Falling (The Soul Collectors Series Book 1) by Tara Benham Page A

woke up on the floor. Hadraniel was laughing as he was trying to check on me. Once he saw my face though, he stopped laughing.
    “What’s wrong, Bayla?”
    “I was fighting Meph in my sleep. I must have fallen off the chair when I was falling down to Hell. The impact woke me.” Fear struck my heart. It had been such a realistic dream. I needed to talk to Father Paul, alone. “I need to run to town and see Fath…..er...Mr. Whitstock before everyone gets here. I’ll be back soon, okay?”
    “No. You said no working today. The pizza will be here in less than an hour, and everyone else in about thirty minutes. You can’t go in today. I know you want to talk to him but save it for the morning.” He sounded very Blue and authoritarian. If he didn’t make me mad and scare me a tad, I would have fought it. But he wasn’t backing down on the eye contact, and after all, I had agreed to no work.
    “Fine” I glared. “First thing in the morning though I am going. Alone. You can sleep in. I will be back long before the cookout at Gray’s parents.”
    “Works for me.” He smirked at his small victory.
    I was still fuming when I decided to head up to the bathroom to shower and get ready. I hadn’t changed out of my pajamas for the entirety of the day. I had no intentions of letting anyone see me looking like that other than Hadraniel. The hot water felt great. The water on my head allowed for a different kind of quiet. I used that time to pray and ask for guidance. I needed to come up with some plan for taking the fight with Meph away from where Gray and the group would be. I had faith that Hadraniel could not only save them but defeat Declan if necessary. I needed to get out to where we would be camping before anyone else to scout out the best hiding places. I knew I needed to let Father Paul know my plans tomorrow so that he could find me if something happened once I left the bookstore.
    I stayed upstairs longer than I should have, but I needed the time alone. When I went back down, everyone was already there, plus a new guy I had seen in Gray’s band the first night. Hannah grabbed his hand and pulled him towards me. At first he looked reluctant until he saw me. I must have been better looking than he hoped, because he broke out into a goofy grin.
    “Bayla, this is Everett. He’s in Gray’s band. He’s the one I told you about last night. Everett, this is Bayla.”
    Admittedly, Everett was easy on the eyes. Tall and lean, with shaggy, dark hair and light brown eyes. I put my hand out to shake his, which seemed foreign to him. He fist-bumped me instead, awkwardly, before handing me a water from the counter. I heard a snort from the corner of the room where Declan was standing. He seemed amused at the events that had just occurred. Ignoring him, I joined the group in the living room, alongside Everett.
    “Pizza should be getting here soon.” Haddy announced. “Ok, so I have a confession. As kids of missionaries, we didn’t play many games growing up. Do you have any suggestions? We looked up some on the internet and found Truth or Dare, but that’s about it.”
    “OMG! I haven’t played Truth or Dare in forever! Let’s play that!” Hannah giggled.
    Looking around, the guys in the group, all had a collective look of annoyance, while the girls had silly grins. After some more coaxing from Hannah, everyone decided that we would play after we had our pizza. Just as Alissa started to explain the rules to Declan, the pizza arrived. It smelled heavenly.  Hadraniel looked pretty happy with the choice as well. I knew with the number of boys that were coming two pizzas wouldn’t be enough. I’d ordered four, which Hadraniel thought was ridiculous. I think he probably understood why now. I had two slices myself. There wasn’t much talking going on while everyone was eating, but as soon as we were finished, Had suggested sitting around the fire outside to play games. It wasn’t quite cool enough to need a fire at