Chapter 1
I don't own Angelfall!
Penryn
The sunrise is as resplendent as when it set the evening before Beliel captured Paige. The soft hues of fuchsia pinks and balmy yellows blend together pleasantly as if Mother Nature is reassuring us that the angels are subdued for now. The light that leaks through the shaded cracks of the truck's windows burns my eyes, but I can't look away.
The moment my body thaws I force myself up into a sitting position. The movement isn't comfortable, but comfort isn't my first priority. The fact that my body isn't back to normal is apparent, but my skin still shudders in a manner that leaves me cold. Tiny hands stroke my arm sending chilling waves of warmth through my cool skin.
Paige.
My knees shake slightly and I stumble backwards toward the seat I laid on when the paralysis was still fading. I inhale sharply before opening my eyes to a curiously concerned Paige.
"Paige where are we?" My voice is gritty and I clear my throat to rid of the bad taste.
"At camp," she replies flashing her razor-ed teeth. I grimace at the sight. At least I can look away now.
"Is Obi here?"
She creases her eyebrows and looks at me the same way she did when I found her stacked on the other children, sweet, innocent, but utterly freaky. She creases her body into what I notice to be the sleeping figure of my mom. I curse myself for asking about Obi instead of her.
I hear a mumble of, "No more angels."
Her comment causes me to wince, although I am rooting for the humans, I don't wish for all of the angels to die. Especially Raffe, Raffe doesn't deserve to die.
"Rah-fie," I sound out his name to make it sound more real. He is flying, alive, even if he doesn't come back, that is enough for me.
Flying with demon wings, my mind hisses. I ignore the comment.
The door of the truck creaks in a bad need of oil, and tilts slightly ajar. Obi stands observing the contents of the vehicle, and his eyes widen in surprise at the sight of me.
"Penryn? You're- you're…" he doesn't finish his sentence.
"Obi, is the camp fine?"
A memory of the low demons attacking the camp when Anita and I were in our rigged catfight causes me to be wary.
"The camp? Yes, camp is still fine although it isn't in top condition," he grimaces when he gets to the last part of his sentence.
I glance over at mom and Paige curled in the corner of the seat too terrified to glance out at the others. I see Paige playing with her fingers the way any seven-year-old kid would when they are bored- in her case scared. She leans her slight frame against the seat and tilts her pixie face so that I can only see half of it. For a moment, I pretend Paige was never captured and somehow we found Obi's camp ourselves, that we are well fed and happily- not exactly happily- performing laundry duty. Wishful thinking. However, I would have never met Raffe, the painstakingly sarcastic, ethereal beauty, which is the archangel Raphael. And he is so much more than that. He is the angel that brought me to Paige and sacrificed his beloved wing search to bring me back to my family. I need to find that angel. The angels, they have made us into their monkeys, we are no longer humans to them. A flare of anger for the world backhands my gut, and I suppress the roar of rage threatening to be voiced. Instead, I think of Raffe.
"Will they be safe here?" I ask.
"Yes, of course. Only you and..." He doesn't say Raffe's name. I don't suppose he actually knows it either seeing as he told him to call him Wrath.
I nod. "The angel... Raffe is he...?"
"He's an angel?" His tone is incredulous.
What's to lose? They think he's a demon already.
"Yes, do you know where he went?"
He shakes his head, but I persist. "You must've seen him at least."
"No, we don't associate with angels with the wings of a demon," he says blatantly. "Or angels of any kind."
I divert my gaze so I don't have to see the disgust written all over his face. Obi will help the people terrorized by the angels, but will he help someone who's assisted an angel?
It's apparent that Obi doesn't trust me fully as he did the last time I was present. He doesn't seem to distinguish that I can tell that people are flocking me wherever I go. The camp is in the process of humorless reconstruction. Obi told me that they were leaving this site soon, but it seems as if he wants to rebuild the remnants of his resistance before people lose faith. It's not as if everyone was humorous the first time, but the assault on the aerie has taken its toll on the resistance.
Mom wanders the halls crying out at times and at her worst, she whimpers for her demons to leave, not to bother her family again. Now that she realizes I am alive, her eyes scream accusation for the stitches on Paige's face they growl at how demonic the metal razors in her mouth appear. Then the emotions slack and her eyes glaze over and she fights her demons. Paige does what she is told-which isn't much-, but the thread on her lips and my terrifying memories of the matrix mars the innocence of her pixie face.
