PROLOGUE

It was summertime, the warm sun was shining brightly across the blue sky and many children were playing happily in the park, flying kites, playing with their dolls, balls or swimming in the lake. That time of the year was their favourite one, as classes were over and they had 3 months to have all the fun they could.

But the children were not the only ones who were having a great time: a close look revealed a slim, auburn lady running across the short green grass, surrounded by trees and flowers. She was barefoot, wearing a sleeveless pink shirt and a long flowered skirt. As she ran, Monica was laughing broadly and looking behind her, as if she was trying to escape from someone. And that ‘someone’ was right after her: a tall, blond, handsome green eyed man, wearing a blue T-shirt, beige pants and who was also barefoot. And it didn’t take him too long to reach her and grab her about the waist. She let out a squeal and he gently pulled her down on the ground:

"Oh Andrew, please, don’t!...", she asked, giggling furiously as he tickled her without mercy.

"You asked for it, Angel Girl! Better think twice before challenging me for a run and leaving me behind!"

"... please, stop it!... I’m sorry!..."

But he ignored her pleading, as the blond angel was having a great fun himself.

"Please Andrew... Mercy!...", she begged, with tears falling from her brown eyes and her cheeks completely red. Only then Andrew stopped tickling the little Irish angel, and sat beside her. Monica, on the contrary, continued to lay curled up on the grass for some time with the hands on her stomach, and never stopped laughing. Her best friend looked down at her with all the love in his heart:

"You know, Angel Girl, I’ve just realised something: tickling you is such a great fun!"

"Please don’t mention the word ‘tickle’ or I think I’ll have a laugh attack!...", she replied, still giggling. Andrew couldn’t help chuckling at her wording:

"A ‘laugh attack’?!"

"Yes...", confirmed the angel, trying to catch her breath.

He leaned down to take some strands of hair off her face and gently stroked her cheek:

"Have you got any idea of how much I love seeing you happy and with a big smile upon that pretty face of yours?"

"Well... I think I have!"

He lay down on the grass beside his best friend and held her close to him. They remained there for some minutes: she, resting her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeats; he, gently stroking her long auburn hair; both contemplating the beauty of the nature which surrounded them.

"This place is just amazing, isn’t it?"

"It’s wonderful... the sky, the flowers, the lake, the happy people around us... It’s a work of perfection created by God. And I thank Him every single day for letting me share His work with you..."

Monica reached her hand up and caressed his hair. He looked at her with a smile:

He helped her to her feet and, after looking for their shoes, which had been left behind, the angels held each other’s hands and headed to the little dock built up in the lake that stood in the centre of the park. There, a dark skinned woman, with grey hair and wearing a light blue dress, was waiting for them. Monica and Andrew walked towards her with a smile on their faces:

"Hello Tess, isn’t it a lovely day?, Monica said.

"Wouldn’t you like to go round with us while we talk?", Andrew invited. But the oldest angel and supervisor had sadness in her eyes and an evident expression of concern on her face. Noticing that, her two charges looked at each other, and after to her, already worried:

"What is it Tess?", the Irish angel asked. Andrew frowned:

"Is there something wrong?"

"Hi babies...", Tess answered, her voice lower than usual, and with a sad tone, "I... I don’t feel like walking around right now... In fact, I wanna talk to you about your next assignment..."

"Is it a difficult mission?"

"Are we going to deal with a complicated case?", the two angels wanted to know. After a deep sigh, she continued to talk:

"You’ll be working as instructors at a vacation campsite, which stays in the north, up in the mountains. Green Valley Campsite."

"A vacation campsite? That doesn’t sound so bad!", said Monica, smiling slightly. Her best friend agreed:

"Yes, and you know we like working with kids!"

But Tess kept the same worried and sad face:

"This... isn’t going to be as simple as you’re thinking..."

"Why not?"

The supervisor sighed once more:

"All I can say is that you’ll have to be there, together with those children, all the time, until this assignment is over."

"Well, isn’t it the way it’s supposed to be?", Andrew asked, even more confused.

"You’ll understand it better when it’s time, Andrew. And I won’t be able to be with you in this meantime, as I have another mission to fulfil."

The serious tone in her voice was deeply upsetting the younger angels:

"Tess, why are you so worried? Is there any problem concerning this assignment?, Monica asked. The supervisor came closer to them, taking their hands and squeezing them tightly:

"Listen to me, babies. There are times when even angels feel tempted to question God’s plans and even to think that He’s turned His back on them. But just look around you to remember how wise He is."

"We know that Tess..."

"I’m sure you know it, Angel Boy. And I want to ask you two one more thing: stay close together, you hear me? Never leave each other’s side, not for a minute!"

Realising that she wouldn’t say anything else, but sensing that her words were to be followed strictly, they nodded:

"We promise we will, Tess.", Monica agreed.

"Yes, we’ll be together all the time", Andrew tried to take a more cheerful tone, "And I must say that this is going to be a pleasure!"

He looked at his best friend and she returned his smile. But nothing seemed to cheer the oldest angel up:

"I know it’s not necessary to ask this from you, as I know how much you two care for each other, and now, more than never, I thank the Father for blessing you with this feeling."

Still worried, they looked at each other one more time, and after to the supervisor, who kept on talking:

"You should go now and meet Mrs. Janet Peters. She’s the lady in charge of the camping tour and will explain your work and present you to the group of children you will be taking care of. All of you will be heading to the campsite today, by bus, understood?"

"Yes..."

"So, I have to say goodbye to you now..."

"Wouldn’t you like to come with us until the entrance of the park?"

"No, Angel Girl. I have some minutes left before I go, but... I need to have a conversation with the Father..."

By the expression on her face, the two angels could understand that she wanted to pray in order to chase away all the sad thoughts that were troubling her mind at that moment.

"That’s ok, then... Goodbye, Tess..."

But the supervisor couldn’t hide the apprehension she was feeling, and opened her arms:

"C’mere, angel babies!...", she urged, and gave them a long hug. On the following minute, they bid her farewell and left. Tess turned to face the lake and its placid water. Then, she conjoined her hands and looked up to the blue sky with some tears in her eyes:

"Oh Father, please, let them be alright. Give them strength to face their fears... And protect them from all the evil and danger they’re about to face..."

Monica and Andrew arrived at the school that was organising the camping in the afternoon. Each one carried a travelling bag, knowing that they would have to spend about a month in the mountains. A noisy and rather cheerful group of children was playing and talking not far away from the entrance of the building, near a big bus. They exchanged a look of amusement:

"This is gonna be funny, don’t you think?", the blond angel joked.

"Yes, and I’m happy that you’re here with me to share all this ‘fun’...", she replied, already thinking about the hard work they would have with all those little ones.

A short thin blond woman, who was in her forties, soon realised their presence and came to greet them:

"You must be the new camping instructors, aren’t you?"

"Yes, I’m Andrew; this is Monica.", the blond angel said. The woman shook hands with them:

"Glad to meet you, I’m Janet Peters, I run the Green Valley Campsite and I was so lucky that you two appeared in the last minute. The instructor that was supposed to come together with us during the trip became ill and there wasn’t anyone to replace him. I was almost having to take care of the children myself."

"How many are they?", Andrew asked.

"30 kids, 15 boys and 15 girls. Their ages go from 10 to 12. They are bit noisy, as you may have noticed, but they’re fine children, I’ve travelled with most of them before."

"It must be a lot of fun to work with children. It’s like giving your soul an opportunity to renew itself each day of your life."

Mrs. Peters smiled:

"Oh you are absolutely right, Monica. I can’t imagine my life without working with those kids, as my husband and I have never had the opportunity to have one ourselves."

At that moment, a little girl, of about 8 years old, with black hair and wearing a pony tail, came near them:

"Mrs Peters, when are we going to swim in the lake?", she asked, holding a small but cute doll and with excitement evident in her dark brown eyes.

"Oh Sally, dear, as soon as we arrive at the campsite!"

"And is it going to take too long?", the girl insisted.

"Well, first I have to present the new instructors to the other children."

She looked at the two angels with a curious face:

"Are you the new instructors?"

They smiled at her:

"Yes, I’m Andrew, this is my friend Monica, and we will take care of all of you during the camp vacation, Sally!"

A young boy, also with black hair and brown eyes, who looked like 12 years old, came closer to them:

"Hey Sally, here you are! I’ve been looking for you!", he said, "You’ve disappeared again!"

"I’m sorry John, I wanted to know when we’re going to the campsite...", the girl replied, with a little embarrassment. The boy turned to the three adults:

"I’m sorry, Mrs Peters, she’s been talking about this trip for weeks!"

"Hey John, these are Andrew and Monica and they’re gonna be with us at the campsite this time!", his sister informed, trying to change the subject.

"So you’re the new instructors! Will you two teach us to swim in the lake?!"

Pondering about her fear of water, the Irish angel looked at her best friend and to them:

"Well, Andrew will teach you this, while I will teach you to play German jumps, O’Larry, Relieve and many other games."

The little girl was confused:

"I never heard about these games!"

Monica smiled and winked at her:

"So you’re going to be the first one to learn them, and then you can teach the other children how to play. What do you think?!"

Sally’s eyes widened even more:

"Oh really?!", she said, and ran until the other children, "Hey people, did you hear that? I will be the first one to learn how to swim and play ‘O’Larry jumps’...!"

Protectively, the boy followed her back to the group they were playing with. The three adults laughed at her enthusiasm:

"She’s lovely!", Monica said.

"Yes, Sally Hudson is the youngest of the group, she’s only 8. But as her brother John is also coming in this excursion I decided to open an exception and let her come with us. But now let me talk to them and introduce you two, because we’re already one hour late. The bus should be leaving by 4 o’clock, but I had to delay its departure because some parents couldn’t bring their children sooner. But I really wish we could arrive at the campsite before it gets dark, I don’t like travelling at night."

They joined the group and the two angels were presented to them. As Monica and Andrew had already worked with children so many times before, the empathy with the little ones was immediate. Besides this, Mrs Peters was right, they seemed to be nice kids and it was clear that it wouldn’t be difficult to deal with them.

Some time later, all of them placed their luggage in a compartment under the bus and got into the vehicle, which left the city at about 5 o’clock.

*

The first mountains started to appear in the horizon, indicating that they were entering the countryside, and the students were extremely excited not only about the camping and all the fun they would have in the next days but also about the trip itself, as they were going to a distant place, miles away from their parents’ eyes. And to complete this perfect travel, the atmosphere inside the vehicle was very noisy and funny, due to the two excellent instructors that were together with them. And Monica and Andrew seemed to be having a lot of fun themselves, as both of them loved doing these kinds of assignments.

The considerable delay in the departure of the bus made the trip longer, and the night fell upon the Earth right after the driver, Mr. Stokes, reached the mountains. The road, which was winding and narrow, became even more dangerous in the dark, demanding twice more attention, as precipices stood about one meter from the asphalt, and the highlights of the vehicle were the only source of light available in that place.

The group fell asleep eventually, as the day had been a busy one and all the mess they had made caused the boys and girls to feel tired.

Only then, the two angels were able to go sit beside each other, in the front seats. Monica had a tired but happy smile on her face:

"Oh, it seems that the next few days will be anything but monotonous for us!", she joked.

"Yeah, they have a lot of disposition, that’s for sure!", Andrew agreed. His best friend turned serious:

"Andrew, I can’t stop thinking about Tess. Why was she that way?"

"I don’t know, Monica. And it’s hard to imagine it has something to do with this assignment..."

"I’ve never seen her so worried about anything like the way she was this morning. I could even say she had a trace of fear in her eyes..."

Thoughtful, the blond angel sighed deeply:

"Well, I think we’ll have to wait to find out what the problem is. And she won’t be with us."

"I guess that only makes things worse... I love her so much, I miss her advises, her words of wisdom and even when she scolds us."

Noticing that his best friend was a bit sad, Andrew took her hand in his own and squeezed it:

"Let’s pray for her worries to be washed away and for everything to go well. Remember there’s Someone who will always be taking care of all of us..."

In silence, they rested their heads together and closed their eyes for some minutes, offering their prayers to the Father. When they finished, the angels looked at each other and smiled:

"Feel better?", Andrew asked. She nodded her head enthusiastically:

"Yes. Thank you."

The Irish angel took her hand to her mouth and yawned. Her best friend looked at her with his eyes full of love and patted on his shoulder, indicating the best place for her to take a nap. Smiling, she inched closer to him and planted a kiss on his cheek, resting her head on his shoulder afterwards:

"You’re very comfortable, you know..."

"Don’t you mean ‘comforting’?", he corrected.

"I mean both..."

Smiling, Andrew didn’t miss the opportunity to kiss the top of her head, and also closed his eyes in order to get some sleep. But, deep inside, he was still thinking about Tess’ behaviour early in the morning.

*

The journey from the city to the campsite would take 4 hours and the bus continued to travel through the night, in a desert road with several bends. All that darkness was upsetting the little Irish angel, and even though she felt her friend’s left hand resting on her right one, Monica couldn’t rest peacefully. Half asleep, she opened her eyes once in a while to check up on her surroundings, and always closed them again after seeing Andrew’s gentle face standing right beside her.

It was about 11:30 and, at that time, the only person really awoken inside the vehicle was Mr Stokes. His full attention was turned to the road that lay ahead because he knew that there were 33 people whose lives depended on his ability to guide the bus, and the tension in his heart was growing every minute.

But the man’s worst fear turned into reality after he passed by another bend, this one really dangerous: there was a big hole just a meter ahead and, before the driver could do something, one of the tires passed over it and he lost control of the bus. Everything happened very fast: although Mr Stokes used all his strength to swerve to the left, the bus went to the opposite direction, and a great tragedy took place at that moment.

The vehicle skidded, overturned on its right and started to roll down the hill in an unstoppable spinning; panic spread quickly inside the bus: children woke up being shaken from one side to another, as well as adults, all of them screaming terrified at what was happening.

After descending for some minutes, the vehicle struck many trees, slowing down, and stopped upside down.

But with its back half hanging on the edge of another precipice.

Children’s cries broke the silence of the mountains and could be heard miles away. With her entire body shaking madly, Monica looked around her and saw her best friend lying not far from her:

"Andrew...", she called, her voice trembling with fear.

"Monica... are you hurt, sweetie?"

"I don’t know... I think not... How about you?"

"I can’t move... My legs are stuck under the seat..."

The Irish angel looked at the other side and saw Mrs Peters lying some meters from her:

"Mrs. Peters, are you hurt?...Can you hear me?"

But there was no reply. The woman stood still, as if she was dead. Suddenly, another voice was heard:

"Monica... Andrew..."

They looked at the other direction: Mr Stokes had a bad cut on the arm, bruises all over his face and was stuck under the front bus panel:

"I think I’ve broken my leg... It hurts so much..."

Watching that horrible scenario, Monica took her hand to her mouth and started to cry, unable to control her panic:

"Oh my God, Andrew..."

Realising that his best friend was in shock and filled with despair, Andrew started to talk to her:

"Monica, dear, listen to me... You have to stay calm, we need to get everybody out of the bus; we two are the only ones who can do that. But, right now, at this very moment, you’re the only person who can take me out of here..."

