Fallen Angel

Chapter 2

Shortest chapter in the book, but here you go! Hopefully the wait won't be as long this time, and I'm hoping to get a few more chapters up this summer. Thank you so much to my beta reader, Scarlett!

I was asleep when the alarms sounded. I nearly screamed, but any noise I would have made died in my throat as I bolted upwards.

Flashing red lights invaded my room as well as an awful siren. There had been drills before, but they were always during the daytime, never during a procedure, and a calm voice had always come over the com-link system and announced it was a drill a minute before the lights started flashing. I had never heard the alarm before.

The drills themselves were also tests, and I did what I was trained to do. I grabbed my blanket and the educational datapad, shoving them under the bed before I pushed the desk against the door and hid in the small crawl space between the bed and the floor, my wings brushing up against the springs painfully before I covered my blanket, attempting to hide in the room with no privacy.

This had to be a drill, and my tired, panicked mind was scattered. How long would I be down here for? Would the danger be over even when the lights are turned off? I started counting, quickly racking up numbers as I counted out the blares.

Some time and 103 sirens later, they stopped. The red lights still flashed, and none of the other lights in my room were turned on so it appeared the power was out. It was entirely plausible that the lights were out simply because I had turned them off earlier, but the lights were always on during the daytime alarms. I didn't have the courage to get up and test out the light switch.

If I turned the lights on, I could make myself a target, or I could get in trouble. I couldn't afford to fail any test, even the ones that were disguised as emergencies.

I don't know how long I stayed hidden, but hours seemed to drag by with no change. Eventually, the alarms shut off, although the lights were still flashing. No drill had ever lasted this long, and I was terrified. Something had seriously gone wrong, and with every passing minute with no friendly announcement over the PA, it seemed as though my gut feeling was right.

A pounding at the door jolted me away from my thoughts and I jumped. My head hit the bottom of the bed and I bit my lip, forcing myself not to cry out. This was all a part of the test. Everything would go back to normal soon.

"Open up, we know you're in there!" I heard someone shout, accompanied by another series of bangs. I curled tighter, begging for the people to go away. If this was a test I hated it, what did I do to deserve this?

It took them what seemed like an eternity to get the door open, a time that was much too short. I remained under the bed, even as lights flashed around the room. My heart was pounding in my rib cage, and at this point, tears freely flowed down my cheeks.

"Hey, who's in there?" A voice asked, gruff but much gentler than the previous yelling. I was so terrified I couldn't bring myself to lower the blanket and see who was speaking. I felt something touch my leg and I curled up tighter and closer to the wall, my wings shaking uncontrollably.

The voice backed off, murmuring unintelligibly. Nothing touched me again, and eventually, the lights stopped flashing.

The next time I heard the door open, I was exhausted and half asleep.

"You still under there?" I heard a voice ask, but I could care less. My wings were relaxed as I fought to wake up, weak with the stress.

I didn't fight it as the figure pulled me out from under the bed, although a small trickle of panic welled up inside of me.

Something or someone cradled me, and even as my eyes opened I couldn't see. My fingers grasped the blanket, although I could only feel it peripherally, as though something was dumbing down my sense of touch.

I shook, that much was obvious, and it only became worse as I spiraled. I gasped inwards for a breath. This was not supposed to be happening. I did everything I was supposed to do in an emergency, and yet I failed. Was I supposed to fail?

Somebody should not be touching me, that was wrong. Someone touching me meant that I was doing something wrong, that I had failed. What happened when I failed? Would they move me? Do more tests to figure out why I failed? Would I stay in my little room forever, access cut off to the rest of my world?

Somehow I was sitting upright, my back and wings leaning against something else. My hands were in a strange position, and when I looked down I realized that someone else was holding them.

I looked up, my mouth slack and my brain struggling to process what was going on.

It was him. The other one like me.

"It's okay," he said, and it was then that I realized he had been trying to reach me for some time. He handed over a glass of water and I shakily took it, taking a single sip and not trusting myself to drink anymore without spilling it.

When I went to set it down his hands gently took it out of mine and deposited it next to him, out of reach. I looked up at him, confused.

"What happened?" I asked, still trying to figure out why he was here. Contact between us was strictly forbidden, and every time I had asked about meeting the others my questions were ignored or my requests were rejected. How could things have changed so much in the span of one day?

"We are free," he said simply. "The alarms rang because others entered the lab, there are no more tests, we can leave now."

"We can what?" I asked, my hands starting to shake slightly. This had to be a trap. It had to be a trick. There was no way that he was real. There was no way the tests were all over. This had to be a test.

"Are you doing alright?" He asked, peering down at me. That was the last thing I remember before I lost consciousness.