Rise of the Fallen 1 - My Soul to Keep (5 page)

I opened my eyes and stared at myself in the tiny mirror of the guest
bathroom. My eyes reverted to their pale blue color and my wings were nowhere to
be found, thank God.

I needed to get back into my room and get the orb back on my wrist.
I didn’t care if Mom saw the watch.
Let her think I'm a shoplifter
. It would
be way better than her seeing me with leathery wings and glowing red eyes. It might
even fall into the realm of exponentially better.

“K, could you ask Mom for a glass of ginger ale?” I doubted she’d bring
me one, hell I doubted we even had any, but I wanted to let her know I knew she
lurked just outside the door. Maybe she’d leave me alone.

“Get it yourself, ass-hat,” she said and stomped off. I waited until
I heard her bedroom door open and close. My sister could teach the wicked witch
a few things about being evil.

I opened the door and made a quick getaway to my room. As soon as I
had my back to the door, I reached down and twisted the lock with my left hand.
Even in my locked room, I didn't feel safe.

I ran over to my entertainment center and reached behind it to get
the orb. I couldn’t take any chances with somebody seeing my wings. My hand closed
around the cool glass and I pulled it out, shaking off the dust bunnies. I stared
at it for a moment and came up with something a little easier to explain. I held
the ball out to my middle finger on my right hand and watched it morph into a plain
silver ring. If anybody noticed it I could just say I bought it at the mall. Silver
rings were a hell of a lot cheaper than watches.

* * *

Someone trying to batter down my door woke me up. I groggily stood,
walked over, and tried to pull it open. It surprised me by being locked. Memories
of the night before flooded my sleep addled brain. I vaguely recalled locking it
after I winged-out in my Fallen form. Everything came rushing back to me. I paused
for a moment praying the whole night was some sort of dream. Looking down at my
hand on the knob shattered my dream. The orb shone merrily on my finger.

I unlocked the door, twisted the knob and gave my mom a tiny smile.
“What time is it?”

“Time for school, are you feeling any better?”

“A little, but I still feel like I’m going to throw up.”

“Do you have any tests today?”

I shook my head and marveled at how parents always placed test scores
above the general well-being of their children. “No, I don’t. I’ll have Jeremy drop
off anything I miss today. I’m going back to bed. Thanks, Mom.”

“Hope you feel better, honey. I’m heading in to work. I’ll call and
check on you in a little while.” She leaned in to deliver the dreaded kiss on the
forehead. “You’re still running a fever. Go take some aspirin.”

She turned and left without making any more fuss. I closed my door
and listened like I'd done last night. Mom’s breathing wasn’t the only sound in
the house. I could hear someone else in the room next to mine.
Caelyn must still
be getting ready for school
.

I returned to my bed, determined to wait everyone out. I listened to
Mom gathering her stuff for work. She was a nurse at Cedar Hills Hospital. She'd
been there for longer than I'd been around, and she loved her job. Dad ran the local
golf course and loved his job. I just wished they both made more money. Sis and
I going off to college would put a serious hurting on their retirement plans.

The front door opened and closed and I could hear Mom’s beat up Volvo
starting. She backed out of the driveway and took off down the road. Caelyn turned
on her mp3 speakers and hair dryer at the same time. I gave out a yelp and flipped
out of my bed as the sound not only startled me, but threatened to make my ears
bleed. I clasped my hands over them as I tried to mentally turn down the volume.

Finally after the time it could have taken to blow dry a herd of sheep,
she shut the damn thing off. My ears were still ringing, but at least the pain stopped.
I tried to tune back in to what she was doing, but couldn’t. I wanted to know when
she left. I'd missed dinner last night, and my stomach threatened to burst out of
my chest and go find its own food.

I got out of bed and silently padded over to the door. I cracked it
open just a hair and heard the music still pumping in my sister’s room. I thought
about running downstairs to get something, but if brat saw me eating, she’d rat
me out to Mom. People faking stomach issues should not get busted eating fruity
pebbles. It’s just a fact.

