by R. D. Brady
Jen stood leaning against the counter calmly rolling down her sleeves. Lou felt like she'd just entered the Twilight Zone. How the hell had Jen just done that?
Lou made her way back to the table, slumping into her chair, her legs feeling weak. "That was - you think I'm like you? Because I'm not. When I get hurt, I bleed and it doesn't heal like that."
Jen shrugged. "Everyone comes into their abilities at different times. I'm guessing yours were activated the other night in the park.
"Activated? What, like a robot?"
Jen smiled. "No. Not a robot. You're an angel."
Lou stared at her. What the hell was this woman talking about? She shook her head, thinking she would have believed her more if she had actually said robot. Religion didn't play much of a role around here, not since her grandma died.
"Yeah." Lou drew out the word. "See, I'm not really the church going type. So, I don't think-"
"You don't have to be religious." Jen tilted her head to the side. "In fact, they come in pretty much all shapes and sizes, all ethnicities and religions. Or lack thereof."
"So, you're one?"
"I'm a nephilim, the offspring of a fallen angel and a human."
"So your mom was an angel?"
Jen shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know if it was my mom or my dad."
Lou inspected Jen. Her demeanor was cool, even standoffish. And Lou realized it wasn't because she was a cop. It was because she was on her own - or at least had been - just like Lou.
Another thought struck her. Her eyes flew to Jen. "Am I going to grow wings?"
Jen laughed. "No. Wings are not part of the package."
"So you can't fly?"
"Not unless I'm in a plane."
Lou stared at her trying to think of something to say. "Do all nephilim have powers?" Lou asked slowly.
Jen shook her head. "No. From what I understand, very few do."
"So I'm also a nephilim?" Lou asked trying to figure out which of her parents could have had powers. It was ridiculous. Her father had died of lung cancer when she was three. And her mom had been killed. If either of them had powers, they hadn't done them any good.
Jen paused. "Actually, no. You're the other type of superhuman. You're what we call a Fallen."
"A Fallen?" A vague memory fluttered through Lou's mind - her Grandma talking to her about evil entering the world through the fallen angels. "Wait you don't mean fallen angels, do you?
Jen nodded.
Lou scrambled to form thoughts through her confusion. "But, they fell, assuming it ever actually happened, forever ago. And I was born fifteen years ago. So I can't be one."
"I know. It sounds incredible. The Fallen are reborn time and time again and live out their lives with their powers."
Lou paused trying to take it all in and failing. "Wait - you said you're the child of an angel and a human. Does that mean if I have kids, my kids will have powers?"
"It's possible," Jen said.
Lou stared at this strange woman in her kitchen. What the hell was going on? She remembered the angel picture her Grandma had kept in her bedroom. Her Grandma said the angels would look after them.
Lou had moved the picture into her own bedroom after her Grandmother had died. But she didn't really believe they existed, did she? I mean, an objective look at her life made it pretty clear there was no one besides Lou looking out for Lou.
Lou shook her head. Okay, she didn't know what the deal was with that whole cutting trick but obviously this woman was a few eggs short of a dozen. Why was she even listening to her?
Lou stood up. "Look, I appreciate you helping me and Charlotte out but I think it's time for you to go. I don't know what brand of crazy you're trying to sell here but I'm not buying."
Jen stayed where she was. The silence grew between them.
Lou struggled to figure out what to do. The woman was crazy but she was also pretty strong. There was no chance Lou would be able to get her out of the house on her own. And if she called the cops-
Lou sighed. Damn.
"I know it's a bit much to take in all at once," Jen said. "Unlike you, I had years to get used to the fact that I had abilities before I learned why I had them."
Lou let the exasperation she was feeling into her words. "Look, I don't have any special abilities. I don't know what that was in the park, but it was probably just adrenaline or something. So I'm going to have to ask you to leave."
Jen nodded and stood, pulling a business card from her pocket. "Here's my number. If you need to talk to me, or if you need help, give me a call. I'm going to stay in town for another few days."
