Rise Of The Nephilim

JUNE 4TH, 1:00 A.M.

GRADUATION DAY AND MAXINE’S 18TH BIRTHDAY

Maxine awoke with her breath stuck in her throat, making her cough violently, expelling a wad of saliva. Then she breathed as if it was her very first breath.

The door to her small room flung open, and the light flicked on as Maybie rushed in to rescue her daughter from another choking episode. It had been the fourth time in two weeks that she’d heard Maxine coughing so violently.

“Max, are you all right?” Maybie asked, her brown eyes wide, her shoulder-length brown hair matted.

Sitting up, Maxine let out the breath she’d taken in and coughed again.

“Mom, I’m fine,” she insisted, her face flushed red.

Maybie held her hands over her mouth, her eyes glossy. “Max, your—”

“Mom, I’m fine. My saliva just went down the wrong pipe; that’s all.”

“Your eyes . . . your hair—”

“What about them? What’s wrong with them?”

Maxine sprung out of bed and rushed toward the wall mirror that hung on the door to her closet. She stared at her own reflection, at the stranger before her.

“Mom, what’s happening to me?” she asked, rivulets of tears down her face. Her eyes were both now gray; their translucent white glow and black piercing irises seemed cold and void of humanity. She pulled frantically at her hair; it had turned a solid white. “They’re right; I’m a freak!”

Maybie stood behind her with one hand on her shoulder. “Max, always remember that you are God’s child. And nothing is going to change that.”

They were the only words that came to her mind. But there was no denying it now. She’d seen eyes like those before—her lover’s eyes—nearly eighteen years earlier. And his hair had been the same shade of white.

Maybie’s past flashed before her eyes. She remembered the first night he’d visited her while she’d lain in bed as David sat in their living room watching sports.

She remembered how piercingly cold and gray his eyes had been as if they could see through her soul, and how they’d held her gaze as if nothing else mattered, not even with her husband in the next room.

That night she’d told herself that it was just some crazy dream, one erotic, crazy dream. But she remembered being awake for the whole thing. She remembered how his words flowed so smoothly off his tongue, convincing her that she wanted him as much as he wanted her; that she was chosen for greatness. And she remembered the pleasure she’d felt while he made love to her, and made her beg for more.

She’d begged him to return to her, and he did so for several weeks.

However, there was a danger in it for him. What had begun as lust, and a larger plot for revenge had become something of need.

He’d feared that he’d become too involved. His venom for vengeance against humanity, against his father for banishing him from the Realm of Angels had begun to weaken.

Once he’d learned that Maybie was pregnant, he’d ended their relationship and disappeared into the shadows.

Anxiety had begun to build inside Maxine. She rubbed her eyes furiously, hoping that they would go back to the way they’d been before. “Mom . . . Mom, am I going blind?”

“You are fine. There’s nothing wrong with you, always remember that.”

She stared at Maxine and drew in a deep breath. I owe it to her. I must tell her now.

Maxine felt as though Maybie had been hiding something. It bothered her that she did not seem more concerned, especially since she’d felt like jumping out of her skin.

“I can’t go to graduation like this. It’s bad enough that everyone thinks that I’m some kind of animal. Now they’ll know for sure that I am.”

Maybie wrapped her arms around Maxine. And Maxine collapsed into her arms where she wept, her body trembling.

“We should go speak to Father Magliano,” Maybie suggested, knowing that it was Maxine’s least favorite thing to do.

“No, Mom. He’s just a crazy old man, always asking me stupid questions about the dreams I’ve been having. ‘Did you have a different name? What did you look like? Can you describe where you were?’ And he doesn’t stop. Please, Mom, don’t make me go see him.”

“Shh, it’s all right,” Maybie said, running her hand across Maxine’s back. “It will be all right.”