Falling Darkness: The second book in the Falling Awake Series

by T. A Richards Neville

  “You’re fishing?” I said to Skah.

  “Hence the Bowfishing,” he said with a sarcastic smirk on his face. “Sorry to disappoint you.”

  Matoskah must have heard our voices and started wading, knee deep in the water over to us. His baseball shorts were pulled down lower than normal past his knees from the heaviness of the water. “I wasn’t sure I would see you today,” he said. He kept his bow and arrow by his side. His was much bigger and more traditional looking than what Skah had originally scared us with.

  “You wanna come and try?”

  “No,” I said with an outreached palm, beckoning him to put his bow back down when I saw him try and hand it to me. “I don’t fish. With bow or hook. It’s not my thing.”

  “Me either,” Mellissa said, pulling a face.

  “I thought you would have at least give it a go,” Matoskah goaded Mellissa. “Don’t tell me… you don’t do anything that’s fun.”

  “Gimme that.” Mellissa snatched the bow from Matoskah and the arrow that was attached with a thin string or wire. I flinched and moved out of her way. I didn’t trust Mellissa one bit with that thing and if Matoskah was smart, he wouldn’t either. She placed it on the grass and with no encouragement necessary she pulled off her sweater and folded it up neatly, passing it to me. Her jeans were next off, then her boots and she handed them to me, also. I was standing with my arms full and she was standing there in just her bra and pants.

  Matoskah’s eyebrow shot up and Skah pressed his lips tightly together in a smile. “Best Bowfishing yet,” Skah said with his eyes glued to Mellissa.

  “You could have kept your clothes on,” Matoskah said. “Water’s not deep.”

  “Those jeans are guess, and that sweater doesn’t do lake water.” Mellissa picked up the bow and arrow and stepped into the water, shivering. “Pria?”

  “Won’t it effect the fish if I make this water warm?” I asked Matoskah.

  “Yes,” he said. “It will. Don’t do it.”

  “Can’t I just a little?” Mellissa wasn’t very outdoorsy and this show of bravery from her wouldn’t last long if she had to stay in that water longer than five minutes.

  “A little,” Matoskah said authoritively. “But that’s it, or fishing’s over.”

  “Just a little,” I agreed, and I put my hand into the water, taking them out when I was satisfied I hadn’t gone over the top. It was barely room temperature, but it was enough that Mellissa wouldn’t need her limbs amputating afterwards.

  I wasn’t interested in fishing. I didn’t like fishing and I considered it an act of cruelty, but watching Matoskah, Skah and Quidel shoot for fish using only their skills and an arrow, I had to admit, it was impressive. Mellissa had given up after about twenty minutes with not a fish in sight and much demonstration from the others and she came and sat with me, instead. Once fishing was over, Quidel declared himself the champion with seven fish and one being much bigger than everyone else’s. It was like a silver finned monster.

  “What are you going to do with all that fish?” Mellissa asked Quidel when we were riding back along the highway to Neah bay.

  “Eat it,” Quidel said.

  “That’s gross,” Mellissa complained. “And that fish smells. I think I can smell it on me.”

  “What do you want me to do with it?” Quidel asked in amusement, “Skin it and use it for fur?”

  We pulled up outside of Matwau’s in Skah’s Golf, with Matoskah following behind. After knocking more times than should have been necessary, there was no answer and all of my calls went to voicemail.

  “He could have gone hunting,” Matoskah shouted over from his open window.

  “He does that?”

  “Everybody does that.”

  Hunting? Hunting what? My stomach reacted violently to the knowledge and a shiver came over me. I wasn’t happy about the thought of anyone killing an innocent animal, never mind Matwau. I got back in the car and Skah dropped us off at the inn. I stepped out in front of the reception and my phone vibrated loudly against my leg. I took it out and Ressler’s name showed on the screen. One swipe and I could be speaking to him. He was probably worried, but why call now? I had been gone over a day. Caleb had probably told him to let me get on with it. Any trouble I found myself in would be own fault, and knowing Ressler, he had probably caved. I was just about to answer when I changed my mind and slid the phone back into my pocket. I would be home soon, I didn’t need him stressing me out in my last few hours here.

