Chapter One

CHRISTMAS TIME AT THE MALL WAS ANNOYING. Brightly colored lights shone in your face and the millions of mechanical singing Santa's would turn on and never turn off until you hit them with a a nearby lamp. Crowded customers shoved past you running around the mall, knowing Christmas was only a few days away and would be willing to knock you down to gets their hands on something on sale.

Not the kind of place a Fallen Angel would appear.

I had no one to buy presents for, the only reason I was here was because Matthew always shopped at the same mall, at the same store, for the same person; his girlfriend. Her name was Amy and despite her being short and annoying, she was pretty damn gorgeous.

I leaned on the counter while people piled against it. "Hey Amy, give me a discount on this will you?" I fiddled with a fancy pencil sharpener in my hand as Amy was working the cash register as fast as she could.

She groaned and pried the pencil sharpener from my hands, struggling with the people yelling over her to hurry up. "Alex, I'm busy, go find Matthew or something."

I groaned and leaned on her, purposely trying to annoy her. "But, he's mean to me, why don't you just admit you want me to stay?"

Amy shoved me back hard enough that I fell back on the floor with a thud and continued to work. "You're right, do me the favor and stay in a locked closet for the rest of my shift."

The bell that rang every time someone walked into the store gave a faint jingle over all the noise that was coming from people's mouth. Someone pushed through the crowd, determined to get through.

It was Matthew.

"Hey!" He yelled over the crowd, making everyone quiet for a brief second. "You people are too loud, besides, we're closed." Matthew flipped the sign that read OPEN to CLOSED and ignored the rude mumbles people gave as they pushed past him to get out the door.

I picked myself off the ground and looked over at Amy. She watched Matthew with her caring brown eyes and an unmistakable love-struck smile on her face. I huffed an looked away; all she ever did was notice Matthew.

Matthew dusted off his red jacket and smiled, walking towards us with  a bag from McDonalds in hand. "Brought you lunch,"

Amy gave another smile and leaned against the counter to get closer. "That's nice but you know my shift doesn't end for another fifteen minutes."

Matthew started to open the bag and took out a burger and a coffee. "Yeah, but you're the only one working here so eat up so you can lock up and we can enjoy you're lunch break together."

Amy gave a sincere smile and brushed the snowflakes out of Matthew's sandy hair. "You're too nice to me,"

Matthew gave a laugh and leaned in for a kiss. "Just returning the favor,"

I glared at them. When I was next to these love birds I was completely invisible. I grabbed the back of Matthew's jacket at the last minute. "Okay, that's enough, time for you to forgive so I can go to Heaven."

Matthew angrily stared at me and shoved me off of him. "Forget it," He grabbed his coffee and waited until Amy got her coat. "I told you its never going to happen."

The intensity of Matthew's glare always scared people off, but I've seen it so many times I was starting to think Matthew was born to glare.

Amy turned off the lights and locked up the shop, then Matthew put his arm around Amy. I glared at them again.  The look of happiness on Amy's face always sickened me. I ducked under Matthew's arm and stood in between them. I could feel both of their glares by the time we got outside.

"I'm going to get the car and pick you guys up here, okay?" Amy said, grabbing the keys from her back pocket.

"I'm going with you," I said, starting to follow her when Matthew yanked me back violently.

"No, you're not." He glared at me, his eyes telling me to stay or die for the second time.

Amy gave a smile and waved at Matthew and started for the car. Matthew and I both waved and I smiled and watched her leave, then I felt Matthew grab me from the front of my shirt. "Alexander, what do you think you're doing?"

I put my hands up in denial. "I don't know, you tell me."

"Lately you've been hanging around Amy," He said with jealously entering his voice. "You offered to walk her to her car and waved at her when she wasn't even looking at you. Whats your deal?"

I smirked. "Well excuse me for being a better boyfriend than you."

Matthew glared and then threw me against a wall and a nearby girl screamed. "Stay away from Amy," Matthew warned, shoving me harder against the wall, hurting my back. "You already killed off our family and I'm not letting you have Amy."

I felt the anger build up inside me and I brought my fist up, punching him in the stomach. Matthew staggered and I shoved him off me. "Why don't you just forgive me so I can get out of your life?!"

Matthew got up and punched me in the square of my jaw, snapping my head around. "Because I want you to rot on this earth."

The taste of metal entered my mouth. Blood. Amy's car pulled up and she honked the horn with a playful smile, not knowing what was going on. The mall security guards were in background, watching me. Matthew jumped in the car, not looking at me. I heard Amy ask if I was coming and before she had time to call me over, he told her to drive.

Amy gave a sad smile and waved at me as they drove off. I cussed and kicked the ground. I wasn't falling for that short-stack was I?

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I squeezed the last of my toothpaste onto my toothbrush when my phone rang. I looked at the clock; 10:34 pm. I put down my toothbrush and searched under the scattered papers and dirty clothes in search of my phone. I found it under the couch and looked at the caller I.D.

It was Matthew.

I glared the phone and threw it on the couch. I was too furious to talk to him right now. He actually brought up our family's death and blamed me for it again, accused me of hitting on his girlfriend, shoved me into a wall, and punched me. There was no way I would answer to him.

After the phone rang over seven times, I groaned and angrily snatched my phone to find that Matthew wasn't the one calling anymore. It was Amy.

"Yo," I said, flopping onto the couch, ready to have a conversation.

"I knew you'd pick up to her phone, you idiot." Surprisingly, Matthew's voices came out of the phone.

I glared at the wall. "I'm hanging up."

"WAIT, DON'T HANG UP," His voice sounded like he had been running. "ALEXANDER, I NEED YOU'RE HELP!"

"Oh, do you?" I said, sounding intrigued. "That's a first."

"ALEXANDER I'M NOT SCREWING AROUND, AMY'S HURT!" I could hear him pace in the background.

I laughed. "I already told you that I don't like Amy, stop trying to get me to say that I do--"

"ALEX, I'M NOT PLAYING!"
 
I stopped laughing. Matthew only called me Alex when he was dead serious. My heart threatened to stop, but I forced myself to stay calm. "What happened?"

"THE ROAD WAS ICY AND AMY TOOK A SHARP TURN AND LOST CONTROL AND THE CAR FLIPPED OVER," Matthew sucked in a breath. "THE CAR IS UPSIDE DOWN AND I MANAGED TO GET OUT BUT I CANT GET AMY OUT AND SHE WONT WAKE UP!"

I quickly took off my shirt and pulled on the one with slits in the back. "Where are you?" I asked calmly when inside I was panicking. I listened to Matthew's voice and climbed up the fire escape to the roof. "I'll be there in a second, keep trying to wake her up."

The crisp winter breeze was blowing in my face and I shoved my phone in my pocket. Foggy gray wings snapped out from my back and I launched myself into the air, feeling the cold wind under my wings with every stroke.

I panted and forced my wings to work faster than they usually did. Hold tight, Amy.