Falling Into Darkness: The Under Series Book 1

by Dakota Lake

  “Hold on tight.”

  He started the bike. I leaned in close to him and felt the wind in my hair as we sped off back through the town and into darkness. I felt spots of rain on my face as a sign for Heaven's Point came into view. Mack speeded through the back roads and along the familiar stretch of woods. Neither Micah's or Seth's trucks were in the drive and the porch light was off so I knew no one was home.

  He parked close to the cabin and we both climbed off, he grabbed my hand as we ran up the steps onto the porch out of the rain. I stopped to push my hair off my face, laughing at the same time. “Seriously all it ever does is rain here,” I pulled my bag around and searched for the door key. “It's the season, wait until it snows. It gets really bad up here, you'll probably get stranded in the cabin for a month.” he joked.

  “Did you find your key?” he asked.

  But I was distracted by what he'd said. I thought he'd just moved here, how did he know what the snow in winter was like here?

  “Um no, I can't find. It must be in here somewhere,”

  I dropped to the floor with my bag and started pulling stuff out, the whole bottom of my bags contents spilled out onto the porch floor. Mack dropped down to help me.

  “Okay. That's strange I was sure, wait it's in my jacket,” I looked down at myself, I wasn't wearing my own jacket. I had left it at school.

  “Great! Well this sucks. I'll just wait out here until someone comes back,” Mack looked at me like I had gone mad.

  “You can't stay out here, it's not safe.”

  He retrieved a book from the floor and handed it to me. I stood up and put my bag back on my shoulder. Mack bent down to pick something up I had missed.

  “Where did you get this?” he asked holding the pocket knife in his hand.

  “I found it in my brothers cupboard.”

  He raised a questioning eyebrow at me. “So you stole it?”

  “What! No I borrowed it. I found it in the cupboard under the stairs amongst a load of junk. I doubt even he knew it was there. Anyway it came in handy, I used it to break out of the cupboard.” “What?” he asked, amused.

  “Long story.”

  He flipped it over and ran his fingers along the initials J.M engraved into it. I stepped closer to get a better look.

  “I dunno who's initials those are, but it looks old. Probably left behind when someone moved out.” “Yeah probably, we can use this though.”

  He flipped out a pointy thing that I had no idea what it was supposed to be used for. He knelt down at the door lock and startled jiggling the pocket knife around.

  “So you've done this before?” I asked. The crooked smile on his face suggested he had done this more than once. About ten seconds went by and the door popped open.

  “Wow! I'm not sure whether I should be impressed or slightly worried you can do that so quick.” He stood up and held it open for me. I stepped inside and flicked the light switch on, searching the room for Gunner encase he went after Mack, but he was no where to be seen, hopefully fast asleep shut in a bedroom upstairs.

  I turned back to see Mack leaning against the door frame. He folded the pocket knife shut and handed it back to me. A rumble from the sky sounded in the distance just as the house phone started ringing. I turned to look at the phone then back at Mack. I knew it was probably Micah or even Caitlin wondering if I was home safe.

  “I have to go, will you be all right on your own?”

  “Sure if it gets really bad I'll hide under my bed.” I joked smiling at him. He stepped forward and reached for my face, he rubbed his thumb along my cheek. I was frozen on the spot. A shivery chill went through me, I was sure it was from the cold air that was blowing in and not the fact that I was alone in an empty house with Mack.

  He looked into my eyes and I wished I could hear his thoughts, I would have given anything to know what he was thinking inside that head of his. A flash of light lit up around me. I thought it was lightning until I blinked and I was no longer in the front room of the cabin.

