• I watched through the mist as they lowered her into the cold earth. We stood, all of us like a black cloud haunting the white angel as it fell. She looked so beautiful in her white dress. Even death could not remove that from her. I felt my fists clench so tightly they began to ache, even my right hand.
    As the funeral precession filed slowly away I couldn’t help but to kneel at the gravestone freshly erected.
    I pulled the glove from my left hand and brushed my fingers over the stone like one caresses a cheek. For me, this is as close as I would get, for on this day death had taken Sarah from me. I felt a lone tear run down my cheek as I read her epitaph. She deserved all the tears in the world but none would bring her back. I replaced my glove and placed my right hand on her grave. It was a hand of bone.
    “This is who I am. Look at me.” I pulled back my sleeve to show my arm to her sightless eyes. “An arm made of bone. All the rest stripped by some horrific curse. Do you know what people thought of me? I am a freak of nature. But you saw past all of that. You…” I pulled back my hood and let the rain slide down my face. “You saw this. And now you’re gone. I couldn’t save you. So it is in the shadows I must reside now.” I picked up my scythe and replaced my hood. “Without you by my side I’m nothing. I was never meant for heaven’s light. Goodbye Sarah. May angels lead you in.”
    From that day on I began to travel. I became a traveling mercenary. I would kill so that I could eat. To kill as a profession didn’t even bother me anymore. I would slit a man’s throat for a bowl of rice. How desperate I became.
    I laughed to keep from weeping one night as I sat underneath a willow tree. Three years ago on that night I had been cursed. I was seventeen.
    It was storming that night, and we all hid in our hovels, our village that is. Nearby we could hear the battle raging between the two wizard clans. A sorcerer, a black mage, stumbled into the village demanding we give him a place to rest. We ourselves were allied with the light mages and we were revolted that he dared ask us for assistance. We were poor but proud. He yelled and fury and began to cast some sort of spell. He pointed his staff at a small child. I leaped at the child pushing him away just as the spell was cast. I could feel every fiber of my arm being torn apart, piece-by-piece. Somewhere among my torment I passed out from the sudden loss of blood and pain.
    When I awoke the entire village was burned to the ground and both light and dark mages lay haplessly across the ground.
    My cloak had survived the raging fire but I had no food, no possessions, and most of all, no weapon. There was a long scythe lying on the ground next to me. I reached out for it only to find myself with an arm of bone. I screamed in horror with the realization that it was both mine and that I had full control over it. I wanted to cut it from my body when the realization hit me. My arm, I realized, saved my life. They all mistook the bone for me being dead but instead I was very much alive. I knew I had to keep my arm hidden for all those who saw it would shun me. Unfortunately I was also right handed. Carrying the scythe in my left hand, and using it was to be much of an ordeal for me. In the end I pulled my right hand far into my sleeve relying on my cloak to cover my hand. I passed many towns doing various tasks for food. Never letting my hand show. Finally I came to your village.
    I do not know why but for the first time in my life a feeling I could not understand swept me as I looked upon your daughter. I had such a desire to talk to her I could not dissuade it. As I went to her though she saw my appeal and was afraid of me. I stopped some ways away and called out to her.
    “I do not wish to hurt you, I simply wish to talk.” I laid my scythe on the ground and took a few steps back from it.
    “What is your name stranger,” she called to me. “You have a foul look about you.”
    “I mean you no harm, but I have secrets I must hide.”
    She began to walk towards me. I can never forget the look of her raven hair tumbling like a wave behind her. I could smell the sweet smell of a flower beneath the sweat of the field.
    “What do you want stranger. I have many chores to finish.”
    I needed some excuse to stay close to her. I had to speak with her more.
    “I need a place to rest and a solid meal. I would be only too happy to work for my reward. I have even brought my own tool,” I said turning towards my scythe.
    “Talk to my father. He will consider your offer.”
    “Please good lady, what is your name?”
    “Give me yours and you shall receive mine,” she answered coolly.
    I bowed low. “I am Charlie. A humble traveler.”
    “My name is Sarah.”
    The word tasted sweet to my taste.
    I remember sir, knocking on your door, my scythe stabbed into the ground as proof I wasn’t going to use it to harm.
    You didn’t trust me but you needed help harvesting the wheat. So you let me work.
    I apologize but I could not bear to take my eyes off of your daughter while we worked. She was so beautiful. I have felt affection for other girls before but your daughter was so different. I did not wish to lie down with her, yea I did not lust after her. All I wanted was to talk to her. To even as much as hold her hand seemed like it would be too much for me to stand.
    When you had no place in your cottage for me I asked to sleep in your stable. I had to stay close. I had to see your daughter.
    She found out about my deformity that morning. I must have rolled in my sleep leaving my hand out in the open. She came in early to feed the animals and I heard her gasp. I woke quickly to look upon her face. She had a look of terror on her face.
    “This is why you would not show your face. Your are an unholy demon.”
    I felt my arm, for by some reason I can tell pressure against my bones, was lying out in the open. I had to prove myself innocent. Without thinking I pulled the hood back from my unscathed face.
    “I am no monster. I am just a man. Please, just let me explain.”
    She wouldn’t move closer, but neither did she run. Curiosity made her stay. I began to explain the battle of the magi and the curse and the fear slowly drained from her eyes. I showed her my other arm also as proof.
