March 12th, 2023
Blood of the Fallen is my debut novel, the first novel I plan to share with the world. I wrote the first draft of it during my last (and worst) year of high school, and the characters have followed me around ever since.
I tried to give up on it, label it as one of those “flukes” because I was having a difficult time editing it. I made the mistake of thinking I had written a bunch of crap. I thought part of my problem was that it was too ambitious, that I didn’t have the skillset to write the story the way it needed to be told. This part was true. I guess I wasn’t ready for the story until now.
Blood of the Fallen is about the chaotic events surrounding one character: Axe Chambers. I’ve mentioned him and the evolving plot before, but lo and behold, it has changed again.
Axe is part of a secret, invisible society that goes around, protecting normal people like you and me from supernatural creatures. Vampires and werewolves would eat us for dinner every night if they could, but Axe and his fellow Keepers are responsible for preventing this from happening.
Keepers live a short, thankless life due to the violent nature of the myths they protect us from. They begin their training at eight years old, as Axe explains here:
It starts small. You read picture books about werewolves and vampires. You’re given stuffed animals of supernatural creatures. You play Warrior or Tag! with your friends, with the main objective to capture the “werewolf pack”. Then it grows into learning about their bodily fluids, what can hurt them, how to properly skin them. It doesn’t become serious until you start your first patrol at thirteen years old. From then on, you’re distracted with busy work: you learn the basics of spell-casting and mark-writing. You learn the source of Keepers powers. You cast your first spell at fourteen. By sixteen, you are on the patrol with seasoned Keepers, learning how to track the vampires and mask your scent from werewolves. You learn the territory, ours, theirs, then the markers and penalties for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Once you realize you want out, you’re in too deep. The first time you’re wounded, see your own blood, you realize how serious everyone is about this life. You learn there’s no way out.
Axe Chambers
Axe is right; it is too late to leave by the time you realize you want to. You watch your loved ones die. You have nothing in common with the Keepers around you other than the unbreakable trauma bond you gain from living such a arduous life. Some of you share blood, but that’s only because your great-great-grandwhoever decided that their bloodline was always going to be holding the knife.
Speaking of loved ones dying, Axe grows up without his older sister, hating how he’s different from the rest of them. Axe is an Angel’s Spawn, capable of wielding powers he has no idea how to control. Alexia, his sister, was one as well, but she was killed before Axe was a pre-teen, leaving him without a way to tap into his full potential. He’s traumatized, as all Keepers are, but he has no choice but to continue going on patrols, looking for myths.
Lucy Snow is the only person in Axe’s generation to begin her training and leave the Keeper life behind. She was nine years old when Alexia was killed in front of her, and her father decides she’s not going to suffer. He’s the president, so of course, Lucy gets to go home. Axe grows up without her, too.
Blood of the Fallen begins when Axe is in his early twenties, hating life, wanting out, and watching President Snow die during a conference with the myths’ presidents.
The Keepers’ world is turned upside down after Snow’s assassination.
Questions arise like, “Who killed Snow?”
“How big is this threat?”
“Do we keep . . . patrolling?”
The death of Snow causes a snowball effect: Keepers higher up on the totem poles (AKA Elites) start dropping like flies. Think deputies on the police department, only hundreds of deputies. The Keepers lower on the pole become scared to do their daily patrolling, resulting in commons (you and me) being hunted by myths free of restrictions. Keepers like Axe and others begin having mental breakdowns. To stay sane, Axe begins to focus on the wrong thing: finding out who killed Alexia.
To Axe, it’s not a matter of if he’s dying, but when. He wants to die with the knowledge of what truly happened.
In the midst of all this, Lucy returns to the scene with her memories wiped and no idea where she has been for the last two weeks. Axe and company quickly gathers the necessary resources to solve both murders, and the gang welcomes Lucy back with open arms.
The world is no longer “safe” for anyone, and the Keepers need all the help they can get. Everyone has turned on them.