Chapter 1

The figures stepped into her path as she tried to get to the main door of her apartment building, which loomed ahead through the gloom. They had cut off her progress. The whispering voices grew stronger in her head. She couldn’t understand why they weren’t allowing her to pass. They had never impeded her passage before. But they were growing stronger now. She couldn’t detect any malevolence emanating from them. They were just there, standing in her path to her doorstep, wispy intangible figures of smoke that, when acknowledged, would turn tangible instantly.

That much, she knew by instinct.

Clamoring voices filled her head. She couldn’t shut them out.

How had they gotten through her defenses? She wished she knew how to keep the voices out. She had tried—and had succeeded for a while.

But now, they were back. They had broken through again.

How?

Her body shivered as a louder voice than all the rest shouted into her skull, “Please. I need to right the wrong I did my wife and kids. I need to tell them that I never stopped loving them. Please help me to get word to them.”

Ignoring the voice was hard.

Trying to ignore the throbbing in her head, she pushed past them, soldiering on to her doorstep to press the electronic key to the lock sensor.

They pressed closer. The iciness emanating from them chilled her to the bone. Their intangible bodies were like being pressed by icy wool. When you pressed back, it gave way.

She shivered.

‘Oh God, please…please. Open,’ she prayed.

The lock clicked.

Pushing the door open, she turned to face the figures. She didn’t like them at her back. She’d rather back away facing them than have her back to them. Her face blanched when she saw the crowd. They were uncountable, going on far into the distance.

It had started with just one, then a couple. After a while, maybe word of mouth had gotten to the other spirits, she supposed. Now there were so many of them that she began to hate going out, especially when she began colliding into ghostly forms. She had curtailed her night walking for weeks now. But she began feeling cooped up.

Regardless, she had started taking walks again.

She had to establish some rules with this crowd, or they would flood her bedroom with their presence. They had been like her once, people who understood logical explanations and commands.

‘Weren’t they?

“No one is following me into my building, or into my flat. You all hear?”

There were angry murmurs and mutterings, but the answer was a unanimous vote.

Backing into the main entrance, she finally felt safe as the door swung shut. As it closed, the familiar, malevolent, raspy voice whispered softly, “That rule does not apply to me.”

She shuddered, revolted. Her blood chilled.

“You will be mine. You will never escape me.”

Gasping, she turned to bolt. Her momentum was halted. He held her rooted in place, and then icy tendril-like fingers crept up her spine. Her limbs went weak.

Taut with dread, she was forced to listen to the hateful voice that haunted her every waking and sleeping moments. The words themselves didn’t scare her, but the evilness, foulness, the intent to possess contained in them did.

Summoning her resolve and squaring her shoulders, she willed enough strength into her limbs to move. Her resolve broke the paralysis she was in. Short of breath, she bolted into the building. She ran up the stairs to her flat like a sprinter trying to get to the tape.

Her flat was on the third floor. Expecting at any second to be dragged back to the owner of that voice, she grabbed her key out of the pocket of her trench coat, then shoved it into the lock, all the while feeling an icy chill breathing down her back, that slimy feeling of darkness trying to seep into her pores.

It was only her imagination, but it felt so real.

Her hands were shaking so much that it took her a couple of failed attempts before her door finally opened. She stumbled inside. Spinning around, she slammed it shut.

Sinking down to the floor, she leaned her back against the door, wheezing, and sweating. Tremors shook her body. Tears of fright, mingled with dread, pooled in her eyes, then coursed down her cheeks.

After a while, she calmed down. Her body felt clammy. She listened.

Had she outrun that voice? Or had it followed her in here? Was she safe?

She listened, feeling alone and scared. She was weary, tired of this constant dread. Her body felt like it had been run through the mill.

This voice had been following her for years. She thought it might be a demon. Evil spirits were much stronger than the norm, but demons were in a class of their own. She had encountered this one years before. Ever since then, it had been stalking her. As her psychic abilities grew stronger, he was able to get into her head.

