Falling Darkness: The second book in the Falling Awake Series (12 page)

“Not like Sully. He seems too human. At first, I wasn’t sure about him, but he seems like a good guy.”

“He is a good guy. Just don’t get on his bad side.”

“Why is he here then? Like why did he fall?”

“Same reason the rest of us did. He was sick of watching everyone down here living. He wanted a piece of the action.”

“Heavens that bad? I kinda want to go there when I die,” I quipped.

Ressler nodded thoughtfully. “When you die,” he said to himself.

I tipped to the side as the boat took a rough wave and Ressler grabbed my hood, pulling me upright.

“Steady there.”

“Damn sea,” I mumbled.

“Pria?”

“Yeah,” I said, straightening out my coat.

“What do you think you’re going to get out of finding out whether or not Gabriel’s your real father?”

“Ressler.” I laid my hand on his arm so he would look at me. “I’ve lost so much of myself, I don’t know who I am anymore. If I don’t find out the truth about this, I might as well have lost everything. I’m not complaining. God, I love my dad. I love him so much. But everything I thought I knew about him… it’s not true. And now there’s a chance he might not even be my dad, and if I don’t do something about it, I’ll spend my whole life wondering. Is it really such a bad thing that I’m doing this? Do you really think I’m so wrong?”

“I don’t want you to regret anything.”

“I’m a big girl.”

Ressler wrapped his arm around me and squeezed me close to his body. He was warm, solid reassurance, and I relaxed into him.

I woke up in a cabin bed, feeling grotty and disorientated. I freed myself of the blue sheets and saw my boots standing by the side of the bed and my coat laid over a chair by a small pine desk. The room was small. So small I was beginning to feel claustrophobic. The swaying of the boat, made it feel even more suffocating. I had to get out of here.

I picked up my coat and after putting on my boots, I ascended the narrow staircase into the night air. I sucked in a breath full of fresh sea air. The soft wind felt good after the sweatiness of the small room I had just woken up in, and it lifted the stickiness from my warm skin. Ressler stepped through the door of a Small cabin where Sully sat steering the boat.

“We’re here,” he said, coming over to me. I walked up to the railing of the boat and peered right over at the approaching bay in front of me. The whole backdrop to the Harbor was a blunder of tree filled mountains. “How far are we from Shi Shi beach?” I asked Ressler.

“About a half hour driving.”

“How long walking?”

“Five hours.”

“Five hours?” I shrieked.

“I don’t know, but it’s only a half hour driving.”

Driving wasn’t really one of our options right now. “We don’t have a car,” I said.

***

“I would rather walk for five hours,” I said to Ressler, standing next to a beat up green, Sierra pickup truck.

“You walk then. I’m getting in this thing.”

“You can’t just steal someone’s truck.” I stepped in between Ressler and the Sierra. “Let’s get a bus or something.”

“Do you see any buses? You’re in the wild now, girl. Get in or get walking.”

Ressler pulled the handle on the door and sure enough, the damn thing wasn’t even locked.

“Too easy,” he said, smiling to himself. He closed the door behind him and dipped his head under the steering wheel, getting started on hotwiring the truck.

I looked about me nervously. I was as good as in the middle of a crime scene. The place was almost deserted, but the vast and empty gravel road made me feel too exposed. The Truck coughed and sputtered to life and Ressler let his window down.

“You getting in or what?”

“Or not,” I said, angry that he was even putting me in this situation.

“So I’ll just meet you there then? He whipped his arm out in front of him and pushed up his sleeve, checking the time on a watch he wasn’t even wearing. I’ll see you there around… midnight?” He flashed me a full on grin and tapped on the steering wheel, impatiently.

“I’m laughing on the inside,” I said.

“Suit yourself. You know the way to Shi?” I just ignored him and stood with my arms firmly on my hips.

“Okay, see you not so soon.” The car started forward and reversed out into the road. He was just gonna leave me here?

“Watch out for mountain lion, and bears,” he shouted to me. I didn’t know whether or not that was a joke, but it was enough to get me into the truck.

The tide was pulled right out once we got to Shi Shi beach and the smell of smoke instantly greeted me.

Ressler and I followed the bend of a seastack that could have been the exact same one my dad had been standing next to in the picture, and the curve of the shore was on our right. There was an orange and yellow glow, further along the beach. A bonfire.

Looking out into the stretch of sand, my only other options were either the sea, or the tree lined forest that ran the length of the beach, and neither of them were gonna tell me anything.

“Let’s go talk to them,” I said to Ressler.

We wandered past the tide pools, which I suspected were something pretty special during the day. I was wishing it was light out so I could really see how great this place truly was.

"Pria, is that you?” Someone at the bonfire knew my name. Ressler stopped walking and instinctively flung his arm out to push me further back.

"I see you back there." A body stood up, a black silhouette against the orange flame of the crackling fire. As he stood up, his long, silky black hair swung loosely around his shoulders.

Wait... I knew him. I stepped out from behind Ressler and as the boy grew closer, I gasped in pure horror. "It's you." 

He stretched his arms out, palms up. Stepping over the sand cautiously. "I can explain." 

"Don’t come any nearer," I warned. "I mean it. Stay where you are."

“What the fuck is going on here?” Ressler asked, pulling me back.

"I know what you must think of me, but just hear me out." 

I couldn’t remember his name but it was hard to forget that glowing, coppery skin. Who knew so much beauty could be so deceiving? 

"You left me there. In the cemetery." I had to bite my teeth together to stop from throwing myself at him and strangling him. 

"I know and-" 

"You drugged me and you left me." 