Seeing that she kept on with steady eyes and that terror never abandoned her face, he insisted:

"Hey, Angel Girl... I depend on you... more than never!..."

Trying to hold back the tears, she took a deep breath:

"You’re right...", and turned to face the children, all spread inside the bus: "Children... Wait a moment, OK? Andrew and I will take you out of here soon...", she said, in a loud an more confident voice. The Irish angel crawled until Andrew was and the image of her dearest friend stuck under two smashed bus seats came as a sharp pain into her heart. He had some cuts on his face and had hit his head. She gently stroked his blond hair and shed some more tears:

"Oh Andrew... I’ll take you out of here, ok?

He took her hand and kissed it:

"I trust you with all my heart, Angel Girl..."

She stood up, her body still trembling, and, using all her strength, Monica managed to remove the seats.

"Can you move?"

"Yes... I think so..."

He stretched his legs and, with Monica’s help, stood up:

"It’s not bad, I hit my head and fell on my right arm, it hurts a bit but I think I didn’t break anything..."

Suddenly, the bus moved, as if it was going to fall again. In fact, this could happen at any moment, as half of the vehicle was hanging on the top of a 20 meters fall to the foot of the cliff.

"We have to take the children and the others out of here immediately!"

They broke the bus door and started to rescue the children one by one. All of them were deeply scared and crying with fear. On the other hand, fortunately, nobody was badly hurt, just a few bruises and sprained ankles.

After carrying them in their arms to a safer place, the two angels returned to the bus to help Mrs Peters and Mr Stokes. But, as they entered the vehicle, it moved again, and bent to the side of the precipice:

"We must be fast, Monica. There’s not much time left, this bus is gonna fall at any minute..."

"Please, take Mrs Peters first...", asked the bus driver. The woman had hit her head, which was bleeding with a cut, and remained unconscious. Carefully, Monica and Andrew removed her out and laid her on the ground:

"Mrs Peters, please, talk to me", Monica pleaded. Andrew examined the woman for some instants, and finally smiled:

"She’s breathing..."

The Irish angel was relieved:

"Oh, thank God!..."

The bus moved one more time; it was about to fall down in the precipice:

"I’ll go after Mr Stokes, you stay here!", said Andrew. But his best friend grabbed his arm in order to stop him:

"We have to stay together, remember?"

Although he didn’t want her to risk herself by getting on that bus, the blond angel knew she was right and he would need her help. They entered the vehicle again and started to remove the man. That task, however, was not an easy one, as Mr Stokes was stuck in the front part of the bus, and every time Andrew and Monica tried to pull him out, he let out a cry of pain:

"I have an idea: I’ll try to remove the panel that is on his legs and Monica, you pull him, right?

"OK..."

Using every bit of strength and ignoring the pain in his own body, the blond angel managed to remove the heavy metal panel and Monica dragged Mr Stokes. The two angels grabbed him by the arms and finally got out of the vehicle. A minute after, the bus fell in the precipice and everybody could hear a loud crash followed by an explosion.

*

Still scared, Monica and Andrew took the wounded adults to stay together with the children, who were twice as scared:

"I want my mom...", whispered a little girl, in panic. Monica held her for a second:

"Oh sweetie, you’ll see your mummy, I promise. But, now, Andrew and I will take care of you and your friends."

Andrew kissed her little hand:

"Monica is right; and we need you to be close together right now. We are a group, a team, and we’re having a big test on how to behave in the forest, like a real scout would, and I want everybody to pass in this test, ok?

He managed a slight smile and winked at her, and the little girl nodded in agreement.

Some bags containing first aids and other camping equipment had fell from the bus during the accident and were spread in the surroundings. After gathering some of these objects, the two angels walked around the other children, with the flashlights in their hands, giving them the first aids. It was then that Monica realised something terrible:

"Oh my God..."

"What is it?"

"...Sally and John... they are not here..."

Andrew froze as he saw her words were true: the children they had rescued were all there, as well as the adults, but the two siblings the first had met before that disastrous trip started weren’t.

"That can’t be true...", he murmured, also terrified, "Sally! John! Answer me!"

"Sally! John! Say something!... Oh Andrew, they couldn’t have been in the bus..."

"They weren’t Monica; I checked out myself. Mrs Peters and Mr Stokes were the last ones we took out of it..."

"But... where are they?!..."

"What if they fell from the window?", suggested the bus driver. Immediately, Andrew started climbing the hill, walking on the trail left by the bus half an hour ago. Many bags and toys were spread on the way, but there was no trace of the children. Where were they? What had happened to them?

"Oh Father, please, help us to find them... Let them be alright...", the angel prayed.

CHAPTER 3

Monica started to take care of the wounded children, and suddenly Mrs Peters stirred and moved her head, whining with pain:

"What happened Monica?"

"There was an accident with the bus, Mrs Peters.", she informed. The woman’s face changed into a desperate one:

"Oh my God! The children!..."

"Please stay calm. Andrew and I managed to take everybody out of the bus... Can you move?"

"I think so... I must have broken some bones, my entire body aches. My head too, I think I hit it when one of the emergency windows accidentally detached itself from the bus... Where are Mr Stokes and Andrew?"

"Mr Stokes is over there, I believe he’s broken his leg and is badly hurt too, and Andrew...", she was hesitant for a second and Mrs Peters noticed:

"What is it Monica?"

"Mrs Peters, John and Sally are missing. Andrew is looking for them..."

"Oh no... They were sitting near me, I remember..."

"Yes, and now I think I know what happened.", the Irish angel concluded.

*

Andrew walked for some time, calling out the children’s names, when, suddenly, he found Sally’s doll in the grass. Noticing that the toy was a bit distant from where the bus had passed, he sighed with relief:

"They are alive..."

The blond angel came back to where the others were and was even more relieved to see that Mrs Peters was conscious again and able to move herself:

"Monica, I think Sally and John aren’t distant from here, I found this...", he said, showing the little girl’s doll.

"As Mr Stokes said, they must have fallen through the window while the bus was descending the hill."

"I’ll go find them!...", he decided, "You stay here with the others".

But, before Monica could reply, Mrs Peters interrupted:

"Let Monica go with you, Andrew!", she asked, "You two are in better condition than Mr Stokes and I, and it won’t be easy to look for the children in the middle of the night. On the contrary, it’s far too risky. Two people together will be able to find them faster."

"But what about you and the children?", asked the Irish angel.

"I already know what to do: we’ll all go up this hill until we are near the road. That way, if a car passes by, we’ll sign with the flashlights to ask for help. And I can look after the children and Mr Stokes."

The bus driver agreed with her:

"Mrs Peters is right. The children are alright, none of them was badly injured, they can do it if we help them. And if we stay here nobody is gonna see us."

Realising that was the best solution, and that there weren’t many options left, they accepted the woman’s suggestion.

With Monica and Andrew’s help, all the children were brought to a place near the road, under a high tree. Although she had some bones broken, Mrs Peters was strong all time, and could walk and take care of the others. Due to this, and sensing they were the only ones who could rescue Sally and John, the angels headed to the dark woods, in search of the two siblings.

*

Sally and John walked for about 20 minutes. Hand in hand, brother and sister were trembling with cold and fear. The only source of light they had was the boy’s key ring, which had a small flashlight in it. At the moment of the accident, both had been expelled from the bus because the emergency window was detached when the vehicle started to descend the mountain. The two children ended up rolling down to the other face of the hill, opposite to the one followed by the bus. Miraculously, none of them was severely hurt: Sally had some scratches on her face as well as John, and the boy had also hurt his left arm.

"Oh John, I want mummy and daddy... I want to go back to our house...", cried the little girl.

"We will go back home, Sally, but we gotta find help first."

"Where are we going?"

"I don’t know, but maybe we’ll find a farm or something."

"What about the other people in the bus?"

For a moment, the boy frowned: he didn’t want his little sister to know the tragedy that he himself was thinking had happened an hour ago:

"Oh Sally... I think... I think that, if we find somebody to help us, they will be able to help our friends too. Do you understand me?"

"Yes..."

"So that’s why we have to keep on walking, we have to be brave for us and for the others!"

"You’re right, John. But... can’t we stop for a second? My feet hurt..."

"That’s ok. Hold me tight."

They sat on the ground and remained there in silence.

*

Hand in hand, Andrew and Monica started to walk through the woods surrounded by darkness and an annoying silence. The only trace of light was coming from the flashlight he carried with him. The Irish angel’s heart was beating fast and she couldn’t hide how much she was afraid of the dark. Her best friend could feel all her anguish and it broke his heart to know how terrifying it was for his Angel Girl to face such a dreadful scenario. He stopped walking and looked at her, his compassionate green eyes reflecting all the love and care he felt for the little angel:

"Monica, sweetheart, I will always be here, holding your hand in mine, ok? I’ll never leave you alone, not for a second, and it’s not because Tess has told us to stay together. That I would do even if I had to climb up these mountains on foot!", he said, squeezing her hand.

She shot him a look of love and gratitude:

"I know that, my friend.", and gently stroked his cheek, "And now I know exactly why the Father has sent you to stay with me in this assignment. And I thank Him for this."

Andrew leaned and gently kissed her forehead:

"We’ll find those children!"

Monica managed a slight smile:

"Yes... I’m sure we will!"

*

Sally and John walked for about 2 hours more, and the batteries of the boy’s flashlight started to fail.

"I wish it was day... I’m so scared John.", whispered the little girl.

"But we can’t stop, Sally. We need to find help, as soon as possible."

"What if we don’t?..."

"Don’t say that, of course we will find somebody to help us... and the people in the bus. I’m sure about that..."

John stopped talking when he saw something on the ground:

"...hey! Take a look over there! It’s a trail!!!", he announced, with enthusiasm evident in his voice, "Do you know what it means? It means that people use it to walk in the woods!"

"So we can find people in here?..."

"Yes!"

With the help of the flashlight, they could see that it was a long trail, and the ground, once rocky and inclined, now was plain.

"I think we’ve come to the foot of the hill, now all we have to do is to follow that trail; it surely will take us somewhere we can ask for help!"

His excitement faded a bit when he looked to his sister and saw exhaustion in her face, as well as the tears that never abandoned her eyes:

"Well, I think we’d better stop here and rest for a few hours. Let’s wait for the sun to come out, because these batteries are low and will soon be over."

"I’m so afraid John..."

He held his little sister:

"Take some sleep, Sally. I’ll be awake and watch everything around, ok?

*

After walking for some hours, calling out the children’s names, Monica and Andrew decided to stop and sit for a while. Being in human form made them feel extremely tired and their bodies were aching with all the cuts and bruises. Not mentioning that Andrew had fallen over his left arm and probably had sprained his wrist when the accident took place.

"How is your arm?", she asked.

"It’s nothing that I can’t bear. It hurts a bit, but I don’t think it’s broken."

They were under a tree and he was reclined on its trunk. Monica sat on her knees, right in front of him, and, affectionately ran her fingers through his blond hair:

"You’re hurt...We were so busy trying to save the others that we didn’t have much time to take care of ourselves."

He smiled slightly:

"I guess that’s what makes us angels."

"Yes, but now you’re going to let me take care of these cuts!"

She looked for some first aid equipment in the backpack:

"Monica, it’s just a few scratches, you don’t need to worry about..."

"Oh, but I do!"

"You should be taking care of yourself..."

But she didn’t listen to him: with a piece of cotton soaked up in alcohol, she started to clean all the cuts on his forehead. After disinfecting them, she put some medicine and bandages on the nastiest one.

"That’s it, I’ve finished. Now, it’s much better!", the Irish angel announced, satisfied with her work. Andrew sighed, looking at her not only with love but also with admiration, and stroked her cheek:

"Thank you, Angel Girl."

Monica took his hand in both of hers and squeezed it:

"Taking care of you is always a pleasure."

But, before he could reply, the blond angel noticed something on her face and frowned:

"Monica sit here...", he patted on the grass on his right side, and, when she did so, he gently took some strands of auburn hair off her forehead, revealing a bad cut on her temper:

"Look at this..."

Immediately, Andrew took the alcohol and the medicine and started to follow the same procedures his friend had followed minutes before.

"Is it that bad?", she asked, a bit worried.

"It can be if we don’t treat it properly.", he was concerned and upset, "The fact is that you were so busy trying to treat a few silly scratches on my head that you forgot to take care of yourself!"

Despite of his seriousness, the little angel smiled at him sheepishly:

"Well... I guess that’s what makes me your Angel Girl..."

He couldn’t help but chuckle at that comment, slightly blushed. Keeping the first aid material inside the backpack, he passed his arms around her shoulder and pulled her closer to him:

"So come here, my insubordinate Angel Girl...", and gave her a kiss on the forehead. She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his chest:

"We must stay close together ‘cause this night air is pretty cold."

"I hope those poor children are alright, Andrew.", Monica said, with some tears forming in the corner of her eyes.

"I know it might sound strange, but, actually I think the fact that we haven’t found them is a good sign..."

"I don’t understand..."

"It means they’re moving, they keep on walking. And, if the two can do that, so they’re not badly hurt."

"Oh my God... You’re right. I’d never thought about it myself..."

He looked down to face his dearest friend:

"We’ll find them, sweetheart. I’m sure we will."

She smiled at him, more confidently. They cuddled up under the tree and tried to sleep a little. But, despite their exhaustion, that was not easy, once the tragedy that had taken place that day was constantly echoing in their minds, like a never-ending nightmare. Besides this, the darkness and the coldness in the woods, as well as the pain in their bodies, made them wake up every hour. Andrew held the Irish angel tightly, doing everything he could to protect her from the cold air, and desperately wishing that the sun would come out.

But little did they know about all the danger that was yet to come.

CHAPTER 4

The first sun rays started to shine from behind the mountains, waking the children up. Only then, in daylight, they could have a better idea of where they were and their surroundings:

"I think we’ve managed to go down all the hill, Sally. Look around, it’s a pretty plain terrain."

"I can hear a noise..."

"It seems to be water. There must be a river somewhere near here."

"I’m so hungry, John."

The boy checked his pockets, but could only find some candies:

"I’m sorry...", he was disappointed, a sad look upon his face, as all he wanted was to protect his little sister. The girl shared the candies with him:

"What do we do now?"

"We’ll follow this trail. I’m sure we’ll find someone or someplace where there’s food and clean water."

He grabbed her hand and they set off through the woods, following the narrow trail that lay ahead.

*

"Hey, sweetie..."

Andrew stroked his best friend’s auburn hair, taking some strands off her forehead, and watched when she sleepily opened her brown eyes:

"Andrew... what time is it?"

"Half past six. The sun rose some minutes ago."

"I would love a cup of coffee..."

"I guess me too."

The Irish angel straightened her body, as she had been leaning against Andrew most part of the night, and rubbed her eyes:

"I’m so glad it’s day. Shall we restart our search now?"

"Sure!"

But, as the blond angel stood up, he felt his entire body aching: it was worse than before, and he couldn’t help whining with pain, as he barely managed to stand up:

"Andrew...", Monica murmured, with deep concern, and immediately helping him to stand on his feet.

"It’s ok, Angel Girl; I guess the accommodations of the night were not the best ones I’ve already had."

