Nephilim

by Daniele Lanzarotta

  “What happened after?”

  “Well, your mom went on acting as if nothing had happened. It was almost as if she felt relieved. Then, you were born. Shortly after, she started wondering if she made the wrong choice with Benjamin. Looking at you, she thought it was impossible that one child was so pure and the other so evil, both coming from her. Benjamin had never done anything to show any evil up to that point. He was the child that we raised him to be...” He paused and took a deep breath. “Guilt drove Irene mad. Then she started researching what kids like you and Benjamin are like, and although I knew she was researching it, I’m not entirely sure how much she found out. One day, a normal day, I took you for a walk in the park and when I returned, she was gone, her things were gone… It was just you and I.”

  “Until you gave me away…”

  “For your protection, Kayla. I could sense that even though she was gone, Benjamin’s father was still hovering around. I was afraid to leave you alone, and I couldn’t leave you with others who were unable to protect you. I didn’t want you to spend your life hiding, so I did what I thought was best to protect you. Then I ended up here. The place where I should have brought you from the beginning.”

  “No offense, but I’m glad you didn’t. Andrew and Kelly are the best parents I could have asked for.”

  I didn’t mean for my words to be hurtful, but I could tell they were. I awkwardly attempted to explain what I meant.

  “I—I didn’t mean that the way it came out.”

  He sighed. “I’m thankful for them keeping you safe from this world for as long as they did. It is just that now you are not prepared.”

  “Once you let me go… did you ever try to find Benjamin? To take him away from his father?”

  “I did… but his father hid him well. I wasn’t able to find anything about him at all until… well… until after Benjamin got to you. I still don’t think it is too late for him… If I could only get him to listen.”

  I looked at him in shock. “You don’t think it is too late? He is going around having children of his own! He is his father’s son!”

  “Only because I couldn’t stop him from being raised that way. Benjamin, the one I raised in the first few years of his life… he is still in there. He just needs help remembering who that Benjamin is.”

  I just shook my head, thinking that maybe having the people from the other Academy stay here wasn’t a bad idea after all. Mr. Daniels just didn’t seem like the most reliable person to do the job.

  “What about Irene?” I asked. “Do you know what happened to her?”

  He shook his head and hesitated “Part of the condition for me being accepted at the Academy was to let her go.”

  “Is that it?” I asked.

  He nodded and we both got up.

  “I’m going to see how Chambers is doing, if you would like to come along…”

  I hesitated because even though I was mad at Hunter, I was also worried and wondering why he ended up in the infirmary.

  “I—I’m not sure I want to see him, but what happened? Why is he in the infirmary in the first place?”

  Daniels sighed. “The girl who was outside is a succubus. They tend to suck the life out of people.”

  “…but Hunter is… welll, you know what he is.”

  Daniels looked surprised. “I sometimes forget the two of you tell each other everything.”

  I nodded.

  “Succubi can feed off anyone. Hunter is just weakened, but he will recover. If he was human, he would’ve likely died.”

  I nodded. “Can you just ask someone to let me know how he is doing?”

  “Of course… and Kayla, as much as I don’t like this connection that you have with Chambers… what happened between him and the demon wasn’t entirely his fault.”

  I nodded and left, not sure what to think.

  NINETEEN

  I wanted to go straight back to my room and just lock myself in. I was near the building when I heard someone calling my name. I turned around to find a guy, one of the haunted, rushing to catch up to me.

  I had seen him before, but honestly, I couldn’t even remember his name. I tried to pretend as if I had not heard him and rush inside the building, but that plan failed miserably.

  “Kayla!” he called again.

  He was too close, so I just turned around. “Can I help you?”

  “I just wanted to make sure that you are okay,” he said.

  Honestly, I was surprised he was not out of breath.

  “Yes, I’m fine.”

  “You don’t remember me, do you?”

  “Sorry. I remember meeting you before, but I’m terrible with names,” I lied.

  “My name is Tucker,” he said. “We met in the cafeteria on your first day here.”

  “Oh, right. Sorry.”

  I stood there in awkward silence. “So, I—I have to go… I’m kinda tired.”

  “Oh.”

  Something about his expression changed. He grabbed my wrist, pulling me toward him, and tried to kiss me.

  I pulled away. “What the hell are you doing?”

  He let go of my wrist. “Sorry… sorry… I just thought I was helping.”

  “With what exactly?!”

  “Well, I saw you all upset when that girl kissed Hunter and I thought that maybe I could make you feel better; make you forget him.”

  I looked at him, dumbfounded.

  “What the hell gave you that idea?! Look, I have to go, okay?”

  I couldn’t even look at him anymore. I just turned around and got inside the building without looking back

  ***

  A few hours had passed since everything went to hell. I got no sleep that night. In the morning, there was an announcement that classes were canceled for the day.

  I sat in my room wondering when this so called roommate would show up. I thought that was her knocking on my door, but so it turned out, it was Kim.

  I opened the door, letting her in, and went to sit back down on my bed.

  When I didn’t say anything, she said that Ethan wanted to talk to me. That he had asked me to meet him outside of my dorm.

