“Hey baby, I’ve missed you,” I say to her. I can see her clear as day. Her long brown hair falls down to the middle of her back. Her brown eyes are staring at something on the ground just as she was the last day I saw her.
“You left me. You could have saved me but you hesitated. You left me to die.” She says to me. There’s anger in her voice she takes a step away from me, but closer to the cliff.
“No baby, not that way. You’re going to fall. Come here and I’ll keep you safe,” I pleaded.
She finally picks her head up and I see the bullet hole in her forehead. I see the blood dripping down her face going into her eye and blinding her. I want so badly to take it back. I want to go back to that day and take the bullet for her. “That’s what you said when this happened. You didn’t even shoot the man who did this to me. You ignored him as you ran past him to get to me even though you knew I was already dead. I thought you loved me.” She takes another step towards the cliff.
I have tears streaming down my face now. I choke out, “I still do love you baby.”
She ignores me and falls…
I sit straight up with my heart pounding in my chest. But there she is, my Angel, she’s laying right next to me breathing deeply in her sleep. No bullet hole and no cliff.
I get out of bed and walk to the bathroom. My heart rate has calmed down. I splash cold water on my face and down my neck. I stare at my reflection in the mirror. The left ugly side of my face stares back at me. I was burned in an intentional fire that my parents set because they didn’t want me as their child and they wanted a better house so they thought they could kill two birds with one stone. Looks like they only killed one bird and the stone is still in flight. The scars that cover my face go all down the left side of my body and cut across my stomach. I was in my crib in my own room when they set the fire. The fireman that saved me adopted me when I was put in the orphanage and I was thankful for that. He had scars just like me. He is the kind of father everyone deserved.
The other side of my body was chiseled muscle. I worked my body hard ever since I was ten years old. I trained with the firemen who were my adopted family. My blue eyes were fierce and strong. They could hold the gaze of any man or woman. I was always looked upon as a freak of nature but I didn’t let that bother me to much. I had my girlfriend of three years, Angel, and my adoptive family. I didn’t need much more than that.
I felt Angel’s arms wrap around my waist. “What are you doing up baby? It’s three o’clock in the morning.” Her head rested between my shoulder blades. 
I smiled and placed my arms over hers. “I just had to get up and stretch a little bit that’s all,” I said.
She groans, “Can we go back to bed now?”
“Baby you didn’t have to come get me, I was gonna come back I promise. I’d never leave you,” I chuckle and turn around so I’m facing her. I take her arms from around me and kiss her knuckles.
She blushes and leads the way back to our room. “I know you won’t and I won’t ever leave you either.”
We got back in bed and I feel her cuddle up to me. I wrap my arms around her and smile. I sleep easy the rest of the night but I’m woken up by my phone ringing.
I untangle myself from Angel’s death grip and answer it. “Hello?”
“You don’t have much time left. You can’t protect her. You need to let her go,” a smokey voice said on the other end of the line.
“F*** off man. I can take care of her just fine,” I didn’t know who this guy was but he obviously didn’t know who he was talking to.
“What about your dreams? We can just as easily make those come true,” the voice said.
I stilled. All I could see was Angel standing in front of me with a bullet hole in her head. I shook off the image “What do you want from me? Huh? Cause this is the third damn week in a row that you’ve woken me up.”
“We want your strength and your mind,” the voice said.
“For what? And why the f*** do you want me?” I was getting angry now. I could see Angel stirring and walked out of the room and shut the door behind me. I walked downstairs and grabbed my coat and walked outside. I lit up a cigarette and waited for his answer.
“You will get the answers you need when we meet. You need to get rid of any distractions. If we have to take them from you we will,” the voice promised.
“F*** you!” I screamed and hung up. I would throw my life on the line for Angel. She knew that. These f***ers needed to learn that too.
“Baby, what’s wrong?” Angel’s voice said through the door.
I turned towards her. She was wearing next to nothing. A thin sleepshirt and shorts that were not something you wear in public. “It’s nothing honey. You might have to go live with your parents for a while. I have to do something and I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“Why would I get hurt? Who’s after you?” She asked coming outside to stand in front of me. She took the half smoked cigarette out of my mouth and throws in on the ground.
I sigh, “I don’t know. I keep getting these calls from someone who says they need me and that they’ll exterminate any distractions to get to me.”
She gasps and covers her mouth with her hand. “Oh my god, what have you got into now. If it’s another drug deal I swear to the great Lord above that I will kill you.”
“Hey calm down, you know I quit doing that when I met you. I don’t break my promises,” I said. When I had first met Angel I was a drug dealer but not a drug taker. It was how I made my profit. I looked the part too. Having a cigarette in my mouth with my scarred face really seemed to motivate people to motivate people into making a deal. I had promised Angel that I would shape up and shape up I did. I quit selling drugs. I bought a house which is now the one we lived in now and I got a real job at a construction site.
Angel sighed and looked at me hard. I spread my arms wide, “take a picture, it’ll last longer.”
“Shut up,” she said but she was smiling. I walked over to her and wrapped my arm around her shoulder. “So, what did they want?”
My smile faltered. “I’m not sure baby.”
We walked back inside together and I started to make coffee. It was something we did every morning before we went off to work. We’d eat breakfast like a real couple should. I’d been planning to take her out this morning but the call had interrupted things.
“I’m going to be a little late coming home today. Martha wants to talk to me,” Angel said.
“Well it looks like you’re going to be missing the greatest dinner ever of hot dogs and Mac’n’Cheese,” I said.
She pushes my shoulder and laughs, “you’d better have something better than that planned buster.”
I pull her closer to me. I take a deep breathe and smell the shampoo she used the night before when she showered. “Mmm you bet I do baby.”
She turns in my arms and kisses me lightly on the lips. As she starts to walk away I grab her wrist and pull her back. “Where do you think you’re going after a kiss like that?” I asked joking with her. I kiss her deeply closing my eyes and feeling the inside of her mouth.
When we break away her cheeks are flushed and I know that mine are too. “Now you can go,” I smile at her, kiss her one last time and watch her leave. I give her a cat whistle before she leaves and when she turns around she’s smiling and blushing.