Fallen State

Chapter One

The city spread out around her like a gigantic maze or a hive of some kind made from steel, glass and concrete lit up with a multitude of neon lights, many of which didn't work, and filled with people performing their various functions. Like gears in some large machine, or bees or ants. Like the cells in a human body performing their tasks and viruses working to destroy the body. People worked to maintain order and other people worked to destroy it. At least in a bee hive or ant nest everyone worked for a common cause. The animals without the capacity for reason worked to survive while man who alone was gifted with the ability to think and to reason understood nothing and was the least reasonable animal in the animal kingdom.

Thousands upon thousands of steel towers rose from the ground, large boxes containing smaller boxes that people called apartments or offices among other things. Boxes within boxes. That was the aesthetic style of all large cities everywhere in the human world. Everything had to fit into neat boxes. Not that heaven was that different thought Abigail with some bitterness. She hid among the mortals because as a half-breed, a Nephilim, her existence was heresy. A sin against the celestial order. A crime for which the penalty would be the erasure of her being. There could be no place in this, the next or any other world for someone like her. That her father had strayed from the righteous path was bad enough without adding the legacy she had inherited from her mother.

So Abigail Keating hid and pretended she was just another mortal among many others. Which would become much more difficult when her wings would start growing in a few years. Abigail wondered what colour they would be. And if she really cared. As she glanced at her reflection in the window of a parked car, her strawberry coloured long hair flowing in the wind and looking like a typical nineteen-year old girl wearing a pink top and a modest skirt with a stylish bag hanging from her shoulder, Abigail thought that something about this morning was not quite right.

Like the vague beginning of a premonition warning her of danger ahead. Like a distorted reflection of a reflection of something not quite real. As if a door was about to open that led to a world of shadows and whispered threats. Her thoughts were interrupted by her friend Rachel placing a hand on her shoulder. Rachel looked like the head cheerleader in every high school movie ever made, and she and Abigail attended the same theology course at the largest university in the city.

"You can feel it too?" She asked. Rachel was a witch with significant clairvoyant abilities. "Someone is stirring up trouble by riling up the malcontents."

"Think they'll make their move soon?" Abigail asked. There had been a couple of high profile arrests in recent weeks as well as a rather unfortunate shooting of a serial arsonist by the police that happened in the presence of a crew from a local news station. The Centrist News Network that kept on insisting that the riots and various crimes committed by the anti-government agitators were motivated by noble goals and while they were troubled by the methods employed, they could not bring themselves to condemn the "brave protesters" as they called them.

"I know they will." Rachel replied. "Possibly today."

"Well that sucks." Abigail said. "It's bad enough that we have exams today without further nonsense from THEM."

The sun was beaming brightly above and assaulting the city with waves of heat to announce that summer was indeed starting.

"Damn it's warm." Abigail said and took an energy drink from her bag, noticing the brief look of disapproval on Rachel's face.

"I know." Abigail said smiling faintly. "You think I should be drinking water and not this. You just don't appreciate the nectar of the gods that caffeine is."

Rachel gave her a look that said "can we stay on topic please?" and rolled her eyes.

"Fine." Abigail said. "Patrol tonight?" She asked.

"No," Rachel said "too defensive. We're the hunters this time."

"Aggressive, I like it." Abigail said. "I'm sick of reacting to this creep's games. It's about time we went on the offence."

The creep as she called him was a total unknown to them. They had no name and no description, but they had fairly good information on where he or she would be tonight. As the sun set and darkness enveloped the city Abigail and Rachel entered a warehouse that looked like it might collapse at any moment and had stood at the edge of the city abandoned for a long time. They were dressed in black to blend in with the people inside. It was a small group of perhaps around forty people. They were spread out inside the warehouse surrounded by the smell of the old rotting wood and dust. Lots and lots of dust. In the centre of the warehouse stood a figure dressed in black like the rest and unidentifiable but this one commanded the room with their presence. Even though Abigail couldn't see their face as they looked around them she thought she detected a sense of mirth emanating from the figure and as their gaze landed on her a sense of knowing.

As if the figure knew who and what she was. And then she sensed the presence of a power within the figure that felt strangely familiar, so much like what slept within her, and Abigail knew that she was not looking at a mortal. Abigail glanced at Rachel and wondered if she should tell her what she saw. But if she did she would also need to tell her what she was and that was risky. Even with her closest and only friend. Even Rachel would be afraid of what she had inherited. Of the path that lay ahead of her, of her cursed destiny. Of the blood that flowed in her veins. The blood that she knew flowed in the veins of the figure looking at her. She could feel it. There was no room at all for doubt.

This figure sowing mischief and chaos in the city was family and that meant they were very dangerous. Rachel needs to know…

The figure looked around them, taking in everyone present, and a strong female voice emanated from them and echoed across the warehouse. There was something otherworldly in that voice.

