Falling Into Darkness: The Under Series Book 1 (8 page)

“I think he might notice,” I said removing the bag of peas from my face.
“I didn't mean you're face. Don't tell him about the bird.”
The front door opened and I heard heavy boots on the floor, I looked over at Micah, he had gone
back to the sink and was cleaning away the blood. Seth strolled into the kitchen dripping rain water
on the floor.
“What the......what the hell happened?” he said moving the bag of peas for a closer look.
“Micah assaulted me with a bat,”
Well it's not like I could say I tripped and landed on my face, I knew I was clumsy but I doubt I
could cause this much damage to myself.
“What!” Seth turned to look at Micah.
“I did no such thing....there was this....err...”
“Rat. A massive rat. Micah took a swing at it and accidentally hit me instead, but on the plus side he
reckons it's not broken.”
I had covered for him which meant he owed me. I would get some answers from him. Hopefully.
But I was leaving tomorrow that didn’t give me much time.
“A rat, why are you all wet?”
“The bat was in my car,” Micah said. Seth nodded looking at my face he didn't look entirely
convinced though.
“Micah's right it doesn’t look broken. It just looks worse right now cause of the swelling and
blood.”
I got up and walked to the door, pausing.
“I'm going to jump in the shower and clean myself up,” I said, still dripping blood down my jumper.
“Mom's going to freak when she see this tomorrow. Who’s driving me back?”
“We'll deal with it tomorrow,” Seth said picking up my blood soaked cloths.
I left the kitchen doing my best to ignore Micah's eyes that were glued on me. I took a shower and
by the time I got out Seth was fast asleep on the couch snoring in front of the burning fire and
Micah was gone. I took some pain killers and settled down on the other couch.

The next morning I was shaken awake by Micah.
“What are you doing?” I asked, half asleep trying to push his hands off me.
“Shhh!” he said holding his finger to his lips and moving so I could see Seth still asleep on the other
couch.
He nodded his head towards the kitchen. I dragged myself up and into the kitchen. Micah slid the
sliding door shut as quietly as possible. I raised an eyebrow at him, wondering what he was up to.
The kitchen table was laid out for breakfast with pancakes, bacon, eggs and much more.
“Is this my apology?”
“Why is it working?” he said grinning.
“I dunno that depends on what my face looks like when I find a mirror,”
“Note to self, remove all mirrors from house,”
I hoped he was joking. “That bad huh?”
“Sit eat. I need to talk to you.” he pointed at the table.
I sat down and started loading a plate. He sat himself on top of the kitchen counter, picked up a
green energy drink and started unscrewing the cap.
“Aren’t you going to join me?”
He shook his head. “I'll just stick to this,”
He downed the rest of the bottle. “So, when Seth wakes up he's going to ask you to stay. I need you
to say yes.”
Not even close to what I expected him to say.
“I'm sorry. What?”
“You heard me fine Ruby, you didn't damage your ears last night just your nose.”
“Why would he do that? He knows mom's expecting me back like yesterday. Do you know how
mad she would be? How mad she already is. I'm set to start a new school on Monday,”
“I know as well as you that if he asked you to stay, you would say no because you think going back
home is the right thing to do even if it means being miserable. But what if I said going home wasn't
safe.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Look I know you're not going to stay even if you wanted to without a good enough reason. Seth
isn’t going to tell you that the real reason why he doesn’t want you going home is because you'll be
in danger. He's just hoping you'll want to stay anyway but I knew you'd need a good enough
reason.”
“But you haven’t given me one, all you've said is going home isn’t safe, I don’t even know what
that means? You're going to have to give me more to go on,”
“I can't talk about it, you'll just have to trust me.”
“Trust you. Are you kidding? You've been nothing but horrible to me, now you're asking me to stay
cause I’m what, in danger if I go home. To be honest I think I'd be safer if I went home.”
“I didn’t ask you to stay. Seth is going to ask you, I don't care what you do but Seth will and you're
going to say yes. Besides we all know you hate living with your mother and prefer it here.”
“What if I say no and go home anyway?”
