Fallen Melody: Fallen: Book 1

by Layna Snow

  She didn’t know what had changed, but he was different.

  Melody’s heart leapt to her throat, her limbs getting heavy, and still she couldn’t move. Couldn’t even look away.

  “Eavesdropping, Mel? That’s not nice. Don’t you know that you never hear anything good when you listen in on other people’s conversations?” His belligerent tone ripped through her.

  “I… was just worried that it was the Seth or Caleb, that something was wrong.” But she knew that he didn’t believe her. Or he didn’t care.

  His ice blue eyes hardened even more, and his mouth opened into a smile that looked more at home on a shark.

  What was going on?

  And why was he walking towards her like that? Melody couldn’t help but walk backwards. Her body moved on its own.

  She wanted to run. She wanted to get away, but she simply shuffled a few steps backwards.

  “I’m sorry.” She whispered, backing in the direction of the door. There was a seating area between her and it, but maybe she could get around it.

  Or maybe he would notice how scared she was and make a joke, tell her that he was just kidding. Maybe they could go back to watching TV.

  But she didn’t think so.

  This wasn’t silly or funny. This wasn’t anything that she could laugh off.

  Everything inside her told her that he was dangerous. That this was serious.

  Tim didn’t stop, instead he laughed, a sharp mocking sound that made her shiver deep in her bones. “Sorry doesn’t cut it. You should have kept your pretty little nose out of my business. But now it’s too late. Isn’t it? I was hoping to do this the easy way, but you made it much more difficult on yourself.”

  Why was he doing this? What could he possibly want with her?

  She couldn’t get her brain to work well. Couldn’t remember any of her training!

  Melody felt the back of her legs hit the loveseat and she almost fell into the soft cushions but she knew that it would be bad. Letting Tim catch her would be the worst thing to do.

  Without thought, without giving herself time to freeze again, Mel darted around the furniture towards the door.

  Towards her only escape!

  It might be locked—the guys had made sure that Nate had to actually break in—but if she had time, she could get out.

  She had to get out.

  Dread traveled up her spine, lodged somewhere in her throat.

  It was hard to breathe.

  It was hard to get her mind to work properly.

  The panic squeezed something in her chest, and she knew that she needed to escape.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Tim launch himself over the back of the couch. Her heart beat even harder, pressing against her ribs as if it was trying to escape her body, to get out of the situation. But she couldn’t move fast enough.

  She tried, but she felt a thick, muscular arm wrapping around her waist, pulling her into a hard embrace. It didn’t feel like when Seth or Cay held her. There was no love in this hold. No, she felt the tension in his muscles, felt his arm tightening until it was difficult to breathe or move.

  No!

  She struggled, pressing against him, wiggling to get free.

  She was stuck, unable to move her arms to hit him. Unable to get enough leverage to get free!

  The doorbell broke through her thoughts of escape.

  “He-“ she tried to scream, but Tim’s other hand held snugly over her mouth, cutting off any sound she would have made.

  “Don’t you dare move or make a noise. I will kill you if you do anything stupid.” His voice growled, right next to her ear. She could hear the sincerity in his voice, knew that he was serious.

  Melody didn’t want to die.

  Not now. Not when she had just given her heart to two wonderful men! Not when she was just helping them, improving their lives.

  Not in the arms of this horrible monster!

  She felt something crack inside of her, something that held her together until now.

  If she died, her life on Earth would have been for nothing. If she was killed, she would never be able to see Seth’s smile again or feel Caleb’s hands on her. She would never get married, have their children.

  She would lose everything that she fought these last few weeks for.

  The pain in her chest was unbearable. Surely he’d already killed her, stuck a knife in her heart!

  It made tears come to her eyes and she was helpless to stop it.

  She was going to die, and there was nothing that she could do. Sure, the afterlife would be fine, but how would it feel to have your soul ripped from your body? Would it hurt? And what if she was carrying a child?

