FALLEN

Chapter 1

Bale isn't home too much, it doesn't get up to much and most people who live there are retired. They come on holiday to the Lake District and they love it, hoping they can get a house in the beauty of the countryside. Except they come to realise that those houses are expensive, or at least those that were near the prime tourist attractions were.

So they settle for Bale.

It's pretty, of course, it would be in this part of the country.

But it wasn't anything special.

Or at least that's what people think when you first see it, the new arrivals seem unsure, they probably think they'll move in a year or two but they don't.

He'd seen it enough to know how it went.

Something changes, they discover footpaths unused that weave up the mountain hovering over the village. They meet the other villagers and they realise that the quiet is perfect, after all, most don't want hordes of tourists wandering around.

You don't get that in Bale.

Which is probably why Fallens parents picked it years ago.

5 years ago to be exact.

They exchanged their modern flat in London for a small cottage with bad wiring and a toilet that blocked more than it should have.

They'd done it up a bit over the years, but it was still nothing in comparison to that flat Fallen had called home since he was born.

He was thirteen when they moved him here, at first he hated it. Everything came all at once, they moved and then a few months later came his sister.

Elbina.

And then everything went downhill.

Not because of her, things just changed and Fallen couldn't quite understand why.

Things hadn't been brilliant in London, He was alone a lot of the time and school was school. Mundane, easy and in all honesty, He never was a class favourite.

Neither for teacher nor student.

He tried, tried to fit in but that's difficult when you grow up in a different world to all the other kids.

And then he came to Bale, not big enough for a school so online learning was how the rest of his education became.

Which was perfect for his parents, that's what they said.

Because then they could teach him things that no school ever teaches, stuff he needed for life as they keep saying.

At first, when they arrived they were outsiders too. Normally it doesn't take long for people to fit in, too quickly becoming part of the small society created in this small village where everyone knows everyone.

That didn't happen for them, more because they didn't want that.

Fallen was the only one to integrate himself, by accident too. One too many times at the butchers meant he became well liked and involved with the owners, the Summers.

Dan and Halley who gave him a sense of normalcy in the long days when his parents left him alone with his screaming younger sister.

Which happened more often than not.

He wasn't sure why they had another kid, it's not like they were overly good at raising Fallen, even less so when it came to Elbina too.

He likes to think they meant well, they were just busy.

Fallen has a knack of telling himself that, although he never truly believes it.

It was early summer in Bale now, exams were over and his time in education was done. A few years before, Fallen had dreamed about getting out of Bale. Going anywhere with some form of life and excitement. Anywhere but Bale.