Falling Darkness: The second book in the Falling Awake Series

by T. A Richards Neville

  I kept glancing into the trees. The sheer size of them and the darkness they housed, made me nervous as hell. I couldn’t seem to keep my gaze fixed in front of me. When my eyes jutted over into the forest for what I promised myself would be the last time, I started to hum a comforting song that I convinced myself would somehow keep me safe.

  The tune fell completely flat when a figure of over six foot, emerged from the trees, like a living shadow plucked straight from the darkness. It was the same misty figure I had seen at Roche Harbor, and this time it was watching me, purposefully.

  I was frozen on the spot.

  All of a sudden, and from nowhere, my feet started moving and I was running forward. My heavy footsteps and my frantic breath rattled around in my head, making them the only sounds I could hear. They were the sounds of fear.

  I looked over and whatever that shadow creature was, it was matching me, step for step, whipping in and out of the trees and unbelievably, it was growing in size. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from it.

  The creature had all but doubled in size, with curls of smoke sucked from its frame by the wind. What was this thing?

  I pressed more power into my steps and put every single bit of energy I could summon into running as fast as I could. When the trees eventually receded into flat, lifeless, grassy land, and the shadow creature seemed to become nothing more than a part of the darkness, I squealed when I came up hard against something solid and arms wrapped around me, tightly.

  “Hey, what are you running from?” It was a boy’s voice speaking softly to me, but I was shaking so hard, I couldn’t look at him let alone voice any kind of a response.

  “Pria, it’s me. You’re okay.”

  The arms holding me loosened as I backed up a little to look up.

  “Matoskah?” The familiarity of his long hair, tan skin, and easy smile made my body slump a little from relief.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked me. “It’s barely dawn. We did say ten thirty right?”

  “What are you doing here?” I asked, stepping away from him. How did I know he didn’t have anything to do with whatever I just saw? He kept popping up at the strangest times.

  “I work here,” he said and I gave him a look that told him I needed something more to that answer.

  “The Makah Marina.” Matoskah turned and pointed towards where the road eventually curved along a vast marina. It wasn’t as crowded or as busy as the port of Friday Harbor, but it was big enough.

  “Oh, you do? I never knew that.” I felt a little guilty thinking I couldn’t trust him. He seemed to have a valid enough reason for roaming the streets at this ungodly hour.

  “I unload the boats.” He shrugged. “It pays.”

  “Hey, it’s a job. It’s great.” I smiled awkwardly. It’s great? What kind of a dumbass response was that?

  “Seriously though, you were running from something back there. What was it?” he asked me. He took a long look over my shoulder, searching the road behind me.

  “Nothing. I was just running.”

  “Just running? Is that a joke?”

  “It was nothing, really. You know what? I really need to go and sit down somewhere if you don’t mind.” My breathing had only just returned to normal and my legs felt like Jell-O.

  “I know somewhere,” He stepped aside and I walked right next to him as we passed the harbor and stopped at what looked like a small diner.

  I squinted at the building, trying to make it look a little more appealing, but the truth was, it was kinda run down. If it wasn’t for Matoskah telling me that this was where we were gonna grab some breakfast, I would have passed this place off as a fishing tackle shop or something equally as un-noticeable.

  The food however, that was a different story altogether. Matoskah watched me like I was a curious creature as I shoved a fork full of salmon hash browns into my mouth. After I chewed my last bite, I wiped my mouth with my napkin and set my fork down, very full and very satisfied.

  “That might be the best thing I ever ate,” I exclaimed, taking a sip of my orange.

  “The food’s good here.”

  “Good is an understatement.” I looked around at the plain but quirky restaurant. The walls were cream colored and the only decoration was the hanging pictures of the Makah tribe through different generations and some weird looking colorful ornaments and statues. I had no idea what they were. Something to do with Native American history I was guessing.

  I looked across the table at Matoskah. He had hardly touched his hash. He was too busy watching me. Maybe I shouldn’t have stuffed my face the way I did. I probably grossed him out.

  “Can I tell you something?” He leaned over the table, looking from side to side.

  I scanned the room to see what he was looking for. “Yeah…”

  “This was your mom’s favorite place,” he said in complete seriousness.

  “What?” I blurted out. “I mean… what?”

  “It’s true.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Her pictures on the wall over there.” Matoskah nodded over by the counter.

  I could see a rectangular picture hanging on the wall above a plastic green plant but I could barely recognize who was in the picture from here.

  I stood up and walked slowly over by the counter, looking up at the golden frame on the wall, with a small, lilac flower tucked into the top corner. The flower, unlike the plant, was real and the woman in the picture was no doubt the person I knew was my mom.

  I looked back at Matoskah and he stood up and walked over to me, with his back leaning against the counter.

  “I told you,” he said, with his eyes on the picture. “I’ll tell you something else, too.” I was listening to him but I couldn’t take my eyes off the picture.

  “Bobby, the owner of this place, he put that picture up when everyone found out your mom died and he put that flower up at the same time.”

