The Guardian
By Paula Stephanie Grogan
By: Paula S. Grogan
Edited by Rhonda Selph and n Paula S. Grogan
Copyright owner, Paula S. Grogan;
Written in Jasper, Texas
Designed by Paula Grogan
Printed in the United States of America:
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These are works of fiction, Names, Characters, places, and incidents are either a product of the writer’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Thank You,
Paula Grogan
A Note
To my children, I love your innocence, and your heart. I love you all so much. To my good friend Rhonda, thank you for keeping it real. I love you girl. To Rhonda’s husband Mike, thank for sharing your wife’s time with me when we worked.
Thank you.
Paula Grogan
Epilogue
The Guardians, look like humans because they once were. Chosen and taken early from thier lives, to devote themselves to the fathers will. Like Man, they were molded and transformed to not only look like man but to have some of the powers of the father. The Guardians can both create and destroy, but only with the grace of God. If they choose to live thier lives in evil as Cipher did, they would be cursed, their powers limited.
The Prophecy itself was made into creation with the purpose of uniting all of God’s creatures together in harmony. At current their is a war going on between the races that humanity is yet to be aware of. In his mighty wisdom he used us, the Guardians to protect and fulfill his plans for the unity of all his creations on Earth. But like all his Creations, we have a choice, and it is that choice that will make or break the future for all mankind.
Things have come into play Keric would never have expected. He was now a thing that never existed. But he was ok with that. He was created in the beauty and majesty of God’s angels. Were once he was weak; his body became strong and fit. His appearance changed his hair darkened to a deep black and his eyes to a glacial blue. He made Keric exactly what he needed to be inorder to fulfill the role he had for him in this life. Through the age’s life felt incomplete for Keric but a trace of humanity has lingered within him in hopes that he would one day find his place among the people of this world.
His name has changed many times over the centuries but in this form his name is Keric Pollard and he was the chosen ones Guardian. He had been appointed by God my father to protect the humans from angels, demons, and werewolves alike. Usually he watched over his charges without direct interference in their lives. But with Coura everything changed. His orders were clear, watch her, protect her and above all keep her and her gifts a secret until the prophesied time to reveal them.
In his time as a Guardian he killed many of God's creations; but he only did it for the greater good. He is one of the marshals of this world. His job is to ensure that there is a semblance of good that exists until it is time for the Prophecy to be fulfilled. In all God’s glory he made a prophet, a witness, who would see what would soon come to pass. And so, went the Prophecy; the very one that would lead him to Coura, millennia later.
The Prophecey stated a child would be born with a soul that flickered like no other. They said she would have gifts to change the world in a ratical way. She would bring forth a daughter that would bring all the clans together in harmony, and the wars would stop, and peace again could reign.
Keric knew she was the one since his father marked her as a child. God put a marker on her soul so that guardians could distinguish her from the others. The mark shown on her soul as a bright light brighter than any light another soul would bear. Just as the Prophecy foretold. He was ordered to come to Earth from the realm and watch over her. As the Prophet had said, “she would one day have the gifts to change the world in a radical way.” But for now, she was just a girl that needed my protection until one day she can restore order to the World and justice, peace, and unity can reign.
Chapter 1
A beer can flew at the side of her head. She ducked just before it made an impact and the can smashed into the wall inches above her crying daughters head. Her daughter Coura stood there shocked for a second and then screaming. At 18 months she did not understand what was happening, but she did know that she was unable to sleep because of the angry voices shouting outside her door. Laurel bent down and picked up her daughter and took her back to bed. In the background she could hear Richards voice slurring out profanities at her. Once her daughter was laid to bed, she walked into the living room.
“You listen here you son of a bitch! Don’t you ever throw anything at me again! You almost hit our daughter; you fucking jackass!” Richard wobbled towards her “I wouldn’t, I …” “Yes, you did!” She screamed. He began talking to himself which confused her. “This is fucking crazy; she’s saying that I threw something at her, but I didn’t it was you!” He was talking into the corner of the room as if someone were there. Laurel was used to Richard talking to himself.
She walked towards the kitchen. A hard hand grabbed her shoulder from behind, “Don’t you fucking walk away from me!” She quickly turned to face him. “I hate you! I hate this situation, I want out! I can’t deal with you anymore. I’m afraid for Coura. What kind of life is this for our little girl? Why can’t you be the man I married?” She cried out through heavy sobs. “I just don’t understand!” She threw her arms up as if she were defeated. Just then he ran at her and pinned her to the wall. She fought to be free of his grip but even drunk he had more strength than her. He came in closer to her. His stagnant liquored breath blew into her face as he spoke. “You are not leaving me Laurel I will not stand for it.” She shuttered back further from his face.
