Sins of the Fallen

by Karina Espinosa

  She gave me an exasperated look, trying not to laugh. “Max you know I’m a quiet person. This shouldn’t be a surprise.”

  “I know but I don’t want you to feel left out.”

  “Don’t worry, I’m not. I’m actually enjoying myself. Your family is really funny,” she said with a grin.

  “Good because they really like you.” I gave her a quick peck on the cheek which made her giggle.

  Before she could respond, there was a banging on the door that was powerful enough to break the hinges.

  The four of us went rigid, while Mom and Melanie looked toward the door in curiosity. Before anyone could let out their next breath, the sound of shattering glass exploded in the living room. My guardians were up and moving before the crash stopped. I looked to Melanie whose eyes had gone as wide as saucers and I felt frozen in place. How could I have been so careless to expose her to such danger?

  I didn’t realize my dad was speaking until Mel whispered my name in fear.

  “Max! Get her upstairs now!” Without giving it a second thought, I carried Melanie off her seat with speed I never knew I was capable of and stopped at the door.

  “What about mom?!” I yelled over to my dad who was helping Jones push the dining table over like a barricade.

  “She’ll be right behind you, now go!”

  Just as I passed through the kitchen doors, I heard what Angela said and I felt fear like ice wash over me.

  “Xavier, they’re here. They’re here for Max.”

  35

  I closed the door behind us and the loud thuds, grunts and more glass breaking could be heard from my bedroom. I couldn’t turn around to face Melanie. I didn’t want to see the fear that I knew would be there. Her quiet sobs were the only thing that made me turn at a speed so fast; I could have snapped my own neck.

  She was beet red from her neck up as tears rushed down her face. Both her hands covered her mouth to avoid screaming and I knew she was applying intense pressure to stop herself because her knuckles had gone milk white.

  I took a step toward her and she stumbled backwards, eyes growing wider and furiously shaking her head. Her obvious fear made me cringe.

  “Mel, I’m so sorry, please don’t be afraid of me. I’m not going to hurt you I promise, just please let me keep you safe.” I slowly walked to her and she stiffened in anticipation.

  Showing her my palms, I gradually brought them to her hands and pried them off her face.

  “I need you to listen to me Mel, please. They’re some very dangerous people downstairs and I can’t leave my family to fight them alone. I have to go help and I really need you to stay here.”

  “M-Max…” She choked out my name and I felt my chest cave in on itself. She was so afraid, I could feel it, but I didn’t have time to console her. Every minute counted and I was running out of time.

  “Please Mel; do not open that door for anyone. This room is extremely well protected and you will be okay as long as you stay here.” I stressed my tone and rushed through my words so she could catch on to how urgent this was. I couldn’t waste any more time here, I had to get downstairs. Gripping her upper arms, I shook her lightly.

  “Tell me you understand Mel, I need to hear you say it.”

  “I-I understand,” she sobbed and with much effort, I pulled her into me and kissed her like it was our last. Her smooth lips pressed against mine tenderly and I realized this was our first official kiss.

  I was out the door before she could register I was gone.

  When I reentered the dining room, it was pure chaos. Demons were everywhere and we were being overrun.

  Without hesitation, I let the fire warm me and went to work on the first demon that crossed my path. The heat surrounded me like another layer of skin. These demons hadn’t seen it coming and I was angry—beyond angry and I was taking no prisoners.

  I easily cleared out the dining room and sped to the living room where my dad, Jones and Angela were fighting at least five demons at a time. It didn’t matter. More and more kept coming in from the window they shattered at the front of the house.

  I couldn’t stop the scream that ripped out of my throat. I was so enraged that I hunched over for a split second as the pain of it consumed me.

  I grabbed two demons by the neck and had barely squeezed before decapitating them. I was too gone in my anger to notice my own strength.

  Salivating at the mouth, these grey skinned demons looked like they’d been starved for years and were now finally feeding. Their shark like teeth chomped at the air and those black holes that they had for eyes raced in a complete frenzy.