  “That’s nice,” I said. The flower was pretty. Kind of like a symbol of how beautiful she was. I knew she was just as beautiful on the inside, too, which made her even more special.

  “No you don’t get it.”

  “Get what?”

  “Bobby put up that exact same flower. And that was seventeen years ago.”

  “But it’s real, isn’t it?”

  “It’s as real as you and me, and it’s never died- a petal never withered. Strange, huh?”

  “Yeah, strange,” I muttered, glancing at him. He was watching for some kind of reaction from me, but he wasn’t getting it. I wasn’t sure what he knew, or thought he knew, but I had no reason to start telling him anything.

  “Let’s go somewhere else,” he offered.

  “Why?”

  “Somewhere a little nicer.”

  I agreed and after Matoskah paid the bill, we headed out. I stepped out into the now daylight and when I looked into the window of the diner, a man with leathery, light brown stood, partially hidden by a doorway behind the counter and narrowed his dark eyes, watching me walk away.

  Weird.

  Matoskah rode us in his rusting, faded red and white Jeep j10, to where, I had no idea. This whole place was new to me and everywhere looked same. A lot of trees, land and space.

  “Where did you get this?” I asked, tapping my hand on the dashboard.

  “What, the jeep?”

  “Yeah, this is old school. 1978 right?”

  Matoskah turned to me with a smile behind his eyes. “How do you know that?”

  “My dad owns a garage.”

  “Then you should know that this isn’t old school, it’ classic.”

  “Right.” It was old school. Very Old.

  I looked out my window at the blur of the trees and the long stretch of grey ahead. The road turned gravelly and we passed a handmade sign welcoming us to Makah Nation. Matoskah parked the truck in a busy parking lot and after saying hello to a few people he obviously knew, he guided me amongst gathering groups of hikers and backpackers.


  “Where are we?”

  “This,” he pointed up ahead, “is the Cape trail.”

  Why did I keep ending up back here?

  “I’m not really in the mood for walking.” I really wasn’t.

  “It’s not far where I wanna take you. You will like it, I swear.”

  “Oh fine,” I relented. “It better not be far or this friendship is over before it even begins, got it?”

  “So I’m your friend?” he teased.

  “We’ll see.”

  Around thirty minutes later, Matoskah took us off the Cape trail which I distinctly remembered from bringing myself here with Caleb. We trekked through the thick branches and over the mossy forest floor, disappearing through the thick trunks, until the boardwalk of the trail was no longer in sight.

  Matoskah clearly knew where he was going, but to me this looked like a sure fire way to get lost. The forest was shaded and cold, but most off all it was wet. Everything was wet, just like it was before.

  When I thought we were headed for nothing but more trees and the occasional beam of hidden sunlight, Matoskah slipped through two overbearing tree trunks, and then fell off the face of the earth. Where’d he go? I hurried my pace to catch up, following through the tiny space, and slipped down a muddy embankment, sliding the whole way down on my back.

  When I finally skidded to a stop and the mud receded, I got to my feet and Matoskah stood watching me with a half-smile on his face.

  “Did you fall, too?” I asked, taking my coat off to inspect the damage.

  “No, but that was funny.”

  I continued to swipe at the thick covering of mud on my coat and when I could no longer keep a straight face, I burst into laughter and I threw my muddy mess of a coat at Matoskah.

  “I could have died, I’ll have you know.”

  “I’m sorry you’re right. You could have died.” He straightened my coat out and lay it down on the ground at his feet. Hilarious and embarrassing situation over, I looked up and surveyed where we were standing.

  “Wow.” We were right by the edge of a small swimming hole and thin veils of water from a cliff edge fell harmoniously into the pool, rippling away slowly into a tiny stream. The whole area above was mostly clear, only protected by the leaves of the surrounding evergreens.

  “This is so beautiful. How did you find it?”

  “I just slipped one day and hey presto.” Matoskah’s chest shuddered under his silent laughter.

  “I’m ignoring you right now.”

  “It’s not mapped. I just kinda found it. Weird thing is, I never saw anyone else come here and no one’s ever mentioned it. I sure as hell won’t be telling anyone about it. This place is mine.”

  I lowered myself onto a small, smooth rock under the direct sunlight. The glow warmed me a little and my arms were covered with long sleeves, but I was missing the extra protection of my coat. “And you brought me here?”

  “Feels right,” he said, downplaying any kind of grand gesture. I had to smile, regardless. I thought him bringing me here was pretty great.

  “How did you end up in Friday Harbor?” Matoskah asked me, laying down on the grass, propped up with his elbow.

  “I’ve lived there all my life. I thought we moved there from Carson City when I was a baby but I highly doubt there’s any truth in that now.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “I thought my mom was from Nevada. That was what my dad told me anyway. Everything I know is nothing more than a well scripted story. None of it’s real.”

  “Why do you think your dad lied to you?”

  “I don’t know. He’s sick right now, so I can’t even ask him.”

  “Sorry to hear that.”

  I smiled gratefully at Matoskah. “It’s fine. I’m sure he’ll be better soon.” I gazed out at the waterfall. The sound of the trickling water and the overhead chirping of the wildlife was automatically calming and I sucked in a deep breath of air.

