Fallen Book Club Chapters 6-11 by Britta
Characters InvolvedLuce, Daniel, Cam, Arriane, Penn, Molly, Gabbe, Miss Sophia, Todd, Roland, Randy
Places VisitedThe Gym
The File Room 'Secret Lair'
The Forest
The Cemetery
The Library
The Hospital
Luce's dorm room
SummaryLuce is reeling from Cam's party last night. She continues to imagine Gabbe and Daniel together, wondering why they are so close. She arrives to gym late, and is paired with Gabbe for the pool section. Penn explains that the gym used to be and old Civil War church. As Luce prepares for swimming laps, she spots Arianne, Molly and Roland sitting on the bleachers. Penn explains that they are always able to secure notes which enable them to sit out. Luce shows herself to be a great swimmer, and can easily win the competition with her classmates, but she is sidetracked because Gabbe calls out Daniel's name. Afterward, Luce is greeted by Roland, who commends her on her swimming. She asks him if Daniel and Gabbe are together. Roland replies that she should ask Daniel. On her way out, she glimpses Daniel jumping rope in the weight room, and is struck by deja vu because of his strong stance. Another vision flashes before her eyes, he moves the rope so quickly and gracefully, it's as if he's flying. His feet don't seem to touch the ground. Suddenly, Todd, who had been rope climbing, falls in a heap onto the floor. While he eyes his blistering fingers, Luce begins to shiver. A shadow sweeps about her slowly at first, and then roughly crashes into her body, forcing her backward and slamming the weight room doors in her face. Luce cries out, because this is the first time a shadow has ever touched her, gripping her arms with what felt like two tight fists. After pondering on this, she decides that what she felt was merely a draft. She goes back into the weight room after realizing she dropped her key. She tries to retrieve it without Daniel noticing, but he soon stops jumping rope and turns to face her. After they greet each other, Daniel asks her if she won, and Luce replies that she didn't. Daniel says 'But you were always..." before he stopped himself, and corrected that he thought she looked like she would be a good swimmer. Luce senses he means something else, and presses him to finish his thought, but he continues to deflect, claiming that he meant it in a general sense, and that it is an unspoken code of conduct to allow the new students to win their first race. Luce remarks that Gabbe is a new student and she didn't even get in the pool. Daniel reveals that Gabbe isn't new, she's simply coming back after some time off. Luce regards him for a moment, feeling jealous at his attempts to appear unconcerned. Daniel whispers her name, his voice now intimate and familiar, and turned away saying that he has to change before class. Luce rests a hand on his arm, and he jumps away as if he has been shocked. She asks him if he ever gets the feeling that they've met before. He brushes her off at first, implying that she stalks him. Luce doesn't believe that he doesn't share her same feelings, and demands that he look her in the eye and tell her that she's never seen him before this week. Her heart pounds as Daniel steps in front of her, and pulls her close enough that his nose is touching hers. He replies that she has never seen him before this week.
Luce runs into Cam as she leaves the gym. He wonders where she's going, and she tells him that she's going to class. She felt that it would have been a good idea to apologize for leaving his party early the night before. But, she decides against it, fearing that it would draw more attention to herself. The longer Cam stares at her, the better she feels about the entire ordeal. Cam invites her to come with him for a picnic lunch in the cemetery, instead of going to class. Luce asks him to promise that he will save her from toppling statues, and he replies affirmatively. They eye the tombstones around them, discussing what it would be like if each persons cause of death were etched upon each one. A snake rustles the grass under their feet, shedding its skin, before it disappears into the grass. Cam picks up the skin, placing it into Luce's hand, and she throws it back into the grass. He asks her if she believes in the power of transformation, but Luce finds him to be strange. He moves closer to her and says that there is much more to learn about him. Just as they are about to kiss, Gabbe interrupts them claiming she was sent by Miss Sophia who was worried when Luce didn't show up to class. She helps Luce up, and leads her back to class. Once there, Penn interrogates Luce. Miss Sophia instructs everyone to research their family tree back to six generations. Luce sits staring at her computer comparing Cam and Daniel; Cam is more than obvious about his feelings, whereas Daniel has been nothing but rude to her from the beginning. Bored at the thought of having to research her own family tree, Luce's fingers move of their own accord, typing out the name: Daniel Grigori.