  I was walking passed shops, shops I recognised. I tried to look around but I soon realised I was not in control of the body I was inside, just like before when I had got stuck inside Micah's head. But I hadn't just been with Micah. I had been looking into Mack's eyes. Was I inside Mack? It was like one of those dreams where you are moving forward but have no idea where you are headed or what you are doing. The person I was inside weaved around people along the sidewalk, walking briskly, coming to a stop at the street crossing. Then they jogged across the street and quickened their pace. It was sunny and there were people everywhere, passing a familiar clothes store that Carly and I had been in many times, it was one of her favourites. I tried to catch a glimpse of the person I was inside in the reflection of the shop windows, but they were wearing a black hoodie with the hood up so I couldn't see their face. That and the person I was inside wasn't looking in the shop windows. They had their eyes mainly focused on one thing up ahead. Their speed suddenly slowed down and into a lazy walk as if they had all the time in the world. I soon realised the person who I was inside had been in a hurry trying to catch up to someone in front.....ME. I was looking at the back of my own body.

  I was a distance a way from myself but not too far because I could still hear myself talking. I was on my cell, probably talking to Carly.

  The person followed me down the street and over into the mall. I watched myself buy a hot chocolate from one of my favourite food bars. Then I sat on a bench in the mall looking at my cell with my ear buds stuffed in my ears. The body I was in stayed close and sat on the edge of the water fountain. I watched another figure appear and walk over to myself. It was Carly and she had pink highlights in her hair.

  I remembered this point in time it was when she had been determined to get her hair highlighted pink against her mom's wishes. I was meeting her from her hair appointment.

  “What do you think?” Carly said, tapping me on the shoulder.

  “Wow that is....bright” I replied, pulling my earbuds out.

  “I know right. Mom's going to hate it, but it's my hair. She should be pleased I'm not shaving it off like some of the other girls at school lol.”

  I remembered this was roughly about a year ago when she dyed her hair pink and her favourite word at the time was lol (laughing out loud) Carly perched herself next to me on the bench and pulled out a granola bar.

  “So I think Tyson's going to ask me to go out with him this weekend, ”

  “And what gave you that idea?”

  “Well I was speaking to Claire and she said that Tyson can't stop looking at me during French class and she's like so totally jealous,”

  “Oh really Claire said that as in Claire that hates us and cut off your plaits when you were little,” “Fine, I may have overheard her telling Courtney in the girls bathroom, while I was hiding in a cubicle eavesdropping.”

  “Yeah I thought so lol.” I smiled making fun of her new word.

  The girlie chat continued for some time I was surprised at how clear I could hear it from over where I was sitting. The body I was in even gave off a low laugh at something I had said to Carly, all I knew now was he was male with extremely good hearing that had been watching me for some reason.

  “Come on I'll give you a ride home, do you want to come back to mine first? I can't wait to see my mom's face,” Carly stood up, twirling her hair around her finger.

  “I think I'll pass. I don't want to be in the same room when you show her, she'll probably look straight at me like it was my idea for you to do that to your hair.” Carly and myself got up and walked past where I was sitting.

  “Don't tell me you're scared of mama Bell,” Carly said jokingly.

  “Yeah I am actually, especially when you've been provoking her for a month about doing this. I don't want to be there for the aftermath.”

  The person looked down at the floor then sideways at the two of us as we walked away. I spotted something fall from my pocket or bag, but I hadn't notice
d it and carried on walking. The person I was inside walked over quickly and swiped it from the floor then he slowly approached Carly and myself.

  “You dropped this,” a male voice said.

  I watched as my own body turned around and looked at me.

  “Thanks,” I said, taking the earbuds from the outstretched hand in front.

  This was beyond weird looking at myself in this way, it was like looking in a full length mirror, where the reflection moved on it's own.

  The mall started to slant sideways and the light faded to darkness.

  I opened my eyes, my eyelids felt heavy and tired. Gunner had his nose pressed up against my face. I pushed him away, behind him I could see the fire was lit and crackling.

  I slowly sat up, my head was thumping and spinning, I closed my eyes for a moment then reopened them and tried to focus on something. The door blew open behind me and slammed again. Micah walked round to the coffee table where my bag was and started searching through it. “What are you doing?” I asked.