  Matoskah jumped out from the driver’s seat and stopped me and Mellissa before we could step foot inside the hotel. “You wanna come to a barbeque?”

  “Whose barbeque?” I asked.

  “My mom’s. You haven’t eaten all day right?”

  “We’ll come, so long as your fish isn’t on the menu,” Mellissa said, grinning.

  “No fish. I promise.”

  “A barbeque sounds like fun,” I admitted. “I am hungry.”

  “I just need to change my sweater,” Mellissa said.

  “Because it doesn’t do smoke fumes, right?” Matoskah was the one grinning now.

  Mellissa patted him on the chest. “Exactly.”

  On the ride to Matoskah’s house it dawned on me that the reservation was pretty small. Even only being here a few times, more areas of the land were becoming familiar to me. Just like Friday Harbor, it was easy to see how everyone knew everyone else here and it was easy to spot the tourists and strangers. I wondered what they thought I was. Tourist or stranger? Probably more like a pest.

  Matoskah’s house was nice. Plain, but nice. It was one floor of all white washed wood with a porch and a small lawn out front. There were other houses around, but each one spaced out, making about five in total on this street that wasn’t a very obvious street at all. It was more like an area. The house might not have been much to look at on the outside, but inside it was filled with people. We squeezed through the crowds, most I could already tell were Matoskah’s family from how he greeted them and came out into the backyard. A family sized grill was smoking over by the fence and a marquee had been set up. The temperature had well and truly dropped, and Matoskah threw two padded coats at me and Mellissa.

  I was just putting mine on when a woman with the same sea green eyes as Matoskah and shoulder length dark brown hair stepped out of the kitchen, smiling. Until her eyes locked on me, that is. Was there something in the water out here? It would have been hard for anyone to miss the frozen turn of her expression and I looked away.

  “My mom,” Matoskah said, bending down to ear level. “Aiyana. I told her about you.”

  “No the wonder she’s looking at me like that.” I hugged my coat closer to my body and smiled at the woman even though the look she was giving me was enough to put out the flames on the grill.

  “No,” he corrected himself, “I didn’t tell her that. Just told her who you were, nothing else.”

  “Oh. Good.” The damp chill that thickened the more the night grew darker was no match for how Aiyana was making me feel. I wished she would just come over and say whatever it was she wanted to say, already. I had my wish in the next three seconds when she clasped her hands together in front of her stomach and walked over to us. My breath was still holding when she stopped right in front of me and out of nowhere, wrapped her arms around me. I didn’t even get a chance to reciprocate, when she let me go as quickly as she had grabbed me.

  I am so happy to finally meet you,” she said. Stony expression gone and a warm, friendly smile in its place. “I’m Aiyana Flores.”

  Flores. The word was ringing in my ears. My mom’s name. She had my mom’s name. I looked at Matoskah, who was looking back at me with vigilance.

  “Are you…” I started to ask Aiyana.

  “I was your mom’s cousin.”

  “Wow,” Mellissa said from beside me.

  “I never knew she had any living family,” I said, stunned.

  “I’m the last. We were a small family. There was
only me and Savannah left. Of course I have my own family now.” Aiyana smiled lovingly at Matoskah. There’s another one just like him in the house somewhere. He’s not as big… yet.”

  “You never mentioned any brothers or sisters,” I said to Matoskah.

  “You never asked.”

  Right. Point taken. “Sorry. I guess I’ve been too involved in myself, haven’t I?”

  “Free pass,” he said. “You had pretty good reason.”

  I felt Mellissa shift beside me. “I’m gonna let you guys talk, and go find whatever that smell is and eat it.” I watched her leave and Skah promptly find her. They were straight over to the grill and he was making up for her whatever was ready on the table.

  “Matt tells me you’ve been seeing Matwau?” Aiyana asked curiously.

  “Uh huh.”

  “How’s that going?”

  “Good. Yeah.” Aiyana smiled but it captured all kinds of meanings that were just screaming for me to ask her about.

