Fallen Identity

"Oh hey Zach," I said when I saw him standing on the other side of the door.

"The other guys wanted to know if you wanted to go with them to the movies," he replied.

"Sure. Are you going to go?" I asked. I hoped he would, hanging out with the other guys would be good for him.

"Yeah," he answered, kinda awkwardly. I looked down to see I was only wearing a thin tank top and cloth shorts that I had taken from Mr. Berings' house. I guess he wasn't that used to girls.

"Um, just tell them I'll be out in a couple minutes," I said quickly and then shut the door on his face. That was probably rude.

I pulled on some vintage skater jeans, a Billabong shirt, and then completed my look with my simple black hat. I dashed out of my room and into the main room where I saw Raz, Cameal, Gabriel, Elijah, Zach, and, surprisingly, Nathaniel.

"Nathaniel, you're joining us too?" I asked since I was curious as to why he wasn't with Micah.

"My brother asked me to tag along," he answered. Oh right, I forgot how similar Zach and Nathaniel looked and how I assumed they were brothers.

"So you and Zach are brothers?" I clarified.

"Yeah, we are," Zach cut in and then added, "Is everyone ready to go?"

When we all gave some sort of 'yes', we all left.

Ironic enough, we went to see Angels & Demons, starring Tom Hanks. The movie was really creepy in a religious sort of way. Some psycho would burn different words of elements on different priests skin as some sort of sacrifice of some sort. I think that's what happened at least. I'm hopelessly confused when it comes to these religious films.

On our way back, I started getting this strange feeling. It was a tingling feeling in my lower back, creeping it's way up, numbing my body along the way. No one else seemed to have this strange feeling except me and no one else noticed I was having this weird feeling until I froze in my place. I was completely numb all over and my vision was growing blurry. Blobs of color danced in front of my eyes and soon enough, everything was fading.

Then that same little girl appeared in front of me. The one that looked just like me. She looked up at me with her dead eyes. When I looked into her eyes, images filled my head.
Images of the little girl. She was playing with the small stuffed kitten. The kitten was in better shape and looked newer then it did now. There was a big bang coming from inside a huge house that was right behind her. She turned to look and out came four large demons. One looked like a deadly serpent with black scales and glowing, yellow snake eyes.

Another one looked like a giant tarantula with ten legs instead of eight, and the many eyes that would just stare at you. The third demon was cat-like in a way. It had that predatory look in it's eyes and in the way it sit there and wait for just the right moment to pounce. The last demon looked like a giant mouth. It had sharp, crooked teeth and inside that mouth was another mouth that was just waiting to take a bite out of you.

The little girl was full of like. Her hair was golden and long and she had a small blush to her cheeks that would bring any person joy. She squeezed the kitten tightly as she stared in horror at these monstrous creatures standing before her. She tried to scream but nothing came out of mouth. She was frozen in fear. I felt terrified for her and guilty that I couldn't do anything.

Soon enough, time caught up to her and the demons grabbed her and then proceeded to kill her. The only thing running through my mind at this moment was: I died?

I closed my eyes as the tears began to pour themselves out of my eyes and I slumped onto the ground. How am I still alive? Am I not real?

I heard a sort of chime and looked up to see an angelic figure crouching over the lifeless body of the little girl. An angel?

The 'angel' had feathery wings that stretched out into an enormous wingspan. The feathers were white with tips of color in them. The 'angel' appeared to be a woman and had snowy white hair that reached down to her lower back. She was carrying a bottle of some sort that had a sparkling liquid in it.

She whispered some words and then slipped the liquid down the little girl's throat. I heard some of the words but all I got were, "..split in two..", and, "..shall not remain..".

She then picked up the little girl and then started to fly. The image then flashed to the orphanage in Illinois where I remembered living in for most of my life. And then I was brought back to the present.

So, is that how my parents died? Because they were attacked by demons? But why would demons attack a random human family? And why would an angel fly down just to bring me back to life? I was nothing special.