He shrugged. “Well it's your choice. But if it means keeping you out of harms way for Seth, I may
have to lock you back in that cupboard if you make the wrong choice.”
By the way he was looking at me I actually believed he meant it.
“There’s things you're not telling me, things you know,”
He looked away and out the window.
“How come you haven't said anything to me about what I can do. I know you know,” I said,
casually filling my mouth with bacon half smiling half scowling at him.
“And what is it you think I know?”
“That I can read minds, correction I can read everyone's except yours. And who was that you were
talking to on your cell outside the diner? You were told to bring me back I want to know who by?”
“I knew you'd overheard that conversation, seriously is there anything you don’t know? You've
obviously been paying attention,”
He sat down on the other side of the table.
“Actually there’s a lot of things I don’t know, like how come I can hear what everyone else is
thinking but I can't hear you. Why not?”
“You need to stop this. You're going to get us all in trouble. The only reason I’m telling you any of
this is cause Seth's my friend and if anything happened to you he would be devastated. Do you
know how upset he was you never wrote back?”
“That wasn't my fault, mom hid the letters from me,”
“I know, but he cares a lot about you for some bizarre reason.”
We both heard Seth yawning louder than necessary. Micah stood and went over to the sink folding
his arms and trying his best not to look at me. I on the other couldn’t stop myself from staring back
at him. I was still digesting what he had just told me, not safe. What did he mean? At least now I
knew he was keeping secrets and if there was any reason for me to stay it would be to find out what
they were both hiding from me. Seth opened the sliding doors.
“What's going on here?” he asked yawning again.
“Just attending to the wounded,” Micah said, putting on his usual laid back tone which sounded
more like he was bored. Seth looked over at me and cringed.
Looks nasty,
I heard his thoughts. My hand automatically went to my face feeling my nose, which
was really sore I could feel the swelling had gone down but I probably looked like I had been
coloured in with a purple crayon, I was dreading the bathroom visit I would have to make in a
minute.
Seth joined me and started piling his plate up. Micah strolled into the other room, sat down and
switched the TV on, I doubted he was actually watching it.
“So when do we leave? I haven't even packed yet.”
“About that, I’ve been thinking maybe, I mean only if you want to. You could maybe stay, longer,”
“Stay, longer. What do you mean?”
“Well you've already made friends which are in the same year as you at school and all your stuff is
here already. You could try it for a while see how you get on, I mean if you didn’t want to go home
right away. Plus I’ve missed having you around, buts it up to you it's not like I can force you to
stay,” he joked taking a mouthful of orange juice to wash it down.
I glanced sideways at Micah he was tapping the remote on his leg he caught me looking at him and
gave me a sly smile he was waiting to hear my reply.
“What about mom? She's never going to agree to this and she's arranged for me to start at a new
school on Monday.”
“I can deal with mom and I’m sure they've got room at Heaven's Point High. You have seen the
town right it's not exactly overpopulated. So what do think about staying?”
Staying, was I really going to do this. Mom would probably never speak to me again. I would be
staying here, in this cabin surrounded by dense forest night after night with goodness knows what or
who lurking outside.
Staying meant seeing more of Micah, his crazy mood swings, his secrets and I wasn’t forgetting his
love of birds and that strange raven that kept reappearing.
The mystery boy in the woods that I couldn’t stop thinking about and I was pretty sure Seth and
Micah both knew him. I had lots of questions and unfortunately for me I knew Micah had all the
answers.
Going home wasn't safe was he really telling me the truth? Did I really trust the person behind those
strange blue eyes. I stood up and took my plate to the sink, Seth spun around in his chair waiting for
me to say something.
She's going to say no,
I heard his thoughts.
“You know I have made some really great friends this week and I can't think of a better reason to
stay, well apart from the fact I get to spend more time with my big brother,”
Seth was out of his chair in a flash holding me in a bear hug.
“Great I’ll ring mom tell her the good news.”
“Okay well I’m going to get dressed and see what the damage looks like,” I said walking out of the
kitchen.