Lou pocketed the card. "Yeah sure, whatever." She looked at Jen for a minute. "If I have these abilities, which I don't, why do you care?"
Jen went silent.
Lou could tell she was debating whether or not to tell her the truth. Lou tensed, waiting for the lie.
"Sometimes, when a certain group learns about a person with abilities, they try to recruit them."
"So what? You try to beat them to the punch?"
Jen shook her head. "No. I'm not trying to recruit you into anything."
"So why are you here?"
"This other group has been known to kill to get people into their group."
"What? Like hurt me?"
Jen paused, her eyes staring into Lou's.
Lou forced herself to meet the woman's gaze.
"No," Jen said softly. "They go after the recruit's family. They get rid of the people close to them. Leave the recruit vulnerable and alone."
Lou felt cold. "Are you threatening my sister?"
Jen let out a sigh. "I'm explaining this really badly. Basically, I think you and your sister might be in danger. And I want to help if I can."
Lou stood up, walked to the back door, and held it open. "Thanks, but we don't need any help."
Jen hesitated for a moment before she stood and walked to the door. She stopped next to Lou, looking down at her. "I hope you're right. But if anything feels off, call me, okay?"
"Yeah, sure. And thanks for helping before." Lou didn't meet her eyes. She just wished the strange woman would go.
Jen walked out and Lou let out a breath. She watched Jen walk down the porch steps and around the side of the house before shutting the door. She bolted the lock and leaned against the door. The woman was crazy - that's all there was too it.
But a small voice niggled at her from the corner of her mind. But what if she isn't?
CHAPTER 11
Lou walked down the hallway of Martin Luther King High School. Built in 1970, it hadn't been renovated in years. Parts of the second floor were completely blocked off for fear someone would crash through. The chalkboards were too cracked to write on, forcing the more concern teachers to bring in their own white boards. The less concerned teachers either just read from the text or in some cases, napped during class.
And the textbooks were massively out of date. Lou's history textbook only went up to 1992. Apparently, the school district didn't think anything important happened after that date.
Despite all of that, Lou looked forward to going to school. She'd managed to get into some AP classes, which were definitely better than the regular classes. The teachers actually seemed to care.
A lot of other students looked at high school like doing time - they just needed to make it through.
Not Lou - she knew school was her ticket to better things. Usually, that meant she was first in class - sitting in the front and ready to go.
But not today.
Students streamed by Lou but she didn't pay them any attention. She hadn't slept well after Jen had left. She'd ended up pacing the halls and jumping up at the smallest sound. She'd propped the front door back up and pushed a dresser against it as a barrier. But she kept imagining someone creeping through.
This morning, she felt like a complete idiot. Why had she let the woman's crazy talk get to her?
But at least Jen had brought her library books back
. Lou smiled a little when she thought of the money tucked safely away in her pocket. It wasn't much, but right now, every penny counted.
The bell rang and a couple of kids dashed into classrooms. Others continued their slow walk down the hall, either not concerned about being late, okay with being late, or skipping class all together.
Lou fell in the last category. She was supposed to go to Computer Science but there was no way she could listen to Mrs. Huckelford drone on about word processing. Besides, Lou had been computer literate since she was a kid. Mrs. Huckelford, meanwhile, couldn't answer any question not addressed by their textbook.
Lou slid into the stairwell. There was a music room on the third floor that was slowly turning into a storage closet. It should be empty and hopefully, she could get a little sleep.
Hitching her backpack on her shoulder, Lou began to climb. She went over the scene from the house yesterday. The woman might crazy but she certainly could fight. If Lou hadn't been in the middle of it, she would have been really impressed.
Too late, Lou recognized that there were people on the landing between the second and third floors. She stopped in mid-step taking in the scene. Bobby Kiender and two of his minions, Sal and Brick, had a girl cornered. Bobby was nineteen but only a junior.
