Hell's Romance

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I bolted upright in bed and felt my heart pounding a million miles an hour. I was sweating and breathing hard. 'I had the dream again' I thought, 'the same dream. With the same boy.' 

I jumped out of bed and put a thin purple robe over my navy blue short-shorts and baby blue kami. I slowly walked into my older brother Carlos's room. I've been told I'm as agile as a cat and as quiet as a spider, but Carlos can always tell where I am. He's a heavy sleeper when I'm loud but when I'm quiet, he wakes almost instantly. 

"Mmheey," he mumbles quietly. "What's wrong? Is everyone okay?" 

"Ya," I whisper. "Everyone's fine." 

I stare at the cool floor and wait for the interrogation he was about to give me. Instead, he moved to the left and lifted the covers for me. I squirmed into the warm bed, and snuggled up next to my adult brother. He wrapped the blanket around my body and hugged me tightly. 

"Now," he said with a sigh. "Tell me what's bothering you." 

That's Carlos. A kind, caring, honest 20 year-old who can't help but care for everyone and anything. I didn't really want to remember the dream but I told him all but the part about him being held hostage. I didn't want to worry him. 

He stayed still for a second, while he processed the information.  

"So, what your telling me is, you keep having this re-accurring dream but the only difference between this one and all the others is you have wings?" He asked, clearly anguished that he couldn't figure my dream out. 

"Yeah," I say, upset and disturbed. And I'm not the kind of 15 year-old who is easily upset and/or disturbed. "What do you think it means?" 

He stays silent, contemplating this information. 

"Carlos." I say sternly. 

He shakes his head slowly and looks at me. 

"I don't know. This worries me Amanda. I know you and I know you aren't like this." he sighs deeply. 

"So what? I'm pretty much screwed?" I ask, shocked that he doesn't know how to help. 

He sighs again and whispers, almost to himself, "I just don't want to see you get hurt." 

I look at him for a second and turn away. I was about to say something when I suddenly felt a sharp pain shoot up my right side. I gasped from the pain and looked down. A little container was sticking out of my hip and a purple bruise was starting to form around it. I pulled at it and nearly screamed from the pain. I ripped it out and found that a three and a half inch needle was just in my side. The needle was covered with a pale green liquid and my blood. My bruise was spreading and I suddenly became very dizzy. I looked at Carlos and his guilty expression. 

"What izz thizs?" I slurred. The world was spinning and tilting. I soon found myself sprawled across his floor because I fell off the bed. My father walked up with a pistol and glanced at me. His expression was full of mixed emotions. Hate, dread, fear, disgust, and many other negative emotions. He looked up at Carlos and his expression softened. 

"Good work Carlos. We finally captured a Nephilem. Even if we have a connection to it. Now we must break that connection. Once and for all." 

I couldn't move or talk. It felt like I was in a pool of Jell-o. I couldn't think straight. The only thought that kept occurring to me was 'oh my gosh. My dream was real. I'm a Nephilem. And my father wants to kill me.' 

I heard someone's footsteps and then her strangled gasp. My mother was standing over me with both hands over her mouth and tears in her eyes. She looked up at my father and croaked, 

"What is the meaning of this!?" 

"Carmine my love, I've finally caught you a Nephilem. For your research. We'll bring her to the lab immediately." 

I looked into his eyes helplessly as he bent down and pulled a syringe out of h 

is pocket. He leaned down right next to my ear, so close I could smell his weird but calming perfume. A mix of smoke, pine, lemon and wood. 

"I suggest you start praying to your lord Nephilem. Because where your going, people won't care how you feel. And nobody will hear you scream." 

Then he injected me with a clear liquid, and everything went black.