FALLING
By Rebecca Yu
http://youtu.be/r1lHRqmmcX0 FALLING
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E4A Rebecca Yu 1099300030 Instructor: Mr. Kenneth M Smith Words checked = [4062] Words in Oxford 3000™ = [93%]
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About the Author Rebecca Yu is a stu d ent stu d yin g at Wenzao Ursu line University of Lan gu ages. She enjoys w atching movies, d ramas and read ing novels in her free time. She has alw ays been a fan of thriller fictions, an d “The Lost Sym bol” from Dan Brow n is by far her favorite book. Yu also loves w atching the TV series “Sherlock”. She enjoys the thrills an d goosebu mp s the book an d d rama brin gs her. This w ou ld be her first time w riting her ow n novel, she hop es that she cou ld make the read ers w ou ld fin d the story interesting and thrilling. Prologue FALLING
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This story talks about a young man named Chris having to suffer the loss of his family at a young age. It was his brother’s nineteenth birthday, and he was waiting for his brother, Ethan, to give him a surprise in his room. However, when he came back to the dining room where they were feasting, all there was left were the dead bodies of his parents and his sister, and his brother was nowhere to be seen. He then became an agent in the California Bureau of Investigation and hoped that he could have information in finding his missing brother and the murderer of his family‌
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Table of Contents Chapter One
6
Chapter Two
18
Chapter Three
21
Chapter Four
23
Chapter Five
27
Chapter Six
29
Chapter Seven
33
Chapter Eight
36
Chapter Nine
40
Reference
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Chapter One Chris sat straight up in bed, panting heavily. He looked over to his left, the alarm clock read 4:15 in the morning. He sighed, it was the same dream again. He buried his face in his hands and exhaled. He would always have nightmares in his sleep, and it is always the same dream that would haunt him again and again. Seven years had past since the tragedy, and Chris had tried to live a new life and forget the past, but it never seemed to work out. He eventually grew tired of trying. He knew perfectly well that he was never going to get over it no matter how hard he tried; as soon as he closes his eyes, the flashbacks start playing in his mind reminding him his worst memories; fear, despair and death. There was a period FALLING
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of time when he just wanted to end his life. He had gone from the happiest man in the world to a man who felt betrayed by God and had given up all hope. With another sigh Chris got out of bed and headed towards the kitchen to make himself a cup of coffee. It is the only way that he could make the day, he hadn’t really had much of a good sleep, at least none for the past seven years. He turned on the stove and went into the living room next to the kitchen to wait for the water to boil. The living room is dark, empty and lonely, everything in the living room is just barely visible. Chris walked over to the armchair by the fireplace and sank into it. The armchair is old with some of its cotton sticking out, but Chris did not care, he laid FALLING
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back and rested his head against the back of his armchair. ******************************************* The room shifted and Chris is standing in a large room with chandeliers hanging from the high ceiling. This room is decorated like those of the nobles from the 1900s, everything looks
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splendid in colors of rich red and gold. The floor is covered with soft carpet that extended to the corners of the rooms. In the center of the large room was a long dining table decorated with flowers for special occasions. On the left side of the room, huge portraits hung on the walls showing people who once lived in the house.
