I lift my arms high into the sky, feeling the air rush back and forth against my armpits. A little curl of hair undoes itself, escaping the wrath of hair gel. My strikingly blue eyes open and I stare ahead of me, snow in the distance. I can feel the wings starting to emerge from my arms, attaching themselves to me like an extra layer of hair. I died my hair blue when I was ten, my mother dead in a suicide. My father ran away when I was five, leaving me all alone. I know how to take care of myself, but I have the help of my three friends, Fire, Water, and Earth. Fire has beautiful orange hair, no need to dye it, and she guides me in the path of light. Earth, one of the four angels, keeps me rooted to the ground. With her around, I won’t be flying anywhere. Water is a wave of emotion; she sucks in all my feeling at once. And I? I am as light as a feather; you can pick me up, and I’d be gone from sight. I give my friends the ability to forgive, to love, and to enjoy. I hide under a pure white cloak, an invisible force field around me, shielding me from all the stares and looks. To reveal my true self, I need all my elemental angels around me.

There are four angels in each country. We can grow wings, but only the air angels can fly. We can breathe fire, but only the Fire angel makes it burn and hurt; we can cause a Tsunami, but only the Water angel would make it be harmful. And we can grow forests; only the Earth angel can keep the plants from wilting. We are assigned our friends- I am lucky I like the rest of the angels. Some elemental angels aren’t that lucky- they must be friends with the other elemental angels, to equal one. Even if they don’t like each other. There is no communication between the angels. I am mute, Water is deaf, Earth is blind, and Fire can’t move her upper body. But in our own way, the way that humans can’t understand, we do communicate. We can read each others minds, we can feel what the others are feeling, no matter how far apart. Our wings can move, they can feel, they can vibrate, they can touch. We see with our wings, we speak with our wings, we touch with our wings. We do with our wings.

Before I found out my lawful duty, I survived on drugs and stealing. I wore all black, I was Goth. Before, I dreaded my life. I wanted to go to Hell in the same steps as my mother did. I couldn’t be Goth- I tried and tried, but the only thing people noticed when I passed by were my eyes. I didn’t even know the feeling “love” was. I’m sure I didn’t know what true living could be.

One day, I was floating on the ground sitting in a lotus pose, something that I learned naturally. My legs felt all tingly, then my arms, then my body, each step the other three came closer. They eyed me up in the air, letting go of all the pain, the glory, the hurt, and they didn’t judge me. Not one bit. They took me in as theirs, I am theirs now, they are mine. We are one. I am 25% without the other three by our side. They loved me like nobody has ever loved me before.

Now, together, we call the shots, we control this world with the other angels, and we let what happens pass and go. We have powers like no others. We are the Elemental Angels. We are one.