The Nephilim Chronicles: Vol. 1

The Nephilim Chronicles: Vol.1, Ch.3

~ Gabriel ~

            I couldn’t believe I didn’t wake up in time to get out of the bed before Eve woke up, but even more so I couldn’t even interpret what I saw as I woke up and my brain cells struggled to fire off signals to get my mouth to actually work. Clearing my throat, I tried again.

            “Um, yea morning, so you passed out at the café and nearly cracked open your skull on the floor. Luckily, thank god, I caught you before you hit the tile, and I wasn’t sure what to do. I tried to wake you up and you were out cold. Then I tried to unlock your phone to call your mom to figure out where to take you, but I don’t where your new place is downtown, so with no other option I brought you here. My Mom checked your vitals and you’re fine…also I’m sorry about earlier. I tried to sleep in the chair, but it sucked and I was planning on getting out of the bed before you woke up so you didn’t think I was…um, trying anything. I would never take advantage of you, I hope you know that.” At this point I was rambling, but I wanted to make sure I said everything I needed to just in case my brain stopped working all together and I didn’t have another chance to explain myself. 

            “Gabe, it’s fine. I seriously didn’t have any thought that you would be taking advantage of me. Thank you for keeping my skull intact and bringing me to your house. I totally owe you.” 

            “Oh, nah it was nothing. So…if you want to change or use the bathroom or anything, I’ll leave you to it and I’ll see if my Mom made breakfast or something.” I was trying my hardest not to be awkward and knew I was failing epically as Eve smiled and told me she would only need a few minutes. I pretty much peeled out of my room, grabbing whatever clothes I could find on the way out the door and headed to the bathroom hoping to be in and out before Eve needed to use it. 

            I ran through my morning routine of getting ready at lightning speed and made it out to the kitchen before Eve made it out of my room. Granted, I was probably only in there for about 3 minutes, so it wasn’t like she was taking forever. Looking in the mirror one last time, I tried to do something with some hair pomade my Mom bought for me, to control the wild blonde curls that tested me every morning by brushing them over to the side. Sighing, I realized that unfortunately in my hurry to run out of my room I had grabbed the light gray sweats that I almost wore to bed and a dark gray football team shirt that I got at some event for the school. Whatever, it didn’t really matter, it was just Eve and I had known her forever, so why was my heart beating a 100 miles an hour, like I was about to present a speech to the class? I mean yea, Eve was drop dead gorgeous, easily the prettiest girl I had ever seen, but we had always only been friends. I tried to reassure myself that the whole thing that happened this morning was in my head, I was blowing it out of proportion and it was nothing. Mentally berating myself, I made my way to the kitchen and realized Eve and I were the first ones up. I worked on some eggs, bacon, and toast and finished preparing and setting the table as Eve walked out of the hallway leading from the bathroom and stepped into the kitchen wearing one of my football T-shirts cropped tightly around her stomach with a knot on the side at belly button level revealing a piercing I didn’t know she had. Her long dark hair was brushed out and flowing in large waves down her back and around her shoulders. She looked flawless, and I basically puffed like a fish speechless as she bee-lined toward me holding a pan of bacon and grabbed the most burnt piece before walking around me closely as if she were circling her prey, smiling like a Cheshire cat. 

            “I hope you don’t mind me borrowing one of your shirts, I ended up not having anything with me and couldn’t show up to school in the same outfit I wore yesterday. Also, nice groutfit, love the sweat pants.”  Still smiling she chewed the bacon as if she were savoring every flavor and bite as she looked me up and down slowly. I felt as though she was assessing my worth or sizing me up as her next victim, but…I didn’t hate it. I tried to pull my s**t together to think of something wittier than what I had said to her this morning when I found her laying on my chest. 

            “For sure, take whatever you need. Although, I’m not sure my pants are exactly your size, the shirt looks good on you though. Who knew you’d be able to rock a captain football T-shirt better than me?” Smiling, I brought the forks, napkins and plate of bacon with me to the table and sat down in the chair next to her. Her eyes had lit up at my response and I knew I did good as I could mentally see her gearing up to pitch the ball back to me with whatever she would say next. 