The music stopped and the brat’s door opened. I smiled until I realized
her footsteps headed toward my room instead of the stairs. I panicked and ran over
to my bed and slid under the worn covers just as the door to my room opened.

“You can quit faking, Mom left already,” she said and closed the door
behind her.

I still didn’t trust her so I stayed hidden until I heard the front
door open and close a second time. I closed my eyes and swept the house with my
miraculous hearing one last time.

The only thing I heard was the fridge running and the other normal
day to day sounds our house made. I smiled and threw off the covers and ran down
the stairs at inhuman speed. I probably should have taken my socks off before deciding
to hit the kitchen linoleum like a semi. I tried to put on the brakes, but even
when I stopped moving my feet, the rest of the body slid another fifteen feet into
the refrigerator. I picked myself up off the floor and looked for dents. I didn't
see any, not even where my head hit the black Frigidaire. I needed to be more careful.
I reached over to the cabinet next to the fridge and pulled out a yellow plastic
bowl uglier than my Aunt Irene. My parent’s pimpish outlook on home décor even spilled
over to the dishes, lucky me.

I walked over to the pantry and browsed the cereal selection. My parents
believed in healthy cereals that tasted like tree bark and sticks. I’d rather eat
the bottom of my own shoe. If there aren’t any marshmallows in it, it’s not good
for you. I found the box of Lucky Charms stashed behind the box of Colon Blow and
snickered. Bratzilla must have hid it on me. She might live off of bunny food, but
cereal was her one addiction. I fully expected to find her locked in her room with
a syringe, a tourniquet, and a box of Froot Loops one day.

I poured the cereal into the bowl and closed the lid. Never believing
one bowl would be enough, I left the box on the counter. I grabbed the milk out
of the fridge and shut the door. I screamed and dropped the milk on the linoleum
floor. It splattered on my legs as the plastic jug burst upon impact.

When I opened the fridge, I'd been alone. The moment I shut it, Clarisse
stood there with her hands on her hips. She looked down at her milk coated legs
with more than a little disgust.

“What the hell? You could have ringed the doorbell, Clarisse.”

“Just be thankful I stopped you. Your fake stomach cramps would have
turned into acute discomfort followed by projectile vomiting.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me, noob. No more milk for you. You’re not a mammal anymore.”

“Excuse me?”

She sighed and waved her hand. Instantly her clothes changed into dry
counterparts. “You heard me, and stop repeating yourself. You’ll learn over time.
You are one of the Fallen now. You are not Homo sapiens, nor of the class mammalia
anymore. Silly Fallen, Trix are for human kids. Technically, you can eat cereal,
just not wet cereal. Sorry. Dem’s da rules.”

“If The Fallen can’t drink milk, why do you have boobs?” I blushed
as soon as I said it. My mouth tended to be a little quicker than my head. Sometimes
I had trouble with the filters.

“Not as dumb as you look, worm. This is my human-seeming. I have
breasts
,”
she continued, emphasizing the correct terminology, “but they’re just for show.
They don’t produce milk, nor can I give birth. Before you ask another ridiculous
question like ‘why’, why do guys have nipples? They just do. Clean this mess up,
we have work to do,” she said and went and sat down on the couch in the living room.

I grabbed a mop and cleaned up my mess. I debated pouring the cereal
back in the box, but if I couldn’t have it, no one could. I dumped it down the garbage
disposal without turning the water on. The sound of metal grinding on cereal was
almost comforting.

“You ready to go, worm?”

“Whatever, and will you please. Stop. Calling. Me. Worm?”

“No.”

Chapter 5

I expected to see her Harley out in the driveway but she apparently
owned a pink Volkswagen Beetle, too.
Did it have to be pink?
One of the seniors
at J.U.H.S had the same exact car and every time I saw it I fought the urge to hurl.
The cars were ugly enough, paint them pink and they should be illegal.

