First Chapter

Trigger warnings: Violence, swearing, blood and possibly gore. These will be throughout the story.

Every morning I wake up with small wounds, just little scrapes and bruises. I guess they're from flailing in my sleep. This morning though, I woke up with a large cut on my side and what looks like a dead angel on the floor. My brother and roommate, Elijah, walks in. "What the hell is that!?" You shrug, and he looks at you horrified. "What do you mean you don't know?" he yelled. "Look, I just woke up to this, that's all I know," I replied. He looked at me with shock, and said, "We need to figure out what happened." in a calm tone. I sighed, and we walked to the bathroom to do something with the cut. I sat on the edge of the counter and poured saltwater on to it. It stung, but not too badly. I walked into the livingroom and turned on the News like it was a normal day. Suddenly an emergency report came on, showing a scene quite like the one in my room.

A News reporter said, "Scenes like this are happening all over the country, if this has happened to you, or you have any information, please call this number. A number flashed on the screen. I went over to the livingroom phone since I had left mine in my bedroom. I called the number and heard, "Police will be there in 10 - 20 minutes. Please stay calm." and hung up. I grabbed my phone from my bedroom and sat on the couch, my head in my hands. "Lucy?" Elijah asked. "Yeah?" I replied. "What's going to happen?" he asked, voice trembling. "I don't know." I told my little brother.

I started to feel a burning on my arm. "A new tattoo, huh." I said. In this world, when something important in your life happened, a tattoo showed up. I had only gotten one before, but this one looked like a set of wings with a caduceus in the middle. I wonder what that's about. I showed it to Elijah, and he looked confused for a moment before a look of shock crossed his face. "I don't think the police are going to help." I looked confused for a moment but remembered that angels can't die without a human killing them, and when they do die, they make everyone around them sick. Deadly sick. "Oh."

"Oh?! That's it? We're gonna die!" he exclaimed. I wanted to say something comforting, but honestly, I didn't think I could. I was terrified, how could I comfort someone when I couldn't calm myself down? I started breathing heavily, and I felt dizzy. I could feel the sweat dripping down my face. Elijah looked at me worried, his eyes widening once he realized I was having a panic attack. He panicked a little, not knowing what to do. My throat closed up and I could barely breathe. 'Get it together, he's worried about you.' I told myself, hoping the panic would wear off and eventually, it did, though I was still breathing heavily. Suddenly Elijah and I heard a knock. "Oh God" he whispers, and I motion for him to hide with me. They knock again, and eventually, after knocking more, maybe ten or so, they break down the door.

I whisper to him," On the count of three, run." he nods, and I count down, "one, two, Three! I whisper. Then I yell, "GO!" I yell. As we run out the door, a police officer pulls out his gun. BANG! It hits Elija in the shoulder. "Elijah!" I yell. I rush over to him and he stands, but his knees collapse beneath him, and he falls. "Go!" he yells, and pushes me away with his one good arm."Not without you!" I shout, and he smiles, and then pushes me away again, and I sense someone behind me. I grab him and I run faster than I ever have before. I pushed past the police. It felt like I was flying. Flying. The police stop for a moment, before continuing to shoot at us. I ran down the stairs as I heard more gunshots behind me, seeing bullets whiz past my head like blurs of light. Elijah tries to say something, but I cut him off. "Don't leave me. Don't you dare leave me!" I yelled. "I won't." he said, and suddenly, one of the bullets went into his skull. "No!" I yelled. As I ran I felt Elijah go limp. Tears streamed down my face as I kept running, he may be dead, but I was determined to do this. For him.

I looked down at his pale face as I remembered everything we had ever done together, tears still streaming down my face as I ran out of the building, holding a cold body. I had to find a place to sleep. If I didn't I would collapse and then his sacrifice would all have been for nothing. I couldn't let that happen. This will go right. Thinking about Elijah smiling and bullet-free, but most importantly, alive, I felt a presence, like he was there with me. I smiled and kept walking. A few miles and a little while later, I decided I couldn't leave him somewhere to rot so I decided to drop him off at the nearest police station. It was a risky choice but I had to do something. After walking a couple blocks I saw it. I walked in, carrying his corpse and immediately was surrounded by police. "Drop him!" one of them shouted, and I set him down and put my hands in the air. They pointed their guns at me, and I backed out, and as soon as I was out the door I turned tail and ran. I heard gunshots behind me and I ran faster. Their footsteps pounded towards me. Suddenly it hit me, if I couldn't out run them, I had to hide. I turned right at the railroad. There! Beside the rail, there was a hole just big enough for someone small like me to fit in, I almost didn't notice it, so it should be okay to hide in. I don't know why it was there, but it worked. I crawled in and waited, trying to listen for footsteps. I had tried to avoid this. Being alone with my thoughts. I thought of Elijah and of my life and how everything would probably just cascade downhill from here. I lost my brother, I ran from the police. I've done some horrible things before, but the consequences this time, well, they've never been this bad. I started shaking from the cold. I hid for what seemed like hours, shivering from the cold. I finally came out when It started to get dark. I ran to the shelter. And of course, it started raining. I ran faster as it started to hail. The blackness of the night and the cold rain deterred me, and I started to slow down.. I ducked out of the rain in an alley, hoping the rain would stop sooner rather than later, but I eventually fell asleep. When I woke up, all I saw was darkness. It was pitch black. I started to struggle until I felt cold metal against my head. I froze.

I stopped struggling, immediately realizing that it was a gun. It was outside of whatever was over my head, but the bullet would cut through the material like butter. There was no way of running. I panicked, trying to pinch myself. Surely this was all a dream. It couldn't be real. My arms weren't moving. I felt the rope dig into my skin even more than it had before, painfully. I tried to kick my foot out but quickly realized they were bound together as well. Whoever had me here pressed the gun harder against my head, warning me it seemed like. Obviously he had noticed my attempt to struggle free. I started to scream but it came out muffled, like there was a gag over my mouth as well as the fabric over my head. How did this even happen? How does someone not wake up while being kidnapped? We ride in silence the whole way to wherever we are going, and once we get there they pull me out of the car. I land on the ground, pain shooting up the arm I landed on. I struggled to get up, and once I managed to they pulled me by the arm I had landed on, into the building.they took the fabric off of my head and pulled the gag off. I screamed, and he pressed the gun against my head again. I kept screaming, hoping someone would help. But nobody came. I'm in the building now, kicking and screaming. They just drop me on the floor, and walk into another room. The lock clicks. I'm doomed. I see… Well, it's kind of hard to explain what I see. There are people in the room. They're human, it looks like, but they have wings, and some have other animal-like features, wolf ears, tentacles, tails, you name it. I stared, frightened around the room. I was terrified. Suddenly, everything blurred. I kind of remember talking to someone, his name was…Jason? I think it was anyway. But the next thing I knew, we were sitting somewhere different, and I was in the middle of talking to him. Then a few people came out of the locked room, and pulled me with them. Jason looked almost, well, sad. They pulled me into the room, and then all I felt was pain. A gunshot, then darkness. Falling, over and over again and then I shot upright, awake again. Then after a while, I fell asleep again. Another dream, falling, again and again. No sound, no nothing, I was completely numb. Hours of falling seemed to pass until I awoke once again...