All We Know Is Falling: Fall With Me: Volume One

by Nicole Thorn

  Once lunch started I expected to see Dottie round the corner like she always did but again, there was no sign of her.

  “Why has Dottie been so scarce this week?” I asked even though Hale wouldn’t know.

  He shrugged. “Ethan mentioned that she hadn’t been getting back to his calls. So he stopped calling. Too bad, he liked her.”

  “Yeah…I bet he did.”

  Hale’s eyebrow went up. “He wasn’t sleeping with her, if that’s what you’re getting at.”

  “I wasn’t,” I said defensively. “Of course she wouldn’t sleep with him when she wants you so damn bad.”

  He laughed. “I do like seeing you jealous but I can promise you that she doesn’t want me. She was just a friend to me.”

  “Yeah right. Then why is she so touchy feely with you?”

  “I don’t know. She only did it when you were around.”

  Something clicked in my head and I knew that I’d been right all along. She hated me. She should, I got her mom killed. Mine survived and hers was gone forever.

  “That girl has it out for me,” I decided. “She just wants me to suffer.”

  “You have so little faith in humanity.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “What’s there to have faith in? I can literally feel the evil in people. I know first hand how much bad there is in the world.”

  He smiled softly. “It’s not all bad. You can’t hate the world because of a few bad things. If you let yourself, then you become who I used to be. You don’t want that.”

  “Sorry but I’ve seen the inner workings of man. It’s ugly and vile and terrifying.”

  He squeezed my hand and said, quietly, “Not all of it.” He kissed my cheek and let his lips linger on my skin.

  “I know,” I smiled before I went into kiss him. I was half an inch from him when I spotted Dottie fast walking around the corner. I backed away and Hale acted like I robbed him of something.

  “Bored already?” he asked.

  “Shh! Look,” I turned his head towards Dottie. “She’s up to something.”

  “Lamb,” he said, sounding worn out. “I know she makes you uncomfortable but the girl doesn’t have a cruel bone in her body. She’s probably working on a project or something.”

  “No fucking way. I know that look and it’s shady. I’m gonna follow her,” I stood up.

  Hale stood too. “If your paranoia weren’t so endearing I’d say you were a tad bit loony.”

  “Maybe I am. But I’m going after her.”

  He caught me by the arm. “How the Hell do you plan on not getting caught?”

  I smiled. “Wanna come with me?” He shot me a confused look and I said, “I can manipulate the minds of humans and some demons, remember? I can make us invisible.”

  His eyebrow went up and he looked half worried for humanity and half turned on. “You’re just a little troublemaker aren’t you?”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?” I pressed out on my energy and wrapped it around him as well as me. Quieter, I said, “We’re invisible to everyone. Stay quiet and stay close to me.”

  “Aye, aye, my darling,” he saluted me and we followed after Dottie. We walked down the hall and just barely caught Dottie rounding the corner to the computer room. I sped up to catch her before the door closed. We slipped in and the door shut behind us.

  The room was empty of people excluding us. The six rows of computers were all illuminated with a dull blue glow from the screens. Dottie sat in the corner and started digging through her backpack. She pulled out a little grey notebook and flipped it open. She tapped her pen on the table and stared at the paper.

  She rested her elbow on the table and her chin went to her hand. She cursed and covered her face with her hands. “How the Hell am I going to do this?” she moaned. Hale and I exchanged a look before I moved closer to Dottie, trying to get a peek over her shoulder.

  The paper was messy with notes. There were a lot of numbers in a line going down in two columns. There was a single letter on the left hand side next to each row of numbers. Before I could figure out what it was, she turned the page.

  “Come on,” she said to herself as some kind of motivation. She groaned again and threw her head back. “How the Hell do I get her out of the house?” she muttered almost unintelligibly.

  I looked at the new page and a lump formed in my throat when I saw numbers that I actually understood. It was my address.