Seth switched the radio on and went back to his food. Micah grabbed me by the wrist as I walked
past the couch.
“Well at least you don't have to worry about making new friends, it would have been a bit difficult
with that ugly face of yours,” he said smiling. I leaned over to him.
“The only reason I’m staying is because I have questions. A lot of them and I think you have all the
answers. And you will tell me.”
“We'll see,” he said looking back at the TV.
“Yes we will.” I stomped up the stairs he was so frustrating.
I couldn’t believe he had said I had an ugly face, it was his fault I looked like this in the first place.
Nothing would have prepared me for what I was about to see in the mirror. I looked terrible. I
highly doubted anyone would believe it was an accident, was I really going to tell people my
brothers crazy friend hit me while trying to kill a bird, no rat and he swung it behind him with a
little too much force and the bat happened to find my face. Maybe no one would ask? Yeah right.
Knowing my luck the school will alert the authority’s that I’m living in a dangerous environment
and have me moved back to my mother immediately. That was just one of the scenarios playing
thorough my head as I got dressed. I stood on the toilet to message Caitlin about staying in Heaven's
Point. I got a reply almost instantly.
No way, that's awesome let me know when you start at HPH Cx
The toilet seemed to be the only place in the cabin I could get service. When I went back downstairs
Seth was just hanging up the house phone.
“All sorted,” he said grinning.
“Really?”
“Sort of. You still have to ring her to confirm I haven’t kidnapped you. She seems to think I’m
holding you hostage and there’s no way you would want to live in the wilderness, those were her
words not mine.”
“I'll phone her tonight, hopefully she should of calmed by down,”
I spent the rest of the day unpacking, the hallway was full of empty boxes by the time I had
finished. I was dreading the call to mom and putting it off for as long as possible. Micah stayed all
day helping Seth with his truck. I stayed in my room and wrote a letter to Carly it was nice being
able to write everything down and I meant everything she was the one person I could be brutally
honest with. After I had finished my letter I went in search of an envelope and was lucky enough to
find one in a kitchen drawer. Micah strolled through to the fridge and grabbed a blue energy drink, I
saw him stash a load in there this morning to chill.
He was covered in grease I had never seen him look so, so normal. His hair was all messed up and
he had dirt on his face for once he didn’t look like a runway model.
“Do you know the address for this place? I need to add it to my letter so my friend Carly can write
back,”
“There isn’t one.” he replied taking the pen from me and scribbling something on a notepad from
the drawer.
“What do you mean there isn’t one, every place has an address?”
“Not this one, like I said before not many people know about this place, it's off the grid it doesn’t
come with an address. So you'll have to use this one instead.”
He handed the notepad back to me. He had written an address on it, but the only thing I recognised
was the towns name.
“Where's this?”
“Other side of town, the nicer side,”
“You mean the expensive side. Who's address is it?”
“Mine,”
“Yours or your parents?”
“Parents ha that’s a good one,”
He laughed but I didn’t understand what was so funny. He walked back out still amused by what I
had said. Maybe they disowned him or something I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if that was
the case.
Micah left shortly after. Seth and I made macaroni cheese for dinner and I ended up sharing half of
mine with the dog as he could easily reach my plate on the table. I phoned mom after dinner
dreading the worst.
She was a mixture between really really angry and well just angry. She didn’t even mention the fact
that she would miss me, thanks mom. By the end of the conservation I felt like she would be better
off without me being there, having one less mouth to feed. The telephone call to mom had left me
mentally drained but I knew deep down I wanted to stay here.
My brother and Micah were better company than I ever got at home with mom who I hardly saw
and Frank who really wasn’t interested in anything other than baseball and beer. Seth said he would
ring school before work tomorrow and sort everything out. I went to bed around ten, I was asleep
the second my head hit the pillow.

The next morning I opened my eyes shocked to see the clock staring back at me, which read
11.45am. Wow, I must have really been tired, why hadn't Seth woken me already. Wasn’t I starting
school today?