He had the girl pinned against the wall. Sal and Brick leaned against the wall watching.
Lou recognized the girl - Ann Marie Sonner. She was a freshman. Nice kid - smart. No way she was voluntarily hanging out with these three.
Ann Marie's terrified gaze latched onto Lou's and pleaded for help.
Brick stepped away from the wall, hitting Bobby on the arm. "Company."
Bobby looked over. "Get lost, bitch."
Yesterday, Lou probably would have. Or at least she would have run and gotten help. But today, something was different. She just couldn't leave Ann Marie behind.
Lou stepped onto the landing. "Leave her alone." The words were good. The tremor in her voice was not.
Brick let out a laugh. "Oh yeah? And why's that, sugar lips?"
Bobby nodded his head toward her. "Take care of her."
Brick smirked. He walked over to her, reaching out a giant paw. Lou stepped to the side, smacked the hand out of the way, and hit him in the face with an open palm.
Blood burst from his nose. Brick crashed to his knees. "She broke my nose," he cried, surprise more than anger in his voice.
Sal ran for her. Lou waited until the last second and then stepped to the side. Turning, she put one hand on Sal's back and pushed. With a scream, he tumbled down the flight of stairs.
Lou stared at Sal who lay in a heap one flight down. How the hell-?
Too late, she noticed Bobby coming up behind her. He wrapped his arms around her and jabbed a knife into her ribs. She screamed in pain as she elbowed him in the ribs, feeling one of them break. Now it was his turn to yell in pain. Lou grabbed one of his pinkies and yanked it back. He yelped releasing her.
Lou turned, anger racing through her. She grabbed Bobby by the throat and threw him against the wall. He slammed into it and collapsed to the ground, leaving a little indent in the wall, bits of plaster crashing down around him.
Lou stared at him in disbelief. How did I do that?
Brick backed away from her, all but tripping over his feet to get away. Bobby shook his head like some cartoon character and Sal was moaning down on the stairs.
Ann Marie walked up to her, shaking. "Lou?"
Lou turned to her, pushing her shock away. "Are you okay?"
Ann Marie threw her arms around her. "Thank you."
Lou returned the hug as Jen's words replayed in her mind. The Fallen are reborn time and time again and live out their lives with their powers.
Ann Marie looked at Lou's shirt, where Bobby had stabbed her. "You've been hurt. I'll get help." She ran off before Lou could think to stop her.
Lou looked at her side, pulling up her shirt to get a better view. The wound had stopped bleeding. She watched in disbelief as the wound began to stitch close.
She felt lightheaded. She reached out for the wall. Jen wasn't crazy. I am one of them. The park wasn't a fluke.
Her chest clutched as she remembered the rest of what Jen had said. She scrambled to her feet, fear crashing through her.
Charlotte.
CHAPTER 12
Lou ran all the way home. But she had to make a concerted effort to run at a normal speed.
Her mind still couldn't wrap around what had happened in the stairwell or what was happening to her. She was fast, strong, and healed really fast. Jen was right. She was one of them.
Lou had run into Ann Marie at the bottom of the stairwell and promised her she was fine - that the cut hadn't been deep. Ann Marie had been skeptical but she had promised not to say anything to anyone about Lou's involvement.
Lou turned the corner onto her street. An electric tingle rolled through her. Her head whipped up. Jen stood leaning against her Tahoe in Lou's driveway.
"What are you doing here?" Lou asked. Her tone was gruff, but relief flowed through her at the sight of the tall agent. She had been debating whether or not to call her the whole run home.
Jen straightened up. "I brought some supplies to fix your front door and I wanted to check on you. See how you're doing."
Lou nodded. "I'm okay."
Jen took a step forward, her eyes narrowing. "Why are you home so early? Did something happen?"
"No. Why?"
Jen reached out lightning fast and grabbed Lou's arm. She nodded at the dark stain on Lou's jacket. "That's blood. You didn't have it yesterday." Jen flipped open Lou's jacket. "Your shirt's ripped."