"Don’t you think it would be better if you stayed here while I’ll go after the children?"

He stretched his body and gently touched her cheek:

"Monica, dear, there’s nothing in this entire world that would make me leave you alone in this place!"

"But..."

He pressed his finger against her lips, to silence her:

"Now, let’s go find those kids and get out of here as soon as possible."

*

The children walked for about 40 minutes, and their disposition was beginning to fade again when, suddenly, John spotted something in the sky that made him cry with enthusiasm:

"It’s smoke!... I can see smoke over there! And it’s coming from some place ahead! There must be someone camping near here!", the boy grabbed his sister’s hand: ""C’mon, Sally, I think we’re safe!!!"

In fact, it was possible to see a trace of smoke not far away from where they were, and the two ran through the trees into its direction.

Minutes after, they arrived at a small clearing, and found out an improvised campsite there. A little tent was pitched in front of a fireplace, which was producing the trace smoke the children had spotted. And, on an old fallen tree trunk, there were two plastic bags with some cookies and some bottles filled with water.

"Look Sally! It’s food!"

Hungrier than never, they ran as fast as they could, and finally unpacked the plastic bags, eating and drinking eagerly everything they found inside.

*

Some time later:

"It’s awfully quite in here...", the girl observed.

"Yeah, the person who was here must’ve gone hunting or something..."

"Isn’t he going to be mad at us because we’re eating his food?"

"We’ll apologise and explain what happened. And I’m sure whoever is camping in here will understand and help us."

Suddenly, a man’s voice echoed through the air:

"Don’t count on that, kid!"

The siblings stood up immediately, quite scared with that angry tone, and saw a tall, thin man, with black dirty hair, staring at them with black threatening eyes:

"I’m sorry sir... We didn’t mean to steal your food, it’s just that..."

"Shut up!", he walked towards the two and, only then, they realised something that made them freeze with fear: the man was holding a dead squirrel on his left hand and a gun on the right one.

"How come two damn kids could find this place?!"

At that moment, another man, also tall and thin, with blond dirty hair and wearing a beard, came up from the woods. He too had an unfriendly face and was dressed with worn out clothes. And he also carried a gun:

"What the hell is that?!", he stormed, as furious to see the siblings as the first one.

"Seems we have some thieves here, Jack...", stated the other, "Isn’t it ironic?!"

"I-I’m s-sorry sir... My sister and I... There was an accident with our bus and we came to ask for hel..."

"Haven’t I told you to shut this mouth up?! Are you deaf or what?!"

They held each other, trembling terrified at those two strangers.

*

"Andrew, I’m starting to think the children headed to another direction. On the contrary, they would’ve already answered to us."

Andrew shook his head negatively:

"No, there’s no way those children have gone into a different direction..."

He looked at their surroundings, and, suddenly, spotted something on the ground, meters ahead of where they were: "Angel Girl, look at that..."

"It’s a trail..."

The two angels got closer to the small path that crossed the woods:

"Is it possible that John and Sally have followed it?...", wondered the Irish angel. A smile appeared on his face:

"They surely have followed it! Look!..."

Covered by the grass there were the papers that wrapped the candies the kids had eaten about an hour ago. They looked at each other with their hopes renewed by that discovery:

"We can’t be far from them!", said the blond angel, and grabbed his best friend’s hand, "C’mon, sweetie, let’s walk faster!"

*

"That’s great, we thought these mountains were the perfect place to hide from the cops for some time, that nobody would find us, and then, out of nothing, a damn bunch of kids comes up to eat our food and drink our water!", the black-haired man stormed, angrily tossing one of the food bags, now empty, on the grass, near John and Sally. "What the hell are we gonna do now?!"

"Well... the kids saw us... Soon they will be blabbing about us to the entire world... and it won’t take too long until the police finds where we are."

Hearing to that, John and Sally’s hearts started to pound, and some tears formed in the girl’s eyes.

"P-Please, don’t hurt us... We won’t tell anyone that we saw you here...", the boy pleaded. The black-haired man approached them and faced the two with irony and evil eyes:

"Yeah, of course, we believe you!"

*

In a hurry, Andrew and Monica followed the trail for about 40 minutes. Although they knew the children were not badly hurt, it was sure that they were scared, cold and hungry; and the woods represented a permanent risk to their lives.

"I can hear water not far away from here...", the Irish angel said.

"Yes... we’re near a river.", the blond angel’s face became more concerned than never: "We have to find those kids pretty soon; this isn’t a place for them to walk around alone."

At that moment, Monica noticed some smoke in the air:

"Look!... Maybe there’s a campsite or even a house nearby... And maybe John and Sally are there!...", she concluded, now with her eyes were full of hope. Andrew heaved a sigh of relive:

"Oh... thank God!..."

They ran as fast as they could, going in the direction of a small clearing, not far away from there.

"Oh Father, I hope they are alright...", Monica silently prayed, eager to find them. But, as soon as they got closer to the place, the two angels could hear some altered voices echoing through the trees and stopped walking:

"Damn! These stupid kids drank all our water, Jack! Now we gotta go back in the river to get some more! And if we hadn’t arrived here in time they would’ve eaten our food too! Damn it! "

Monica and Andrew looked at each other confused and frightened:

"Andrew, what...", she tried to speak, but he pressed a finger against her lips to silence her:

"Shh..."

The blond angel grabbed her hand and, slowly, they moved closer to the clearing. From behind the vegetation, they could see the place where the young children were being kept prisoners by the two strangers. The look of fear in the little one’s eyes, as well as the evil expression on the men’s faces, made the two angels freeze with shock and fear for the lives of the poor John and Sally.

They watched as one of the men walked towards the children running his fingers through his dirty blond hair:

"Yeah... These two made such a mess around here...", he said, pensively, and stared at the two scared siblings, "How in the world did you get here?"

They were so afraid that they could hardly speak: "C’mon kid, I made you a question! You said there was an accident!..."

"Yes... an accident with our bus. We were going to the Green Valley Campsite, up in the mountains... But the bus got out of the road and fell down the hill..."

A look of complicity came up on the two men’s faces:

"The Green Valley Campsite, um? That’s what I call a coincidence... Tell me, were there many people in the bus?"

"Yes. About 30 children, plus Mrs Peters, Mr Stokes and two camp instructors..."

"I see... And where are they now? What happened to them?", the black-haired man asked.

The boy silenced at that question. He didn’t want his little sister to know that all of their friends were probably dead, as she was already experiencing too much suffering and fear. Besides this, he wasn’t sure he should tell those men the truth, because this would mean confirming that they were alone and vulnerable. In other words, this would mean confirming that they were in their hands.

"Answer me kid!", he screamed, and pointed his gun to Sally, "Now!"

But the vision of that man threatening to hurt Sally at any moment made him tell the twosome everything that had happened to them:

"No!... I think they’re dead!... They’re all dead! The bus rolled down the hill and my sister and I only escaped because one of the emergency exits opened and we fell out of the bus... Please stop pointing this to her!", John pleaded, even more nervous to see the look of shock in his sister’s eyes.

Satisfied with that answer, the man moved away from the children and put his gun down:

"That’s good. Nobody’s gonna mess around at least for a few days."

"...they have guns, Andrew...", the Irish angel whispered, with her entire body trembling.

"Criminals running away from the police...", her friend concluded, "...And I’m afraid John and Sally have just found out their hiding place..."

One of the men started to prepare the squirrel for lunch, opening the animal with a knife. Monica put her hand in her mouth, even more scared at that scene:

"...we have to take them out of there as soon as possible..."

"Yeah, but how are we going to do that? We are in human form, remember? We can’t just go in there and grab those children by their hands..."

While his partner was preparing the lunch, the black-haired man, whose name was Bill, looked to the two children pensively:

"Look at them... they’re not ordinary kids... wearing good clothes, good shoes... Soon the cops will be looking for them; I bet they’re already doing it..."

"So, I think you’d better have a pretty good idea of what we’re gonna do with these two, Bill..."

"But I think I’ve got an damn good idea buddy... Maybe we can make some money with these two..."

"I don’t get it..."

"We’ll keep them as hostages, Jack!"

The blond man shook his head with indecision:

"I don’t know... The plan was to rob the Green Valley Campsite! To get all the money and food we could and get the hell outta here after that."

"The plan’s changed. You’ve heard the boy, the bus didn’t arrive at the campsite and the few idiots that work there must’ve called the cops already. If we go there now, we can even be caught."

"Yeah... Maybe you’re right..."

Bill looked at the children and an evil smile appeared on his face:

"And sure mom and dad are gonna pay anything to get their precious babies back..."

Hidden in the trees, the two angels heard everything, and Andrew shook his head with impatience and frustration:

"... if we don’t have a good plain to rescue John and Sally, I don’t even want to think about the consequences... Oh God, how come all of this could happen?!"

Still very scared, Monica took his hand and squeezed it:

"Andrew, even if we were in angelic form we wouldn’t be able to rescue them without a good plan because they are humans and mortals."

Sensing the truth in his best friend’s words, he nodded, and she kept on talking:

"We have to think about a way to take them out of there safely; and I’m sure a good idea will come up soon."

*

Some time later, the two thieves started to eat their lunch. They had tied up Sally and John with some ropes and seemed to be excited about the possibility of taking a good profit from the kidnapping of the two children.

"We can take the money and get out of the city with false documents, it’s gonna be easy.", Bill said. Jack agreed:

"And it’s been 3 months since we’ve escaped from prison, I bet the cops won’t expect to find us in here, in a different state, miles away from that hell we were in!"

"Yeah... seems that our little visitors were not so inconvenient..."

Both started laughing sarcastically. Suddenly, they heard a noise coming from the trees:

"What was it?...", the black-haired thief turned serious.

"I think it came from that side..."

Again, the noise broke the silence of the woods, and Jack stood up:

"I don’t like it, Bill..."

"It could be an animal..."

The blond man grabbed his gun and loaded it:

"Let’s see...", he moved away from the campsite, going in the direction where the strange noise had come from. Minutes later, the other man stood up too and, after checking if the rope around the children were held tightly, headed in the same direction his partner had gone:

"Hey Jack, did you find something?!..."

Soon he also disappeared through the woods. Only then, the siblings could talk:

"Oh John, I’m so scared... What are we going to do now?...", the girl murmured, with tears in her eyes.

"I don’t know Sally, but we’ll find a way..."

At that moment, they heard a familiar voice, with an Irish accent, calling out their names:

"John, Sally!"

The kids looked in its direction and saw Monica coming from behind a tree, which was opposite from the side the thieves had gone:

"Monica!"

"Don’t worry, I’ll get you out of here, children.", she whispered, already untying the ropes that kept them.

"I thought you were dead, like everybody else...", the boy was surprised and happy to see her.

"No, John. Everybody managed to escape from the bus; some people are hurt, but all are alive."

"Oh cool!"

"I wanna go home, Monica, these two bad men are gonna do something bad to us..."

"No, they won’t Sally. I’m gonna get you out of here in a minute..."

But, before she could untie the ropes completely, somebody trained a gun barrel on her head.

"I don’t think so, lady..."

It was Bill, who had returned to the campsite in silence and was unnoticed by the three. Monica’s face paled at the sound of his voice and she felt barrel of the gun hard against her head; he was ready to shoot at any moment: "You’d better stop messing with these ropes and stand up very slowly, unless you wanna see things get pretty ugly ‘round here!"

CHAPTER 5

The Irish angel obeyed to the thief’s command and turned around to face him:

"Leave those children alone, please..."

"Who the hell are you?"

"I’m here to help them..."

"Kid you said everybody was dead in that damn accident!"

"But they aren’t!", Monica raised her voice, "Everybody is safe and sound and I’m sure there are people already looking for these children. It’s just a matter of time until they find us. So, please, let us go!"

Hearing that, an angry look came upon the man’s face and he grabbed her arm:

"You’re lying!"

"All I’m telling you is the truth."

"Damn! You’re lying! It can’t be possible the cops are already looking for these stupid kids in the woods! How did you come here? You’re here alone?"

Wrestling away from his tight grip, she kept on facing him straight in the eyes:

"I’m never alone."

All of a sudden, a gun shot echoed through the trees, breaking the silence. Fearing for her dear friend, Monica’s heart started to pound loudly, as the other man returned:

"What was it, Jack?"

"I think it was an animal, maybe a deer or something... But what the hell?..."

He was staring at the angel with an inquisitive look on his face:

"Yeah, it’s getting kinda crowded here...", the other one stated.

"Where did this woman come from?"

"She was together with these children, in the bus. She says that everybody escaped from the accident."

"So there people already looking for them..."

"Maybe... I don’t believe her... If you ask me, I guess she got lost and ended up here by mistake."

Jack ran his fingers through his blond dirty hair:

"I don’t like it, Bill. We should’ve broken into that campsite a long time ago, taken all the money and food we needed and got the hell outta here as we had planned! Now look at this! What are we gonna do with this woman?!

"I’ll tell you somethin’: we’re gonna keep on with the kidnapping. Those kid’s folks are gonna give us the money we ask and we’ll use it to get away..."

He turned to face Monica and the siblings:

"... And after that, this woman, together with these damn children, will... disappear in the woods, as they should’ve before!"

*

Two hours after that incident, the criminals tied Monica up and fastened the ropes around the children. As John and Sally had drunk all the water that was in their bottles, Bill had to take some more in a small creek, not far away from where they were. Jack started to clean his gun, keeping an eye on their hostages:

"It’s no use to be out of prison if you cannot be really free...", Monica was looking at him straight in his eyes.

"What are you talkin’ ‘bout?!

"Hiding away in the woods like an animal is the same as being in a jail, don’t you think so?"

"Listen to me, lady, you have never been to prison, have you? ‘Cause if you had, you wouldn’t be blabbing this bunch of nonsense! If there is a hell, then it’s there!"

"You went to prison because you did something wrong; you committed a crime and had to pay for it. Wouldn’t it be better if you just paid your debt and could walk in the streets again without having to hide from the world, always afraid of taking the next step?..."

Feeling some truth in what she was saying, he lowered his head:

"That’s too late for it now...", the thief said, resignedly.

"It’s never too late for starting a new life, specially when one is still young, as you are..."

"Problem is that I never had a chance to start anything..."

"Oh, but God is always willing to give His children a chance, you just have to accept His help..."

For a brief moment, the man seemed confused, as if reflecting about what she had just said:

"God?..."

"Yes!", the angel answered, hopefully. "He’s standing right beside you, ready to hold your hand and guide you through a path of truth, where no one needs to run away from everybody and everything... I can see there’s good in you, so why don’t you just do what is right and leave this life of sorrow and fear behind; why don’t you restart it right now and give yourself a chance?"

Trying to avoid thinking about her words, he came to face her again: "You know what? My life will be better after we get the money from these kid’s folks!", he replied, ironically, "With new IDs, we’ll go anywhere we want an no one’s gonna mess with us!"

"Don’t you see what you’re doing..."

"Shut up, lady! Just shut up, OK?!", he snapped back, raising his voice. Suddenly, they heard another noise, as if there was somebody walking in the woods:

"Bill, is that you?", the thief called. But there was no answer. He insisted: "Bill?..."

