Being an only child sucks for Elena because when she needs help, she has no one—well, except for her friends and her family, but they are not there all the time. They can't always focus on her because they have their own lives too. Besides, she's not a child anymore; she needs to be independent and strong. But when she met Scorch, she began depending on him for protection, which is not good because she needs to learn how to protect herself. It's part of being independent, but right now, she proves that she can't be alone.
Elena doesn't know where Scorch is, but she is still hoping that he will appear and protect her from the evil creatures that are trying to kill her—even if she doesn't know why. She feels scared again, so instead of going outside, she just locks herself inside her house because going outside is dangerous for now. She needs to wait for Scorch to come back. Everything that is happening confuses her. She cleaned up the blood without even knowing where it came from. She put the rose in a vase, and she kept the letter in her cabinet. Right now, she doesn't have any clues where the letter, the rose, and most of all, the blood came from. All she knows is she heard a crash, and then she saw those things.
"What am I going to do now?" she said while spraying some air freshener to get rid of the blood's disgusting smell. She doesn't actually know what kind of blood it is because it smells like rotting meat or a corpse—or she's not sure because the color is different too. It is dark red, almost black, and it never dries. It looks creepy to her, but she had to endure it when she cleaned it.
"Scorch, where are you? I'm afraid," she said as she sat on the couch, tears falling from her eyes. Even if she didn't admit it, she missed the angel's presence, even though she had only seen him a few days ago. She felt comfortable knowing he was there to protect her, but the situation now is different—she is alone. Although she has her friends, they don't know anything.
"Scorch, I need you. Please come back. I don't want to be alone," she said, and more tears fell from her eyes. She didn't like being alone when she knew there were creatures out there that wanted to eliminate her from this world.
___________
We often think that everything we see is easy until we are the ones doing it—just like what Veena and Scorch feel right now. They thought traveling to Earth would be easy, but no, it is the hardest thing they've ever done because they need to pass through six unknown places before they reach the portal. They are lucky they met two half-angels, not demons, because that would have been a problem—at least for Scorch. Even if angels and demons have agreed to each other's rules, they are still not on good terms.
Some may think they are crazy for needing to pass through those six unknown places when they could think of easier ways, like teleporting or flying. But that's a problem for Scorch, remember? He has no strength to do those things, and Veena can't teleport or carry him while flying. If angels see them, they are going to punish Scorch. For Veena, it's not a problem if demons see them, because she's a demon, and they are supposed to commit sin—that's what they do. But angels do not; they will kill if an angel commits a sin, and no one can change that.
Veena and Scorch are just sitting on a rock underneath a tall tree, sitting there in silence—a comfortable silence. Scorch is thinking about Elena and whether she is doing well, because he knows her parents are not with her. Veena is thinking about her life after this; the two of them don't know what will happen to their lives after this. Will they forget what happened, or will they not even greet each other, like strangers? Veena doesn't know what to choose, but the question is, do they really need to do that?
"Veena, let's keep moving," he said, and she nodded her head. But Scorch stood up and offered his hand to her. She was shocked but took his hand anyway. Then they walked together, not noticing that they were still holding hands. They continued their journey, their minds wandering like birds in the sky, thinking about the people they left behind. For Scorch, he left Elena with no one, and for Veena, she left someone important, but she knows they can handle their lives. No one would want to take their place if asked because life is hard for them. Being an angel and a demon is hard; they think their rules are harsh. For example, an angel might want to become a demon because they think demons don't have rules, but demons want the same because they think angels' rules are less harsh. But they know that can't happen because they are different in appearance and in the images in humans' minds. Somehow, they are the same when it comes to the rules—so harsh for them—but they have no choice but to obey because they don't want to be punished by the council. They just do what the rules say, even if humans are clueless that they are included in the rules of all creatures.
On their way to their second destination, they were still so preoccupied with their thoughts that they didn't notice someone was watching them while hiding behind the trees.
"Well, hello, my visitors," someone said, then giggled while looking at Scorch and Veena.
"Veena, do you think I can go back to Earth?" Scorch asked while looking down. Veena just giggled at him.
"Of course. Why do you ask, anyway?" Veena said, glancing at him for a second.
"I'm just afraid that I can't," he said, but she just clicked her tongue.
"You are worried about the human you are supposed to guard," she said. Scorch looked taken aback, but he guessed she knew he was guarding a human; he had introduced himself as a guardian angel, after all.
"Well, yeah. She's alone right now, and the fact that she can see me and other creatures—including your hellhounds—" he said. This time, it was Veena's turn to have the shocked look Scorch had before. She just shrugged it off, thinking that the human Scorch was protecting had the ability to do that—they called them the Gifted. It wasn't a big deal for her.
"So that means she saw my hellhounds chasing you?" she asked.
"Yeah, she was with me at that time, and she was so scared and clueless," he said.
"Oh, I'm sorry about that." When she said that, Scorch's mind froze. The word "sorry" had come out of her lips. Demons don't apologize to other creatures, not even to other demons. He was just shocked that she said that, even if he thought he was overreacting.
After hours of walking, Scorch finally realized something when he looked at a big acacia tree.
"We've already been here," he said. She looked at him with a confused expression.
"What?" she said and looked around, but Scorch pointed to the big acacia tree.
"The acacia tree is still the same. If there were other acacia trees here, they wouldn't look exactly the same," he said. Veena finally understood what he was saying and noticed the ground with their footprints.
"Someone is tricking us," she said, looking around. That's when she realized she was still holding his hand. She quickly pulled her hand back, blushing without realizing it. She was obviously embarrassed, but she thought Scorch didn't notice because he was busy looking around. They continued to look around until they heard someone laughing.
"I fooled you~ I fooled you~ I fooled you~," the elf said, jumping and dancing around. Veena and Scorch looked at each other, realizing that the elf had fooled them.
"Stop fooling us and show us the way," Veena said. The elf stopped dancing and looked her straight in the eyes. When the elf looked at her, she felt something in his gaze, and that's when she sensed the word "danger."
"You don't respect me, my dear demon," the elf said, glaring at her as if that glare could kill her.