  I didn’t have time to look over at the others because I was in a state of tunnel vision. I didn’t see anything but the monsters I needed to slaughter.

  I threw fireball after fireball, to clear out the room as much as possible. Not one demon dared to approach me because they knew if they did, they would be toast.

  When my strategy became repetitive, I took the risk at looking to the others. I first saw Jones who had minor injuries but was knocking them out as fast as he could. My father looked more hurt than the rest. Being a fallen angel stripped him of any supernatural powers he might have had. Nonetheless, he still had his own fighting skills he could count on and it was what kept him alive through this fight.

  Angela was nowhere in sight and that worried me—but where was my mother? I was consumed with Melanie that I hadn’t worried about my own mother’s safety.

  Pushing through the demons and lighting them ablaze as I went, I caught up to my father. “Where’s mom?” I said without looking at him. I heard his ragged breathing trying to even out a response.

  “I sent Angela to take her to your room. She’d been hiding in the kitchen but she hasn’t returned,” he said as he snapped the neck of another demon.

  Without a second thought, I threw fireballs towards the borders of the shattered window, hoping it would spread and possibly cut down the number of these never-ending demons.

  The blue fire had spread around and I went towards the kitchen, cutting through the foyer. I bordered the front door like the window just in case and slammed the kitchen door open.

  I froze in my tracks as I took in my surroundings: Angela was slightly in front of me to my right, looking defeated for the first time since I’ve known her. She had some cuts and bruises on her face and arms, and her clothes were tattered but no major injuries. Her shoulders were slumped forward and arms slacked by her side. But what kept me rooted in place were the tears falling down her cheeks and her green eyes that were utterly vulnerable. I followed her defeated gaze and couldn’t contain the mild gasp that escaped me.

  There stood a man whose face was completely familiar, but yet he was a total stranger. A pair of menacing green eyes flickered to me as he held my mother up by her hair.

  “Ah well what a lovely surprise. Angela dear, why don’t you introduce me to your friend?” I took a quick glance her way but she was frozen against her will.

  “Who are you?” I asked, fearing the answer to my question. He narrowed his eyes to slits and his features darkened. I should have cowered away but my urge to save my mother gave me an extra boost of confidence.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know, Maximillion.” He taunted me with a smirk on his face.

  “I don’t have time for your games, tell me who you are and let my mother go!” I yelled like a child who was being refused a toy. He chuckled at my outburst and it only churned my anger.

  “Do not cross the line with me boy. You have no idea who you’re dealing with and I suggest you let the grown-ups talk this out, hm?”

  Mom whimpered on her knees with her once beautiful brown hair wrapped around his hand in a fist. The gag in her mouth muffled her screams and sobs as tears streamed down her face like waterfalls. She tried to stand or reach him from behind her but he just kept jerking her around like a ragdoll. She was helpless, a helpless human. I felt the tears that pricked my eyes and I could only imagine what horrifi
ed expression was on my face. To see her fighting for her life made the ache in my chest that much worse. Our eyes met and she stopped fighting. She’d given up. Without a word, it was like she was saying goodbye to me. A cold resignation went across her face and I looked away, shutting my eyes as tightly as possible.

  The ache in my chest grew tenfold as pin pricks of ice pinched me from my toes and spread throughout my whole body. I shook uncontrollably with my hands fisted at my sides. The ice that pierced my insides; melted into water and it flowed through me like a river. With my eyes still closed, I gasped for air, opening and closing my mouth, chest rising and falling. I tried to speak and ask for help but I couldn’t. The ice water that ran inside of me was so cold it burned. The pain was excruciating—I clawed at my neck and chest—trying to rip myself open to stop the burn.

  “Angela, what is wrong with the boy?”

  “I-I-I d-don’t know.”

  The tears finally escaped from the corners of my closed eye lids and I heaved trying to catch my breath, anything to stop the burning.

