my eyes shot open. i didnt know what day it was. i never did. the metallic taste of blood in my mouth made me salivate. a light pang of hunger washed over me. i had no idea how long i had slept. i always woke up in different places. fuck, i needed to do my job. i started my patrol, watching over the people of eden. i always felt so far away from them. no matter how close i got with a mortal, no matter how much we talked, we could never understand each other. there would always be an uncomfortable distance between us. i envied them. their bodies might be limited, but at least they have lives. theyre allowed the privilege to love, to fuck, to live, to die. we didnt live. we did our jobs, for the most part. every one of us had a job. when we stopped doing it right, we were terminated. miserable.

i imagined who i would be as a mortal. i would be able to live a life. have a home. forget all of this. finally be something. i would fade into crowds. i would be able to feel a connection. something real. i would be able to fall in love. that didnt matter though. not right then, at least. it was just a fantasy.

i had heard rumors of a killer. someone dismembering people. those who had witnessed the murders said the killer had exact precision. impossibly smooth cuts. there were pictures of the victims. i felt hungry. either way, the killer was sloppy. they left the corpses just.. lying there. out in the open, for anyone to see. it was like they didnt even care if they were caught.

my skewering of the murderer’s technique was cut short by an all consuming ringing in my ears. a distress call. i arrived at a decrepit, abandoned warehouse. the smell of blood invaded my senses. it was fresh. i stepped inside to see an ongoing fight. blood splattered and smeared across every surface imaginable. corpses littered on the floor. there were two demons remaining, clearly locked in vicious combat. when they noticed i was there, they tried to escape.

they were much too slow. gone in an instant, splattered on the walls and floor, just the same as their opponents.

and then i passed out again. thats the last thing i remember before–