Falling (The Soul Collectors Series Book 1)

by Tara Benham

  Getting away from him was easier than I had hoped. He gave me the out I needed. I made my way towards the direction of the sinkhole, making sure to look as though I was just randomly searching the area and not heading to a known location. I marked a few places on my way that were actually convenient for both food and water. I could hear a loud rushing sound as I neared the cairn I had created two days earlier. I made my way through the trees at a quicker pace once I was sure that Had couldn’t see me. The sinkhole had increased, as I had suspected. It was a good ten feet wider at the opening than it had been previously. I was beginning to doubt the safety of the valley. If there was this sinkhole here then what’s to say there weren’t others that just hadn’t collapsed yet. I decided to do a larger search, since maybe this was just a fluke area. I carefully walked around the opening, checking for edges that may be less than safe so that I was prepared for Saturday. I headed in the opposite direction of Had to see if there were any more sinkholes like this one.

  As I exited out the other side of the trees, I suddenly stopped. I was in awe of what was in front of me. There was another waterfall coming off the hillside on the back of the valley. This one was much higher, and the meadow here was further from the town side of the valley. Forgetting about looking for any other sinkholes, I headed back towards Hadraniel. He needed to see this place. I was sure he would agree that this area was an even better camping spot than the first. Just as I passed the cairn, I saw him exit the area. There was something wrong. I ran over to him just as he was collapsing to the ground. I caught his head before it hit.

  “Haddy, what is wrong?” My voice was caught in my throat.

  “Something’s not right, Bayla.”

  I pulled his hand away from his chest, and there was blood everywhere. “What happened?” Panic started to set in as I began to scan the area. I wasn’t sure if we were safe.

  “I don’t know. I was heading in the direction you were shouting when something hit me from behind.”

  “I don’t understand Had, I wasn’t yelling for you.”

  “I heard you. I was coming to help.”

  “Who could have done this? What’s happening?” Sobs began to escape.

  “I don’t know. We can’t die, right?” Fear was in his eyes as he awaited my answer.

  Looking down at him, trying to find a way to comfort him, I was lost. Before I could answer, the Elder Blue showed up with a team of other Blues. Hadraniel had lost consciousness before he saw them.

  “Help him!” I yelled. I was angry that this could happen to him. This was not in the plans. Had was good. He was strong. Why would someone target him other than to get at me? How did anyone even find us, if they hadn’t followed us here?

  The Elder began to examine the wound. His eyebrows furrowed, and he turned towards me. “How did this happen?”

  “I don’t know, Elder. We were separated. He said he heard me calling out for him, but I wasn’t. I was across the valley. Is he going to be okay?”

  “We have to take him back with us. It doesn’t look good. There are only a few things that can erase an angel. You know that. Without taking a further look, I don't know if he will be okay or not. I’m sorry, but you’re now on your own with this mission. Good luck.” He stood, saluted me, and with the group of Blues and Had they disappeared.

  “What am I supposed to do now?” I was yelling at thin air as they were already gone. “How am I supposed to succeed now?” My voice was now no more than a whisper. I was alone.

  I sat down where Had had been lying, my tears flowing freely. I couldn’t fathom how I was going to succeed now. Worrying about Had, who had become such a big part of this mission, of me, was overwhelming. I was stuck. I couldn’t move. The sadness was so powerful. I had never felt such emotion. I couldn’t even worry about coming up with a story to tell the others for why there was no more Hadraniel. I had no idea what to do next. All of my plans were contingent on having Hadraniel to save Gray while I fought Meph. Even if I could get Meph away from the group, I had no one that knew what we were doing and no way of saving them. I would either have to fight Meph, and then hope I had time to save them or give up on the mission. I knew that wasn’t really an option, but at this point I was hopeless. It was close to dark before I decided I should head back to the cottage. I was so glad I was able to tell Hadraniel that I was glad I met him earlier. It was only a small comfort, but it gave me something to hang on to. I don’t know how long it took me to get there, or even how I got there, but when I reached the cottage, I was afraid to go in. I didn’t want to see reminders of Had everywhere. How did this day go from one of the greatest to one of the worst with no explanation? I needed to know what happened to Hadraniel, but right now, I needed sleep. I walked into Had’s room. I’d never been in there before, but it smelled like him. I wrapped my arms around his pillow and waited for sleep to take over.

  My dreams were filled with snippets of Hadraniel and things that he had said to me since the beginning of the mission. I finally gave up trying to sleep, and spent the evening writing down everything he had said, such as making sure I survived, to see if I could make sense of them. When I tired from that, I took time to write the letters to Aniston and Father Paul. I figured I could put them in the mission files. No matter the end results, I knew the files would be returned automatically for review to make sure everything was done that could be. The letter to Aniston was easiest, the letter to Father Paul not so much. It took some time, and several rewrites to get it exactly as I wanted, with as little tear stains as possible. I wanted them both to think of me with love and not sadness.

  “Hello?”

  “Declan?”

  “Hey, what are you doing here? Where’s Haddy?”

  Before I could stop the barrage of tears, I fell into Declan’s arms. I was so glad there was someone I could share my tears with.

