Silver Lining

OCTOBER 31ST, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO

          His pale hands tensed and relaxed unnaturally. Silver wasn’t used to being so defenseless, being without his weapons. Normally he kept a pair of short swords on him, hidden in a long coat or some other unsuspicious item, but Connie had put his dual swords, along with the other weapons him and the other man owned, into his guitar case slung across his back, and he had not come back to the house last night to return the swords to their rightful owner.

          Connie had hired him again (even fallen angels had to eat) but waiting for the mission to begin, and forced to be without his swords, he felt aimless.

That was how he found himself wandering the streets of San Francisco with no objective at all. He felt too on guard, however, to properly enjoy the beautiful view of the Pacific, and back and forth he stalked the up and down streets.

          “You look lost.” came a voice from behind him.

He turned to see a girl with strange animal ears and a lab coat peeking out at him from behind an unlit lamppost.

          “I’m not lost.” replied Silver brusquely, and he turned on his heel coldly to go in the other direction.

“That’s the same direction you came from,” said Heland. “No shame in being lost. I can show you around. I’m actually from Philadelphia which is not at all here, but I can still show you around, cause clearly I’m better at this than you.”

          Silver bristled in annoyance, and though he knew he should ignore the strange girl and walk away, he felt the sudden urge to engage with this silly short-life.

“What’s with the ears?”

          “I’m a werewolf. These are my ears, obviously.”

Silver stared at the two human ears poking out of her messy hair.

“Okay, Miss Werewolf. By the way, do you prefer honest people, or liars?”

          “Honest people.” answered Heland, confused. Wasn’t this stranger going to ask her for directions?

“I as well. Which is why-” Silver reached over and before Heland could react, plucked the wolf-ear headband clean off her - “I won’t be wasting any more of my time here talking to you.” His voice took on a mocking lilt. “Goodbye then, Miss Fake Dog... er, wolf? It doesn't matter!”

Silver walked off, having been thoroughly entertained.

          “That’s the same way you came.”
Silver stopped in his tracks. Would she leave him alone?

          “You have no idea where you are, don’t you?”

Silver didn’t say anything. She grabbed him by the hand - his reaction time was slow as usually that hand would have had a sword in its grasp, but thanks to Connie… - and walked him across the street, nearly missing a speeding taxicab by a hair.

          “What was that! Are you crazy!? You short-lives…!’

Heland looked at him confused for the second time today.

          Butler Bai, for all her flaws, did an excellent job of projecting a truly dimwitted aura.

Which is why, when Silver let slip that word, ‘short-lives’, she, renowned fair and insightful sub-moderator of online occult mecca Mystforums, instantly put together the pieces. To an occult-freak like her, she had just stumbled into the perfect morning.

          It was barely 7:00 AM, but the Halloween decor garnishing every house down the hill gave the morning quite a different feeling than usual.

Heland had still not let go of Silver’s hand and now they took up space side by side on the sidewalk.

I’m feeling the real flesh hand of an angel! she giggled in her mind.

At the same time, Silver was thinking that human hands felt exactly like his did. He then realized it was the first hand he had held.

She took him around the city, showing him all the various sights that she had now grown used to.

Heland thought that despite his advanced and rare speciation, he really seemed nothing more than a teenager trying to act cooler and less interested than he really was.

When Heland finally let go of his hand, having gotten her fill of occultic thrill, she decided she’d give up the game and tell him what she’d intuited.

          However, when she was about to deliver her triumphant address, he spoke first:

“Thank you for the tour. Mostly still boring, of course, but I wanted to kill time this morning anyways.”

His words were still barbed and mocking, but there lay a suppressed sincerity within it.

Heland smiled. He was not so unlike regular humans, she thought.

“What’s your name?”

          This shocked Heland. Angels typically never took interest in things of that sort, and without meaning to, she voiced that thought…

Silver looked up at her with naked shock, the first time today she’d seen his face look like it believed the expression it was making.

Heland and Silver exchanged names, and talked for a while on Heland’s doorstep.

