Falling Into Darkness: The Under Series Book 1 (12 page)

We arrived back later than I'd expected, it was just after Ten. Time had flown by at The Bowler and
we had gone for take out afterwards. I waved goodbye to Caitlin. The garage doors were open,
inside the lights were on and loud music was blaring out.
Micah was leaning over, under the hood of his own truck. He wore black jeans that hung low on his
waist, he had nothing on his top half. His back and arms were exposed showing multiple tattoos
running all the way up his arms and down his back. Symbols, pictures and writings all joined
together. But it wasn't the tattoos that stood out the most it was the two long scars running down his
shoulder blades, the scars ran closer together further down his back, the tattoos were inked over
parts of the scars but not enough to disguise them. I couldn't imagine what would have caused them,
it looked like he'd been through a terrible attack of some kind no wonder he was so defensive and
on guard all the time.
He hadn't realised I was standing there, so I turned the stereo volume down. He looked over his
shoulder at me and turned around grabbing his T-shirt that was hanging off the hood.
“Did you have fun?” he asked, casually pulling his top down.
I got the feeling he didn't want me to see his back so I thought it best not to mention it and pretend I
hadn't seen it.
“Yeah we did,”
“Well what have you been doing? You left school nearly eight hours ago,”
“I dunno just hanging out, chatting, playing games we got take out on the way home. Don't you
remember what it was like been seventeen and hanging out with your friends?”
“No I don't,” he replied bluntly.

Maybe he didn't have any friends when he was seventeen? Either way he was in a weird mood
tonight. I decided to leave him alone.
“When is Seth coming home?” I asked walking back to the garage doors.
“He's not he's working all night.”
Grrr! I mentally groaned, I hated being here all night on my own.
“Will you be going soon?”
“Why can't wait to get rid of me?”
“No I didn't say that did I, I was just wondering that's all,”
“I stuck around to make sure you got home safe, I'll be off soon just finishing up here,” he looked at
me. “I can stay if you want though?”
“No it's okay, I'll be fine,” I replied. I didn't want him to stay if he really didn't want to be here, he
would only be awkward and moan about everything.
He nodded and turned back under the hood.
I walked along the porch, coming to a stop when something black fluttered in front of me and onto
the arm of the bench. The raven squawked at me once and stared at me. It didn't seem afraid of
humans, I wondered how friendly it actually was.
I don't know why but I found myself walking towards it, I carefully held out my hand moving it
ever so slowly closer to the bird, hoping it wouldn't peck me. It let me touch it's back, I ran my
fingers along it's feathers they felt silky and soft. It turned around, I wasn't sure what it was doing
until it hopped up onto my arm. It was heavier than I'd expected and I was glad I had my jumper on,
it sat quite still so it's claws didn't dig in, much. It let me stroke it again and I looked closer at the
tag on it's leg which had 4/6 printed on it.
“Ruby what are you doing?” Micah said, sounding horrified.
“Err, I don't really know, it just sort of hopped on,”
I knew Micah didn't like this bird, but I didn't know why?
“Well put it down,”
I looked at the bird, not quite sure how I was supposed to get it off.
“Shake your arm or something,”
“No it has claws.”
I moved over to the porch railing and put my arm level with the railing and gentle nudged it with
my other hand, it hopped off obligingly. I looked over at Micah he was staring at it like it was
something disgusting he had just found on the bottom of his boot.
“You're not going to hurt it are you?” I asked moving in front of the bird protectively.
“No.” he replied.
“So what changed your mind?”
“Because it has an owner, if it went missing they would come looking for it and I don't want them
here. I don't think the bird is a threat, I think it's just lost or confused. It has no reason to be hanging
around you, it must have just taken a liking to you. I have no idea why though you're not that
interesting.”
“'The birds not a threat',” I said, mimicking him. “So where does the bird come from?”
He shrugged, playing dumb.
“You don't know? Or you don't want to tell me?”