“So, whatever it is you think that you are going to do, you had better get rid of that thought pretty fast.” She pushed with all her might, but he only strengthened his grip. Then out of nowhere he kissed her fiercely. She bit down on his bottom lip, tasting blood instantaneously. He released her for a second as the pain registered. His left hand swung down and hit her across the face. Her head turned with force from the slap. “You bitch!” He swore. A tear streaked down her face but nothing more. He reached his hands out to her throat, she blocked him at first, but he overpowered her trying to get to her throat.
His hands firmly fighting for a death grip around her docile neck. She put her chin down to stop the suffocation from reaching her throat. He tried harder and she flailed kicking him as hard as she could in the shins. In pain he wavered slightly, and she dived for the knife rack and took out the steak knife. They struggled over the knife in her hand. He bent her wrist trying to remove it but being inebriated made him slower than normal, so he went for her throat again. She slashed the knif
e upward slicing his cheek as his hands reached out to choke her. Just then a soft voice called from behind them, “Da da.” Laurel dropped the knife immediately and sunk to the floor. Richard backed up, looking around as he had just awoken. He turned to Laurel and kneeled to her level, his face bleeding. “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry.”
The years passed, and the little girl’s parents divorced. Her father was a marine veteran that spent his evenings drunk unable to get the sights of war from his mind, or so his family believed. Her mother a God-fearing woman stayed with him for a time, but when her longsuffering could endure no more, she thought it best that they part ways. Keric followed Coura and her mother to California. Hiding in Secret where only Coura could see him and know who he was. Standing on the sidelines he would watch over her. Keric was there for her comforting her for all the little ups and downs life threw at her. At first, she thought it normal for her parents to be divorced it had been that way since she was five years old. But things seemed to worsen as reality set in when she reached junior high.
Coura struggled socially in school, as is normal for children with divorced parents. She had a hard time fitting in with others who seemed to live such normal lives. The kids on the bus often picked on her, “Hey ass-hat, I heard the reason your dad left your mom was because he didn’t want you.” knowing that she didn’t come from a two parent home the kids teased her, and threw things at her when she was on the long bus rides home. She would often come home with pieces of apple, or sandwich stuck in the back of her curly, poufy, chestnut hair. She looked so small going down the bus steps, day after day, with a tiny pink backpack that looked too big for her small size, having gigantic tears streaking down her face.
Then as she grew, the kids at school came to ignore her altogether. She would be sitting on a bench alone at school near a trash can and be hit with the trash someone was throwing in. Even her teachers ignored her. She would raise her hand when no one else would and she would still be overlooked. She spent most of her days alone, even in a school of thousands. When Coura wasn’t reading she was writing in her journal or spending time with Keric. (By the time I mean mostly sitting under the large oak in the park spilling all her fears and frustrations to a man that no one else could see.) People thought Coura was crazy and left her to her own devices. They would walk past her and whisper in hushed tones, “Did you see that girl she’s talking to herself,” “freak” another would say; then they would laugh and walk away.
She had a lot of pain and anger towards her mother and her father. She blamed them both for the lack of love she had in her life. She couldn’t understand why her parents had to separate, and while she grew to like her stepdad Marshal, a lean blond man with oversized features, she loathed her parents. Her dad always sent her gifts or cards for no reason. Her mom, a taller lighter haired version of herself did the opposite of her dad and seemed to grow more distant, as though every time she looked at her daughter, she saw Coura’s father, and the hurt that came with it.
A few years after the divorce her father came to visit. “Coura, please just reason with me, darling. I want to be in your life. I know I have messed up in the past and drank too much. But I will stop; I will be sober for you. I would do anything to take back all the hurt and pain that I caused you and your mother.” Coura stood in front of her oak tree in the park arms crossed trying to ignore her father. But what he said made sense and sounded sincere. “You’re going to have to earn my trust back dad;” (she repeated a phrase she heard her mother say to her boyfriend of the week) “we’re not going to be like, bff’s or anything. But yeah, I forgive you.”
Richard let out a sigh of relief. “It’s kind of hard to travel all the way up here from Many every week, so I arranged with your mom a new schedule. I am going to go to AA and show both of you how dedicated I am to recovery, and to seeing you. Then this summer you’ll get to stay with me in Louisiana. Does that sound ok?” She was surprised at his openness. Coura unfolded her arms and looked at her dad, really looked at him. His dark salt and pepper hair was long almost to the bottom of his ears. But he was clean shaven and seemed to look better than the last time she saw him. “I look forward to it dad, I love you.”
She spent that summer with her dad, it was awkward. Her father wasn’t comfortable with his emotions and didn’t articulate how he felt well. Through that summer he had his ups and downs. During his downs he would send Coura to his best friend Roy’s house, on the Reservation. Roy had a son about Coura’s age, and they played together in the Forest most of the summer. She formed a distant relationship with her dad and went home when the summer came to an end. She had just turned seven when she went back to her mom’s house in California. Keric was there the whole time invisible most of the time, until she needed him. While Keric watched he saw her suffer being torn by hurt and anger.