  When she covered her face again, something in me snapped. I grabbed the notebook and Hale and brought us to Hell. We were there a total of two seconds before we were in the parking lot by his truck.

  He doubled over and put his hands on his knees. “Jesus Christ, love. Give a man a bit of warning next time,” he said in a husky, almost scared voice. “What the fuck was that?”

  My breathing was so quick that I wasn’t even sure that air was getting into my lungs. I couldn’t speak, so I handed Hale the notebook. It was open to the page with my address on it.

  His eyes trailed the page and he understood what was making me want to pass out. “What does this mean?” he asked.

  “No clue. But I bet the book has more. Right about now, Dottie is wondering why her notebook up and vanished. We need to get to my house so I can decipher it.”

  He looked freaked out and almost angry. “Okay, lets go.”

  We got to my house and didn’t bother talking to Hadley or Mom about this. Until I knew what this meant there was no reason to worry them. We sat on my bed for hours trying to figure out what that first page meant.

  “It’s like a code,” I sighed. “But I think it’s about me.”

  “Well,” he took the notebook from me, “I’m inclined to agree with you.” He started staring down at the page as his eyes started drooping. I went to grab him a soda and when I got back his eyes were wide open. “Do you have a paper copy of your school schedule?” he asked

  I handed him his soda and dug through my backpack and handed him what he asked for. He held the paper next to the notebook and studied both of them. “She has your schedule, Rory. Look,” he pointed to the scrawl on the paper. “The letters are the classes and the times you’re in them. Why would she have this?”

  I swallowed. “One thing comes to mind.”

  He caught on. “The girl has issues but I don’t think she’s a killer.”

  “She’s insane. She’s being medicated. Maybe it’s anti-psychotics and she decided she didn’t need them anymore. Something might be wrong in her brain. Not might,” I decided. “There is definitely something wrong in her brain.”

  “She’s never been anything but normal when I’ve spoken to her.”

  I threw my hands in the air. “Are you kidding me!? Do you not see that this is crazy?”

  “That wasn’t what I was saying. I was just pointing out that if she was after you in some way, she was very careful to not let on about it. She’s clever. If she’s clever I’m not sure how insane she can be.”

  I sat back down next to him and started flipping through the book again. I found a page that had what I could only guess were notes on my personality. It said things like ‘does not play well with others’ and ‘prone to violence’. That bitch. She seemed to have gotten a hold of my file because she mentioned my previous suspensions from school for the last fight I got in. I didn’t even hit the kid. I just said if he tried to cop a feel one more time I’d crack his skull wide open.

  Most of the notebook was pure gobbledy gook but a single word caught my eye. Fallen.

  The rest of the page was random things about my personality that she’d observed, but that word kept coming up. It mentioned my wings and an approximate size.

  “She saw me,” I said. “She saw my wings,” I put the note book down so Hale could read it. “She was there the night we almost got shot.”

  He looked confused by something. “She said Fallen. Specifically Fallen.”

  “So?”

  “So, when I saw your wings I though you were an angel. I
never thought that you were Fallen. It didn’t even occur to me. Why would she think you’re not just an angel?”

  “Oh, I forgot you didn’t know. Dottie’s a demon. Topside but still, they know about the Fallen. Topsides are decedents from Fallen and humans and there are a lot of them. The topsides all know about the Fallen but they don’t know about other kinds of demons most of the time.”

  He blinked. “There are more?”

  My forehead wrinkled. “Yeah…my father can make humans into demons and there are at least two kinds. Made and Hellions. Walters new guardians are Hellions.”

  “And what do they do?”

  I squirmed around and said, “Well…he said that they were assassins for Lucifer. When he needs someone killed he sends them.”

  He took a deep breath. “Okay then.”

  I looked away from him quickly and stared at the wall.

  He was freaked out. Justified, of course. But this was where I came from and it was shaking him up. He wasn’t scared of me, I knew that. I just needed to keep remembering it.

