Death came for me in the shadows of ruined buildings in the body of a dead city. I sensed its approach before hearing it.

It felt like a stain on my soul, an abscess in my sense of self that throbbed in time with the scream it gave off as it approached. I could picture it, black and purple mottled skin the colour of an old bruise sucking the light from the moon, stars, and fires. Hellishly glowing eyes piercing the air around it, the only light it would give off before it began killing me. I allowed myself to wonder for just a moment if this one had green eyes. Maybe red. Eight feet of corded muscle, razor sharp teeth and claws, spines, tail, and some kind of wickedly barbed weapon. Maybe a Hellbore growing like cancer out of it's shoulder, ready to flay the flesh and muscle from my body as it dissected my mind. Death by Hellbore was the worst kind of death, all crimson screams and agony.

For a moment I let myself feel just the slightest bit of fear. It was the only emotion I allowed myself to indulge in anymore, a little something to remind myself that I was still human. Or had been at one time. Now I was something...else.

It came tearing through the rubble, sending a car flying some ten feet through the air in its rush to kill me. I was life, human, the enemy and nothing would stop it from rending me until I was little more then a stain and viscera on what used to be a sidewalk. The scream rose until it was agonizing in my ears and my mind. It raised something that might be called a sword, six feet long, black, covered with barbs and hooks, dripping with shimmering blackness as the Hellbore on the left shoulder hissed. With a roar the thing lept, the sword cutting ...

...the empty space where I had been standing a second before. As the thing whipped around I called forth my own sword. Golden light banished the darkness of the beast as I stepped in laughing, golden armor forming around my slender form. I was daylight to the eternal night of the thing before me. I moved and my motion was the essence of speed and grace.

"Green." I thought to myself as I raised my own sword. "This one has green eyes."

I laughed again as I brought my power to bear, dispelling shadow and fear with but a thought. Oh I was no longer human but it was a small price to pay for humanity's salvation. I was hope, I was the promise of dawn after years of night.

I was a Guardian.

Author's note: This is my first submission to the site, hopefully people enjoy it and whatever follows. This was edited by me, I assume full responsibility for any mistakes in grammar or punctuation. I also accept any formatting errors given my complete and utter lack of HTML knowledge or experience.

I stepped out of the ruin left by the thing's death, letting my aura and sword dissipate as I did.

The monsters were nasty enough when they were "alive" and kicking. When they died things got really ugly. Whatever that crap was that ran through their bodies was extremely toxic to living flesh, causing a a rapid, excruciating rot to set in wherever it touched. But wait, there was more, it also ate through rock, metal, glass, pretty much everything it came into contact with. But they didn't stop there, oh no, these bastards weren't done trying to kill you even when they were falling over in a spray of black acid. Once they stopped moving they exploded, spewing that crap all over everything. As a result I was standing in a roughly circular patch of smoking ruin almost 15 feet in diameter.

I let my senses expand outwards to see how many were inbound and counted three. As much as I could sense them, they could sense me. Not that they needed preternatural senses, when my aura was up I glowed with a golden-silver radiance that could light a city block. These three were coming in slowly, they knew a Guardian was here and one of their own was now hissing all over the sidewalk.

I can take one easily, two with a little more effort, three was pushing things. Not that they would stop at three, the fuckers would fight a delaying action whilst more headed in, there would be ten or more in a matter of moments. They spared no expense to take out a Guardian.

I concentrated for just a moment and let my power wash over me, another brief flare in the night, then I was gone. Not physically. I was still standing where I had been but now I existed Elsewhere, a sideways space parallel to our own reality. Here the monsters could not walk, here there was light, a soft glow that touched everything around it. The city streets were black in the physical world but here they were silver, almost beautiful. One could almost delude herself into thinking the city still lived when one was Elsewhere. Almost. I sagged against the Elsewhere version of the car that was busy deconstructing itself in the other world, stepping sideways was taxing but I was too close to the Necropolis to risk flight.

I shuddered as I gazed east and caught the shape of the obelisk that had sprung like cancer in the hearts of every city on earth, every place the things walked. Even in the Elsewhere the thing brooded like a storm, all black and purple, mottled and hideous. Black vapour writhed about the thing like tendrils, seeking life. I could hear the screams of the cities' dead, they vibrated in my soul, an unearthly cacophony of the damned and not for the first time did I wonder who I had known and loved in my old life sang in that terrible chorus.

No, I would not risk flight this night. I walked away from the scene of the battle towards the one place in this city that was still safe, towards Sanctuary.

Author's Note: I thought I would try my hand at writing again by going back to the beginning: my first story here. It didn't garner much of a response but there wasn't much to it. I'm trying to write again and if I can kindle my creative juices and get over the apathy and issues caused by my illnesses then maybe I can return to some of my other stories.

