Fallen

Let me redeem myself

A throbbing pain.

That was the first thing I felt since Alexis awoke-which was clearly just seconds ago. It was horrible, not only did she have very ridiculous dream, rather, nightmare, but she was obviously having a headache.

Then, the door opened. It was probably her roommate, Claire, who usually greeted her with insults when she raided Alexis’ room.
“Ugh. I had the weirdest dream. I dreamt that some random guys suddenly kidnapped me out of the blue.” Alexis said her eyes still closed since her headache was unbearable.

Then laughter enveloped the room.

Not just any laughter. A laughter that was so… familiar. And the laughter subsided, and a melodic enchanting voice erupted “One, that wasn’t a dream-or a nightmare. Two, we aren’t ‘some random guys’. Three, Good morning.”

Alexis opened her eyes, her eyes huge. Then she rubbed her hazel eyes hoping this was somehow a hallucination or she was momentarily delusional because she just woke up.

Realizing everything was real…

Her jaw slightly opened.
“You’re drooling.” The figure smirked. Ethan Harbor. It couldn’t be. It just couldn’t be!

How could this happen? And to think Alexis thought she had truly escaped her past!

Regaining sanity, Alexis replied. “Don’t flatter yourself. Or would it be better if I said ‘you wish’?”

“Haha, you were always amusing to converse with.”

Ignoring Ethan’s words, Alexis turned to see where she was. Apparently, it was a bedroom.

“Wh-where the hell am I?!” She stammered because of her headache.

“Obviously, in a bedroom.” He said sarcastically.

“I’m going to think you never even said than.” A growl came accompanying those words. “Again, where am I?”

“Not a morning person, are we?” Ethan smirked at her annoyance. She twitched her upper lip in response to him.

“Tell me. What do you want from me?” Her voice was menacing, provocative and feisty.

“It’s not what we want from you. It’s what you want from us.” He stated looking at her innocently.

“What do you mea-“

“Shut up and listen to me for a second.” Ethan was never bossy, but whenever he was, he was serious about something.

An eerie silence filled the ever so spacious room.

Ethan was the first to speak “I was thinking-“ Now, was it a mere coincidence that the throbbing pain that Alexis had suddenly disappeared?

Well, no. It wasn’t mere coincidence. It was Ethan’s ability as an angel. “Don’t you want to redeem yourself?” He said in a low whisper.

“W-what?” Alexis blinked furiously, had she just heard him right? He was asking her if she wanted to redeem herself?

“I mean, aren’t you tired? We’ve been living on this Earth for years. I don’t know. Isn’t it time, you know. We present ourselves to the elder angels and-“

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. Both Alexis and Ethan are acquaintances or were acquaintances. Both of them are also angels. Former angels perhaps because now they were no longer that, for both of them are now fallen ones.

Alexis and Ethan had both done something that outraged the elder angels thus, making the elders banish them from heaven forever.

Or was it really forever?

“Now is the time to end forever. To prove that forever doesn’t exist.” He whispered to himself.

And here they were both on Earth.

It was her turn to chuckle “You.” She grimaced. “You honestly think they wish us to return to heaven?” She asked darkly, letting out a humorless laugh.

“Oh come on, Alexis. You know we just have to prove ourselves to the elders and BAM! They’ll redeem us, just like that.” Although, Ethan was now a fallen, he’d always managed to be as bubbly as when he was an angel. He was, and still is, so optimistic, unlike Alexis.

Alexis frowned. He hadn’t changed, not one bit. But she had. “How on Earth are we gonna do that?”

Right on cue, the door flew open revealing three people. “Ah, there they are.” Ethan pointed to the threesome.

“And these are?” She questioned while trying to fix her dark brown hair which were clearly a mess and indicated that she had just woken up.

“That’s Matt.” He pointed to a brown haired guy with emerald eyes. Although he wore clothes twice his size, his face still glowed strikingly and his evident body features like a debonair.

“That’s April.” She was petite with blazing red pixie hair and a very ferocious face. April, as Ethan introduced her, wore a purple dress.

“How are these two humans supposed to help up?” Alexis yawned, mentally noting that she wasn’t the only girl which was a good thing.

“Humans? They aren’t just humans. They’re fallen. Just like us.”

“So you just assembled a group of fallen ones?”

Ethan nodded giddily. “And you want me to join your little team?” He nodded again at her question.

“You’re an idiot.”

“Hey! You should be thankful that I’m letting you join my group.” Ethan ranted. Of course, one of the thing Alexis despised more than the rain was gratitude.