~ Evelyn ~

            I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, but finally I was getting Gabe to play with me. Oh, this was gonna be fun. Licking my lips, I bit into another piece of bacon and chewed slowly as I thought of my response. 

            “I’m shocked the thought even crossed your mind for a second that I may not be able to pull of any look. You’re right about the pants though, plus I wouldn’t have wanted to wear your pants in the current state of undress that I have to endure today due to lack of wardrobe options.” He was confused for a second, and slowly started at my chest and worked his way down before I could see the wheels start to turn. Making sure he knew that I was in fact letting him know that I was going commando for the day, I got up to take my plate to the sink, but first bent over generously to scrape some left over food into the trash. I didn’t have to look back at him to know he was definitely check out my ass and knew my yoga pants were doing their job of hiding no details as I heard his fork drop onto his plate before falling to the floor. Turning around I walked back towards him slowly, crouched down in front of him and picked up his fork off the ground without breaking eye contact with him, then slowly stood up in front of him, and bent over a little just mere inches in front of his face.

            “So…are you done, or did you want more?” It was a double enuendo, and I hoped he played into the trap I laid for him. 

            “I….I…um…” 

            He was stuttering at this point, and I didn’t want to kill him before he had the chance to drive me back to my car before school, so I decided to cut him a break and clear up any misunderstanding. 

            “Gabe, do you want anymore food?” That snapped him out of his trance and he cleared his throat as he thanked me and said he was good. Picking up his plate I walked it over to the sink and flipped on the faucet to rinse the dishes. As the cold water hit my wrists a chill ran down my spine and steam rose from the sink as the water made contact with my skin. My thoughts cleared, and instantly felt bad for messing with Gabe’s head. What the hell was wrong with me, I had never been like that with Gabe, why was I trying to start something now? Not to mention, I still at the moment had a boyfriend technically and accounting for all my faults, cheating is not one of them. 

I kept my hands under the faucet until the steam actually started to cloud my vision, to the point where I couldn’t see the dishes in the sink and I started freaking out and shut off the water. There’s no way in hell my skin could be that hot right? I didn’t feel sick or feverish, hell, I didn’t even feel warm. I had no idea what was going on, but hoped it had nothing to do with any of the crazy s**t my Mom tried to tell me this past weekend. I was only 4 days away from turning 18 and weird things had happened everyday so far, and it was only Tuesday. How much worse could these symptoms get as I got closer to Friday? Trying not to freak out, I faintly registered Gabe asking me if I felt okay, or if I needed to sit down. I could feel the cool, calming presence radiating from him and knew he was only inches behind me. The crazy urge to continue flirting, as if I was trying seduce him, almost overrode all rational thought, but miraculously I was able to slam those feelings back down into the vault in my brain holding all of the things I didn’t want to consider or believe to be true and turned to face Gabe to reassure him I was alright. 

“Yea,  I’m fine. Just was deep in thought there for a second, but I’m good now. You ready to go? You’re cool to drop me off at my car before school, right? I wanted to run in and grab a coffee when we got there too.” Not waiting to hear his response, I went to grab my stuff from his room and met him back at his front door where he was already waiting with his school bag. Holding the door open for me, I walked out in front of him and wordlessly we got into his truck. I was lost in thought the whole way back to the café, and we both rode in silence when suddenly I looked outside and realized we were parked next to my car. Grabbing my bag I jumped out and turned back around to tell him to wait a minute. Thankfully, there was no line as I went to order coffee and made it back outside in record time. Walking up to Gabe’s driver side window, he rolled it down and I handed him a large iced Americano, hoping he wasn’t bluffing yesterday when he told me he loved the drink. His eyes bulged out of his head a little as he realized I got the drink for him. 

“Oh, Eve, you didn’t have to do this.”