  “We never see him anymore. Only in passing, really. It’s a shame he’s just cut himself off from the community like that.”

  “He’s still grieving if you can believe that,” I said to her. The way he acted, there was a very good chance he would be grieving for the rest of his life. I had speculated whether he might be able to move on from my mom’s death if he had the relief of knowing she died under no ominous circumstances, and he might be able to get a certain amount of peace from that. He was a prisoner held in the night she went missing and I had my doubts whether he even wanted to be freed. Some people you just couldn’t help.

  “We’re all still grieving in our own way.” Aiyana took my hand in hers, clasping her fingers tightly around it. “She was very special. And now we have you.”

  I was just about to explain how I got to be here when Aiyana relieved me of that weight. “Matt has told me about your father, Gabriel. You don’t have to explain yourself to me or anyone else tonight. We are your family and we have all the time in the world for that. I haven’t come over here to give you twenty questions. I just wanted to say hello.”

  Family? Oh god. I prayed I wasn’t going to start crying right now. The only family I’d ever had was my dad, and then Gracey came in a close second.

  “Well, I have hungry hoards to feed.” Aiyana set her motherly authority on Matoskah. “Get Pria something to eat and introduce her to everyone.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said.

  Aiyana let my hand go and gave me another hug, and this time I hugged her back. When she left to make sure everyone else was having a good time, I slapped Matoskah on the arm. “Forget to mention that to me, did you?”

  “Sorry.”

  He didn’t look sorry. He was smiling. “You need to work on your sorry face.”

  “I didn’t want to spring too much on you. It was weird enough that I went out of my way to find you. I didn’t know how many surprises one person could take.”

  “I’d have understood the trying to find me if I knew you were my cousin.” I smoothed my fingers over my grin. “Cousin. That sounds weird.”

  “Second cousin,” Matoskah said with an unsure smile.

  “I’ve never had a cousin. Second cousin,” I corrected myself.

  “You’ve got three. I’ve got a brother and sister. Jay is fourteen and Kylie’s turning seven just after Christmas.”

  “Where are they?”

  “Jay, probably in his bedroom on the Xbox. It’s the only thing he bothers talking to.” I laughed when Matoskah rolled his eyes. “And Kylie…” His gaze dissected the crowd slowly. “Stay here,” he said.

  He came back with a small girl wearing scuffed jeans and a ninja turtles t-shirt under a blue duffel coat. She was the prettiest little thing in sight, and I knelt down to her level.

  “Hey,” I said. “I’m Pria, and you’re Kylie, right?”

  The wispy strands of her black hair fluttered around her face and she looked at me through scrunched eyes. “Are you Matt’s girlfriend?” She asked me in her sweet little girl voice that was just full of curiosity.

  “Uh, no,” I said.

  “She’s our cousin.” Matwau stood behind her with his hands on her tiny shoulders and I stood back up when he reached down for her and picked her up, balancing her on his hip. “Say hi.”

  “She’s pretty,” Kylie said, giggling.

  “You’re pretty,” I said. “I love your t-shirt. Ninja Turtles were kinda my thing when I was your age.”

  “Who’s your favorite?” she asked me with a seriousness that was adorable and funny at the same time.

  “Raphael for sure.”

  “Me too!” She shouted, excitedly. “Wanna come play with me?”

  “Sure,” I said. “I’d love to.” Kylie wriggled down from Matoskah’s grip and grabbed my hand pulling me inside the house. She dragged me all the way to her bedroom where we played with her Lego sets. I didn’t realize how much fun I was actually having until there was a tapping on the door and Mellissa stuck her head in. I was mid building a beach house, and she closed the door behind her, sitting down beside us. Kylie was beaming.

  “Cute room,” Mellissa said, eyeing the pastel pink walls and white furniture.

  “Wanna play?” Kylie asked Mellissa, already handing her bits of Lego.

  “You bet,” she said, accepting the little figures. “Lego is my favorite.”

  “Me too,” Kylie agreed, dishing out more bits of Lego to Mellissa. “You can build the diner for the beach, kay?”

  “On it,” Mellissa said with surpassed laughter. “She’s bossy,” She mouthed to me when Kylie was busy burying deep in her Lego tub.

