Falling Darkness: The second book in the Falling Awake Series

by T. A Richards Neville

  ***

  When I stood at the top of Mt. Young with Ressler, looking out over the Olympic Peninsula, even though I appreciated the beautiful picture in front of me of the lush, green Islands clustered on top of the still, blue ocean, I crumpled in a heap onto the floor. I was too exhausted to even catch a breath. “Did you bring me here deliberately so I’d be too exhausted to do anything?” I asked in a ragged breath. It hurt just to breathe never mind do anything else.

  We had hiked over a mile of terrain to the top of the six hundred and fifty foot hill, and I had never considered myself unfit, but I was now seriously re-evaluating that.

  “I brought you here because it’s out of the way. It’s almost winter and there’s not as many tourists. We don’t want too many witnesses to this”

  He was right about that. The place was practically desolate. There were a few hikers, but they paid us little attention.

  As the hot sweat from the long trek settled into my bones and fought strenuously with the cold that still tried to grip me from the frosty air, I relented and unzipped my coat, tossing it onto the ground. There was a film of sweat under my hat and I pulled it off, brushing my fingers back through my hair. Next, my gloves came off, but I wasn’t ready yet to part with my scarf. That stayed, for now.

  “You know why you’re so warm,” Ressler said to me. He stood in just his t-shirt from last night, and jeans.

  “Uh, because I just hiked a mountain?” It was hardly a mountain, but still, it was pretty serious stuff.

  “No. It’s because you’re not normal. Soon, maybe the weather won’t affect you at all.”

  I swallowed down choked astonishment. “Excuse me?” I said, finding my voice. I coughed to clear my throat. “I’m not normal?”

  “Do you think you’re normal?” He looked like he found this whole thing funny, but he wasn’t yet ready to break out the big smile. I knew it was lurking underneath. I could clearly see it. Of course I knew I was different but I didn’t appreciate him putting it like that. He made me feel like some kind of freak.

  “Can we just get on with it?” I said coldly. I didn’t feel like talking about my abnormalities, or whether or not one day I mightn’t be able to tell the difference between hot and cold. I wasn’t like Ressler. He was fallen angel, immortal, and I was un-defined right now.

  “What do you want to practice, exactly?”

  “I don’t know. What exactly can I do?” No one seemed to have any idea what it was I was capable of doing, and not doing. It was like trying to solve a mystery, piece by piece. Slowly and cautiously we uncovered something out about me. But no one wanted to push too hard in case the whole thing shattered. Well I was sick of treading carefully. I wanted to know what it was I was capable of and there was no time like the present.

  “How am I supposed to know?” said Ressler. I stood up and the passing ice breeze wrapped itself around me, lifting the ends of my hair with it.

  “Don’t play dumb, Ressler. I know you know more than what you would like me to think. You were after all, the one who told me.”

  The look of confusion passed over his face and tiny little lines appeared between his eyebrows. “What?”

  “What’s divine, Ressler? The word keeps coming back to me and I don’t know why, but I do know that you were the one that said it, so don’t even bother denying it.”

  Ressler’s eyes widened. It was only for as second but it was all the confirmation I needed.

  “That night in Paris, on the balcony in Notre Dame, you said it. I heard you say it. I don’t remember much from that night, but I remember that.”

  “You were disorientated. I never said that.”

  “You did. And that day at Cape Flattery, the witch doctor said it. He said it about me.”

  “It doesn’t mean anything.” He said it with too much forced casualness and his eyes were pinched at the corners with unease. He was treading his ground carefully, scared to say a wrong word. I wasn’t going to let this go. I had done that for too long and the truth would come out now. I would make sure of it.

  “It means something and you know what. So tell me.”

  Ressler took a step away from me and started off in the opposite direction. He stopped, leaning his shoulder against a bare tree. “I shouldn’t have agreed to this. It was a bad idea. I can’t give you the answers you need.”

  “And why can’t you?” I went over and planted myself right in front of him. I wouldn’t budge until I got my answers.

  “It’s dangerous.”

  “It’s always dangerous. It’s this, it’s that. Tell me something, now, or I’m out, Ressler. I don’t care about your excuses. You all know something and I know nothing. And considering it’s about me, it’s about time you let me in on your badly kept little secret.”

  Ressler looked away from me, like he was genuinely interested in the view from the mountain. If he thought avoiding eye contact would help him, he was wrong.

  I shoved him in the chest and when he still refused to look at me, I shoved him again, harder, over and over, until he had no choice but to grab me by my arms and hold me a safe distance away from him. I blew my hair from my eyes, frustrated and squirmed under his grip.

  He was angry, I could see it. It was all over his face and growing in his narrowed eyes. “You want to know?” he shouted into my face. “Fine, I’ll tell you. But when I do, I swear to God you’ll wish that I never.” Okay, he was really angry. Well that made two of us.

  “Ressler, put her down.” The warning carried over with the wind from behind us and it was from a voice I would have least expected to find up here and I instantly stiffened. The sound of it worked its way through my body letting off an explosion of tiny sparks in absolutely every single part of me.

