F A L L E N (a novel)

C H A P T E R 2

FAMILY IS FOREVER. LITERALLY.

THEY SAY FAMILY IS FOREVER. They didn't know that for some species, forever really means complete and total eternity. Take a poor Hybrid like me, for example. Immortality is a thing in the wonderful world of the supernatural so the older siblings you wish will grow old and get ugly won't do that because they have the option to stay young and beautiful forever.

As a "semi-celestial" being, I obviously have siblings. Unlike everyone else of my ex-Kingdom, I only have one brother.

Incredibly enough, my brother Fell a few years before me. They hated him a lot more than they hated me, apparently. They kicked him out at 13, much earlier than they do most kids they don't lie , because of something they classified as a crime for us but perfectly fine for them: he smiled at a girl.

Unfortunately, his being Fallen meant I had no way of contacting him and no way of knowing if he could help me get out of my incredible place in between a rock, several other rocks and a shotgun.

I thought brother dearest was MIA on the planet of the apes but apparently I was wrong. During the course of my journey through the space-time vortex, Emma traced my older brother down and had him come visit me.

It turns out that he was living in the apartment across the hall from us this whole time. And he didn't think to come say hello, that jerk.

While I was comatose, he came in and began the excruciatingly slow healing process that would bring me back to the realm of the living and restore my power of speech. According to both him and Emma, it took over 19 hours to wake me up. Which is pretty unfortunate, that time could have been used towards something useful, lie Netflix.

I slowly opened my eyes to see one of the most horrifying sights of my short life: my brother's face several inches away from mine- I could see EVERYTHING, from his "beard" to the pimple on the tip of his nose (HE LOOKED LIKE A WITCH CHARACTER THE HUMANS LOVE!). Sadly I still didn't have access to speech so screaming wasn't an option. My best friend, being an amazing best friend, was dying of laughter as I was horribly scarred to death.

My brother, the dimwit, didn't realize that I was awake until nearly half an hour passed, with me unable to speak (or smack him) because I was still at the state where my bones are basically broken pixie sticks.

Once he did realize that I was awake, he began laughing at me. Hysterically.

It was like he suddenly began channeling his inner hyena. The boy (or should I say man) was mocking me for making the mistake of taking my normal flight around the city.

I huffed, or more accurately tried to, and looked away. Unfortunately I could only avert my eyes because I still couldn't move.

Staring at the clock, I watched the hands slowly move past the 3 and the 12 and reach the 3 and the 4. I glanced at my brother and found that he was STILL laughing hysterically. It seemed that he kept restarting his laughing fit every time he looked at me.

Nearly an hour after he started, my brother stopped laughing just enough to be able to get a single, comprehensible sentence out.

"You're one DUMB mother fucker, Lex." He barely got out through another fit of hysteric laughter

I attempted to curse at him, which ended in several muffled variations of the word "fuck". To be honest, I've never been prouder of myself or my incredibly diverse and colorful vocabulary.

At my struggle for speech, Emma stepped in as translator. Surprisingly, she could translate from Living Corpse to Human. I guess Fairies really do speak and understand every language.