The Fruit of our Mistakes

A cold breeze made its way through the room from the open window. Without even a glance in that direction Cassiel closed it with a slight movement of the wrist. He didn't want to move.

Before him lay a small child in her bed. She was sleeping, her golden locks spread over the pillow like a halo. Tonight it was his duty to watch over her. He had to pull a lot of strings to be able to get this opportunity, usually angels of his rank didn't have to do guardian duty. But he had wanted this.

“Huh?”

A voice made him look up. In the door there stood a man. A man Cassiel had known for quite a while now. Of course the man couldn't see him.

“I was sure I forgot to close the window...” the man muttered while he went over to the bed. Softly he stroke the girl's cheek. “Sleep tight sweety...” he whispered before leaving the room again.

If he hadn't been an angel Cassiel knew that the scene before him would have made him jealous. But as an angel he shouldn't feel such things. Jealousy, anger, pride, those feelings were all reserved for humans. It was beneath angels to feel such inferior emotions.

A small sigh escaped him while he made his way over to the chair beside the bed. It creaked when he sat down but Cassiel wasn't worried. After all humans had a tendency to write off sound like that in the night as the house itself. It was silly really, houses didn't make sounds if it was well built. Most sounds people heard during the night was actually made by angels or demons making their way through. The could just make sure they weren't seen, sounds was much more difficult to block out. But if humans knew that they would probably just be more scared of the dark than they already were.

A dark shadow suddenly caught Cassiels attention. He hadn't noticed it until now since it had been hiding among the regular shadows. But now it suddenly moved towards the girl.

“Oh no you don't”, he muttered and swiftly caught it between his fingers. “She won't have any nightmares when I'm here.”

It wasn't hard for him to make the nightmare into a pleasant dream instead, though he couldn't help but to sneak in an image of a handsome young man with brown locks and white wings before he let the dream make its way into her sleeping mind. This was the only way he could make herself known to her.

Cassiel leaned back in the chair again and looked at the girl thoughtfully. She was as beautiful as her mother, and looked nothing like the man who called himself her father. Luckily he had never thought about that. Maybe it would have been different if it had been a boy instead.

The angel knew he shouldn't be here. He knew it was risky. But he couldn't help it, he just wanted to see her at least once. He already knew her mother couldn't see him anymore, he had tried to show himself to her but it hadn't worked. It had all been a mistake.

But as he looked at the sleeping girl he couldn't regret anything. Was this how humans felt? Was this why they went to such lengths to try and protect their children? He wouldn't know. He had died before he had any children and had been a good angel since then. This was the only time he had messed up this badly.

He sighed and looked at her again. Her existence would surely prove dangerous later on but right now he just wanted to make sure she was safe for a little while longer.

His daughter.