Gather the Fallen-

Those of you who read Among the Fallen three years ago may remember that in the final chapter we left Willie Graham in something of a predicament, and you may have wondered what might have happened to him after that. Here’s a glimpse of Willie twenty years down the road from Among the Fallen, forty thousand words and fourteen chapters into the sequel in progress, Gather the Fallen-

Willie Graham fumbled for his phone, groping in the dark and nearly dropped it as he turned its face to his and was brightly informed he was awake at three-fifteen a.m. He wondered what had wakened him at this hour between his night and his morning and not quite belonging to either, until he heard it again. That voice, sounding like his mother, who still came occasionally to visit at odd and inconvenient times, despite being dead for nearly forty years.

It wasn’t Evelyn, though. He could feel her presence whenever she intruded into the warm and living world, and now he only felt cold and ungrounded, as if standing on the brink of an emptiness devoid of all limit or light. Again, he heard it, soft and faint as a whisper, but shiny and sharp as the blade of a knife, cutting away the last vestiges of his sleep, Willie. Willie Graham.

No, it wasn’t his mother’s voice now. Had it ever been? Willie heard the old Dragon, Simon Ryder, summoning him from that place where all sleep and none will rise. “Leave me alone,” Willie croaked, drymouthed, before he thought that he shouldn’t wake his wife. He listened. Betty slept on, as if drugged or spelled, her breathing steady and unhurried as the surf of a calm and untroubled sea.

Willie, come. It is time. Yes, Simon’s voice. Willie was certain now. That Dragon who had rescued him from the deep and filthy dark where Brian Thompkins left him to die, Simon, who had burdened Willie with that wee box until it captured the ancient Battle Crow the locals knew as Barbara Battle, and delivered her to her close and final darkness, Simon Ryder, who warned Willie to keep his eyes closed until all was accomplished but, of course, Willie hadn’t. Who could have? He had to see, and saw the Battle Crow’s face the instant before she was drawn out of the fallen world and she looked into his soul and shrieked, “Yours,” and he felt her Fire blossom within him.

It had smouldered there now for twenty years. Willie had been tempted every waking hour to let it loose, but he was happy to be a man, Betty’s loving and beloved husband. He had no ambition to become a being who inspired only fear…

The story is only half-told at this point where I fear Willie Graham’s troubles are just begun. There’s a lot the author doesn’t know yet. I’ll keep you posted.

Walk in hope-

-henry