Falling Darkness: The second book in the Falling Awake Series (25 page)

“Now.” Matoskah stood up and pulled me into a one arm hug. He kissed the top of my head and before I knew it I had both of my arms wrapped around him. He was full of the scent of the outdoors and the rich earth. I stepped back and looked into his eyes. He really was something to look at. His six foot plus frame was dwarfing me and looking at him now, I was going to miss him. I felt like I’d known him all my life. I had the most amazing people in my life and I needed to take a moment to wonder how I got so lucky.

“I’ll see you at the ferry.” Rona stood glaring at us, flipping her cell closed. She grabbed her bag and walked away.

“Ah, not again,” Quidel complained. “She’s going to be a nightmare all the way home. Good job, Mat.”

“What did I do?” he asked with no clue at all of what was really going on. It was too early to be getting into that conversation, though and I wanted to see Matwau.

“Is he inside?” I asked.

Matoskah knew exactly who I meant. “Yeah he is.”

“Oaky.” I gave one final hug to him and Quidel and went inside the hotel. I knew they were staying in room 3A, and I gave a light rap at the door. Matwau opened it, letting out a loud sigh when he saw me standing there. He seemed to be relieved.

“Come in,” he said.

The room was nice inside, the walls awash with powder blue and pale wooden flooring. The inn was mounted on a hill, looking right down over the marina. The view from here was one of the best. I automatically drifted over to the half open window, seeing the serenity of the port below. There was something undeniably calming about the water and the still boats.

Matwau’s voice surprised me when I heard him approach behind me. “Your talisman helped you last night.”

“Why do you say that?” I asked, stepping back from the hypnotic view.

“There is terrible evil here. It is so strong, I can feel it all around us. I worry for you.”

I thought about how my talisman had vibrated in my pocket right before Caleb found me, telling me that Sabre had shown up. Matwau really believed in this thing and knowing all the crazy and unbelievable things that I knew now, things that should only belong in fantasy land, I did, too. But not enough to invest all my trust into it. I wasn’t going to let my life ride on one small pendant.

“Will you not come and stay on the reservation?” Matwau asked me, momentarily stunning me. He wanted me to stay with him? He cared enough about me that he was willing to take me with him? I was borderline speechless. Caleb would never go for it, though and more than that, I knew I wouldn’t be able to leave my dad. Not for a long period of time.

“I have school,” I said reluctantly, “and my dad… I could never leave him.” Guilt was going to be the death of me.

Matwau looked disappointed but he nodded his understanding. “Just like Savannah,” he said. “Always thinking of others. There will come a time when you will have no choice but to think of yourself.” I wondered if he knew how cryptic that message sounded.

He sat down on the bed with his hands resting flat on his legs. He was the complete opposite to my dad with his long hair and deep golden skin. When I looked at my dad it was easy to see what he was thinking, he was simple, but Matwau had way too much depth. I could ever get a good read on him. He just looked kind of empty most of the time. The only thing they shared in similarity was a youthfulness about them.  Matwau’s was more natural of course. My dad was a closet angel and therefore possibly never going to look any older. And then I came back to thinking, was he my dad? I straightened out the lines on my forehead, smoothing my fingers over them. There was that headache again.

“I have survived a life without Savannah, but not one day have I lived without her. I relive her memory every second of the day, wishing… hoping that she would come back. To say goodbye, to explain…” Matwau looked up to me. “Don’t make the same mistakes. You were sent to me for a reason and I will not give you up so easily. When you showed up at my door, I thought you were her. I thought my life had been given back to me. But now I know who you are, you are just as big a miracle. You might be another man’s daughter, but you were supposed to be mine.”

I had nothing to say. I stood there with not a single word hanging between us. I didn’t want to speak and say something that would inevitably betray my dad and I hated staying silent and having no comfort for Matwau. I was torn. Truly divided.

“Look after yourself. Your mother was not killed, remember that.”