  Ressler’s fingers loosened on my arms and he blinked at me like he had just realized it was me in front of him. He let me go and barged past me, knocking into me with his shoulder. I stood frozen to the spot. I couldn’t turn around. I might do something stupid if I did.

  “She knows,” I heard Ressler say behind me, and then I never heard his voice again. He was gone. He had left me up here.

  A hand dropped onto my shoulder and tugged me back until I turned around and was standing face to face with Caleb. The permanent smirk that was normally fixed onto his face was missing and he looked at me with something that looked a lot like, understanding? It was hard to pin down exactly what he was thinking.

  I didn’t know what to say to him. The mere sight of him when I was already so worked up sent my emotions sky rocketing. I clenched my fists, my nails biting into my flesh when I felt the strange power trying to burst out of me. It felt like it would break right through my skin.

  “What’s happening?” Caleb asked me. The sky above us grew a shade darker and the wind speeds picked up, hitting me with such force that I swayed to the side. Caleb put his hands out and gripped me by my waist, pulling me closer to him.

  “I don’t know.” This always happened to me. Every time the alien sensation came over me, I done nothing but create a storm around me.

  “You need to channel it into something.”

  “I don’t know how,” I shouted over the howling of the wind. It was probably worse up here at the summit.

  “Close your eyes.” Caleb’s voice was calm over the turmoil that I was creating. I couldn’t do anything but what Caleb asked of me and I closed my eyes.

  I trusted him.

  “Think of something. Whatever it is that’s brought you here with Ressler, think of it. Focus on it and nothing else. Just listen to my voice and forget what’s going on around us. Focus, Pria.”

  I done exactly what he said and I let the image of Cape Flattery flood into my mind. That was where I needed to be.

  The wind wasn’t howling anymore and the greyness that surrounded me was from the shadiness of the giant, green spruce trees that stood, towering over at either side of me. If this was Cape Flattery, It was in a part I had never been before. I looked down a
t the boardwalk underneath me. The boardwalk was narrow and the rest of the ground was covered in some form of moist, green plant or grass. There were broken tree trunks scattered every few feet covered in moss, or fungi. I couldn’t tell which. The only real light filtered in through the tall trees, casting down onto the ground like rays of gold and silver.

  I was picturing somewhere I had never been before. This was weird.

  That was when my gaze landed on Caleb. He was sitting up ahead of me on the next elevated step of the boardwalk. He looked relaxed with one arm draped over his knee. “Cape Flattery, huh?”

  “How are you doing this?” I asked him.

  “It’s not me. It’s you. I asked you to focus and you did. So here we are.”

  “Here we are, as in here we are in Cape Flattery?”

  “This is real,” Caleb said. “You want answers and I’m going to give them to you. You want to know why someone wants you dead? You want to know why you can do the things that you can do? You want to give it a name?”

  I could feel myself nodding.

  “It’s divine magic. Someone out there has convinced a whole group of followers that you have the power of divine magic, and that someone will do anything to take it from you.”

  “What?” The question was ridiculous, but it was the best I could come up with.

  “What’s divine magic?” Caleb said. “The power of God. A power so great, you have the ability to do anything. If you’re looking for examples, I can give you a few. The ability to manipulate the weather, the land, animals, even people. Transform your surroundings into something else entirely. Like your somewhere one minute and with the blink of an eye you can find yourself at the other end of the world.”

  “I have divine magic?” The words came out of my mouth like I was just learning how to speak. I couldn’t believe that I was finally getting answers after all this time. Answers I was not expecting.

  “No.” It was hard not to notice the smugness that was back as clear as day in Caleb’s voice.

  “No?”

  “It doesn’t exist.”

  “Then…”

  “How is that an answer?” He finished my sentence for me. “It’s not. Not really. But it’s the best I have right now. Someone thinks that’s what you have but I’m here to tell you that that’s impossible.

  “How do you know that?”

  “Divine magic doesn’t exist. It’s a myth, but some people refuse to accept that. The things you can do are just strikingly similar.”

  “You told me there’s no such thing as impossible.” My voice was nothing more than a whisper but he still managed to hear me.

  “And have I ever lied to you?”

  What? His eyes narrowed and he shook his head, just slightly but enough that I could see from the look in his eye that he was trying to tell me something. I wasn’t to say anything else about it. Did he think someone else was here with us, listening?

  He stood up and walked over to me. “Let’s walk a while. Get out of the shade.”

  I fell in step behind him and we followed the boardwalk through the forest. I stretched out my arm and brushed my fingers across the trunk of a spruce tree. The rough bark was solid under my skin. I was really here. This felt different from any dream I had ever had. This was real. I had somehow gone from standing on top of Mt. Young to walking a trail through a forest that is at least six hours from where I last was.

  The trail broke out into a clearing and I stood on a wooden ledge that had been built onto the edge of the rock. The ledge was partly sheltered by overhanging dripping, trees and shrubbery. They didn’t call this the rainforest for nothing. Everything had a lick of moisture to it.

