Falling Darkness: The second book in the Falling Awake Series

by T. A Richards Neville

  “When will you be back?” she asked me, ignoring Matoskah’s request. He never meant it with malice and I imagined he was the boss around the house, aside from his dad, that is. Mr. Flores had been pretty busy all night on the grill but he came over to say hello to us, and I liked him instantly in that five minutes. He and Iyana had certainty done an amazing job at turning Matoskah into a good man.

  “Soon, I hope.” I didn’t really want to leave in all honesty, but there was still my dad and he was about the only thing I was looking forward to getting back to see.

  “Okay. Well keep in touch.” Aiyana smiled and waved us off. I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open all the way home. When we did get back to the inn, I passed completely on the food and collapsed straight into a deep sleep.

  From hell

  I didn’t want to wake up when I did, and as my eyes adjusted against their will to the silver strip of moonlight peeking in through the cracked curtain, every nerve ending in my body told me that something wasn’t right. The first thing that was totally out of place was the empty bed next to mine with the rumpled sheets. The second, how strongly I felt like there was something else in the room with me even though I could see I was completely alone. I jumped up and rushed to the bathroom. Empty.

  Mellissa wasn’t here and I knew without a moments doubt that Sabre had come for me, and he had her now. I rushed through getting dressed into my jeans and t-shirt and ran through the hallways to the reception of the Inn.

  “Have you seen my friend?” I asked the weird receptionist, Flora.

  She watched me warily, her lips pressing into a thin line that only highlighted the crinkles around her mouth. “You shouldn’t go out there alone,” she said, like that was any help or even an option for me right now.

  “I asked if you saw her,” I said again and this time more angrily. I didn’t have time for this crap.

  “I have not seen her.” She got up and started for the door to a back room and then stopped with her fingers wrapped around the handle. I was just about to leave when she said, “Listen to the land. It will help you find your friend, if you allow it. The devil is not welcome here.” And she opened the door, closing it and me behind her.

  What? I was staring at the closed door, wasting seconds that I should have been looking for Mellissa. I didn’t know about listening to any land, but I had my talisman in my pocket and so far, it had Kept Sabre and anything else at bay.

  “Don’t let me down,” I whispered to myself when I left the inn.

  It wasn’t cold outside, it was freezing. I wrapped my arms around myself while I worked out which way to go first. I would have called Matoskah if I didn’t want him to get caught up in any of this. I could really use a guide right about now.

  There was no right or wrong way to me, every turn was a shot in the dark and so I started for the desolate road that ran along the marina, shrouded by the forest. It only took me about five minutes to run to a spot in the road that was so secluded, I couldn’t even see the slither of moonlight from here. I slowed to walking pace with only the whisper of the animals in the forest for comfort, but I was thankful I at least had that. The whistling wind through the trees, sounded more like human howls and I hummed under my breath to block it out. Soon, my hums were too loud for my own ears and my shoes hitting the asphalt was more noise than I could take. I stopped still and took a deep breath. Something was different. Something had changed. I tried to listen over my heavy breaths, and after three beats, I knew I had stepped into the one place no one would want to be right now. The howling of the wind had completely ceased, and there wasn’t a chirp, or squeak from an animal for miles. There was just me and whatever was in that forest. I turned to face the trees and with a pounding heart, I started walking towards them. Flora was right. To find the devil, I had to block out the noise and listen to the land. Where there was silence, there was evil.

  Through each enormous tree trunk I could see nothing more than suffocating blackness. Last time I had been standing on this road, I was chased by an unnatural shadow and I was praying it wasn’t on the other side of those trees, waiting for me. Every step forward I took, my mind was screaming for me to take two back. But I couldn’t. If Mellissa was here, it was my fault and I wouldn’t leave her. That’s even if she was in here. With any luck she would be in a nice warm house somewhere, waiting for me to turn up and then we could just go home. There was very little chance of that being accurate.