“Hmm,” he was pretending he hadn't heard me.
“Micah,”
“Look I don't know where it comes from, so can you pleased drop it already,”
“You know you're a terrible liar, you have a hint of a smile on your lips every time you lie, it's very
obvious,” he frowned at me.“So you promise you're not going to attack the bird like last time,”
He tilted his head to the side looking around me at the bird. “No the bird can live, just don't
encourage it, we want it to leave. Whatever you do don't feed it, it may never go away.”
“Well I like him, I'll have to think of a name for him,”
“How about dead bird, cause that's what I'll call him if I see you petting him again. Now inside,” I
looked at the bird then back at Micah, hoping he wouldn't go nuts and attack it like last time.“By the
way I've decided to stay the night, make sure you don't let all the wildlife into the cabin.”
I played around on my laptop for a while in my room, Micah stayed downstairs flicking TV
channels. I fell asleep sometime after twelve.

The faint sound of wind chimes woke me a short while later. The room was dark and the only light
was coming from the hall way. I peeked out not being able to see much as most of my head was still
concealed under the covers but I caught a glimpse of a reflection in the glass on my nightstand. My
eyes became fixed on the glass. Maybe Micah was checking in on me?
I laid there unable to tear my eyes away. This was ridiculous, hiding under my covers from what
Micah? He wasn't that scary.
I blinked and the shadow appeared in the glass again, it was an outline of a person standing next to
my bed. I was praying it was Micah. I didn't know what to do, jump out of bed, scream or call
Micah.
“MICAH!” I shouted as loud as I could throwing the bed covers back and jumping out spinning
around and falling back against the wall.
But the room was empty. Micah's boots came thundering up the stairs, he skidded into the room.
Gunner pushed past him to get in front.
“What's wrong?” he asked loudly, switching on the light.
“There was someone in my room, I thought it was you.”
“What!”
He walked back out into the hallway. The dog sniffed the floor around the edge of the bed. Micah
came back into the room and checked my window, which was still firmly shut.
“The chimes on the door handle, that's what woke me. It sounded the same as when you knock them
on the way into the room,”
He went over to the door and swiped the chimes with his hand.
“There's no one here I checked,”
I was now looking at the bed and panicking what was under it. Micah looked at me and caught onto
what I was thinking, he squatted down and checked under the bed.
“Nothing,” he then turned around and looked at the wardrobe. He raised an eyebrow at me, opened
the doors and jumped back out the way, just encase jokingly.
“Ruby there's no one here,”
“I know what I saw in the glass, there was someone in my room.”
“Your glass,”
“Yes, there I saw the reflection,” I pointed at the glass. “There was somebody standing right where
you are standing now.”
“All this because you saw a reflection. I can't tell if you're being serious right now or pulling my
leg?”
“Yes I'm being serious. I know what I saw,”
Micah crossed his arms and stared at me.
“Well if you don't believe me, maybe you'll believe the dog,”
He looked down at the dog who was sniffing everything.
“It's probably that smell upsetting him. Have you been burning candles up here?”
“What no, what smell?” I stepped away from the wall sniffing the air, I knelt on the bed closer to
where he was standing. I felt like an idiot randomly sniffing the air, until I caught a hint of what he
was talking about.
“It smells like a rose garden in here?”
He was right, it did smell of roses exactly the same as Cam had smelled today. It had to be a freaky
coincidence but I still had no idea why my room would smell of roses.
There was no sleeping in my bed after that. I wasn't sure if Micah believed me, from the way he
was acting probably not. We stayed up watching comedy re-runs it had gone three in the morning
and I desperately wanted my bed. I looked over at Micah, he was drinking a green energy drink.
“Aren't you tired? I mean you do sleep don't you?” I asked.
“When I need to,” he replied, in a bored tone staring at the TV.