  “Stop blubbering. If you let anyone know that something is wrong, you will die slowly and painfully. And I will also kill whoever is outside. They are expendable.”

  But she couldn’t stop the flow of tears. She couldn’t keep in the sob that tore out of her.

  “Now, move slowly.” She couldn’t object. She was helpless to do anything but obey. He must have looked out the peephole, but Melody couldn’t tell who was there.

  He was standing so close behind that he had to move back to let her move away from the door.

  Even then she couldn’t escape. His arm around her like a vice.

  Tim squeezed her hard one last time, in warning, and took his hand off her mouth.

  “Invite her in, but don’t say anything else.”

  Something cold and metal pressed to her left temple, momentarily puzzling her. But then it clicked.

  A gun.

  He had a gun pressed to the side of Melody’s head and she couldn’t do anything about it.

  She had seen enough action movies with Caleb to know what the weapon was capable of. She knew that this close, it would be difficult for Tim to miss her.

  Melody felt cold dread sit in her stomach, like acid, as she nodded.

  Tim unlocked and opened the door, taking care to keep himself out of sight. The alarm was off, which made it easy for him to pull someone else into this Hell.

  She hoped that it was someone who could save her. Someone who was strong and trained.

  If it was Axel, then Tim would be in trouble.

  But, as the door opened wider, Melody got a good glimpse of the visitor, and couldn’t help the terrified whine that left her mouth.

  Sophie stood there, the cab she came in slowly driving away.

  At the noise, the girl looked up from where she’d been studying her shoes. Immediately, concern etched her face. She had to know something was wrong, but if Mel said something, then they were both dead. But how could she do nothing while the girl walked into a trap.

  “Hi… the guys aren’t here. Um... maybe you should-“ but she couldn’t say the rest of it, not with Tim’s fingers digging into the soft flesh of her stomach. Oh God, she couldn’t do this!

  She prayed, desperate for God to do something to save her. She might not be an Angel anymore, but she still lived for Him, because of Him. Surely He wouldn’t abandon her now!

  Sophie lifted up a pad, one that she had carried around before. One that she wrote on to communicate to other people.

  Why couldn’t she just take the hint and go away?

  Mel wanted to shout for her to save herself, but she couldn’t, not when the gun was pressed that close to her, so close that she could feel the skin on the side of her head bruising.

  What’s wrong? Sophie wrote. But Mel couldn’t tell her.

  Melody felt more tears wetting her face, but she couldn’t stop them.

  Are you sick? All Mel could do was shake her head. Please! Just leave!

  But the girl didn’t go, she just looked down at her pad to write something else.

  “Come b-“ Mel started, wanting to tell the girl to come back at another time, but Tim hissed in her ear.

  A reminder to behave? But she didn’t want to allow this man to touch the sweet innocent girl!

  She had to ask her in. Had
to follow direction. There was no other choice now. Maybe they could find a way out of this together.

  “Come i-in, pl-ease.” She gritted out, unable to keep her voice from cracking, unable to keep her teeth from chattering in fear.

  Slowly, Tim pulled her back and to the left, allowing the girl to push through the door.

  Sophie didn’t see them at first, looking around the house in awe.

  Melody wanted to cry out, to alert her. To tell her to hide!

  Tim pressed against the wood, closing the door and leaning against it, all the while keeping Mel in front of him.

  At the sharp sound, Sophie swung around, only to freeze in place. Her eyes went immediately to the gun, and Mel could see her swallow reflexively.

  I’m so sorry! So sorry.

  But Soph couldn’t see the terror, or the remorse in her eyes. She didn’t even look at Mel’s face, instead met and held Tim’s gaze. Face holding calm control. But her eyes revealed everything.

  She was scared.

  38

  “Welcome to the party, Sophie.” Tim voice rose from the depths of his chest, rumbling against Melody’s back.

  Mel couldn’t stop her body from trembling. Couldn’t stop her eyes from leaking.

  She had no control of her body. Of the situation.