  The sound of my own voice vibrated through my skull, I cringed at the horrible feeling. Micah had my cell in his hand.

  “Lets see, well you have service and twenty three missed calls,”

  “What, from who?”

  “From me, but you would know that if you'd bothered to answer your cell. What have you been doing?” he chucked the cell onto my lap.

  “I'm sorry I was asleep.”

  “You were asleep, so let me get this right. You have been sleeping since you got home and haven't heard your cell or the house phone ringing once?”

  I shook my head then stopped as it felt like my brain was moving around inside. “All you had to do was message me, let me know you were home. You don't want to know all the different ideas I had running through my head of what had happened to you. You sent me a message at 4.50pm saying you couldn't get home, which I only picked up thirty minutes ago, crappy cell service,” I looked down at my cell display. It read 1.15am.

  “I got a ride from another friend and I'm sorry I didn't answer, I was tired.”

  “What are you wearing?” he asked. I looked down at the jacket I was wearing, I was still groggy from sleep but vaguely remembered borrowing it from some boy.

  “A jacket....” I was about to say I borrowed it but he cut me off.

  “Fine don't tell me. I don't want to know. You know I had to get someone to cover for me so I could come and check on you,”

  “Cover for you, you mean work, wait you mean at that fight club place. Is there where you've been tonight?”

  He frowned at me, he obviously didn't like what I had said.

  “I'm leaving, I'll be back early in the morning,” he paused at the door. “Well done on lighting the fire, see it wasn't that hard was it,”

  Then he pulled the door shut. I looked over at the lit fire. I hadn't lit that fire. Seth had shown me how to light it without igniting myself but I still hadn't needed to as Seth or Micah usually lit it for me before they left me alone.

  I grabbed my bag off the table and went up to my room. I didn't even change I just fell straight onto my bed and passed out.

  Chapter Fifteen

  I heard knocking but didn't want to open my eyes, so I opened one eye and looked over at my alarm clock. It was 6.30am. I cringed, I really didn't want to get out of bed today. I knew Seth wasn't back from work yet, which only meant it was Micah on the other side of the door.

  “You can stop knocking, I'm up.” The knocking stopped. I sat up but all I wanted to do was lay back down and go back to sleep.

  “Get dressed I need to talk to you. We'll get breakfast on the way to school.” Micah said. I swung my feet over the edge of the bed and stood up stretching at the same time, my head felt better but I still felt drained. I was already looking forward to coming back from school and snoozing on the couch and I hadn't even left my bedroom yet.

  I was still wearing the jacket from last night, I took it off and hung it on the back of my desk chair. I had no idea who he was or even how I was going to find him again to hand the jacket back. I couldn't even remember his name properly. Emin, Emmy, Em or was it Emery? I felt in the pockets for anything that would be helpful, all I found was a small flask in the inside pocket, I hadn't noticed it last night with everything else going on. I put it back in the pocket and picked out some clean clothes.

  I stood in the shower under the hot water lazily not doing anything, then I remembered what Micah had done last time I showered for too long. I quickly finished washing and got dressed. I looked in the mirror and did minimal make up to save time, that and I couldn't be bothered today, I felt like rubbish. I brushed my hair in the mirror and noticed my hand.

  I dropped the hair brush in the sink and inspected my hand then I checked my other hand to make sure I wasn't going crazy. The graze from where I had fallen over was completely gone, not even a scratch, no visible sign I had ever hurt myself. What was happening to me? I was seriously starting to question my sanity.

  And what happened last night, who's head did I end up inside? And when did Mack leave? I couldn't even remember saying goodbye to him. I just blacked out after I looked into his eyes, the same thing happened when I looked in Micah's eyes. I racked my brain trying to remember the person that had handed my earbuds back to me that day in the mall but I couldn't remember, too much time had passed. But whoever it was had been following me.

  “Ruby. You nearly done?” Micah called up to me.