“You know those energy drinks probably don't help,”
He looked at me with a stare that said everything. He was fed up with my mindless chit chat, but
there was no way I was going back to my bedroom. I would just have to sleep down here and try to
block out the noise from the TV. It's not like I could ask him to turn it off and sit in the dark until I
fell asleep, not that I wanted to be in the dark after earlier events.
I made myself comfy on the couch pulling the blanket off the edge and over myself. I turned away
from the TV and snuggled down. After a few minutes the volume of the TV decreased and I was
asleep in minutes.

“Get up,” Micah said clapping his hands over my head.
“What no I just went to sleep.” I said trying to hide under the blanket.
He pulled the blanket away from me, but not without a struggle. He won off course. I tried to move
but couldn't Gunner was stretched out over me trapping one of my legs, my other leg hung off the
couch. I looked up at Micah.
“Can't I stay here today, I need sleep.” I said reaching for the blanket, managing to grab the edge
and yanking it away. Seth appeared at the end of the couch.
“What's going on?” he asked as me and Micah continued tug of war with the blanket.
“I want to sleep, one day of missed school won't hurt, can't you can say I'm sick, please Seth, I'm so
tired I don't think I will be able to function.” I groaned.
“Well you should have gone to bed earlier. I can't have you skipping school, mom will use school
absences against me and make you go home, so go get dressed already.”
I tried to get myself ready but I was so tired, I needed a hot shower to wake myself up.
I'd been standing under the water for about five minutes, maybe I could hide in here all day I
thought. I heard a rattle on the bathroom door. I ignored it and finished rinsing off.
“Seriously what are you doing that takes this long?” Micah sounded close, as in standing in the
bathroom close. I peeked around the shower curtain and shrieked.
“What the...Micah what the hell are you doing? Get out!” I shouted.
“I came to check on you, you are taking forever. How long does it take to have a shower?”
“I'm in the shower get out,” I shouted at him, trying to cover myself with the shower curtain, that
wasn't exactly see through but did reveal a blurry image of what was behind it.
“Well hurry up,” he smirked and pulled the chain on the toilet. I screamed as the water turned ice
cold, backing away to the other end of the bath tub.
“I hate you! Now get out,”
“What's going on? I heard screaming,” Seth said from the other side of the curtain. At this point I
wanted the plug hole to swallow me.
“You've got two minutes,” Micah said trying not laugh.
“Dude that's my sister, not funny.” Seth said to Micah as the door shut.
I jumped down the stairs, swinging around the bottom banister post. I was starving. I took one step
into the kitchen and Micah pulled me back by my pony tail.
“Ouch! that is attached.” I said pulling my pony tail from his grasp.
“You haven't got time the bell went ten minutes ago.” Micah said, placing my bag on my shoulder.
Seth stood there with a bowl of cereal in his hand. I looked at the spoon in his other hand and my
tummy rumbled. Micah waved a snack bar in front of my face and I snatched it from him.
“Let's go,”
“Have a good day,” Seth called to me as Micah pushed me towards the door.
Once outside Micah started cursing at his truck. I looked over to see the front windscreen covered in
bird mess, the raven sat close by on a tree stump. I couldn't contain my laughter.
“He's not doing himself any favours, how is that possibly all from one bird, it looks like he had
help.”
“Well that should be easy, count how many birds you've tried to get rid of this year. That looks like
payback.”

It was the smell that woke me up early on Saturday morning. I sat up in bed, automatically covering
my nose with my hand. It was rotten and disgusting. I slowly crawled off the bed checking all
around to make sure Gunner hadn't bought anything in. I found Seth in the kitchen finishing his
breakfast.
“What is that smell?” I asked.
He looked at me and sniffed the air. “I don't smell anything,”
“What? How can you not smell that it's rotten, smells like something died.” Micah walked in behind
me and leaned against the counter.
“Do you smell that?” I asked Micah.
He looked at me then at Seth. They both shrugged.
“I need to get showered, let me know if you find anything.” Seth left the room.