The biggest painting hung in the center of the wall showing
full smile that would make any female want to kidnap FALLING
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him. Standing on the right side of the handsome man was his wife, an elegant lady in a light pink night gown, her hair tied up in a bun an her hands rested gently on the shoulders of the gentleman. On the ride side of the painting was their eldest son, a young man of fifteen. He was holding an adorable pretty little baby in his arms. The young man had a bright and clever look and he was grinning. At the right bottom corner of the painting written in white, it read “The Stark Family�. Everything about this room just looked bright, warm ...... and happy. Ethan was crazily running across the room screaming and shouting when he tripped over something and fell face forward to the floor. FALLING
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“Dang it, Morgan, what the...” said Ethan as he rubbed his nose and got to his feet. He pointed at his sister and shouted, “I am not going to let you...” Before he could even finish, he was knocked to the floor again. His sister had swung a bag of “who knows what ” with all her might into his face. “Oh, shut up Ethan. Stop being so dramatic.” said Morgan looking down at his brother on the floor. “I have had enough of today. Crazy girls have been chasing me around the school everywhere today, crying and begging me to hand these to you. And I am just kind enough to carry these home.” Ethan flashed a grin. “I know deep inside you must feel very proud to be my sister,”
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Morgan’s jaw dropped, “I don’t see how.”, she snapped back. Then she dived at him waiving her fists. At the far end of the room, in front of the fireplace with crackling fire, a pile of presents already stacked up high, with tags saying “To my dearest Ethan, Happy 19th Birthday. XOXO” Ethan is the “man” at school, many girls would start giggling whenever he passes by. Another twenty more presents to add to the pile. Nearby the windows, Mr. and Mrs. Stark were sitting on the sofa watching their children and chatting happily. Chris walked over to the “roadblock” and tried to pull the two people tangled on the floor apart. FALLING
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“Grow up, the two of you”, he said with a smile on his face. Morgan and Ethan stopped for a moment, they looked at their brother and then at each other, then back at their brother. Both Morgan and Ethan jumped at their elder brother and began another fight. “Dinner is ready!”, their mom called out to them. Mr. Stark opened a bottle of red wine to celebrate his son’s birthday. Chris’s brother and sister immediately stopped torturing him and raced each other to the dining table. Chris lay half-dead on the floor coughing and panting. Ah, why does savior always come so late. Slowly, he got up and headed to the dining table. Morgan and Ethan are already setting up the table, filling the plates and the glasses with food and wine. “No wine for the baby!” said Ethan to FALLING
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Morgan and stuck out his tongue. Morgan just rolled her eyes. Dining tables were never quite quiet for the Stark family. “Seems like you got more presents than last year, Ethan.” said Chris. “About sixty?” “It’s sixty-two”, replied Ethan chewing on the chicken leg. “Ha! So... stupid is the new sexy now? You are this close to getting kicked out of school” said Morgan, holding up her hand to show the tiny gap between her fingers, then frowned, “Seriously, what is happening to this world?”
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“It’s called animal magnetism, and my advice for you, my dearest sister, is to go with the flow.” Ethan smiled his perfect smile. Morgan choked on her food then glared at her brother. Chris quickly finished his glass of water and excused himself from the table, knowing that there will be a food fight later on. Chris sneaked out of the house to his black Audi. Out of the trunk he got out a wooden box the size of his palm, carved on it were the words, “Happy Birthday! Keep in mind that you are special. Love, Chris.” He smiled to himself, imagining Ethan’s expression when he discovers what is inside. He knows, Ethan is not stupid, but for some reason, he FALLING
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doesn’t do well at school. Chris sometimes find himself amazed by how intelligent his brother is. He went back into the house and sneaked past the dining hall, up the stairs till he came to Ethan’s room. Ethan’s room was more of a modern design. One side of the room was a huge shelf stacked with books and equipments. Ethan is a big fan of Agatha Christie and he enjoys studying cases and solving crimes. He could spend a whole day in his bedroom without coming out. A four-poster bed was placed in the center of the room, before the bed were glass windows that stretched from the ceiling to the floor, giving the room a nice view of the outside. Chris would spend sometime with Ethan just staring out the windows, FALLING
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like what old people do, whenever he comes back for a visit during the weekends. Chris now works as a manager in his father’s company, the Stark Industries; Mr. Stark has been preparing him for inheriting his position, to become the CEO. He spends most of the time working in his office going through piles of work and would only come back during the weekends, so he cherishes the quality time he gets to spend with his family. Chris has no blood relationship with the Stark family, he was adopted to the family when he was three. But all the same, he was glad for everything this family gave him; they love him, and he loves them, just like any other family. He stretched and yawned, then lay down on the bed and waited for Ethan to come. FALLING