She struggled with self-confidence issues and bouts of depression. She lashed out at her mom often for no reason. Like when her mom tried to sign her up for cheerleading, she threw the biggest fit. She called her mom terrible names, “I hate you! Do you know what people at school say about you? It’s embarrassing!!! They say the reason my dad’s not around is because of you!! They say you were too busy banging half of the Marine Corps than try to keep our family together, and they say I’m going to turn out just like you!”
She lied, trying to do what she could to hurt her mother like she had been hurt. It worked; her mother would go to bed crying on nights like these, and instead of feeling better Coura felt worse. Her fits of emotion would be followed by self-punishment and she would refuse to come out of her room for a week at a time. Her mom walked on eggshells around her trying to appease her. Coura often doubted herself and put herself down. “I don’t think I should try a group sport. Those girls are all popular and they don’t even know I exist.” Or she would say “I don’t think I’m pretty enough, or cool enough to fit in, I’d rather be invisible then to be rejected and humiliated again.” She would say a lot of terrible things that put herself down, constantly doubting who she was, and Keric would remind her “Coura you are the most beautiful, most kind, good natured person I have ever met. Do not doubt yourself. Can’t you see how wonderful you are?” and she would say something like “I’m glad someone thinks so.”
Years went by but things stayed the same. During the school year she would be ignored. During the summers she spent most days with her dad’s best friend’s son Skye that lived on the reservation. As the two grew up together they became great friends. Keric would stay uninvolved during those times, allowing her to grow and make friends like normal child. Keric showed himself to her only a few times when she called him. Skye was a handsome kid. He was the same age as Coura, but twice her size.
Skye and his friends would come get Coura on weekends when her dad went to AA and other meetings. The friends of Skye, Sander and Keial all looked similar except Skye, he looked more distinguished. He had long jet-black hair that he always held back in a ponytail. His friends however had hair that was short and cropped. Skye’s skin was a few shades darker than Coura’s; as he carried the genes of his Native American ancestors. And Coura was a caramel shade thanks to her family's history. Skye’s cheekbones were high on his face, but it took nothing away from his beauty. He appeared perfectly chiseled. His eyes were dark chocolate and when Coura would walk with him through the Forest she often found herself staring into them.
Most of the time her father was away working, so rather than staying alone she went out with Skye, and his friends, Sander and Keail. Their fun times went from playing pirates in the forest to going to the movies and to party at the pits, where bonfires were often held near the lake. She would get home late and she would fight with her dad. But despite their fights, summers where a bearable time for Coura. Richard had kept close to his word and stayed sober, except on the rare occasion where he would drink one beer with Roy, Skye’s dad. So, every year was repetitive in the pattern of things that would come.
Around the time of her
sixteenth birthday, she was back at her Mom’s and stepdad Marshall's house. She had begun to be miserable again. She didn’t have friends in California. So, she called on Keric a lot. Their friendship renewed, and had become close again. One night for no reason she decided to ask Keric something that had been on her mind a while. They were in her room with their backs leaned against the sliding glass doors that lead out onto her balcony.
“Keric how come you’re always here? I know you said you are my guardian but why? I just don’t get what makes me so special to deserve a wonderful protector like you?” She was pacing the floor when she spoke and then sat on the bed. Keric got up and sat next to her on the bed, the duvet comforter moved softly making a feathery space for him to sit on. She wore gray sweatpants and a black spaghetti strap shirt. She looked so small compared buff and God-like Keric. He turned to her and put his hand under her chin and turned her face to look at him. His face had an almost iridescent glow to it that always mesmerized Coura her heart fluttered when he touched her. She had no problems looking at him, he was so handsome. He had black hair gently pulled back by curls that was short but neat. She stared at his lips as he spoke, “you are special in so many ways.” She looked into his eyes trying to get a read on him. “That’s really sweet she said but how do I know it’s true? I mean I’m no different than any other teenager my age.” She stood for emphasis, “look at me.”
Keric hadn’t really noticed how grown up she was until that moment. Her curly long hair accented her face. Her large eyes shone brightly with the power to read a man’s soul. Her body was that of a young woman’s. What he felt for her wasn’t at all platonic, he realized and that took a moment to soak in. Then he knew just what to say. “You know what Coura? You are special and I am going to prove it to you. Put your shoes on, we are fixin to take a trip into the real world.” Coura was shocked, but she got up and reached under her bed and grabbed her shoes. She slid on her silver and white adidas on over her socks. “All-righty-then teach, where are we going?” Keric reached out his hands for Coura’s. “It’s a surprise,” he said.
The Guardian (The Guardian Book 1) Page 1