Chapter 1
I cartwheel around my room for the hundredth time, finally completing the entire cheer choreography. When I finally master it, I’m drenched in sweat and my uniform clings unto me like a glove.
“Isabella!” Daddy calls for me from downstairs. I’m not sure if I heard wrong but his voice wavered. But my father always speaks with so much confidence. It probably doesn’t mean anything.
“Coming!” I quickly switch my clothes to my favourite hoodie and a pair of Adidas shorts that my thighs fill easily, then make my way down to my father’s office where he almost never allows me.
When I get to his office door I notice that it’s unlocked. Daddy never leaves his doors unlocked. Forcing away the horrible thoughts that float around my mind, I push the door open and step inside. I don’t see him anywhere at first, but I could swear he called me from here.
“Daddy?” I say as I look around the office. Then, in the corner of my eye, I see something move around his desk. I stare at it closely and start walking closer, praying it isn’t what I think it is.
It isn’t until I hear the soft squelch under my fuzzies that I notice the thick, red liquid pool around the desk. I am so terrified I almost don’t feel the tears threatening to fall.
Cupping my mouth to prevent the ugly sobs from spilling out, I crouch in front of the desk, expecting his body to be there but it’s empty. Just more blood.
My gaze shifts to one of the slightly open drawers on the desk…there’s no way. Mustering all the courage left in me, I lift my hand to the drawers and—
“If I were you, I’d hate to see what’s in there.”
I freeze. The voice came from behind me and it isn’t one I’ve heard before. It didn’t even sound human. It was much too deep, it sounds like something straight from hell.
“Who- who are you?” I manage to choke out through my paralyzed state, still refusing to turn my back.
The silence that follows feels like it stretches for miles. There is no sound, everything is so quiet I believe he has left. A sound somewhere between a sob and sigh of relief escapes me as I fall to my knees, still hating the thought of whatever might be in the drawers.
In a deep breath, I stretch out my hands to open the lowest drawer only to find it’s empty. Thank God. Then I slowly open the second, expecting to find nothing there as well—
But it’s not empty.
Lying there are fingers. 10 fingers that are freshly bleeding. My hands are trembling and I don’t think I’m breathing.
I scream so loud I almost didn’t hear myself. With the ring I recognize as Daddy’s placed around one of the fingers, I am no longer in denial. My father is gone.
I break down on the floor, not caring how much my shorts are soaking up the blood. I cry and scream for what must be hours before I finally get the thought to call police. I stand up slowly, trembling my way to the door.
“I warned you about opening it, Sinclair.”
Oh no. This time I turn slowly, every muscle in my body screaming at me not to, but I still do. And when I see it, I almost forget how to breathe.
It isn’t human. I’ve never seen a human with wings as huge as that… I’ve never even seen a human with wings. I can almost say it’s an angel, but with what it might have done, I would be terribly wrong.
And the colour of its wings is anything but angel like.
They are the darkest shade of obsidian I’ve ever laid my eyes on. It is endless and terrifying. The thing standing before me isn’t just inhuman—it’s wrong.
From where I stand, I can’t decipher much of its form in the dark but even with that, I can see its abnormal height and it can’t be any less than 7 feet. And it’s large and so bulky.
This time, I ask: “Are you…human?” I don’t even try to hide the way my voice quivers with every word,
It takes a step closer. “How could I be when I watched the first of your kind crawl out of the dirt.”
It takes another step towards me. Though I can’t see much through the dark and tears, it wouldn’t take a genius to know the intent behind his shimmering gold eyes. He wants me dead.
I don’t waste another second, I sprint out the slightly open door, screaming as if I didn’t live thousands of feet away from another person. I run through the hall, then up the stairs because that’s where I left my phone.
I make it to my room door and just when I’m about to touch it—
Everything goes dark.
