Fallen Angels

Chapter 1-Felix Dawson

~~~Start~~~

One morning, in the middle of a particularly harsh winter, Mr and Mrs Dawson had chosen to wake their teenage son so early that the full moon was still perched high up in the night sky. They had no logical reason to do so as their son was not the type of boy to cause a fuss about waking up to go to school in the morning, quite the contrary, every day for the last eleven years he had without fail risen before the sun and was working on his studying before even the birds had begun to sing.

This son had been a blessing to his parents, a miracle. After his older brother's life had been tragically taken away from him only seconds after it had been given, the parents had been hesitant to have another child. Fortunately for them, this second child had survived sixteen years longer than his sibling. With this newfound confidence, when their surviving son was still just an infant, the Dawson parents decided that their son would benefit from having a younger brother or sister to play with. The Dawson's' were hopeful after little Zoe made it through the first few minutes of existence that claimed the life on the first child. But tragedy struck again, only weeks after the celebration of Zoe's survival when Mrs Dawson found her daughter lifeless after only checking on her minutes prior.

The loss of their youngest child almost destroyed Mr and Mrs Dawson, to have one child lost so early he never even received a name and to have another ripped away so suddenly after being given the false hope that she would make it. This was that day that they decided they would treasure their remaining son, ensuring that he was given the best chances possible.

This boy was given anything he ever could have wanted, however unlike most children in his position, he never grew arrogant or rude, instead he cherished ever moment he was blessed with. After coming to understand how fortunate he had been to have lived as long as he had, he quickly learned to appreciate everything that he had in his life, he took every opportunity that presented itself to him because, while some people would disapprove of the work they would need to put into a complex task, all this child wanted to do was do as much as possible in the time he had left as if to compensate in some way for the chances that were lost to his fallen siblings.

For the first time that either parent could remember, they had been given the joy of being the ones to wake their son and be the first thing that he saw that day. Their son looked remarkably different in the mornings. Usually, his dark hair was combed neatly, not a single hair fell out of place throughout the day, his emerald coloured eyes were always full of light and excitement but now he looked a lot more like most of his peers did: tired, disorderly, and confused.

"Wha-" the boy began, unable to produce a full sentence.

"Happy Birthday Son!" said Mrs Dawson enthusiastically, the boy noticed that she was carrying a large banner in her outstretched arms that read:

'Happy 16th Birthday Felix'

It had obviously been personalised specifically for him, which did not surprise Felix in the slightest, when his parents wanted to make his birthdays special they did absolutely everything they could. Felix's eyes drifted over to where his father stood, he was not carrying a banner like his wife, but he too had not entered his son's bedroom empty-handed. In his hands he had a small box, wrapped neatly in shining gold paper which he handed to his son whilst wearing the biggest smile on his face that Felix had seen in a long time.

Felix carefully removed the paper covering the box, after doing so he was greeted with a plain cardboard box with countless small holes covering the sides. Inside the box he could hear something moving around quietly. Realising what was going on, Felix looked up at his parents with a panicked look on his face.