  My first step into the forest was damper and colder than I expected and the quietness was unsettling me more than anything. If Sabre was here, he knew I was here too by my explosively loud footsteps snapping over the ground. Each step I took further into the undergrowth, the more apprehensive I became. I could feel the darkness like it was a living creature, reaching up and slithering its way across my skin. If my senses told me anything, it was that I was getting closer. Mellissa couldn’t be much further now, the danger was cloaking me like a blanket. I had no idea which way I was going. Every tree looked the same, and then suddenly, there was something in front of me apart from trees.

  I swallowed down my nerves and stared at the tiny wooden hut, dead ahead. It could have been a hunting cabin. One that hadn’t been used in about a hundred years. And even though there wasn’t a light on and no sound emanating from it… it was waiting for me.

  The wooden door on the hut swung open a fraction and the creaking of it flowed through the air, until the sound was tugging at my ears. The old hut itself didn’t scare me, apart from being so neglected and abandoned. It was what was inside that had me rooted to the spot. Just get this over with, I prompted myself, and as rain began to break through the sky high trees, I sucked up my courage and walked over to the hut. I reached the jarred door with a final breath of fresh air and pushed it fully open so it banged against the wall. I stepped inside instantly missing the rain on my skin and was hit instead with the stench of damp and mildew. It was so dark in here I could hardly make out the shape of my own feet on the rotting floor. I heard the unmistakable strike of a match behind me and I spun around to an orange glow under almost just as orange eyes, but with a much more feral, yellow hue.

  “Where’s Mellissa?” I said, flinching at the sneer that was twisting up Sabre’s face. He looked twice as monstrous under the flicker of the candle he was holding. He set it down on the mantle of a long ago burned out fire and sat down in a rocking chair by the side of it. A checked blanket covered in mildew was draped over the back.

  “Whose Mellissa?” he asked me with a perplexed smile. He was enjoying this and I knew he was only just getting started.

  “I’m not playing this game with you. I’m not the scared girl that I was before. I’m stronger now. You have no idea-”

  “Oh but I do,” he interrupted. “I do. Why do you think I am so obsessed with you? If you weren’t as powerful and unique as I know you are, I wouldn’t waste my time, sweetheart.”

  “Where’s Mellissa,” I asked, again.

  “I’ll give you a clue,” he said excitedly, like this was a fun game and we were in the middle of Disneyland and not this dank and dark hut. “It begins with N and ends in H.”

  “I’m not playing your stupid games. Just tell me or I’m leaving.”

  “You think I will let you leave? So you’re no smarter than the last time we met, I see.”

  “I killed you,” I said, my voice raising.

  “And what a good job you did.” He laughed, smugly. “Anyway, enough of that. Have you guessed yet?”

  “What?”

  “Where your ginger friend is. Have you guessed where she is? I’ll give you the clue again.”

  “I don’t want the clue again!”

  “Begins in N, ends in H. Come on, it’s easy. Any nitwit would get it.”

  “I’m not guessing.”

  “Fine.” He huffed like a child and crossed one leg over the other. “You’re no fun. We’re going to be spending a lot more time together, so I suggest you lighten up a litt
le. There’s no getting rid of me, now.”

  “I’m not coming with you,” I said.

  “I will make you.”

  “I told you, I’m stronger now.”

  “And dumber.”

  I opened my mouth to say “What?” only there was no sound. I tried again, but nothing. I clawed at my mouth and wrapped my fingers around my throat. It was happening again. He had taken my voice from me, just like the last time.

  “I know you’ve been using your gifts. I’ve been watching you. And now, you’ve drained yourself and you’re useless. You have no idea who you are dealing with here, but I intend to show you.”

  I heard the savage gasping of air, and I could hear myself again. Just like that, my voice was back. “What do you want?” I said.

  “The lance.”

  The lance?

  “What lance?”

  “You know what lance. The holy lance. You know where it is and I want it.”

  “What do you want with that? I’d have thought even you knew that it was a myth from a book that has no credibility what so ever.”

  Sabre’s gaze sharpened. “Don’t piss me off.”

  “I don’t know where it is.”

  “Yet you know what it is?”

