Fallen Chapter Three

 

                         Chapter Three

 

    “What do you mean powerful? What are you talking about?!” I couldn’t comprehend what he was saying to me. What kind of power was he talking about? Like the power of presence, did I stand out in a crowd? Did people listen to me when I talked? No, that wasn’t right, people usually ignored me when I was in a room or when I was speaking.

   “I mean, you have power and lots of it. You can get anything that you want with just a word or a gesture. You can have your every hearts desire granted to you in a minute.”

 I didn’t know what to say. I had plopped down on the bed as soon as he began his little speech and now the room was spinning in a circle and I couldn’t catch my breath the right way. I definitely thought that Cooper was crazy now and for a moment I thought that I was crazy a well because for a moment there I believed him. I wanted to believe him so much that it was painful. To have anything that I wanted, at anytime, anywhere?! That was stuff that you find in fantasy books and movies; it wasn’t real, it couldn’t be real.

   “I think you’re crazy! What are you saying that I am some kind of magician or witch or whatever?! Those things aren’t real, they are just made-up. Is this some kind of sick joke?” I was flailing my arms around, shouting my denial, “What do you take random people out of the woods and then tell them this line and when they believe you, you just laugh at them, and then torture them to death!”

   “No, no, no that’s not how it is at all,” he was standing again, pleading concern deep in his dark eyes, “You really are powerful and no you aren’t a witch, magician or whatever. You are One of Eight, you are a Falling Star, you and the others were sent to earth to protect us from the Raging Light. You fell from the sky a hundred years ago to stop the light but something went wrong and you didn’t awake like the others. The others have been searching a hundred years for you and when I saw you three years ago in the museum I knew it was you. I could see the shine behind your light blue eyes, see it radiating through your skin. You have to understand that there has to be an equal amount of light to dark in the world for it to function but something happened and now the light is over-powering the dark. Not all dark is bad and you are proof of that…” he let himself trail off as he caught my expression; I was on the verge of tears and hysterics.

  “Please don’t cry, I know that I sound crazy and you’re just getting over the shock of what Oscar did to you but please understand you are a Falling Star, One of Eight. You must stop the light from taking over. The light isn’t good anymore; all it wants is power and control.”

    “Your talking about light and dark as if they were real people, like the exist. Light is just that light, nothing more, nothing less. The dark is just the absence of light, nothing more, nothing less,” I wasn’t sure how I contained the hysterical laughter that threatened to break free of my chest but I did it and I tried to think logically. I needed that logic; I worked in a museum for a reason. I knew all about evolution and man kinds’ history, I believed in that evolution, I believed in that history. I wasn’t going to allow this crazy guy to just come along and take all that away from me. I couldn’t, I needed it to much. It was the only thing that kept me away from Oscar; it was the only thing that kept me safe from all the beatings I would have gotten.

    “You can’t take that away from me, you can’t take the one thing that I hold dear to my heart away from me, not now, not when I’ve finally gotten away from Oscar. I have the chance to start over, to get away,” I was pleading with Cooper again, why didn’t he understand?

    With tears streaming down my face I ran to the stranger that was trying to take my life away from me. I threw myself in to his strong arms and wept; I felt like such a fool. I can’t believe I was letting him get to me this way. Oscar was right, I’m weak and I can’t do anything right. I couldn’t even be afraid the right way; throwing myself at my capturer, believing him when he says that I was someone special when clearly I wasn’t.

    “You are not a weak person,” he whispered in to my ear, his breath tickling the skin on my throat, some how reading my mind, “You are someone special, you are someone who will help save the world. You must believe me!” I could feel his arms constrict around my shoulders and I did want to believe him. In this moment I wanted to believe that I was destined for something more than this, more than the everyday. I could feel my resolve shake and with one more small squeeze from Cooper and what was left of my mental resolve crashed and I did believe him.