Again, the noise echoed in their ears, and Jack stood up with his gun in his hand:

"Who’s in there?! You’d better show yourself buddy, ‘cause I ain’t gonna ask twice!"

After a brief silence, they could hear the noise for the third time, but, this time, it was loud and clear: somebody ran in the middle of the vegetation that surrounded the small clearing. Quickly, the man started to run in the same direction and it took just a few seconds before he disappeared from the hostage’s view.

Only then, Andrew came up from behind a tree, which was across from the direction the thief had gone, and walked towards them:

"Hey, it’s Andrew!", exclaimed the boy. Monica heaved a sigh of relief:

"Oh, thank God! I was so worried about you!"

"Well, I got a little busy in the last couple of hours...", he cut the ropes that tied his friends up with a penknife.

"All those noises... so was it you?"

"Yes, John. I was around here all the time.", he answered, quickly glancing at his best friend, who smiled at him gratefully. The boy was confused:

"But I saw some bushes moving on the opposite side you came from..."

"Actually, it wasn’t me. I picked 3 rabbits in the woods and put them inside a bag. Well, let’s just say they’re not pleased with me at all. But I let them go eventually, and it was them who you saw running through the bushes right now.

"Cool plan!"

The angels chuckled, amused by the boy’s excitement:

"In fact, as it is a rescue mission, there were two plans. Once plan A has failed, and Monica was captured, we had to start plan B, and I think we’ve succeeded in this one!", Andrew finished to cut the ropes:

"Now, let’s get outta here!"

He took little Sally in his arms but, as they were leaving the small campsite, Jack came back and his eyes widened with anger when he saw his hostages escaping:

"Hey you, stop there, you hear me?!"

Although they were quite startled by the man’s scream, they kept on running:

"Don’t stop!", said Andrew, heading to an area where the vegetation grew higher and denser, "Follow me and step where I step, right?!"

Jack ran after them, with his gun in his hand, ready to shoot at any moment:

"Damn! You stop out there, or I’ll shoot!"

But the group deliberately ignored that command, and continued to run frenetically through the woods. Sensing that he was about to lose sight of the fugitives, Jack pointed his gun to the sky, decided to scare them with the noise of the shots. But, before he could stop to shoot, the thief stumbled on a creeper, which was tied up from a tree to another and hidden by the vegetation, stretched right in his way. He fell on the ground and released his gun:

"...This is gettin’ more difficult every minute!"

That was when he heard the other criminal calling out his name: "I’m right over here!"

It took some minutes for them to get together:

"What the hell happened here?! Where are the kids and the woman?!"

"They escaped, Bill! There was another man together with them; he distracted my attention and freed the three..."

"Damn it! How come you’re so stupid, man?!"

"I didn’t know it, alright?! We can still catch them, they followed that way...", he pointed.

Andrew, Monica and the children never stopped running:

"I’ve made some traps with the creeps I found around here. But I don’t think they’ll keep those guys for a long time...", the blond angel said.

"Where are we going?"

"To the river, Monica. We have to find a way to stay as far as possible from them."

And Andrew was right. After stumbling in some more creeps, which were tied up around the tree trunks, Bill and Jack followed in the same direction as theirs. That unexpected escape had raised the thieves’ anger to the maximum, not only because they had lost their hostages, and, therefore, the possibility of making money with them, but also because Monica and the children were going to tell the police who and where they were. The kids and the two adults had to be caught as soon as possible.

CHAPTER 6

The deep river flowed along rapidly, with its wide banks surrounded by many rocks and some vegetation. Monica, Andrew and the children ran until they found the powerful stream of water that crossed the woods:

"I can hear them following us...", John was terrified at the two man.

"Where to, Andrew?"

"It would be ideal if we could cross the river..."

"Do you think there can be a bridge somewhere near here?"

But, before Andrew could answer, they heard Bill’s voice echoing not far away from them.

"Come with me...", ordered the blond angel.

The two criminals soon arrived at the river banks. Looking around, holding their guns, they were in a desperate search for their previous hostages:

"There’s no way they could’ve gone into a different direction..."

"Maybe they’ve crossed the river and swam to the other side..."

"No, that’s impossible... The stream of water is very strong and those two kids would get drowned..."

"Do you think they’ve found the old wooden bridge?"

"No, that’s a bit far away from here, it takes time to get there... They must be here somewhere...", concluded Bill, still holding his gun, ready to shoot, and scrutinising their surroundings, "...we’ll get those guys, even if I have to use my gun to stop them..."

They continued to walk around, and didn’t notice that, hidden between the rocks which were spread along the river banks, and closer to the water, was the group they were looking for. Little Sally held Andrew’s neck tightly and had her eyes closed, while Monica grabbed John’s hand. They could feel their hearts pounding loudly in their chests and were trembling with fear for having the criminals so close to them.

But, after some minutes, the two evil men decided to look for the fugitives in another part of the woods:

"Let’s take a look over there...", said Jack, pointing to another direction, opposite to the river. As soon as they moved off, the angels and the children sighed with relief:

"Are they gone?...", asked Sally, still with her eyes closed. Andrew gently smoothed her hair:

"Yes, sweetie, they’re not here anymore.", he whispered.

The little girl finally opened her eyes and exchanged the angel’s embrace for her brother’s.

"But they aren’t that far, we have to keep our voices low."

"Andrew, did you hear what they say? There’s a bridge near here..."

"Yes, and we have to find that bridge as soon as possible, Monica."

They waited for some more minutes before climbing up the rocky river banks:

"Let’s follow the course of the river and keep near the banks, so that we can have a place to hide if... you know...", said the blond angel, with fear clear in his eyes.

Monica held Sally’s hand and kept the little girl close to her all the time, imagining how painful it might had been to Andrew to carry her along during their escape, as his entire body was aching due to the accident and his left arm was badly injured. Not only had they to face the inhospitable conditions of the woods, but also deal with two dangerous criminals, who were a constant threat to their lives. Together with this, was the fact that, very soon, all the food the angels carried with them, which was reduced to a package of cookies, would be over. They were running against time, struggling to escape from two evil men as well as to find help somewhere. To complete that dreadful scenario, being in human form only made things even more difficult, as Andrew and Monica had two innocent children to protect and take care of and, at the same time, were exposed to all sorts of dangers mortals were.

*

The mountain range lay for miles away, and the only thing they had to guide themselves in the woods was the river, which would lead them to the foot of the first mountain. There, started the road that their bus had initially followed, in the beginning of that disastrous journey. The group walked for about 40 minutes, and their almost absolute silence was due to exhaustion and fear. Each step they made corresponded to a quick and nervous look at their surroundings, as if Bill and Jack would suddenly appear out of nowhere right in front of them, holding their guns. The angels knew how much their escape had infuriated the two thieves, and to imagine what kind of revenge the two men would take upon them was scarier than everything that had already happened so far.

"Can’t we go back to the road where the accident happened?"

"I’m afraid not, John. To return, we would have to pass by those men’s hiding place, and fatally would we meet them on the way.", Andrew answered, "We’ll keep on this way, I’m sure the others were already found and there are people looking for us. Soon the search and rescue team will find us and we’ll go home."

"I don’t wanna see those two men again..."

Monica squeezed Sally’s hand and stroked her hair:

"That’s why we’re looking for the bridge to cross that river, dear. Once we are on that other side, we’ll be further away from them."

"And it seems we’ve just found it... look over there..."

They looked into the same direction Andrew was pointing: an old bridge, made with wooden planks and some ropes and creepers, was built not far away from them. The blond angel walked towards it and checked the precarious construction, which had probably been made one hundred years ago.

"Is it safe?", Monica asked, noticing all the concern evident on his green eyes. He considered her question for some instants:

"Well... it’s still standing after all those years. And hunters occasionally might use it, so I think it can keep our weight."

The water under the bridge flowed fast and wild, making a noise that could be heard miles away, and causing the Irish angel to tremble with fear just in thinking of having to pass over it. It was then that she felt Sally’s little hand squeezing her own, and looked down at her:

"Monica, I’m afraid of crossing that bridge... I’m afraid of the river..."

Blinking back some tears and trying to be strong, she knelt before the girl:

"Oh, dear, I’m afraid too; but we can’t just stay in here, we have to keep on walking. The other side of the river is much safer than this one, and it only takes a few meters for us to get there...", she gently caressed her cheek, and lowered her voice, "And who is gonna take care of John and Andrew if we are afraid, um? That’s why we have to be brave, for us and for them! They are counting on us!"

She looked at Andrew, who smiled back at her, reassuringly and with all the love in his heart reflected on his eyes. The little girl nodded:

"I guess you’re right. And John really needs me to take care of him; he always forgets to clean his ears and I’m the one who has to tell him to do it!"

The angels laughed at those words and her brother blushed deeply, rather embarrassed:

"Sally! It’s not necessary to tell them those things!"

Andrew patted the boy’s shoulder and tried to light up their mood, although, deep down inside, his concern continued stronger than never:

"Looks like you have a very protective sister, buddy!"

"I’ll never let you win a video game match anymore, Sally, you’ll see!"

The blond angel carefully stepped in the first wooden plank:

"Let’s do the following: I’ll go first and check if it’s safe, which probably is. Then, I’ll return and help you out, ok?"

They agreed, but with a worried expression on their faces. Before he left, Monica grabbed his hand and squeezed it:

"Please, Andrew, be careful..."

He held her hand in both of his and kissed it affectionately:

"I’ll be back in some minutes, I promise..."

The blond angel took the heavy backpack and made his way along the old bridge. Although their precarious condition, the wooden planks seemed to bear his weight with no problem; the only inconvenience was that the construction swung a bit, demanding extra care when walking on it.

It took some minutes for Andrew to get to the other side of the river:

"See? No problem! It’s safe!", he stated, putting the backpack that contained all their food and first aid supplies on the ground. But the slight smile of relief on his face suddenly disappeared when the angel spotted a flock of birds leaving the tree tops, startled by something which was moving through the vegetation. Immediately, he walked back to his friends, knowing what that movement meant: the criminals were getting closer again and soon would find them.

"Let’s move from here as fast as we can!", he commanded, taking John’s hand.

In a hurry, the group started to cross the bridge, and the loud noise the water made, together with its incredible speed, made Monica and Sally tremble with fear. Little by little, the two were left behind; and when Andrew and John finished the crossing, they were still in the middle of the way:

"You two hold on a minute, I’ll help you!", the blond angel said. But, before he could step on the bridge again, Bill appeared on the other side of the river:

"C’mere, Jack, I’ve found them!", the criminal cried, causing Monica and Sally to look back and fell their blood run cold:

"Oh no...", whispered the Irish angel, completely paralysed when the evil man pointed his gun at their direction:

"Don’t move, or I’ll shoot!"

The little girl was so terrified at the sound of his voice that she turned to the other side and tried to run. At that very moment, another tragedy took place: the bridge swung violently to the side, causing the little girl to lose her step and fall down in the river:

"Sally!!!", Monica cried, as the girl hit the water. Feeling her heart pounding loudly in her chest, the Irish angel ignored her own fear and jumped in the river, in a desperate attempt to reach Sally.

CHAPTER 7

"No! Monica!", Andrew was paralysed for some instants, completely taken aback by the sight of his best friend being carried away by that powerful flow of wild water, and the angel, as well as the boy beside him, were immediately thrown into a panic:

"Sally! My sister! We gotta save them!"

To make things worse, Bill was still there, threatening to use his gun against the remaining hostages at any moment:

"Hey you two, don’t move, ‘cause I ain’t gonna think twice before shooting at any of you!"

They had no choice but to remain where they were, which only increased their anguish and despair towards the situation. The other criminal, Jack, arrived at that moment:

"We can’t let them escape this time!"

In a hurry, the two started to cross the old wooden bridge, in a new attempt to recapture the angel and the boy. But all that sudden movement caused by Sally’s attempt to escape had made some of the old ropes that kept the bridge to be torn. And, before the thieves could make it to the middle, they realised that the rotten ropes that tied the construction up to the other side of the river were parting again, due to their own weight, and the bridge started to collapse:

"Oh no! Let’s get outta here, the damn bridge is falling to pieces!"

Andrew and John took that opportunity to grab their backpack and start to run away from the bank of the river, hiding themselves in the nearby vegetation.

"Damn!!!", the thief stormed, after shooting 4 times in their direction and missing. But Bill and Jack had to return quickly to the left bank, and watched as the bridge collapsed down in the river.

"What are we gonna do now, Bill?! They’ll tell we’re here to the first one they bump into!"

"Those damn children! We should’ve got rid of all of them at the moment they stepped in that clearing!", the criminal fumed, with his eyes shining in anger, "But I’m telling you: when I see them again they’ll be sorry, ‘cause I ain’t gonna miss one single shot..."

Although the only connection between them and the evil men completely destroyed, Andrew and John kept on running desperately through the woods. That fast escape had another reason besides protecting themselves from the bullets: they had to follow the course of river and try to find Monica and the little girl as soon as possible.

*

Sally splashed her arms in the water in a desperate search for air and it wouldn’t take too long before she got drowned:

"Sally... Hold on dear, I’ll get you!..."

Trying to overcome her enormous fear of water, the Irish angel put all her effort into trying and reaching the little girl, but the distance between them only made her attempt to fail.

"Monica... please... help me...", she cried, and after that, left the surface. Monica’s eyes widened in shock:

"Sally! Sally! Please, answer to me!"

The angel looked around her, completely filled with panic:

"Sally! Oh God... Sally!"

Seconds later, the girl fought her way back to the surface and tried to catch her breath, and, this time, closer to Monica:

"... help..."

"I’ll get you dear..."

The angel stretched out her hands and finally managed to grab Sally by the waist, keeping her head out of water. The girl wrapped her arms around Monica’s neck, but the two continued to be carried away by the river and there was no way they could fight against its force:

" Hold tight to me, Sally...", the angel said, although she herself wouldn’t be able to hold on for much longer, as swimming definitely wasn’t one of her specialities.

They were carried away for nearly a mile until it was possible to hear the noise of the water falling down: small waterfalls were forming straight ahead, and, considering the force the river flowed, as well as its velocity, one could easily get drowned or be severely injured when hitting the stones that lay on the way.

Striving to keep their heads out of water, Monica and Sally were just some meters before being thrown against the first stones when a big thick tree trunk suddenly appeared near the right bank: an enormous tree had probably been hit by the wind some days earlier and its trunk had fallen in the river, still hanging onto its roots. Joining all her forces, Monica pulled Sally closer to her and made a desperate attempt to swim in the direction of the big piece of wood. Seconds later, they hit the tree trunk with violence and the angel let out a whine of pain, as she protected the little girl with her own body:

"Quick, Sally, try to climb on it..."

"I’m trying..."

Monica helped the girl by lifting her up until she could finally climb on the top of the trunk, followed by the Irish angel, and both crawled until they could reach the river bank.

*

Monica and Sally got out of the river and sat under a nearby tree. Although they were wet and feeling cold, none of them was hurt. Besides this, the sun at that time of the day was warm and shining brightly, and soon their clothes would be dried.