  That took me off guard. How was I going to explain that? “Yes,” I said, trying to downplay my answer.

  “Explain that.”

  “I’m in school. I take religious studies. Things like that do crop up from time to time.” I darted a look around the hut, hoping to see Mellissa somewhere.

  “She’s not here,” Sabre said.

  “What do you mean she’s not here?” For the first time, I left the soggy spot I was standing on and searched the one room of the hut in a frenzy. “Mellissa!” I shouted over and over, but she never answered. “What have you done to her?” I slammed my palms into Sabre’s chest, sending the chair rocking backwards. He jumped up, gripping tightly onto my wrists so that I cried out in pain and spun me around so that I was sitting in the disgusting chair.

  “You listen to me,” he said, glaring into my face. “Tell me where the lance is and I might just let you live long enough to see what is so special about it. Although, I don’t think you will like it as much as I will.”

  “I don’t know where it is. And even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you. I’ll die before I ever do anything to help you.” Sabre’s fingers tightened on my wrist and I was sure I heard bones cracking.

  “Do you think Caleb is going to come and save the day? Is that why you’re being so fucking unhelpful and idiotic? Because you’re in for a nasty shock,” he said, laughing again now. “He’s been tied up with someone else for a long time, just letting me slip in and get what I need. You know when his love for you was burned to nothing but hate, I had no idea it would be this much fun to watch. It has worked out so perfectly. I couldn’t have done it better myself.”

  I shook my head at his violent words.

  “You might have the gift of the gods inside of you, but that cheerleader… phew.” Sabre licked his disgusting dry lips and moved in closer to my face. I wanted to gag. “She’s smokin’. I would have picked her too, given the choice. You’re too uptight and frigid. But her, she’s give it up more times than I care to admit I spied on them.”

  I tried to free my hands to reach and smack him right on the face, but he had my wrists in a death grip. Every time I pulled against him, his hold tightened, and more pain shot through my arm.

  “You’re lying,” I said pathetically. But the statement sounded ridiculous even to my ears. I hated Sabre and I didn’t trust him one bit, but he was probably telling the truth. Caleb had never tried to hide his new growing dislike of me. He had always been brutally honest, no matter how much it hurt me.

  “I’m trying to help you. D]

  on’t you see that?”

  “Don’t insult me.”

  “Take me to the lance. That’s all I want.”

  “Was it you who set the fire in my house and stole my dream catcher? Did you send that creepy guy to scare me? Have you been fucking with me all this time?” I demanded.

  “The creepy Hallucination, yes. He was merely a distraction while I snooped around, to see what you were hiding. The fire, well that was a gift from me, something to say hello. And the dream catcher? What a useless piece of shit those things are. There were no more answers in that than there was in your hidden boxes of feeble and sorry looking memories. Memories, you have absolutely no clue about.” Sabre stood up, clearing his throat and began to fix his black hair in the greasy mirror that was above the fire mantle. I knew he couldn’t see himself clearly in it. It was too dirty too give off any reflection, he was just trying to get under my skin. His sallow complexion was too pale against the harsh shade of his hair and his eyes were like yellow beacons of danger. If I was him I would avoid looking at myself.

  “Now… tell me where the lance is.” His growling face was shoved back in mine in seconds. His hot breath all over me.

  “I. DON’T. KNOW. WHERE. IT. IS.”

  A hard slap landed on my right cheek and my head was flung painfully to the side. I yelped in agony and tried in vain to bring my hand up to cup my wounded face. Sabre threw my hands down and dug into his pocket. My hands weren’t free for long when my wrists were being pulled and tied around the back of the chair.

  “What are you doing?” I yelled, trying to pull my hands free. “Let me go.”

  “You can sit here until you are feeling more informative. With your little hero out of the way, I have nothing standing in the way of what I want. Nothing except you, and I’ll soon see that you change your mind.” He pulled a piece of material from his pocket and I screamed when he started to cover my eyes with it and tie it up at the back of my head.

  I was blindfolded.

  “And now,” he said, “I will give you some time to think about what I am asking and for you to change your mind.”