  Cooper held me for what seemed like a life time; just silently patting my hair, even after I had stopped crying in to his shirt. I could smell Cooper’s shirt, the smell reminded me of the forest after a warm ran; dank and musty but fresh and earthy. I found myself breathing deeper and taking in his scent. I checked myself mentally and pulled slowly away, I could feel the reluctance in my and his limbs as we let go of each other. He stood and walked from the room but I could here him rummaging in the kitchen and then the sound of running water so I knew he wouldn’t be gone long. Just the thought of him coming back made me fell a mixture of relief and confusion. I must be going crazy! I knew I was right when he walked around the corner with not only a glass of water but a sandwich in his hands. I felt my stomach constrict with hunger, I hadn’t realized that I was so hungry until I actually saw the turkey sandwich.

   “I thought you might be hungry, so I made you this earlier. You slept for a really long time, I thought you had died,” he laughed a little awkwardly remembering the recent disaster, “I mean, I didn’t know anyone could sleep that long. Even when I picked you up and moved you to the bed, I kind of jostled you a bit and then with taking off the cuffs but you just kept on snoring, which by the way, you look really cute when you snore.”

   “I didn’t!” I was mortified that I had snored in front of him, how lame was I! 

   “Don’t worry it was only a little, and not for very long.” He was trying, after placing all the weight of the world on my shoulders, to lighten the mood in the tense room. I smiled weakly to show him that I appreciated his attempt and he smiled slightly back.

   “How long was I asleep for?”

    “Three days, like I said I don’t know anyone who could sleep that long.” He had said the words but I still didn’t believe him. I’ve been asleep for three days; how can that be right.

     “Wow, I didn’t think I was that tired, I only fell asleep so I wouldn’t have to talk to you,” I didn’t know why I felt ashamed for telling him this, “I mean then, when I thought you were just keeping me so you could torture me.” I tried to make a joke but it fell flat and I reserved myself to eating.

 It was quiet in the room for a while why I ate and drank. We really had nothing to say to each other; not right now anyway.

  After I had finished my sandwich and water I used the bathroom. Cooper took my dishes to the kitchen and to my astonishment he didn’t follow me to the bathroom. He wasn’t afraid that I would take off anymore and I wouldn’t, not now, not ever. I found that thought a little dramatic but that is just how I felt; I didn’t want to leave Cooper for anything. As I came out of the bathroom Cooper was just sitting down at the writing desk so I sat down on the small brown couch. Cooper smiled over at me and I felt my face pull up in a smile in response. I hadn’t realized how dormant those muscles were until I winced in pain and then I remembered that Oscar had punched me. I didn’t see a mirror in the bathroom or any where else so I moved my fingers along the hollow under my eye to feel for any tender spots. I did find a tender spot, my whole eye. My eye throbbed with pain and I stopped the prodding before I made myself cry. Cooper was watching while I examined my eye and I could see the sadness in his eyes; probably remembering that he had also caused me pain.

   “Sorry about hitting you on the head,” Cooper’s voice was thick with sadness, “but you wouldn’t stop screaming and thrashing about. I didn’t want to take the chance of Oscar searching the woods for you and hearing you screaming.”

  “It’s ok. I would have done the same thing in your position,” I was trying to take that look of despair from his eyes; “I actually thought you were a wild man.”

   “A wild man?”

   “Yeah you know, who took that girl about a year ago from the woods. Well it was probably just a bear or wolf but everyone in town says that it was the wild man that lives in the woods, stealing girls and murdering them.” I was to busy thinking about my story to see the slight tightening of Cooper’s face, so when I turned back to him I was surprised to see the serious expression on his face.

   “What’s wrong?”

   “The girl you are referring to was taken but not by any animal in the forest, she was taken by the Light to use as a vessel. A messenger, to relay that the Light has the upper hand, that He will do whatever He wants to gain as much power as He can.”

 I didn’t know what to say, how could the Light just take someone away from her life, away from her family but wasn’t that exactly what the Dark was taking away from me? I had to give up everything that I knew to fulfill a destiny I didn’t know I had. I thought the rest of my life would be spent cowering in fear and defeat from a man that I thought I loved. I guess this path was the better of the two options but I still didn’t know how I felt about it. I didn’t know anything about the fight for power between the Light and Dark. I didn’t even know who I was any more or who Cooper was.

  “Who exactly are you? How do you know all of this? How do you know so much about me and my life?” The questions tumbled from my lips without any time for Cooper to answer.

