Awake by Nightfall - Emilia Sherman (i read book txt) 📗

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The Radiant Trilogy

Awake by Nightfall

Emilia Sherman

 



“As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there’s a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is such twilight that we must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.”

-Justice William O. Douglas, 1976

PREFACE
Marina

Every one of us is going to have to confront death eventually.

You can’t miss it like a bus, or train.

You can’t run around it.

You can’t exchange it for a different prize.

And, you can’t hide from it.

There was no way avoiding it.

If you were meant to die, then death will eventually find you.

Why can’t death be an option?

There are times in hopeless situations where life is very painful and there is nothing you can do about it. Death is the only permanent solution. How can anyone have a painless death?

I fell in love with this amazing, unimaginable guy. The kind of love where you get that weird feeling in your gut. You sneak looks at him to see if he was staring at you. You can’t wait to see him smiling down at you. The kind of love that you wish will never vanish. The kind of love that you knew it was fate.

That is what I felt for him. I made my choice. There was no doubt in my mind that I had chosen the wrong person. He wasn’t perfect, but I didn’t want perfect. I wanted a guy to be imperfect the way I was. I knew deep inside this was the path for me. I would have given my life to save his.

This wasn’t supposed to happen though. I knew I wasn’t supposed to die just yet. I was some kind of immortal. So why was he doing this to me? You were supposed to die for love. That was what love was. You would give up your life to save the one you love most. So, why was my love doing this to me?

I walked over to him and grabbed his shoulder in a comforting way. We had survived the fight. He pulled me in tightly the way he always did. That is until I felt a sharp pain go into me. I gasped. I leaned into him, weakened from the blow. He pulled away from me, letting my body slowly fall to the ground to my knees. I looked up at him but his eyes were avoiding mine. I gripped my stomach and pulled my hand away. It was covered with blood. I finally fell into the ground. My world became a big blur to me.

I’m sorry my love for Death has taken me.


 

Chapter 01: Falling
Marina

Falling.

I was falling.

Not very fast. It was more like I was being carried by someone or something. We were falling. Together.

The air was cool and smelled of rain. The clouds were passing me and evaporated as I fell through them. The wind was brushing against my body. My hair whipping against my face as I fell. My clothes were damp and tight against my skin. I dare not move.

I could see the night sky above me, after the clouds disappear. The stars were twinkling down at me, almost like they were talking to me. Even though the thought brought me little comfort, I didn’t want to twist my body around. If the night sky was above me, then there was only death below me. And if there was one thing I did know, I was afraid to face death. I would crush against the earth soon.

I closed my eyes.

~~~~~

“Did you see that?”

“She fell from the sky. In a bubble?”

I heard them speak in hushed tones. A lot of people. I listened more closely. Their voices were like beautiful melodies circling around inside my head. Like I was in an empty room, and their voices were echoing back and forth all around me.

I had no idea how I survived that fall and no clue on how much time had pass. My body felt numb and cold. My lungs felt crushed and breathing was difficult. I wasn’t able to concentrate on any my movements. Even if I wanted to run away from these people, I had no possible chance. The only thing I could do was keep my eyes shut tight and breathe.

“How can that be? All of those people.”

“She should have died like the rest of the people.”

“Isn’t it obvious? She has to be one of us.”

No, it wasn’t a lot of people, more like a few. Maybe three or four. They must have come to take me into the ambulance, but it was strange, I didn’t hear a siren in a distance. Maybe I should fear them.

“If she used it in the sky, they will know that she fell here. They will come for her.”

“Seekers will be here searching. Maybe even the heartless.”

They had gotten so quiet. I thought they had left me here to die.

“Heal her…”

I felt pain going inside my head. This wasn’t any normal migraine. It was scalding, burning in my skull. The pain started to spread everywhere through my body. I tried to cringe but I couldn’t move my body. I couldn’t fight against it. There was nothing to concentrate on. Where were my legs and arms? Was my heart even beating? The burning sensation left bringing back the cold stiffness. I finally found my breath. I gasped for air.

“I am trying… we… so they can … take her to the hospital.”

The voices were starting to disappear. I didn’t want to be here alone, not in the cold darkness. I knew that whoever was talking needed to help me. I didn’t care who they were. Just stay here with me.

“No.” I barely squeaked out.

“She’s conscious!”

“Tamara, now.”

Someone grabbed my chin and opened my mouth, without any force. I felt completely weak. A warm, syrupy liquid enter my mouth. My mouth was forced shut. The liquid slid slowly down my throat. I felt the warmth of it spread everywhere. It felt soothing. My body was starting to go into a rest. There was a bright light outside my eyelids. I began to feel exhaustion take over me. Then, I finally went back into darkness.