  I held onto the railing and looked out at Cape Flattery. I could see everything from up here. Where the ocean narrowed into the beauty of the secluded cove and the neighboring cliffs that hugged the whole turquoise sea, making it feel totally private. The railing was slick under my hands and a fine mist hung in the air, slowly turning into a light drizzle.

  “So, we are really here. I’m not dreaming?”

  Caleb came up next to me, leaning over the railing, resting on his elbows. “You tried to bring us here, but your body couldn’t handle it. So yes, we’re really here but only subconsciously. We’re kind of caught up in limbo. We’re here, we can feel things, see things, do things, but physically- we are in Friday Harbor. No one can see us here.

  “How do we get back?”

  “You will have to do that. We’ll practice. That’s why you dragged Ressler with you today, right? To try and find out exactly what it is you can do? Although, I think you’re getting pretty good already.”

  “Nothing gets by you. I have no idea how you do that.”

  “Do what?” Caleb shifted his weight onto one elbow and turned to look at me.

  “Know everything when you’re not even there. It’s creepy you know.”

  “I don’t know everything. Trust me, I wish I did… and who say’s I’m not there?”

  “All the times you’ve been with Tamara, maybe?” I looked away from him at the receding shore as the tide sucked it back and a lazy wave sloshed up over the bottom of the cliffs. I shook my head to tell him it didn’t matter. “By the way, I know you’ve been creeping into my dreams. Ressler let it slip that it’s one of the things you angels are capable of. You forgot to mention that part to me.”

  “It’s not like Ressler to speak before he thinks.”

  I looked at Caleb. He was wearing the arrogant smirk of sarcasm. “Hey, don’t talk about him like that. He didn’t know he was dropping your secret of invading my privacy.”

  “That’s why he’s no good at keeping you safe. Because he does whatever it is you want. You have to be cruel to be kind. You say jump and he dives, head first.”

  “Don’t change the subject,” I snapped back at him. “What do you think you’re playing at? What makes you think you can slip into my mind like that and not mention it?”

  “About that…” he started.

  “Yes, about that.”

  “I had to do it.”

  “And why’s that?”

  “I’ve changed.”

  “I’m glad you’ve finally decided to acknowledge it.”

  “No, really. I’ve changed. I feel like someone else most of the time.” His tone had turned serious all of a sudden and worry inched up on me. “I’m pushing everyone away. People I should care about, they hardly mean anything to me anymore.”

  Well at least he was being honest, even if I didn’t like the way it sounded. “People like me?” I asked.

  He just nodded.

  “And you now prefer people like Tamara?” My face creased just at the thought of it.

  “Tamara is simple. No strings… fun.”

  “Okay, please stop. I don’t want to hear this.”

  “You need to hear this.”

  “No, really. I don’t.” I wanted to pull my ears off.

  “You do. So shut up and listen.”

  I cupped my hands over my mouth and inhaled a deep breath. “Fine.”

  “I won’t lie. It feels like there’s no life in my heart, no understanding. Half the time it feels empty, that’s the only way I can describe it. I know I still need to help you, but I’ve lost most of my feelings for you. Remember when I said to you that I could fall in love with you?"

  “I remember.” What the fuck was coming next…

  “That’s gone.”

  I had thought just as much but hearing it out loud… his words were crippling me. I wasn’t sure how much more I could listen to. He was being deliberately hurtful.

  “I don’t know if it will ever go away. If thing’s will ever go back to the way they were.” He paused. “I haven’t told anyone else about this.”

  “It doesn’t matter, Caleb,” I interrupted. “We were never going to be together, anyway.”

  “Just listen, will you?”

  I rolled my eyes and kept quiet.

  “There's always a
tiny part of me that want's you, but it's not enough, and the rest of me eventually blocks it out." He pushed his hand through his damp hair. This was the most sincere Caleb had been with me for a long time. I was half expecting him to say he was joking and he really just despised me.

  "Anyway, one night I was just sitting there, thinking about you. Really trying to think about you, remembering every small, tiny detail about you, and I somehow found you straight away. There was no effort on my part. You were just there. You’re always looking for me you know?” He raised his eyebrows and when a lethal grin pulled at the corner of his mouth, I reached out and slapped him on the arm.

  “I am not.” I did not want him thinking that about me after he had just confessed his distaste of me.

  The rain was beginning to soak my clothes and I pushed back the strands of hair that were stuck to the side of my face. "So you have to be asleep to get into my dreams?"

  "No we don’t. You’re the only one sleeping. The smallest part of me that remembers us and how I used to feel about you surfaces on its own and I have no control over it. When that happens to me, and that tiny drop of you takes over, I have to find you.”

  It sounded farfetched. It was probably an excuse, a sloppy attempt instead of having to give a plain old apology and admitting he was just a full on ass.

  "The pull to you is getting more regular, sometimes stronger. But then when it’s gone, I’m completely closed off. I always had the means to get into your dreams if I wanted to but now it’s when I’m seeking you out. I still…” He let out a strained noise that sounded like bitter laughter and choked disgust. “Never mind.”

  "So those dreams, that was you? I wasn’t just imagining it?"

  "It was me."

  "But in the real world, you want to spend your time with Tamara?"