Free All We Know Is Falling: Fall With Me: Volume One by Nicole Thorn Page B

about him that whatever was bothering him was bothering me too. Simply because it was hurting him.
    He was my friend. And I was screwed.
    “After a week of stalking me, you’re just gonna decide—”
    He didn’t let me finish. “Yes.”
    He turned back to his painting. Then it was like I wasn’t in the room anymore.
    I think I was in mild shock. Everything happened too fast for me to really understand what was happening. In such a short amount of time I’d had a guy chasing me just to stop and sprint in the other direction.
    It wasn’t something I did. I think. He said that I should have heard something by now…and I was so confused…
    My phone beeped in my pocket and it ripped me out of my train of thought. I took it from my pocket and glanced at the screen. I had a text from Walter.
    Walter: Sorry I’ve been out of touch. I just went through a month or so of pure Hell. I’ll call soon.
    I dialed his number, impatient for the call he promised to make. It went to voicemail. When it beeped I said, “Walter, you think you can just text me something like that and then just not call? I’m going to call again, and if you don’t answer, I’m going to fly you up to a tall building and drop you.” I hung up and dialed again.
    I leaned in my chair and caught Hale staring at me. He looked intrigued but he didn’t say a word about it.
    It rang and rang and kept going to voicemail. My anger was flaring and considered popping into his house and throttling him.
    “Hello?” I heard a woman say on the phone.
    “Um. Hi? Where’s Walter?”
    “Oh, he took off. Moping somewhere. Or looking for the cat. He left his phone on the counter.”
    “Super,” I said flatly. “Who are you?” She was American sounding and Walter lived smack in the middle of Wales.
    “I’m Annie. Who are you?” She sounded sweet but I had no patience for this right now.
    “Aurora. I’m his sister. Well, one…”
    There was silence on the other end for a minute. “The name sounds familiar…I’m sure he’s mentioned you. But I don’t remember how you met.”
    “In Kansas. We met when…” I wasn’t sure what she was, so I couldn’t divulge the secrets of the Hell breakout. If she was a human, things would get bad.
    “Oh,” she said again. “When the underage antichrist had to get babysat? My husband and I are friends with the girls who watched you kids. Faith and Shiloh Bishop. Shiloh is married to another of your brothers. Her family took care of that bastard by the way. It got bad for a while.”
    I was more than aware of the situation she was talking about. And I knew Shiloh’s husband was the one who was possessed by the escaped soul. She came by and told all of the underage antichrists to go into hiding when the dead man started kidnapping us. Walter was one of the victims. I had the pure torture of knowing he was being held hostage and not being able to do anything about it. Thankfully the Bishops fixed everything.
    “I know. Walter filled me in when he got home. But, is Walter okay now?”
    Another long pause. “He’s…better.”
    “Better?” I sat up straight. “That insinuates that he was at some time, recently, not okay. What happened to him?”
    “Um, it’s not my place to tell you. But I’ll have him call you soon. I promise.”
    “Wait! Please, he’s my brother. If something happened I need to know.”
    Annie sighed. “Sorry, I just can’t. But he’ll talk to you soon.” She hung up and I sighed in disbelief.
    I stared down at my phone, not sure what to do next. “Dammit.” I dropped the phone on the table and put my hands on my face. Yet another problem I couldn’t fix or even know about until I was enlightened, because someone else was the decider.
    I felt something gently nudge my shoulder. I turned my head to the left and rested my face in my hand with my arm propped up on the table. Hale’s eyebrows were up and reflecting worry.
    “Are you alright?” he asked, clearly knowing the