The Beginning in the End

Chapter 1

Alright this is my first attempt at a fanfic following a series and I chose Penryn and The End of Days because I loved this series dearly but after the third book I was left with a lot of unanswered questions, so this is me trying to get some of those questions answered. Besides I needed more Raffryn fluff ;-)

Chapter 1

It's been almost three weeks since the blood hunt battle and a lot of the angels have fled Earth back to wherever it is they came from. I was afraid that their retreat would bring about another round of natural disasters as it did when they came through in the first place but thankfully that hadn't been the case. Some have remained behind to help in the chaotic aftermath of their visit-namely the watchers and of course Raffe-their leader and my boyfriend. I'm still having trouble with that definition, I'll have to come up with a better term for what we are because boyfriend sounds too mundane a word to define Raffe.

Raffe insist that there are some angels-Uriel's followers-that are in hiding, biding their time until they can bring their vengeance upon us for killing their leader. I'm not worrying about it for the moment though, my main concern right now is my baby sister Paige. She's doing a better, Raffe got Laylah to help her and after a couple of sessions Paige is beginning to eat cooked food-mostly meat-but is better than the alternative.

Laylah says it's a slow process but that eventually she'll be normal again or as close to normal as can be expected. I'm taking it a day at a time, getting little Paige back to her old self is something I've only dreamt about and haven't truly allowed myself to believe. When I look at her small, scarred body that still moves in painful robotic ways and her unsmiling face as everyone tip toes around her and whisper little monster-a piece of my heart breaks.

After the bloodhunt, most of us returned to the resistance camp feeling safer in numbers. The word that the angels had abandoned their attack spread like wildfire. We picked up on a radio signal on repeat, it was staticky but clear enough to get the gist; world leaders had come out of their bunkers and piece by piece our world was beginning to flourish again. Electricity was on in most areas as well as hot water, but people were still scare. It would take a while before we could fully reclaim our humanity and form a working government. Gangs were still a problem out there, it's funny how when the world goes to hell and the rules of society no longer bound you to any sort of morality, the true nature of a person emerges. We'd not only had the natural disasters, angels and things that go bump in the night to worry about; sometimes the biggest adversity was our own kind. In the last few months I'd seen some of the worst humanity had to offer but I've also seen great fits of sacrifice and bravery. I guess the the rebuilt of our world is sort of like Paige's condition-a slow, tedious ordeal that would take a lot of patience to become even a shadow of what it used to be. The world falling apart in chaos took only days but fixing it would take months maybe even years.

I sigh, feeling exhausted and drained of all energy. I couldn't remember the last time I'd gotten a full night sleep. In a way the new beginning was even more unpredictable than the end of days. In the world after I was constantly moving forward; there was no time to think or wonder or worry about menial things. I had the mind of a fighter, determined and set in the mission to find Paige and protect my family.

In the light of a new day as the dust settled, I found myself at odds. Paige was doing better and mom was acting like a mother and actually taking care of us for a change. Raffe was caught up in angel politics back at the aerie which left very little room to see each other. The Watchers were on a mission to find the other children like Paige. Everyone had a purpose and a place in the new beginning which left me feeling unbalanced and with too much time on my hands. Now everything I had fought so hard to keep locked away in the vault inside my head was fighting to break free. The nightmares I kept tightly locked away were starting to resurface.