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Chapter Two In the dining room, the rest of the Stark family were finishing their dinner. The food fight had ended and all was back to calm again. However, something felt weird today, there was an awkward silence for a moment, with only scraping sounds of metal and plate. ******************************************* Without warning, Mr. Stark stood up knocking his glass of wine and clutched his chest, his face pale and gasping hard for breath. The attempt to breathe burned his lungs and searing pain shot through his entire body. His eyes widened in fear, and his world became vivid and then everything went black as he hit
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the floor. Next to him, Mrs. Stark fell to the ground, twitching. ******************************************* Morgan jumped out of her seat trembling with fear, unable to believe what had happened. She wanted to scream, but there seemed to be an invisible force that’s clutching her throat and no sound came out, tears were swelling. Morgan was unable to tear her eyes away from her father and mother, she reached her hand out to grab Ethan that was standing next to her. But she felt firm hands grab her by both wrists and pulled her arms behind her back. Morgan could not see who was behind her, and she fought to get herself freed from the grip. Suddenly, Morgan felt sharp pain on her right waist, white-hot pain shot FALLING
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through her whole body. She screamed painfully. Morgan looked down to where the pain came from. She could see a handle of a knife sticking out of her waist. The pair of arms had let go of her and at the same time pulled out the knife from her flesh. She screamed again. Morgan stumbled across the room away from the killer. Blood was pouring now and dripping onto the carpet, she tried to cover the wound with her hand. Morgan tried to fight the unconsciousness that was pulling her downwards, then until she could stand no more, she collapsed to the floor.
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Chapter Three Chris was standing at the doorway of the dining room shaking with fear, he could not believe his eyes. He felt as is he was going to faint, and his knees finally gave way. Chris knelt there on the floor. Strong gusts of cold wind blew into the room through the open windows, cold blew across his face making it even harder to breathe. Plates and glasses scattered on the floor; everything was a mess. Not far from Chris, his father and mother were lying on the floor next to the dining table with their eyes wide open with terror, still and lifeless. He crawled over to the bodies laying motionlessly and tried to call out to them, but his mouth was dry and nothing came out. FALLING
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Chris looked around, there were blood stains all over the carpet. His eyes followed the trails of blood. One of them led out the window, another led to... “Morgan!� shouted Chris, he had seen Morgan covered in blood. Hot tears were streaming down his cheeks. Chris went over to Morgan and held her in his arms. He had heard Morgan scream, her scream that sent chills through his spine. Unable to stand the shock, Chris felt dizzy then fainted.
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Chapter Four Chris’s eyes flung open, the kettle was whistling in the kitchen. Rachel’s scream still echoed in his mind. He had fallen asleep in the armchair. Chris got up and headed towards the kitchen then turned off the stove. After finishing his coffee, he got dressed. He had quit his job at his father’s company, he could not believe the tragedy that happened to his family, he could not work and eat, he couldn’t do anything. After two months of alcohol, sorrow and tears, Chris knew that this could not go on anymore, his brother was still missing, and he will find him, and that is the only thing that he keeps him from killing FALLING
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himself. Although people had been telling him that there is no chance that his brother is still alive, or moreover, that his brother might be the killer, not until he sees Ethan’s body with his own eyes, he will not give up. He will find him. He could not give up. He had thought it through, doing nothing is no help in finding his missing brother, as if his brother would fall from the sky and land before him or jump out of an egg. Something had to be done. He is now an agent working at the California Bureau of Investigation, where he could have access to information that might help him with his case of finding his brother, and also, hopefully, the killer that had put him and his family through this.
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Chris walked into the office, no colleagues bothered to lift their heads and greet him. He did not care. Ever since his family died, he had become antisocial, he barely talked to anyone. His colleagues tried talking to him when he first joined the team, but they
eventually gave up trying. He just did not care. Chris looked through the stack of files on his desk, getting to the one he was looking for, he pulled in out. The files that were stacked on top fell to the FALLING
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floor. He let out a low grunt and glared at the files on the floor, annoyed. Chris did not really like this job, he only did it so that he could have leads on his family’s case. It was the only thing that he cared about. The one and only thing that matters.
