The Fallen Ones

by Katelyn Campbell

CHAPTER 3

  Ilyana:

  I wake up to the feel of Sasha licking my forehead. I look around for a clock and realize there isn’t one. I feel disoriented and hungry. How long did I sleep? I emerge from the cabin to find we have reached land. He is nowhere in sight. I zero in on Alya.

  “Good Morning, sleepyhead! - Or should I say evening? You must have been exhausted, I have never known anyone to sleep for 14 hours straight and on a boat no less!” she says with a smile that is too chipper for my liking, I have never been a big fan of waking up, I groan “Where are we?” she laughs “We are here, welcome to your new home!” my jaw drops, “How could we possible already be here?” she sighs “It is one of my gifts.” I am not quite sure how to respond to that “Okay, I am new to this, can you please do me a favor and explain what is happening in specifics, these vague terms are only leaving me with more questions.”

  “I knew I would like you! You are just like I was when I was new. You have to learn to be patient though Ilyana, you will be around for a very long time and it would be a shame to live your life in a rush. Gifts: We all have our own gifts, just like humans each have their own special talents, we have ours. Some of us have affinities for beauty, some of us art, some of us fighting… The list goes on really. I have never encountered two Nephilim that were exactly the same.” As she says the words I catch something, “You are Nephilim? I thought I am the first Nephilim to come of age in thousands of years?”

  She waves off the question as though I asked her if the sky is blue “Oh, Ephraim. He is so dramatic, I don’t know that I would say ‘thousands’ of years, approximately 2,300 years, give or take.” My head begins to spin “How old are you exactly, Alya?” she tilts her head to the side as though she has to consider the question for a moment before she responds “You know, I don’t exactly know. After a while we stop measuring time in years. We measure it by events that we live in our life. Someone can live a lot of years and not experience a lot of life, it used to happen to us all the time. We would get trapped in our routines, without attachments to humans we never experienced much loss or felt the need to rush though life. I would guess it has been around 4,000 years since I came of age – give or take a hundred.”

  I was finally beginning to accept that I was different, but I had no idea how different. I start laughing uncontrollably – mostly to keep from crying. One answer equals a thousand new questions at the tip of my tongue. She walks over to me and starts running her hands through my hair in a comforting way I have only ever experienced with my Mother. “Come now, Ilyana. It is not so bad. It is all new right now, but when you fully come of age, I promise: you won’t be able to imagine life differently. There are so many things I never would have experienced in life if I was limited to mortality, so many people I never could have helped. Being a Nephilim is a gift, not just to you, but to the world around you. You are powerful, more powerful than you know. But Ephraim will teach you to control and direct your powers, and new powers will even emerge. You will make the world around you a better place as you come to accept who you are beneath the surface. I for one cannot wait to see who you become.” She smiles lightly as she stops brushing my hair “One ability that all of us have is the ability to sense the power in others. When I am around most Angels or Nephilim, I usually sense it as a quiet, static hum, with you it is a full buzz, when you move I feel vibrations of power unlike anything I have ever felt, it is fascinating!”

  I look at her as I allow her words to settle in “Can I do that? Can I sense power?”

  “You can, you just may not be sure how yet. We all sense it differently. Some of us feel it physically, some of us see it - some of us even smell it. Your senses have been on edge the past few days so you might not have even noticed it yet. But when we arrive at the Enclave, you will probably be overwhelmed by it and begin to recognize it almost immediately.”

  “Ahem…” Ephraim. Even the way he clears his throat is beautiful somehow. “Speaking of the Enclave, we need to start moving soon. Are you ready?” He looks expectantly from Alya  to me. I attempt to run my fingers through my hair and they get stuck in my tangles and then I look down to find my sweatpants and tanktop, too big for me. Alya catches me looking. “Ephraim, you can’t be serious. We need to take care of Ilyana. She has had a rough time lately, we can’t take her to the Enclave feeling so tattered. We need to go get her clothes that fit and a fresh shower. Let’s take her to Levi’s cabin. She can have a proper shower and I am sure we can dig up some clothes that fit her more comfortably.” Ephraim immediately resigns himself to Alya’s request, he doesn’t even seem to mind, he just nods his head as if he knows this is a fight that he will not win and responds “Well then, if you are ready, I have the ATV’s waiting, we can get a move on it so we can make progress before it goes dark outside, we really need to get her somewhere safe.” Alya nods her head in agreement.

  I look from Alya to Ephraim. They are talking about me like I am not there and I don’t like it. “Excuse me, but I thought you said the demons can’t harm me last night, what is it that you have to keep me safe from?” I think of the monsters and shudder, if I am more powerful than them, what vile creature should I fear for my safety? He won’t look me in the eyes “The time for questions was last night, Ilyana. You should fear nothing, you just have a lot of… power. It needs to be controlled and I don’t have the proper space or tools to teach you outside of the Enclave.” I feel like there is something he is not telling me. But for now I am satisfied with his answer.

  We hop on the ATV’s and with Sasha at my side, I do something I haven’t done in a while, I smile.