Before The Fall (An Aron Angels Prequel) Read online

  BEFORE THE FALL:

  An Aron Angels Prequel

  Also by the Author:

  A World Without Angels

  Ashes to Ashes

  Gifted

  Trouble

  A Hairy Tail

  Dark Eyes

  Cinderella is Evil

  Before The Fall: An Aron Angels Prequel

  JAMIE CAMPBELL

  Copyright © 2013 Jamie Campbell

  Smashwords Edition.

  Jamie Campbell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.

  CHAPTER 1 - LEILA

  It’s funny how you know when it all starts, when it’s the beginning of the end. It’s not an act that is so shocking you have to believe the world is ending, but something barely imperceptible to the human eye.

  It’s the way people speak to each other like they have no patience for what they are saying, it’s the way cars don’t stop at crossings to let people pass, and it’s the way you stop planning for the future because you don’t believe there will be one. It’s the small things that add up, multiplying until they are insurmountable.

  Leila Loudon thought about the beginning of the end as she stood in the window of her family home. The street was normally quiet during the day, nothing much ever happened in the cul-de-sac. But that was before it began.

  Now, she watched as five men broke the window of the house across the street. They used stakes taken from the garden to smash the glass pane. It was daylight and Leila was certain she wasn’t the only witness but they didn’t care. Even if it was being televised live across the world, the men would still continue their pillage.

  Instead of dashing into action to try to stop the men, all Leila could do was be thankful it wasn’t her house they targeted that day. It was probably only a matter of time, but at least it wasn’t today. Tomorrow was never promised anymore, but at least she would have one.

  “Dinner, Honey,” Matilda Loudon, Leila’s mother called from the dining table. She hurried over, glad to be torn away from the window.

  The family sat at the table, dad Matthew and sisters Emily and Kate made the family complete. It all seemed so normal but one look at the plate told them otherwise. Instead of a hearty meal, the plate contained a few vegetables and a clear soup. They were the few food items Matilda was able to grow in the backyard.

  The markets and some stores were still open, but only for a few hours each day. Once closed, they boarded up their windows and put the stock under lock and key. Some even lived with their inventory, guarding it with their lives. The weapons trade was thriving.

  “Dad, how do you think it’s all going to end?” Kate asked, raising the topic they were all thinking but not discussing. That was Kate for you, always the big mouth.

  “I don’t know, Sweetheart, but we’ve got each other and that’s a lot more than others. So as long as we stick together, we’ll be fine,” Matthew replied diplomatically. The subtle look he exchanged with Matilda spoke so much more about how worried he really was. It didn’t go unnoticed by Leila.

  “Maybe the police will be able to regain control or something,” she offered, trying to remain positive. It was bad enough being cooped up indoors all the time, let alone with a depressed family. They would soon drive each other crazy before they were harmed by someone else.

  “Exactly!” Matthew exclaimed. “We have to have faith that the authorities know what they are doing. Everything will get resolved, we just have to be patient.”

  “Or we could all die,” Emily added.

  “Do you have to be so morbid?” Leila asked, rolling her eyes.

  “What? I’m just telling the truth,” Emily shrugged. “Someone’s got to be honest around here. This whole situation sucks.” She stabbed at her potato like it was about to attack her.

  “Let’s move on to nicer topics,” Matilda said gently. “Leila, it’s almost your seventeenth birthday. How would you like to celebrate?”

  Leila hadn’t even thought of it. A small part of her doubted whether she would even make it to her birthday. With so much violence going on in the world, it wasn’t an unreasonable thought.

  “I guess it will just be another day,” she replied. It wasn’t like she could have a party or her friends over. The walls around her were her prison, they just didn’t have barbed wire. They couldn’t even get the ingredients for a cake, let alone candles to blow out.

  “We’ll think of something special to do.” Matilda smiled across the table, her eyes filled with pain for the situation.

  They finished their meager meal and did the dishes in no time. It was back to waiting, expecting something terrible to happen at any moment.

  Leila retreated back to her bedroom, the window facing the street. She stood, looking out. The five men had finished their raid on the house. Leila prayed the owners were left unharmed. There was a small chance, anyway.

  The men walked casually from the house, their arms laden with goods. Leila ducked behind the curtain, hoping they wouldn’t catch her spying.

  One of the men stopped in the middle of the street. He stared directly at Leila, his gaze fixated on her. She couldn’t move, her body frozen in place.

  As if in slow motion, the man pointed to his own eyes and then to Leila. He mouthed something, she didn’t know whether she got it right but it looked like he said ‘You’re next’.

  He was called away by his accomplices and managed to tear his gaze away from Leila. She felt a chill run through her veins as he did.

