The Fallen: Chapter Two

Dark secrets unfold as J and Annie are forced to help a girl caught up in the middle of perilous battle.

The Fallen

He watched Annie pace back and forth in the the living room of the large house she had led them to, hidden in the forest. He supposed he shouldn't be that surprised given her family background but still, such a property hidden away must have cost a fortune. Annie had always been a bit of a recluse, and a minimalist, her room was barren besides a few furnishings and a plant.

 “So what do we do now genius?” She announced.

 “Not only does she not know who she is, you've given her enough demon blood to make her a Fallen! Not only that but you're in my house, I don't like people in my house. Not that it matters since no one is ever home.” She sighed, ending her rant.

 “I know what I did. What did you expect me to do, just leave her there dying? But... The strange thing is she seems completely fine doesn't she? Normally that much demons blood would kill anyone but a Participant."

He studied the girls face, she had very delicate features, the kind you'd expect to see on royalty. Her body was slim but surprisingly toned, perhaps she did a martial art of some sort. She had shining blonde hair that glistened in the moonlight and fell down to her shoulder blades.

 "I'll admit that it's very strange she hasn't turned or just died yet, but is it really necessary to keep her in my house until you figure out what to do?" She asked, looking out the window at the setting sun, a worried look on her face.

 "You heard her, she doesn't even remember her own name. You really want me to just take her out and leave her in a ditch for her to work everything out by herself? You know I can't do that. Shouldn't you feel some kind of sympathy, she's in a similar situation to yours when we first met." He replied.

 "You might be right, but I'm a Participator, she's just a normal human girl. However similar the scenarios might have been the situations are way different this time around. On another note, didn't you find that Fallen One a little strange? I know they usually look a little different but that one looked like a completely different species." She said.

He looked out into the darkening sky, Annie had noticed it too, not only did it look different it seemed to be a lot better at fighting than the previous ones, almost as if they were evolving.

 "Maybe we should talk to Esra, he usually knows what to do in these situations. Plus he might have some clue on how to cure this girls amnesia." He said.

 "Do we really have to go for him to help? I hate how he doesn't think fighting is worth it, even if it's to protect something. How did someone like that even get to be a Participant?" She sighed.

 "You know he's not a Participant right? He's an Observers, they have their jobs and we have ours, that's the way it goes." He said.

 "Refresh me on why the most powerful of us don't have to fight again?" She replied.

He wished he could answer her, in reality he knew very little about why they were there and getting answers from Esra wasn't exactly the most easy task. The foremost problem being Esras location. Due to his need to be at one with nature or whatever he called it he lived very high up on a mountain. That wasn't the only problem, there were several rules about what Observers could tell Participants in the first place, and often or not the more important questions were sealed off by those rules.

Participants were more or less the same as humans in terms of appearance, but what separated them was their ability to see Fallen Ones easier than humans as well as their super-human strength. Not only that but their intelligence would be considered unusually high compared to human standards. They were sent to this world from another plane of existence, similar to this one to help vanquish the rising forces of the Fallen Ones that were starting to slip through the cracks in time caused by an enormous war ten years ago. Unfortunately due to the radiation of the cracks affecting Participants to the point of vaporization they had to go in the only other way they knew how; by being born.

Observers were there to keep in contact with the other plane of time to check in with them, tell them if they needed more Participants, or if something had gone right. They were incredibly strong members of his species but were only strong because of their vows, preventing them from fighting in almost all situations.

Another one of the unfortunate side-effects of getting participants into the world this way was that they would not remember who they were, or where they came from until an Observer awakened them. He himself had been sought out by Esra as the first Participant in this area, after that he had found Annie and their team was complete.

 "Hey, Earth to J, stop zoning out like that." Annie said, waving her hands in front of his face.

 "Let's go find Esra so I don't have to look after this girl forever, okay?" She said.

He snapped out of his daydream and nodded.

 "It's way too late for us to go now though, mind if I stay over?" He asked.

 "You're joking, right?" She replied.

 "I'll take the guest room upstairs, see you in the morning." He said, walking away before she could say anything else.

He made his way to the stairwell, the task of finding Esra on his mind. Observers had a large barrier around them that more or less prevented any evil from coming inside, the downside of this was that Fallen Ones often crowded around the barrier, making very few pathways for them to get in unhindered. He supposed he would leave it until morning to worry about, as he opened the door from the guest room a loud crash sounded from downstairs. Knocked over and slightly startled by the sound, he regained his composure and bolted down the stairs to see the charred body of the girl outlined on the floor. Annie came in shortly after, gasping at the scene.

 "What the hell happened?" Annie screamed.

 "How should I know?" He yelled back at her.

Then something truly unnatural happened, the blue light that had healed her before suddenly burst into life. Mending her body until she was as healthy as she was before. He was at a loss for words, she was clearly dead, even demons blood wasn't able to bring back a dead person. This shouldn't have been possible.

 "Did you just see what I did? That shouldn't have worked, she should be dead right?" Annie said, wavering.

 "Go back to bed Annie, we'll figure it out tomorrow, for now we need rest. I'll stay here and watch her." He said, pointing at the girl.

 "Like hell I can sleep after that! I'm staying here with you, besides if she just randomly explodes I'm dying with you." She said, sitting on couch.

He sighed at Annie's stubbornness, he supposed it couldn't be helped, after all he would have done the same thing for Annie. He sat on the couch opposite to Annie and rested his eyes, he was unbelievably tired.

 "Hey, don't fall asleep okay, we can just have some demons blood in the morning to wake us up." Annie said.

 "I'm all out, do you have any left?" He asked.

 "You used all of it on her I suppose, why is she so important to you anyways, you don't even know her." She said.

 "All humans are important to me, you know that." He replied.

Annie grunted and relaxed herself on her side of the couch, he watched as she slowly fell asleep despite her own words. Finally, he could get some rest.

Author's Note

While I very much appreciate compliments and praise, I would much rather hear critique and flaws with my writing; that's how people grow.

Please respect me as you'd like to be respected.

Thank you very much for reading, feel free to message me with question or errors in the text.