Nephilim Children

Chapter 9

I woke up the next day to the doorbell ringing. I leaped off my bed and bandaged up my wings as best I could, trying to be quiet but quick about it. The doorbell rang again and ran to the door, just as Mum raced down the stairs. We both got to the door at the same time, and I yanked it open. Two men dressed in yellow jumpers with a purple angel on them addressed themselves.

“Hi! We’re from the Angel Wishes Foundation and we’re collecting funds for sick children.” They said a little too cheerily. One of the men, the taller one, took a flashing phone out of his pocket.

“I’m getting a strong signal of love from this house. Will you donate to us, please, ma’am? For the children?” he said. I scoffed silently. Strong signal of love? Who are these people? Shakespeare and co? Or just really generous blokes looking for money for kids?

Then the tall guy said eerily. “Get it.” The other one took a gun from his jumper and aimed it at me. The gun looked like it was made entirely out of gold, but staring down the barrel of it didn’t make me think it was all that beautiful. I froze, the front of the gun only centimetres from my head. The other guy trained a gun on Mum, not taking any chances. I looked at the guys jumper again, and realised the picture was actually a girl with angel wings. I knew they knew what I was. Somehow, they knew. 

Mum grabbed me around my waist and yanked me away from the gun just as the guy fired it. I screamed and my wings burst from their loose binding. The men started shouting at us and firing random gold bullets at us and the walls. One whistled past my head as Mum set me down in the kitchen and ran to the pantry. She muttered something in what sounded like Latin or Italian and yanked the door open. Before me stood not food, but a rolling hill in the countryside. I recognised the creek and the mountain. It was Grandma and Grandpa’s place. Mum yanked me through the door and onto the soft green grass. I turned around to see the men running down the hallway to us. Mum shut the door- which, to my surprise, was still there- and muttered another phrase in a foreign  language. The door flashed white and disappeared. Mum and I ran up to the house.

“Wait! Mum, my wings!” I said. Mum shook her head and pushed on through the mud and grass. When we reached the house grandma was on the steps. She looked at me and didn’t seem surprised to see me with giant wings on my back, covered in mud.

“I heard the Portal op-” she started before Mum held her hand up.

“The Hunters came to our house, and they knew. They knew what she was. I don’t know how, but they did.” Mum said breathlessly. She held onto the railing of the stairs with a death grip, though I could still see her trembling from exertion and fear. My own hands felt like jackhammers the way they were shaking and jumping about. Grandma looked at us both with a mix of compassion and anger on her face.

“You should have really been more care-” she said, before Mum cut her off again.

“Mother, please, now is not the time to be thinking about what we should have done. They appeared on our doorstep saying they were from a charity that helps sick kids. What could we have done? Slammed the door in their faces and ran? We didn’t even know who they were until they took out their guns!”

“Mum,” I whispered. “I still don’t know who they were. Or even what they were.”

Grandma put a thin, papery hand on my back and led me into the sitting room, where steaming cups of coffee lay untouched on the side tables.

“Those men were probably just humans working for the Government. Have you ever heard of Turnover?” I nodded. “Well, Turnover is not a necessary part of being Nephilim. It’s actually what the Government does to any Nephilim they capture. They take them to special units deep underground and do tests on them. If the prove useless, then they are let free. If they are special, like some are, then they can be kept imprisoned for as long as the Government needs them.”

“Sweetie, you know you have the Gift of Sight, don’t you? Like, at the restaurant the other night, you saw everything perfectly. That’s only because you are Nephilim. If you weren’t Nephilim it would be a lot harder for you to see through the Glamour that was used. Normal humans don’t like looking at Glamour- it makes them want to blink and look away, especially the powerful stuff. But, since you yourself can make Glamour, you can see through it. The humans want to be able to see through it like you do. That’s why they test the Nephilim- they want to find out how you do it. Then, when they can see through it, they will have the power to remove any… nuisances to the society, like rouge trolls or lycans.”

“Oh. So, I’m like a sort of pawn in their game then?” I said. Mum and Grandma nodded. “Excellent.”