  CHAPTER 2 - JEROME

  “Do you have to do that?” Jerome asked, trying to remember that patience was a virtue. It was important he learnt that, Lord only knew his sister challenged it at every opportunity she got.

  Breeanna looked at him sweetly, playing up her role as the innocent little sister. “Doing what? What am I doing?”

  “You know.”

  “Oh, this?” She continued tapping her fingers on the table, now a little bit louder. She grinned, her eyes full of mischief. Jerome wanted to simultaneously choke and hug her. He knew which urge was winning.

  “Yes, that, please stop.”

  “Make me.”

  “Don’t tempt me.”

  “Kids.” Seraphina couldn’t stand to listen to them bicker for a moment longer. “Breeanna, stop annoying your brother. Jerome, why don’t you brush your hair for the meeting.” It wasn’t a suggestion but an order wrapped up in niceties. Jerome did as he was told.

  The moment the angel was ready, the entire family – including dad Leonardo – started to walk towards the Grand Council of Guardian Angels. The building was located on the edge of the village at the end of a long pathway.

  The council building was the biggest in town, it was as wide as a city block and three storey’s tall. Made out of large grey stones, it had been around forever. Nobody even knew how it was built, it was that old. Any records were long gone, despite their very good archives.

  The family could have flown to the meeting but it was a pleasant day to walk so they did. The four of them traipsed up to the council, joined by hundreds of other angels for the special meeting.

  They were ushered into the meeting hall, a large building with tiered seati
ng. The three levels of councilors sat at different tiers, the archangels sitting at the very top. They all stood until the council members were seated first, then took their seats.

  Jerome watched the councilor’s faces intently. He hated any meeting at the council building. They were always long and boring, full of stuff he didn’t need to know. Unless it affected his school or family, he didn’t want to hear about it.

  Today’s meeting was supposed to be different though, a special meeting called by those in charge. There had been rumors running rife in the village about a demon attack. One of the angels was supposedly killed by one of the hell hounds in a vicious ambush. Everyone wanted to know what happened, they needed the facts instead of just the gossip.

  One of the middle tiered councilors stood up and spoke first. Jerome knew him as Michael. “Thank you for coming to this special meeting. We understand there have been discussions about what happened to angel Maleia and how she passed. We hope to clarify some of these issues.”

  He returned to his seat, his introduction over and done with. Next, council member Benecio stood. “We have investigated this matter thoroughly and consider it a one off incident. Maleia was attacked by a demon but she put herself in that situation. It was not a random attack, we have nothing to fear from the demons. Our village security will continue to keep them away.”

  Everyone visibly relaxed. No-one questioned the council any further on the matter, they didn’t need to. It was their nature to believe one another, they couldn’t lie. If the council said it was safe, then it was safe. There didn’t need to be a discussion on the matter.

  The meeting turned to the usual matters, mainly just updates on all the good work the council were doing for the village. Jerome switched off, studying the people in attendance instead. Anything to keep his mind from going numb.

  By the time the meeting was over, he was glad to get out of there. “I’m going to walk home with Alexander,” Jerome told his family. They let him go, knowing the pair were practically inseparable.

  Alexander was waiting outside for his friend, playfully punching him on the arm to get his attention. “Boring meeting, huh?”

  Jerome hit him back, never missing a beat. “The worst.” They started walking, letting their families get ahead so they wouldn’t be overheard. “What do you think of this demon attack?”

  “I don’t know,” Alexander shrugged. “My mom is friends with Maleia’s sister, she said she can’t work out what Maleia could have done to be attacked.”

  “The council said it was her fault so I guess she had to do something.”

  “But what? How do you even get attacked by a demon? They can’t come into the village.”

  Jerome hadn’t really thought about it. But Alexander was right, demons were prevented from entering the village by the enchantments the council enforced around the perimeter. If they stepped foot into the place, it would have set off several alarms.

  Angels could leave the village, but only if they had a purpose. Those with humans to protect were permitted to go down to Earth to perform their guardian duties. Select councilors were allowed to visit the higher realm when on a mission. Other than that, angels could only go to the wastelands when banished in punishment by the council. There were no reasons to be anywhere else outside the village.

  “Perhaps she got lost?” Jerome offered, unable to come up with another reason for Maleia to be outside the protection of the village.

  “I don’t know, but something doesn’t sound right,” Alexander said, unconvinced.

  “The council said it was so, it has to be right.”

  “Yeah, I guess. They know best, right?”

  Jerome smiled and nodded in agreement. They continued their walk back to the village, trying to shrug off thoughts of the dead angel Maleia.

  CHAPTER 3 - LEILA

  Leila read the same paragraph in her textbook for the fifteenth time, trying to concentrate. She wanted to get through the chapter but it was near impossible. Her eyes kept flicking to the window, expecting to see the man standing there again.

