Fallen (Fallen 1)

I stretched my stiff limbs and showed the flight attendant my ticket. She waved me through. I grabbed a window seat and my mom slid in next to me.

The plane took off and I stuck my earphones in my ears hoping the music would lull me to sleep. It worked.

I promptly fell asleep and slept off and on the whole ride. I had the strangest most vivid dream.

The guy that was standing before me was beautiful. Too beautiful. His silver gray eyes bore into mine. His shaggy blond hair fell messily in his face. He smiled at me and I thought I’d melt. His eyes looked down and I glanced down to see what he was looking at. Sticking out of my chest was a white cord. The white cord was beautiful. It was wispy, almost like a mist, it swirled between us. I wanted to reach out and touch it to see if it was real but I didn’t. Somehow I felt that if I touched the strange cord it would disappear. I followed the white cord with my eyes and saw that it was connecting my heart to the beautiful boy’s heart. “Finally,” he said smiling.

I woke up suddenly, jostled by the decent of the plane, and instantly forgot the dream. We landed and got off the plane.

I gathered my luggage and waited for my mom, still thinking about the guy in my dream. Wishing he could be real. I saw her huffing and puffing as she struggled with her bags, unusual since she was so in shape. I let out a quiet giggle. Hiding my face from her sight so she wouldn’t know I was laughing at her. I composed myself instantly.

“I’m ready.” She said regaining her breath. I tried not to laugh at her expression. It was difficult.

A string of cabs were waiting for people and I picked on at random.

The guy that climbed out was probably in his fifties with tan skin and black hair. He smiled kindly at us and loaded the luggage that we had into the trunk of the car.

“Thank you so much,” I said. He nodded and continued smiling and if I wasn’t mistaken he kept checking out my mom. Gross.

My mom and I climbed in the back.

The car was warm. And smelled like mint. My mom leaned her head back against the headrest and zoned out. I couldn’t blame her. I really wanted to zone out myself.

“So are you visiting Rome?” The driver asked. An innocent enough question. But my face became grim.

“No.” I said curtly. “Moving here.” He nodded his head as he realized I did not want to discuss this.

“Where do I need to take you girls?”

“I’m not sure. Mom do you have the directions?” She didn’t move so I nudged her ever so slightly. She was startled and I had to repeat my question.

“Here,” She said handing the cabbie a folded piece of paper that was worn from being handled so much. He looked at it carefully.

“That’s a nice area. You’ll like it. The houses are a nice size. Well accept for the Pulmer house it’s enormous. But that house has been here for nearly a thousand years. You’ll see it as we get closer it sits up on a hill and over looks most of the grand city of Rome.”

“Amazing,” I muttered under my breath. “A thousand year old house.” The driver looked at me in his rearview mirror but decided not to say anything.

I felt bad since he was just trying to be nice but I couldn’t help it. Once we landed it finally hit me that this was my home now. I wasn’t sure if I wanted it to be my home.

He drove around the windy streets and through narrow alleys where people had to stand in doorways to get out of the way. He got on a highway and drove a short distance away from the city.

The driver came to a stop on the busy highway street. He put his left blinker on. I looked and I could see houses most with ivy covering them. Finally we were able to turn. When we got on this road he had to make a sharp right, throwing me into my mom. “Sorry,” I muttered to my mom. She didn’t stir. As we came around the corner there was a brief moment when the road was straight. But he made a small right and went down a steep dirt hill.

That’s when I saw him.

Standing in front of a massive house. What must be the Pulmer house based on the location and the size. The boy was about my age probably seventeen and looked like a Roman god. His golden colored hair blew in the wind. His skin was so pale to be almost translucent. But he was the most gorgeous person I had ever seen. He would make every male model and even the female ones green with envy as they realized they could never be that beautiful.

But what shocked me the most was not his beauty but his familiarity. But how could I know him?

He was sitting on the hood of a black car that looked American. But then we went by the house and he was out of my sight so I couldn’t be sure.

The driver put his left blinker on and went down another hill. As we went down the hill we made a half circle. He pulled into the driveway of a beautiful white house. Ivy was growing up the entire right side of the house. It gave the place character. I got out of the car looking behind me I could still see the Pulmer house and the guy sitting on his car. I turned back around so I could help the driver get our bags. He already had most of the luggage at the door. So I went to get the key instead. I looked around and didn’t see my mom. So I checked the car and sure enough she was still sitting there staring out the window. At nothing. It was like she was catatonic.

I opened her door and shook her. “Mom we’re here I need the key.” She didn’t move.

I shook her harder. “Mom?”

“What?” She asked not looking at me.