Nephilim Children

Chapter 8

Mum opened my door and peered in. I was sitting on my bed reading, my wings absently curling up on my back then spreading out. I didn’t notice Mum walk in, so when she sat down next to me I started and my wings closed around me protectively. Mum looked surprised as she gently tried to unfurl my wings from my face.

“Sorry,” I mumbled around them. Mum laughed. “This sucks,” I said when my wings still showed no signs of moving. I started to get frustrated with them, so I shouted, “Move!” My wings immediately flung outwards and hit Mum, sending her sprawling onto the floor. I gasped. “Are you okay?” I said, worried that I’d hurt her. She looked up at me, stunned. Then a slow smile spread across her face, and she started laughing.

“That was awesome!” she said. I started laughing then. Soon we were both in tears on the floor, and my stomach hurt from laughing so hard. After a while we both stopped and got up, drying our eyes, and left the room.

We walked down the dark, shadowed hallway. The media room was pulsating with disco lights and techno music, and people were dancing at the end of the hallway. And it wouldn’t be a real party if two people weren’t making out on the couch. So, my party was a real party, because one of my friends was all over her boyfriend. Everyone was dressed in ‘angel’ wings and purple sparkly things. And when I walked in, everybody stopped dancing and stared at me. I’d forgotten completely about my wings until I felt several hand on the, stroking the feathers and moving them back and forth. I giggled- it tickled a tiny bit. After everybody had touched and pulled and moved my wings, they left them alone and danced again.

“Okay, time for presents!” Mum called across the party din. I stood up from where I was sitting on the couch, talking to one of my guy friends, Lee. He was my ex-boyfriend, and when we broke up we decided to stay friends- it was easier than not seeing each other at all. All night everybody was commenting on my wings, saying how amazingly real they looked, and asking where I had got them. I just told them that I had made them with Mum’s help.

I walked over to where everybody was sitting in a circle, and sat down at the head of it, behind a massive pile of presents. I took the first one off the top of the pile, and tore at the paper. It took me a few seconds to process the present inside. It was a book on everything about archery- my secret passion. I grinned and held the book up. “Who got me this?” I asked. May put her hand up, smiling evilly. I laughed and put my book to the side. I picked up the next present- a movie voucher and an iTunes voucher. I also got a few more books, a couple more vouchers for various retailers, some trinkets, and another book about mythical creatures- only this was more fiction than fact, I later discovered. At the end I had a satisfyingly large pile of presents and a mountain of torn wrapping paper.

“Okay! Cake time!” At this everybody jumped up and gathered around the table where my beautiful cake waited. Mum had done a beautiful job icing it, and she had even added angel wing cut-outs from the leftover wedding icing to the top tier. Everybody sighed at how beautiful it was, and a few people took out cameras and phones and took photos of Mum’s masterpiece.

Everybody sang, and Mum handed me a big knife that made me feel very dangerous. I made a neat, easy cut in the moist cake.