Page 28 of The Fallen

?He pulled back from the hug and smiled, “Better now babygirl. I'm better now.”

?Brenton and her uncle shook hands. Apparently they knew each other from some years ago. Brenton passed through here on his way to visit friends in Houston. He thought it was funny, that while he was searching for Marie, he was staying at the place which belonged to one of the people closest to her and didn't know it. Her uncle never said a word about who he was.

?His place was somewhat of a safe house. Angels who came through knew they could stop and hang out whenever they wanted. It was also a training ground. He took in the kids who didn't have anywhere to go and helped them any way he could.

?Marie wondered why she could never come visit. Her mom always came up with an excuse when she would ask. Up until five years ago, her uncle came around all the time. Then the visits became less frequent until they stopped altogether. Now, she understood why.

?“Let's get inside. There's so much to discuss,” he said guiding her into the house.

?When she walked in, her eyes lit up. The outside of the house was very misleading. She would have thought there were butlers inside and some chandeliers; maybe a couple of famous paintings, but it looked more like a warehouse that had been converted into a boot camp. There were angels everywhere. The house was a monument to angel training.

?“Wow, Uncle Josh, what's all this?” she said.

?“Welcome to our training facility,” he said patting her on the back. “We built the inside from the ground up.”

?“We?”

?“Yeah, most of these guys are very good with their hands. DeShon over there,” he pointed to a tall, dark-skinned guy who had creepy, gray eyes and muscles on top of muscles, “he is our resident architect. He designed the whole layout. Then we gutted the house and started from scratch.”

?They walked further in and Brenton made himself at home. He knew most of the people there. He went around bumping fists and hugging everyone and left Marie to talk with her uncle.

?The whole house was a wide open space between the first and second floors. Curved stairs were on both sides of the room, leading up to an indoor balcony. From what she could see, the second-floor housed exercise equipment.

?On the first floor, to the left of her, was a large tumbling mat with two guys wrestling on it. A couple of other people stood around watching and cheering. Behind the mat, on the wall, was an eighty inch flatscreen. The news was playing in the background.

?To the right was a shelved wall made to hold weapons. There were some she recognized, like swords, nunchucks and even guns. One of the weapons looked like it came straight out of a medieval movie. Most of the other weapons she had never seen before.

?There were devices all over the place that were obviously used for the promotion and development of the angels' abilities and skills, more than she could even count at first glance.

?It surprised her, that with them being angels, they would even need them, but this was a whole new world for her. She had to accept what came along with it.

?They wandered to the back of the house and she stood in front of a bookcase that reached the full length of the wall, and covered the two back walls. A large sliding, glass door leading to the yard was in the middle of the arrangement of literature.

?She ran her fingers across the spine of the books and instantly the floating words appeared before her eyes. She still couldn't understand the language, but at least she knew why it was happening. Hopefully, soon, she would be able to decipher the meaning.

?She moved her hand back and turned to head outside. Before she opened the door, she stopped to watch as one of the girls made water turn into ice with her bare hands. The ice formed a sword as long as her arm. The sword glistened as she twirled it around in different fighting poses. She was so confident yet graceful. She was shorter than the rest of them, but Marie somehow knew that wasn't a problem for her.

?The girl glared at her under long eyelashes with dark brown eyes, Marie started to feel cold all over. Her uncle shook his head at her and the frost went away.

?The girl with the tiny frame and short, light brown hair turned and walked away with the sword still suspended in midair. She snapped her fingers and instantly it turned back into water and splashed on the floor.

?“That there is Marchell. She's been here the longest. Her adoptive parents were killed in a car accident and she was on her own for a while, since she was thirteen I believe. She came to me over a year ago and stayed ever since. She has a strong will and determination. I really didn't have to teach her much. She learned what she knows on her own.”

?They finally made their way outside. The backyard was nothing but a concrete slab, the size of a parking lot. More willow trees lined the perimeter of the backyard.

?Her uncle stood with his arms folded with a smile on his face. She looked around waiting for something to happen. By the way he was watching her, she expected something big.

?“What's back here?” she asked.

?He laughed. “You might want to step back,” he said, pushing a button on a device he pulled out of his pocket.

?She moved back, searching the area and right then, before her eyes, a block of the slab lifted up and slid back, revealing a set of steps that descended down in the earth.

?Marie's eyes were wide and it was obviously the reaction he was waiting for.

?“After you,” he said, waving his hand in front of the entrance to the steps.

?She moved slowly down the stairs; the space was long and narrow. The walls were smooth, cold metal with cylinder lamps attached to them. They continued on for another minute until they were in front of a large, gray door. He punched some numbers into the keypad and she heard the door unlock.

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