I made a quick trip to the bathroom then hurried downstairs. Micah was sat at the table cleaning
what looked like a shotgun. But what I found stranger was he was dressed in casual clothes scruffy
jeans a chequered shirt and boots, not his usual very expensive looking black get up I was used to.
“Why do you have that?”
“I was thinking I could start a new hobby. Maybe hunting, maybe bird hunting, the birds round here
are becoming a massive nuisance.”
I just stared at him unsure whether I liked the idea of Micah with a gun. Definitely not. I was just
hoping we wouldn’t have any gun incidents like the bat incident. I sat on the other side of the table
unable to take my eyes off of it.
“Are you sure you're allowed that? You know with your personality,” I said my voice trailing off as
he raised his eyebrow at me.
Probably not the best thing to say to someone holding a gun.
“Where did you get it?”
“It was just lying around in the garage, I thought it might come in handy. Anyway it's not for me
silly, it's for you.”
“What?” It came out as a high pitched squeak.
“Well you made such a big fuss the other night, 'Micah there’s a scary person outside the window
he's going to get me, save me Micah',” he was laughing putting on a girls voice.
He obviously didn’t believe me about what I saw and now he was making fun of me.
“I don't sound like that and I don't need saving especially not by you. I can take care of myself.”
“Personally I think you imagined the whole thing both times, but still this is just a precaution.”
“Both times?” I said waiting for his reaction.
He was slipping I’d never told anyone else about the other time by the river when I had seen
someone on the other side, the only person that knew about that was the boy who had walked me
home.
“Hmm,” he said, pretending he hadn’t heard me.
“Micah you just said both times, I never told you or Seth about the other time I saw someone in the
woods. The only person I told was that boy,” Micah cut me off. “So you're going to have to learn to
shoot this thing, I was thinking maybe we could find a deer or....”
“Gross no. I’m not shooting Bambi or anything else for that matter, knowing my luck I’ll probably
end up shooting myself in the foot. No guns period!”
“Would you prefer something different, smaller perhaps, easier to handle maybe a bit more prettier.
I can look but I don’t think they sell ones with rhinestones,”
“What no. I don’t want a gun, I’m not shooting a gun. I think I’ll take my chances anyway you
never seem to leave this place you can use it if anyone scary turns up. Where’s Seth? I need
someone normal to talk to.”
“He went to work,”
“Well did he ring school? When do I start? Oh no mom changed her mind didn't she, you're here to
deport me back home.”
“Actually no, as much as I’d love to get rid of you that's not happening any time soon. Seth had to
leave for work a little earlier than expected so he asked me to ring the school.”
“Well what did they say?”
“It's all fine, but they still want to confirm with your mother as she is your legal guardian, but
otherwise you're set to start tomorrow. I've already messaged Seth, he's going to ring her on his
lunch break. There are a few forms you need to fill in,”
He stuck his thumb in the direction of the counter. I picked up the paperwork and started flicking
through the pages I looked at Micah.
“You've already filled most of it in,”
“I got bored waiting for you.”
I quickly scanned the pages everything looked fine the only thing he hadn’t filled in was allergies or
medication.
“It's got here as emergency contact, Micah Greenwood. I'm pretty sure you're the last person I want
turning up at the school or hospital in an emergency.”
“It makes sense with Seth working, I seemed like the best option.”
“What you don't work?” I asked, adding my brothers name to the emergency contacts next to
Micah's.
“I didn’t say that, I have flexible hours.”
“So what do you do?”
“You need to get dressed so I can take you into town. The school gave me a list of books you will
need,” he ignored my question. “I'll be waiting outside.”
He propped the gun up next the the fridge and left.
I quickly got myself washed and dressed. My face looked awful but there was no point trying to
cover it up, it would probably take half a bottle of concealer and I wasn’t to keen on the stuff. I just
brushed some mascara on I don’t know why, it's not like I would bump into anyone I knew and my
bruising was enough to put anyone off.
I ate breakfast watching Micah play fetch with the dog in the back garden.
“You ready to go?” he called over having seen me at the window.
I nodded.
I noticed Seth had taken his bike today leaving the truck behind.
