Nephilim's Fall: Chapter Two

A teen boy gets killed, but trades his soul for another chance. He changes. A girl notices the new boy with silver eyes.

Chapter 2

 

I am light, calm, and free. I am floating up in the branches of the pine. I’m cozy and warm. It feels so good to be warm again.

 

I laugh in joy. "But whats going on?” Far on the earth below me is a small person. A boy covered in blood laying in crimson snow. The boys forehead is caved in. His face ashen. The eyes shut, eyelids crusted in blood.

 

"That's me." I murmur

 

The realization doesn't bother me; I don't feel any bond to the crumpled thing on the forest floor. I turn away with a mental shrug, and am sucked into a swirling purple void. I'm spinning, darting up into the dark chasm. I am galloping through it.

 

"Oh my gosh," I croak.

I feel a bizarre sense of unreality. The edges of myself are clouded as if somehow, I am a part of the void, illuminations, and motion. I don't have a body anymore.

 

I have no control where I am going, and the twisting void has changed. There is a bright light up ahead. It is silver and dazzling. All I feel is pure wonder. It’s so big, so powerful, and so bright. I’m rushing towards it so fast, too fast, it’s filling my vision.

 

I’m in it. The light engulfs me. Surrounds me, seems to blaze through me. I am flying upwards through radiance like a swimmer surfacing. I have wings. They are broad, white, and dazzling in the pearlescent radiance shining from above. I beat them, hard and fast. My wings seem to beat, almost in time with my heart, taking me higher and deeper into the brilliance. 

The feeling of motion suddenly fades, the blinding light growing less bright. Shapes solidify around me. My feet feel raw earth. My wings gone. I am in a field. Tall crops encompass me. The yellow ears look healthy and ripe. 

Looking up, I see the sky is an impossible blue. I am wearing a thin white robe that billows around me. The sparkling of it blinding. 

 

"So this is what happens when you die?" I look around expecting to see someone to greet me. I’m hoping it might be my older sister, who died at nineteen years of age, by a drunk driver. I would love to see her again. But no one comes. The landscape is beautiful, peaceful, unearthly, and completely deserted. I feel anxiety twisting again inside me as I look towards a small dark opening in crops.

Swallowing, I make my way towards it. My bare feet plopping in the soft mud. I see past the darkness to a pathway. I take a look back over my shoulder at the small sunny clearing, birds chirping, the blue sky an ocean above, before I step into the field.

Instantly, the birds chirps halt. I take another step and the light seems to dim. Night seems to fall. The darkness clears ahead. Two pathways, two directions. Small stones litter the pathway floor. Looking down I see a few of the gray pebbles are laid out in a small arrow pointing down the trail leading to the right. To the left though, is a small dot of light. Silver and bright like a flashlight coming towards me.

“S**t, what if this is actually hell?” Deciding, I hastily move to the right, away from the light and in the direction the arrow indicated.

I walk on. Step after crunching step in the rocky track. I come to several forks in the crops, each one the same as the last. Always, an arrow and a light. I follow the arrows. Hoping beyond hope that they were left by a friend.

The path ahead clears, another open circle if crops, like the one I arrived it. The crops here seem weaker though, drooping in some places and wilting leaves.

A few feet away from me, above the mud is a sort of mist of light. It hadn't been there a moment ago. It seems to get brighter as I watch, and to stretch from very far away. And there is a shape in it. Coming towards me.

 

At first, it looks like a speck, then like an insect in a light bulb, then like a kite. I watch, too frightened to run until it gets close enough for me to realize what it is. It’s a person. The figure seems to shine as if made of the same light as the mists. It’s tall and has the shape of a perfectly formed human. It’s walking, but somehow rushing toward me at the same time.

 

"An angel?" I wonder in awe.

 

The mist clears and the shining fades, the figure is standing on the grass in front of me. I blink, not an angel. A man in a long, black coat. He looks to be about 30. He's tall, but that's not what I catches my attention. I can't look away from his eyes. They’re black. Not just the iris, but the entirety of the eyes are engulfed in darkness.

 

The darkness of his eyes seem to go on and on, their depths endless. He has a face like a classic Greek sculpture. His hair is long and slicked back smoothly. He's wearing a black v-neck under his black coat and jeans that look oddly normal. He’s well built without being over muscled. His expression uplifted. The smile mixed with those black eyes makes me shudder.

 

After about a minute of silence, he takes a deep breath in and speaks. "It's been awhile since I've been this close."

 

"This close?" I ask rigidly.