  It was one thing to be in danger but it was another to put someone else’s life in peril. Sophie did nothing to deserve this, and Mel had no idea how to get them out of it.

  Sophie dropped the pad of paper, the thud on the ground sounding final in the quiet room.

  “Sit!” Tim commanded, and Soph instantly obeyed, almost falling in her haste to get to the loveseat.

  Was he the one who poisoned her water? Who tried to kill Cay? Was it really this doctor and not Nate all along?

  Melody’s stomach clenched so hard that she thought that she’d expel the contents.

  Tim seemed amused by Sophie’s terror, even chuckling low in her ear. How could a person be that mean? Was his soul so dark and black?

  Tim didn’t bother with an order this time, simply released his hold and pushed Melody towards the mute girl.

  She stumbled, catching herself on the arm of the furniture before righting herself. She didn’t want to go down, couldn’t afford to be hurt at the moment.

  But fear was eating her alive.

  Would Cay and Seth get there in time to do something? Would they even know what had happened?

  “Please, just let Sophie go. I will do whatever you say. She doesn’t need to be here,” Melody pleaded.

  She couldn’t stand the thought of someone dying for her mistake. She should have known that Tim was evil. She should have been able to recognize his bad soul. She had been an Angel of Judgement. She saw rotten souls all the time. But Tim slipped past her defences. And it was her fault that Sophie was in this mess.

  “No, I don’t think so,” Tim told them, leaning against the door, as if bored.

  He kept the gun out, in his hand and at the ready, but otherwise he seemed relaxed. “I can’t kill you. I need you. And if I shoot you, you will just heal quickly. Damn Angels. But she makes a nice hostage. The perfect one actually. I couldn’t have picked a better one myself.”

  “When did you know?” Was it after the football game? Was he the one who poisoned her? But that would have killed her if Nate hadn’t had the cure—at least that’s what Seth had told her.

  Tim laughed, the sound ugly and tainted. “I knew all along. Well, I guessed at least. I had to test you the day of the game. But really, that wasn’t necessary.”

  Was that the reason he came to town in the first place? He didn’t want to catch up with Seth at all? It seemed like a betrayal to their friendship. Surely they had a close bond, one that wouldn’t permit these lies.

  “How could you do this?” How could he have hurt Seth so badly? Seth would surely never recover from this. Caleb hadn’t known Nate too long, and still his perceived betrayal had changed him. What would happen to Seth, her Commander?

  “Very easily, actually,” he laughed again.

  “This is very bad, you know. This will hurt your soul, it will cause you to be barred from Heaven. Surely you have no wish to go to Hell. I have been to a Hellgate, seen what dwells there. If you stop now, you might redeem yourself.” She tried, her voice ringing with truth.

  The monsters that had crawled out of the portal were horrific, evil and mad. They did not think, simply attacked. No one would want to dwell there for eternity.

  But her warning didn’t seem to faze Tim. “I have that taken care of. We have a deal with the Devil. He is notorious for his deals, and never breaks his oath.” But he did twist his words until one didn’t know what they agreed to. The Devil never helped anyone except himself. He would not be someone to trust.

  “I don’t see how that will-“ she started, but stopped abruptly by a blur of motion beside her.

  A blur that could only be Sophie. “No!” but it was too late.

  Sophie’s lunge stopped mid-air, an incredibly loud popping noise filling the room. It seemed to happen in slow motion.

  Sophie was falling to the ground, a red stain spreading along the back of her light blue t-shirt, an uncapped pen falling from her now lax fingers.

  No, no, no, NO!

  This couldn’t be happening!

  Melody couldn’t have seen someone shoot her friend, right in front of her!

  She couldn’t be watching the light dim in her dark caramel eyes!

  All my fault!

  “Stupid bitch! She almost got me with a fucking blue pen!” Tim growled. But she didn’t care about him anymore.

  She was too focused on getting to Sophie. Too focused on looking for any sign of life.

