Falling Darkness: The second book in the Falling Awake Series

by T. A Richards Neville

  I woke up, sweating, hanging onto my dad’s body for dear life.

  Eyes. I could feel them on me. My skin was crawling with the sensation.

  I sat up and ran over to the light switch, flicking it on. Light filled the room, highlighting every single nook and dark corner, but apart from my still and silent dad, I was completely alone. My eyes darted around the room, and I was fully expecting something to jump out at me. Ten minutes of standing and constantly surveying the room, only to reveal nothing but my dad and the shadows, I climbed back onto the bed wrapping my arms around my dad.

  “It’s okay,” I murmured to myself.

  I might not have been able to see anything, but the prickle on my skin told me we were definitely not alone.

  A gift

  “Hand me that socket wrench please?” I asked Mellissa, sticking my head out from under the hood of the last car I would be fixing in a long time. Caleb was closing the garage after tonight, until my dad was back to take control of if properly. I hated it, but he was right. None of us had any time to run it anymore and it didn’t make sense to pretend like everything was normal when it wasn’t.

  “Uh, do I look like I know what the hell a socket wrench is?” Mellissa asked, gaping at me, her hands spread wide in the air.

  I rubbed greasy fingers over my forehead. “Drake?” I asked. He smiled and moved off into the garage and came back with nearly everything I needed.

  “Thanks, just put those on the floor there.” He dropped the tools by my feet and I got back to work, fitting the socket wrench to an extension bar. I pulled the wire plug from the engine and worked it carefully till I got to the spark plug and freed it with the ratchet. The spark plug had mega sooty build up and I set about fitting new ones.

  Twenty minutes later, happy with my work, I dropped the hood and called the owner to come and collect it.

  “What kind of girl are you?” Mellissa asked me, just after Kevin, whose Volvo I had just fixed, paid me and left. “And how come Kevin couldn’t do that?”

  “He probably didn’t have the tools,” I told her. “They can be more expensive than what’s wrong with the car.”

  “Or maybe Kevin, prefers to bake cakes over fixing his own car.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You are so black and white.”

  “I’ll wait in the car for you,” Drake said, shaking his head with the tilt of a smile.

  I emptied the register and started locking the tools away.

  “How’s everything with you and Drake?” I asked Mellissa, whilst I made sure everything was switched off.

  “Good.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah,” she said, helping me clear everything away.

  “And Jason?”

  She stopped and her eyes locked onto mine. “He was just harmless flirting. I’m over it.”

  “Good. I like Drake.”

  She smiled. “I like him, too.”

  I stood at the juke box with Ressler and shuffled through the titles. I recognized hardly any songs. Too much hard rock for me.

  Sully’s was rowdy, and it was Friday night. I had managed another whole week without me and Tamara ripping into each other and I was happy to be nowhere near school, or her. She had Caleb, that much was true, but I held onto hope that without my jealous reactions, having him was made that much less sweeter.

  “Was everything okay at Gracey’s?” Ressler asked me.

  “Fine. She asked to see my dad again and then like ten seconds later she just smiled like a mannequin and shook the thought away, like she couldn’t even remember what it was she said. How long is that gonna hold up anyway?”

  I selected ‘Wish you were here’ by Incubus and took my drink from Ressler.

  “As long as it needs to. Until Gabriel wakes up.”

  Leah had planted the false memory in Gracey’s head that she does in fact visit my dad in hospital, regularly. And every time she suggests going to see him, she remembers that she’s already been and then just forgets all about it. It was incredible to watch and even though Leah had protested against it profusely, there was no other way. Any suspicion of where my dad really was, would be a disaster; that was one thing we all agreed on.

  I rested my shoulder against the jukebox and sipped my soda through a thin straw.

  Ressler matched my stance and asked me, “Are you going to go back and see Matwau?”

  “I was hoping to go back tonight.”

  Ressler shook his wrist free of his sleeve and looked down at his watch. “It’s already after seven.”

  “I can stay at Matwau’s. I’m sure he’d be okay with that. I kinda wanna have the whole weekend there.”

  “The whole weekend?”

  “I’ve got so much to still find out. It makes sense.”

  Before Ressler could even bother to go there, I stepped in first. “Don’t even mention Caleb to me. Please, I could really do without it.” I gestured around the busy and heavily smoky room. “He isn’t here, is he?”

  Ressler didn’t need to look around to know he was nowhere in sight. He was only downstairs, I knew that much, but it was beside the point.

  “He’s not himself,” Ressler started.

  I nodded and drained the last of my drink. “I know that.”

  “Sully’s working tonight, but I’ve got another idea.”

  I very much liked the sound of that.

  Less than ten minutes later, Ressler had taken Drake from his game of pool and I had packed a bag with clothes and other stuff I would need. I brushed my hair through quickly and put on a pair of leggings and a plain black tee under my hoody. I laced up my wedge high tops and kissed my dad goodbye. Caleb was in the bathroom so I quickly left before he had a chance to come out and give me a mouthful.