 

"To Heaven. This isn't Heaven here of course. This is just limbo, but still, it's closer than I've been in a while. Usually, I don't need to go this far to get someone, but you faded fast."

 

I look at him, not knowing what to think. "Why are you here?" I ask.

"I've come to help you" He smiles with what would have been a warm smile if it wasn't for those eyes.

 

"Help me?" I can feel my face wrinkle in confusion.

 

"You're supposed to move on from the world you know." I begin to notice a door. It’s behind the man, approximately where the mist had been. It's a door, but isn't. It’s like a luminous outline of a door drawn faintly on thin air.

 

Fear creeps back into my mind. Somehow I know the door is important and that the door means I will leave Dad alone and never get to see what I could have made out of my life. What job I would have, a wife, kids. That door means the end of everything and I want to run as far as I can away from it.

 

Whatever is behind that door is a different place. A world that I don't know. It has different laws, different rules of reality. It is so compelling and different that it is terrifying. The world behind that door is scary, life is scary too, but at least it is the world I understand and fathom.

 

I think, "I go through that door, and I don't come back." I am so frightened; I feel dizzy and sick.

 

"The thing is, it wasn't actually your time." The man with black eyes says quietly. "But here you are. A mistake, but one we have to deal with."

 

"Can't you just send me back?" I blurt out, stumbling back a few steps.

 

The corners of the man's lips go up slightly "I'm sorry, but your soul is already sealed to go through those doors. It's on the list here, ya see." He materializes a clipboard out of thin air and taps about half way down the page with his bone white pen.

 

"You're right here." He turns the clipboard over, and I can see my name written in a slot in what looks like my hand writing. My eyes bulge with fear when I look back up at the door and the loss it represents.

 

"Isn't there anything I can do? Please, I can't leave. I'm only seventeen! I've never even kissed a girl, and I know I'll never get a chance in heaven!”

 

The man looks as though he is considering. I gaze at him, feeling hopeful and wait.

 

"As I've said, your soul is on the list."

 

I look down at my white robe in defeat, thinking of Dad and what it will do to him when he finds out I'm gone. I’m all he had, ever since mom disappeared.

 

"However, just because your soul must go through the door, doesn't mean you have to."

 

My ears perk up and I stare at the man. "What are you talking about?" I ask hesitantly, not quite understanding.

 

"I'm not supposed to, but I could trick the system a bit. I could take a piece of your soul, send it through the door, and you could go back to your father.” He smiles warmly.

 

I look up at the man with the black eyes, full of curiosity and hope.

 

“However, I will need to take the rest at some point, not all right now of course, that could damage the precious soul. I’ll have to take it gradually, over time. I would just take a half of it now; it’s a small piece. I can send a piece of that through the door and take the other part later.” He stares down at me reassuringly, yet I see a hungry look in his eyes, almost like he's standing on the tips of his toes, ready to pounce.

 

The man holds his index finger against his chin. “Although, I will need to give you another piece of a soul to fill the hole. One to adapt your body to the eventual absence of having one."

 

"What can go in place of a soul?" I mumbled.

 

"Lucky for you I have a small piece of a Nephilim's soul left. It's one I strengthened with the smallest bit of my own. The combination of both should make the necessary adjustments to your body, not to mention make you sane so you could assist me with a task I need done. Although, a piece of a Nephilim’s soul is not an easy thing to come by, especially one that I fused with a piece of my own. We'll have to make some sort of a deal." 

 

"What sort of deal? I don't have anything."

 

He smiles "Dear boy, I wouldn't take anything from you. You've been through enough as it is. Let's just say, I may call on you for a favor or two sometime in the future.”

 

"That'd be okay I guess. So I can go back home?" I sound uncertain even to my ears. I don't understand anything this guy is saying.

 

He tilts his head slightly, "you might want to think your life over at this point."

 

I blink, take a few steps away from him and stared across the supernaturally green grass. I try to think about my life. If I had been asked this morning if I wanted to stay alive, it would have been no question, but now it feels a little scary either way. I can't tell if, seeing how I've come this far if I really want to go back. I have dad and hopes of the future, but is that enough to go back for? It's not as if I am anybody special there. Not cool like Derek, or smart like my sister was, not brave, not talented.

 

Well, what else is there? What will I be going back to experience? Dad drinking every day? Him passed out by the time I get home everyday. I know I would be facing loneliness, because it’s constant. No friends, no anyone. I will continue to experience the longing for things I can never have. One of these is Stella, with her quizzical smile. I know she could never be into me, but maybe she could be my friend. Others are popularity, love, and acceptance. I just want to have people think I am interesting and good."