  “Matwau still lives here. Savannah’s husband. Well, widow now I guess.” I watched Matoskah reach out and pick out a pebble, throwing it into the water, the smooth grey stone skimming gracefully over the surface.

  “What did you just say?”

  He sat back on the rock and turned towards me. “Matwau? Matwau Flores.”

  “You’re saying his name like I have any idea what you’re talking about.”

  “You don’t know?”

  “Didn’t know my mom married him? No I didn’t know.”

  Matoskah’s face completely dropped. “Oh.”

  “I can’t believe this.”

  “I wouldn’t have said anything if…”

  “How did you know how to find me?” The words flew out of my mouth uncontrollably. “You knew where I lived, you know things about my life I don’t even know. How can I trust the things you are telling me? Nothing adds up.”

  “I didn’t know that I would see you at the party at Roche Harbor. My cousin, Hunter, he plays on the school football team and he lives in La Conner.”

  “Why not just tell me right then that you lived here? Why did you lie to me?”

  “I made a dumb mistake. I should have just told you the truth right then.”

  “It makes you look kinda suspicious, you know.”

  “I didn’t expect to see you that night, but I tagged along with Hunter hoping I would. See, I saw you go in that cave and I saw what happened and I couldn’t not try and find you again. It was chance that you could be in Friday Harbor, so when you were there, at the cemetery, I wasn’t really too sure what to say to you. You caught me off guard.”

  “What is it you think you know about me?” I asked him. I was stuck between trusting him and getting ready to run away.

  “I know you can do things that no one else can. I know that your mom could also do things that no one else could, that’s why we never forget about her.”

  “You haven’t told anyone about me, have you?”

  “No. There was always the smallest chance I was wrong about you.”

  “Why do you even care?”

  “About what?”

  “About me, my mom. Finding me? Telling me everything that you have?”

  Matoskah freed a rubber band from around his wrist and tugged his hair back into a knot at the base of his neck. He was so handsome, I kept finding myself watching him closely in moments like these, as if he was a living piece of art. He looked older than seventeen. I’d never even bothered to ask his age. I’d never bothered to ask anything about him. But I thought it was perfectly okay to disappear off the grid with him? Here’s hoping my judgment wasn’t too far off.

  “I grew up listening to stories about your mom, the things she could do. Here, we believe in the land, the earth. People here are very spiritual and your mom was the most spiritual of all. Me, not so much. I listen to the stories and I’m respectful of it but I’ve never seen anyone do anything even similar to what I saw you do that night. The whole cave rumbled into just a pile of rocks. The night, it was calm and the next thing, a storms ripped from nowhere. That was one of the exact things your mom used to do. Change the weather, change the land. I didn’t know what was going on at first, but then I saw you and I knew it couldn’t be coincidence. I don’t believe in coincidence.”

  “You have to promise me you won’t tell anyone about that, or anything else we talk about. Do you promise? I’m not even supposed to be here.”

  “I promise. Are you in some kinda trouble?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Let me help you,” he offered.

  “There is one thing you can do.” I had to trust that this was the right decision and what I was about to do next would be one of the final parts of this never ending puzzle. “Take me to see Matwau.”

  ***

  I stood at the front door of the man who my mom was married to. My heart was pounding. I was still in severe shock. My mom was married. And to someone I never even knew about. I knew my mom and dad were never married
and maybe that was why this was that little bit more painful. She had never married Gabriel, but she had been someone else’s wife. My dad was starting to feel like the inferior party. Did she love this man, Matwau, more than my dad? Where did my dad even fir into any of this?

  I clenched my hands in and out of a fist and then with my confidence at its peak, I reached out a hand and knocked loudly on the door.

  I checked over my shoulder. Matoskah sat behind the wheel of his truck and he smiled when he caught my line of vison. I smiled, tight lipped and whipped my head back around when the shiny red door creaked open.

  I pursed my lips and looked up into the eyes of a tall, middle aged man with long, sleek black hair hanging perfectly straight around his shoulders.

  I had seen this man before; in the very last dream I had let myself get sucked into. Only then, he had been in replace of my dad and he was being smothered by evil, black shadows that I was pretty sure were somehow alive. I had already dreamt of him. Another thing that didn’t make any sense.

  The man stared down at me, and I watched a change of emotions pass across his face from confusion to shock, until at long last, he spoke.

  “Savannah?”

  I swallowed and looked back over my shoulder. Matoskah gave me the nod again and I turned back around. “Um no, I’m Pria. Savannah was my mom.”

  He watched me for what felt like too long and I was starting to think I was about to get the door slammed in my face. “You better come inside,” he said.

  I followed him in the house, sitting down on a brown, leather sofa. The living room was fairly small with cream colored walls and all wood furniture.

  “So, you’re Savannah’s daughter?” Matwau sat in the sofa under the window and looked at me suspiciously.

  “I know this is really weird, me just turning up like this…”

  “Did someone send you here?”

  “No. I came on my own.”