“Of course, I did. I can’t thank you enough for helping me out last night and for everything this morning too. Breakfast, driving me back to the café…letting me borrow your shirt.” I laughed at that and he did too thankfully, signaling to me that despite me being off my rocker this morning at breakfast and trying to pull that s**t on Gabe, things were still okay between us. We could go back to normal. Smiling, I walked away and got into my car, backing out ahead of Gabe and heading in the direction of school. He stayed behind the whole way there and ended up parking next to me in the student parking lot. As I got out, I waited for him in front of his truck and we walked into school together, joking about random s**t that we saw online or heard about at school. Making it to our lockers, we had to split up to grab our books for next period, even though I hadn’t realized before that he was only two rows of lockers down from me. As I shoved my backpack into my locker in exchange for books, I felt an arm slide around my waist and pull me into a tight squeeze against a rockhard chest from behind. Dante. Removing his arm from around my waist, I continued pulling stuff out of my locker as he walked around to the other side of me. 

“Um hey babe, you have anything to say for yourself for the way you talked to me last night?” 

“Well, let me think about it, Dante. No, actually, I don’t think I have anything I really want to say to you at all.” Slamming the door to my locker, Dante quickly placed himself in front of me to cut me off from walking towards class.

“Move, Dante. I’m going to be late for class.” I tried to side step him and he followed my movement, blocking me again from going anywhere. My temper was already rising, and I felt my body start to vibrate with a dark energy that was trying to escape my body. I tried to calm myself down and began to feel like I had it under control again until I felt Dante grip my arm tight enough to hurt. Except, it didn’t really hurt at all, it was just tight. I looked down at his hand wrapped around my bicep and saw him visibly constrict, as if he were trying to hurt me to get my attention, which successfully broke the last shred of control I had held on the anger threatening to consume me like a raging fire. Slowly, I looked from his hand wrapped around my arm, back up to his face and smiled. My brain was trying to process everything considering the fact that Dante’s grip didn’t hurt at all, and the more that I gave myself over to the anger, the less I felt his hand at all. 

Dante made a face and attempted to cuss me out, but I barely heard him over the dull roaring in my ears as if I was hearing him while under water. All noise had faded out from around me, despite the small crowd that now gathered around to watch the show. I could tell the heat was steadily rising and radiating from my body, although, I didn’t feel like I was necessarily hot, I just knew that it was getting much, much hotter in here as I noticed sweat beading on the faces of the people around me. I looked from Dante’s face down to his hand wrapped around my arm to keep me from moving and watched as the steam began to rise from my arm where his hand was gripping me. Looking back up at him, I smiled casually as if I were bored and waited for him to give it up. I could see his face twitch in pain as he tried to hang on, but I knew it was getting too hot for him to hold on much longer. I didn’t entirely understand what was happening to me, but I didn’t question it either. A few more seconds went by before Dante called me a b***h and ripped his hand away from me, blowing on it as if he had been burned. Not waiting for him to launch into his line of bullshit, I took advantage of his silence and unfortunately for him I was ready to put on a show. 

“Is there a problem, Dante? I’m dying to know what you attempted to assault me in the hallways at school. In fact, I’m sure everyone’s dying to now why. Please, enlighten us.” 

            Gasping and still blowing on his hand as if that would help, he began to realize the extent of the crowd that had gathered as if for the first time, and instantly straightened up, hiding his expression of pain that he was enduring. Clearly pissed about something, I braced myself to hear his onslaught of insults he was getting ready to hurl. 

            “Yea, slut, we do. Who’s football shirt are you wearing?” Oh s**t, I had forgotten about the T-shirt, or what’s more likely is that the thought hadn’t crossed my mind because I didn’t care. At all. For the first time in a long time, I was done taking his bullshit. I was better than this, and deserved much better than what his b***h ass had been giving me all these years. 

            “Oh, this? Yea, I don’t know. I just picked it up recently. Do you like?” I tried to shift my books to cover up the small printed ‘captain’ title under the mascot on the shirt, but Dante picked up on the fact that I was trying to hide something and ripped the books out of my hands. 

            “The captain’s shirt? You’re wearing the f*****g captain of the football teams’ shirt? SMITH, you better have a good f*****g reason as to why my girl has your shirt on. Come out here and face me, you little bitch.” As Dante yelled out to the crowd behind him, I felt my rage surge when he called Gabe a little b***h and I let my control unleash a little more, giving myself over to the feeling of power that threatened to consume me. My vision had also turned a little cloudy in a red-tinged haze by that time, which was new to me, and I could feel a hot breeze lifting my hair gently as if floating on a breeze no one else felt. 