Elsewhere. Sanctuary for the last remnants of humanity and the only safe place left in the world. The monsters can't follow us here so we live in safety, all of our needs provided to us by whatever force caused this place to form and remain stable. Some of us, Guardians, that is, believe that we formed this place when the first of us appeared as it does share some similarities with abilities we manifest. Plus, we're the only ones that can cross independently; everyone not a Guardian needs one of us to take them there.

In the beginning, when the Invasion started, when the pods started falling from the darkening sky like a cancerous rain, disgorging beasts like the one I had just fought, and before the Necropolis started to sprout in every major city on the planet, the first Guardians found Elsewhere and began evacuating survivors by bringing them across.

We still ventured out into the cities looking for survivors but these days they were few and far between. The beasts had killed the vast majority of humanity and the few who survived and weren't with us had a life expectancy of almost nothing whenever they dared venture out in search of food or help.

That's what I had been doing; looking for survivors and hoping to pick a fight. I found the second but not the first. I honestly wasn't expecting to but I was still slightly disappointed.

I closed my luminous eyes for just a moment and let the natural light of Elsewhere bathe me, cleansing and revitalising my body, mind, and spirit. It was a pure white, like my eyes, my aura, and my wings but not overpowering. Humans and Guardians alike found it a comfort as there was no light to be found outside any longer.

The skies were permanently blackened and artificial light attracted the beasts so anyone out there had to live in darkness or hidden so deeply that light couldn't be seen, hoping that the rubble between them and the streets was enough to shield them from the unnatural senses of the invaders.

With a sigh I headed towards the nearest entrance to the Sanctuary proper: a towering set of doors that rather resembled the doors on pre-invasion cathedrals.

Two humans were on guard duty, an unnecessary precaution but it made them feel safe so I couldn't begrudge them. One of them, Bill Talbot, held a huge (to me) shotgun and the other, Connie Williams, an assault rifle of some kind. Bill smiled as I walked up. He always smiled and never stopped trying to hit on me.

In his own, unique way.

"Hey short stuff, any notches on your sword tonight?"

I sighed and shook my head, hiding my grin. It wouldn't do to let him know I actually enjoyed the banter. "One dead monster, melting into the ground as we speak, and three more looking for me."

"Only three?" Connie asked. "Get back out there and take care of them, Arry!"

"Sure," I said with a smirk, "and once I'm done I'll just go and take out the Necropolis since you make it sound so easy."

Bill laughed. "That's the Arry I know! Beautiful and deadly, all wrapped up in a short and glowing package."

Short is a good description of a Guardian. If any of us topped five feet we were considered tall. Whatever agency empowered us felt that making us small and look like almost child-like was a good idea. I have no idea why and can't really ponder it too much since they also took away our pre-Guardian memories.

That's right: I don't have a single idea who the hell I was before I became a Guardian. All I know is that I was given a choice and took it.

All of us were of a type: small, slender, young in appearance with platinum hair and glowing white eyes. We all gave off an aura of pure white light which intensified when we called upon our powers. All of us had spectral wings which glowed with the same white light. We were angelic in appearance but none of us really thought we were angels. Honestly, we didn't have a damn idea what we were. Maybe Earth's immune system since we started appearing right before the monsters came.

If that were the case then we weren't very efficient since most of humanity was dead and their souls circled and powered the Necropolis.

I headed for the door and held up a hand in front of Bill's face, stretching my arm since I only came up to the top of his chest. "If you smack my arse again I will thrash you mightily about the head and neck."

He laughed loudly at that and opened the door for me. "Would I do that to my favourite Guardian?" His innocent look needed a lot of work.

"Yes!" Connie and I both said. "You've done it or tried every time you're on door duty. Just because I rescued you doesn't mean you get to smack my arse, at least not without dinner and flowers first."

He laughed even harder at that. "Go on in, beautiful. Connor is looking for you."

Lovely. Connor was my direct superior and a more humourless Guardian I had yet to find. He only wanted me when he had orders to bark or an arse chewing to deliver.

"Joy and rapture. I'm on fire with anticipation." I said with a sigh as I headed into the Sanctuary.

Behind me, unseen and unheard, Connie and Bill watched me walk in.

"Are you ever going to tell her, Bill?" Connie asked.

The look on Bill's face was uncharacteristically somber and one that I had never seen before. "No, Connie. It's not my place to tell. Whatever it is that chose her took away her memories for a reason and I don't think would appreciate me bringing up the past."

"If she's ever going to discover things it will be on her own, and not from me."