Fallen Chapter Four

 

Chapter Four

 

 Cooper didn’t want to take just one form of transportation, he said it was to confuse the Light but I think he just wanted to delay our arrival. At least that’s what I wanted it to be. So we took our time, we took a train down through Oregon, California and then cut across to Nevada but we were so far south that we weren’t there for very long. The train ride took a really long time to get to Arizona and I found myself relishing the time that Cooper and I had together. I tried not to think about our destination to much; I might start to panic and rethink my decision, so I decided to just not think about it. Cooper had bought me some new clothes in Portland, where we caught the train, so now I had a bag that I had to lug around with me, he also had a bag but where it came from I had no idea. I never saw one at the ‘shack’ and I only noticed it when we boarded the train.

 “How do you pay for everything?” I had asked as he paid for my pile of clothes.

   “Watchers are supplied with everything they need, money included. You could think of it as a pay check but I would take care of you even without the money.” He had caught me off guard with his sudden confession and I had blushed from my toes up to my forehead.

   “Oh, well okay, t-thank you?” I stuttered as I grabbed one of the bags off of the counter, I really didn’t know what to say to that.

 We were in Phoenix when it happened. We were just getting off of the train; I was staring at the back of Cooper’s carefully placed hair wondering how much longer we had alone together when a man grabbed me from behind. He put his had over my mouth so I couldn’t scream but I felt my foot connect with the door. Hopefully Cooper would hear the sound; the man was dragging me back toward the cabins. I didn’t have the arm strength to over power the man’s strong, rough hands. The hand that he had clamped on my face reeked of a fire and sweat. His body was pressed hard against mine as he struggled to keep a hold of my flailing body. I may not be strong enough to break his hold on me but I was strong enough to make this hard for him. He had dragged me half way down the hall when he stopped and shoved me into an open cabin door. As soon as his hands were off of me I whirled around to face my attacker and possibly fight back until I saw the man’s face. His features were average, nothing remarkable or scary about them but it was the lack of expression that through me off guard. It was like he was a Ken doll, with a fixed face and no life shining from his eyes. The man was advancing on me and I had no where to go. My back was pressed up against the cabin’s closed window, tears streaming down my face as I pleaded with the expressionless man, “Please don’t kill me, I don’t want to die!” The man didn’t even blink. So I tried again, “PLEASE STOP!” I screamed at him but his face still held no emotion as he wrapped his sweaty hands around my neck and squeezed. I tried to scream but the pressure closed off my air supple. I could feel my life slipping away from me, even though I scratched and clawed at the man’s hands they held tight and unmoving. My world turned to black and unforgiving.

    Cooper…? Cooper are you there? I need you Cooper! I want you to be with me! Please Cooper answer me. Why aren’t you answering me!? I could see his figure up ahead of me but he wouldn’t slow his pace. He acted like he couldn’t even hear me even though I was screaming his name. COOPER!!! I love you Cooper, why don’t you love me to?! Tears made me incoherent; he wouldn’t be able to understand even if he was listening. Why wasn’t he listening to me, I needed him to love me, to understand me, to want me.

 

   “Kennley! Kennley!” I could hear a voice and I shuttered in fear. How did I get back in the car with Oscar! I thought I had gotten away from the loser husband?

   “Kennley! Kennley can you hear me? Please don’t be dead! I need you to be alive, not just for the Falling Stars but for me!” That wasn’t right; Oscar would never say any thing like that to me. Oscar was supposed to be yelling at me in the Durango for swerving, why would I be dead? I don’t remember hitting the other car, that nasty looking neon green sedan just kept on going.

 “Kennley please wake up! I love you too but I can’t love you if you’re dead!”

 Shocked at the words coming from Cooper’s lips my eyes fluttered open. The first thing I saw was Cooper’s wet face above mine, fear and sorrow was plain on his face. As soon as my eyes opened Cooper gasped and pressed his lips to mine, the kiss was somehow both happy and sad. Happy because it was the best thing that I had ever felt, his lips were soft and gentle moving against mine. There was nothing in the world that would match the fire burning inside of me. I didn’t want it to end, I didn’t want our lips to ever part. I loved the way my body molded in to his, the way he wrapped his strong hands in to my hair, holding my face to his. This kiss said all the things that he wanted to say but couldn’t and my lips answered back with equal emotions. But with that fire there was also ice, sad because it had taken me almost dieing for him to do it, I wonder how long he would have waited if I hadn’t just almost been taken out. I didn’t have time to feel anything besides the burning, surprised happiness before he released me and sat me up.

   “What happened?” I croaked.

  “The Light sent another messenger.” The sorrow came back to his face as he said, “I’m so sorry! I can’t believe I let my guard down. It’s just that we have been together for almost two weeks and nothing has happened. I thought we would be safe but I was wrong. Will you ever forgive me?!”

    “What are you talking about, forgive you for what? Saving my life?” I couldn’t understand why he was taking all of the blame; if I wasn’t so weak I would have been able to fight him off but I was just a weak nobody who deserved to be attacked.

   “Will you stop with the antagonism, you are not a weak nobody, and you most certainly don’t deserve to be attacked.”

     “How do you do that?” I asked astounded once again at the fact that Cooper could some how read my thoughts.

   “Do what?” His expression was just a little too innocent but if he didn’t want to tell me then I wouldn’t push, yet.

