My Angel needs a Guardian

For an angel, he wasn't very spritely. Perhaps it was the technology age finally catching up to him. Instead of doing it himself, he let a machine do it. And while Leiander was grateful that he didn't have to set pieces of bread on fire to get toast, he'd realized he'd begun to depend on machines too often as he sat in front of his ancient Macintosh, hoping that it still had a few sparks of life left inside.

A knock at the door caused him to break away from his lament. After patting his hair down, he got up and moved to the door. "Hello Ms. Stein," he said once he'd opened it. He smiled at the elderly lady in front of him. "What can I do for you?" he asked sweetly.

Ms. Stein, an old later in her 80's matched his grin. "I've run out of sugar and was making applesauce. Do you think you could lend me a cup?"

"Of course, Ms. Stein," he said, walking into his apartment towards his kitchen. He was near the cabinet where the sugar was when a knife whizzed by his head. "Ms. Stein, what was that?" He asked, turning to see her standing their calmly waiting.

"Oh, I don't know," she replied.

Leiander shrugged it off and began to peruse his cabinet for the sugar. Ms. Stein was awfully quiet, but perhaps it was because she was hungry. He began to grab a few things, a container for the sugar and a measuring cup. For some reason, Leiander had quite taken to baking in the past 50 years. It was relaxing, and plus, he loved biscuits. He thought about making some cookies after she left as he poured the sugar to measure it. "Just a cup?" he asked her, but she didn't reply. He shrugged and gave her more than a cup. She might need some sugar to make something else. "Anything else you need?"

The old lady laughed maliciously. "Your blood."

Suddenly, knives began to fly at him, landing in the sugar bag, his refrigerator, and his computer. He let out a small yelp as sparks came out of it but rolled out of the way of the on-coming storm of knives. "Ms. Stein! I was giving you my sugar! How could you?"

"I don't need sugar!" She yelled as more knives flew through the air. Leiander frowned, pulling out one stuck in a cabinet. "I'm sorry!" he yelled as he threw the knife. A horrible scream came from the old woman and she disappeared from sight. "Ms. Stein?" he asked, his head peering over the counter. "Are you okay?"

His computer let out a display of sparks and crackles as it fizzed down to it's last breaths. Heartbroken, Leiander when to it, petting it as it went. "No, you won't die. There are people that fix things like this." He grabbed his phone and dialed the nerd-herd hotline. They'd send someone to fix this. They had too.

After receiving a frantic phone call from a guy named "Leiander" Jason packed up his computer software disks and his tools, he headed to his car and climbed in. As he roared the engine to life he pealed out and headed to the address that he had been given.

As he headed down the streets he could see children playing and people walking their dogs. It was such a nice day that Jason couldn't even begin to think of anything ruining this day. He pulled into the parking lot of an apartment building and headed up to Leianders apartment.

While heading up to the apartment, Jason couldn't help but think that he might have known a Leiander at one point in time. Such an odd name... Not that many people could have a name like that... It could be him...But then again... Maybe not. I'll just have to wait and see. Jason had only met a Leiander once, that was in the hospital when his parents had passed away when he was only seven. No one seemed to talk to him, or even notice him though. He only spoke to Jason for a moment, and when they wheeled his parents away that Leiander followed. Then when Jason's grandmother got custody of him, she told him that it was an angel who took his parents up to heaven.

"Heh, an angel..." Jason mumbled to himself. "What else did you expect her to tell a seven year old who didn't understand anything that was going on around him." He shrugged it off as he approached the door to Leianders apartment. He double checked that he got the right apartment then he knocked on the door.

There were strange noises coming from next door.

AJ found this odd. He had never noticed his neighbor on that side to be particularly noisy. But that was the problem with apartments. It did not take much noise to break through the thin walls. Feeling curious, the young man did the only thing someone his age could possibly think to do in that situation. He grabbed a class cup from the kitchen, pressed it against the wall, and listened. Whatever was going on, it sounded like a struggle of some kind. Another interesting thing. AJ thought the man next door lived alone.

Was it a robbery? The thought made his blood run cold. He could be in trouble and AJ was just standing there listening! He should be doing something! The sound of muffled voices came trickling into his ear and he tried to make sense of them. It was difficult. It didn’t take long for AJ to give up on that tactic. He frowned, pondering his next move. Should he call 911? Yes. That would be the mature, responsible thing to do.

AJ skittered back into the kitchen, absently setting the glass cup on the counter as he picked up the phone. He called the cops, and was immediately put on hold. Well how do you like that? The man next door could be murdered by the time they answer! He was just about to hang up, when the sound of a friendly female voice spoke to him. “Hello?”

“Hi! I’d like to report a violent disturbance…”

A few moments passed where the woman asked what seemed like a thousand questions, many of which AJ did not know how to answer. At last, she told him they’d send someone to check it out. By then everything sounded pretty quiet. Was the robber gone? Was his neighbor dead? AJ was worried. If his neighbor was dead, AJ would never call the cops in that situation again. That took way too long for an emergency hotline.

Annoyed, AJ went into his bedroom and took out his little demon hunting chest. From there he was able to retrieve a knife and a gun. Just in case. He concealed the weapons behind a light, brown jacket that he tossed on over the white shirt he wore and cautiously poked his head out the door. To his surprise, man was already there. A man AJ vaguely recognized from work.

Leiander opened the door with the gravest of expressions on his face. "Someone stabbed my Macintosh. You fix those, right? Please save her." He pulled the man in the company polo shirt in side his apartment, tossing him in the direction of his beloved machine. He looked so vulnerable and insecure as he worried, but that didn't stop him from giving a bright smile to his neighbor who'd poked his head out for a second before turning his attentions to "Jason" the man from the geek-squad.

Piles of knives sat around his apartment now, but most of the wholes in the wall they'd created were still there. He'd need to go by something to fix those later for now, he impatiently waited for something else to be fixed. "So, can you save her?" He asked Jason.

As Jason was pulled into the apartment he couldn't help but notice the piles of knives on the floor and the holes in the wall, he barely caught what Leiander had said. He took in a deep breath and pondered if he should ask what happened or just go look at the computer. He straightened up his polo shirt while he was thinking. "Well," Jason began as he walked towards the computer. "I'm pretty sure I could fix it, but it would take a while for this kind of damage."

Jason began to look at the computer and see what he could do. "It will cost a lot more to fix this than to just buy a new computer." He opened his bag up, pulled out some tools and began to take the computer apart. Jason glanced at the knives on the floor again then looked back at the computer and waited for Leiander's response.