“I will.” If all I could give him was to be safe, then I would.

“I have to go now, but you are always welcome in my home. The people back home, they want to meet you. I hear their chattering and they are growing impatient.” A smile just about surfaced on his face and I agreed to come back- soon.

I was happy when they boarded the ferry and I knew they were getting further and further away from the island and away from Sabre.

***

It was hard to keep my concentration when the fundraising committee gathered into the gym hall to work out what had been earned yesterday. I couldn’t get my dream out of my head. I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that there was something my mom was trying to tell me. There was a chance I was being over sensitive after this morning but it didn’t ease the nagging in my subconscious. I was absolutely sure of one thing- someone was searching for her and I knew without even seeing that person that they wanted to harm her. And then the sword, what was that about? I had no reason to dream of such a thing. Was this why my mom kept a dream catcher? Maybe I was seeing one of her awful nightmares. But I didn’t have the dream catcher anymore. Someone had stolen it.

I got through the rest of the meeting and by lunch, I was relieved to have Mellissa back by my side again. I craved the everyday regularity she brought to my life. Only today, she wasn’t her usual, carefree self.

“Wanna talk about it?” I offered, sitting down at one of the table outside. It was pretty cold out, but if I had to look at Tamara in the cafeteria I wouldn’t be able to eat my food. She wasn’t on the fundraising committee but not even a school holiday could keep her from scheduling a cheerleading practice. With any luck, maybe Caleb had blown her out.

“There’s not much to say,” Mellissa said with a shrug. “Drake hasn’t returned any of my calls, my texts. I was such an idiot. What was I thinking?” I didn’t think she really wanted an answer to that question so I kept my mouth shut. “I’ve ruined everything.”

“Maybe he just needs some time.” I Knew Drake and he wasn’t the type to overreact or jump into anything. Then I saw his face in my head when he knew Mellissa was with Jason and that was the angriest I had ever seen him. Maybe his time for jumping into rash decisions was now. I would keep that thought to myself. Mellissa didn’t need me making things worse.

“I just wish he would let me apologize.”

I didn’t like this Mellissa. I much preferred it when she was upbeat and laughing. I wondered how Drake was. After all, it was him who had the crappy end of all of this. He was the wronged party. I somehow suspected that Mellissa was suffering more, though. Drake had possibly been through this kind of thing hundreds, thousands of times. This was definitely a first for Mellissa.

“Jason won’t stop calling me. Everywhere I turn, he’s there.”

“What are you going to do about him?” I hoped give him a very wide berth.

“Nothing. I don’t want to see him. He’s just a reminder of what I’ve completely fucked up.”

“Drake will come around…”

“He won’t and why should he? I just really need to tell him how sorry I am. He didn’t deserve that. I know it’s over, and that, I can deal with. I can’t deal with him hating me.” Mellissa dropped her fork onto her plate. Her chicken salad was untouched. “I need to do something. I hate feeling like this. I don’t know how you do it.”

“Uh, I beg your pardon?”

“Really? You think you’ve been okay since Caleb hooked up with cheerleading Barbie? I see through you. No one else might, but I do.”

“I’m fine,” I said offhandedly. “I’m okay with it now. It’s no big deal.”

“There!” Mellissa shot her finger out at me. “I want to act exactly like that. That’s perfect.”

“I’m not acting,” I said defensively. “I’m really okay with it.”

“I’m going to bring that attitude out with me tonight.”

“Tonight? Where are we going tonight?”

“I have no idea,” Mellissa said. “This island sucks.” She was right. There wasn’t too much to do around here. Especially when you were in dire need of having some fun. Jet’s was fine, but Jason would more than likely be there so that was a no go area.

“Anyway, you’ve got some explaining to do,” Mellissa said, perking up a little.

“I have?”

“Matwau? The two extremely cute and oh so hot manly specimens he was with? Spill, right now.”