After a while of hearing nothing, after listening intently with her ear pressed against the door, she finally stood up. She waited a few more seconds, and then, breathing a sigh of relief, she walked into her bedroom. She wouldn’t sleep unless she had a shower, so she walked straight into her bathroom.

In the bathroom, she undressed, then stepped under the warm spray. Standing motionless under it, she let it wash away the sweat and tension from her limbs. Closing her eyes, she said a little prayer that this was the last time she would hear that voice, knowing deep down, it was in vain. The owner of that voice wasn’t going to give up.

The hope was always there, though.

Wrapping a towel around her hair, Penina Moce, Nina to her family, friends, and colleagues, found a vest and shorts to wear to bed. Glancing at the alarm clock on her bedside table, she noted it was twelve minutes past midnight.

She had to wake up early for her job at a hotel in North Sydney.

She worked there as a room attendant. It paid well, but she was only doing it to pay her rent, as well as for her law studies at the University of Sydney Law program. She had a scholarship, but that didn’t extend to living and traveling expenses. Luckily, she had a five-hour morning shift, so she could do afternoon classes.

It worked out well as she only worked five hours for five days a week with her five afternoons of classes. Saturdays and Sundays were hers to do whatever she wanted. She explored suburban areas away from the city with the fliers’ job she did on Saturday to supplement her income, and then Sunday was her day of rest.

Resting her head back on her pillow, she closed her eyes.

She was struggling.

Something was sitting on her chest, holding her down while trying to split her head open with a buzz-saw. She couldn’t move. She was terrified as she recognized the vibe emanating from the evil being holding her down. Her body was paralyzed. She prayed in her dream.

Then, she awoke.

She was wide awake, but she couldn’t move! This demon was powerful. The entity was trying to enter her mind. “Let me in. Let me in.” That insidious, raspy voice was whispering the chant over and over.

“NOO…” she yelled in her mind. Her vocal chords wouldn’t work.

She pushed back with her mind and felt a little give. Although she was terrified, her sense of survival had kicked in. She knew nothing good would come of allowing that voice access to her mind and body. The black buzz-saw sound was hard to dislodge.

She had felt a slight give, so she gathered her strength into her mind and pushed. There was a hiss of displeasure from the one holding her down. Anger kicked in. ‘What the hell? she fumed, irked.

She had not given him permission to take over her mind.

Nor her body.

She was still here. She was human, God’s creation. No demon or evil spirit was taking choice away from her without a fight!

She pushed harder. There was an elastic-like ping. Something shot away from her. She sat up.

Then froze.

A mass of bodies surrounded her bed.

They looked tangible. The evil waves coming off them was overwhelming, powerful. Determination came off them in waves. Terrified, she withdrew into herself. Her mind stuttered to find an escape. Her bladder loosened. She wanted to go to the bathroom desperately, but she was too scared to move, afraid that if she did, they would attack.

She snorted at that irrational thought. They would attack anyway. But they were waiting for something. Or someone!

She sensed they were a legion. No wonder she had to fight hard to get out of that coil of evil. Their combined force field was truly terrifyingly powerful.

She sat there, trembling, knowing she didn’t have a hope in hell of fighting off so many of them. She waited, body shaking.

This was it.

The end.

The mass moved closer. Their combined power focused on her.

‘Oh God. I just peed my panties.’

A hysterical laugh burst from her. It paused them in their advance. It was a reprieve.

But then, their combined lava-hot hands touched her. She was burning.

“Oh God…” The words burst from her in an agony of despair. She prepared herself for death.

Praying it would be a quick one.

‘No, this isn’t right.’

“Please, God. I’m not ready. Please save me.” Her lungs felt like they were on fire. “I’m burning. Somebody…help…”

Her voice bubbled, sizzled. Then heat, froze her throat. The light faded as her sight grew dim.

Dimly, through her blurred vision, she could see a white light pierce the darkness. As her vision faded to a pinprick, a man and a woman stepped into sight.