  “Hey, what’s this now? What’s going on?” He was rocking side to side and petting my hair.

  “Hadraniel is gone.” Then it hit me, suddenly and hard, he was why I was home. I pushed him away. “What do you mean, what am I doing here? Did you not expect me here? Did you kill Had expecting it to be me?”

  “Kill Had? Hadraniel’s dead?” He faked the shocked look well.

  I should have known. He was trying to one-up the playing field except he got Had instead of me. “Where were you yesterday afternoon?” I squinted at him with hard accusation.

  “I had lunch with Alissa, I told you already.” He grabbed my shoulders. “What do you mean Had is dead?”

  “Someone shot him, or something. Elder Blue came and took him. They weren’t sure if he was going to survive or be erased completely. You did this, didn’t you? You followed us to the valley!” I was screaming at him at this point.

  “Are you kidding me right now, Bayla? Why would I do that? Do you want to go see Alissa right now? She will tell you that I was with her.”

  “You could have charmed her into saying whatever you wanted her to say, you’re good at that!”

  He looked like I had just slapped him.

  “I see. I’m sorry about Haddy. I didn’t do anything to hurt him, but I’m glad I know your true feelings about me. See ya Saturday, Bayla.” He closed the door behind him, never looking back at me.

  I was seething, and more tears fell. He had to have been the one to do this. Who else would have known we were there? I was pacing, biting my bottom lip, when I heard a knock at the door.

  “Go away Declan!”

  “It’s Hannah.”

  I ran over to open the door for her. “Sorry.”

  “Lover’s tiff?”

  “Don’t arch your eyebrows at me!”

  “You look like you’ve been crying; are you okay?”

  “Yes. No. Maybe.” It dawned on me that she may be able to help me. “Would you like something to drink and maybe let me lament?”

  “Sure, got any coffee?”

  “Of course. Let me get some brewing, come sit in the kitchen. Did you
come to visit or to talk to me about something specific?”

  “I was coming by to invite you out with us today. Alissa said she had told Declan we were having a girls day, and he should go hang out with Had. I guess he’s already been here and left?”

  I dropped my coffee mug sending it shattering everywhere. Not only was I guilt-stricken about the possibility that Declan wasn’t lying, but now I had to confess that Had was no longer here. I bent down to pick up the broken pieces. Hannah came over with the broom to help get the smaller pieces.

  “Had is gone.”

  “Gone where?” She looked confused.

  My Grace. I hadn’t thought that far yet. I was too busy doing everything else this morning. “Oh...uh, our parent’s called, and he had to go out of town for a while. So it’s just me for now.”

  “That sucks.”

  I handed her a cup of coffee and sat across from her. I was silent for a while, trying to figure out what I could say to have her listen and help without revealing too much. “Hannah…”

  “Bayla, you look to be struggling with what to say, or not to say for that manner. I want you to know you can tell me anything. I promise. Whatever it is, I’m here.”

  “I have never had many friends before, and what I’m about to say, I’m not even allowed to say. I have no choice though at this point, so before I go on I want you to listen very carefully for what I need from you. I need you to swear, promise, shake hands on it, whatever you need to do, but you have to assure me that what I’m going to tell you stays here. You cannot tell anyone, not even Gray, and actually, especially not Gray. I will need your complete silence. IF you can’t promise me that, I cannot go on any further…”

  “I agree.” She stated without hesitation.

  “No, wait. I need to let you know what agreeing means first. You might change your mind, and I won’t hold it against you if you do. There are very serious consequences for both of us if you agree and don’t follow through, life-changing consequences. I’m not trying to scare you, Hannah. I just want you to know the truth before you get yourself into anything.” She looked pale, but she hadn’t run out screaming. She nodded that she understood. “If you agree to help me, you must understand that you have to do some things you may not want to do, things that might hurt more than you can ever imagine, both physically and mentally. Know this that I am asking you for help because I need it. With Had gone, some things have changed. Do you agree?”

  “Yes.” Her voice was shaky.

  I mashed my lips into a grim smile. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. I am sure.”

  “I am an angel. I am on a mission from Heaven. My target is to save Gray from a massive earthquake that is going to destroy the majority of this town and almost all of its inhabitants. Had was my protector and assistant with this task. For all intents and purposes, he is gone. That’s all I can tell you. You, Alissa, Sadie, Everett, Gray and Declan were invited to come camping with us as a way to ensure your safety from the event. You cannot tell anyone, in hopes of saving them. Not even your family, to save them. This event has already been predestined. You cannot change the course of events without major catastrophic consequences.” I paused to let her process and to see how she was doing with the news.

  “My parents are going to die?” Unshed tears welled up in her eyes.

  “Yes.”

  “Gray is going to live?”

  “He will if you will continue to help me. You and the rest of the group will too, it’ll just be a little trickier without Had’s help. You can’t tell anyone you are helping me. Do you still agree?”

  “Yes. What makes Gray so special?”

  “I don’t know. I’m not given all the information. I’m given a task to complete. I am only a soul collector. I am given the information I need to complete the mission and nothing more. I am not here to collect Gray’s soul though. I’m here to make sure he lives. I will be collecting the souls of those lost after the earthquake.”