  “I will never change my mind,” I cried, angrily. “Never.”

  “Then I will leave you a little something to help hurry along the process and I will be back later.”

  “Don’t leave me here,” I shouted. But it was too late the door was closed and I was left alone. Before I had time to try and free myself, my mind was filled with the image of me sitting in the hut, tied up and blindfolded and I thrashed around wildly in my chair when thousands of spiders seeped in through the cracks in the wooden structure of this hell hole and filled the sodden floor in seconds, scuttling up and over every surface that was there. I could feel the wiry legs crawling over my denim covered legs and up over my bare arms, scurrying into my ears and rustling through my hair. I was screaming so loud, I thought my throat must be bleeding and then, they were in my mouth.

  ***

  I don’t know when I blacked out but I did, and when I came back around, all I could see was the darkness from the blindfold. A sea of goose bumps spread all over my body when I remembered the spiders and I started to writhe and twist in the chair, again. I stopped when I heard the door creak open.

  “Sabre?” I said, but my voice was hoarse and raspy from the screaming, barely leaving a sound. Footsteps padded over the soft earth and the rotting floorboards, seeming to walk straight past me.

  “Sabre,” I said again. My heart rate was speeding up under the silent tension and I never thought I would want to hear his voice as much as I did now. Anything was better than this, not knowing what was coming next. “I know you’re here,” I said. “I hear you. I hear you breathing.” At my words, the breathing became less pronounced and I felt alone again, but I knew that was hardly the case. Someone else was in here and I found it ironic that I hoped it was Sabre and not something else.

  I laughed at the thought, and it left my throat feeling raw and a lot like sandpaper. As I sat there, hoping that whatever else was in here with me, stayed where it was and didn’t come anywhere near me, I felt the searing pain burning from my wrists that were bound behind the chair. I couldn’t move them
they were wound so tight, but I was sure they must be broken, they hurt so bad.

  With a new thought that made me sit up a little straighter in my chair, I said, “Mellissa, is that you?” No one answered and I dropped my head forward. I had lost all track of time. I didn’t know if it was morning or night, and I had no idea how long I had been sitting in this chair, but I could no longer feel my butt, that was for sure.

  “Who’s out there?” I tried again.

  Nothing. No sound, no movement. I wasn’t even sure that whatever came in here was still here. I never heard anyone leave. But I couldn’t hear anyone now, either.

  This time, heavy footsteps pounded towards the cabin and I stiffened. When the footsteps reached the cabin, another voice that wasn’t Sabre’s, said. “Touch her just once, and I’ll send you right back to Hell, where this time, you won’t come back.”

  “Caleb,” I croaked out. Caleb was here?

  “You mean like this,” I heard Sabre reply and my mind was filled with the image of spiders, overtaking the hut, scurrying their way towards me. There was so many of them, the rattling noise bounced around the cabin, drowning out my screams. The image was quickly snatched away but my rough screams were harder to dispel.

  “You’ve got some nerve coming here. Alone.” Sabre sounded cocky and full of enjoyment.

  “I brought along a little insurance.” Caleb replied, showing no emotion in his voice. I could just imagine him sitting there, so sure of himself and scared of nothing. I was so relieved he was here, I would be bridesmaid at his and Tamara’s wedding if he asked me to.

  “He’s got Melissa,” I shouted out to Caleb. “You need to find her.” She could be dead now. He needed to move fast.

  “Don’t listen to her,” Sabre said. “She’s delusional.”

  “What do you want with the lance?” Caleb asked Sabre. So he knew about that.

  “Afraid I can’t tell you. Can’t have you running my plans can I?”

  Sabre’s booted feet pounded over to me and the rag was ripped from over my eyes. I scrunched them up when murky daylight flooded in through the opened doorway, like a window into a foggy dimension. I blinked twice and turned to see Caleb sitting on a window seat to the far right of the hut. His presence alone was enough to steady my beating heart to a normal pace. He had been the one sitting there this whole time. Why didn’t he say anything? He knew how frightened I was. I was pretty sure my fear was there in my shaking voice.