    I was surprised to see that we were in a hotel room. I was sitting on a bed with Cooper perched on the edge next to me. The hotel room was small with only one bed, a TV stand, a small side table with a phone and an equally small table under the one window, which had very ugly curtains hanging down to the floor.

    I was contemplating why the curtains were so big when Cooper stood up with a cell phone in his hand dialing a number. I didn’t know he had a cell phone, at least I had never seen it before now. He was talking in whispers with whoever had picked up on the other end so I tiptoed to the bathroom, thankful for a chance to take a shower and grateful to have a full size one, the showers on the train were small and didn’t really allow very much room to maneuver. I turned the knobs for the water and waited for it to warm up.                          As I was in the shower I thought about what Cooper had said about loving me to. Did he mean that in the same way I loved him, or was it just a Watcher’s love, I mean he had to protect me? If he had the choice, wouldn’t he want to be some where else, I know he had said he would want to be with me even if he didn’t have to but he could just be saying that to make me feel better and what about that kiss? Was it just relief that I wasn’t dead? Or were the feelings I felt behind the kiss real?  I don’t really understand him at all and I really didn’t know very much about him to answer those questions yet, so I’ll just take it as a Watcher’s love. I made a promise to myself to ask Cooper more about himself.  

 Coming out of the bathroom I ran in to Cooper, he had been standing outside of the door with his hand raised as if to knock.

      “Sorry! What are you doing?” I asked, chuckling to myself at the sheepish look on Cooper’s face.

    “Oh, well, I, um just wanted to make sure you were okay?” The excuse was weak but I played along.

    “Oh okay, well I’m fine, thank you,” I was trying not to giggle at the look of frustration on Cooper’s face, I wouldn’t be able to contain it much longer.

    I went to walk around him but Cooper cleared his throat, so I turned around to patiently wait for him to tell me what he wanted to say.

   “I just wanted you to know that I care for you a lot, more than I should, being your Watcher and all,” he had turned red and was looking down at his shoes as he said all this, “and it’s okay if you don’t feel the same way but I felt that you should know just how I felt.”

   “Cooper,” as I said his name I moved closer so I could look up in to his face, still looking down from his embarrassing moment, “I feel the same way. I just didn’t know what you felt, I never know what you feel, being my Watcher and all I thought there would be rules you would have to follow. Like some sort of code of etiquette.” I don’t know where all this courage was coming from but instead of wasting it I just kept going with it.

   “Well technically there is but I don’t care, I want to be with you Kennley. I love you.”

He finished closing the little distance there was between us, putting my hands in his. I loved how my hands fit perfectly in his; his strong hands warming mine.

   Thinking of all the time we had spent together, which to me wasn’t much, I was trying to figure out exactly when we had fallen in love. With of shock I realized that Cooper had been watching me for over three years! He could have had these feelings for me long before I ever knew he existed. I felt bad for him, having to watch me with Oscar and knowing that he loved me.

    “I know you haven’t known me for long but I promise I’m a good guy and I truly do love you. With every thing that I am.”

    “Loving someone has nothing to do with time. I have loved you ever since I saw you,” and saying the words out loud, I knew that they were true, with every fiber of my being.

     We stayed the night at the hotel, wrapped in each other’s arms, and then left early the next morning. We were going to catch a plane to Little Rock, Arkansas and then we would rent a car and take the I40 up to Memphis, then the take the I55 south to Jackson, Mississippi where would meet up with a transporter who would then take us to the other Falling Stars in a secret location, only to be disclosed at the time of arrival. Thinking of it like that made me feel like a secret agent on some top secret mission, and I sort of was. I mean I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do to help and I had no idea how to even begin to help. Cooper had said that I had powers but I have yet to see these so called powers and Cooper wasn’t showing me how to use them. When I asked him about it he had given me some cryptic message about ‘it would come when it was needed’. Yeah, okay. I had no idea what that was supposed to mean but I did know that I could name two very recent events when I had needed those so called powers. When I had mentioned these ‘events’ to Cooper, he had simply laughed.

   “How do you know you didn’t use them?” he had asked me.

   “I think I would have noticed them, I mean I should have felt something right?”

   “Are you sure?”

 That brought me up short; how would I have known? Both times that I needed them I had almost died. I wasn’t thinking of anything except living.

   Cooper brought me out of my musings just as we were landing in Little Rock. I hadn’t realized that we were already there. The plane ride here was the first time I had been on an airplane and it felt like the time had flown by. Cooper and I, hand in hand, walked through the airport to the exit; no need to go to baggage claim, both of our bags were small enough to carry on the plane. The airport was a confusing array of people, bags and censors; I was thinking that I didn’t like airports when an alarm started to go off. Cooper and I were just passing through the automatic doors as it sounded and the doors closed, separating our hands. Now he was outside and I was inside with no way for him to come in until the doors were unlocked.

Reviews

[Ron B]

Great. Another kick-butt chapter and the story keeps climbing. Excellent writing.

[ShadowWolf]

Better and better!

[emmajoy]

Oh my goodness... the story is picking up even more pace and, now they care for each other. There are some fascinating touches to this, the intruder, the man... her calling for Cooper, etcetera. I love the way you place new aspects to the tale...

I notice your paragraphing too... makes for smoother reading although the story is utterly easy to enjoy and almost taste.

Great, great read.

[Xfaerie corpseX]

oooh...okay...this explains chapter 5.....hmm...i think i need to pay more attention to titles....i lve the story though....for a first time its amazing