Holding hands with the devil she walks by his side, heartbreak and fear alight in her stride. He looks longingly at her, and grasps a nearby angel by her long, flowing hair, keeping her close as He hears Her quiet scream of pain up the road. Anxious, he sprints up the long, winding path to see her broken and beaten, lying on the ground. Covered in blood, hair matted down, eyes halfway open, red mouth parted slightly, she is impossibly beautiful still. "Come," she whispers, bringing Him close. The sky angel is forgotten, watching discreetly.

"My love," he declares, "you are the one for me. Do not leave me now." He lays his lips on hers for a brief moment.

"I'm leaving this world—I have no other choice. But sing me to sleep, with your beautiful voice."

And so he sings, gazing at her bloodied, matted locks, stroking her pale, tear-stained face with a warm, gentle hand. Her eyes flutter shut, her breathing shallows. . . She whispers "I love you" and then her soul and life disappears, leaving a broken body in its wake.

The angel sobs silently, tears running down her pretty face. The dead girl was lying in the middle of the path, dark locks making a matted halo around her face, blood trickling out of her nose, bruises formed on her arms, red stained gown, small pale feet… The girl was more an angel than the angel could ever hope to be. Sacrificing herself just to hear those words come from her love's lips. A foolish angel, perhaps, but an angel all the same.

He weeps on her fragile, chilling body, hands stroking and tracing her blank face the entire time. His angel was gone, no more. His life was shattered, his own purpose gone. She had known she was to be killed, but did it all the same. What a fool he had been, denying her what she wanted all those years. She wanted him, and it took him until she was just inches from death to notice. The fact makes the tears come even faster, his breath get even more choked. He finally screams in agony, his heart ripping in two.

"I'll find him, and shred him," he vows to her softly, brokenly.

Later that night, the dark velvet sky so bright, he cries his last tears and gazes at nothing. A rustling alerts him, and he looks to his right. There on a rock, sits the one that had left. Her glossy hair is no longer blood-coated; it is shiny and falling in waves. Her normally bright eyes are clouded with grief and longing. Her silky, pale arms are free of marks. Her body is clothed in a long deep purple gown, covering her feet. "Come to me," she beckons. "I'll free you from this pain. For while I may have been a living angel then, and still am, but in a different way, I miss you terribly. Come, my love, and live in the skies with me."

He hesitates, hand reaching out shyly. She touches it with her own, and he is surprised by the warmth of it. Another solitary tear leaks from his eyes, and he grips her hand with a force that would have nearly broken it had she been living.

"I will come with you, my dear," he whispers. "But allow me to do one thing. Find him and shred him, make him pay for what he did. You deserve that much."

"Very well," she agrees after a moment of consideration. "But let me do something…" And she brushes her lips to his in a farewell gesture before vanishing again.

He looks at the spot she was sitting in, and wipes his eyes carefully. He sets out on a march to find and destroy the one who had done that deed to his beloved. The devil.

He finds him in his "lair" of sorts, sitting around a pond of freezing water, watching as a bloody someone is dunked and then brought up, and as this method is repeated over and over—it is one of the devil's favorite methods of torture. "Come," he says softly. "For I must destroy you for what you did to my angel."

"Your girl was no angel," the devil argues pleasantly. "Far from it. But I shall accept your challenge. Defeat me and you may rip me apart."

They fight, silently and solemnly. The only sound is the heavy breathing of the Devil. He wins, not the devil, and does what he came to do. He rips him apart, from limb to limb, then throws the vile parts into the pond of frigid water. "Who shall be the ruler of Hell now?" he bellows. "Who shall take over this hole? No one. This place shall be emptied."

And he destroys them all quickly, ferociously, the parts of their demons' bodies emitting a foul odor. Without a backwards glance, he walks to his sleeping place, where his angel is waiting.

"I am ready," he whispers. "Take me, my love."

"I shall do that," she agrees softly. "Take my hand." He takes her smooth, milky hand and they walk away into the bleeding sky, tinted with orange and pink. They walk towards the sunset, never stopping. Someone sees them kiss on a cliff edge before they jump in, bodies intertwined with one another, heads pressed together, smiling softly. They left the world on separate days, they left in different ways. But now they live in the skies, watching over young lovers such as themselves, always holding hands with one another, always keeping a protective eye on the ones they are assigned to. That is their job as guardian angels, and they would have it no other way.

So goes the tale of such beautiful love that death could not separate the two, and has not. They live on, immortal, beautiful, in love still and always… Angels in every respect.

A/N: I know, in some parts it has the feel of a poem, because that's what it was originally supposed to be in the beginning. It was yet another random idea I had one night. Review and let me know what you think!