“Nice car,” I lied to Clarisse.

“Bite me. It’s cute.”

“After seeing you on the motorcycle, I didn’t think you did cute.”

“It’s my school car. If you show up to school on a Harley, people talk.”

“You seriously go to school? I thought you were a billion years old
or something.” My words stopped her in her tracks. I thought I’d seriously offended
her, but she had a strange look plastered on her face.

“You don’t know do you?”

“Know what?”

“You’ve seen my car before, right?”

“There’s a girl at my school...”

“You are such a dork. Yes, I go to the same high school as you. How
do you think I found you? I’ve got so much to teach you and so little time to do
it. We’ll do the whole day today, and I’ll keep up the instruction every day after
school. Just think of me as your new BFF.”

I groaned inwardly at the thought, but managed to keep it inside this
time. Maybe hanging out with a senior wouldn’t be a bad thing. I wondered how popular
she was. I don’t remember ever seeing her at school, so I couldn’t say. “Where are
we going?”

“I know a small field outside of town, perfect for what we need. Nobody
ever goes there.”

“What if my mom calls to check on me?”

“I already planted it in her head you need your rest and if you need
anything you’ll call. I have everything covered.” She unlocked the sub-subcompact
car with a push of a button and the engine roared (okay, maybe purred) to life.
She hopped in the driver’s seat and I walked around the back of the car to the passenger’s
door. I opened it and slid in, praying to whomever that nobody saw me in the pink
monstrosity.

She backed out of the driveway without looking and took off out of
my neighborhood. We passed the mall and hit the highway heading for God knows where.
For all I knew, Clarisse planned on driving me out to the middle of nowhere to kill
me and hide my body. She didn’t seem to like me very much. I thought about everything
that happened over the past day. I sort of felt homesick. I still lived at home
with my parents and my evil sister, but everything had changed. I wanted everything
to be like it was. Since I'd already sold my soul, I didn’t have much to bargain
with.

“What are the Fallen?” I said it quietly, but Clarisse heard me.

“What do you think we are?” I didn’t like how she said, “We are.” I
would have preferred, “I am."

“Some sort of demons?”

“It depends on who you ask. I’ll say this. Forget everything you’ve
ever learned about heaven and hell. Most of it is just propaganda spread by the
church to make humans behave. Basically you have this reality and the otherworld.
Human beings have souls, and when their bodies cease to function their souls move
on. Sometimes they find a place there, and sometimes they come back to this reality
in a different body. Humans call it reincarnation and it’s real. We Otherworlders
used to be one big happy family. We were enamored with the humans when they first
came to be. Then the Time of Troubles came.”

“What’s the Time of Troubles?”

“When the Chosen and the Fallen split. We used to be one race of beings
and now we are two. Our compassion for the humans forced us to take sides in the
war. Our side got the shit end of the stick and received the title Fallen Ones.”

“You’re not going to tell me you’re an angel?”

“Angels are what the humans called us, but not what we called ourselves.
The others have white feathery wings, but they refer to themselves as the Chosen.”

“That seems a little pompous. Couldn’t they have thought of something
cooler?”

“If you ever meet one, and pray you don’t, you’ll understand why. Snooty
doesn’t begin to describe them. Basically they believe in the utopian theory. If
they come across anything that goes against their harmony, they have a tendency
to destroy it. The Fallen are major benefactors of ‘free will’ while the Chosen
only believe in ‘do what you’re told’”.

“What about God? What does he have to say about all this?”

“The Creator? He created both worlds and gave everyone free will. The
Creator loves all his children but holds to the tenant most parents follow. You
give life and you guide. If you try to control your children they have a tendency
to do the exact opposite. The Fallen believe the same thing. Free will is more important
than anything else. The Chosen believe The Creator wants them to control everyone
and everything, to make it perfect.”