  “Okay.” She began to sob.

  “Hannah. I’m sorry. If this is too much, you can walk away now. I won’t blame you.”

  “How can I walk away, Bayla? You have no one to help you, and this sounds like an important task.”

  “It is the most important mission I have ever been assigned. I’m breaking so many rules right now by telling you.” I was kind of shocked that she was not only still sitting there but she seemed to believe me so quickly without any real proof. I was starting to get curious if maybe she wasn't all she appeared to be.

  “I understand.” She did at least seem scared, but I would have felt better if she was skeptical. “I want to help however I can.”

  She called and canceled her plans with the other two girls so we could spend the evening talking through everything and making plans. I left out the information about Declan being a demon. She didn’t need to be afraid of him, plus I didn’t need him knowing I had recruited help. He might not have been lying about being with Alissa, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t getting help from someone else. We had decided that we would go to the meadow I’d found yesterday afternoon. We decided we could stow away food and drinks as Had and I had planned. After hours of solidifying our plans, we parted ways.

  “I’ll see you Friday to help prepare everything. I think I’m going to go ask the café for this week off to spend as much time with my parents as I can.” She pulled me into a tight embrace. “I don’t know if I was a part of the original plan to be saved, but thank you for including me, and thank you for saving my Gray. He is really more special than any of us know, I guess.” She didn’t let go for a few more seconds, and then she was gone. I was exhausted. It was close to bedtime already.

  I went to Hadraniel’s room and laid on his bed again. It made me feel safe. I decided I better snoop around and see if his files were left behind, or had been retrieved when Had was taken. I went through his closet, and drawers. This guy was entirely too organized. How did he have time to do anything else with his day? It was funny how little I knew about him really. I was closing the very last door when something caught my eye. There was a manila folder labeled Bayla. I know that was not given to him by Father Paul for this mission, so it must have been something he was doing under his commander’s direction or for himself. I pulled it out and sat on his bed.

  Bayla-19 years old.

  Duty: Collector of Souls

  Race: Possible Angel

  I closed the folder quickly before finishing. What in the Grace did “Possible Angel” even mean? I opened the folder back up to continue reading.

  Mission: To save human and fallen angel from earthquake. To earn her wings as a real angel.

  I was completely lost now. I was a real angel. I had wings. I hadn’t stretched them since coming here, but I had them. At the thought of my wings, they expanded out behind me. I loved my wings. They were solid white without a speck of any other coloring like most had. The tips were almost iridescent they were so white. They looked delicate too, but they were strong. I don’t know what this folder was, but I decided it was pointless. I didn’t even bother looking through the rest of it. I left it on the bed, and went back to searching for his mission files. He had them in his desk draw, of course, because where else would you keep files. I rolled my eyes at this man and his organization.

  The files were not only in the drawers, he’d put them in hanging files, and they were labeled too. Gray, Missions, Earthquake Research, Valley, Humans and How to Kill Demons. I grabbed them all and once again plopped down on his bed. It made me grin a little knowing it would annoy him that I wasn’t using the desk for its purpose, and instead was using his bed. I started with the Gray file, thinking I wouldn’t find much new in this one. He had taken notes on Gray’s personality, his job, looks, mannerism and people important to him. I scanned each of the pages in this file and found nothing new or necessary to the mission. I looked through the Mission’s file next. Again it had the same information from the original reviews we had done together. I
looked through each page just in case. The earthquake research didn’t really have anything I hadn’t already learned from Had in it other than a map of all the towns that would be lost with the quake. Approximately half of the state of Kentucky would be gone, and under water after Saturday. Moving on through the files, I found nothing of interest, until I got the Human’s file. There was information on each of them except for Sadie. He had a section with her name and age written, what she looked like, but there was no background information. It was like she didn’t exist before we got here. He even made a note about how it was suspicious that there was nothing on her. Everyone seemed to know her. I knew that this was my mission tomorrow. I had to seek her out and see what all I could uncover.

  Any emotion, if it is sincere, is involuntary. ~Mark Twain

  The walk into town was made quicker with the knowledge I had a lot to do with only five days left to do it all. I didn’t know where Sadie lived or how to get in touch with her. I knew I could probably get the information from Everett, and I remembered that he said his dad’s shop was in town. I didn’t know exactly where the shop was located, but I figured if I stayed on Main Street I would run across it. My heart hurt a little as I passed by the bookshop and saw the “Closed” sign. I wanted so badly to stop in and talk with Father Paul, to just see the twinkling eyes, even if only to get a sense of comfort. But then I got angry. I had never relied on anyone for missions before. They were making me feel weak. I took a deep breath, straightened my shoulders, and headed down the street in search of Everett. I barely made it another block when I heard my name. I turned to see Everett waving.

  “Everett, hi! Just the person I was looking for. How are you today?”

  “I’m good. What can I help you with?”

  “Do you have a way for me to get in touch with Sadie? I was going to see if she wanted to go shopping with me today? Hannah is hanging out with her parents today.”