For some reason I thought of Iofiel's diary and how she had a baby but had to give the poor thing up. I remembered the date being June 10th, 1994 which was only 2 days after I was born. Could it be possible that I was Iofiel's baby? No, of course not. I'm only human. And besides, I look nothing like an angel.

What was really odd though was I was having these weird images and memories on my 16th birthday. It couldn't be coincidental.

Slowly, my vision was coming back and I looked to see that I was looking up at a cieling.
"Hey! He's awake!" a voice shouted in joy. Cameal.

I sat up slowly and looked around to see that I was in my room, as was Raz, Gabriel, Elijah, Cameal, Nathaniel, and Zach.

"Are you okay Carter?" Raz asked me.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I shook my head to clear away the dizziness.

"Maybe you should get some more sleep," Elijah stated and I realized he was right as my eyes began to slowly shut on me and my head slammed back into my pillow.

I woke up when I heard a light tap. I looked around and then went to open the door. It was Zach. Again. I looked over to the clock and saw that it was 3 in the morning. What does he want at 3 in the morning!?

"Zach.. What are you doing here?" I yawned and let him in and closed the door quietly behind him.

"We needed to talk without anyone hearing and they all might get suspicious if I'm in here alone with you," he answered.

"But you are in here alone with me," I contradicted.

"Yes, but they are all asleep."

"Touche."

"So what exactly did you see when you blacked out?" Well he sure knows how to cut to to chase.

"Well, believe it or not, I saw me, from when I was three or four years old. I was playing in this backyard of some house I don't remember and these demons came out in their true form. Then.. they killed me. I was dead for what seemed like forever until an Angel came down and brought me back to life."

"Temperance."

"What?" I asked because that made absolutely no sense.

"The angel who brought you back to life. Temperance, she's the angel of the elixir of life," he explained.

"Oh, but why would she waste her time on some little girl? I'm grateful that she did, it just doesn't make any sense."

"Temperance does have a soft side for children, but your right, it doesn't make sense. Usually it takes more energy to bring back the life of someone who has been killed by demons."

"I tried to hear the spell she said but I only caught on a few words. Do you know the spell?"

"Actually I do. The incantation is:

Take this soul,
And have it split in two.
A piece shall thrive,
A piece shall die,
And the rest shall not remain alive."

"So basically, I'm half dead?" I asked disbelieving.

"Not necessarily. To bring one back from the dead, a sacrifice must be made. Half your soul survives in the Realm of the Undead and half your soul lives in you. The half the lives in you is cut in half as well. One half stays alive forever and the other half is dead."

"So, I'm only 1/4 alive? I feel like I'm fully alive though. Actually, I feel great." I've been noticing changes in me. I was stronger and faster then before I blacked out today and I didn't know why.

"It's your soul not your being."

"There's a difference?"

"Of course there's a difference."

"I'm still confused as to why she would split my soul and bring me back to life," I admitted.
"We'll figure it out eventually," he assured me. He gave me a small smile and told me we'd figure out more tomorrow. He stood up to leave but before he could reach the door, I blurted out, "Who's Iofiel?"

He stiffened and turned back around slowly.

"How do you know about Iofiel?" His expression was cold as ice.

"This was her room before mine wasn't it?" He just glared at me, so I continued to tell him about how I snooped around and found her diary. He asked to see the diary so I took it out and hesitantly handed it over to him. After flipping througha couple pages he snapped the book shut.

"Yep, this is definitely Iofiel's diary," he said finally.

"How do your know?" I asked.

"It's her weird handwriting, plus there's a small little heart with a slash at the bottom corner of every page. That's her symbol," he explained and opened up the diary for me to see. Sure enough, there was a small heart with a slash through it at the bottom of the page.

"Are you going to keep the diary?" I asked. I really didn't want him to take it because I wasn't done reading it yet but I knew it wasn't mine and that I shouldn't be reading it.

"No, I don't to have this in my possession. And if Iofiel wanted any of us to see this then she would've hidden it in plain sight," he said, handing me back the diary. I guess Micah wasn't the only angel Iofiel screwed over.