Fallen

Chapter Forty Seven

Carter, Jason, Kieran and I were sat around a table covered in a pure white cloth. Wine glasses stood tall in front of each of us, filled to the brim with lemonade. Deep red flowers decorated the middle of every table in the hall. The red and white theme soared through the huge room as if a fairy had spread her wings and flown across the place, leaving droplets of the beautiful colours down around us. Everything looked so delicate. I wouldn't normally notice these things, but today something was different. It was the day I was turning into a man.

Our mums sat on the table beside us. My mum and I exchanged smiles as my dad stood on the stage with his friends, performing his speech.

"Thirty years ago, it was our fathers stood on a stage, presenting us with these gifts. They have been passed down through many generations and now it's the day our sons turn into the men they deserve to be. To Carter Hayes, Jason Armstrong, Kieran Newman and Blaine Vincent."

He raised a glass in our direction, followed by the other three proud dads stood beside him. Soon enough the entire room had lifted their glasses. My dad winked at me, his eyes glinting with pride. We raised our glasses when my mum squeezed my knee and leaned into me.

"That's your queue to go up there, sweetie," she whispered.

We lowered our glasses to walk up to the side of the stage. Our dads watched with grins as we stepped up onto the raised platform. I whipped my head around and gave Carter a cheeky smile before we each stood in front of our own dads.

His hand landed on my shoulder. "I am so proud of you, my boy. Now treasure this."

I watched him place his glass onto a smaller table behind him and take out his gun from his jacket pocket. All four of us were itching to hold the heavy piece of metal in our small hands and make our fathers proud.

"You're a man now, Blaine," he murmured.

My dad closed my fingers around the weapon. The cool metal somehow made me feel like my life had a new purpose: to destroy those Demons once and for all. I took one final glance up at my dad, watching the beaming smile break out on his face.

An explosion of glass suddenly erupted from behind me. I spun around to find black creatures leaping in through the broken windows and landing on their feet around my friends and family. I stared at them in shock; I'd never seen Demons in the flesh before. Each one was tall and broad with black skin and red eyes.

They were breath-taking.

Screams of shock and horror erupted around us. Before I knew it, the gun had been taken from my grasp. I wanted to help my dad, but instead my wrist was snatched up in my mum's hand and I was taken away. Jason was being pulled away by his mum. Carter's mum dragged both Carter and Kieran away since Kieran had no mum. She was taken from us when Kieran was a baby. So much anger had been brewing in our families towards these creatures.

I watched over my shoulder as my dad aimed towards a Demon on top of Kieran's dad and took the shot. The creature screeched in pain as black liquid dripped from its bullet wound. It climbed off of Kieran's dad and slumped away. My dad aimed for another Demon, but he didn't have time to take the shot. He was thrown to the ground like a rag doll and used his final attempt to kill the Demon above him, but the creature was too quick. He swiped the gun from my dad's grip and threw it across the room.

I watched as my dad was murdered.

"No!" I heard Kieran scream as he tried fighting his way from Carter's mum to help his dad. "Get off me! Dad!"