Guardian Ghoul

CW: Domestic abuse

Evening. The sky was a deep, mauve color over the rippling waters of Sable. The leftover leaves of undead trees billow in the chilling autumn air. Streaks of cirrostratus clouds paint the horizon like a reassuring blanket as the sun makes its final descent behind the mountains. From high above, the city seems diminutive. Hardly any lights were on. Juniper couldn’t see a thing. Groaning to herself, she’d opted, instead, to float back down to Earth. The only way to find her target would be to walk since flying wasn’t much help. 

When her feet hesitantly touched the ground, a shrill bark arose. Followed by another. And another. Though humans couldn’t see her, the animals weren’t absolved of their supernatural sight. Quickly, a plethora of houses lit up. “Stacey, come on!” One neighbor yelled out their window. “You come on! Your dog started it!” Juniper watched as the humans soon started to get at each other's throats. Some came out of their houses to see what all the commotion was. Alas, there was nothing. The streets were bare. Not a speck of garbage nor rats could be blamed for the dogs’ cacophonous behavior. “Can someone shut their dog up!?” 

“I’m trying! You shut yours up!” 

“Make me, you ass!” 

Juniper rose a couple feet off the ground. Walking wasn’t gonna be an option either if these dumb dogs kept on hollering. Levitating would be her best bet as of right now. As she swam through the air, the dogs stopped. So did the humans. “Thank god”, Juniper ironically mumbled to herself. It was because of God that she’d been in this mess in the first place. See, when a human dies, they become an angel. Unless they’re evil. In which case, they go straight down to hell for fifty years before God gives the soul another chance at either being born again or going up to heaven. Don’t worry though. In hell, time moves differently, so fifty human years is fifty sacrificial decades. When a monster dies though, they either go to Monastay to be reborn as another different monster if they’re good. Bad monsters become ghouls. Forced to live their un-existence as a faux guardian angel until their human pet dies. 

Juniper Rothschild was among the worst. She’d spent half her life partying with vampires who’d openly joked about fooling poor Bubonic humans into letting them drink their blood in favor of a cure. Only to have those very same humans be burned in piles on some poor farmer’s lawn to stop the spread. The rest of her life was sullied on grand larceny, bludgeoned mischief and heinous acts of smuggling illegal bloodwines into England during the Vampiric drought of eighteen forty seven. God must’ve had enough of her shit because seven months later, Juniper would be found to be a victim of a murderer no one knew about until eighteen eighty eight. 

Instead of going to Monastay where she’d finally be reunited with her parents, Juniper woke up as a ghoul. With a simple address: 917 Withers ave Sable, LV 00423. Some poor little boy had prayed for some kind of salvation after years of he and his mother being heavily abused. Juniper scoured the city for nearly half an hour at this point and she hadn’t found a thing. Maybe she was in the wrong area. Taking out the envelope, Juniper prepared to reevaluate her position. Though she didn’t need to. Once outside her pocket, the envelope shone a trail from where she was to where she needed to be. Juniper would’ve felt stupid for making such a blunder if not for the fact that this was her first time. When she finally arrived, Juniper gazed upon the house. 

A miniature, aqua blue craftsman house with lavender accessories. A cobblestone chimney plooming with thick, charcoal smelling smoke. Pearl white marble columns. Crumbling dormers. The place looked decent on the outside yet not even that could soften the stentorian shrieks from the inside. “How could you do that!?” A large, burly man with a buzz cut yelled down at a bohemianly dressed woman who was almost at equal height. She had a faint, yellowing bruise beneath her eye. “I’m sorry, but we needed the money.” 

“I work fifty hours a week, Lauren! Three thousand five hundred seventy five dollars a month! Isn’t that enough!?” 

“Richard, we don’t have any food.” 

“What- And that’s my fault!?” 

“No, but-”

“But what!? But what!?” The man had her pressed against the wall. 

Snarling like a rabid dog, his fist raised with a trembling fury. Before he could strike the first blow, Juniper passes through him. Making a show of literally playing with his heart in her hands. By the time Juniper was finished, the man was gasping for air while clutching his chest in his talon-like hands. “Oh my god, Richard!” Lauren screamed. She ran towards him, ready to resuscitate the bastard should she need to. Juniper shook her head. How could such a winsome woman ever wanna save a beast? “Breathe, Richard, breathe!” Lauren frantically repeated while Juniper reached their son’s bedroom. Inside, there was much to be desired. Just a bed, two or three toys and a half empty bookshelf. 

The boy in question seemed to huddle underneath the blanket. Shivering while he cried. For the first time ever, Juniper started to feel something. Possibly guilt. When she peeled the covers off, she saw two doting clear blue eyes staring up at her. Dark brown tresses framed his face in a way that seemed angelic. Surprisingly, the boy didn’t seem scared of her. Probably because he’s seen worse given the scene downstairs. “W-who are you?” He asked in a soft, hollow voice. Juniper hovered back from him. Giving the boy some space to sit up. “I’m Juniper Rothschild. Your new Guardian Ghoul.” 

“Like Fairl-”

“No.” She cut him off. “I don’t grant wishes. I’m only here to protect you.” 

The boy kept his guard up. Choosing to keep his knees tucked under his chin as he hugged himself tightly. His little, freckled arm shooting out to wipe the snot from his swollen nose. “H-How?” Juniper opened her mouth, ready to say something sarcastic when a loud thud arose from downstairs. Followed by a shrill, terrifying scream. Richard was dead. “That’s how.” She grinned. The boy’s wide eyes went to the door. When he looked back in Juniper’s direction, he seemed perturbed. “Buckle up, kid. Like it or not, we’re stuck together, so you better get used to it.”