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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/32981
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/32981
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Yes, absolutely. Repetition is a well known rhetorical and dramatic technique.

Unfortunately, you will get English teachers that will tell you that you must always vary your words. I have seen people in critique groups who hardly ever contribute anything other than to criticise repetition of words, often repetition that no one but them even notices.

I think we can reasonable distinguish three kinds of repetition:

1. Natural repetition: repetition of words occurs because we talk about the same object several times in a perfectly good passage. I am repeating the word repetition a lot in this answer because it is about repetition. 

2. Dramatic repetition: the writer is using repetition as a deliberate device to emphasise a point of create a mood. In your case, the repetition of fall adds to the drama of the moment. It is not only appropriate, it is powerful. 

3. Tedious repetition: repetition occurs because the writer does not know the appropriate words for the concepts they are discussing and so falls back on one generic word, or their writing is itself repetitions (saying the same thing over and over and failing to move forward) and so the word repeats because the thought repeats. 

Unfortunately, some English teachers and critique partners don't have the literary sophistication to distinguish these cases. They internalize a mechanical rule against repetition and apply it blindly to everything.

Judge your words by their effect, and their effect alone.

Original score: 8