All of a sudden, the scope of her vision started to grow bigger as the brilliant light dispersed the darkness of the room. There was a respite from the pain. The light grew in intensity. The dark mass around her bed shrunk. Then, they dissipated like wisps of smoke, back into the shadows where they came from.

Her burning lungs gasped for water. She took a deep shuddering breath as cool air rushed back around her, into her lungs. The light was warm where it touched her body. She was awestruck. Like little tingling fingers, it caressed her wherever it touched her bare skin. She put out a hand, feeling she needed to touch it.

Then, a jolt of electricity shot through her body as a hand gripped hers. The hand was solid!

She looked up into eyes that reminded her of a clear ocean on a sunny day. The face they inhabited was so gorgeous, it stole her breath away.

She sat there, paralyzed again, but this time, not with terror. Was it desire?

With wondering awe, a sudden shyness assailed her. She looked away, only to encounter another pair of eyes: deep, bottomless brown ones set in ebony features.

She marveled. Were they angels?

The lady was dressed in a beautiful white dress of shimmering gossamer splendor. The man, equally splendid, was dressed in a tan leather outfit, much like a Roman soldier, complete with a sword strapped at his waist. The lady’s long, wavy blonde hair went all the way to her butt while the man had short, cropped, glossy black hair.

She noted all this as the lady moved towards her and the man, who still had a hold of her hand. She was beautiful.

Weirdly beautiful.

Her blond hair and black skin were contrasting, but it made her look notable. Mesmerizing. The man was Caucasian. They made a striking pair because of the hair and skin contrast.

Nina sat there, spellbound!

The lady opened her mouth to speak. Nina couldn’t grasp what she said. The pounding of the blood beating in her ears was so loud. She saw the lady’s mouth move again. She quelled the beating drum in her ears by sheer force of will so she could hear, but it was impossible. On high adrenaline, she was unfocused, lightheaded.

The man yanked her off the bed. She was shocked out of her fugue state with the suddenness of his action. “What the eff do you think you’re doing?” she sputtered, enraged.

“I knew that would work.” He laughed, then dropped her hand.

There was a sudden sense of loss. She ignored it.

She was unsteady on her feet, but she stood there, resolute, determined not to fall. She was not going to give this jerk the satisfaction of seeing her fall. As gorgeous as he was, he had totally angered her. “What are you?” she blurted out as awe and anger battled it out within.

“We are not a ‘what.’ We are guardian angels.” The female looked offended at the innocent question.

Nina stared at her, waiting for the punchline. “I don’t think angels are real. You must be some kind of super couple.” She was skeptical. Her excuse was that she hadn’t met any angels.

‘Getting rid of a demon horde doesn’t mean they were angels,’ she argued with herself. Being a typical Fijian, she downplayed the reality of the incredible being’s presence.

The woman glared at her, but the man just smiled and held out a hand.

“I’m Brett. This is Shanna. We were sent to protect you…We will stay close but will not crowd you. If you need our help, just call us by name.”

His incredible eyes glowed with a strange white light, then dimmed. She was hypnotized.

Blinking, she came out of the trance when she became aware she was alone. They were there one minute, and the next, gone. To boost her courage, she spoke aloud. “Whoa, that was quite a vivid dream.”

Nina jumped as a voice floated back to her. It was quite loud, like they were still in the room. “That was no dream, and you know it.”

The grouch in it tickled her. It was definitely Shanna.

She jumped back into bed. Pulling the covers up, she muttered to herself, “Big ears don’t hear good of themselves.”

“I heard that,” Shanna shouted back.

“Then close your ears. And go away.” Now, she was mad.

“Done,” Brett’s laughing voice came back to her.

Then, there was silence. The angels had really gone. But it was no longer an oppressive silence.

Just a peaceful one.

This peace was not the normal one. This one was because she knew someone had her back. Or two someones.

Her eyes closed.