"Brothers and sisters," she started. "Sons and daughters." She continued and glanced at Abigail again. As if checking is she understood. "We may not be bound by blood." She emphasised the word blood in a way that was impossible to miss. "But we are bound as family by noble purpose of brave resistance. Yes, brave. You are brave to gather here and resist our oppressors."

The black clad people raised fists in the air. Idiots. All it took to move them to action and to surrender themselves completely to the will of another were pretty words that gave them purpose and inflated their egos. The words were lies but that was irrelevant to those desperate for meaning of some kind.

"Tonight we end their rule over us. Tonight we strike across this city of ours and tonight Eden will be free. This city born as a new world, a paradise on earth, has become corrupt and tainted by evil and tonight we purge that evil and reclaim Eden for the righteous."

That was the information they needed. The confirmation that this conflict would end finally one way or another. At least that was what she thought.

"Nice speech." Rachel said. "Too bad not a single word of it is sincere."

The woman leading the meeting, a meeting of a ragtag bunch of would be rebels with delusions of heroism who had flocked to her ridiculous cause, somehow managed to look annoyed without revealing her face. The arrogance of the immortal oozed out of her with every little movement of her body and revealed what she was to eyes that knew to look for such signs. Rachel was right, one such as her did not care about the fates of mortals and their tiny world. Abigail now knew with certainty who she was looking at and to that person there would be only one thing that would have drawn them to Eden, the supposed heart of a new and better world for humanity.

She knew yet she said nothing.

The others turned to Rachel, understanding that there was an unbeliever present and ready to fight. Rachel removed the disguise hiding her and stared at the woman in the middle with a look of pure contempt.

"Your kind has always been indifferent to us lesser life forms." She said. "Why break the tradition and why do you hide like a coward."

Before anyone could make a move to stop her Rachel had walked up to the leader of the malcontents and removed the black cloth hiding her face. She moved with inhuman grace and speed thanks to her magically enhanced body but Abigail knew that to the woman she had just unmasked Rachel was as clumsy and fragile as any other human. The face that was revealed bore no resemblance to humanity. Its beauty and utter lack of human emotion did not belong in this world. The red of her hair and the green of her eyes were more vivid than any colours of the mortal realm and made everything around her look less real in comparison. Her pale skin looked like pure marble and the black horns, like those of a dragon, absorbed the moonlight like two black holes. And as the rest of the disguise fell to the ground, as if it had a will of its own, two black wings emerged and spread out from her back. An eerie darkness cloaked the naked figure before them.

"Better?" Asked Lilith, the first of the fallen whose name had been erased from all records of any kind in all worlds long ago. The fallen one whose name was a curse and a stain on the pride of the celestial powers who preferred to pretend that she had never existed. This was bad. The worst possible nightmare scenario had become reality.

Rachel looked like she was about to reply, and she had somehow managed to maintain her composure and not collapse like the others had, which was remarkable for a mortal, but Abigail interrupted her.

"Run." She commanded her friend. "Get as far away from here as you can." Rachel looked at her face, looked like she was about to demand an explanation and then miraculously did as instructed and vanished like a phantom. Not even Lilith would be able to track her.

"What do you want mother?" Abigail demanded as the thing that slept within her began to awaken from its slumber. NO. She thought and pleaded with IT. Not yet. I'm not ready. NOT NOW.

"You can't fight it darling." Lilith said, her voice sounding disturbingly maternal. The last thing Abigail had expected or wanted from the mother who had abandoned her to a world she did not belong in. "It's a part of who you are and you can't fight yourself. You can't fight it and no you can't remove it or cure it. It's not a disease or something you can easily and conveniently get rid of like a splinter. You're MY daughter and I won't allow you these delusions indulged by the weak. You have one and only one option, accept who and what you are. You'll only make things worse if you don't."

"You have no right to pretend you care." Abigail said and the anger she felt helped her to maintain control. Each word strengthened her resolve. "I don't need you. Or HIM either… Why are you here now after all this time?" And with these words something broke within her. The walls holding back her immortal true self within a mortal vessel strained and cracks appeared and spread like ink, staining the once pristine borders of her mental landscape, but the walls held for now. The immortal being within Abigail returned to its slumber and as it did a burst of smug satisfaction blasted through her. The message it contained was clear, the walls would not survive another attack upon them.

"See what I mean dear." Lilith said as if she had not heard anything her daughter had said. "If you insist on immolating yourself like this you will have no self to anchor you in the world. You will become a thing of impulses fuelled by resentment and lash out at the world blindly like a child. And with your powers you will be very dangerous indeed. A wildcard I can't afford to let run around unleashed. Not with so much at stake."

Abigail said nothing.

"I meant what I said. Tonight everything changes. Be prepared and heed my warning. You won't get another." Lilith said and vanished.