Suddenly, I felt a piercing cold presence behind me and instantly knew who was there. I felt a hand on my lower back, as Gabe emerged from right behind me as if he had been there all along. Looking over my shoulder at him, our eyes met and it was as if some innate understanding I had always known reminded me that he was there and would always be there for me, as I would be there for him. A new thought occurred to me as I was comforted by Gabe’s support; if Dante thought he was gonna lay a hand on Gabe I would turn him to ash him with one look. I felt the air get a few degrees hotter and reveled in the feeling until I felt Gabe push more of his calming energy through my body. Without communicating aloud, I knew that Gabe was telling me not to cause a scene in front of all of these students. He was right, and I took a deep breath to calm myself down. Gabe’s energy flowed from his hand through the rest of my body, the same way I knew the heat of my power and confidence was flowing through his hand. I was almost back down to a base neutral when Dante suddenly appeared in my face, and gripped my shoulders as he yelled at Gabe not to touch me, effectively breaking my control on holding down the anger. I was barely able to smile at Dante before I placed one hand on his chest and shoved him back. To everyone’s surprise, he went flying back about ten feet and slid into a set of lockers down the hall. Before Gabe could stop me, I pushed through the crowd of students and went to stand in front of Dante as he struggled to get up, wincing and cussing at everyone and anything, now that he was sufficiently embarrassed. I didn’t let him get further than on his knees though, as I bent over mere inches from his face. Placing a hand on his shoulder, I squeezed and sent a thought to force heat out of my hand. I didn’t even know what I was doing, but it worked as I saw the steam rise from my hand. Not letting go, I left my hand there for a few seconds until I saw sweat bead on Dante’s face and he whimpered at the pain. 

“You and me? We’re done, Dante. Finished. I shouldn’t have put up with any of your s**t, let alone for this long. Come near me, my friends, my family or Gabe again and I’ll send you straight to hell myself. Understood?” I kept my voice low and made sure the convo could only be heard by him and I, before sending more heat through my hand until Dante nodded. Letting go of him, he gripped his shoulder and slumped to the floor in a heap leaning against the lockers. I turned around to walk away, but instead came face to face with Gabe who had stood behind me, effectively blocking the few from as many witnesses as he could. I made a move to grab Gabe’s arm as I looked up into his eyes. It felt like we had been staring at each other for eternity as we had a silent conversation with our glances. I attempted to step around Gabe to pick up my books and get to class, when he suddenly wrapped an arm around me, squeezed me to his chest and whipped me behind him. When I was able to look on the other side of him, I saw that Gabe had caught a punch that Dante had intended for me. Of course, he would hit a girl. I wasn’t even shocked, but that sent Gabe over the edge and he held onto Dante’s fist in his hand so tight that I heard Dante’s bones grind together at the same time that Dante yelled out for Gabe to let him go. A few more seconds went by before Gabe finally did relinquish his hold on Dante’s hand, but I didn’t miss the thin coat of ice that had formed over Dante’s hand. When he pulled back to see what Gabe had done to him, I saw him stretch out his fingers which were purple and tears streamed down Dante’s face. He must have been in some serious pain, as he ignored everyone standing around him and ran to the nurses office, I assumed. Seeing mine and Gabe’s books on the ground, I bent over to pick them up, and then stood to face the crowd. 

“Okay, move along people. Nothing more to see here, show’s over.” People started to slowly disperse as I told them to get moving, and I grabbed Gabe’s hand and dragged him behind me. There was no way in hell we were going to class now after everything that had just happened. I needed to talk to Gabe immediately and get to the bottom about what the hell was going on and how we suddenly had these abilities. Seeing an empty lab room open, I looked around the hallway to make sure no one was watching as I darted into the empty class room and dragged Gabe in behind me. 

“Um, ok so what the hell was that, Gabe? What’s happening to us?”