Silver felt willing to tell her what life was like in the heavens, and Heland apologized, blushing for she was incorrect in her theory - Silver was not an angel, but a fallen angel.

          "Hello," a man with a crow-like appearance had walked up to them without them realizing, so engrossed in conversation they were, "do you happen to know what day it is?" 

The man was especially tall (though most people were from her perspective) and had a strange aura. His image seemed to flicker - something so small it might have been a trick of the morning light. 

Heland could barely contain her excitement at the second bizarre encounter of the morning. 

"It's Halloween!" she exclaimed, almost hitting Silver in the face as she spread her arms.

At the sight of this stranger, Silver felt the strange urge to hold Heland's hand again, but restrained himself. It wasn't quite fear, but... Slightly shaken, he decided to act invisible until he left. He sensed he would not win a fight with the stranger, and could not draw attention by now turning and running away... 

          The crow-like man surveyed their surroundings. "Excellent. This is my first Halloween here, you know." 

"Oh! Is it really? Your first Halloween in San Francisco?" 

          "Not quite..." He seemed to not want to divulge the exact answer. "But yes, I guess so!" 

"You should come to the SFU Halloween Party, then!" Before he could agree, Heland pulled out her cellphone. "Here, let me text you all the details. Put your number in here! Oh, and your name. What's your name?" 

          "You can refer to me as ... Cal." He stared with confusion at the metal item Heland held out to him. "What is that?" 

"It's the Sh*rp 904. It has a miniSD slot." 

          Her explanation seemed useless. "It's a phone." 

Cal furrowed his brow. "I don't have one... do most mortals have one?" 

There was the trigger word for Heland - "mortals"! Her mind began to race again. 

"Here, I have an idea." She took out a pen from her pocket. "I'll write it on your arm!" Before he could say yes or no, she rolled up his sleeve and wrote the address and time.

He stared at her blankly, and then began laughing, but then quickly composed himself and acted as if he had not done anything strange at all. 

          Mortals certainly have a different way of... approaching things, than us, he thought. 

"There's gonna be a live band so don't show up late. Actually, it's my roommates - er, I guess landlord, who's gonna be playing, and I hear them practicing and it's not very good but you have to come anyways." Heland beamed. 

          "I happen to have come here for business matters, but it seems that I can kill two birds with one stone now and witness some festivities, and the... performance, as you say... Thank you." 

Then, the door behind Heland swung open, and a young man with long stark white hair stepped out.

"Who're you talking to?" asked Kiya, who walked out, ending up a little too close to Silver for the fallen angel's comfort. 

          Heland pointed at the empty space in front of them, and then, with drooping shoulders, replied: "He was just here..." 

Silver had frozen at the sight of Kiya, still recognizable even with hair that... matched his own? 

Seeing him, he suddenly felt so foolish for engaging in so much meaningless talk with that strange girl, for here was the target of his mission, right underneath his nose, and he had not realized it at all.

          “Why don’t you come in for tea, bacon, er, various other culinary choices…? It’s just about breakfast time now. And you can get to meet my… well, they- he's not supposed to be living here right now so don’t tell my landlord, okay?” In lieu of his name she gestured to Kiya who waved at Silver.

          I'd like to, thought Silver, but he shook his head. Fraternizing with the target was ridiculous, but at least... he'd... gathered information? 

"I have to go to work." 

          "What do you need a job for...?" Heland frowned. "Oh well. See you around, then?" 

Silver turned to leave, and knocked into Kiya, perhaps by accident. 

"Sorry." he mouthed, and headed off. 

"Who's that? The guy who was at the door." asked Kiya as soon as Silver left. 

          Heland thought Kiya already had enough on his plate, so she lied to him. "There wasn't anyone at the door." she said, with a straight face. 

Kiya shrugged (a bit too carefree for his own good) and walked back into the kitchen, only to leap back out yelling that the pan had gone up in flames... 

Silver had turned the corner by then. Making sure Heland had not somehow followed him, he reached into his pocket and took out a blue flip phone with a bunny charm attached. 

          What a childish thing for a man his age to have, thought Silver.