  “Yeah I'm coming.” I shook my head in the mirror, this was going to have to wait until I came back from school.

  I went back to my room and picked out the books I needed for today's classes and opened my bag about to put them in, when I saw the pink fluffy bunny inside. I lifted it out smiling to myself, remembering what Mack had said when he handed it to me about how it matched my pink high tops. I frowned and looked at the row of shoes I had lined up against the wall, it was a row of all the shoes and boots I had worn since I had been here. The pink high tops weren't down there, my feet always got soaked in them when it rained and it seemed to rain here all the time so I had purposely left them at the bottom of my wardrobe with my other impractical shoes. I shook my head I was positive I had never worn them while I had been in Heaven's Point.

  I hurried downstairs and out to the truck.

  Micah never said a word as we drove down the dirt track and out onto the main road. We didn't drive very far though as we were soon turning off and parking outside Eggy's Diner. He got out and left me sitting there. I knew what this was about and why he had bought me here. I jumped out and followed him inside over to a table near the window further back. I slid into the seat opposite him and watched him from across the table his eyes were wondering all over the place, he was trying his best not to look at me. He seemed anxious and it was obvious. Nothing about Micah was ever obvious but today he was showing actual emotions and it was making me feel uncomfortable.

  He picked up a salt shaker and rolled it between his hands. It seemed like a normal thing to do, but Micah rolling a salt shaker between his hands was strange and out of place. Come to think of it I'd never seen him do anything so normal. I knew bringing me here had something to do with the school incident and that he somehow knew about it before it had happened because he had tried to warn me about it.

  We sat in an awkward silence even I felt nervous waiting for him to say something. The waitress came over ready to take our order. I was so fixated on watching Micah's strange behaviour I had forgotten the other reason we had come in here was to eat. I slid the menu across the table and briefly glanced down at it, I didn't really feel like anything. I didn't even feel hungry, just tired. “So what do you guys want?” she asked, smiling innocently at me.

  But behind the smile she was wondering what I was doing here with such a hot looking guy like Micah. I quietly groaned to myself and looked over at Micah, he had obviously heard my not so quiet groan and was looking questioning at me. I just shook my head and looked back at the
menu. “What do you recommend Bethany?” Micah asked.

  I looked over at her. Her posture had changed, she was leaning towards Micah, smiling like a Cheshire cat and trying to flash as much cleavage as possible.

  “Well the pancakes are a big hit in the mornings with most people, Dan our cook is the best pancake maker in the town.”

  “Well pancakes it is then and get her a coke, nothing for me.”

  I hated the fact he had just ordered for me without asking, something I was far too used to with Micah and he would just expect me to go along with it like it was okay. I put the menu flat on the table and looked over at him, he was staring back at me, I don't think he had even noticed she hadn't left the table. I looked up at her, her silly behaviour had left me feeling annoyed. “What?” I said. Why hadn't she left with the order already?

  “You know you look so familiar, do you live over on Green Oak?” she asked ignoring me looking at Micah.

  “No.” he replied, not looking at her.

  “Are you sure? Cause I'm sure I've seen you round there a lot. Yeah with that other guy.....what's his name? Someone told me the other day,”

  “I think you have customers waiting,” he said sticking his thumb in the direction of a group of teenagers that had crowded in making a lot of noise. She looked over in the groups direction. She frowned, annoyed she had to leave our table to go and attend to them. She gave me a false smile, turned and walked away. I heard the tail end of her thoughts, she had convinced herself Micah was my brother and he didn't want to return her advances cause I was sitting at the table, his little sister. I rolled my eyes and looked at him.

  “What's so amusing?” he asked crossing his arms and resting his hands on his arms leaning across the table towards me.

  “She thinks I'm your little sister and that's why you weren't flirting with her cause I'm sitting at the table.”

  “What?” he looked confused.

  “Oh come on, she was practically flashing for you. You telling me you didn't even notice that she nearly fell out of her bra trying to get your attention,”