  “She sure is,” I agreed quietly.

  By the time we had built almost a whole resort, Kylies bedroom door flew open and Matoskah, Quidel and Skah piled in.

  “So this is where the party’s at?” Quidel asked, scooping Kylie up off the floor and throwing her onto the bed, tickling her until her delighted squeals filled the room. I stood up, my legs stiff with cramp for sitting for so long. I was careful not to step on the masterpiece we had created for the past two hours. It was safe to say I’d missed most of the party and I was still as hungry as when I first got here.

  “I think we better go now,” I said to Mellissa. “Tomorrow is gonna be a big day.” There was a hidden meaning behind that and Mellissa sighed in complete understanding. We would face life again, and I would have a lot of questions to answer. I’m sure Caleb was already waiting with furious, bated breath for my return.

  “Uh, I don’t think so.” Quidel grabbed me around my waist and threw me down onto the bed next to Kylie. I screamed when his fingers dug into my sides as I tried to curl myself up as a shield, but it was no use and I was begging for mercy in-between tear-filled, screams of laughter. I grabbed the bandana that was wrapped around Quidel’s head and tried to hit him with it. It was a useless effort and he snatched it from my fingers, then relented, sitting back on the bed.

  “Uncle, Q,” Kylie said, wiping her now severely messy hair from her eyes, “Pria’s my cousin, you know. And she’s Matt’s.”

  “Yeah, I heard that.” He reached over and scrubbed her hair, messing it right back up. She pouted and I took my hair tie from around my wrist and pulled her onto my knee. As gently as possible, I plaited her hair from the very top of her head and tied it up.

  “Matt will have to find a new girlfriend now,” Q carried on, smirking at Matoskah. “One that he isn’t related to.”

  Matoskah let out a fake laugh. “Dumbass.”

  “That better?” I asked Kylie, ignoring them and turning her around to get a better look. She jumped down and inspected her reflection in her mirror. “I love it. Will you put make up on me now?” she asked with hopeful eyes.

  “Now that’s my department,” Mellissa said, getting up. “Ouch.” She rubbed her legs. Yes we had definitely been in this room too long.

  “Maybe another time,” I said before Kylie got her hopes up. “When you’re like ten
. You don’t need make up. You’re way prettier without it.”

  “No fair,” Kylie whined. “Please?”

  “Next time,” Matoskah told her. “Now get your pj’s on and I’ll be back to tell you a story.”

  “I want Pria to tell me a story.”

  “She has to go home,” said Matoskah. He took a wide step over our Lego set up and took a pair of lemon colored pajamas from one of her drawers.

  “I can read her one story,” I offered. “I don’t mind.”

  “Can I stay for it?” Quidel teased.

  Skah shoved him out of the overcrowded room and into the much less crowded hallway.

  “I’ll see you out back,” Mellissa said to me and then dropped a kiss onto Kylie’s head. “See you soon, princess. And I’ll bring my make up with me,” she added quietly and with a wink.

  “I won’t be long,” I promised.

  Not even four pages of ‘The velveteen rabbit,” was read before soft snores were coming from Kylie. I tucked her in and met the others outside. After watching Kylie sleep like that, I felt oddly exhausted. Like I had hiked a mountain or something, and I was suddenly desperate for bed. The party had died down a little, only the marquee now full of people gathered inside of it, telling stories and Mellissa and I said goodbye to everyone. When we were just about to leave in Matoskah’s truck, Aiyana came hurrying out of the house with two plates of food covered in aluminum foil. “Here,” she passed the plates through to Matoskah. “I told you to feed them,” she scolded Matoskah.

  “What? I’m sorry,” he said.

  “I actually ate,” Mellissa said. “A lot.”

  “It’s fine,” I said. “We had fun.”

  “Yeah.” Mellissa agreed. “I’ll be back even if I’m not invited.”

  Aiyana looked satisfied with that and she chuckled at Mellissa “You are always invited. She rubbed her arms. The wind had picked up, and she looked cold.

  “Go back in the party, mom. I’ll be back soon.”