“Oh.” I knew I had to get it all out sooner or later, and by the time lunch was over I’d filled Mellissa in on the watered down version of the past few week’s events.

“I can’t believe you went all the way to Clallam County.” Mellissa was looking at me like I had committed the ultimate crime. “When?”

“Times you were with Drake.” I deliberated whether to say the next bit. “Maybe with Jason. But I was getting my head around it all. I hated not telling you. I just needed to get used to the idea.” It was all true. I couldn’t stand keeping things from her.

“Hey, don’t feel bad. I just wish you never had to do all that on your own. With what happened to your dad and everything…” We stopped in the hallway, letting the crowd fan out around us minutes before I had to get back to my meeting. “So, where does that leave your dad then if your mom was married? Do you think he knew?”

I had no idea whether he knew or not. “I guess I’ll have to wait till he’s better for that. There’s still so much I don’t understand.”

There was only Mr. Kelly to see next, who wanted to show us a video on some of the charities our money would be going to. After that, we were free to leave. School was closed to everyone but us do-gooders.

“Well I better get the rest of this day over with,” I said, standing up. “You wanna hang in my car till I’m done?”

“Sure.” I threw Mellissa my keys and left for Mr. Kelly’s class. The shutters were drawn and the T.V was rolled in on a stand, sitting at the front of the class. The film was sweet, but boring and my mind was forever reverting back to my dream. I couldn’t escape it; it wouldn’t let me. I pulled my book out of my bag and a pencil and let memory guide my hand. I had thought I was scribbling idly, but when the lights came back on and the T.V was switched off, Mr. Kelly strode by my desk. He stopped, looking down over my shoulder.

“Hmm,” he said. He took off his glasses. “May I?”

“Sure.” I was unsure what it was he wanted to do.

“You drew this?”

“I guess so.” I hadn’t meant it to come out so prefect. I was just killing time, mostly. But what I had drawn was exact to the point of looking lifelike and so incredibly intentional.

“Do you know what this is? He asked me, closely examining the picture.

“A sword, I guess? I was just messing around.”

The classroom quickly emptied when the rest of the group saw that Mr. Kelly was tied up in something else, leaving just me and him.

“Not just any sword,” he said, slipping his glasses back on. He went to his desk taking the picture with him and pulled out his draw, shuffling through papers. He held a thick, brown and red book in his hands. Rifling through the pages he stopped almost at the middle and smiled. He brought the book over to me and set in on my desk. “This,” he said, “Is the holy lance.”

What the hell was the holy lance? I peered over at the book and took in the image of the black and gold sword. It was thicker and shorter than what you would imagine a sword to look like and it was severely ingrained. This thing was old. Old like a relic.

“What’s the holy lance?” I asked, maintaining complete composure even though my heart was ready to leap out through my mouth. That was it. That was what I had dreamed about. I hadn’t conjured it up, this thing was real and it had something to do with my mom.

“Just before the Romans were about to break Jesus’ legs before his crucifixion-” When I gave Mr. Kelly a disgusted look, he explained, “a way of accelerating death. Anyway, they realized he was already dead and there was no need to break his legs. So to make sure that he was dead, a soldier named Longinus stabbed him in his side with this spear.” He pointed to the picture. “And out came blood and water.”

Blood and water…

“Blood and water is the sign of both true god and true man. The blood is a symbol of Jesus’ humanity, the water a symbol of his divinity.”

My head was spinning and I felt sick. The room was growing darker and Mr. Kelly’s words were becoming fainter, disappearing into the background.

I glanced down through blurred vision at what looked like a knife blade piercing my skin. I whimpered in silence at the stinging sensation and prayed to god that he wouldn’t push the knife any further in, but my prayers were in vain as the knife slowly twisted into me, and I doubled over in agony.

“Stop!” Ressler shouted. “I know what you’re doing. You don’t need to. I see it. Just leave her alone. I won’t try and stop you. Just take her.”