  Even though most of the schools were closed, she still tried to keep up with her education. Eventually the world would settle down again and she didn’t want to be behind in her schoolwork. She worked her way diligently through her remaining textbooks, hoping to return to a formal education in the new year. Perhaps by then the school would re-open.

  It had been controversial for the education department to close the doors. Students were being kept home for fear something would harm them. So when the numbers dwindled so low it was impractical to expect teachers to continue risking their lives to show up, they announced the temporary closure.

  Life didn’t feel normal without the daily routine of schoolwork. Hence Leila’s dedication. But as the days passed and things only got worse in the world, her interest was starting to wane. What was the point of knowing history when a future wasn’t even guaranteed? She tried not to think of questions like that, but occasionally they would still pop into her head.

  It was never the schoolwork that Leila missed though, it was her friends. She hadn’t seen them in weeks. Skyping was as close as she got to being able to communicate with the outside world.

  Some of her friends had already perished in all the violent attacks that sprang up around the place. Leila regretted not being able to attend their funerals but her parents wouldn’t let her. Instead, they held a candlelight memorial in the living room for each of them. It was sweet, but it wasn’t a substitute for being able to say goodbye to her friends formally.

  Emily entered the room they shared and sat on her bed, watching Leila until she paid attention to her.

  “What?” Leila asked, trying to pretend the book was more interesting than it really was.

  “I’m bored.”

  “Do something useful then, help Mom with the garden or something.”

  Emily rolled her eyes. “What’s the point? We’re not going to last much longer.”

  Leila snapped close the textbook and put it to one side. Sitting up, she stared at her sister. She knew she didn’t mean the words, it was just her way of crying out for reassurance.

  “We don’t know when all the violence will stop, it might be soon and then everything can go back to normal,” Leila explained, trying to be positive. “We just have to believe it will happen.”

  “What about if we’re the next ones to be attacked?” Emily shrugged from the disapproving look she got from her sister. “It could happen. There’s nothing special about us that would make them stay away.”

  “Just try to stay positive. It’s all-”

  She was cut off as a scream rang out from somewhere outside. Leila and Emily exchanged a panicked look as they ran for the living room.

  Kate and their parents were already there, pressed up against the window as they watched the malaise going on outside.

  Leila looked out, fear gripping the pit of her stomach at what she would see. A group of kids, they couldn’t have been more than fourteen, were crowded outside the house diagonally across the street. Leila knew Mrs. Thorne lived there alone, she was seventy years old and must have been terrified.

  “I’ve got to do something,” Matthew declared, taking a step towards the front door.

  “No, they’ll hurt you too. Stay,” Matilda pleaded with her husband. She grabbed onto his arm, trying to stop his departure.

  “Mrs. Thorne needs my help, this has to stop.” Matthew waited until his arm was freed. The women of the house all watched as he stepped out the front door and crossed the yard.

  They watched with horror as he reached the group of kids. His arms waved around as he tried to send them off. They all stared at him, completely unaffected by his efforts. It was like they weren’t themselves anymore, they were just the shell of human beings that they once were. It was perhaps more frightening than anything else they had witnessed.

  Undeterred, Matthew pushed through the crowd and entered the house. Leila held her breath waiting
for him to reappear. She clutched onto her mother, hoping and praying that he would actually reappear. Anything could have been going on inside the house and they wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

  “Should we call the police or something?” Kate asked, just as anxious.

  Matilda shook her head sadly. “It won’t do any good, they won’t come out anymore.”

  The four of them stood waiting in their vigil for close to two hours before Matthew was able to drag old Mrs. Thorne to safety. Bruised and beaten, he carried her over the road where Matilda could attend to their wounds.

  CHAPTER 4 - JEROME

  “Who can tell me what humans need to survive?” The teacher stood at the front of the class, his chalk poised and ready to write the answers on the board.

  Gabriella’s hand shot up, she was always a bit of a know it all. “Water.”

  “That’s right.” He wrote the word on the board and she grinned smugly, stealing a glance at Alexander.

  Not to be outdone, Alexander put his hand up next. “Food, shelter, and sleep.”

  “Very good,” the teacher exclaimed before completing his list. “There are many other things they need too, but it’s more complex than this lesson allows. For now, these are the main things. As part of our protection, if something is happening to deny them of these necessities, we need to step in and do something to assist them.”

  Jerome copied the list into his notebook, figuring he would need to know that kind of stuff one day. He would be assigned a human after he had completed his studies, that human would be his sole responsibility. It was a scary thought, but he relished the idea at the same time. To be assigned a human was a feat, they didn’t assign you to active duty until they were certain you could fulfill your role. Humans were too fragile to mess with.