I removed my hand from my nose then regretted it and covered it back over. Micah stood there
checking the bottom of his boots.
“Well it's not me.” he said, sniffing his shirt.
I walked around the kitchen but couldn't pin point where the smell was coming from.
“I need some fresh air,”
I opened the back door and the smell hit me, outside smelt ten times worse than inside the house. I
gagged and stepped back inside pulling the door shut. At least now I knew where the smell was
coming from. I slipped on a pair of Seth's boots that were next to the door, they were far too big but
I didn't care I wanted to find out what was making such a stench. I walked across the back yard
looking everywhere. Micah jogged over to me.
“You seriously can't smell that?” I asked.
He shook his head. I went over to the edge of the grass where the trees started.
“I think it's coming from over here somewhere,”
The air was cold as we wondered through the forest. I crossed my arms to keep warm, I was only
wearing leggings and a T-shirt. The further we walked the sillier I felt. Why was I the only one that
could smell it? And at this distance away this was crazy, my nose wasn't that good. It seemed like
we were walking into the middle of nowhere, but the smell seemed to be getting stronger the further
we walked. I looked up, a few trees in front the answer to the smell was lying on the floor. I
wrinkled my nose.
A decomposing deer lay on the floor.
“You can smell it now. Right?”
“Yep,” he said covering his nose with his sleeve.
“I think I'm going to throw up.” I said, covering half my face with the neck of my T-shirt.
“I think that's enough fresh air for one day,” Micah said pulling me away.
We walked back into the cabin and I went straight to the cupboard under the sink looking for
anything that resembled air freshener.
“Here we go, this should help,” I sprayed the room, sniffing the air then sprayed some more.
“Don't you think that's enough?”
“No just a little more. There that's mildly better.”
“Great you've overdosed us on air freshener. I now smell like a meadow.”
“How could you not smell that? I can still smell it.” I said, spraying the air in front of me.
“Seth's going into town to get some groceries why don't you go with him. I'll take care of it.”
“What do you mean take care of it?” I asked.
“Do you really want to know,”
“No probably not,”
He walked over to the front door.
“Wait. How is that possible that I could smell that from my bedroom?”
“You obviously have good sense of smell,”
“Yeah right, I can't even smell burnt toast.”
“Maybe you're going through changes or something you are a teenager,”
“Changes. I'm quite sure we covered those changes in biology and they didn't include increased
sense of smell,”
“Well maybe they skipped over that chapter,” he said quickly closing the door behind him.
“Micah, don't walk off I'm talking.....to you,” I said to the back of the door.
I went upstairs feeling frustrated with Micah yet again.
I got washed and dressed skipping breakfast as Seth said he would treat me to breakfast in town.
We wondered around the supermarket over filling the trolley, Seth said I could pick out whatever I
wanted. I guessed he was probably using money won from bets to pay for it. I wondered why he
still drove around in that rusty old truck when he could clearly afford something flashier like
Micah's truck. We had breakfast at Eggy's Diner and I watched Seth put away his second breakfast
of the morning.
Later when we arrived back at the cabin, Micah's truck was gone. Seth started unloading the
groceries into the house. I hopped out the truck, noticing straight away I could no longer smell
anything other than the normal outdoors smell.
“Did you ever find out what that smell was this morning?” Seth asked grabbing the last of the bags.
“Huh?”
“This morning you said you could smell something,”
“Oh that, yeah Micah stepped in something.”
“That's nasty, he better of cleaned the mess up,” I just nodded.
I finished my reading and a few bits I needed to get done for school. Then I helped Seth with dinner.
Caitlin picked me up just after seven. Aimee was in the front seat of the car chatting and giggling
very loudly on her cell, she kept mentioning the name Kevin so I assumed that was who she was
talking to.
Caitlin pulled off the main road and onto a bumpy side road, that looked like it hadn't been
maintained in years.