  “If Dottie was the one with the gun,” he started, “then at least we know what we’re up against. The only issue that remains is how to deal with it.”

  I had an idea. But there was no way I’d ever get him on board with it. I’d need to settle for getting her locked up as opposed to killing her. I had no proof that she was doing any of this. I had the notebook but her name was nowhere on it. Hale and I were the only witnesses to the attempted shooting and the knowledge left me feeling sick and helpless. I can’t keep the people I love safe if I can’t stop the threat.

  I scooted closer to him and laid my cheek on his shoulder. “I need to be able to protect you.”

  He rubbed my knee. “You don’t need to worry about me. Nothing in this world can take me from you.”

  My eyes went up and I stared into his. I saw innocence under the layers of pain that were always in the grey depths of them. The loudest voice in my head was screaming at me to do whatever it would take to keep him safe. There was nothing I wouldn’t do.

  I was doomed to lose him, but that day would be long from now. Dottie wouldn’t get the chance to rob me of the lifetime Hale promised me.

  “Am I staying over tonight?” he asked me a little while later.

  “Mason and Mollie are gonna start to notice you’re not sleeping at home anymore.”

  He half smiled. “I think they know. But they don’t mind. They know I’m with you,” he brushed the hair out of my face.

  I laughed. “Do they think I’m a good influence on their hooligan little brother?”

  “Yes,” he said without the humor I had. “They know what you’ve done with me. You’ve made me settle.”

  He laid on his back and pulled me to him so my head was resting in the crook of his shoulder. His hand moved back and forth on my hip when I laid on my side.

  “Settled down at eighteen? Bet you never saw that coming.”

  “God no. I thought I’d be a mess for my whole life. But I can see what my future is now. It’s calm and filled with love. I can be happy if I’m with you.”

  And I can only be happy if I was with him. “I love you too,” I smiled up at him. He didn’t need the words for me to know how he felt. He’d said it more with his actions than he could ever say with words.

  I’d never actually heard him say the words to anyone. Not even his family. I thought that he may have a problem saying it out loud. Maybe he was scared of not hearing it back.

  “You know we’re going to be fine, right?” he said as we were going to bed.

  “Yeah,” I lied. “Everything’s going to be fine.” I didn’t say what I really thought. That this would end in blood. That I wasn’t entirely sure it wouldn’t be mine. The world is an ugly place and it didn’t matter how much good that Hale saw in it. Darkness swallows light.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven: Under Pressure

  “Well I’m going to murder her,” my mother said when Hale and I showed her the notebook.

  I held my hands up to slow her down. “Hold on. There’s still a chance the crazy bitch isn’t the one.” Doubtful but I still couldn’t just go and snap her neck. There was a fraction of a chance she was just crazy. Her dad might be a little upset if I killed his daughter on a hunch.

  Helluva hunch though.

  “She saw your wings,” Mom pointed out. “When’s the last time you had your wings out in public? Never? Okay then.”

  She was right. I tried not to let them come out. When I was younger I had less control and when I got scared they’d pop out and wrap around me. I’d only ever flown a few times.

  “Trust me when I say I’m aware that the person doing this needs a punishment. They went after Hale, Brom Bones, and they stalked you guys and Jenna. I want some kind of justice for the attempts on your lives,” I looked to everyone.

  Hadley looked more pissed than anyone. She was a mama bear when it came to me and I could see the claws wanting to come out. “I’ll cut a bitch,” she snapped. “Point me and I’ll fucking go.”

  I patted her back. “It’s fine, Had. I’m gonna talk to Dottie and find out what the Hell is going on. If it comes to it, I’ll drag her to Hell and beat the answers out of her.” Being in Hell wouldn’t kill a topside. They get a little squirmy—like we do on consecrated ground—but nothing that would harm them. Maybe mentally at the idea of being in Hell. But I didn’t care much.

  Hale tapped on my arm to get my attention. “You’re just going to talk to her? Confront the potential attempted murderer?”

  “What do you suggest?”