~~~~~

The next time I came back into focus, I find myself inside an unfamiliar white room. A nurse at my side, patting my head with a damp cloth. Another man standing behind her, looking down at a clipboard. I knew I wasn’t strong enough to be looking up at them, and I knew I was about to slip into the darkness again.

The nurse saw my eyes opening, and turned to the doctor. The doctor came closer to me. His mouth was moving, but I couldn’t comprehend the words that were coming out. I closed my eyes again.

When I opened them again, the nurse was there waiting. She gave me a comforting smile and went to a side phone. I felt more alert this time, as I watched her whispered into the phone. She placed the phone back on the hook and left through a side door.

Few seconds later, the same doctor from before stood beside me.

He did some simple tests on me, making sure I was awake and responding. He then explained to me what happened. He gave me the news as lightly as he could. As the details of my story came to me, my heart began to hurt worse and worse.

There was a plane crash, and I was a passenger on the plane. I wasn’t alone. My parents were with me. He stopped and placed his hand on my shoulder. He asked me if I could remember any of this. I shook my head. He went a little bit farther on the details. He showed me my x-rays and clarified that I lost parts of my memory. The doctor paused and finally explained that I was the only survivor on that flight. There was no description of the pain that took over my heart. He stopped talking to give me a chance to take it all in.

As he left the room, I curled into a ball and try to comfort myself. I cried over my parents that I couldn’t remember, the memories that were no longer a part of me. I could try searching for the memories but it was no luck. I was lost. Lost and alone. Alone in this world.

It didn’t take that long for me to be wishing that I was alone. As soon as I became more into realization about what had happened, the police came in. The police wanted to know every single detail that could have cause the accident.

But there was only one thing that I wanted to remember. That I wanted to hold onto forever, since it was the one thing I could remember. I wanted to remember what happened that night and I wasn’t going to tell anyone about it. If they knew, they would think I was crazy. That is if they didn’t already think that. Hearing voices was one of the reasons they sent people to the crazy houses.

After I fell, I black out before I hit the ground. I didn’t even remember crashing into the earth. When I came back, I heard voices. Voices all around me. So, I guess I was psychotic in a sense. I knew that this was impossible. How could one teenage girl survive a plane crash that killed everyone, even her family?

Chapter 02: Dawn Angel
Darien

My mother was the first to tell me about the mortal world. When I was younger and foolish, I wished for anything to be part of their world. As years pass, I began to wonder.

How could a world sound so fascinating?

Then, I grew older and became more diligent on my wild fascination. I learn the real truth about the mortal world. I knew their world wasn’t meant for me. The world had its amazing objects like laptops, iPods, and cell phones but then there was also war, famine, and deaths.

Death.

That word seemed foreign to me. Almost like, it didn’t really exist. There is only one known way to kill us.

What am I?

I am a descendent of a Fallen. The human word for it is Nephilim. Yes, we’re real. You can call me whatever you want. Demon, monster, demon child, freak of nature, blah, blah, and etc. Yeah, I read everything what humans call us. But you see we don’t like being called the Fallen. The original Fallen angels changed our name a long time ago. The Radiant is what we call ourselves now. Did it catch on to the humans? It doesn’t look like it.

Now about Death.

You could try to kill us, but well it was really pointless. Bullets, knifes, daggers, spears, and anything else you can think of, they just shatter against our skin. Unfortunately, there is a way to kill us.