"Take off your coat, dear. Let’s put it on the ground, so it’ll dry faster", the angel said, doing the same thing with her own coat. Completely in shock and with her eyes full of tears, the little girl held her tightly:

"I wanna go home, Monica. I want my mom and dad... I want John...", she wept, having flashbacks of everything that had happened so far. Equally shocked and extremely scared, the angel gently stroked her wet hair and tried to hold back the tears which were already forming on the corner of her eyes:

"I know sweetie; I’m sure you will see your mom and dad very soon. There are people looking for us right now, you know, and it won’t take too long before they find us..."

After a brief silence, the girl spoke again:

"Monica, did John and I behave badly?"

A confuse expression appeared on the angel’s face:

"What do you mean, Sally?"

"Why are all these horrible things happening to us?"

Monica considered that question for some seconds and found herself surprised when she couldn’t answer to it:

"I don’t know, sweetie...", she held the little girl once more and blinked some tears, which she couldn’t help from falling, feeling completely lost in all senses. How come an assignment could go so wrong? And all that horrible situation seemed to worsen each and every minute. Their lives were in great danger, threatened not only by the inhospitable conditions of the woods and the mountains, but also by the two criminals that were following them. And it was when the Irish angel remembered something that caused her to worry even more: if those two thieves had seen her dearest friend and Sally’s brother, where would they be now?

"Andrew... John... We have to find them as soon as possible!"

"I’m scared, Monica..."

"I’m scared, too, but we can’t just let the ones we love out there; imagine how scared they must be now.", she held the little girl’s hand, "Sally, let’s pray for help..."

"Pray?"

"Yes...", the angel answered, with tears in her eyes, "For some moments I almost forgot that it’s God who is in command and He is always listening to His children and taking care of them..."

"So God can see us now?", the girl asked, with hopeful eyes.

"Yes, he can, dear..."

They said a quick prayer asking for guidance and for Andrew and John’s safety. After that, the Irish angel looked into the little girl’s eyes and stroked her cheek:

"Let’s go find them?"

Sally nodded; they picked their coats and left, walking opposite to the course of the river.

*

About 40 minutes of fast walking under a 2 o’clock sun was enough to dry their clothes and to make them fell more exhausted and hungrier than never:

"My stomach is making funny noises..."

"I’m hungry too, Sally. Maybe we can look for some berries after we find Andrew and John, they can help..."

Suddenly, they heard a noise not far away from where they were. The two were immediately paralysed:

"Monica...", the girl whispered, squeezing the angel’s hand, and their hearts started to pound loudly in their chests when they saw a strange movement in the bushes that stood just a few meters ahead:

"Oh no..."

But before they could even move, a flood of relief invaded their souls when they saw Andrew and John coming up from behind the vegetation:

"Monica! Sally! Oh, thank God!...", all the concern which was previously evident on the angel’s face disappeared at that moment and he wasted no time in running until his best friend and holding her tightly, as if he would never let her go again. John, feeling equally relived, did the same with his beloved sister:

"Oh Andrew... I was so afraid...", Monica wept, with her arms wrapped around his neck and nearly collapsing.

"Shhh, don’t think about that... I’m here, we’re together again, Angel Girl, and I’ll never ever let you stay away from me more than an inch, you hear me?!"

He softly stroked her hair and let her cry on his shoulder for some minutes, while the siblings remained holding onto each other, tears also rolling down on their faces.

Realising that she was calming herself down, Andrew gently pulled Monica away and looked into her brown eyes:

"We have to go on, dear, maybe follow down the river in order to get to the foot of the mountain and find some help."

She nodded and the blond angel wiped away the tears on her cheeks:

"Yes, you’re right...", she held his hand in hers; it was possible to see in her eyes all the love she felt for the other angel, "I... I was so worried about you and John..."

"Well, you can’t imagine how much we were worried about you two, right John?"

"I’ve never felt so scared in my whole life, Monica.", the boy replied, "When I saw her falling from the bridge, I wanted to jump in the water and help her out myself. But I’m glad you were there, and I wanna thank you for saving my sister’s life."

The Irish angel managed a slight smile, happy that at least that horrible accident on the bridge hadn’t had any serious consequence. Andrew released the hold on his best friend, grabbing her hand, and caressed the little girl’s hair:

"And who would let anything bad happen to this pretty lady here, um?"

She looked at the angels:

"John is right, I’m happy you’re here with us. With you two near us, I don’t feel so afraid..."

"Hey, what about me?", the boy protested, with mock seriousness:

"You’re my brother, John, and you don’t count because I’m always happy you’re with me!... But I think I’m not gonna swim in a river for a long long time; that one was definitely not funny at all!"

The group couldn’t help laughing at the girls words, which seemed to have cheered their minds up, chasing their fears away for a little while.

CHAPTER 8

After taking a 40 minute walk through the woods, the group stopped to rest in a small clearing not far away from the river bank. While the children were eating their last package of cookies, Andrew and Monica took some water in the river and picked some berries that grew on the nearby bushes. It was over 5 o’clock in the afternoon and, feeling extremely exhausted by the events of the day, Sally and John lay on the grass, under a tree, and fell asleep, using the backpacks as pillows and their coats as blankets. Leaning on a fallen tree trunk, right beside the siblings, Andrew held his best friend close to him and, lovingly, started to run his fingers through her hair, while she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder:

"I’ve never been so afraid in all my existence, Andrew. For me and for Sally."

"Well, I guess I can say the same thing. To think that I would never see you again; to think that I would lose you at the moment I saw you being carried away by the river was a fear that... I had never experienced before..."

After a brief silence, she spoke again:

"Those two men were planning to attack the campsite... We would have met them even if the accident hadn’t happened at all. And all those children would be exposed to them right now..."

"But they won’t try to go there. The police or the search and rescue team must have been called and they must be at the campsite and its surroundings by now."

"When will all this be over?", she questioned, with a sad expression on her tired face.

"To be honest, I’d rather not think about it anymore...", the blond angel answered, equally distressed, "I think the best and the only thing we can do is keep on walking through these woods and looking for help; maybe we’ll find some..."

The tone is his voice was a mix of discouragement and frustration towards that horrible and endless situation. Worse than that, it was as if the angel had lost his most distinguished characteristic: faith.

"I’m sure we will... Maybe there are people looking for us around here, maybe they are closer than we think...", Monica replied, although she herself was feeling lost and without much hope left.

"I know it may sound horrible but... I feel like we’ve been... abandoned..."

The Irish angel pulled away from him and looked into his green eyes, which were full of sorrow and pain:

"Andrew don’t say that, please! You’re the only reason why I DON’T feel abandoned! You’ve always been at my side since all this tragedy began, giving me support and strength to face my worst fears. Like I’ve said before, I thank the Father for sending you at this very difficult hour. And if He sent you to stay close to me, it means that we and these children are not abandoned at all, for He is taking care of us all! Remember that His time is perfect and He will provide us help when we need it most!"

Quietly, he made a brief reflection about what she had just said and those words had an immediate and clear effect on his emotions: he nodded his head and grabbed her face with both hands, smiling:

"And I think I have to thank Him for sending me an angel who has the gift of speaking the right words at the right time straight to my heart."

He gave her a long kiss on the forehead, with all the love in his heart evident in his eyes. Also smiling, the Irish angel wrapped her arms around his neck:

"I love you, you know...", she whispered into his ear, kissing his cheek afterwards. He tightened his hold on her and, affectionately, kissed the side of her head:

"I love you too, Angel Girl! Deeply... With all my heart."

They remained like this for some time; then, she pulled away just enough to look at his face:

"Um... so that means you’re not gonna tickle me anymore?"

He considered that question, and finally shook his head in disagreement:

"Nope. You know, when you love someone you usually love hearing them laughing out loud. It’s practically a rule, and I cannot break a rule!"

She sighed, with mock disappointment. Andrew smiled once more and put some strands of her hair behind her ear, softly stroking her cheek. Suddenly, they heard a girl’s voice near them:

"Aren’t you gonna kiss each other now?"

Monica couldn’t help giggling at two things: that embarrassing question and, specially, at the expression on her best friend’s face, which became completely red:

"Oh, Sally..."

Andrew, for himself, was deeply annoyed and embarrassed:

"For your information, young lady, the next thing that is gonna happen right now is that two slumbers will get up immediately and start walking, ‘cause we need to get at least near the foot of the mountain before it gets dark!", the blond angel commanded, with mock seriousness, while his best friend was still laughing, annoying him even more.

*

The night fell down slowly, as it had been a hot and very beautiful summer day, with no clouds in the sky. But with the dark came the cold air of the mountains and they had to put their coats on and, some time later, stopped walking.

"We’ll stay here for this night", Andrew decided, as it would be risky to continue to go down the mountain. The path that lay ahead wasn’t plain anymore; on the contrary: it was rocky and inclined, possibly with some caves and abysms hidden along it. The blond angel lit up a small fire and the group sat around it.

"Isn’t it dangerous? I mean, those guys could see the fire in the dark...", the boy’s concern was shared by his sister’s and Monica’s.

"We’re pretty far from the river bank now, John, and I don’t think they’ll manage to cross it. We don’t have to worry about them anymore."

Sally looked around her, with fear evident in her eyes:

"I’m so afraid of the dark..."

Monica and Andrew looked at each other understandingly:

"Come here, sweetie...", the angel called, opening her arms to hold the little girl, "You’re gonna sleep with me, ok? And John and Andrew will be right here, on your other side. There’s nothing to be afraid of."

Feeling more secure, she nodded, and the group arranged themselves on the grass, once again using their backpacks as pillows.

"G’night Sally...", the boy said, lying right beside her and rubbing his hand on hers.

"G’night John...", she replied, already drifting off.

"Try to get a good sleep, you guys, ‘cause tomorrow is gonna be a pretty busy day...", Andrew warned, sitting beside John and leaning against the tree trunk. The Irish angel looked at her best friend:

"Aren’t you going to sleep a little?"

"I’ll be fine, Monica. I just wanna stay awake a bit more, I’m not sleepy right now."

"Are you sure? Don’t you want me to stay awake so that you can..."

"It’s alright, honey. I just don’t feel any sleep. You, on the other hand, had a very busy day, and should be snoring away just like these ones."

"But... If you need me..."

"I promise you’ll be the first one to know, ok?"

He winked at her, feeling that, despite of all her exhaustion, her love was flowing from her twinkling brown eyes straight to his.

"Have good dreams, Angel Girl..."

"I hope I’ll dream about you...", she whispered, almost sleeping, but was still able to see him blowing a kiss in her direction.

Darkness spread all over the mountains, and the only source of light available in the place was the small fire Andrew had lit up hours earlier. Try as he might, the blond angel could not sleep, although it had been an extremely exhausting day, as that permanent and horrible sensation of abandonment still filled him with anguish. He stood on his feet and took a look at his surroundings, despite the fact that there was not much to see. Wondering when and how that situation would be over, Andrew took some twigs that were spread on the grass, threw them into the fire and, pensively, watched the flames dancing in front of him. Was the river really a barrier that protected them from those two criminals or was there another way to cross it? Were the other children, together with Mrs. Peters and Mr Stokes, found on the road? Were they safe now?

He sighed with so many questions filling his mind and looked at Monica and the siblings. Trying to chase his concern away, Andrew went to sit beside his dearest friend, who was sound asleep with little Sally in her arms, and watched her for a while. Taking some strands of hair off her face, he checked the new bandage on her temple and started to, softly, run his fingers on her hair:

"...could you get me some coffee, Andrew?", she murmured, making him smile with amusement. The blond angel leaned to brush a loving kiss on her cheek and, after that, lay beside her, with his hands crossed on his stomach, and with the same worried expression than before.

CHAPTER 9

The first sun rays came up early in the next morning, announcing that another hot summer day was about to start. Monica was the first one in the group to wake up, and, after gently pulling away from Sally’s embrace, she smiled with all the love in her heart when she turned to her right and saw her best friend lying next to her, tiredness evident on his handsome features as he slept.

"Oh my dear friend... I know how you’re feeling, I know how much you would like to protect us all, and you’ve been doing that since this terrible accident happened, believe me. Just be patient, I’m sure all this suffering is about to end..."

Softly, she stroked his blond hair, but, despite that delicate movement, Andrew woke up startled and with a puzzled expression on his handsome face:

"Monica!...", he cried, his heart pounding loudly in his chest. She held his face with her hands and looked into his eyes:

"Calm down, Andrew, it’s ok! You were sleeping right beside me, it was just a bad dream..."

The blond angel sighed, feeling both relieved to be just dreaming and disappointed to see how much worried his dear friend was. Sitting in front of Monica, he took her hands and kissed them:

"I’m sorry, Angel Girl... It’s just that... I guess I’m feeling kinda paranoid about all this, that’s all..."

"You have nothing to be sorry about, believe me!"

Although it could not totally banish fear from his mind, her soothing voice certainly managed to warm his heart:

"You’re right..."

"So, try to forget about it; it’s time for us to set off, because I can’t wait to come back Home and hug Tess again, and I’m sure that John and Sally want to do the same with their mom and dad!"

She squeezed his hands and smiled mischievously:

"And, right now, I think we’d better move on before Sally wakes up and gives us another demonstration of children’s peculiar curiosity!"

He couldn’t help but chuckling at that comment, and, slightly blushed, the blond angel leaned to brush a loving kiss on her forehead:

"You wake them up, Angel Girl, I’ll put the fire out."

While he was putting out the last flames of the fire he had lit on the previous night, Monica gently shook the children:

"John, Sally, it’s time to wake up..."

Sleepily, they opened their eyes and yawned:

"Can’t we stay just a little bit?...", the boy pleaded.

"Oh no, we have plenty of walk today, and the sooner we start, the sooner we’ll find help to come back home!"

"Do you think people will find us today?", Sally asked, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hands.

"I’m quite sure about it, dear!"

Andrew was almost finishing to put the fire out when a sudden sensation of panic crept on him, as if a great danger was about to come:

"Monica, children, c’mon, take your backpacks and let’s get out of here immediately!", he commanded, quickly grabbing one of the bags and putting it on his shoulder. The Irish angel frowned at that unexpected behaviour:

"Andrew..."

"Monica, please, don’t ask me why; just do as I say..."

All that outright fear caused the two siblings to be equally afraid:

"Is there anything wrong, Andrew?", John asked.

But, before he could answer to that question, a shot echoed through the trees, breaking the silence of the woods, and a bullet came to rest on a tree trunk just a few inches from where they were:

"Quick, let’s run!"

The group started a desperate and frenetic escape through the trees, but now that was twice as difficult, because the path that lay ahead was rocky and inclined, and one could easily slip and roll 10 meters down the mountain. Not far from them, Bill and Jack appeared from behind a huge stone:

"Are you nuts or what, Bill?!", the thief cried, still not believing in what his partner had just done.

"These two are really damn lucky idiots!", the black-haired thief cursed, still holding his gun. "And you’d better not try interfere again, you hear me?!"

Bill took the other thief’s revolver and kept it with him:

"This stays with me now, ‘cause you’re becoming too sweet!... If only we’d found them earlier!"

"If you hadn’t fired this stupid gun maybe we would’ve got them!"

"What’s the problem with you, man?!"

"I’m just trying not to get ourselves more messed up than what we already are! Now let’s go after them, on the contrary they can escape!"