 

"Come on; there's got to be something good back there, right?" I think to myself.

 

"Pizza, Raman noodles?" The man nudges.

 

I turn toward him. "Huh?"

 

"You like those. Especially on a cold day when you come inside. Dogs, rollerblading, cinnamon toast with lots of butter, like your mom used to make when she was around and still got up in the morning. Evil monster movies."

I choke. I have never told anyone about most of those things.

 

"How do you know all that?"

 

He smiles. "We see a lot."

 

Then he sobers. "And don't you want to see more? Of life I mean. Isn't there anything left for you to do?"

 

Everything is left for me to do. I have never accomplished anything worth anything.

 

"But I didn't have much time." A small wispy voice inside me protests.

"I had time. I just wasted it." I say to myself again.

 

"Then don't you think you should go back and try again?” The man stated in a gentle prodding voice. "See if you can do a better job?"

 

"Yes." All at once my body is filled with a burning, warm feeling. I feel revelation and purpose. I can do this. I can change completely. Turn my life in a whole new direction. Besides, there is dad to consider. No matter how bad things have been, I can’t abandon him after what happened to mom. He would get so much worse if his son suddenly died. He would blame himself. 

I suddenly have the feeling the man in black is listening to my thoughts. I try to quell the feeling. I do have a new perspective on life. I know now that the worst thing you can do is waste it.

 

I look up and meet the man’s black eyes with my own. "I want to go back."

 

He nods and gives that unnerving smile again. "I thought you might." His voice is so smooth now like butter, there is a quality in it like, infinite understanding, like he is talking to one of his own children.

A silver goblet materializes on the ground in front of me, sitting upright in the now black mud. I turn my face to the man, in a question of what this is for.

The man simply gets to one knee, pulls up his sleeve, and to my shock, drags an oversized pointy fingernail across his wrist, making a deep dark cut. Cringing, I close my eyes, hearing what sounds like running water from a faucet.

When I open them, the man is standing upright in front of me. The goblet in his hand. My eyes shoot to his wrist, his skin there is smooth and bares no sign of what he did moments before. For a second I think that I imagined the whole thing, but when I look to the goblet, now full of thick black liquid, I know I didn't.

“Listen kid, I know what you're thinking, and yup, you have to drink it. I can send you back, but your body is broken. If I send you back now, you won't even be able to move and will most likely just come right back here. The piece of a nephilim’s soul will help your body some, but my blood will really change you. It will not only heal your body, but it will evolve it so nothing like this can ever happen to you again.” The man smiles warmly, “you don't want Derek to be able to do this to you a second time do you?”

Tears burn my eyes. I take the cup with a jerk and stare down at the sloshing liquid, thinking about Derek as I drink every last drop. The sour taste reminding me more of bitter lemons than anything else. I wipe my mouth, feeling a tingle in my chest.

 

He holds out the wooden clipboard with the pen resting on top it. "This is for our arrangement, Kyle. Your soul, for a piece of a nephilim’s one and your services upon my request. You can just go ahead and sign at the bottom." He takes a step closer.

 

I take the clipboard. The writing on it isn't English. I look at it more closely, recognizing the cursive Latin from my classes last year. My hand shakes as I sign my name in dark red ink.

Author's Note

Please comment and let me know if you liked it :)

Reviews

[Srchaud]

I know I said I would be busy, but....I was curious.
Good job again, the writing is really steller.
The dialouge is interesting, realistic yet gives you enough information to push the story forward.
Im a sucker for weak guys coming back into heros(being a weak guy myself) So knowing Dereks got something coming to him is going to be great.
Love the supernatural stuff with angels and demons and the afterlife. I know its not everyones jam but I enjoyed it.
The only suggestion I can make is the change of one word.
-However, just because your soul must go through the door, doesn't mean you have to."
I feel like must is wrong here. It makes his choice kind of pointless(he must go through). if he must go through then there is no choice, but if you said instead supposed to go through. It makes the scene stronger. as it implies choice. It makes the reader curious and go ohhhhhh, then what is the plan demon man with the clipboard.
Once the choice is laid out, the reader then can root for one or the other, screaming to go through the door or take the poweraid.

[DeNine]

Thank you so much for reading again :) I myself am a sucker for weak guys coming back into heros too. I'm glad you like it so far. You have a good suggestion and I'll change that work. Thank you for pointing it out. Let me know if your able to read the third chapter when he comes back I introduce a new very important character.

[TheIlliteratePanda]

hooooooooooooooooooooooked...

[DeNine]

Glad you like it! Thank you for reading :) let me know what you think if you finish any of the other chapters :)