All We Know Is Falling: Fall With Me: Volume One (13 page)

I was more upset than I should have been when I found that Hale wasn’t in school on Monday. I wasn’t sure what was wrong but I guessed that he was sick. I texted him but he never got back to me.

I went through the day alone and it felt so strange. It was normal for me, but it felt wrong now. I missed the annoying boy that became a friend.

The day passed slowly as I waited for the text that never came. Walter texted though. He said he was still doing alright and he’d call again soon. So, one less thing to worry about.

Dottie seemed to be adjusting well. She was always around a group of girls that were happy to have her back. Old friends. I was happy that they hadn’t abandoned her.

She didn’t try talking to me again, and I didn’t catch her looking at me. Thankfully, she didn’t seem aware I was even at the school. I was more than happy with that.

I made progress on Brooks. I’d spotted him with Kenna during lunch. I planned on finding him after school to talk to him, but he’d driven off before I could get to him. Whatever, I’d find him again. And I’d find that file to burn it.

After school, I popped down to Hell, as usual.

“Afternoon,” I heard from the homeless man on the bench. “Nice day?”

I turned. “Not really. My friend was gone.”

He nodded. “I know. He’ll be back tomorrow. Prepare for that. Keep in mind, you’re not the issue.”

“What do you mean?”

He sighed and crossed his legs. “I can’t give you all the answers, my dear. Just remember that tomorrow.”



The Sage’s words came back to me when Hale walked into the classroom. His eyes were like nothing I’ve ever seen. It looked like he hadn’t slept in days. Or rested at all. He sat down and I wasn’t sure he even knew he was in the room.

“What happened?” I asked, not giving him a chance to settle.

His voice was weary and he didn’t look at me, “Nothing, Lamb. Don’t worry about it.”

“Bullshit. It’s not nothing. You look wrecked.”

“Thank you…” His back hit the chair and I stared at his face. His skin was paler than normal and he looked drained of every ounce of life in him.

“Please,” was all I had to say to him.

He looked at me with a soft expression. “Family issues, darling. I really don’t want you worrying.”

“Too late, sweetie.” Any chance of me not being worried went right out the window when I saw his face.

He offered a small smile and held one of my hands. “Really, this isn’t for you. It’s more than I think you should have to deal with.”

Hale glanced around the room before he looked back to me. “My brother never came home on Friday.”

My stomach dropped. “Your little brother?” He nodded. “Do you know why he might not have come home?”

He hesitated again before he told me. “He’s…troubled. And it’s because of me.” His eyes traveled the room again. I got the impression he didn’t want to open up here.

I held his hand and stood up, grabbing my backpack. “Come on,” I tugged on his hand. He looked up at me, blankly. But he stood, and I walked him to the door.

“Excuse me,” Mr. Dixon said. “What are you two doing?”

“Leaving,” I said.

He shrugged. “This class isn’t for you to take when you please, Miss Flynn.”

I clicked my tongue. “It is today.” I brought Hale out to the parking lot.

“What are you doing?” he asked me.

I opened his door and sat him down. “I’m going to help you find him. And you’re going to tell me why he didn’t come home.” I moved around to the passenger side. “Talk.”

He continued. “Before I came here, I was different. Self-destructive. And my brother saw me at my worst. There was a lot of drinking, a lot of girls.” I winced at that but he didn’t see. “Other things. I was hurting, so I tried drowning it in other things. And it worked for a while.”

“Why’d it stop working?”

“Your body adjusts to painkillers when taken consistently over time. And it was a long while that I was using those painkillers. They never did much for me. Hollow girls only distract you for so long.”

I looked at the dashboard. “Yeah…”

I felt his hand on my shoulder and his fingertips moved along the skin revealed by my dress. “I don’t do that anymore. I don’t do any of it. I haven’t been with anyone since before I met you.”

I looked at him and desperately held back tears. “It’s none of my business.”

“Isn’t it?”

“No. Finish your story,” I sat up straighter and he moved his hand away.

“After our father, died, Ethan wasn’t the same. He’d picked up my habits and a few other ones. Drinking daily and drugs far worse than I’ve ever dared to do.”

“He’s been like this for how long?”

“A couple years. Our older brother and sister in law try and take care of him, but sometimes it gets out of hand. He’s made new friends here and I think they’ve introduced him to some new things.”

I though for a few seconds. He’d mentioned before that his brother was fifteen. So he was a freshman. A freshman wouldn’t necessarily get into that much trouble. At least not with the heavy stuff. “Are his friends older than him?”

He shrugged. “I’ve never met them.”

“Do you have his phone?”

He blinked and nodded. “He left it in my car. I think so I wouldn’t call him.” He popped the glove box and I grabbed the phone from it. “What are you going to do?”

“Odds are that his friends are in his contacts. If we can find one, maybe they’ll know where he is.”

I started shuffling through the mess of contacts. Most only had one name or a couple letters in some kind of code. I couldn’t make sense of any of it, so I checked his calls list. One name popped up a half a dozen times last week.

“Damn it,” I sighed.

“What?”

I showed him. “See the one marked Wormwood?” He nodded. “Ethan keeps calling him. And,” I hesitated on saying the next part, “there’s a good chance he’s his dealer.”

Hale swallowed and nodded. “Yeah, probably.” He stared down at the steering wheel. “I just need to find my brother. He could be overdosing somewhere and I’d never know.”

I grabbed him and pulled him to me. “I promise you that we’re going to find him today. I won’t go home until you’ve got him back.”