Further down we passed a few buildings that looked like derelict old factories. She parked around
the back with the rest of the cars I was surprised at how many cars were actually here. There were a
few boys hanging around in the parking lot, skateboarding over ramps and drinking. I watched each
of them for a moment checking all of their faces, wondering if Mack was over there? But I didn't
recognise any of them.
Mack wasn't at school Friday and I had spent the whole of English class wondering where he was?
Was he really sick or just playing truant and if so what was he doing that was more important than
school?
Cam on the other hand had been around every corner I turned, every class I had been in he seemed
to be just down the corridor or outside the window. I hoped it was just a weird coincidence.
The incident the other night had put me on edge, Micah still didn't believe me and the fact my room
had smelt of roses the same scent I had smelled on Cam, was still playing on my mind. I still
couldn't hear Cam's thoughts, so I felt the need to keep my distance from him there was something
about him that didn't seem right. Why was he so interested in me? There were much prettier girls at
school to follow around.
Aimee skipped ahead of us and disappeared into the trees, we followed behind her along a well
trodden floor which led the way. Caitlin linked arms with me.
“I hope Josh is here, I didn't see his car anywhere. He said he would be here,” she whined.
“I'm sure if he said he would be here he will, especially if he knows you're here. He might of just
got a ride with someone else,”
“Oh yeah I hadn't thought of that,”
“He came with Kevin, Kev just told me,” Aimee said, waving her cell around like a wand.
“How much has she already had to drink?” I asked Caitlin.
“I have no idea, she was like that when I picked her up. I think she drained her mom's liquor cabinet
though,”
The path led to a large clearing, there were people everywhere mostly in groups. There was even a
few tents set up. There was a slope around the edge and a rope swing with people swinging on it.
There were a few fires going and people were stood around them drinking. Music was playing from
somewhere but I couldn't locate it. I recognised some of the girls sitting on a blanket near the swing.
All around us I could hear people messing around and running through the trees. Two boys ran past
us with water guns chasing each other, we were standing in the line of fire and got sprayed with
water.
“Oh my, don't look,” Caitlin said flustered.
At that point it was too late and I had already looked over and seen a completely stark naked guy
running around the fire where a group of girls now sat screaming their heads off, he then ran back
into the trees with his friends. I was certain I had seen him in my calculus class before.
“I really wish I could un-see that.” I laughed.
“Well that shouldn't be too hard there wasn't much to see in the first place if you get my drift,”
Aimee said, taking a sip from a bottle that I hadn't seen her with a minute ago.
“Ruby meet drunken jokes Aimee, the best side of her when she's been drinking. We normally get
stuck with drunken hostile Aimee that curses way too much and tries to strangle everyone.”
“That happens?”
“Oh yeah that happens, we usually have to sit on her until she stops.”
“Sounds like fun.” I said, watching Aimee push through a crowd of boys to the right.
“She's a wild one. Oh I think I can see Josh,” Caitlin said, rushing off to the left.
I stood there not sure who to follow. I didn't want to be stuck as a third wheel between Josh and
Caitlin, so I went right trailing Aimee who had now disappeared from sight.
More people were turning up and my head was buzzing from the overflow of thoughts everywhere.
This was why I preferred to stay at home most nights. I already had to put up with this all day, five
days a week being at school. But I didn't want to be lonely and end up with no friends so I had to
put up with it and try my best to ignore it. Back home with Carly it was different she knew the
reason why I sometimes didn't want to go out after a long day at school and preferred staying at
home.
As I stepped over and squeezed around people I spotted Cam, he was chatting to a pretty blonde but
he had his eyes fixed on me.
He wore a chequered shirt rolled up at the sleeves even from here I could clearly see his tattoo
exposed on his arm, he had his cap on like normal with jeans. I tried to blend in and hid behind a
group of boys that had set up a barbecue. I peeked around a tall boy, Cam still hadn't taken his eyes
off of me and had even moved to get a better view of me.
