He had one thought in mind as he walked briskly down
the deserted sidewalk and that was to get home as
quickly as possible. Checking his watch he speeded up
his pace; 1am.

"People get themselves killed at this time of night," he
mumbled to himself as he continued to walk, keeping his
coat tight around himself, passing streetlight after
streetlight.

It wasn't a particularly cold night, but Leon had always
felt uneasy about being alone in the dark and the
streetlights just gave everything an eerie glow, which
caused shivers to go down his back. He just wanted to
get home as soon as possible and crawl into his warm,
safe bed, but he had to keep walking pass alley, after
alley. Always fearing that someone would jump out at
him every time he passed one, but the next alley he
approached wasn't quite as dark as the other alleys had
been. A strange white light seemed to flow from the
alley, spreading itself onto the street beyond, but it
wasn't bright, in fact it was dim and it seemed to flicker a
couple of times. The way a light bulb will flicker before
it goes out or how a candle flickers from the wind.

Leon unconsciously slowed his pace a little as he came
up to the light, to him it seemed warm and comforting,
but it didn't belong to this night; it didn't belong in that
alley which was suppose to be dark. Whatever was
causing that light, it was obvious it didn't belong there.

As he came up closer to the edge of the entrance to the
alleyway, he could hear shallow and raspy breathing.
All the alarms in his head went off, telling him that this
way danger.

There's someone there, waiting for someone like me to
come and help, thinking they're in danger and he's gonna
kill me and leave my body in the alley so no one will
ever find it.

He stopped walking all together and let his breathing
calm down a little, along with his heartbeat and he let his
rational thinking take over again. There's no danger
there, no one's going to kill me, it could just be some
homeless person sleeping; that's all. But a soft light in
the middle of darkness wasn't rational to him. After he
calmed himself down after his initial fear, he listened
closely to the slow breathing. It didn't seem like the
steady breathing of a sleeper, instead it seemed asthough
the person was in pain and couldn't breathe properly.

Leon clenched his fists and took a deep, slow breath
before peeking around the corner to take a look at who
was inside the alleyway. He blinked once, then swung
back around, backing up against the wall so the being he
saw couldn't see him.

What the hell was that? he thought feverishly to himself.
He inched along to the wall and took another peek
around the corner.

A woman was sitting against a garbage bin, her eyes
were closed, her head was rolled to the side and herarms
hung limply at either side of her. She wore a simple
white dress that only covered her shoulders, but went the
full length of her legs, and she wore nothing on her feet.
The soft white light that Leon had seen seemed to come
from her, it surrounded her and spread out from that
point, whether it was a part of her and just around her, he
couldn't tell, but it gave her a peaceful look despite the
fact that he could see she was in a state of dying. With
each breath she took her eyebrows drew together,
struggling to take another.

Leon stood there watching her, trying to decide if he
should help her or not, although in a way she didn't look
like she needed help. He took a step forward, careful of
where he placed his foot so as not to make too much
noise, but she must of heard him any ways, for she
slowly opened her eyes and turns her head to look at him
with difficulty. Even this light movement took a lot of
out of her; the soft light around her flickered and
dimmed a little. This compelled him to take a couple
more steps towards her until he was near enough to kneel
down beside her. He quickly skimmed her body, noting
the frailness that even existed about her face, though it
still contained a soft and kindness that just made you
have to smile no matter how you were feeling. He
finally looked up into her eyes, they were the lightest of
blues he had ever seen. Again like the rest of her, they
were soft and kind, but had that undertone of pain that
even Leon was starting to feel.

"You must help me," she finally said, trying to hide the
pain that constricted her voice and throat, but her voice
did crack causing a single tear to well up in her eye that
seemed to hang there in a moment of frozen time.
Finally she blinked and the tear ran down her cheek in a
wet streak.

Leon glanced around, not sure of what to do or say.

"Please," she gave another whisper of pain.

He turned back around and let himself be captured by
her eyes again and almost broke down by the pain that
shone through them. "I--I dunno what to do, I dunno
how to help you. Tell me what to do and I'll do it."

The woman closed her eyes and seemed to go to sleep,
ignoring the fact that Leon was still kneeling beside her.
Her breathing slowed right down and the light around
her dimmed so low it almost blanked right out. Panicked
he grabbed her wrist and held her hand in both of his.
To his relieve and surprise her skin was warm and
smooth to his touch. Slowly she sucked in a long breath
of air through her lips, which made the soft light start
growing brighter again, but not as bright as it wasbefore.
Her hand flexed a little in his hands, then her eyes
fluttered open again to look at his. Leon tightened his
hands around hers and looked at her more worried and
more anxious to help.

She took a painful swallow before she spoke again.
"You must believe."

"Believe? Believe in what? I don't understand."

Her eyes began to dig more intensely, but warmly into
his with an urgency that increased as the light around her
flickered again. "Believe in me, Leon."

He suddenly let go of her hand and jerked back a little,
the alarms in his head going off again, but he quickly
silenced them. "Who are you? How'd you know my name?"

She took another raspy breath before responding to him.
"You must believe in God, have faith in God, Leon, that
is the only way to help me." Leon grew more confused
as she spoke this, but at the same time it became more
clear in his mind.

"But I'm an ath--" he started into his usual argument, but
her pained whisper interrupted him.

"Please...Listen to me, Leon. You must believe in God,
believe in his Will, his Love. The angels...all the angels
are dying because everyone has lost their faith, no one
believes anymore. Believe, Leon, please believe and
help me."

Leon continued to kneel, staring bewildered at her. A
trick of the mind, he thought, I'm disillusioned with lack
of sleep and my mind is just playing tricks on me. There
really is no glowing angel dying beside me telling me to
believe in God.

He reached for her fragile hand again and held it gently
in his, running his fingertips over her soft, warm skin.
Her watched his fingers glide over her skin thinking
about what she had just said.

Maybe this isn't a dream, maybe this is real and this is a
real angel in front of me.

"And if I believe," he licked his dry lips, "will this only
help you?"

She nodded slowly, "I will be saved."

What about the others? Leon wanted to ask, but didn't
bring it up. He knelt there watching she slow, pained
breathing, gently running his fingertips back and forth
over the back of her hand. He wanted to help her, he
wanted to take away the pain she was obviously in and
he wanted to believe. But how could he believe in
something he had forsaken so many years ago when turn
of events had utterly destroyed his life and the help he
had so desperately prayed for didn't come. To him God
was already dead and the only angels still alive were the
friendly smiles you sometimes saw from strangers. He
saw the soft, white light around her grow dimmer as he
thought this. She knows I can't save her, he thought
sadly. He inched himself closer to her till his knee was
touching the outside of her thigh, then he reached with
his right hand and gently cupped her cheek in his palm,
she closed her eyes and pressed her cheek against his
hand in return.

"I can't believe in you as an angel of God," he spoke the
words as tenderly as he could. "But I can believe in you
as a dying person laying before me."

She only nodded in response.

He leaned in closer to her, still holding her hand in his
left and cupping her cheek in his right hand. "What's
your name?"

"Esme," she said almost inaudibly.

Leon leaned in even closer till his lips were nearly
touching her right ear. "Then I shall always remember
you, Esme," he whispered very softly.

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