He put his hands on my back and buried his face in the spot between my neck and shoulder. “We’ve been looking for him for days, Rory. He’s gone.”

He didn’t have what I had. I could track Ethan. If I was lucky. If I could find his specific strain of corruption, then I could find him anywhere. But since I’ve never met him, I’ve never seen his shade. That might pose as a problem.

I pulled up the contact in his phone and hit call.

“What are you doing?” Hale looked at the phone but held onto me with one hand.

“I’m seeing what this guy knows,” I hit the speakerphone button. “He’s most likely not in class, so he’ll pick up.”

It rang for a few seconds before a groggy sounding boy answered. “Out already, E?” he laughed. Hale winced at the confirmation that the dealer just gave us.

“Um, this isn’t Ethan. I’m his girlfriend.”

Another laugh. “Well, hate to break it to you, baby, but I’m not sure he knows that he’s got a girlfriend. Last time I saw him he went home with one of my friends.”

“It’s an open relationship. That’s not why I’m calling.”

“Ah, what can I do for you, honey?”

I thought for a second. “Ethan wanted me to pick up something from you. Can I meet you somewhere?”

“Absolutely,” I could practically hear him leering. “Where do you wanna meet up?”

I looked to Hale and he shrugged. “Do you know where that old theater is? The one that had that fire?”

I heard him humming on the phone. “I believe I do. An hour sound good to you?”

“Sure.” We hung up and I tucked the phone in my dress pocket.

I glanced back to Hale and his hands were gripping the wheel so hard that his knuckles were white. I gently removed his hands so that he wouldn’t hurt himself. He threw his head back into the headrest.

“Hale, I know this might be hard, but stay calm. We’re going to find him and he’ll be alright. Just try and focus on something else.”

He looked back at me with exhaustion. “Like what?”

“I don’t know. What makes you happy when you think about it?”

He smiled crookedly and twirled a lock of my hair around his finger. “Silly question.”

“Okay. Then just think of that. And let me drive.”

We switched seats and I turned the car on. The car ride was quiet as we drove down the road. I knew exactly where I was going, so I didn’t need my powers yet.

I didn’t have much of a plan past grilling the guy. I was hoping that he’d know something but I doubted it. He wasn’t his friend. Friends don’t sell kids drugs.

I pulled into the empty parking lot and turned the car off. From the outside, you’d never know that the place nearly burnt down. The real damage was on the inside. The concession stand had caught fire. Specifically the popcorn machine. Everyone got out safely but the fire spread to all of the screening rooms on the left side of the place.

“Stay here,” I said as I popped the car door open. His opened and slammed shut before I’d even rounded the back of the truck.

He stood in front of me with his arms crossed. “You think I’m letting you go in there alone? That guy in there might hurt you.”

I almost laughed but his worry was sweet. It wasn’t his fault that he was unaware of how strong I was. Demon strength was a Hell of a thing but antichrist strength was something else. No human would stand a chance against one of us.

“What if he sees you and flips out? He might bolt and then we won’t get any information.”

“I’m not letting you go in alone,” he said and I knew he wouldn’t budge.

I rolled my eyes. “Fine. Lets go,” I lightly shoved him and we started moving.

I wasn’t too sure about the security around here, so I focused on wrapping my aura around Hale and I so that I could conceal us from any human eyes. So long as we didn’t make too much noise. I couldn’t exactly tell Hale that, so the worry in his eyes remained.

We got around to the back door and I jiggled the metal handle. It was locked, of course. But that never kept me out of a room. I broke the handle off and kicked open the door.

Hale looked surprised. “Well, remind me to never get on your bad side.”

I fixed my dress and said, “Good idea.” We walked into the darkened building.

The windows were all covered in old soot, obscuring most of the light that the sun would give. And it was clear that the guy wasn’t here yet. I walked over to the ticket taking counter and hopped up. It was so high that it made me a couple heads taller than Hale when I sat down.

He stood beside me and started fidgeting with the hem of my short dress. I think he was just trying to distract himself more. I couldn’t imagine his head was a very nice place to be right now.

I ran my fingers through his hair so he’d look at me. “Everything is going to be fine.”

He sighed weakly. “You sound sure of yourself.”

“I am.”

“I’m not. I’m petrified about what we might find out today. Ethan might be de—”

I covered his mouth with my hand. “Stop it. He’s not dead. He’s just lost. And we’ll find him.” He rested his head against my hip and kept missing with my skirt. “Didn’t I tell you to think happy thoughts? Why aren’t you doing that?”

He smiled. “Because my happy place involves us somewhere far nicer than this. Somewhere you deserve to be taken.”

“And?”

He looked up at me and smiled wider, “And, if you must know, you’d be underneath me crying out my name over and over again.”

My face burned and my eyes were locked on his. I was worried that if I tried to talk, my voice would be shaky. So I came up with something mouthy to say, “I highly doubt I’d scream.” My eyes were narrowed and I focused on not jumping him.

His eyebrows shot up. “Are you doubting my skills or just doubting you’d enjoy it?”

I looked away. “Neither. I just don’t think I’m obnoxious enough to be that loud.”

“Neither? Oh, Lamb, you said so much in that one word.”

“Shut up,” I crossed my arms. “Of course you’re probably good at it. God knows how many girls you’ve been through.”

He moved in front of me. “Jealous too. I like a girl who gets jealous. Or possessive.” He put his hand on the outside of my leg and slowly started moving it up.

I could kick him. He was well within range. But he was distracted from his brother and I didn’t want to take away what was doing it. Yeah, let’s go with that.