The Fallen Ones (Holloway University #1)

45. Lily

Chapter 45

Lily

I awoke the following morning feeling horrible. My head was screaming at me. My body ached. My face was swollen.

Caleb had stayed with me all night after one of the Fallon Ones left me with him. At least that’s what he told me. He said he didn’t get a name or care about one because he was worried about me.

“Here, Lil,” Caleb said, coming into the room and helping me to sit up. He offered me a glass of water and some painkillers. I drank greedily before popping the pills into my mouth and draining the rest of the glass.

He helped me back against my pillows.

I cried out at how sore I was, and he let out a soft noise.

My eyes met his and my breath caught.

He was hurting for me.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered to him, really meaning it. I didn’t want Caleb to hurt because of me.

“Oh, Lil bit. Don’t apologize to me,” he said immediately, sitting beside me and tucking my hair behind my ear. “You owe me no apologies. I should have been there to stop this from happening?—”

“It’s over,” I said, my eyes stinging with tears at the ugly memory and the fear I’d felt. “I’ll go to the cops tomorrow and tell them what happened. They’ll arrest him. He’ll go to jail over this. I don’t care how much money he has?—”

“He died, Lil.”

I stared at him in confusion. “What?”

“Brandon died last night. He was in a car accident. He was driving too fast and crashed. It was probably because he was trying to get away after what he did. He’s gone.”

A sob broke free from my mouth. Caleb immediately gave me the most gentle hug ever, holding me against him as I cried into his neck.

“It’s OK, baby. It’s OK,” he murmured on repeat as I clung to him. He’d never called me baby before, but his words just made these feelings tumbling around inside me worse. “You need to rest. I want you to feel better. Let everything go for now. Can you do that? Just sleep for me?”

My tears slowed after a few minutes, and he laid me back in bed gentle as could be. He tucked me in and placed a kiss on my forehead.

“Don’t leave me,” I whispered when he made to stand. He stared down at me for a moment before he moved to the other side of my bed and climbed in beside me. I immediately snuggled into him, his arms cradling me against his body.

“I love you, Caleb,” I said, my voice soft. “I want you to know I do. And that I’m sorry.”

“I love you too, Lil.” He kissed the top of my head fiercely. “Sleep. Christmas is coming and I have a gift for you.”

I liked the sound of that. I wanted that gift to be Caleb as one of the Fallen Ones. It would make my world if he was.

My lashes fluttered for a moment before sleep took over, dragging me to a place where it didn’t hurt so much.

Caleb stayed with me for a week while I recovered. I was able to do a lot of my work online for classes and it eventually gave way to Christmas break, so I took the second week to continue recovering.

I didn’t tell a soul what Brandon had done to me. No one but Caleb, Liv, and the Fallen Ones knew. People reached out to me to offer me their condolences, but I ignored it all. Liv told me the rumor mill was churning out stories that I was too distraught over Brandon’s death to return to school.

It was quite the opposite. He’d hurt me. I knew he’d have raped and even killed me had it gotten to that point. The drugs he’d given me were to subdue me and make it all easier.

I was glad he was gone.

But with him being gone, the Fallen Ones were gone too. I hadn’t seen them since. I figured it was because Caleb had stayed with me for a week, but then the second week came and Caleb wasn’t there. My fears that I’d screwed up and lost them by having gone to Brandon weighed heavily on me.

By Christmas Eve, I sat staring at the tree Caleb and I had decorated the week prior. I hadn’t even wanted to put it up, but I was like that every year. And every year Caleb made me do it, citing it was a milestone for my year that needed to happen.

The lights blinked, no presents beneath it. Caleb and his family had invited me over for dinner, but I’d declined, citing I wasn’t feeling well.

Truth of the matter was, I felt so sad that I just wanted to disappear. If the last few weeks had taught me anything, it was that I realized what I wanted now.

I wanted family. A relationship. The Fallen Ones.

I had no way to tell them though, and they certainly weren’t coming around now.

Feeling the worst sadness I’d felt since my mom died, I grabbed my blanket off the couch and curled up beneath my Christmas tree, letting the lights blink around me. I was feeling a lot better and most of my pain had gone away.

Except the pain I felt in my heart.

I had a feeling without the Fallen Ones, I’d never feel whole again.

“Please come back to me,” I whispered my Christmas wish beneath the tree, letting my eyes close.

Who knew.

Christmas miracles did happen.

I hoped this time they happened to me.