    She promised not to tell anyone and started to again feed the animals. But as I watched her the realization swept over me. She never took her eyes off of my face. There was almost a hunger in her eyes.
    We began to see each other quite often, as you let me stay as a farmhand. I purchased a leather glove for my bone hand and continued quite happily.
    I will not tell you all of my moments with her, but I promise there was no act of immorality; indeed I barely touched her hand. She was so pure, I felt contact from me would do nothing but defile her. She was so beautiful.
    One night I sat with her among your field and we watched the heavens. It began to rain, but it was not strong and neither of us wanted to leave the other.
    It seemed like an eternity that we stared at each other the rain washing our faces. I raised my right hand to touch her cheek, but remembered and quickly withdrew. She looked at me with such love, such pity in the moment I almost wept. She pulled the glove from my hand and wrapped her pure flesh of her hand around my defiling bone.
    “This is not you.” She said to me. “This is you.” She touched my cheek.
    She took my bone in her hand and pressed it against her cheek softly.
    “I do not fear you. Do not fear me. For I…” We looked into each other’s eyes for an eternity. I could have counted every shade in her eye a hundred times, every time being awed as much as the last. She opened her sweet lips at last. I will never forget the sound of her voice. “I love you.”
    I kissed her. I kissed her for the first and last time. We stayed up all night holding each other’s hands. Neither of us wanted to sleep, afraid to be awoken from this dream.
    The sun came up hours later assuring us that it was not just a dream.
    That day each of us were in a lovers dream. Nothing could break us apart.
    That was when… that was when the bandit’s came. They pulled her away from me and took her. I pulled my scythe close and gave chase.
    The bandit lord had her pulled close in the main square a knife at her neck.
    I fell to my knees.
    “Please.” I begged. “Please I’ll do anything, I’ll give anything, and I will be your hostage. Just don’t hurt Sarah.”
    I could hear you giving similar pleadings beside me.
    The lord looked so cold. I could see it in his eyes. He was evil to the core, a man who had come to love the pain of others.
    He snapped his fingers and bandits appeared all around. You and I were so outnumbered. Even if all of the villagers fought we would still be outnumbered.
    “Hear my words.” He called. “I am the great Lord Jedicai. Your pathetic town has resisted my rule one to many times. You have not given into our demands and have even killed a few of my men. So now I pass my judgment. Every year on this day, one from your village will die. Until there is no one left. None will leave or they will be killed. From now on this town belongs to me.”
    I looked at him with such pleading. He looked back and smiled. He knew my heart. He knew I loved her.
    “Just for the boy there, she will be my first victim.”
    It was as though time had stopped as he stabbed the dagger deep into her stomach.
    You could not speak for shock but I remember my screams echoing from my entire soul. I grabbed my scythe as my vision went red.
    I do not have a clear recollection of what happened next but the townspeople stated that a slaughter of the bandits began. I had an arrow in my shoulder and I still fought on. They cut me and still I fought on. The bandit lord, they said, began to run. I slashed down his guards and ran after him. They said I caught him by the hair, stared at him for minutes and then without warning cut off his head.
    I remember the red fading from my eyes and everyone was dead. All of the bandits were dead. Their wounds were unmistakable, a long deep slash from a scythe. Blood was all over me. It was all over my hands. It was on my face. I began to stumble but I had to reach Sarah. I leaned over her in, gazing into her eyes. She was fading fast. I knew there was nothing I could do. Her clothes were stained red from her blood. I began to weep then. Great red drops as the blood was washed from my face.
    I pulled the dagger from her stomach and laid her hands over the wound.
    I looked into her eyes as I whispered to her. “I love you Sarah.”
    I saw her lips give one last smile before her eyes glazed over.
    My entire soul roared from my body as I yelled unto the sky. I did not stop; I did not breath until the darkness overtook me.
    Then there I lay in the street. Two lovers side by side.

    The villagers nursed me back to health. They pitied me so. Upon seeing my arm they began to wonder. They began to call me an “Angel of Death.”
    But they didn’t love me. I was still a freak to them. After everything I had done. Destroyed an entire brigade of bandits and I still could not have their love.
    But I didn’t want it. I wanted Sarah back.
    When I fully recovered I pulled the glove from my right hand and burned it. Instead I got a glove for my left hand.
    I covered my hand, my face deep within my cloak and withdrew the last of my humanity. I became an “Angel of Death” just like they said. But it was a lie. I was human. I was so human. And my life ended when she died.
    After my travels, which I have previously stated, I wandered upon a small town named Kento. I met three people and they made me stay for a while I do not know why. Their names are John, Alex, and Zora. For the first time since your daughter died I have once again began to feel alive. They do not look upon me as a freak but as a friend.
    But now I come to the reason for this letter.
    I know full well that you never approved of me. I was never good enough for your daughter. For truth, I never was. But I did love Sarah. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t pray for her. Not a year that goes by when I have not visited her grave. She was my only true love. My only kiss. My only and first on many things. I will never lie with another women, as long as I live. But someday I will die. I know you blame me for your daughter’s death and that you hate me, but I ask your blessing. When I die I ask your blessing that you may pray for me. That I will meet Sarah again.
    That angels may lead me in.
    That someday somehow Sarah and I will meet. Never to be parted.


    These thing’s I do ask with utmost sincerity and apology,
    Charlie Augustus