“You want me to eat here with you?” Matthew grinned and smiled realizing Arthur’s kindness.

“Of course!” Arthur smiled back.

The three proceeded to chomp off food like there’s no tomorrow.

They pretend to be childish, especially when there’s no one around. Matthew liked that, their family has been the household butler for many generations.

Growing up, he had no proper childhood memories, he only remembered serving tea, cooking breakfast, everything that a butler needs to learn that’s what he was doing for his childhood and up to young adult hood and now with the death of his father last year, he inherited the title of head butler in the household at twenty-five years of age.

“I have an errand to do later, so you’ll have to behave quietly here in the mansion, okay?” Matthew explained thoughtfully to the two. Usually, they would be engrossed with the books in the library near the living room if no one was around.

“Okay!” The two enthusiastically answered Matthew.

Matthew and the household did not expect their visitors that morning.

-------------------- // --------------------

"A MONSTER!!!"

A white mist tightly gripped the cheeks of one of the prowlers in the mansion, lifting the unknown man into the air and effectively restraining the person’s movements, suspended surrounded by a phantom.

One of his powers – the power of Creation can create illusions and clones of himself in the human or angel form.

In front of the mist are the two boys. Arthur and Johnny, curiously peeking behind him, tugging his shirt, visibly trembling in fear, the two faced the intruders on such bravado.

"Is... Is he one of the bad guys?" Johnny's puppy eyes could never fail to amuse Arthur.

"He has a gun, no one in the house has. He's a bad guy." Arthur got a look on his face, What do you think?

"Where's Mommy? Daddy? Matthew?" Johnny heaved Arthur's shirt down in frustration.

"They're not here yet. We'll have to make do of what we have." Arthur tried to calm his brother down and firmly held his hands.

"Don't we need to call the police?" Johnny pulled a cell phone out of his pocket.

"Call Matthew instead."

"Okay..." He dialled Matthew's number and recited it. "Three-one-zero-two-two-eight-seven-nine-six-eight. Done!"

SFX: [ BANG! BANG! BANG! ]

Echo filled the hallways as the leader of the kidnappers shot the two kids with a silver magnum pistol. The gunshot can be clearly heard in the call.

The white mist appeared to raise its hand and easily stopped the bullet and seemed to slow down time.

The call went through as soon as the guns fired off, as soon as Matthew heard the gunshots, he frantically called a cab to drive to the Police Department and carry off policemen to their residence in the Greenhills, Los Angeles, California.

SFX: [ CLINK! Clink! Clink! ]

The bullets clicking sounds terrified the invaders more as they cannot figure out if there is an invisible wall in the hallway protecting the kids.

The suspended man in the air alarmed them as much as the bullets stopping mid-air and dropping on the floor.

A wailing siren even agitated the unsuccessful kidnappers as they try to mercilessly pour a hail of bullets directly to the room where the children are.

"I DIDN'T SIGN UP FOR THIS! EFF THIS! I'M OUT!" Horrified and crazed, one of the henchmen ran out the back door of the mansion straight to the White Wolves' Forest located at the rear of the Smith Residence.

Like a crazy person, all over again, the intruders tried and tried again until the wails of the siren grew even louder.

"What... what are you?" Shaking in fear in the corner of the hallway, the group of trespassers realized the error of their ways as Arthur and Johnny were unfazed in the sea of gunpowder residue and bullets all over the floor.

The police cars were directly outside the mansion now, there's no escape, and they realized it.

"You are surrounded! Surrender now!" One of the superintendents grabbed a megaphone as he stepped out his vehicle just outside the wooden door of the mansion.

SFX: [ CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! ]

"Interesting, these humans doesn't seem to know who we are, brother." Arthur grinned creepily and clapped slowly as he stood with Johnny in the hallway.

The white mist tossed the one it gripped earlier to the rest of the henchmen, unspeaking, unmoving, breathing, but still and looks like lifeless.

The mist suddenly became more aggressive, its aura is leaving a heavy pressure on the adults.

Then...

From a mocking baby's voice, a hoarse, rattled, deep voice came out from the baby's lips.

"I am MICHAEL, the Power Of God, Captain of the Host of Heaven. I am named "Prince of the Seraphs", and the highest Archangel order."

Along with this line, the white phantom materialized before their eyes, a blonde haired man, icy-blue eyes, a resemblance to the race of Israelites, face filled with freckles, wearing a knight's armour, golden, with a covenant white garment, but the most notable feature that the white mist has illuminated is its shining white wings.

"A- An- Angel... Please... please... don't kill us." The men pathetically pleaded for their lives, what they saw that day haunted them until this present day.

The angels, demons, God, divinity, their eyes were opened and fear began to rush through their bodies.

SFX: [ CRASH ]

The police forcefully barged into the front wooden doors of the mansion with the intent to capture the intruders and safely secure the two kids.

As the illumination dematerialized and Arthur turned around from the hallway to their bedroom, he saw Matthew unmoving, shocked by the image that he just saw, his chest hurt, he just gulped in the saliva building up in his mouth.