  Mel dropped to her knees beside her friend. She needed to see if she was breathing!

  How did the boys tell if someone was alive?

  Wasn’t there a pulse somewhere?

  But her thoughts were too jumbled to come up with anything significant, anything concrete.

  All she could do is sob over her friend’s body as Tim stood watching in amusement.

  There was a slam, followed by a curse from Tim. And then she was being hauled off the floor, pulling against Tim’s chest again in the same position she had been in before.

  He might not want to kill her, but he didn’t mind killing other people.

  Sophie struggled this time. Harder than ever.

  It wasn’t just her life. Sophie’s hung in the balance.

  She elbowed Tim in the side, but he didn’t make a noise. Didn’t let her go.

  “Oh, look. Our ride is here.” Tim sneered, his face just barely visible as he peered out the peephole again.

  Who was here now? Was it the guys?

  She couldn’t let him hurt them too!

  She couldn’t let him kill them!

  This time Tim didn’t bother with the subterfuge, and simply opened the door.

  The darkness obscured everything in front of her. Hid it in cold shadows as the wind whipped against her wet face.

  She noticed the truck first, Nate’s.

  And then she noticed the two people walking towards them along the path. Emily and Nate saw them at the same time and stopped.

  But they couldn’t do anything.

  She couldn’t do anything. And Mel’s yell of warning never reached them in time.

  The bang was so loud in Melody’s ear that she flinched.

  Sure it hit her.

  Sure that he shot her.

  But besides the jerking of his body, she felt nothing.

  She couldn’t help but watch Nate fall to the ground. Couldn’t do anything but hear Emily’s agonized scream, as she looked down at the body of her boyfriend.

  Shocked to her core, Mel took too long to recover. Took too long gaping at the horror in front of her.

  Two dead. Two killed because of her. Because of Tim.

  “Oh, God. Oh God. Nate, baby hold on! I’ll get help. Oh God! I’m so sorry. I nev
er meant for all this to happen. Oh, shit. I’m so sorry. I love you. Please hold on!” Emily sobbed, her hands running along Nate’s body as if searching for some sign of life, or maybe the wound.

  Tim pulled Melody along the path towards the truck. She dragged her heels, but Tim was too strong. Too determined.

  “Em?” Mel sobbed, trying to warn her friend away. Trying to get her attention so that she could do something.

  Emily can’t die too!

  Emily stopped suddenly, she looked up, and stood.

  She looked no less fierce for the tears in her eyes. She braced her feet apart and held her ground.

  Run! Melody yelled in her mind, throat too closed to push words past her lips. Body too frozen to do much of anything but sob.

  “You fucking bastard! How could you do this? How could you shoot the one man I loved? I though… I thought… You know! It doesn’t matter what I thought. Obviously you are a horrible person with no loyalty! Come on, try to take me! Don’t take the easy way out and use a gun!” Emily’s voice was raw, tormented, her emotions tortured. Mel could see the desperation in her eyes. The anger. The depression.

  “I don’t have time, lovely Emily.” Tim raised the gun again.

  “NO!” A surge of anger and fear pushed through the blanket of ice holding her still. Pushed through the fog in her mind.

  Mel pushed back against him, and stomped as hard as she could on his foot.

  Anything to get him to stop!

  Anything to save Emily!

  The shot went wild, missing its target completely. And Emily rushed forward to help.

  Melody twisted, doing everything she could to get away, to fight back, but Tim was too strong. He held her easily in his grasp while blocking Emily’s attack.

  Em found an opening, and dragged her nails down the side of Tim’s face.

  He screamed, in rage or pain, Mel wasn’t sure, but he loosened his hold on her enough so that she could break out.

  Mel turned to her side, throwing all her weight against Tim’s arm around her waist, breaking his hold.

  Too much weight.

  She crashed through his arms to the ground.

  The concrete path tore through the skin at her knees, and ripped into her hands as she caught herself. A small cry of pain escaped her mouth, but she didn’t stop to dwell on it.