“We're taking this truck,” he said climbing into Seth's truck. I followed and hopped in next to him.
“Why can't we take your truck?”
“Because people know that’s my truck.”
“Well obviously if you drive it. You're saying you don’t want to be noticed, is that why you're
dressed like a dodgy cowboy?” I couldn't help but laugh.
“What’s wrong with the way I look?”
“Nothing you look great, except you forgot your hat” I couldn't resist and I couldn’t help the giggles
that were erupting from inside.
“I borrowed these from Seth, I was trying to blend in,” he said, reversing the truck out.
“So you're basically you're wearing a disguise and you don't want to be seen in your truck or is it
you don’t want to be seen with me. You know how weird that all sounds?”
“It can sound as weird as it wants.”
“You know you're going to have to tell me what’s going on soon or I might just have to do some
digging and figure it all out on my own.”
“Ruby, we talked about this it's best for all of us if you don't ask questions,”
“No that's what you decided,”
He switched the radio on.
“Why won't you tell me what's going on?”
He looked over at me, shaking his head. “I can't. Seth's your brother he has to tell you. He'll have a
melt down if he thinks I've been telling you things, he'd probably use that gun on me if I told you.
And lets be honest you'd miss me.” he smiled half joking.
“Well I'll just ask Seth then when he gets back later,”
“I'd rather you didn't, he thinks you're still this naive little girl dreaming of ponies and fairies. But
clearly you're not a little girl anymore,”
“Do you know why I’m like this? Why I can read minds? I’m not an alien am I?”
I was about ninety nine percent positive I wasn't but I wanted to get his attention.
“I don't know. What colour is your skin under those clothes?” he asked, grinning at me.
“I'm going to say the same as yours,”
“What can I say, you are what you are. Which is not an alien they definitely don't exist.”
“That's it you're not going to give me a clue. It's not like I’ve waited my entire life to find out why
I’m like this. No it's fine you're right I can wait a few more weeks.” I said sarcastically.
“That's the spirit,”
“Well, when is Seth going to tell me anything?”
“I think he's waiting until you turn eighteen.”
“That's nearly two months away,”
He shrugged, as if he couldn't care less.
“You're weird and you keep secrets,” I said scowling at him.
“Well no one's perfect.”
We drove in silence the rest of the way.
When we arrived in town I posted my letter and when I returned to the truck I found Micah lazily
leaning up against it but only now he was wearing a cowboy hat.
“Where did you get that?”
“What you don't like it?”
“You look ready for rodeo,” I said crossing the road to the book store.
The book store was quite modern looking inside, not what I was expecting for this town. I found the
area I was looking for and carefully browsed along the rack for the book on the list. I glanced
around looking for Micah but instead I noticed a few people looking at me and quickly turning their
heads away.
Micah strolled up to me with his nose in a book. I looked at the front cover it was a cook book,
Italian I think.
“Why are you looking at that? I never see you eat anything anyway. All you do is drink those funky
coloured energy drinks.”
He leaned back against the rack next to me.
“Actually I love cooking it passes the time which I have a lot of and I haven’t heard you
complaining you eat everything I put in front of you. I'm surprised you’ve managed to keep your
figure you eat like a pig,”
The woman nearest us overheard him and shook her head moving away.
“Micah have you noticed people staring?”
“Yeah I have that affect on humans, you'll get used to it.”
“Not you, you idiot. They look at me and then start staring at you. I think everyone thinks you did
this, on purpose.”
I gestured to my face. He looked up and glanced around catching the eyes of an older couple closest
to us, they looked almost worried when they saw him looking at them.
“Na I think they're just looking at me. Like I said I have that affect on humans they can't
comprehend why I'm so dashingly handsome.” he said snapping the book shut.
“Ugg!” I walked away from him and over to the counter.
Even the girl behind the till was giving us weird looks. She rung up the bill, which was scary to say
the least for some books. I reached for my bag but before I could even pull out my purse Micah had
already handed over a card to the girl.
“What are you doing?”
