The Galilee Falls Trilogy (Book 3): Fall of Heroes (39 page)

“Joanna!”

That’s my name. That’s my best friend standing over me. Falling to his knees. My Justin. He’s here. Thank you God for this man. “Hi,” I whisper.

Justin surveys me, beautiful blue eyes growing in horror as he studies me. “Lexie! G-Go flag down the ambulance! Now!” he roars. “Hurry!”

Lexie’s here. I can’t move to look at her, but she’s here. My friend. She better forgive Jem. He’s gonna need her now.

My own best friend rips off his mask and stupid lab coat, draping it over me. “You’re going to be okay, Jo. You’re gonna be okay.”

“Y-You always were a good liar,” I whisper. Ow. The pressure’s becoming pain. My chest hurts. I-I have to…I force my hand open. I didn’t lose them. “W-We’re even now.”

“What?”

“I-I…did it. I saved you. I saved you, rich boy,” I begin to cry.

Justin takes my hand, lifting it to his lips to kiss. “Oh, Jo.”

Oh, not yet. The spots begin. The light. The darkness. So much still to say. “I-I love you, you know. Always have. Always will. I-I’m so sorry—”

He squeezes my hand so tight I almost forget all the other pain. “No.
No
. Don’t you
dare
say good-bye. You are
not
giving up on me. That’s not who you are. You are Joanna Fucking Fallon. You are the bravest, strongest person I’ve ever met. You are a fighter.”

The darkness. Oblivion. It’s coming. “I love you, Justin.”

“
Fight
,” Justin says suddenly far away. “Keep fighting. For me. For Jem. For
you
. Fight, Jo.” Farther away. “You’ve never let me down before, don’t start now. Fight.” Farther. “Fight.” Blacker. “Don’t give up.” Going. “Don’t leave me, Jo. I love you.”

Fight…

I don’t have any left in me.

Gone.

*

I’ve always liked this bridge. Even when the sun isn’t shining, when the sky isn’t blue as the ocean like it is now, it draws me in like a beacon. To this day I have no idea why. Perhaps because I enjoy duality. Extremes. Look left and behold the wonder of nature. Forest. River. Sea. The Falls of Galilee roaring like a tempest until the end of the universe. Turn right and see all man has accomplished. Buildings touching the sky. Commerce. Community. Progress. And here I stand in the middle of both worlds. Inside and outside them both. Grounded yet up in the air. And I stand at its precipice. On the edge.

The water below calls to me. One step. A leap. Part of me knows it’s not safe here. That I should know better than to stand here and take the leap. But the water, the calm dark water is so peaceful. Comforting. And I’m so tired.
So
tired. I don’t even think if I have the strength to stay on my feet. I don’t know if I even want to anymore. I can just…let go.

Joanna…

“Hello.”

Oh, I thought I was the only one drawn to this specific point in the universe. I’m glad I’m not. I don’t want to be alone. I’ve been alone so long.

A girl steps beside me. My God, she can’t be more than twelve. Nowhere near beautiful but pretty. Large blue eyes. Pale white skin. A crown of black mops in desperate need of brushing. Everything about her cries out in need. Of loss. Of abandonment. Of anger. Of determination.

“Hey,” she says again.

“Wh-What are you doing here?” I ask.

“I’m here for you,” she replies.

“No. Y-You shouldn’t be here. It’s not safe. You can fall.”

Joanna…

She slips her hand in mine. “You fall…I fall.”

This isn’t right. I can’t… “No. I don’t…” I stare down at the water. “I don’t think I can hold on much longer. You need to go, sweetheart.”

“No.”

Joanna…

“Wh-Who is that?”

“Justin.”

Joanna…

“Jem.”

Joanna…

“Harry.”

Joanna…

“V.”

Joanna…

“They’re there. Waiting for you. You just have to make a choice. You can let go.”

The water’s so close now. So inviting. Easy. I’ve done enough.

“You can give up. No more pain. No more sadness. No more fighting.”

Joanna…please. I need you, my love. Please.

“Or you can be the fighter. The survivor. The hero I know you are.”

“Because we’re alike,” a man says. I look up and find
him
. Not the girl anymore, but my soul mate. Holding my hand. Smiling at me as he has a million times before. “Because as long as I have you, I can survive anything. And if that’s true for me, then it’s true for you. Because we’re the same. I trust you, and I love you.” He raises his free hand to cup my cheek. “And shame on you if you throw that away.”

“
Joanna
.”

I glance back and they’re all there against the gray sky. V. Lucy. Dobbs. Cam. Lexie. Harry. Jem. The love of my life stands in the center with a huge grin on his face and tears of joy in his eyes. My Jem.

“I don’t think I have the strength,” I whisper.

Justin squeezes my hand tighter. “Then I’ll help you. That’s what I’m here for. Forever and always.”

He takes a step toward them. “The first step is the hardest,” he says.

The water calls to me again. So inviting. So freeing.

“What if everything is horrible again? I step forward and there will be pain. Fear. Betrayal. Hate. Insecurity.”

“Yes, but also joy. Beauty. Goodness. Laughter. And above all…love.”

Jem extends his hand to me.

I glance over at Justin who grins. “
Worth it.”

I look straight ahead at Jem. “A million nights…” he says.

“And a million more,” I finish in a whisper.

“A promise is a promise,” Jem says. “Come back to me and keep yours. Because that’s who you are. My fierce warrior. My hero.”

“One step,” Justin says. “Fight. For him. For me.
Fight
.”

I close my eyes. Fight. Fight.

Fight.