Johnny slowly approached the dumb-stricken man and softly held his hand.

"You... you okay?"

"I... I..." Before he could even form a sentence, Johnny grabbed his hands and tried to drag him in the bedroom.

"Let's hide." Matthew turned his wide eyes from Arthur to Johnny.

Johnny tried to calm the surprised man.

Matthew followed along the bedroom and so did Arthur.

Matthew set back his eyes to Arthur, he was not alarmed, but he felt the chills running down his whole body.

"Art... Arthur...?"

He checked if the baby is still there. He just heard the baby's gentle voice turned into a deep adult one.

"Yes?"

He is a bit relieved - the deep, hoarse voice was not the one that came out.

"I can hear your thoughts; do you think that that was just an imagination?"

His eyes turned back from relieved to shocked again.

He knew that the twins were a genius, with an unpublished record of 463 IQ for Johnny, and an immeasurable amount of IQ of Arthur with just a young age of four, both children can predict what will happen or what may happen based on deductive reasoning alone.

"That's not... and how do you...?"

"You seem to misunderstand me. I can read your mind." Arthur was saying it with a straight face.

"So... you're really..."

"So, what if I am, what are you going to do?"

"Then... I... thank you... for saving us, for saving me." That was the only thing that he could think of that moment.

"A wise choice - and you're welcome."

As Arthur bowed down, the police stormed the hallway to find a sea of bullets and the intruders in the corner trembling visibly in terror.

One by one, the police escorted the criminals out of the mansion, tried their best to restrain the insanity and inanity in each one of the demented men.

"God is upon us! Please save us! Save us!"

The window on the police car slowly went up and the man inside desperately tried to escape and had his face stuck between the door and the window closing.

"Thank you, Officer Jones."

Matthew tightly gripped the hands of police officer one Jamison Jones as he pulls out his notepad to recollect what happened in the mansion.

"We're just doing our job, I'm glad that the children are safe."

He pointed out the two kids hiding behind Matthew with his pen.

"Kids...?"

Matthew maybe their butler, but he also served and fulfilled the role of a father to the twins, he taught the two, right manners, good conduct, and home schooling of academics and scholastics.

Johnny visually hesitated to get out of his comfort zone to face the police officer.

Arthur then quickly grabbed Johnny's hands and stepped out of Matthew's shadows and bowed down, Korean style.

"Thank you for your service, officer. Thank you for saving us."

The tone maybe like a robot but the officer didn't expect that much from a kid.

"Art?"

Matthew reprimanded the two kids for the hollow gratefulness.

"Yes?"

A sharp-eyed kid darted quickly eye to eye with the adult, as if, looking down on him, being arrogant and imposing.

Matthew just remembered what he had witnessed in the hallway, it's still fresh, and unbelievable, not bound by reality and he still thinks it was fantasy. His hands visually showed tremor in his wake.

"Play around the attic, do not be a burden to the police who will check the mansion."

Matthew replied in kindness in the midst of arrogance. Arthur reflected quickly and looked down in submission.

"Thank you."

Arthur and Johnny then quickly ran up the stairs at the end of the hallway to the attic.

"Attic?"

That's certainly an interesting place to play. The officer thought and asked in curiosity.

"Oh? Their toys are in there, and it would be best to get them out of your way as we try to figure out what happened here."

Matthew slowly puts both of his hands at his back, quickly gripping the right shaking wrist with his left hand and smiling in front of the officer.

"Okay."

The officer didn't dare to press any questions to the man, he's visually shaking in trauma. This may be one of the times he almost lost his children.

Another officer slowly approached the shaking man with a need to an immediate answer.

"Mister...?"

"Pierce, but you can just call me Matthew." Matthew smiled awkwardly.

"Uh, yes, Mister Matthew."

"Ahhh... you must be new here."

"Oh! Yes, I am."

"Almost all of the officers here are a frequent visitor of our house due to several attempts of kidnapping and assassination."

"Oh... interesting, uh, if that is the case, I noticed the several cameras outside the home, do you also have ones inside?"

The new police officer pointed out the corner of the wooden doors that they had just broken down.

"Oh! No, we don't have those inside. Their father is a government official, hence, any recording device is prohibited inside the property."

"Oh! That's quite unfortunate, but may I ask if you can lead me to the monitoring room for the cameras outside?"

"Sure. It's right next to the stairs there."

There are cameras inside the home, the monitors are in a different hidden room, I cannot exactly give those tapes to you due to what happened here.

I'll make sure to review them later and destroy them thoroughly.

-------------------- // --------------------

"A MONSTER!!!"

SFX: [ SLAP! ]

An unexpected slap came across Matthew's face as he showed the tape to his employer, the mother of the household, Missus Emily Davidson-Smith.

"Why have you kept this from me?"

As much as the pain that Matthew felt in his rose-red cheeks with that awful sudden slap, his heart and chest constricted even more when he heard Emily’s words upon reviewing the tape.

"They were safe, I didn't think to..."

"You didn't think?"

