FALLEN

Chapter 4

He looked out at the tidy kitchen again, checking the back door was locked before leaving. It was 5pm on the dot, everything had been emptied out from the shelves and the glass displays by 3pm.

That was expected, and it wasn't like Fallen had nothing to do in the last two hours. Cleaning up all of the shelves and restocking the boxes and bags for the next day always took a while, if only because Fallen was so meticulous.

The last customer of the day had finished with their drink 15 minutes ago, since then he only had to wait until the clock hit 5.

With everything in order, he picked up his belongings. Shoving his backpack onto his shoulders before exiting the shop, locking the door behind him.

Both himself and Sam had a key, in order for him to lock up. All he had to do in the evening was to slip the key through the back door's letterbox.

He began the walk back to the house, taking long strides in order to get there sooner rather than later. Hoping that tonight would be a quiet night, he wasn't much in the mood to deal with another argument with either of his parents tonight.

The sun had dissipated, instead, a slight drizzle replaced any of the warm morning from before. It's enough that Fallen has to flick his hood over his head, the sounds of the flecks of water hitting the fabric in such a satisfying way. In the distance, there's a tiny bit of sun erupting through the overcast clouds. It's pretty, a haze of colour bright from the sun's reflection on the wet plants.

Finally, he opens the front door of his house and steps in. They're here, he can hear them in the kitchen chatting to someone.

They were probably on another call again.

Usually, they weren't speaking out in the open like this, like they were trying to disguise whatever they were up to from Fallen.

Even though he had a guess about what they were up to, he wasn't sure exactly what it was...just that whatever it was, it wasn't good.

"How do you expect us to trust you'll keep your end of the deal?" His father spoke, forcing Fallen to freeze at the bottom stair.

"What other choice do you have? You got yourselves into this and I think you deserve anything that's coming to you. But your not all that I want, and you know that. I want everyone, so I'm not going to ruin my chances at that by turning on our deal." It's not someone he recognises, even as he steps closer to the door of the kitchen he can't quite make out who it is.

"Give us some time, there's a few things we need to go through before it's ready." The chair creaks in the quiet room before his mother speaks, a clearing of her throat at the end. Like she's shuffling in her seat.

"You have a month tops. I'm not waiting any longer, I'll come by in two weeks and I want to see something."

"That's not-" Fallen peaked around the corner, his parent's back to him as they stare at the screen in front of them,

"Two weeks. Get it done or this is over." And before they have a chance to respond, whoever it was cut off the video call. He watches as his father sits back in his seat, running a hand over his jaw in frustration.

He's angry too, he can tell because his legs jostling up and down fast under the table like he can't control it.

"I could kill him. He's so pleased with himself it makes me sick." He says, standing up abruptly and turning around.

It's too quick.

"What have I said about eavesdropping?"

Fallen froze, nervousness swirling in his gut as he stands still. Not daring to move back knowing that would only annoy him even further.