"I'm sorry I-" He shook his head, "Wait, I what? I drugged you? I never drugged you."

“You drugged her?” Ressler was ready to pounce.

"You were giving me drinks all night and then the next thing I'm hallucinating and passing out. That's drugging someone." I was almost certain the scary, black shadow was anything but a hallucination, but this boy had something to do with it one way or another and he wasn’t getting away with it.

"I would never do that to you, or anyone else." 

"That means nothing to me. It had to have been you. When a guy gives you drinks and that leads to imagining great big, black figures coming after you- there's drugs involved somewhere. I'm going to call the cops, just so you know. You aren't getting away with this. How many other helpless girls have you done this kind of thing to?" If he thought I was angry now, I was just getting started. 

I was caught off guard by the bitter laughter that exploded from his mouth. "Helpless? You? I don’t think so. And what you saw that night... I saw it too."

A few heads from the crowd around the bonfire turned to watch us. 

"You saw that?” I couldn’t believe it. Someone else saw that. I had a perfect witness.

"It was why I ran. That's what I'm sorry for. For leaving you there. I've just- I've never seen anything like that before. It freaked me out. Like really freaked me out." 

"You really didn’t drug me?"

"I would never do that. I know you don’t think it, but I'm a good guy."

“You’re the guy from the party? You just left her there alone?” The muscle jumped in Ressler’s jaw and he flexed his hand in and out of a fist by his sides.

“Ressler, please,” I said. “Can you just let me deal with this?” He didn’t look happy but he kept his lips pressed in a tight line. He would be all over this guy if it came down to it.

"What are you doing here?" I asked. "How did you find me?" 

He looked like he had no idea what I was talking about. "How did I find you? You're on my turf now." 

“What happened to La Conner? You’re a little far from home aren’t you?” I was sure he told me that was where he was from. That’s why he was partying in Roche Harbor, because of the cancelled football game.

“I just said that.” He stole a look over his shoulder.

“What’s going on? One of the other boys shouted, throwing his hands up in the air.

“One minute,” he said to me and ran back over to his friends. He said something to them and came jogging back over.

“I’m Matoskah by the way.”

Ressler made a scoffing noise next to me.

“Can I maybe talk to you alone?” His eyes flicked between me and Ressler

“No way,” Ressler answered. “No fucking way.”

“I wasn’t asking you.” Matoskah looked at me. “I’m asking her. Just over by those tide pools.” I checked them out behind me. If I needed him, Ressler could be there in a matter of seconds.

“I’ll only be a minute,” I said to Ressler.

“No you won’t.”

“I’m right over there. Just a few minutes.”

“Then we’re out of here,” Ressler said, scowling at Matoskah. “You’ve got five minutes.” I smiled my thanks and walked slowly over to the tide pools with Matoskah. I sat down one of the jutting ledges of a seastack and Matoskah stood in front of me with his back to the sea.

“Why did you lie about where you live?” I asked.

“A cover.”

“Why would you need a cover?” I was beginning to think I’d done the wrong thing by coming over here with him. I could still see Ressler standing watching us, and I felt better knowing one move and he would be over here quicker than Matoskah could blink.

“I came to see you. I saw you that day.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Cape Flattery? The cave? I saw you there. I know who you are.”

I laughed with disbelief. “You know who I am? I’m nobody, you must be thinking of someone else.” It was time to get out of here, now. Every nerve in my body was ringing with alarm bells. This was going to end one way… badly. I stood up to leave.

“I know about your mom.”

“What did you just say?” I braced my hand against the cool, damp rock behind me.

“I know all about her. Many stories. I know about you, too.”

“What do you know about her?” I slowly sat back down. My head was buzzing.

“Her name was Savannah Flores. She looked exactly like you and she was born and lived most of her life in Neah Bay. Am I right?”

“I wouldn’t know,” I said, flooded with astonishment. “I never knew her. I hardly know anything about her. How do you...” the worlds trailed off into nothing. I was too shocked at what I was hearing.

“I live there too. Your mom’s a bit of a legend.”

“I’m just so…I mean, I wasn’t expecting…” I was lost for words.

“I know what that night must have looked like at the party. But on my life,” he held his hand up over his chest. “That wasn’t me. I’ve never hurt anybody and I’m not about to start now.”

“And you saw that too?” I asked. “That…”

“Creature? I saw it.”

Drugged or not, I had believed all along that what I saw was real. The only part I struggled to make any sense out of was the drugging part itself. What was the point in it? If it wasn’t Matoskah then what was going on?

“And how did you know Savannah was my mom?” I had to be realistic about this. I couldn’t let him fool me into being tricked.

“Her spirit is alive where I live. People still carry her in their hearts, so when I saw you early that morning, it was one of two things; either she was back from the dead, or you had to be her daughter.”

“You came all the way to San Juan Island to confirm that? I don’t believe it.”

“I came to find out if the stories are true.”

“What stories?”

“I think you should come to Neah bay with me.”

“I don’t think…”

“Not right now. Saturday?”

I believed him. It was silly and anyone else would think I was being naïve, but I believed every word he said.

“It’s too far.” I had promised Gracey I would have dinner with her on Sunday.

“Well if you change your mind, I’ll meet you at Neah Bay Harbor at ten thirty Saturday morning.” He raised a hand in a still wave to Ressler who flipped him off in reply. It was hard to see his expression in the dark but I knew he was getting impatient. “Don’t bring him.” He smiled easily, one side of his mouth tipping higher than the other. It wasn’t a sleazy smile either, it was honest and relaxed. I had to see him again. If I passed up his offer, I might never find anything out.