It was all hustle and bustle in the Wings Agency that morning, just as Mae liked it. Her sky high heels clicked neatly along the polished floor and its black and white tiles. She was wearing her favourite light blue suit, her wavy brown hair long and loose down her back. She walked to the office, hearing people talk down the phones madly and exclaiming as they read reports.

Once she was in her office she opened up her laptop. It loaded instantly and a pile of emails came flooding in. It was hard work, being Manager of the MatchMaking Department. She was behind the most successful love stories in the world. Who realised that Romeo would be perfect for Juliet? Who campaigned to get Kate Middleton and the Prince together? Who gave Abbey Clancy a little prod in Peter Crouch's direction? Her, her, her.

The MatchMaking Department had the most responsible job of all. Although they were forgotten easily, it was them that did all the hard work. They sorted through data and matched people up to one another. Then they sent off a Cupid to put things into action.

The Cupids had a very dangerous job. It was hard to be a Cupid; to try to make people fall in love with one another. Quite often they screwed up. If you've ever broke up with someone, it means the Cupid didn't do their job right. But more often than not the Cupid was forgiven for this. It was only in serious cases that they were de-winged.

Mae liked to pride herself on the fact that her department generally did a good job. In recent years though they've been doing worse. They had matched people wrongly. And when that happened, the humans had a solution for it called divorce. And if divorce came into it then it wasn't the Cupid's fault, it was her department's because they had been matched wrongly. Mae was partly responsible - before a command could be given to a Cupid to make the two people fall in love, Mae had to double check the match was correct. Seeing as there was only one of her and there was hundreds of MatchMakers, this meant that often people's match got delayed. Mae spent ages going through everything but it was long, gruelling work. She could only get so much done per day. So if you haven't went out on a date for a while, it just meant Mae hadn't gotten round to you yet.

Mae approved the latest case of Shelia Pistens and Robert Yenkins being matched up. Seeing as they were both in their early twenties, she thought it might be nice for Lea to be their Cupid. Lea had only completed her Cupid training a few months ago, and Cupid training usually only involved setting up younger ones in case it went wrong. Younger ones had lots more opportunity to get a second match. This new match wasn't so far off being young, plus it was slightly more responsible than what Lea had been dealing with so far. She added her name to the bottom of the papers and emailed it through to Head of the Cupid department, Kelly. Before Lea got to be their Cupid, she had to be approved by Kelly. She should be fine, as long as she hadn't made any big mistakes yet. Mae clicked on the next document.

In the floor above the MatchMaking department, there was a ping on Kelly's computer. After approving a match case suitable for a Cupid in training, she opened up the email. Yes, it seemed a good choice for Lea. She was just about to approve it when she remembered something. Her face went white. She rang Mae.

"Yes, Kelly?" Came the tired reply.

"Mae, this is an emergency. One of my Cupids, Lea, got caught on a case. I almost forgot about it, I didn't receive the notification until late last night. Lea's stuck on Earth and the government are poking and prodding at her. What do we do?" Kelly said fretfully, her words coming out in a rush.

There was a moment's silence as she digested the information. She swallowed down her immediate nerves, knowing she had to be the one to stay calm. "A caught Cupid? We haven't had one of those for ages." And Mae should know. Together, her and Kelly had ran the two Wings Agency departments for centuries.

"I know. The world must be going mad; it's a difficult situation. We have to get her back. They can't know about the Wings Agency. They'd shut us down - humans would hate us poking and probing at their private lives. But without us, there wouldn't be any couples." Kelly's voice was getting more and more high-pitched.

"We'll have to send someone after her. I'll call the Cover-Up Department - they'll take care of things." Mae said as soothingly as possible, before letting out a snort. She was known for her strong dislike of the Cover-Up Department - after all, she was busy every minute of every day while they just lazed about upstairs. "They haven't had anything to do in years. Humans never find us working alongside them, and they haven't caught a Cupid in centuries."