  I can’t take this any longer, it hurts! Please make it stop! I yelled in my mind, hoping Angela could hear me…but it didn’t matter. I felt a wind blow around me, pushing my shaggy black hair off my damp forehead.

  My eyes burst open and an earsplitting scream rose from my throat.

  They were all staring at me wide eyed, with their mouths hung open. I saw them all through the orange haze that clouded my vision. My fire licked the air in front of me and I realized that it had consumed me from head to toe. The energy that filled me was exhilarating and I felt invincible.

  “Let her go or I swear I’ll give you the slowest death possible and enjoy every second of it until you give your last dying breath,” I spat, and the viciousness tasted bitter on my tongue.

  His eyes trailed me up and down like he was measuring my threat. I didn’t know what I looked like to him that made him hesitate, but I felt murderous and I liked it.

  “I don’t fear you, Maximillion, nor do I appreciate being threatened,” he snarled as he tilted his head to one side.

  “What do you want?!” I wasn’t going to let him derail me, not with my mother’s life on the line.

  “You have no idea, do you?” The same surprised curiosity that captivated the succubus was now on him.

  “Maximillion the last Nephilim. The missing puzzle piece to the grand scheme. Ignore everything you’ve been told and taught to believe because they’re all lies. You cannot save the fallen, they are forever damned. Don’t trust the archangels because they want to use you just as much as we do. You are nothing but a pawn to something so much bigger. There is nothing special about you boy.” The gleam in his green eyes taunted me. “I’m here for two reasons. You and her.” His eyes moved to Angela who hadn’t moved an inch. His smile softened and he looked to her with such compassion and love, I thought I was going insane.

  “You will never get those filthy hands of yours on her,” I said through clenched teeth. My anger radiated throughout my body, hands balled into fists at my side.

  “You will not tell me what to do or I will not hesitate to end your life along with your mothers! That fire of yours does nothing to me boy, because I invented it. I am the maker and destroyer of Heaven and Hell’s fire. No matter what, I own you, so tread carefully. I don’t mind having to wait another few years for the next Nephilim of wrath.”

  Not caring about what he said, I hurled a blue fireball toward him. And just like Azrael’s, his free arm lit on fire and he threw a fireball that fizzled mine out on impact.

  “Stop,” Angela screamed and we both looked to her. Her empty eyes glued to the man in front of us, “Don’t hurt him. Please. Just tell me what you want.”

  “Angela dear, I’ve already said all I want is the both of you. Come with me willingly angel, you know I’d never hurt you.” He spoke to her like she was a mere child.

  “But why? Why do you need us? I don’t understand,” she whispered as her face fell and the tears dripped down her cheeks.

  “Because child, I, we need all the Nephilim. Together. The seven have a power that will surpass any angel or demon ever created. The archangels don’t want to protect. They want to use the Nephilim for their own personal gain. In our world there is no good and evil, black or white. It’s all gray. The seven together can destroy the archangels and all the lies they represent. Join us, join our fight for freedom.” He reached out an open hand toward her and I saw the conflict in her eyes. She was actually thinking about it. Her gaze zoned in on his invitation.

  We all figured there was something fishy about the archangels but either way, this man looked like the devil himself. This shouldn’t have been a hard decision to make. The answer was no, and should always be no.

  My fire blazed on, never faltering. No more stalling or listening to him ramble on about taking over what I assumed was Heaven. I looked to my target and made my decision.

  The flames grew higher as I formed a fireball in my hand but it wasn’t in its normal circular shape. It was just a mass of cobalt heat in my palm.

  I didn’t waste any more time.

  With my own crazed smile, I pulled my arm back to release, but I was slammed into my right side. I landed on the floor and my head bounced against the tile making my vision blur.

  “No, Max stop!” I watched in horror as the monster’s hand that gripped my mother’s hair set alight with red and orange flames that went down her hair, across her face and down her body. Her eyes melted from the heat and her skin peeled raw as her screams pierced my chest.

  “I told you to tread carefully, Maximillion. Now these are the consequences.”