   “I am a Star watcher, I was assigned to you. To keep you safe, to keep you off of the Light’s radar. I guess I didn’t do a very good job, I mean I let Oscar almost kill you and then I knock you out,” he was beating himself up for something that I made necessary, I scooted over on the couch so I could put my hand on his, he smiled and continued, “Ever since I saw you in the museum I’ve been following you, not every second but when you moved up here and when you quit your job, I was there watching you. That was hard for me to see, when you quit, I could see you crying as you got in to the truck but I couldn’t do anything about it. I wanted to kill Oscar for what he was making you do, what he made necessary.”

  “You must have been so bored, just watching me. I can’t believe I never noticed you before.”

  “I am very good at my job, I don’t stand out in a crowd and I live in the middle of the woods so why would you have seen me?”

   “But you do stand out, you are so good looking and much cleaner than any of the guy around here,” I could feel the heat rise in my face, I took my hand back and looked at the ground, “I mean I’m positive I would have seen you in town.”

    “Thank you but no you wouldn’t, you didn’t. I’ve actually bumped in to you at the gas station more than once and asked you the time at the restaurant; all those times you never looked twice.”

     I was shocked at how many times I’ve actually seen him and didn’t look again. I guess it was just the fact that I belonged to another man and Oscar would have thought that I was having an affair with the stranger I gave the time to.   

    “Don’t feel bad, it’s my job to blend in. I wouldn’t be a very good Watcher if you’ve seen me too many times and started to recognize me. That would have been a disaster. To have a Watcher discovered, I would have been reassigned and the Light would have found you.” He was so sure of what he was saying, that if another Watcher was assigned to me that all would have been lost for me.

  “Don’t miss understand, the other Watchers are very good and we haven’t lost a Falling Star but I don’t think another could handle the fact that Oscar was beating you every day, they would have blown their cover. The Light searches for us Watchers, knowing we are never too far from our Stars.” Cooper had all the conviction of a dedicated cop, he believed in what he was saying and I found that I did too; how odd?

   “Okay but what about right now, I’m with you and nothing has happened in the…” I couldn’t believe that I had been with Cooper for 5 days, “5 days we’ve been together. What about that?”

   “This ‘shack’ as you called it,” he gave me sly look and once again I had a feeling that he could read my mind, “is protected, but it won’t last much longer. I need to know that you believe me, that you will come with me?”

  I thought about what he was asking me, to leave what I know and just except that I have this destiny and just embrace it. I didn’t know if I believed completely but I did know that, for some reason, I didn’t want to be away from Cooper, so with my mind made up, “I will come with you but I don’t know if I believe you just yet, this is all to crazy right now.”

   Cooper’s face lit up as I said the words and I was happy to have made him happy.

  “It’s okay, you will. So lets get going, we have to catch a ride to town and then make plans to get to Mississippi. That is where the others wait for us.” Wow, Mississippi! I’ve never been anywhere besides Portland, I couldn’t believe I was going all the way to Mississippi.

   

Reviews

[Brandon]

I'm loving your twist on things with the "light" representing the bad guy and the "dark" representing the good guy. Very original if you ask me. Keep up the great work!

[Ron B]

I'm not much on science fiction but this doesn't have that "feel." The falling stars, light vs. dark and watchers seems quite plausible. Not only that, but you transitioned it very well. Bravo. I like this.

[Mr. Lopez]

I'm really enjoying your story. How easily the story moves along with much care in the details. I like a story that goes from such realistic situations to fantasy. Looking forward to finishing all the chapters. I am hooked !

[ShadowWolf]

I like the way you have moved so easily into the "fantasy" of this story!

[Chistie]

This is so far my favorite Chapter, don't know why though!!

[emmajoy]

Yet again, the story moves on at such an incredibly imaginative pace. Now the character of Cooper takes on something completely new and unexpected. You've introduced a wonderful twist to the story, a fantasy no less... and, i'm wondering, a special and good one...

You've really drawn me in with your story... more people need to read it too... Go onto other people's pages, leave a review and hope they come read this, it deserves to be read, it really does.

Must away now, but, tomorrow is another day... I can't wait to read more.

Thank you so much for sharing.

[Xfaerie corpseX]

wow....i love this story...its amazing....but its a little funny. i mean theres nothing wrong with this part but after all shes been through and all shes realizing, shes looking forward to going to mississippi