Fallen

Chapter Seventeen: "How To Save A Life"

"Between the lines of fear and blame
You begin to wonder why you came"
-How To Save A Life, The Fray

I stared at Dad. Part of me fearing what was going to come.

You should know what you're up against...

Those words echoed in my head as my dad watched me patiently, waiting for me to regain my composure.

I finally did. Snapping out of my surprise, I closed my open mouth.

"What am I up against, Dad?"

Dad sighed. "I have to go all the way back to the very beginning, Siberia. Way before you were born. It all started when I met your mother. I was twenty years old, still in law school. Your mother worked as a waitress at a little diner right across from the campus." He smiled fondly. "She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life. I would go there everyday, hoping to get a glimpse of her. Finally, I got the courage to ask her out on a date. She said yes.

"We dated for about two weeks after that before she decided to introduce me to her parents. Her father... Siberia, your mother's father was an angel." He looked at me.

Mom never talked about her parents. She had always avoided the subject of them altogether. She would always get this wistful, bitter look in her eyes whenever they were mentioned.,

"You mean he was a nice person? That's what you mean by angel, right?" My voice was pleading, almost as if I knew what was coming next.

"No, Siberia. He was an angel as in he fell from Heaven. The whole nine days and nine nights thing."

"Dad, that's not..." I trailed off. "Angels... They don't exist."

"Yes, Siberia, they do. Your grandfather was one." There was no hesitation in his voice. When I looked into his eyes, there was only truth. Not even a hint of a lie.

I nod for him to continue although my head was reeling and I suddenly felt sick.

"Your grandfather didn't approve of me. I later realized he didn't like me because my own mother was an angel as well. My mother died when I was six, so I didn't remember her much, but your grandfather told me she was a dark angel. She was one of the angels that had fallen with Lucifer.

"Anyway, your grandfather thought I was bad for your mother. He was sure that I would end up like my mother and he wanted me to stay as far away from his daughter as possible." He looked at me. "Any questions?"

I was a little stunned and a little disbelieving. The way he was speaking, like all of this was just happened everyday, made it seem more real.

Finally, I gathered the courage to ask, "You said your mother fell with Lucifer so that's how she came to Earth, but how did mom's dad fall to Earth?"

"Your mother's father-Adam-was given permission to come to Earth. When he met your grandmother, he fell in love and traded his wings to be with her. This is the reason he was still...good. My mother, however, rebelled against God. That's why when she fell, she wasn't a good person anymore. Her wings, I can still see them. They were midnight black. My mother was a frightening woman, Siberia."

I took this information in, and then I gestured for him to go on.

"Anyway, I couldn't stay away from your mother. She couldn't stay away from me either. So we...ran away together."

My eyes widened at this news. Mom and Dad ran away together?

"Adam was angry. So angry, he used the rest of his angelic power to prevent us from something we wanted more than anything. A child. He cursed us so that we couldn't have children, Siberia."