I am not assigned to laundry duty. I am-in general- not even spoken to at all. We are fed, but in this small resistance of humans, we are the outcasts. It doesn't bother me although I know Paige longs for her group of disabled friends we had in our former life. God, that life was a thousand years ago. But, if her friends would see her now they wouldn't even speak. Paige isn't a disabled kid anymore she can walk.
It has been a week since the day Raffe carried me out of the burning aerie, and flew away from the multiple rounds of bullets set afire to kill him, but I can feel his presence. I feel like if I walk out of the camp right now he would be waiting for me with his snowy wings and sarcastic sense of humor ready to fight the world. One problem is I can't exactly walk. My legs are getting stronger as the days past, but they lack agility.
In seventh grade, we had a project on diseases. My disease was paralysis. There are two types of paralyzed states, in the simple non-scientific word, for life or, short-term. I carry the latter. If I could I would go search for Raffe at this very second, but I can't leave Paige and mom here by themselves, that would never work.
I seat myself on a bed similar to the ones Raffe and I were tied up in the first night he was captured. Mom and Paige are at lunch. I take my food back to the room and pretend that Raffe is next to me smirking as I spill stew on my shirt.
"Come out!" A gruff voice sounds and fists slam the door.
My arms become taut and my stomach lurches. Nobody in the camp talks to me- except for the occasional whisper from Dee-Dum- why would they knock on my door? There is a sound of a rifle going off and leap off the bed. The door clicks open, and a man I recognize from assisting rebuilding is on the other end. He gestures to me urgently to follow him, but I don't.
"What's happening?" I ask.
"An attack! Hurry unless you prefer dying!" he shouts yanking my arm roughly. My hand lurches out just in time to grab Raffe's sword, which I don't leave out of my sight.
He sprints down the hall handing me a two Swiss Army knives and ushering me toward the safe zone in the building. The room isn't bigger than two of my rooms combined, but people fit themselves in as if there life depends on it-, which it does. Another round of rifle fires sound echoing of the walls.
"My mom and sister!" I shout over the loud screams and rifle shots.
"They're either here or they're gone!" the man says. I see a slight hint of sympathy on his face.
My mother like when Paige was captured probably took refuge, but Paige wouldn't know what to do she would be an easy target. She isn't in the room either, she wouldn't be. I sprint out the area where people squish themselves together to take refuge. The shots and wails lessen and I trip over a bloodied man trying to come across the exit. Men and women lie sprawled on the dirt bones at unusual angles, and crimson painted blood hot and fresh on cut flesh, some from bullet wounds. Some people I recognize, and some I have never encountered in my life.
A dark shadow appears over my figure and I draw back avoiding the assaulter. My eyes rake up and down the figure, which is rocking slowly in the sky, flying slightly awkwardly, and gazing down at me astounded. When he descends to the ground, his bat wings fold delicately as if they were his own.
"Penryn?" his voice his soft. "You died. I saw you, how…"
I rush to embrace him and this time he doesn't step back, instead his arms fold around me tightly.
"Raffe I can't find Paige." My voice is on the verge of cracking in desperation. I won't cry in front of Raffe.
"I thought you died," he says. His voice is caught in a lulling dazed sound.
"Raffe," I say louder, more desperate. "I can't find Paige!"
The attack is over; I can sense in the air that the assaulters have left.
But, where is my sister?
A small crowd starts forming from the people in the camp who dared to venture outside.
"The demon," somebody cries, "he has the girl again!"
Raffe registers that they are talking about him and his back straightens. Angels are not demons. I turn to the crowd untangling myself from Raffe's embrace.
"Where is she?" my voice is a low hiss, my eyes pointed accusingly at the crowd of people.
He doesn't make a sound, but I feel Raffe slip into the space that resides on my left. A sob escapes my mother, standing in the small crowd, who gazes at her hands as if they will explain to her what is going on. Her wails are the only sound that spoils the unnerving silence.
"I said, damn it," my tone wavering because of the dread of a response, "Where is my sister?"
The massacre lies at all of our feet, men bloodied and torn apart. It could look like the work of the angels, yet it isn't.
It isn't.
"Gone! They took her!" a man shouts.
My eyes widen although I suspected a response of the sort.
No, no, no she can't be gone. Who are "they"?
I feel Raffe's hand warm against my arm, but the warmth doesn't comfort me.
They took Paige.
A/N: I am starting a continuation loosely based on Susan Ee's sequel World After that is released on November 19th of this year. I hope that this will fulfill some people while we wait not so patiently for the sequel. The story is based off the summary Susan has released. Read & Review! Do tell me any constructive criticism you have because I'm not fully use to writing Penryn's voice.