He reminded me of a lion stalking it's prey before it's attack. I retreated further into the group
wedged in between two of the boys, they didn't seem to mind. One even offered me a drink I
declined, seeing as it was already open and I didn't know him. The group suddenly dispersed
heading back to the cars to get more drink. I was left standing in the open next to the boy attending
the barbecue. I looked over to where I had last seen Cam, he was gone.
“Do you want one? They're ready,” the boy asked, pointing at the burgers. Just from looking at them
I was sure they were anything but ready.
“No it's okay I ate before I came out thanks,” I replied casually looking around.
Someone tapped me on the shoulder, I spun around expecting to see Aimee or Caitlin. Instead I
looked up to find Cam looking back at me.
“I've been waiting for you,” Cam said, it was an innocent comment but it didn't sit well, even the
boy next to me raised an eyebrow at him.
“Well here I am,” I hadn't meant it to sound the way it came out, I didn't want to give him any ideas.
“Do you want to go for a walk? There's a wooden swing over here,” he said, pulling me away by the
hand.
“I need to find Caitlin,” I politely said pulling my hand back.
“I just saw her running off into the forest with some blonde boy,”
“Probably Josh,” I replied, wondering how to get out of this.
I felt cornered not being able to think of any other excuses not to go for a walk with him. Caitlin
had run off with Josh and I couldn't see Aimee anywhere which left me all on my own with nothing
to do.
“Come on. Five minutes take a walk with me,”
“Okay five minutes then I need to find Aimee.”
I took one finale look over my shoulder, spotting Mack sitting on the slope opposite. He saw me
and held my gaze for a brief second then looked away.
“Coming?” he asked. I nodded, not quite sure what I was doing.
Did I really want to go into the forest with Cam, could I trust him? Thinking back he had only been
nice to me and given me no reason not to trust him.
We walked through the trees and I was silently pleased to be away from the crowd and all the noise
in my head, out here all I could hear was the distant music.
“So Ruby, such a beautiful name. Named after the gem I presume,”
“Err, yeah,” It was true, my grandmother Opal had started the trend with her two daughters
Sapphire and Pearl. My mom Pearl had gone along with it and named me Ruby.
The swing came into view and Cam helped me up the slope.
“How are you finding Heaven's Point?”
“Well it hasn't been as boring as I expected. Do you like working at HPH?”
“It's bearable, there are a few perks to the job.” he said smiling.
I didn't like to ask what those perks were, as long as he didn't mean following me around school. I
sat on the swing, my feet hanging just off the floor. Cam came up behind me and gently pushed me
forward. There was an awkward silence between us, I didn't know what to say and I didn't know
what he was thinking.
“Do you live near by?” I asked innocently.
“Why? Do you want to see where I live Ruby?”
“Um No, I meant do you live in town?”
“Yes. Not too far. I live in an old manor house down near Ivy Creek off the main route out of town,
can't miss it. Rose Cottage, walls out front, two large black gates and a circular drive way.”
I nodded, but I really had no idea where that was.
“Sounds nice,” And expensive. “Do you live with family?” I asked.
“Sort of it's just me and my father but he works away a lot, I rarely see him anymore. It can be
rather lonely sometimes,”
“So do you like living with your brother?” he asked.
The comment seemed to linger in my mind. Had I told him I was living with my brother? I might of
mentioned it but I honestly couldn't recall us having spoken about who I was living with before.
I didn't answer his question and the swing slowed down, Cam's icy cold fingers brushed against the
back of my hand. I caught sight of the tattoo on his arm. A black sun surrounded by black flames, in
this light the flames seemed to shimmer like black glitter.
“So what made you pick a black sun?” I asked turning on the swing seat to get a better view of him.
“It's kind of ironic where I come from,” he smirked.
I waited for him to go on and explain what he meant but he didn't say anything else, instead he was
interested in my bracelet. He ran his finger along it and smiled, it was a strange smile he was clearly
thinking something as he looked distant almost distracted.
“I should really get back,”
“What's the rush princess?”