  I saw it all as I laid on the ground, struggling to stand. My own fire cutting parts of my view and a piece of wood that was keeping me pinned to the floor.

  “No! Stop! Get off me! Mom!” I yelled. With as much power as I had felt before, I couldn’t move an inch. The despair was suffocating as I watched my mother being burned alive.

  36

  My fire burned through the wood, weakening it until I was able to push it off of me. The kitchen table flew to the far wall and broke into splintering pieces. Angela laid at my feet as she held herself up by her elbows. My anger grew when realization hit that she was the one who had held me down—who helped him kill my mother.

  The scathing look of hatred that I shot her way made her wince and after I killed this man, she would be next.

  “It was either me or your mother, Maximillion. Of course Angela chose me.” His smile grew to one of a Cheshire cat. “She wouldn’t dare let you kill her own father.” My neck snapped toward him and his laugh echoed through the kitchen. My mother was at his feet, her skin completely raw. Her screams were silenced now and I could see the skeletal features of her face.

  She was gone.

  The door behind me slammed open with the sound of my father’s screams.

  “NO! Emily!” He pushed past me with no other thought than to get to his wife. Jones grabbed him and held him back.

  “Abbadon, what have you done!” My father fell to his knees in despair but I knew he was already weak from all the fighting. He was hanging on by a thread. This monster that my father called Abbadon, scoffed at him, spitting on the ground in disgust.

  “Look at how weak you’ve become Xavier. I am embarrassed to have once called you my brother. You mourn for a filthy human like this one?” He kicked my mother’s lifeless body in our direction. “I did you a favor.”

  “You son of a bitch!” With my fire at the ready, I ran to him with my newly discovered speed and a gurgled scream ripped out my mouth.

  Slamming onto the kitchen counter, I looked around at where he was supposed to have been standing, but he was gone with my mother as well.

  I held on to the kitchen counter until my knuckles turned white. How could I have let this happen? What did I do wrong? Did I wait too long to try and save her? Where are the archangels? Who let this happen?

  My father�
�s wails snapped me out of my daze of questions. My fire had long ago dissipated and I shot around to look at what was left. My dad was still on the ground, sobbing like I’d never seen before. Even Jones had tears streaking his grime filled face as he held onto my father’s shoulder.

  I would have missed her if it weren’t for my rage. She stood at the corner of the wall, flat against it as if she was trying to blend in with the paint. But I wasn’t letting her off the hook…not in this lifetime.

  “You traitor!” I yelled as I stormed toward her with one hand fisted at my side while the other aimed for a face that now disgusted me. If she thought I pitied her, she was dead wrong. Before I could reach her, Jones gripped my upper arm and I was rooted in place. She didn’t move or flinch; all she did was move her gaze to the floor.

  “Max what the hell? What is wrong with you?”

  With a finger still pointed her way, “She’s what’s wrong! She killed my mother!” His eyes went wide at my accusation. He looked away for a moment as his eyebrows scrunched together, trying to process what I just said. His grip on me hadn’t loosened but he met my gaze again, torn by what to do.

  My father ran to Angela, enfolding her in his arms. She sank into him and cried like I never thought she would. She gripped at whatever was left of the back of my father’s shirt like she was holding onto her life. Her sobs grew louder but they only upset me more.

  “Don’t comfort her, she’s a murderer!” I didn’t understand this turn of events. How could he touch her after this? He turned around to face us, with Angela still tucked away.

  “Get him out of here, Loran. We don’t have much time, go now. You know what to do.” My father hadn’t met my gaze since he entered the kitchen and it felt like a punch in the gut. I’m the one who just lost my mom but he gave his compassion to the one who let it happen.

  Jones tugged my arm back, and I stumbled toward the door.

  “NO! Let go of me!” I felt hysterical and the ache in my chest returned. “Dad look at me—Dad?” But he didn’t, he just kept running his hands through her hair and I couldn’t hold the tears that slipped down my face.