  At the marina, the ugly old girl that was Sully’s fishing boat, bobbed silently on the water. We got on board and I went and put my things in one of the bedrooms downstairs. I could feel the boat moving before I even came back up the stairs. Ressler and Drake were both on deck and I had to do a double take to see who was driving the boat.

  Sully sat in the navigator’s cabin, his face completely expressionless, looking as if he were only one on this boat and there weren’t in fact three other people here.

  Unsociable, meet Sully.

  I stood next to Drake and Ressler. “I thought he was working?” I looked over at Sully.

  “He left Tony in charge,” Drake said.

  “Tony?”

  “He drinks there. He’s a regular,” Drake confirmed, smirking at Ressler. “The bar can look after itself. As long as there’s someone to serve, everything’s good. Caleb’s only downstairs if there’s any trouble.”

  “What kind of bar just lets the patrons run the place?” I asked, imagining all kinds of alcohol fuelled disasters that might take place throughout the night.

  “The fallen angel kind.” Ressler put his hand on my shoulder and gave me a reassuring shake. “Don’t worry. It’s fine.”

  “I’ll get the ferry next time.” It would be my fault if chaos did break out at the bar because I so desperately needed its owner, or maybe zoo keeper was more fitting.

  “How many times are you gonna go out there?” Drake asked me. He slouched down into one of the wire mesh chairs on the deck and flung one arm over the back.

  “Well I was thinking maybe…” I bit down on my lip, not wanting to say what I was about to. The look on Drake and Ressler’s face didn’t hold out a lot of trust in what I might come out with.

  “Spit it out,” Ressler urged.

  “Well, I was thinking I might invite him to this Thanksgiving festival that I have to arrange for school.

  Drake and Ressler both shot each other a doubtful look.

  “It was just an idea,” I said under my breath.

  “What’s the harm?” Drake asked me with a smile behind his eyes that I couldn’t quite read.

  “Really?” Was this a trick?

  “Your life, right?”

  Right
,” I agreed. “My life.”

  “Are you inviting that guy, too?” Ressler asked.

  “What guy?”

  “Long hair, thinks he can do whatever the fu-”

  “Matoskah,” I said. “His names Matoskah and he’s nice. You’ll like him once you get to know him.”

  “I’m sure you must be living on a different planet right now,” Ressler gibed, and Drake shook his head in muted laughter.

  “Thanksgiving’s next week. You better get a move on if you’re planning a festival. You never mentioned anything about it before.” Ressler didn’t look quite as pleased about the suggestion I had just made as Drake seemed to be. He looked completely aggravated.

  “And I’m so glad I have you guys to help me,” I declared with a smirk of my own. “I don’t know how I would get it all done without you.”

  ***

  It had grown too cold for me out on the deck, the further we got out into the ocean and I retreated downstairs into the comfort of the small double bed that was in the bedroom I had claimed. I pulled off my hoody and my leggings and buried myself under the covers, leaving on my underwear and my t-shirt.

  I pulled the quilt right up to my chin and curled up into a ball. I was tired and the sea air was making me drowsy. Before I knew it or could care to even try and fight it, I was falling asleep.

  I was dreaming and I was in the swimming hole that was buried out of sight on the Cape trail. I pushed up on the heels of my feet out of the water and brushed the water back through my hair with my fingers. I looked down at myself and I was wearing exactly what I had worn to bed.

  I wasn’t alone either.

  “Caleb,” I whispered.

  He was staring at me, sitting atop a boulder of rock and the feel of his eyes on me was causing a rising heat to rip through my insides. I waded through the water, and sat by the edge, twisting my legs in Caleb’s direction and keeping my knees close to my body. He looked around us, taking everything in. he wasn’t saying anything but his eyes always told a story. He told me everything with those eyes. I could imagine all kind of thought’s passing behind them. “Nice place,” he said, at last.

  “It’s real. I came here today with Matoskah.”

  I saw the instant dislike flit across his face. What had Matoskah ever done to him? One more glance at him, and it was gone. His face was a blank canvas again.

  “I didn’t think I’d see you like this again,” he confessed.

  “What do you mean, like this?”

  “As myself. I forget what it feels like to just be me sometimes.”

  “I know that it’s not your fault,” I said, taking in his far-off expression. “Leah told me.”

  “Did she tell you that the more I lose sight of who I really am and why I’m here, the less I care whether you live or die?”

  An angry frown settled above my eyes and I looked away. Well that stung.

  “At least you’re honest.”

  “You being safe, and you coming out of this completely unharmed was my motivation.” I looked back to see him settle his gaze on me. “I stopped really caring about my wings. They were insignificant, a bonus. And now-” he laughed, “Those damn wings are all I can think about.”

  “I want to help you, Caleb,” I offered. “I won’t let you turn into Dr. Evil.”

  He quirked his brow. “Dr. Evil?”

  “Really?” I said “Dr. Evil… Austin Powers?”

  “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

  I smiled in disbelief. “What have you been doing your whole life? Everyone has seen that movie. It’s not great, but…”

  “I don’t watch movies.”

  I let my eyes explore the full length of his body. “Of course you don’t.”

  He should be in the movies, not watching them. He would play the role of every girl’s fantasies and the ultimate heartbreaker.

  “How did you get to be so good?” he asked me.