"They won’t; I can assure you, Jack!"

The criminals started to run in the same direction the angels and the children had gone, and, minutes after, arrived at the same cliff the group was descending:

"There they are!", Bill cried, spotting them running among the vegetation a few meters down.

"Bill don’t shoot! We’ll catch them anyway...", Jack dissuaded the other thief, who put his gun down:

"You’re right. There aren’t many bullets, we can’t spend it. And we can get rid of the two adults when we get them!..."

In a desperate hurry, Andrew, Monica and the children kept on going down the hill; rocks covered with moss, and, therefore, extremely slippery, were spread all over their way, increasing the danger of a sudden fall:

"Try to grab the vegetation that grows around here, so that you can’t stumble on the rocks and fall!", the blond angel said, holding Sally in his arms, as the little girl would never have been able to run fast enough to escape from the danger that chased them unmercifully. Behind him, came Monica and John. With their hearts pounding loudly in their chests, they followed Andrew’s instructions, and all of them would hear the thieves’ voices not far from them. The Irish angel’s body was entirely shaking and it took her an extra dose of effort to remain standing on her feet and run.

"Let’s get down a little more and then go into another direction, maybe this will mislead them.", said the older angel.

But, at that moment, Monica stepped on a loose stone and slipped, falling heavily on her knees against the rocky soil. John, who was right in front of her, stopped running and tried to help her:

"Monica, are you alright?"

"I’m fine, John...", she had a few scratches on the palms of her hands and her knees were aching because of the sudden shock with the ground: "... keep on running John, don’t stop because of me!"

"I can help you to get up..."

"No, just go on I can handle it myself!"

He decided to obey that order, but only because he knew that there was somebody who could help her better than he would:

"Andrew! Monica stumbled and fell! She needs help!", the boy screamed. Immediately, the blond angel stopped running and looked back, so that he could see his best friend trying to get up. To worsen the situation, the sleeve of her coat was stuck in a sharp pointed twig, which tore the fabric, and she could not get rid of it. Andrew put Sally on the ground and took her little hand:

"Sally, dear, listen to me, I’m gonna help Monica and you and your brother will wait for us right here, ok?"

The girl nodded, unable to speak as fear had total control over her. He dropped the backpack on the grass and came back the same way, climbing the slope to meet Monica:

"Let me help you out, sweetie...", he tore the sleeve of her coat completely, so that she could free herself from the plant:

"Oh Andrew, I’m so sorry!", the little angel wept, still with her hands trembling.

"You have nothing to be sorry about, remember? Now, come with me, I’ll help you."

He grabbed her hands and helped her to her feet:

"You can make it, Angel Girl!"

"Thank you, Andrew, I..."

Suddenly, another shot echoed through the vast woods, but, at that time, it went straight to its target: Monica felt a sharp pain on her shoulder and, in shock, gripped Andrew’s coat, already falling down on the soil again:

"Monica?...", he cried out in horror, as he saw the colour disappear from her face and her blood flowing from the wound the bullet had made.

"...Andrew...", she whispered, unable to stay on her feet anymore. He took a firm hold on her waist and a look of sheer terror appeared on his face.

Then, panic claimed him.

CHAPTER 10

"Damn it, Bill! You can’t do anything without using that stupid gun, can you?!", Jack shouted, pushing the other man and visibly nervous about what had just happened.

"What’s the matter with you, man?! These two are gonna give us away at the first opportunity they have!"

"I’m not a murderer, Bill, that’s the problem!"

"Oh really? And what the hell are you? ‘Saint Jack’?!"

"I may have committed many crimes but I didn’t kill anybody and I don’t wanna start doing this now!"

The black-haired man laughed sarcastically:

"You should’ve thought about that before getting into this, buddy! Now c’mon, ‘cause I’m sure I got one of those two!"

They went down the hill until the place where Monica had been shot, but, arriving there, the criminals found nothing but bushes and rocks:

"But where the hell are they?!", Bill stormed.

"They’ve escaped! Again!", Jack said, after taking a quick look at his surroundings.

"That can’t be possible! How many times can these bunch of idiots hide from us?!"

"Well, maybe if you hadn’t shot at them, we could’ve caught the four!"

"They can’t be that far..."

Bill was staring at the rocks in the soil and smiled evilly:

"...look at this! It’s blood... I knew I had got one of them!"

Exasperatedly running his fingers through his dirty hair, and with an anguished expression on his face, Jack elected not to argue with his partner:

"So let’s move around, but just try not to use this gun of yours, ok?!"

Not far away from there, hidden behind some bushes, Andrew held Monica in his arms, pressing a handkerchief against her wounded shoulder to contain the bleeding. She was breathing hard, trying to bear in silence the terrible pain she was feeling. Despair consumed the blond angel and the sight of his dearest friend hurt in such a cruel and coward way was like a deep and sharp pain in his heart. At the moment she had been shot, the only reaction the angel was able to have was to take Monica away from that place, fearing that the criminals would fire their gun against her a second time.

As a matter of fact, the image before him caused Andrew to be paralysed, unable think about a way to get all of them out of there. And soon the two thieves would find them. The children, on the other hand, had disappeared through the trees and bushes at the moment the gun was fired, and there was no way he could call out their names, as this would easily give them away.

With tears of sorrow in his eyes, the blond angel stroked Monica’s pale cheek; all he wanted to do was to take care of her, and suck all the pain she was feeling at that moment. But he sighed completely hopeless, because, at that very moment, there was nothing he could do. Soon the evil men that pursued them like a hunter goes after his preys, would find where they were, and the group should be prepared for the worst.

Although she was in terrible pain, the Irish angel was conscious all the time and could feel all the anguish that flew from her friend’s heart, which only increased her own sorrow. She knew how much Andrew wanted to protect them all and how incredibly guilty he was feeling about that tragedy. She briefly closed her eyes and offered a silent prayer asking for help. An instant later, she opened her brown eyes again and heard John’s whispered voice near them:

"Andrew..."

The blond angel turned his head to the left and saw the boy standing some meters from him:

"I’ve found a place where we can hide!...", there was a tense tone in his voice for fear of being caught at any moment, "It’s this way, come with me!"

That announcement seemed to take Andrew out of a trance: he took a firm hold on his best friend and followed the boy. But it didn’t take too long before the two criminals realise the movement through the vegetation:

"It’s coming from that side...", pointed Bill, "I think I got them this time!"

"Yeah, it can be them or an animal, so try not to chase whatever it is away until we are sure about it, ok?!"

"As you wish, buddy!"

They headed in the same direction Andrew had gone a minute earlier. The rocky and irregular terrain, together with the dense vegetation, made it difficult to walk or find something in the place. And that was the reason why, passing by some bushes and looking around them, the two thieves didn’t notice the cave that was hidden just a few steps from them. Inside that dark, narrow hole, carved in the hill, were Andrew, Monica, John and Sally. In an anguished silence, they heard the criminals voices near them and closed their eyes, wishing they would go away. And, some minutes later, they could hear Bill and Jack’s footsteps moving away from the entrance of the cave:

"I think they’ve gone...", John whispered.

Only then, Andrew lit up a flashlight and everybody’s concern was focused on Monica, who lay weak in his arms:

"She’s badly hurt, isn’t she?", asked Sally, stroking the angel’s auburn hair.

"I’m afraid she is, Sally..."

"But you’re gonna take care of her, you’re not gonna let her die, right?"

The blond angel felt his entire body tremble with that question: could angels really die? Were they to face more sorrow than they had already experienced so far?

As an angel of death for so many years, Andrew had been a permanent witness of human’s tremendous suffering caused by the loss of a loved one. Although his kind heart could understand people’s pain at that most difficult hour, he was convinced that his role was to bring peace to a God’s child and take her Home, to rest in the Father’s arms. But now the situation had changed: he was the one whose beloved friend was in great pain; he was the one suffering with the possibility of losing somebody he loved deeply.

At that moment, the blond angel came to realise something: it was that he had always been afraid of since that terrible accident took place. Feeling tears forming in the corner of his eyes, Andrew shook his head, not believing that something like that could happen to an angel. Was he about to face his greatest fear of all?

But the blond angel looked at Monica’s pale face and, besides all the suffering she was bravery bearing, he saw her love for him shining from her brown eyes. And, then, he realised something else: she trusted him wholeheartedly and he could never let her down:

"John, I’m gonna need your help here, ok? Take that first aid box inside the backpack and the bottles we filled with the water we took in the river."

"Alright..."

He looked at Monica and gently put some strands of her hair behind her ear:

"I’m gonna take care of you, sweetie, I promise..."

"I know...", she whispered, with a feeble smile.

The blond angel carefully placed her on the ground and put his coat under her head. After, he took off her coat and tore the left sleeve of her sweatshirt: the small bullet had opened a wound, which was covered with blood. Andrew felt a blow in his stomach at that image, and it took him all his strengths to keep his emotions under control. John, too, was shocked to see the one he already loved so badly hurt. Nervously, he turned to his little sister:

"Sally, sit over there, ok? I don’t want you to see this..."

Taking the other flash light, the girl obeyed that order under no protest, and went to sit next to the wall of the cave, knees drawn up to her chest and a sad expression on her face.

"I have to stop this bleeding immediately."

"And how are you gonna do this, Andrew?"

He frowned and took a deep breath:

"I hate to say that, but we don’t know how much time we’ll stay here and she can’t hold much longer with a bullet in her shoulder... I’ll try to remove the bullet and then treat the wound."

Andrew opened the first aid kit and took a bottle of alcohol, some bandages, gauze, cotton and all the material necessary for the procedure. John shone the flashlight on Monica’s shoulder and the blond angel wiped all the blood that covered her arm and cleaned the wound.

Then, he took a pair of tweezers, previously heated with a lighter, and dragged the small piece of metal from inside the Irish angel’s left shoulder. The pain Monica felt was more than she could bear, and she let out a cry followed by some tears.

All the procedure lasted about 40 minutes and, at least during this time, there was no sign of the two criminals who had been a constant threat to the group.

Andrew put a dressing on Monica’s shoulder and covered her with his own coat, holding her in his arms again afterwards; her head resting on his chest.

"You’re gonna be fine, Angel Girl... you’re gonna be just fine..."

He kissed her face and stroked her hair, but the little angel was too weak to answer, as she had lost a considerable quantity of blood and experienced intense pain. Both closed their eyes and the blond angel rested his forehead on hers, their faces close together. Completely hopeless, he shed some tears, which came to rest on his friend’s cheeks. They were weak and defenceless, and somebody had to find them as soon as possible; on the contrary, they would not resist much longer, especially Monica.

But how could the search and rescue team find them inside the cave if it was already difficult to look for lost people inside the woods, along a mountain chain? At the same time, they could not get out of the cave, as Bill and Jack were waiting to catch them at the first opportunity they had.

There was nothing more to do except to wait resignedly for any sign of help. The group spent the following hours in complete silence. All of a sudden, Sally, with some tears in her eyes, spoke for the first time: standing on her knees and with her hands conjoined, the girl started to pray:

"Dear God, please help us... My friend Monica is hurt and needs to go to hospital. Send somebody to take her out of here... And protect us from those bad men..."

"Sally, what are you doing?..."

"I’m talking to God, John. Monica said that we are all His children and that we can talk to Him whenever we feel like, because He is always listening. And it’s true because when we got out of the river and were lost in the woods, we prayed for help and then you and Andrew showed up."

Hearing those words, Andrew raised his head and looked to the little girl, realising something that he had not noticed before: the last time he had prayed was inside the bus, some hours before the accident happened. Since then, his faith seemed to have disappeared gradually and the angel seemed to have forgotten who he really was.

But that little girl, that innocent child, had just taught him a lesson he would remember for the rest of his existence: to trust in the Father and put his destiny in His hands in the most difficult hours, because He would never abandon them. Although as an angel that had always sounded so natural to him, in human form, feeling trapped and defenceless, he had to relearn all those valuable teachings.

"Do you really think God knows where we are? Do you think He can hear us?", the boy asked. But it was the blond angel who answered to that question:

"Sally’s right, John. God is always listening to our prayers, watching our actions and taking care of each and every single creature in this world. He never forgets anybody... Even if we, sometimes, forget about Him and how much He loves us..."

"But... if He is taking care of us, then how could He let something so bad happen to Monica?!"

"What happened to Monica was not His fault, John. There’s evil in the world too; and we’ve been exposed to it for the last hours. And even if the accident hadn’t occurred, those men would’ve attacked us and the other children at the campsite..."

At that moment, a beautiful glow involved Andrew’s figure, causing the children’s eyes to grew wide:

"...And that’s why He sent some angels to be with you, in this very difficult hour..."

"So... you’re an angel?!", John asked, not believing in what he was seeing. His astonishment was shared by his sister’s:

"A real angel, just like the ones who live in Heaven?!"

"Yes, I am. And so is Monica. And, at first, even I was feeling abandoned, hopeless and frightened, questioning why so many bad things could have happened to us. But, now, I understand why God sent us here..."

"To protect my brother and I? To be on our side all this time?"

He smiled:

"Yes, Sally. So don’t be afraid, children, because you were never alone, believe me."

"But we aren’t at the campsite, and, now, Monica is badly hurt..."

"Yes, but she’s not alone either. After all that’s happened, we are still all together, close to her and helping God to take care of her."

The blond angel bowed his head and closed his eyes:

"Oh Father, please, forgive me... I should have known that you would never abandon your servants and these two children. And now, in this most difficult hour, I have to thank you for putting into this little girl’s words everything that I had to listen... She gave me back what I had lost at the moment the accident happened: my faith. And, without it, I was never able to believe in anything else..."

All of a sudden, Andrew felt the ever-loving presence of The Almighty inside his heart and all around, and knew it was an immediate reply to his words.

"So that’s what we need right? To have faith?..."

The angel smiled at the two siblings:

"Yes, that’s everything we need, John. To have faith and trust in His infinite power."

Together, the children and the blond angel spent the following minutes praying, for them and for Monica.

*

Suddenly, their prayers were interrupted by a noise coming from the outside:

"Listen!...", John cried, with his heart pounding loudly in excitement, "... it’s a helicopter!"

CHAPTER 11

The unmistakable noise of propellers echoed through the mountains and the woods, like an announcement of hope for the group:

"John is right! There are people looking for us!", Sally was as excited as her brother.

"We gotta go outside and show them we’re here!"

The boy ran towards the entrance of the cave, but his sister’s voice made him stop:

"Wait John! What about those two men?"

That question remained unanswered for a few seconds. Andrew looked at Monica and noticed that she was paler than before and her human form would not hold much longer without a proper treatment:

"We’re gonna have to take the risk, guys. If we stay here, nobody’s gonna never find us."

Carefully, he lay his best friend on the ground and walked until the entrance of the cave, checking the surroundings:

"It seems that they’re not here. Let’s go find a clearing where those people in the helicopter can see us, and we have to be fast!"

He held Monica in his arms and kissed her forehead:

"Hold on, sweetie. You’ll get out of here; all of us will, ok?"

The blond angel left the cave followed by the children, and they started to look for an open area where they could be seen by the pilot of the helicopter. Walking on the rocky and inclined terrain was never easy; least was to do this carrying a wounded person in one’s arms. But the group never gave up, on the contrary, although they were physically weak, a sudden inward strength seemed to take control over them and to make them strive for survival like they had never done before.