Lou looked down at the blood, feeling a little lightheaded again. "How about if we sit down?"
Jen looked like she wanted to say something, but she just nodded, her mouth a tight line.
Lou led Jen up the drive and around the back of the house. She took a seat on the top of the porch steps.
Jen leaned against the railing at the bottom of the steps. "Tell me what happened."
Lou shook her head, imagining the fight again. "A girl at school had a run in with some not so good guys. I helped a little."
Jen raised an eyebrow. "You okay?"
"Yeah, but um, I got stabbed."
Jen looked at her, not at all alarmed.
Somehow Jen's lack of response bolstered Lou's own calm. "But um, it healed."
Jen nodded. "Probably in a couple of seconds, right?"
"Yeah, I uh -" Lou put her head in her hands. "Am I really one of those things you said?"
"A Fallen? Yes."
"So I can't get hurt?"
"Oh you can get hurt. I'm guessing that stab wound hurt quite a bit. You'll just heal quickly from injuries."
Lou nodded. Okay. She could handle this. It might actually be kind of cool, having superpowers. But she remembered what her Grandmother had said about fallen angels.
"But, they fell from God's grace, right? They disobeyed God. They're cursed. I'm cursed."
Jen climbed the stairs and sat down. She looked Lou right in the eyes and shook her head. "No. I don't believe that. I don't think there is anything that you can't come back from. What you do here and now determines the person you are - not what you did eons ago."
"Eons ago?" Lou whispered, pulling her gaze from Jen's and looking at the overgrown backyard. Was this for real?
"Yes. Eons ago," Jen said.
Lou stood up. She walked along the porch, leaned against the railing and stared at the back fence. "I just-." She shook her head. "I don't even know what to say to that."
Jen walked over and stood next to her. "I know. It's a lot. I just learned about my nature a few months ago. I knew about my abilities since I was younger than you. But I didn't know why I had them. I didn't know what they meant."
"Who told you?"
Jen gave her a little smile. "A friend. She knew what I was. She'd had dealings with people like me."
"So she's not one?"
>
"Actually, she is. But she's a very unique one. And that's a much longer story that I would be happy to tell you someday, but I think maybe we should focus on you for today."
Lou nodded, wanting to hear the story but at the same time knowing her mind wasn't ready for it. She was still trying to process what she'd learned about herself. "Yeah. I think maybe I'm enough for today."
CHAPTER 13
Jen lifted the two by four she'd picked up at the hardware store out of the back of her truck and carried it up the porch steps. While Lou was at school, she'd stopped by and taken measurements. Then she'd had them cut the wood to size at the store.
She'd also grabbed the tools she thought she'd need for the job. She hadn't exactly been prepared to do home repairs on this trip but like usual she made do with what she had.
Jen leaned the wood against the opening, double-checking that she was lined up correctly and began to hammer it in.
Lou sat on the bottom step in the hallway across from her. "Where'd you learn to fix a door?"
Jen smiled at her over her shoulder. "I've picked up a lot of things over the years."
"You mean as an agent?"
Jen laughed. "No. Actually that's a recent career change. My regular job is as an archaeologist. Being in the middle of nowhere, you tend to get good at a lot of skills. There's no other choice. Hand me that Phillips screwdriver, would you?"
Lou stared at the tools before grabbing the correct screwdriver and handing it over. "So you're not an archaeologist right now?"
Jen finished screwing the hinges into the top of the frame and pocketed the screwdriver. She hadn't thought of it in those terms before. What was she now?
She couldn't imagine disappearing into a dig site right now or sitting down to write up research findings - not with everything that was going on. "You know that's a good question. And to be honest, I don't have an answer for that."
Jen thought of Danny and the search for the other kids. "There's a project I'm working on that requires all my time right now."
"Am I part of that project?"
Jen nodded. "I'm looking for kids like you, like me. Making sure they're safe. That no one else can get to them."