  “I’m not good all the time,” I stated. “I’m human.”

  “I don’t think there’s one ounce of badness in you.”

  “Then you don’t know me well enough.” I skimmed my hand over the water and tried not to think about all the things I wished me and Caleb could be. How can something that starts so great, end so badly? “I’ll do whatever it takes to help you, Caleb. I don’t care about Tamara. If she’s what makes you happy then I’ll learn to live with that. I won’t like it but I’ll get over it.”

  Caleb surveyed me like he was trying to understand me. “The witch doctors dead. He done this to me.”

  “I don’t care. There has to be something and we’ll figure it out. You never gave up on me and I’ll die before I give up on you.” It was a little on the heavy, but it was true. “I want to ask one thing from you in return.”

  He rubbed his jaw and looked down at me under his lowered lashes. “What is it?”

  “I know you already know that I met my mom’s husband and it turns out I’m no further forward.”

  “No, you’re ten steps backwards.”

  I gritted my teeth.

  “If you know anything…”

  “You need to ask Gabriel, not me.”

  “What if he-”

  “Never wakes up?” he asked me sharply. “He will wake up, and when he does, he will tell you everything you want to know. But I’m not the person to do it.”

  “If you knew what it was like at all to just be a regular person, with regular feelings and problems, you would have the tiniest insight into what this is like for me. How hard this is.”

  “You are anything but regular, and it doesn’t matter how much you try and fix me. I’ll never want any part of this.”

  “And why’s that?” I lashed out. I stood up, feeling silly and small in what little I was wearing.

  “Because you are going to get hurt and that is something I don’t want to see.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “But you do. And yet you’re still putting yourself through it. Tell me right now what you’ll gain from this?”

  “Answers,” I screamed. “The truth.”

  “And when you don’t like the answer? What will you do then? When the truth isn’t the truth you wanted?”

  “I’ll deal with it.”

  “You do what you need to do, but I won’t help you do it.”

  “Then I guess that’s the difference between me and you,” I managed through unshed tears. “I would never write you off like that.”

  “I haven’t written you off. I just don’t want to be witness to something that is gonna end in tragedy.”

  “Why do you keep saying that?” I almost yelled.

  Caleb stepped down from the rock he was sitting on and came to a standstill dead ahead of me. He laid his hand over my chest and I bit back the tears that were trying to tear their way out. “Your heart is too pure to handle real hurt and disappointment.”

  “I’ve lived long enough to know what real disappointment feels like, and believe me, I know what it’s like to hurt,” I argued. “One day I meet a boy who is believe it or not, a fallen angel and my world is tipped upside down. And on top of that, there is someone out there who would like nothing more than to see me dead, and you think I don’t know what real disappointment feels like? You think I don’t hurt when I see you with her?”

  “That’s nothing compared to how I know you will feel if you find out Gabriel is anything other than who you believed he was your whole life.”

  I dropped my head and clenched my fidgeting fingers.

  “Whatever happens and whatever you do, I want you to remember that I am always there. It might not seem like it now…”

  I brought my head back up and met Caleb’s glaring stance with one of my own. “I wish that was true.”

  He splayed his fingers softly through my hair and traced them down the wet strands that clung to my back. “I’m losing every single part of myself. Every good part anyway, and you’re the best part of all and I can’t stop it. I
can’t do a damn thing about it.”

  “You will never lose me,” I promised. I brought my hands up and cupped either side of his face. “A day won’t ever pass when there isn’t a part of you in my heart. I won’t lie, sometimes I want to kill you, and there are times when I think I hate you. But I could never let go of you… trust me, I’ve tried.”

  “I will never deserve you,” he breathed. The anger of a protest was hanging heavy on my tongue when Caleb dug his fingertips into my back and pushed himself up against me. He lowered his head and brushed his lips over my jaw line and I tipped my head back in the rush of his skin on mine. “But I really don’t care.”

  Before a kiss could even manifest in my mind, I was shaken awake, the dreariness of the dark cabin bearing down on me.

  “We’re here,” Ressler said from where he stood looking over me.

  “I slept the whole way?” It felt like maybe a half hour had passed.

  “Yeah, come on get up. Sully needs to head back out.”

  “Just let me get dressed,” I said, getting up and hunting around for my clothes that I had thrown carelessly all over the floor. I put my leggings back on and stretched my hoody over my severe case of bed head. Once my sneakers were on and I had my bag ready, I met Drake and Ressler on the harbor and watched our only way home sail back out.

  “So what now?” Drake asked. “Has anyone thought this through?”

  “We could stay at Matwau’s,” I suggested.

  Ressler was sharp to react. “No thank you.”

  “Got any better ideas?” I asked, dumping my bag on the floor. It was well after midnight and there was only a few fisherman in sight, mulling around on the gangways of the marina. I felt like a suspicious intruder, invading someone else’s land when I had no business being here.

  “There has to be like a motel around here somewhere,” Drake said, setting off along the long and empty road. I looked at Ressler and picked up my bag, following Drake. We walked for maybe fifteen or twenty minutes before we stopped at a medium sized Inn, made entirely of duck egg colored wood.