And that extra dose of effort was soon rewarded:

"Over there! I can see some big rocks and a small river!...", pointed the boy, spotting a stream that flowed on big rocks, crossing the woods. In some minutes, they arrived at the area, where trees did not grow up, making it possible to spot a lost person from up above.

The helicopter was passing by the place a second time when Andrew and the children raised their hands and waved. And the pilot, together with the other members of the search and rescue team could finally see them:

"Eagle to Fox, do you copy Fox?

"Fox to Eagle, we can hear you."

"We’ve found them; repeat, we’ve found them!"

Andrew kneeled on the huge rocks that composed the river banks holding his dear friend in his arms; the children sat beside the two angels and they saw the pilot’s signal indicating he had already seen them and asking them to wait there.

The siblings looked at each other with a smiled on their faces:

"We’re going home! Did you hear this Sally? We’re going home!"

The blond angel turned to Monica and stroked her cheek; relief now evident on his face:

"See honey? We’re safe now..."

Without saying a word, she blinked some tears and smiled weakly at him. But suddenly, a noise coming from the nearby bushes drew their attention and they looked to their opposite side, watching horrified when Bill and Jack showed up from behind the vegetation:

"I knew I had got one of them and that they wouldn’t go too far!", said the black-haired thief, with an evil look in his eyes, "I just wish it was this guy, so that we wouldn’t take so long to find them!"

Quickly, the children hid themselves behind their friends and held each other, both trembling with fear. Andrew stared at the men and, at that moment, the angel felt that something had changed inside him: all the fear he carried with him throughout that journey had been replaced by a sensation of trust in God’s presence:

"You leave us alone!"

"Leave you alone?! You’ve been a pain in the neck for the last two days and screwed up our plans! Don’t you think you deserve a little punishment for all the trouble you made?!", shouted Bill, with irony in his voice and preparing to push the trigger of his gun. But realising what was about to happen, Jack interfered:

"Hey man, what you think you’re doin’?!"

"Jack will you shut up?!"

"Don’t you see what kind of trouble you’re gonna get us in?! Let them go and let’s gonna get outta here too, soon there’ll be a lot of people around here and I don’t wanna stay to see what’s gonna happen!"

"Ok, but let’s teach these idiots a lesson first!"

Jack put himself between the group and Bill, trying everything he could to dissuade the other thief from hurting someone else:

"Don’t be such a jerk, Bill! Look at them! It’s just a bunch of kids and two adults that are totally defenceless! Isn’t it enough what you did to this woman?!"

"Get outta way, Jack, I’m warning you!"

"No, I won’t get out! I won’t let you hurt these people! And you put that gun down!", the other man insisted, grabbing Bill’s arm. But the black-haired thief was fast and punched him on the face with so much violence that Jack fell on the rocky ground. With anger shining in his eyes, Bill glared at the angels and the children and, once more, pointed his gun in their direction.

"Sally, John, stay behind me...", Andrew said, tightening his hold on his best friend.

But, a second before the black-haired man shoot, Jack stood on his feet and grabbed the thief’s hand, causing him to miss the target and fire towards the bushes:

"I’m not gonna let you do this, you stupid coward!", he shouted, trying to take the gun from his hand. There was a fight, but it did not last too long: one more shot was heard: Jack fell on the rocky soil again, but this time with blood in his stomach. Bill looked down at his former partner and, after, to the group:

"You damn idiots!", he screamed, furiously, "Look what you’ve done! It’s all your fault!!!

But, before he could even aim his gun at them for the third time, another voice echoed through the woods:

"Freeze!"

A policeman, together with two rangers, was pointing his gun at the thief:

"Drop the gun down!", he commanded. Bill remained still, as if deciding to continue or not.

"Drop the gun down, now!"

Some seconds of indecision passed by. Once again, the criminal looked at the man who was fallen on the ground, and finally released his gun. Immediately, the policeman and the rangers ran towards him and put a pair of handcuffs on the thief:

"It’s ok now, send the search and rescue, there are two people hurt here!", he said, already removing Bill from the place.

A minute later, the members of the search and rescue arrived in the place, led by a very familiar face: Tess went to check on Monica while the other two men drew their attention to Jack, who was in critical condition:

"Tess...", Andrew whispered, relieved to see his friend and supervisor.

"It’s over now, Angel Boy; you’ll get out of here...", she said, rubbing his shoulder. Both looked down at Monica:

"She’s hurt..."

"I’m gonna take care of her, don’t worry."

The Irish angel and the other thief were placed on stretchers and carried to the helicopter, together with Andrew and the children, and everybody returned to the city hospital.

CHAPTER 12

Andrew was walking from one side to another, in the corridor of the hospital he, Monica, the children and Jack had been taken to. With a new bandage on his forehead and his forearm in plaster, he had an anguished expression on his face and was impatiently running his fingers through his blond hair. After a few minutes Tess, together with a middle aged man, came out of the ICU:

"So have you finished? How is she?!", the blond angel eagerly asked.

"Andrew, what are you doing in here?! The doctor said you should be in your room, under observation!"

Although the supervisor was not surprised to see him there, her concern for his human physical condition was evident.

"I just couldn’t, Tess! It’s been over 2 hours since we arrived here and they took her to the ICU! I wanna know what’s happening, I can’t be waiting here..."

"You just cool yourself down!", she said, with a mock stern look, "Monica will be just fine! Doctor Travis here, together with his colleagues, has just finished working on her!"

The blond angel heaved a sigh of relief when he heard those words:

"Oh, thank you God!..."

"So, you’re the one that took that bullet from her shoulder and treated her wound, hum?", the doctor asked, "I’d like to congratulate you, son, you did a great job! Your friend has lost some blood, but the bullet didn’t enter a vital organ or vein. But your taking care of her was of extreme importance too. You not only stopped the bleeding, avoiding a hemorrhage, but, by extracting the bullet, you also prevented a possible infection. If you hadn’t been there, if you hadn’t done this, I’m afraid that young lady wouldn’t have survived."

"I would do anything for her, sir. I would even change places with her if I could."

Smiling, Tess looked at her ‘Angel Boy’ and it was possible to see how proud she was of him:

"I’d say that Monica had an angel to watch over her all the time, doctor Travis!"

"Can I see her?", he asked, eager to hold his dear friend in his arms again.

"Well, we gave her some medication for the pain and she’s asleep now..."

The doctor could see the anxiety in the angel’s eyes and elected not to leave him waiting any longer:

"... but I think it’s ok if you went in there to check on her for a few minutes."

"Come with me, baby."

Andrew anxiously followed the older angel and supervisor. They crossed the gates of the ICU and Tess opened the second door on their left, allowing him to go first.

Monica was fast asleep and had an IV tube inserted in her right arm. Quickly, the blond angel walked to her bed, holding her hand and softly stroking her hair:

"It’s over now, sweetie. And Tess and I will be right here with you, until you get better, we promise, don’t we, Tess?"

"Of course we will, baby...", she answered, with some tears rolling down on her cheeks. He leaned and brushed a loving kiss on her forehead.

"There were times I thought that nightmare would never end...", the angel said, never stopping soothing Monica’s hair.

"I can imagine, Angel Boy. And I’m glad you made it, despite everything that has happened..."

"Where are John and Sally?"

"They’re in a room in the same corridor you should be right now."

"Are they alright?"

"Yes, the two are still scared and have a few scratches and small cuts, but nothing serious. They’re gonna stay for the night as well."

"What about the other children, Mrs Peters and Mr Stokes?"

"Everybody is safe and sound. They were found on the road by a couple who was travelling to a town near the campsite in the morning after the accident took place. They immediately asked for help and all of them were rescued and taken to this hospital. I took care of them myself, as my assignment was to be here and help the other doctors at the emergency room."

He smiled content to hear those news.

"Let’s leave her rest now, baby. You’re hurt too and need to stay under observation."

Andrew turned to his best friend and whispered into her ear:

"I’ll be back later, Angel Girl. You take some sleep now, ok? I love you."

He kissed her once more and they left the room. The older angel wrapped an arm around his waist while they were walking in the corridor:

"Tess, why was the police together with the search and rescue team? I mean, how did they know about the thieves?"

"Well, I was together with the search and rescue when they were looking for you two and the children. When we found the precarious campsite used by those men, we knew that it couldn’t have been you who did it, as you didn’t have any material or food with you. And there, we found Sally’s hairpin. As there was a warning on the radio about two thieves who had escaped from a prison in the neighbour state a few months ago, we just connected the facts. So the police was called to help finding you, as that mission became more dangerous."

"And how did you find us?"

"It was not easy because you were far away from where the accident took place and we went to the opposite direction in the beginning. Only after some time we decided to split up and another group started to look for you near the river. We were almost giving up and returning to where we had begun because there were no more trace of you on the way when..."

The supervisor frowned with a sad look on her face:

"... when we heard two shots..."

A brief silence passed between the two, as they knew that the second shot was the one which came to rest on their friend’s body. Tess kept on talking:

"At that moment we knew that you were somewhere nearby, and so were the two criminals."

They left the ICU and headed to the 4^th floor of the hospital. But there, in the ICU, in that same corridor, another patient was being operated at that moment: Jack was surrounded by a group of doctors who were trying everything they could to make him survive. But that was not an easy task, considering that the internal damage caused by the bullets fired from Bill’s gun had been extremely serious.

*

Later, at night, Andrew and Tess went to Sally and John’s room and, when they opened the door, the image before their eyes warmed their hearts and made them smile: brother and sister were holding their parents and reporting the adventure they had just lived:

"... in the beginning I was afraid, but, after, I knew we would make it, because we talked to God and He was with us all the time!", the little girl said.

The two angels looked at each other smiling happily when they heard those words:

"Excuse me...", the blond angel interrupted.

"Hey, here he is! Come in you two!", the boy invited, turning to his parents "Mom, dad, this is Andrew. It was him and Monica who were with us all the time!"

The couple looked at him gratefully:

"It’s an honour to meet you, Andrew. I heard that, besides everything you did for our children, you and your friend saved all the passengers in that bus.", the children’s father thanked, shaking Andrew’s hand.

"Words cannot express how much grateful we are!", Mrs Hudson said, holding tightly to her daughter, "Thank you very much..."

"You don’t have to thank me, Mrs Hudson. I guess Sally is pretty right: we were not alone there. And, besides this, you have two brave children!"

"Oh, mom, it was Monica, Andrew’s girlfriend, who took me out of the river!", the girl said. The blond angel’s face was immediately red at that comment and Tess rolled her eyes to the ceiling, secretly amused by his embarrassment.

"How is she, Andrew?", Mrs Hudson asked.

"Monica is alright now. The doctors examined her and said that she’ll recover pretty soon."

"Can we see her?", John asked.

"She is still in the ICU baby, but, if everything goes well, and I’m sure it will, tomorrow she will be removed to another room and then you can see her.", Tess answered. She and Andrew said goodnight to the family and he went to his bedroom, while the supervisor came back to her work a an ER doctor.

That was the first night they could sleep peacefully after all that had happened, and their prayers were all to thank God for allowing that nightmare to have finally finished.

CHAPTER 13

As soon as he woke up, on the following morning, Andrew took a quick shower, changed his clothes and went straight to the ICU. Silently, the blond angel entered Monica’s room and sat on a chair beside her bed. Holding her free hand (her left arm was immobilised) and kissing her cheek, he watched her sleep for some time. But the Irish angel seemed to feel his loving presence next to her and slowly opened her eyes:

"Hello there! ‘Morning, Miss Wings!", he had a gentle smile on his face and his bright green eyes reflected all the love he felt for her.

"Andrew...", she whispered, also smiling, and moved her hand to stroke his cheek, "...I was dreaming about you..."

Once again, he took her hand and kissed her palm:

"And how exactly was this dream?"

"We were walking on a vast field, full of flowers. They were moving with the soft breeze that was blowing and had a lovely perfume. The sun was warm and bright and the sky was so blue..."

The smile on his face turned into a mischievous one:

"Was I tickling you?"

She started giggling at that question and at the memory of his fingers touching her stomach:

"Of course not!...", answered the angel, with a beautiful smile.

"So where’s the fun?!", he asked, with mock disappointment. Monica kept on talking:

"We walked until the field was over and then, there was a beach, with calm waters. But I wasn’t afraid. I let the small waves touch my feet and we took a long walk in the sand, enjoying the view... It was so beautiful, Andrew."

"I’m happy you had a peaceful night."

"Yes, I really had. But you know what was the best part of the dream? It was when I woke up and saw you here, looking at me..."

He lowered his head for a second, slightly blushed. At that moment, Tess opened the door and Monica grinned at her supervisor:

"Tess!"

"Hello baby!"

Andrew made room for the oldest angel to come closer to the bed. She held Monica’s hand and leaned to kiss her forehead.

"Andrew and I missed you so much, Tess!"

"Oh... and I missed you two more than never, Angel Girl, believe me!"

She tried to hold back some tears which were forming on the corner of her eyes, "You are my angel babies and I think I’ll never be able to bear another assignment without you again!", she stated, almost bursting into tears. They smiled at her precarious attempt to contain her emotion:

"The same goes to you, Tess!", said the blond angel.

"And right now, I’m going to take good care of you, Miss Wings, and if you behave like an angel is supposed to do, I’ll remove you out of the ICU today!"

"Yes ma’am! I promise I will!", answered Monica, amused by the way her dear friend unsuccessfully tried to look and sound tough and stern.

At that moment, Andrew felt a soft voice speaking right to his heart and silently nodded, leaning to kiss Monica’s head:

"Well, once Tess is in command here, I’m sure you will be in good hands, Angel Girl!"

She stopped smiling:

"Where are you going?"

"I have an assignment to fulfil right now. But it won’t take long, sweetie, I promise."

There was a fight for life going on in one of the rooms in the ICU. A group of doctors were desperately trying to stabilise a patient who had arrived there the day before. Jack was losing his vital signs due to complications occurred in the surgery to remove the bullet, as the object had entered vital organs of his body:

"We’re losing him!"

"Let’s try the CPR again!"

"Ok, on three. One, two, three!..."

Although his body was on the bed, being treated by the doctors, Jack’s soul was standing right beside it, watching all the procedure. At that moment, he saw another person entering the room: Andrew was involved by an intense glowing and unseen to the human eye. The thief looked at him with astonishment:

"You’re... you’re the guy in the woods!..."

"Yes, Jack, I was there, together with my friend and the two children."

"But you didn’t die, it was the woman who got shot, so how come you’re here?!...", he had a puzzled expression on his face.

"I’m an angel, Jack, sent by God."

"An angel?... God sent me an angel?..."

"That’s right."

Amazement and shock were evident on the man’s eyes:

"But... why would He send an angel to a ... a thief like me?!"

"You’re His child too, and proofed to be deserving of His love at the moment you faced an evil and armed man to protect four innocent people who couldn’t defend themselves."

"I didn’t mean to hurt any of you... I’ve never killed anybody!", said the man.

"I know that, Jack. And, most importantly, God knows that too. He saw when you gave up yourself to defend other people’s lives, even knowing how risky and fatal it would be for you."

