Chapter Eight

Azarel flipped through the movies and shows available on Netflix with the remote control, making sure to choose something suitable for family, something that wouldn't be too racy or too action-packed. The last thing he wanted to happen was make the situation awkward or find a train derailment playing on the screen. After selecting one that looked interesting, he set the remote control down and fell down the seat next to Dawn.

Looking at her, she was dressed in her hoodie over some night clothes. She had her feet up on the couch and her hands were holding them to her body. Her eyes still bore the telltale signs of fresh crying and her lips were still frozen in a slight, frown that he feared would be permanent.

The movie played slowly, and as time passed, Azarel heard Dawn's breathing slow down along with her heartbeat. The aura that surrounded her paled from dark purple to a warm orange. Within moments, she had closed her eyes and the glow of her aura drew into her body, as it normally did for humans who were asleep.

Azarel was about to get up to fetch a blanket from her room when he felt tiny hands grabbing onto his arm. He stopped and looked down at himself. Dawn was holding him. She moved towards his body, collecting herself right next to his body. Putting her head on his shoulder, a long sigh left her lips and her aura cleared again before drawing back in once again. He remained glued to the couch, making sure to provide her the comfort and sleep she needed. And she was stable.

At least until the dreams started again.

❃❃❃

The next few days passed with difficulty, because her dreams returned each and every night. Azarel would pay extra attention to her whenever she was preoccupied elsewhere so that he could pour a healing light over her body. As a foot soldier, his powers were much more muted than before and healing took a lot more time. But since he was consistent, her nightmares soon left her and the smile returned to her lips.

She came up with the suggestion one night. She had been cooped up in home for far too long, waiting for life to return to normal. So, she suggested heading out for dinner and he agreed readily. He took one peek out the window and saw that it was snowing, but he was convinced that leaving the house would be good for her.

They were walking down the streets, hot breaths escaping from the lips into the night air as snow fell down around them when her aura brightened to a yellow. Raising her hands up at some intervals, she tried to catch snow into her hands. Her laughter echoed into the air and the muscles on Azarel's shoulders lost their tension. Peace settled onto him like it hadn't for a long time, not since he shattered that soul.

"Look," Dawn opened her palm and snow drifted to it. She held her hand closer to her face to admire the whiteness before she threw it up again into the sky. And she laughed and laughed.

"You look like you're finally happy again, Dawn," Azarel told her.

That caused her to freeze. She stood in the middle of the road, her eyes shifting in recollection. Then in seconds, a tear had left her eyes and another followed it. Worry burst forth in his chest.

"What's wrong?" Azarel asked her.

"It's nothing," Dawn said as she wiped her tears away.

"No, tell me," Azarel said.

"It's just - " Dawn said, wiping at her cheeks. "It's just that my parents and I always wanted to go skiing together one day, and we should've been to and back by now. But I realised I'll never be able to turn that into reality. Not anymore."

"Oh, Dawn," Azarel said, touching light from his body to hers.

"I miss them so fucking much," Dawn said. "I wish I wasn't such a rebellious teenager, but it felt like the right thing to be at the time."

"I'll make it better," Azarel said. "I promise."

She blinked at him. "How? They're gone."

"Just go to sleep tonight thinking that everything will be alright," Azarel smiled. "I'll have a gift ready for you."

"What gift?"

"You'll see. It's a secret."

❃❃❃

Her sleeping figure was fetal and her shoulders rose and fell along to her slow, steady breathing. Her eyelids shifted every now and then, telling him that she was deep in sleep. Next to her lay her phone, display still on. She had been looking at some videos on skiing, and that sent an ache to touch his heart.

Unfurling his wings, they spread out across the length of the room, reaching towards the ceiling. He shone with light, but humans were never able to see this light. It shrouded the entire room in it, and normally it would have woken Dawn up, but it was not visible to her. Neither could anyone see him while he was in his angelic form.

With one forceful call of his powers, an shockwave pulsed regularly from his body to graze her body in intervals. It pressed into her mind and inched through her skull. Within moments, he was through.

She was sleeping soundly, but she wasn't dreaming. All the better, because that made things simpler for him. He ran through her memories like he was scrolling through the pictures in his phone and settled on one period he particularly liked. It was when she was younger.

The shockwaves continued to touch her body as he crafted the new memories from scratch. He gave it clear, vibrant details to make sure she would remember it for the rest of her life.

Pictures of them on a snowy hill. Dawn trying to ski, but failing miserably. Her parents already down the hill, waiting for them and hollering at them to hurry up. Him, giving her some instructions before giving up when it was obvious it did nothing to help her situation. Dawn's parents making waving gestures to them before disappearing to the village nearby. Him, reaching out a hand to her to help her up, but retracting it just in time so that she would fall back down.

She erupted into laughter, tearing her ski boots away before chasing him around the top of the snowy hill while throwing handful after handful of snow at his body. He stayed just out of her reach, ducking the snowballs until her hands closed around the clothes at his back, and she pulled hard. They fell back down onto the snow together, lying next to each other on the snow and staring at the pale sky as their laughter echoed around them. She put a black, gloved hand against the white sky and he put his next to hers. Touching the sides of their hands together, they began talking about how happy life was.

Azarel perfected the memories, refining them to become more vivid, and Dawn's lips broke out into a smile as the memories surfaced in a dream for her. Her sleeping face glowed, and her eyes shifted repeatedly behind her eyelids. She moved on her bed, her legs extending out. Then her lips parted.

"Azarel," Dawn said, a hand reaching out towards him.