She loathed thanking others.

“Right.” She rolled her hazel eyes at him.

“I mean come on. We’re angels-well fallen ones- we don’t age-“

“We won’t age.” April added, smiling at Alexis.

“And what do you plan on doing for the rest of eternity? Wallow and torment yourself with guilt and self pity?” Ethan asked, with that Alexis cringed.

That was her plan. An eternity of doing nothing but being extremely pathetic.

“Why not redeem yourself?” Matt proposed.

Alexis sighed deeply, “What are your reasons for seeking redemption?” She never lost her cold and distant demeanor.

“We don’t want to spend an eternity at this blasted place. We certainly don’t want to keep living like criminals. We don’t want to kidnap some innocent kid anymore just to get money. I certainly don’t want to live it this hellhole!” Ethan snapped. Never in her life had Alexis seen Ethan snap. Be it her mortal life or immortal one.

“You kidnap innocent people?”

All four of them nodded grimly. Alexis twitched muttering “Then how the hell are we going to redeem ourselves now that we’re criminals?”

Ethan laughed at her “You really have changed.”

“I- excuse me? What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Alexis glared intently at the bubbly fallen.

“I mean, yeah, sure. Physically it was that obvious. I mean your striking yellow blond hair’s turned brown your azure eyes are practically hazel now. Your white skin’s now tan. But it never occurred to me that-that you-you’ve really changed.” He stammered while laughing.

“I seriously thought you were gonna say ‘you kidnap innocent people? Isn’t that evil?’ and then go off crying like you usually did when we were still angels.” Alexis was more than irritated at Ethan.

Sure he was the leader of this group, but Ethan was seriously getting on her nerves. That’s why Alexis smacked him.

“Ow! What was that for?” Ethan whined, pouting childishly at Alexis. “Please try to look like you’re actually oh, I don’t know, the leader of this team.” Alexis stated sarcastically.

“Fine.” Ethan huffed.

“Now, we have got to have something big in mind to redeem ourselves. Well, basically because heaven sees all of us as the bad guys now.” She elaborated coolly.

Ethan let out a joyful squeal. “Does this mean you’re in the team?”

“No, Ethan. I’m not. I’m just going to redeem myself while attempting to redeem you guys too for no reason at all.” Sarcasm dripped in her sentence like venom.

How on Earth did Ethan become their leader in the first place?

“Anyway, what’s your plan?” Alexis faced the three fallen ones she wasn’t acquainted with.

“Uh-actually” April stammered. “Ethan said, err, he-“

“Spill!” Alexis commanded.

“We don’t have one.” Matt blurted out.

‘What?!” Alexis was beyond enraged now. “What do you mean you don’t have one?” She hissed, trying to calm herself-but to no avail.

“We, erm, haven’t thought of that yet. Ethan here said you would be the one with the plan.” The two of them chorused accusing Ethan of the crime.

“Ethan, explain to my how you think I’m the one with all the plans?” Alexis closed her eyes and furrowed her eyebrows to stop her rage.

She waited for his answer while closing her eyes to calm down a tad.

“Well, you’re always the smart one. I thought you had answers.” That was not the answer Alexis needed. It was clearly the answer she didn’t want to hear.

Alexis opened her eyes to show the fiery rage in her eyes. “You mean to say, don’t even have a single plan at all? And you’re saying you guys are relying on me?”

Another thing Alexis hated were people relying on her. She always thought of it as others using her.

“Y-yes.” Ethan was surely afraid of Alexis because he’d never ever seen her this mad.

“Once again, I say…You’re an idiot.” Then she thwacked him on his head.

Ethan smiled, at least she wasn’t going to murder him. He hoped.

“Someone tell me why he’s in charge.” She ordered.

“Someone’s too bossy.” Matt muttered. Fortunately, Alexis didn’t hear anything he said or at least acted like she never heard it.

“Anyway, does anyone here know how we can redeem ourselves?” Alexis asked.

No one replied.

“Not even one of you know how to, ugh?” She was really agitated.

Fortunately for them, Alexis knew how.

“There is a way.” She stated, making all the four’s eyes on her.

So that caught their ears and their attention was lingering on her and hers alone.

“But it’s not easy.” Well, the first question that encircled all of them was what was easy? For them, fallen ones anyway nothing was easy.

“Don’t worry. We’ll do it. We won’t back out of this.” Those were the words that both Ethan and Matt had said.

April grinned and nodded at her.

Alexis smirked. “Good because there’s no backing out of this.”