As if he was waiting for another slap, he forcefully closed his eyes to get ready for the impact, but he was shocked to what he opened his eyes to.

“I certainly didn't get pregnant with a triplet twins, he's not... he's not human... he's... why are tears flowing down out of my eyes for this monster?”

Emily was certainly puzzled. On her five years in the Smith household, she only encountered violence and further grief with attempts in assassinations and kidnappings.

The only reason those people were not successful in killing or kidnapping them was because of Arthur, or rather, Michael, the power inside of him.

"Missus Smith... I am so sorry."

She fell on her knees and silently cried her tears out.

Why did I marry Edward? Why? I knew this was a mistake. Apart from that, one of my children is not a human. She miserably wallowed in her thoughts.

Her knees might have given out. Matthew offered to take her to her bedroom, but she declined.

"I... I'm sorry, Matthew, I hurt you."

"No ma'am, it's my fault for being incompetent." At least that red bruise on his face was much lighter than when she slapped her.

"Even so, we must not hurt anyone for whatever reason. I am so sorry, I hope you can take my apology."

"Yes, ma'am, I accept it."

"Did... did you already destroy the other copies, the backups in our cloud and others?"

"Yes, ma'am."

'Then, burn this one as well. Thank you for showing it to me."

Matthew pulled out the compact disk from the computer, and went out down the hall to burn the tapes.

After an hour and a half of almost laying down, crying on the floor, Emily carelessly wipes the tears in her eyes along with the make-up she had on, it's like she had cried black tears running down with her eye-liner.

She slowly walked to the door of the room of the kids.

I... I already gave Brandon, one of the triplets, to the New York City Orphanage at the East Coast. I will need to leave Johnny to Arthur once I... She was lost in her thoughts.

Emily originally had been to the hospital before she gave birth, the ultrasound result was for twins - both male.

Edward and Emily were overjoyed due to the news, that's March 1997, however, due to the nature of work of Edward, he was not always in the home, that's why when Emily gave birth, Matthew was the one who supported her in those hard times.

She gave birth in the night of the Julian 97 Meteor Shower, July 7, 1997, with a triplets, the two got her lovely brown eyes, while the other one has an icy-blue eyes.

She always felt distant to the one with the icy-blue eyes. It's as if she doesn't feel any maternal instinct when it comes to taking care of the eldest one.

It's not one of my children. She always thought as she looked at the child.

A year after their birth, she instructed Matthew to give the youngest out to the East Coast, to the New York City Orphanage. And on the second year going forwards, Arthur and Johnny were the only ones remaining on the household.

Johnny felt Emily's presence in the corner of the room as the two twins are playing around the room.

"Mom!"

"Johnny..."

She folded her knees and bent down and reached out her arms for a hug as Johnny ran across the room to meet his beloved mother.

Arthur froze at the end of the corner of the room, slowly, unmoving, he tried to hide, but unsuccessfully does so.

"Art! Mom's here!"

Johnny happily waved his arms as he's done hugging his mother.

This fool. Arthur scoffed.

"Mom, Art and I were waiting all night for you." He turned his face again to his mother as he smiled in excitement.

"Good morning, Mother." Arthur slowly bowed in head in reverence.

"Why? Haven't you slept last night, my sweet Johnny?"

She tried to brush away Arthur's presence by just talking to Johnny.

That's right, Arthur... he's... he's not my child, I do not need to raise him. It's just Johnny and Brandon, and me. I'll make sure to come back for Johnny when I can. She totally ignored Arthur’s attempt to communicate.

She wasn't aware that Arthur can hear minds, the angel was already aware that this so-called "Mother" does not treat him like a child, but a monster, an invisible monster that has the same face of her children.

"Go get some lunch, mmkay?" She kissed Johnny's forehead and told her good byes as she hurried off to her work as a nurse in a hospital downtown.

"Arthur, do you know why Mom always dismisses you?"

"She treats me like a monster."

Matthew overheard the kid, Who wouldn't? I mean, you are an angel in a body of a child. He thought.

"Why would she? I mean, you always save me and Matthew from those kidnappers, from those trespassers."

"I think it's because of that, hence, she tries to get rid of my presence."

Johnny pouted as he turned to Matthew.

"Arthur is our guardian angel, right?”

"Huh?" The one adult left was also lost in his thoughts.

"Everyone sees me as a monster, even my brethren in heaven."

"What, why?"

"It’s because of my power. Do you see me as one?"

Arthur already assumed his answer and bowed his head down in disdain.

"No..."

"What?" Matt's answer surprised Arthur, he lifted up his head overjoyed.

"I see you as you. You're not a monster, you're Arthur, or Michael, the angel who saved us." Matthew's smile, as he bent down to Arthur and tapped his head, got engraved in Michael's heart.

Is this what they call in humans, compassion?

"Great! That's what I have been saying, Art, YOU ARE YOU! You're not a monster! Okay?" Along with Johnny's reassurance, a warm hug revived something in the heart of Michael - Emotions, fluttering ones at that.

Thank you-