Born Fallen

Chapter 1

Laylah Riley was a demon, apparently. Not that she knew what that meant. But being a demon was bad, and she was punished for it, so the four-year-old girl came to the conclusion that she herself was bad. Maybe her wings made her a demon; after all, no one else seemed to have them. She couldn't see what was wrong with them, though, because they were pretty. Who else had huge wings that look like those black birds that gather around dead animals? No one else did, so maybe that was it.

Or maybe it was the black markings on her skin, the ones that looked like they were moving when they really weren't. Now those were weird, and they were on every part of her body, head to toe. She supposed they were pretty, but not as pretty as her wings. Her wings were be... bo... what's the word.... Beautiful! That's it! Her wings were beautiful. She just couldn't see why everyone hated them so much.

It was probably the voices and the people. From what she could tell, no one else could see or hear them, and she couldn't even talk to them. But they knew she could see them, and they knew she could hear them. They teased and taunted her and called her mean names that hurt more than demon. Like monster. That was a word she knew. And hated. She hated that word with a passion, because it meant something scary. Mother told her about monsters who crept into people's houses and killed them, ate them, and did other horrible things to them. Now that she thought about it, Mother called her a monster too, and the other mean names that the voices called her, because Laylah killed Father.

Well, she didn't directly kill him, but she was the reason for his death. It happened a while ago, right in front of her. She didn't feel bad about it, but Mother said she should have, because she was the reason he was dead. Laylah didn't understand why, though. It wasn't her fault she was a demon, whatever that was! But Mother believed that she was a demon, so she did mean things to her. Laylah could barely remember a time when she wasn't in pain, even though such times were only a few months past.

Mother likes to kick her. That was one of her favorite things to do, apparently, since she was laughing when she kicked the girl. But she was also crying. Eve said that people only cried when they were sad, so why did she always kick her? It definitely made Laylah feel sad, and hurt. It hurt to breathe, hurt to move. It hurt to scream and cry and kick and do all the other things she did when Mother started hitting her. But bad demons were meant to be punished, so Laylah could do nothing.

Elli helped her, though! She was only three, a year younger than her, but she said that soon, Laylah would go outside. She could run away. But Laylah doesn't want that. She wants her to come too, away from Mother and all the mean voices! Elli wouldn't have to hear them like she could, or see the scary people in the shadows like she could.

And one day, Elli told her about the spook. "He was so big, and tall, and his face looked like a statue! Everyone said spooks were dark, but they really deal with the dark! They're not really dark! And he had this huge staff-thing that he used to hit Mother! Can you believe that?! He really hit Mother!" The dark. That was what the voices and the mean people were, she just knew it.

Of course she didn't believe her, at first. "Why did he, though?" Mother said that people weren't supposed to hit other people because it was bad. But Mother also said that everyone should die, so what she said wasn't totally what she believed.

Elli giggled. "Because of you!"

What? Laylah didn't understand. Mother was hit by the spook guy because of her? "Did I do something bad?" she whispered in a small voice. That was what was usually wrong. Whenever something bad happened to Mother or sometimes Eve, it meant that she did something wrong.

"No, no, no! Well... Mother will probably say that you did something bad, but I don't think so. Mother asked the spook if he would 'get rid of you,' whatever that means. Then the spook got really mad and started yelling at her and hit her!" Get rid of her... Laylah knew what that meant: death. Was that what Mother really wanted? Was that what... Father wanted? The thought made her scared.