I take the step away from the abyss.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Who We Are

I cannot believe I’m late for my own damn wedding. Everyone’s gonna kill me. And dying once this year was more than enough, thank you very much.

Justin and I hustle through the garden of Austen Castle toward the labyrinth, not easy in heels and wedding gown. The sacrifices I make for the love of my life. This is what I get for marrying a romantic traditionalist. Heels, an hour in make-up and hair, satin and lace dress, flowing veil. And white. We’ve been living together over a year. We’re not fooling anyone.

“I called Lucy when you were in the bathroom,” Justin says. “She’ll tell everyone. And nobody expects a wedding to start on time anyway.”

We reach the labyrinth’s arched opening and of course my ankle chooses now to almost give out on me. I totter but Justin grabs my arm to steady me. “Okay, we’re slowing down now. Don’t want you limping down the aisle.”

“Fucking heels. Fucking…veil!” That stupid thing keeps blowing in my face. I swat it into submission.

Justin chuckles. “You know, most brides are actually happy on their wedding day.”

“I’m happy,” I snap. “I’d just be happier at a Justice of the Peace.”

Justin holds out his arm. “Too late now. Shall we?”

I lock my arm in his. He nods at the wedding planner. She’s done an amazing job today. I hired her after she proved herself with The Guardian Society gala two months ago. We raised a million dollars that night alone. Enough to fund the counseling center in Independence. My baby’s growing strong. Hope she’ll be okay for the next two weeks when I’m on my honeymoon.

As the planner radios to the party, Justin leads me into the labyrinth. Wedding. Focus on the wedding. We walk down the rows in silence for a few seconds before he starts shaking his head. “What?”

“Nothing. Just…Joanna Fallon, getting married. Never thought I’d live to see the day.”

The scar on my chest suddenly throbs. “We almost didn’t.”

To think, seven months ago, I died. Really. When I was in surgery, I coded. For two minutes I was legally dead. Turns out it was Bennett Stone who finally broke my heart. They had to crack my chest and manually massage my heart back to life. I was in a coma after the surgery for two days and doped out of my mind on painkillers for a week after that. I now have a new scar running down the length of my abdomen. The dress covers it. I was stuck in the hospital for three weeks, but at least I had a cute roommate for the second week. It took Dr. Sharpesh almost a week to create the adenovirus, and by then Jem was on life support. Good thing I was doped up or I probably would have given up again. But a day after he received the cure, his body began healing itself. By day three the only indication anything happened were dark circles under his eyes. I’ve actually taken steps to ensure Dr. Sharpesh is up for a Nobel Prize.

The others got away intact too. Harry, Devitt, all the rest all made full recoveries. And were the only cases. While I was dying in surgery my army located the canisters before they shipped. There’ve been over a hundred arrests worldwide, including Dr. Frankenstein DeRue and Goliath is all but bankrupt. Stopped a plague, brought down an evil corporation, and saved my fiancée. Not bad for a kid from Diablo’s Ward.

“But we did,” I continue.

“And now you’re getting married.” He shakes his head. “Did you ever think you’d be the one to do it first?”

“Honestly, I thought we’d be getting married at the same time.”

Justin hangs his head. “We never…really talked about that, did we?”

“We got busy. You died, came back, then
I
died. Now I’m marrying the sweetest, dorkiest, most brilliant man on the planet. This is how it was meant to be. The rest just got us here. The road was long, it was usually dark as night, but no matter how many twists and turns, as long as we never gave up, the path would take us right where we’re supposed to go. Right here.”

We smile at one another, as brightly as the sun shining above. “And there’s nobody I’m prouder to walk this path with than you, Joanna Fallon,” Justin says.

“Well, as the smartest man alive reminded me, there is no Joanna Fallon without Justin Pendergast.”

He lifts up my hand to his lips. “You got that the wrong way around, my friend.”

We smile at one another again, the pure joy radiating from that mystical place we’re joined forever. And we continue down our path to the very heart where all our loved ones wait to celebrate love. Where V stands with her parents and brothers, all smiling. Where Lucy and Dobbs dab tears. Where Harry stands beside his wife holding his newborn son and making funny faces at him. Where Lexie stands in a tuxedo winking at me from her spot as best man. And where the man who taught me about the greatest force in the universe, true love, meets my smiling eyes with his tear filled ones, gazing at me as if I were a miracle. As if I were the only person in the universe.

Yes, it was worth it. Every stumble. Every fall. Because it shows us we can rise. That we
will
rise.

Because that’s just who we are. Each and every one of us.

THE END

Acknowledgments

First, to all of you who write, Tweet, review, even send me presents. I have the best fans ever. Thank you.

Thanks to my Betas: Susan Dowis, Ginny Dowis, and Jill Kardell for their corrections. Any mistakes are mine and mine alone.

Thanks to the Peachtree City library for being a wonderful place to write and edit.

Finally to all the wonderful comic book writers who came before and currently write in the medium. You have inspired me more than I can say. Keep up the excellent, fantastic work.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jennifer Harlow spent her restless childhood fighting with her three brothers and scaring the heck out of herself with horror movies and books. She grew up to earn a degree at the University of Virginia which she put to use as a radio DJ, crisis hotline volunteer, bookseller, lab assistant, wedding coordinator, and government investigator. Currently she calls Northern Virginia home but that restless itch is ever present. In her free time, she continues to scare the beejepers out of herself watching scary movies and opening her credit card bills. She is the author of the Amazon best-selling F.R.E.A.K.S. Squad, Midnight Magic Mystery series and The Galilee Falls Trilogy. For the soundtrack to her books and other goodies visit her at
www.jenniferharlowbooks.com

Sign up for her mailing list
HERE