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Chapter Five Chris grabbed a plate and got in line, bumping into people and getting more glares. He did not care, he had something on his mind. He had been flipping through the files, going through all the cases that he hadn’t been able to solve. The case he was recently investigating had led him back to all the cases he had once investigated, but with no conclusion; the bunch of unsolved cases. “ Hello, Chris. What would you like for lunch today?” The young lady working at the CBI cafe was probably the only person left on planet Earth that was willing to talk to Chris, and she had tried to flirt with him since the first time she saw him.
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Being dragged away from his mind palace, he felt utterly annoyed and irritated, and he ignored her. Chris did not even bother opening up his mouth, he just used his crooked finger and pointed out the dishes he wanted. He sat down at the far corner of the dining hall, and slowly he started eating and went back to where his mind got off. This case he was investigating right now had linked back to those cases that he hadn’t been able to solve. However, looking even deeper into this case, he found out that all the clues he got all pointed towards him. He was confused. Could this possibly have anything to do with the death of parents and sister, and also his missing brother? FALLING
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Chapter Six Two days ago Chris was holding a file in his hand and making some notes. This had been one of those times when he really put effort into his work.
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In a mansion, the ones with the backdoors that would directly lead you out to the beach, obviously, a rich family lives here. Chris and some police officers were
standing in the dining room, a body lay motionless and lifeless on the cold marble floor. He and his colleague, Cho, examined the body and studied the wounds.
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“ Victim, Mrs. Rucker, age 50, was found this morning by the housemaid who came into the house to do her cleaning job as usual.” said one of the local police. “Where is the murder weapon?” asked Cho to the local police. “Nope, there is no murder weapon. We looked all over the house, found nothing.” “ This murderer is exceedingly good. Knows where to aim at, and makes it look so effortless.”, said Cho. “Seems as the murderer has done this many times. Definitely not a first-time killer.” “The cuts are directly aimed at the liver, it’s deadly and at the same time made the victim suffer a
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long time before dying.” said Chris. “Just look at the amount of blood. Poor creature, what a painful death.” He squinted his eyes. This is just cruel and brutal, but then, …brilliant and cleverly done.
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Chapter Seven Later in the afternoon, Chris sat in his chair, fumbling the pen in his right hand, he was looking at the photos of the Rucker case. The way the killer had executed the murder had been way too similar to the previous cases that he wasn’t able to solve. Every time he had let the killer get away. He fumbled through the case records and studied them. Chris was so sure that it was done by the same person, this must be a serial killer that he is dealing with. He studied the cases with the Rucker case, and compared them. All the victims that had been killed were very rich families, and those that were killed were the mister and mistress of the family. Sometimes, their children were killed, too. The only FALLING
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difference of the Rucker case was that there was only one victims this time. But why? The wound, the liver that the killer always aimed at, they were all the same. Even his sister, Morgan, where she was stabbed, it all matched, it all made sense. This was the killer he had been looking for for seven years. Chris smiled to himself. The killer had made a mistake this time. He is so sure that the killer is going to strike again, target: Mr. Rucker. He chuckled, looking at the photos on his desk and the files again. He is not going to let the killer get away this time. He will be there waiting for him, and he will get him. Chris had no time to waste, he grabbed his shotgun and tucked it behind him. Then, he rushed out of the office desperate to find Mr. Rucker. He did not FALLING
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bother to assure his team, this was it, this was his revenge. Chris was hoping that the killer would try and attack him, so that he could accidentally kill the killer on purpose. Hearing the sudden noise Chris had made, Cho peered over his desk and watched as Chris ran out of the room. Puzzled, Cho walked over to Chris’s desk.