"Thanks Mae." Kelly let out a sigh of relief, slightly less panicked now she knew someone else would be taking good care of things. "In the meantime, I'm going to need a new Cupid. I hate the thought of putting someone new out on training while the government's sniffing around, but there's simply nothing to be done about it."

"You're right. I sent you a case earlier I thought appropriate for a Cupid in training. We can use it if you approve. Why don't you call the Cupid Searching department? Let's make someone who died's day." Mae suggested.

"I'll call them now. Thanks again, Mae. I don't know how this agency would survive without you." Kelly smiled.

"Well, let's hope we'll still be working here decades from now. I couldn't bear the thought of the humans closing us down." Mae shuddered.

"Me too. Goodbye."

"See you later Kelly."

The instant Mae ended the call she dialled the number of the Cover-Up department. She waited for a few moments, listening to the phone ring. Finally someone picked up. Mae explained the current situation and they promised to send a team down to Earth to recover poor Lea. They were armed with memory-wiping potion in case the government had found out anything. But the agency only has enough potion for about a hundred or so people. They couldn't handle having more than that know.

Meanwhile Kelly had just gotten off the phone with the head of the Cupid Searching department. They had promised to find a new Cupid right away. They always chose someone out of the people that had recently died, so as not to take anyone away from a good life on Earth. They chose someone who had experience in bringing people together. Often these relationships they arranged did not last without Cupid help and without being arranged by the MatchMaking department. But it didn't really matter as the Cupids could be trained to do better.

Kelly bit her lip. She was really worried. Lea was such a good Cupid, so calm and careful. She hadn't made a single mistake so far, and all the relationships she'd set up were flourishing nicely. It didn't occur to her how she could've gotten caught. Kelly was really very fond of Lea as well, and she hated to think of anything happening to her.

Just then, another email pinged in. Mae was back to work already. Without really looking at it, she forwarded the case onto the relevant Cupid and started to get back to work again.

On the next floor up, the head of the Cupid Searching department, Zora, scanned through files. It wasn't long before she found the perfect person; Rosalind (Rosie) Parker, who had died last night. After a few hours arranging things, Rosie was finally ready to come to the Agency. Zora sent her straight to Kelly's New Room where she would materialise.

***

I woke up with a start.

My head pounded and I felt sick. I looked curiously around me. Where was I? Who was that over there? What had happened?

I then remembered the car. The screeching of brakes. The pain. The blood on my dress. Someone screaming. Ophelia begging me not to die, just to hold on, that the ambulance would be there soon and everything would be fine...

And now I was here. It was  very white, so I guessed it was a hospital of some description. But there wasn't any other patients, and the woman didn't look like a nurse. She walked towards me slowly.

"Hi Rosie, I'm Kelly. If you accept my offer I'll be your boss." She said confidently.

I gave her a look of utter confusion. Boss? Offer? I was too young to get a proper job, surely. I was only seventeen. I hadn't even went to college yet. And where was my family? I was hit by a car, so you would expect someone to come and see me. I couldn't wait to see Kat and see how my latest matchmaking project went. It seemed pretty promising last time I saw her.

"Where's my family?" I asked hopefully. They were probably just waiting outside. Yes, I could almost see my mum crying and my dad saying gruffly about how I'm the best girl in the world. Ophelia would probably be smiling through tears and Kat telling me in her posh voice of hers to never, ever scare her like that again.

She sighed. "I'm so sorry, Rosie, but they're not here."

Oh. I had to admit, that stung. I blinked back tears, as I didn't want this strange woman to see me break down.

"No, no, it's nothing like that! They still care!" She hastily assured me. I couldn't help myself. I let out a sob.

"They don't want to see me. Not even now I've recovered from being in a car accident." I sniffed, feeling sorry for myself.

She put her hands firmly on my shoulders and looked me straight in the eye. "I'm sorry. I really am. But Rosie - you haven't made a recovery. You're dead."

Hey guys! Do what do you think so far? I hope you're enjoying the story! Hopefully this will be the first of many!

Zoe xxx