“Lets just call this another apology for the whole face thing,” he said, not looking at me, but instead
was looking at the sale rack next to us. “Beauty sleep, huh, I never understand why they call it that.
You still wake up a day older and in your case looking like the local troll.” he said grinning.
He was looking at a book titled sleeping. He smiled at the girl behind the till and walked out.
“Err thanks,” I said, grabbing the bag.
“You know you shouldn’t let him treat you like that.” she said looking at me concerned.
I quickly left and followed him back to the truck and watched him climb in, he soon climbed back
out when he realised I wasn't joining him.
“Seriously what is wrong with you? Have you got some sort of personality disorder?”
“What?” He walked over to me.
“One minute you're being part normal the next you're insulting me. What have I ever done to you?”
“What, where did this come from?”
“Micah in the space of five minutes you somehow managed to call me a pig and a troll, you are
extremely rude.”
“You're being silly, will you just get in the truck so we can go already,”
“No I’ve decided to walk back.”
I turned and and started walking off in the direction I thought was home. I didn't know what had
come over me but I had, had enough of him for one day there was only so much I would put up
with.
“Ruby, you can't walk home alone,” he said walking quickly to catch up with me.
“Watch me.”
“You probably won't even make it back by dark. You'll get lost.”
“Well I’ll take my chances, I think I’d rather be eaten by a bear then get back in the car with you,”
“I'm not going to let you walk home alone, so why don't you stop being so childish and get in the
truck,”
“Or what you're going to lock me in the trunk,”
A crooked smile crept onto his face. “It had crossed my mind.”
“I'd like to see you try. We're in the middle of town surrounded by people and you haven't heard
how loud I can scream.”
Any smile he had on his face was suddenly wiped clean off with that last comment. He looked
around, our little conversation had already caused quite a few heads to turn in our direction.
“Fingers crossed you get eaten then, it would make my life easier.” he said spinning around and
walking back to the truck.
I carried on walking turning my head away as he drove past. I did have a plan I wasn’t stupid.
I didn't plan on walking all the way home he was right I probably would get lost. I would just
follow the road out of town along the forest edge until I came to a small diner, I had seen it a few
times on each trip into town. I would then message Seth and wait there until he finished work and
picked me up. Hopefully he wouldn't be working too late today.
I looked at my cell 1.50pm. It would probably take me over an hour to reach the diner it was quite a
way out of town.
I put my earbuds in, this wasn't so bad I was getting some exercise in the lovely fresh air and
enjoying the scenery even if it was just tree after tree. A few cars passed by now and then but
otherwise the strip of road was lonely. A black motorcycle rode by a few times in different
directions, I was sure it was the same one.
The diner came into view just as the heavens decided to split wide open. I put my hood up and
trudged through the rain the rest of the way. By the time I got through the door I felt like a sponge
having absorbed all the rain water from outside, my boots had also taken on water and now felt ten
times heavier.
Inside the diner the walls were turquoise cluttered with old photos and posters. There looked to be
only one customer, a young waitress was talking to him topping up his drink. There was an older
lady behind the counter who smiled at me as I made my way to a table. I opted for cheesy fries and
a soda, all that walking had worked up an appetite.
I messaged Seth while I waited.
Hey, Can you pick me up on the way home, I’m at Eggy's Diner-small
blue diner near home. Ruby
Five minutes went by and my cell beeped. Message from Seth.
I finish at 4 where is Micah?
Long story, explain later.
Sure will swing by cabin to collect truck first,see you soon.
I had forgotten he'd gone to work on his bike this morning.
The waitress returned with my soda.
“Fries shouldn't be to long hun,” she said placing it on the table.
“Thanks,”
I watched the out the window as the sky grew darker and the rain fell even harder. In the midst of it
all I saw a bird land on the outside menu board. It was the raven, it sat ruffling it's feathers shaking
off the rain. I grabbed the menu and hid behind it, waited then slowly peeked over the top. The bird
had moved closer and was now sitting on the window ledge inches away from me the only thing
dividing us was the glass.
“Seriously, stop following me,” I said, banging the menu against the window.