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Chapter Eight Mr. Rucker was in the corner of his living room, clutching his waist. The wound wasn’t deep, but still blood kept flowing out. He tried to get up on his feet, but he couldn’t, his feet were numb and they refused to stand up. He just sat there, with his mouth wide open out of fear, unable to believe what had happened. In the center of the room, Chris stood there, his gun aiming at the man staring across from him. He was surprised at who this killer turned out to be. He couldn’t believe it, but still Chris tried to remain calm and take hold of the situation. “Drop your gun, Cho! You have no idea what you are doing.” yelled Chris, he wasn’t prepared for FALLING
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this, he had never thought that the killer would the colleague he had been working with for seven years. Not that he had any feelings for him, but he had known him from work for seven years without even noticing. “Drop your gun!”, Chris yelled again. Outside the mansion, sirens pierced through the night. The team is coming, thought Chris. It would be less than a minute before the other officers came in. If he wanted his revenge, he would have to do it now, there would be no chance of him killing the murderer standing in front of him. Chris looked straight into Cho’s eyes. “Drop it now, or I’ll shoot! You were the killer all this time, for all those cases I investigated, I never thought that FALLING
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it would be someone so close to me. I had been too careless.” “No! Chris! What are you talking about? YOU drop your gun! You revolting, cold-blooded murder!” Cho shouted, “ It’s all over, Chris! Surrender! The team is coming! There is no way you can get away with this!” Too late. Chris could not kill this man. At least, the bureau will certainly give him the chance to interrogate Cho. The team had came in, fully armed. Some officers went to help Mr. Rucker. The other officers circled the room, and held up their guns and aimed at him. Chris was confused. “You’ve got the wrong person! Idiots!” shouted Chris. FALLING
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The senior agent took aim at the floor before Chris. He jumped back in surprise looking at the floor. As he did, he saw red. He was covered in blood. There were blood on the front of his shirt and blood on his hands. Chris dropped the gun. How is this possible? How come there is blood everywhere? He looked at his hands in disbelief.
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Chapter Nine Cho came out of the interrogation room after
questioning Chris. Chris doesn’t recall anything to do with the crimes he committed, there were missing periods from what he remembers. He has what we call DID (dissociative identity disorder), which means that he has the presence of more than one identity; however, in this case, the two distinct identities do not know the FALLING
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existence of each other, and this causes Chris to have blank spaces whenever he switches to the murder self. He does not remember killing anyone or anything he did at that stage. Chris had been adopted to the Stark family at a very young age. The Stark family were very nice and generous towards him. Growing up in such a wealthy family, the Stark family always gave him what he wanted, but at the same time he felt suppressed for he could not let them down, for he believed that being the perfect son was the best way to repay their kindness. He got only As on his tests, and never came in second at school, he did well in managing Mr. Stark’s business. He was in many people’s eyes the perfect
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person. And the pressure he had on his shoulders was probably the cause of his DID.
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Reference http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder http://www.picturebookillust.com/en/gallery_set_en.html?id=jamsan https://www.google.com.tw/search?q=beach+mansion&espv=2&sou rce=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=KymYUa6D8OckAWguIGICA&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=67 9#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=Oa4VGModTEOr6M%253A%3BeSeh 8X3tA86n9M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.vacationrentalpros .com%252FImages%252FUnit%252F1212-21893%252F121221893-640-4578548780818.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.vacationrentalpr os.com%252Fproduct%252Fhammock-beach-mansion-oceanfront-7bedrooms-1212-21893%3B640%3B457
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Falling This story talks about a young man named Chris having to suffer the loss of his family at a young age. It was his brother’s nineteenth birthday, and he was waiting for his brother, Ethan, to give him a surprise in his room. However, when he came back to the dining room where they were feasting, all there was left were the dead bodies of his parents and his sister, and his brother was nowhere to be seen. He then became an agent in the California Bureau of Investigation and hoped that he could have information in finding his missing brother and the murderer of his family‌
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