An expression of deep sadness appeared on the man’s face:

"I... I committed so many crimes in my life... I stole, lied and hurt so many people’s feelings... And now, before you, I feel so ashamed of those things!..."

"It’s not to me that you have to ask for forgiveness."

Jack conjoined his hands and cried:

"Oh God... I’m sorry!... I’m so sorry... If I could turn back time everything would’ve been different!"

After watching the man praying for forgiveness for some minutes, Andrew spoke again:

"... you cannot turn back time...", he replied, "...You must know that."

The thief looked at the angel:

"I’m gonna die, right?", he asked, resignedly. The angel sighed deeply:

"Jack, sooner or later everyone will have to be prepared to meet the Father. And so will you... But not here, not now."

"I don’t understand..."

"In the same way you were merciful to the ones in need, God wants to give you a second chance, a new opportunity for you to fix the mistakes you’ve made in your life."

"A second chance? For me?", asked Jack, with his eyes full of hope and hardly believing in what Andrew was saying. The blond angel smiled:

"God loves you, Jack. He loves you so much! And right now, He is very proud of you for what you’ve done in the woods.", he put his hand on the man’s shoulder, "Take this opportunity to make Him proud of you not just for one day, but all the days of your life!"

A second later, Jack was gone and one of the doctors announced:

"Ok, we did it! His heartbeats turned into the normal rhythm again! He is stabilised!"

Still smiling, Andrew looked at the man lying on the bed once more and left the room.

*

Two days later, now on the 4^th floor of the hospital:

"Good morning, Miss Wings!", said Andrew, opening the door of Monica’s room and carrying a tray with her breakfast. Monica was sitting on the bed and smiled happily at her dear friend:

"I brought you a double mocha latte and some cookies!", he placed the tray on the side table of her bed, "But don’t let Tess know about it, ok?!"

But the Irish angel didn’t show much enthusiasm about her favourite drink:

"Oh Andrew... You’re so kind... Thank you, but..."

"Hey, what is it, Angel Girl?"

"I know it’s strange, but... I don’t feel like drinking coffee..."

He frowned and sat on the bed, in front of her, placing his hand on her forehead:

"Are you feeling alright?!"

She kept on smiling:

"Yes, I am. I just feel a wee bit nauseous, that’s all."

"It must be the medication."

"Probably. But there’s something else I could use..."

"So tell me what it is and I’ll bring it for you!"

"...a hug.", came the simple answer.

Andrew smiled lovingly and pulled her closer, wrapping his arms tightly around her. The Irish angel sighed with contentment:

"That’s much better than all the coffee in the world, you know.", she said, resting her head on his shoulder.

"You’re not saying this because you feel nauseous, are you?"

Giggling at his comment, she covered his entire face with tiny kisses to prove the truth of her words:

"I swear I’m not!"

"Well I guess your arguments managed to convince me...", he said, hugging her again. At that moment, John and Sally opened the door of the room. Together with them were Tess, Mrs Peters, Mr Stokes (in a wheelchair, because of the plaster in his leg) and the other children who were in the bus:

"See John? I told you to knock on the door, they were almost kissing each other and you interrupted!..."

Andrew stood up, crossing his arms in front of his chest, and, due to his deeply red face, Monica elected not to laugh at the little girl’s words, which was not easy for her:

"Sally, dear, Andrew and I are friends!...", the Irish angel said, and looked at all the others, "... and we’re very happy to see you all here!"

"They have something to say to you, babies...", Tess announced.

John took a bunch of flowers that was in Mrs Peters hands and gave it to Monica:

"We came here to thank you two!", said the boy. She took the flowers and smelled their perfume:

"Oh, they’re lovely!"

"It’s very kind of you all!", said Andrew, standing on Monica’s side and gently stroking her hair.

"Monica, Andrew, we will never be able to thank you enough for saving our lives", said Mrs Peters, "I don’t even want to think about what would’ve happened if you two weren’t in that bus that night. But when I think about you risking your own lives for us, I can only come to the conclusion that God interceded on our behalf, putting you two there, at the right time, at the right place."

"I could even say you’re angels sent by God!", Mr Stokes exclaimed, causing everybody to laugh loudly. The three angels exchanged an amused look, and winked at John and Sally, all of them smiling broadly.

*

Later, everybody bid them farewell and left Monica’s room. Andrew took a seat beside her on her bed and took her hand into both of his, while Tess sat on the other side, stroking Monica’s hair.

"You should rest, Angel Girl. You too, baby. You’ve been through a lot in the last few days and I want you to get better pretty soon!"

"I know that, Tess, but I just can’t seem to relax. I guess I’m still... shaken up by what happened...", the Irish angel said.

"Me too, Tess.", her friend agreed, "Maybe because we’ve never been exposed to so much... fear..."

The supervisor nodded:

"Neither have I, babies, believe me. When the Father gave you two this assignment and, right after that, asked me to stay in this hospital, at the ER, my heart told me something bad was about to happen. And, since then, I have been praying for you and for those people’s safety."

"Only now I can understand why you insisted on us to keep our faith when you gave us this assignment, that day in the park.", Monica said. Andrew’s face turned into a sad one:

"And almost forgot that...", he shook his head, "I felt abandoned and lost... How wrong I was."

"And I’m glad you’ve realised that in time, Angel Boy. Because there was Someone with you when that bus rolled down the hill and nobody was seriously hurt. There was Someone with Sally and John when they were expelled from the vehicle without suffering any injuries. And there was Someone guiding you and those children in the woods, through the darkness and during the day."

Knowing the truth in those words, they looked at each other with a slight smile and nodded. Tess kept on talking:

"As Mrs Peters said, if you weren’t in the bus, nobody would’ve survived, because she and Mr Stokes were stuck under the seats and wouldn’t have been able to help anyone. Besides, nobody would’ve found the siblings and the two would have to meet with the adversities of the woods, as well as to face that evil, man alone. The same man who was planning to attack the campsite if the accident hadn’t happened..."

"The Father is so wise!", Andrew said, squeezing Monica’s free hand. The Irish angel looked at her two friends with emotion evident in her eyes:

"And I’m glad He used us as instruments of His wisdom. But I’m also glad that, after all that has happened, I’m right here, with you two, as I love you very very much!"

With no more words spoken, the three angels held one another in a tight hug, and remained like this for a long time.

EPILOGUE

"...Andrew, I can’t believe you won’t tell me where we’re going!", Monica protested, with a broad smile on her face, while her dearest friend held her hand and led her on the street, near the park they had visited some weeks before. She was wearing a beautiful hat, a flowered dress and a pair of comfortable sandals, and the wound on her shoulder was completely healed.

"I told you, Angel Girl, it’s a surprise!", Andrew answered, delighted with her childlike curiosity.

"But I don’t even know if... if I’m dressed properly!", she said, desperately trying to find a reason to make him reveal his secret.

He stopped walking, held her other hand and looked at her, contemplating her delicate features:

"You look absolutely gorgeous!"

Slightly blushed, she lowered her eyes for a brief moment, raising them again when they heard the noise of a horn near them:

"Anybody here asked for this baby?!", Tess said, smiling at her two charges. Andrew opened the door of the red Cadillac:

"Tess you’re such an angel for doing this!"

The supervisor got out of the car and her face turned into a serious one:

"And you’d better take good care of my precious baby, you hear me, Mr?!", she had a mock stern look in her eyes.

"Yes ma’am!", he replied, with the same mock seriousness.

"Now you two go, ‘cause I have other business to take care of..."

"Are you sure you don’t wanna come with us?"

"No. I think I’ll finally take the opportunity to take a walk in this park..."

"Ok, see you later then!"

Andrew led Monica until the car, opening the door for her and waiting until she could take a seat.

"Goodbye Tess!"

"Bye bye angel babies!"

The supervisor watched as the red Cadillac went away and then glanced at her watch:

"Where is he?!...", she murmured, impatiently looking around her. A second later, Sam came up in the corner of the street:

"Oh, finally!"

"Hey Tess!"

"You are late, Sir!"

"I’m sorry, Tess. Phil had an assignment near here so we came together and... well... we got lost..."

"You came with Phil?!", Tess exclaimed, even more distressed.

"Well, never mind. I’m here anyway; and now come on, let’s take a walk in the park and enjoy our day off!"

She held his left arm and they entered the park, enjoying the nature that surrounded them.

*

About half an hour later:

"Are we close yet?", Monica asked, burning with curiosity. But Andrew decided to keep the mystery:

"Just a few more minutes, ok, Angel Girl?"

"Can’t you tell me at least what kind of place it is?"

"Nope."

"Will there be other people there?..."

His answer was a silent smile. But she insisted:

"Do they serve coffee?..."

At that moment, Andrew turned on the right and left the asphalt road. They were in the countryside and there weren’t other houses nearby. Some kilometres ahead, the car finally stopped and Monica’s eyes grew wide when she looked at the scenery that surrounded them:

"Oh my Goodness! Andrew!"

A vast field, fully covered with flowers, lay before them, with some high trees spread along it. The sweet smell of the flowers, gently moving with the breeze, invaded their lungs, and, together with the bright sunshine, brought them a feeling of inner peace. And, to complete that perfect picture, a beautiful beach lay on the foot of the hill they were in, with its blue and calm waters softly hitting the sand.

"...That’s the place that appeared in my dream!...", the Irish angel exclaimed, still astonished. "How on Earth did you find it?!"

"Well... let’s say I had a little help...", he replied, looking up to the sky. She smiled broadly and all her love for him was reflected in her eyes:

"Oh Andrew, I love you so much!..."

Monica threw herself in his arms, hugging him tightly and placing a loving kiss on his cheek.

"I was thinking and wondering where would be the best place to have a picnic with my Angel Girl, and then, when you told me about your dream..."

"A picnic?!"

"Yes, we have everything we need right here!..."

They got out of the Cadillac and Andrew took the basket that was in the back seat of the car, hidden by a blanket.

"Fruit, sandwiches, pieces of cake and...", he took a thermos flask, which was also hidden beside the basket, "... coffee! But I can leave it here if you still don’t feel like drinking it...", he joked, with a mischievous smile. Monica desperately took the bottle from his hands:

"I’m afraid there isn’t such a strong medicine..."

Laughing loudly, the blond angel grabbed her hand and they started to walk along the flowers. Monica left her sandals in the car, as to feel as free as possible was something that she needed deeply.

They settled in the shade of a high tree, where they placed the picnic blanket and the food which was inside the basket. After having a fast snack (which meant three cups of coffee for Monica), the two angels went down the small hill, and, some minutes later, were on a small and desert beach.

Chatting happily, Monica and Andrew took a long walk on the sand and the Irish angel let the small waves hit her ankles without any reservations:

"I can see you’re enjoying the water, Angel Girl!", Andrew observed, also walking barefoot beside her, his arms wrapped around her shoulder.

"In fact, it’s a funny sensation to feel the foam around my feet!...", she said, "...it’s as if it was..."

She didn’t dare to finish the sentence, as her friend already had a mischievous smile on his face:

"... tickling you?!", he completed. She looked at him with pleading eyes:

"Yes... but you were not doing this in my dream, remember?"

"Yeah, you’re right. And I’d much rather take you by surprise anyway!"

She heaved a sigh of relief, and, noticing they were back to the foot of the hill, she smiled:

"Up for a cup of coffee?"

"Yes, literally!"

Suddenly, he grabbed Monica around the waist and lifted her into his arms. She started giggling as the blond angel carried her across the slope:

"I’ll give you a ride, Angel Girl!"

"If this is a new transportation system for angels, I thoroughly approve of it!", she joked, wrapping her arms around his neck.

He climbed the slope, which wasn’t much inclined, and soon they were back to the place of the picnic.

"Angel Girl delivered right on time for the next coffee!", the blond angel put the laughing angel down.

"Thank you, Sir!"

They sat on the grass and he poured his friend a cup of coffee and another for him.

"You know, I’m not as fond as coffee as you are, but today, I’ll drink along with you!"

Monica stared at him for some seconds and, suddenly, her face clouded over, causing her to low her eyes. Andrew immediately noticed that change and looked at her with a worried frown:

"Hey, Monica, what is it?", he asked, putting his cup aside and taking her hand.

"I’m sorry, Andrew. I didn’t mean to worry you...", she said, not wanting anything to mar that day.

"You’ll worry me if you don’t tell me what happened."

She sighed with sorrow:

"I’ve realised something during this last assignment, you know... For many years, I feared water, without even having a reason, and I now know it’s a silly thing because, now, I’ve found out what my worst fear really is..."

Feeling the sadness which was coming from her heart, the blond angel tried to dissuade her from talking about what had happened, as he too wanted to forget how much pain they had been through:

"Monica, please, don’t..."

"My worst fear, Andrew, is losing you as well as Tess. You two, together with the Father, are everything to me."

Those words touched him deeply:

"Oh Monica...", he got closer to her and, grabbing her face with both hands, kissed her forehead, "You know that the same goes to you."

"I love you so much, that, if one day I had to be away from you, I think my heart would break into pieces..."

He wiped some tears that rolled down on her face and gently stroked her cheek:

"Come with me, I wanna show you something..."

The blond angel helped her on her feet and they walked for some meters, until they were in a part of the hill where it was possible to view the entire beach, the other hills in the opposite side of the bay, as well as the albatrosses flying in the bluest of the skies, carried by the soft breeze that blew from the sea.

From behind, Andrew wrapped his left arm around her waist and his right arm around her shoulder, pulling Monica closer to him as they contemplated the breathtaking view.

"Take a look around you, sweetie, and see how much beauty the Father has created..."

He kissed her once wounded shoulder:

"...He created this for all of us, humans and angels, because He loves us very very much!"

Sensing the truth in his words, she smiled again:

"Yes... He really does..."

"And you know what? With His great wisdom, He would never do anything that would cause pain to a single creature in this world. On the contrary, together with all this beauty, He gave us another wonderful present: love. All we have to do is to pass on the love He put in our hearts to make all this beauty complete!..."

He whispered close to her ear:

"...and that’s why He brought us together!"

The Irish angel looked at him with a confident expression on her face, her sad memories seeming to have vanished from her mind:

"That was the most valuable present He ever gave me!"

Noticing that he had managed to cheer her up again, the blond angel smiled and continued to talk close to her:

"So fear not, Angel Girl. Because He would never take it away from you! All the love you and I, together with Tess, share, is endless; and it’s also a proof of His work. And, because of this, even when we’re not together, our hearts will always be connected to one another!"

"This I’m definitely sure about.", she replied, turning her body completely to face him, "And I won’t fear, I promise."

Andrew kissed her cheeks lovingly, and placed a tiny kiss on the tip of her nose, hugging her tightly once more as they continued to enjoy the view:

"The Father is indeed wonderful. There are times when we think that He has forgotten about us and our hopes seem to have completely vanished... And that is when He is closer than ever...", Monica said.

"...carrying us in His arms.", her best friend completed. After a brief silence, the Irish angel concluded:

"I guess that’s what makes us His children..."

A white dove cooed and flew from the top of a high tree, crossing the blue sky, also becoming a part of that beautiful scenario.

THE END.