  I didn’t want to go. I didn’t really feel like talking to anyone, but I got up anyway and went to meet him.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  I shrugged.

  “I was wondering if you’d like to go see Hunter. I will take you there.”

  I shook my head.

  “I think you should.”

  I gave him a puzzled look.

  “We often take people for granted until we lose them. I don’t want to see that happen to you. What happened was not his fault. He would have never done that to you.”

  I knew all too well about taking people for granted and realizing it too late. I thought about Kelly, Andrew… I missed home!

  “How is he doing?” I asked.

  “Physically, he is recovering quite fast… emotionally, he is a mess. He thinks he could have stopped it from happening and that he will never be able to regain your trust. Took me a while to make sure he understood that what happened was beyond his control and even then, all he worried about was that you would not understand, that the way you see things... well, you know...”

  I sighed. “Okay, I will go see him, but I just need some time to clear my head first. You are right and I don’t want to take things out on him. I’m just gonna go for a walk... Can you meet me here in thirty minutes and take me to see him?”

  “Of course.”

  ***

  I went for a walk toward the back gates of the Academy because no one was ever there. That wasn’t the case today. As I walked, every now and then I ran across one of the Fallen.

  I was at the halfway distance between the Fallen I had last walked by and the next one standing guard, when I saw him. Benjamin was just sitting there, looking bored… at least until he saw me. He looked up and grinned.

  “Hey, little sis,” he said.

  I froze.

 
“Come closer. I’ve been wanting to talk to you.”

  I took a few steps closer. There were fallen ones close enough to where they could hear me if I screamed.

  “What do you want?” I asked.

  “I want to get inside the Academy, of course.”

  I laughed.

  “We could trade. You help me in and I will help you out. I will even leave you and your human family alone.”

  I grinned. “Funny, I just had my first class not long ago. Do you want to know what I learned?”

  He looked at me curiously.

  “I learned not to make deals with Demons.”

  His grin grew wider. “I feel proud. I guess I did you a favor by leading you here. You seem to have grown up… You don’t even sound like that spoiled brat anymore.”

  “HEY! YOU! GET AWAY FROM THE GATE!” said one of the fallen as he rushed toward me. When I turned around to look at the gates, Benjamin was gone.

  I kept on walking away from the fallen one, just realizing that out of instinct I knew what he was. He had no wings. I couldn’t explain how, I just knew it.

  Ethan was already waiting for me when I made my way to the front of the dorms.

  ‘Ready?” he asked.

  “I guess.”

  Ethan took me to the infirmary… to the same room where I first awoke in this place.

  Hunter had his eyes closed. I was taken by surprise when I saw just how pale he looked. In fact, I was so shocked that I took a step back. Ethan put a hand on my shoulder to steady me.

  “He will be fine. He really is recovering fast,” he whispered.

  “Oh My God. What did she do to him?”

  “Kayla?” said Hunter in a surprised tone. I rushed to his side. He was just then opening his eyes and started to smile at me, but then he quickly stopped. “I’m sorry—“ he said in a low tone.

  I put my hand over his. “I know it wasn’t your fault.”

  He looked at me, eyebrows arched as if he had never been so confused in his life.

  “Trust me, I mean what I say about it not being your fault. It took a lot of explaining from other people, but I know what you were up against.”

  Hunter looked over at the door. “Thanks Ethan.”

  “No problem.”

  “You know… Daniels also said it wasn’t your fault… and so did Angela.”

  “He did?!” Hunter asked surprised.

  “Yeah, I was surprised too.”

  Ethan interrupted to say that he was going to wait outside.

  “Are things any better out there?” asked Hunter.

  “You shouldn’t be worrying about that,” I said. I also decided it was best not to tell him or anyone else about my encounter with Benjamin…. or about Tucker’s weird incident.

  “I can’t just lay here and not worry about it, especially with you out there in the middle of this chaos.”

  “Well, they are sending fallen ones from other Academies over here. They have guards everywhere… and looks like I will have a roommate now.”

  Hunter squeezed my hand. “I will still be there. Even if you don’t see me… you will be able to sense me. You won’t be alone.”

  “I know… but it is not the same. You probably shouldn’t be doing that right now anyway. You need to recover before you go around making yourself unseen. You mentioned countless times how much energy that takes away from you.”

  “You are right…”

  “I’ll be fine, you know.”

  “Kayla, I still want to get you out of here… as soon as I get better, we will find a way.”

  “We will talk about it later... once you are better.”

  Minutes later, Ethan was knocking on the door. “It is getting late, Kayla. We need to get going.”

  I nodded.

  “You are coming back to see me, right?” asked Hunter.

  “As soon as they let me.”

  He smiled and closed his eyes. I could tell how tired he was and a part of me wished I could come across that demon one day. She would pay for this.

  I gave Hunter a kiss on the cheek and left.

  Ethan accompanied me to get something to eat. He seemed distant and I thought maybe he was thinking about Jennifer. I mentioned that we would find a way to go look for her and his sad smile confirmed my suspicion that that was what he was thinking.

  After we ate, I went back to my room.

