The Fallen 4 by Thomas E. Sniegoski Read Free Book Online

Vilma were engaged to be married, and that his adoptive parents—Tom and Lori—had given them a substantial down payment for a house as an engagement gift. Life was better than he could ever have hoped.
    But then something happened.
    One evening darkness came earlier than it should have, and the sun never rose again. That perfect world began to fade away. No matter how hard Aaron tried to hold on to it—no matter how he screamed and raged and begged—nothing could stop the shadows from taking it all away from him.
    The dream was replaced by a nightmare.
    But the nightmare was a reality.
    Aaron opened his eyes to find his vision blurred by tears.
    Gabriel lay beside him on the mattress, the dog’s dark brown, soulful eyes staring at him. “You were crying,” he said.
    “Yeah,” Aaron agreed, pulling his hand from beneath the covers to wipe away the residual tears.
    “Sad dreams?” Gabriel asked.
    Aaron rolled onto his side to face his dog.
    “I dreamed of stuff that could have been if…” He paused for a moment, remembering how real it felt. “I went to college, Vilma and I were getting a house, Tom and Lori…”
    “Were Tom and Lori still alive?” Gabriel asked. His tail suddenly sprang to life, thumping upon the bed.
    “They were,” Aaron said, smiling with their memory. “And Stevie.”
    “And me?” Gabriel asked. “I was there too, right?”
    “Of course you were,” Aaron assured him. “What kind of a perfect life would it be without you in it?”
    “True,” Gabriel agreed.
    Aaron laughed. “Everything felt so perfect. It was all I could ever have asked for.”
    “But it wasn’t real,” Gabriel said softly, resting his muzzle on the pillow beside his master.
    “No, it wasn’t,” Aaron said sadly.
    “Reality is mean.”
    “Yeah, it can be.” Aaron flopped onto his back, throwing his arm across his eyes, feeling sadder than he had in quite some time.
    “I can help you,” Gabriel said after a few moments.
    Aaron lifted his arm to look at his dog.
    “I can help you,” he said again, scooting closer and nudging his blocky head beneath Aaron’s hand.
    Aaron hesitated, but then stroked the fine yellow fur atop the Labrador’s head. Slowly Aaron realized that this was exactly what he had to do—what he needed to do.
    For petting Gabriel would take away the lingering pain of his dreams.
    *   *   *
    Melissa tried to rest but couldn’t.
    She lay in her bed, eyes closed, trying to will herself to sleep. But it just wasn’t happening.
    Rather than stare at the cracked plaster ceiling, she got up to go for a walk, and found herself at the back of the school, where the remains of a greenhouse stood near the makeshift graves of her friends.
    Melissa seemed to be the only one of them who felt compelled to visit the dead. But it had been some time since even she had come. The wildflowers she’d left on the graves had either withered or blown away.
    “Hey, guys,” she said, doing her best to remember each of the fallen Nephilim.
    She wasn’t sure if all of them would have considered her a friend or not, but she liked to think of them that way because of the experiences that they had shared.
    Janice’s grave was first. Melissa remembered the quiet black-haired girl with fondness, how they’d bonded over a love for really bad horror movies.
    “Hey, you,” Melissa said, kneeling in the dirt, imagining her friend’s cheerful face. “How’s it going?” She picked up some dried flowers and tossed them aside. “Things have been pretty nuts here, as you can imagine, but we’re doing okay.”
    She paused, eyes wandering to the other graves.
    “I’m still alive anyway.”
    Melissa didn’t want to exclude the others, so she stood to address them all. “We really miss you guys,” she said, remembering Kirk, William, Samantha, and Russell, and how brave they’d been when their end had come. “We could really use your help now.”
    She felt stupid for a moment, certain that her