Penn shows up at Luce's door that Saturday morning inviting Luce into her 'secret lair' to find out more about Daniel. Luce is worried at first, but realizes she enjoys Penn's company more than spending the day in her room. She inquires about the 'reds', and Penn assures her that she slipped some dead batteries into a few of them on the way. Penn leads Luce down the dark, mildewed, civil war era basement, and she feels a blast of excitement with the click of the lock. Penn digs through the file cabinet, and finds Daniel's file. It's thin and nearly empty, save for one piece of paper with a copy of his identification, and scarce information. His picture is three years old, and yet he looks exactly the same. His parents are unknown, and he was under the care of the Los Angeles County orphanage. He has very dull criminal history, including citations for loitering, jaywalking, and vandalism. While they ponder at the scarcity of his file, a door opens in the room. It's Miss Sophia with two boxes; she sits them down, and leaves the room. Penn instructs Luce to leave, promising that if there is anything more to find on Daniel, they would find it. In the lobby, Luce runs into Molly who asks her why she looks so guilty. Molly asks if she still intended to go against her suggestions to stay away from Daniel. Cruelly, she reminds Luce of what happened with Trevor. Luce wonders how she even knows about that, and becomes suspicious of Penn. She begins to feel as guilty as she felt the night of Trevor's murder. Outside, Luce is met with a careening soccer ball. Daniel races over to see if she's all right, but begins to taunt her. Luce spies Molly and Gabbe looking at them, and says that his girlfriend is jealous. Daniel says he doesn't have a girl friend, and invites her to take a walk with him to a place where they wont be watched. They walk through the dark woods, until it opens into a picturesque scene with a lake and surrounding forest. They jump off of a high rock, into the lake. They race each other, Luce winning by an instant. They hoist themselves onto the ground. Luce tells Daniel that she can't shake the feeling that she's known him for a while. Daniel brushes her off. He tells her that he has been burned before by a girl, and that while he doesn't want to ignore her, he also doesn't want her to get her hopes up. He's not looking to be involved with anyone. Luce feels like he's keeping something from her, and Daniel doesn't feel that he owes her an explanation. He rises to leave. She calls after him, but he continues to swim to shore. She observes how quickly he swam through the water, and wondered if her head had been hit harder than she thought. The water droplets seemed to hover over his body, and the way they shimmered in the sunlight, it almost looked like he had wings.
Luce attends a study session for the next midterm. Miss Sophia creates shadow puppets with her hands to describe Paradise Lost and the angels' fall from heaven. The session runs so long that dinner is served there. While Luce picks at her sandwich, Cam appears beside her with a handful of fresh figs. Before Luce can take them, Gabbe interrupts telling her not to eat them, and swiftly throws them in the trash. Hours later, Miss Sophia explains the dawn of creation, the war in heaven, and Satan, also called Belial, Mephistopheles, and Lucifer. Molly slides Luce a note which questions whether her name is related to Lucifer. Miss Sophia uses shadow puppets to simulate flailing arms and legs, and Luce is unnerved at how real it seems. Miss Sophia explains that Satan and his angels fall further and further from heaven for nine days and nine nights. Luce eyes Daniel as Miss Sophia's words cause her to remember the dream. It is a revision of what happened while they were at the lake, except this time she goes after Daniel. She swims as fast as she could, however fish began to surround her and become vicious. She feels that she is being pulled down with out possibility of rising up, but Daniel appears at the bottom. He pulls her out of the water and into the air; she cannot see the ground. Luce listens as Miss Sophia finishes with the angels landing in the pits of hell. Arriane writes her a note, that Molly tries to grab. Luce grabs it back, placing it in her pocket. She feels the sickening feeling that she gets when the shadows arrive. The shadow creeps up from the ground, seeming to aim for Arriane's note, but an amazing thing happened. She clenches the note in her fist, and the shadow recoils. In the note, Arriane asks where she went with Daniel on Saturday, and if he told he that he had been burned by girls before. Before Luce can question her, Daniel appears apologizing for leaving so abruptly on Saturday. He asks her how she liked the review session, and reveals that he did not hate it, but that his family studies these things. Luce remembers his file, and is amazed that he mentioned a family. Daniel becomes defensive wondering why she would presume to know anything about his family or himself. He finally leaves with Roland, and Luce feels incapable of doing anything normal where he is concerned. With each step he takes away from her, she feels more and more alone.