  The lights on indicated that this roommate was already in there. Great!

  The girl was sitting on her bed, reading. Once she saw me she quickly put the book away and stood up.

  “Hello,” she said. “I’m Stephaine.”

  I gave her a quick awkward wave. “Kayla.”

  The girl looked to be in her twenties. Long brown hair, pale skin, and white wings. Funny, most of the fallen ones here either carried scars or smaller darker wings, but not hers. Hers were white, and they looked… divine.

  After an awkward silence she mentioned how different this Academy was from hers.

  “I’ve never even been out of my Academy until now.” She walked to the window and looked outside. “I suppose it will take me a while to get used to this place.”

  She turned around, meeting my gaze.

  “I’m sorry… I’m just not that great with changes.”

  “Yeah… I know what you mean…”

  Once I didn’t say anything else, she said, “I’m sorry to be intruding. I’m sure you are not happy about sharing the room with someone who you don’t know.”

  As much as I wanted to dislike her, I couldn’t. She just seemed so… nice.

  “No, that is not it. I just have too much going on. Either way, I haven’t been here long. This place is probably more familiar to you than me anyway.”

  She smiled, a sincere smile. “I know all of this can be too much at times… but I heard that the boy in the infirmary will be okay. You must be happy about that.”

  “How do you know about him?”

  She looked away as if embarrassed. “I’m so sorry. Clarissa saw you running back here after that succubus attacked him. I just assumed that you had feelings for him.”

  “No, I—do, I mean… you are not wrong,” I said, not even knowing why I did it… why I was opening myself up to her. I was also thankful she used the word attacked instead of kissed. “Who is Clarissa?” I asked.

  “Clarissa is one of the fallen. She came to help move the human girl. She was actually transferred here with me. She is Evelyn’s right hand and will be working with your father—I’m sorry, so sorry—I mean… she will be working with Mr. Daniels.”

  “You seem to know a lot,” I said.

  She nodded. “Knowledge is essential to our jobs. The more we know, the better we can protect our kind and others.”

  She paused.

  “You know, I’ve never met one like you before.”

  I had almost forgotten that the fallen ones from the other Academy knew that I was different.

  I shrugged. “It doesn’t seem like many of you have.”

  “True. They said you were raised by humans, that you are still learning about your powers.”

  “Yeah…”

  “You miss them, don’t you?” she asked.

  “Huh?” I asked confused.

  “Your human family.”

  “I do. I get letters every once in a while but it is just not the same.”

  She paused for a moment, pressing her lips together and looking away as if she was in deep thought.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Do you want to see them?”

  “Of course.”

  “Give me your hand,” she said.

  I looked at her, confused.

  “Come on. You will be able to see them, but they won’t be able to see you… It is better than letters...”

  “Can’t you get in trouble for this? Like I don’t know… falling again!”

  She shook her head. “I’m still a fallen, but this is the right thing to do. I can feel it.”

&
nbsp; I looked at her doubtfully and for a split second wondered if this was a trick to gain my trust. Either way, just the sound of being able to see them again… I gave Stephaine my hand.

  “Close your eyes,” she said.

  I did.

  A second later we stood in the living room. My living room!

  Kelly and Andrew both sat on the floor, surrounded by baby toys. The baby, who they had coincidently named Carolyn, was sitting on Kelly’s lap as Kelly flipped the pages of a photo album.

  “…and this,” said Kelly, “… is your big sister, Kayla.”

  “Don’t be silly,” said Andrew. “She knows who Kayla is by now, we show her the pictures everyday.”

  “Well, of course she does, but I’m going to keep showing it to her until Kayla is back home.”

  She put the photo album down, picking up Carolyn and turning her around.

  “You know, Kayla will be home soon,” she said as if trying to convince herself.

  Andrew put his arm around her.

  “I really wish we could see her.”

  “I know,” said Andrew. They both had this lost look on their faces. It was as if they couldn’t understand why they had not been able to see me; yet, they understood that was necessary.

  “We have to go,” said Stephaine.

  One nod and we were back at the Academy.

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “Yes. Thank you for that.”

  “Glad to help.”

  “Can I ask you why you fell?” I said.

  She smiled. “For allowing others to use my powers for evil.”

  Somehow, I could see that. She was just too nice.

  “How did you do that?” I asked.

  “What? Taking you there? We all have abilities. That is one of mine.”

  “Will I ever be able to do that?”

  She smiled. “Only time will tell.”

  After the lights went out, we both went to bed. I lay there, sobbing because I missed Kelly and Andrew, and the feeling of being home just made me miss them even more. If Stephaine heard me, she didn’t say anything. Either way, soon enough the sobbing stopped. I could feel Hunter’s arms wrapped around me as he whispered in my ear asking if I was okay.

  I nodded and wrapped my arms around him too.

  As usual, I had a nightmare that night. Hunter not exactly being able to use his voice to wake me up, tried to move me, but it wasn’t until Stephaine said my name that I truly woke up and quickly sat up. I could feel Hunter’s hand on mine. Then I felt his hand against my back, as he tried to calm me down.