  He frowned. “I don’t like this plan.”

  “Relax, love,” Mom said. “Aurora can defend herself against one demon girl. Worst comes to worst she can teleport or go invisible. You needn’t worry.”

  He eyed her doubtfully. “I think we need to get to school now.”

  “Yeah,” I sighed and scratched my head. We turned to walk out of the kitchen.

  “By the way, kids,” Mom called after us and we turned. “I know you’ve been having sleepovers.”

  Hale and I both panicked a little and I said, “If it makes you feel any better, we’re not having sex.”

  She cocked her head and her forehead crinkled. “Then what’s the point of—” her face turned serious. “NO IT DOESN’T HELP! Well…not much. Just be safe please.”

  “But we’re not—”

  She held a hand up to keep me from talking. “When you do. I’m too young to be a grandmother.”

  I laughed. “You’re over two hundred.”

  Hale’s face went blank. “Two…hundred…”

  “I’m not getting pregnant. Like, ever,” I said. “So calm down.”

  Hale looked at me with a hint of surprise but I didn’t say anything about it. I just took his hand and led him out of the house.

  When we showed up at school Hale was reluctant to leave me alone but I convinced him I’d be fine. I said I wouldn’t do anything without him. It was the only way to get him to relax. I could feel his worry when he kissed me goodbye.

  We met up again before lunch and scanned the room for her. Again, she had something better to do than have lunch with the people she tried to kill.

  “What now?” he asked.

  I tiled my head up at the ceiling. “I have to do it.”

  “Do what?”

  My head went to the left so I could see him. “I have to track her. Which means I need to turn my powers on.”

  He tensed. “But it hurts you.”

  “A gunshot wound would hurt more. So I don’t really have any options here.”

  “Can you be careful?”

  “If she’s here, I can find her quick. And since I know her, I have her imprint.”

  “What does that mean?”

  I tried to find a way to explain it. “Every person is different. Every soul is like a fingerprint. And I know what hers looks like. So I can pick it out of a line up.”

  “Sounds useful.”
/>   “It can be. I bet I could find you in a heartbeat.”

  He smiled at me in that way that made me a little weak in the knees. I wonder if he knew what he did to me when looked at me. Like I was all that he could see.

  I shut my eyes and flipped the switch. I felt the darkness swirling around in my head before I even opened my eyes to see it. Once I did, the colors started overwhelming me.

  “What do you see?” Hale asked.

  I looked at him and smiled at his colors. Yellow, light blue, pink. “I see a lot in you. You’re very colorful.”

  “Colors? What do they mean?”

  “They’re all different. There are ‘official’ definitions decided by people who I’m sure don’t know what the Hell they’re talking about. But it’s more than colors. Feelings come with them. I can see your emotions like living things. I see blue and it means you’re kind and warm. You’re loyal. I see yellow. So you’re full of energy and you’re happy with something.”

  “I wonder what,” he put his hand around my shoulder and pulled me closer to him. “Is that all you saw?”

  “No. I also saw pink. Pink means you’re feeling love. And it’s a really deep pink.” I was sure I was blushing.

  He leaned down and his lips went to my ear and my insides started feeling like they were on fire. “What else can you feel?”

  I looked over at him and his whole aura changed to a deep, dark red. I was in trouble…

  “Um…you changed colors…” I said, feeling my own colors change. “You’re red.”

  “What’s red?” he asked in a voice that let me know that he knew full well.

  “Kinda obvious,” I said while I tried to hold it together. “But we’re in a room full of people and if you keep talking, this might end with some PDA that I’m not sure I’m okay with.”

  He made that sound I loved and I got dizzy for a few seconds. “I’ll take care of you later, Lamb. But I think we have work to do.”

  Take care of…that can mean so many things. I think he saw the question in my head because the corner of his mouth turned up. I suppressed a shiver.

  “We should go now,” I said in a shaky voice. I started walking as I followed Dottie’s light through the school.