Cam gives Luce a note that Penn passed to him a while ago. He also gives her an ornate serpent pendant. Luce feels unworthy of accepting it. Cam sneaked off campus to purchase it, and wonders if she will accompany him off campus that night. Gabbe interrupts once again to get Cam to help set up for a party she's throwing. Luce, fearing punishment, is unsure if she should accept. Penn saves her from making a decision by telling Cam that they have plans. Luce finally unfolds Penn's note, revealing a note written in Miss Sophia's hand, with two groups of students written down. The first group included her name, and previous northeast location; the second group included, Arriane, Daniel and Molly, all three from California. There is also a copy of a library cataloging card for the book "The Watchers," written by D. Grigori in 1755. Luce connects this with Daniel revealing that his family studied angels. Penn and Luce ponder why Cam gave her a serpent pendant knowing she hated snakes. Penn suggests that he wanted to help her get over her fear of them, thus making it a thoughtful gift. At the library, Miss Sophia is excited to see them pursuing further study, and Todd flirts with Penn. Luce gets a chill after seeing a shadow move towards Penn. She swipes it away, mistakenly hitting Penn in the head, and apologizes afterward telling her it was a bee. They search for the book, and it isn't there. Penn goes to ask Miss Sophia where it is. After a while, the alarm sounds, and Luce smells smoke. She calls out for Penn as images of the night of Trevor's murder flood her mind. Todd's fingers grip her wrist, and he alerts her that they have to leave. The smoke becomes thicker, and he points to the entrance when Luce asks about Penn and Miss Sophia. They reach a door, and step into an unknown hallway. Luce eyes a door in front of them that leads outside, however the shadows have followed them, in a big mass of grays. Todd begins to bang on the walls, and Luce believes that he can either see the shadows, or can sense them. Suddenly something picks them up, and they couldn't see where they were headed, but she felt protected. Soon their feet hit the ground outside of the library. Luce sees a bright violet light hovering above her, and she thinks of Daniel, sensing it calling to her and calming her. Suddenly the shadow slams into her and Todd, breaking them apart, and sending her flying into the air. She lands on the stairwell in agonizing pain. When it all becomes too much, she faints.
In a dream, Daniel asks Luce if she's scared, but she isn't simply because she's with him. She doesn't know where she is, but she can smell the rain in the air, and feel the long white dress around her. She asks him to stay with her, and he replies that he would forever. They kiss as if it is completely natural to them, and as she reaches behind him, she feels wings begin to unfurl. They fly up into the air. Luce wakes up in a hospital room. Gabbe sits perched next to her, giving her a manicure. Her smile makes Luce feel safe. Luce ponders whether the fire was a dream. Gabbe informs her that she's been in the hospital overnight, and that her parents are there. Arriane shows up with drinks in coconut cups. When they settle down, Luce inquires about Todd, and they reveal that Todd has died. Penn and Miss Sophia got out of the library safely. Luce begins to fear that everyone will believe that she murdered Todd. Penn arrives, a bit taken back by the slumber party atmosphere. She explains to Luce that when she went to ask Miss Sophia about the book, there was a burst of light in the corner, like spontaneous combustion. She believes that Todd's parents will file a lawsuit. Gabbe tells Luce that she and Daniel will organize a memorial for Todd, and that Daniel carried her to Randy's office. Daniel arrives, concerned for Luce. Randy arrives afterward, giving Luce a bouquet of wild white peonies, and gathers everyone to leave. Luce eyes Daniel leaning in the door frame, he smiles at her and mouths that he's sorry as he leaves. Miss Sophia arrives with two police officers and an attorney from Sword and Cross; her parents rush in. The police question why she was at the library alone, and if she's and angry person or a loner. Her father steps in to stop them from further questioning. Miss Sophia explains that Luce has no ill will towards Todd, and Luce tells them that she will tell them everything she knows because she has nothing to hide. The police officers leave, and her parents inform her that Randy will take her back to school that afternoon. Luce looks forward to the upcoming Parents' Day, but is disheartened that it will be tainted by Todd's death. She ponders what Daniel could be sorry about.
Quotes"It was only when Daniel began twirling the rope that Luce snapped out of that trance...Never in her life had she seen anyone move like him. It was almost like daniel was flying" (Chapter 6, 135).
"Oh, and just think how much more there is to know about me?" (Cam/Chapter 7, 151).
"All he was doing was shaking the water from his wet head, but a glaze of droplets seemed to hover over him, outside him, defying gravity in a wide span across his arms. The way the water shimmered in the sunlight, it almost looked like he had wings" (Chapter 8, 182).
"For nine days and nine nights...Satan and his angels fell, further and further from heaven" (Miss Sophia/Chapter 9, 188).
"He produced a small red velvet jewelry box and held it open for Luce to see...Inside, a thin gold chain held a small circular pendant with a carved line down its middle and a small serpents head at the tip" (Chapter 10-, 197-198).
Questions
1. What part do you think Gabbe will have to play in the whole picture? Why does she seem to flip between being nice to Luce, and mean to her?
2. Where do you believe the shadows originated from, and what do you believe they are trying to communicate to her? Do you have a different picture of them, that maybe they aren't evil?
3. If you were Luce, would you be able to stand Daniel's behavior towards you?
4. What is the significance of the serpent pendant?
5. Do you believe that Cam is sincere, or does his overt attention creep you out?
6. Which character do you believe will play a large part in the big picture?
7. What do you believe is the significance of the Civil War symbolism? 
Author