by C. R. Jane
"Where did you get this?" I asked with shaking hands as I stared at the picture of my parents on their wedding day. It had been with my things at my old apartment in New York. I had figured that all that was long gone.
Derrial ran a hand over his face. “Nothing with you has gone as planned. We got all your things from your apartment when we took you. But everything was so messed up, and so many things happened, we kind of forgot to give it to you."
My hands trembled as I held the portrait in my hands. I knew my father had been changed forever, and even if we found my mother, it was unlikely that she would bear any resemblance to the way that she used to be. Looking at this picture reminded me of who they had been when I was a child, so full of life and in love.
I looked up at Derrial. He was staring at the picture with a funny look on his face. "What is it?" I asked.
"Why do humans get married?" he asked, not taking his eyes from the picture.
I pondered his question. “Isn’t that similar to what you do on Veon? I mean, isn't being someone's mate considered the same thing as being husband and wife?"
He thought about it for a second and then shook his head. "They are similar. But I'm wondering why they exchange such elaborate vows. Mates on Veon are for forever. But there's no exchanging of vows or any other sort of ceremony," he explained.
My heart sank a little bit after hearing that. I'd still kind of hoped there was some kind of ceremony we were going to have to solidify our bond. I dreamed about my wedding day for as long as I could remember. Guess that wasn't going to happen. "Well if mates last forever, that’s quite a bit different than with human marriages," I said with an annoyed laugh. "Humans exchange vows to each other, promising each other the world, but a lot of the times those promises get broken. But I guess as humans we want to try and start our lives together as best we can.” I traced the image of my mom’s ecstatic face in the picture. “A lot of people say that the day they get married is the happiest day of their lives. I guess they just forget how happy they were.”
Derrial touched my face softly, looking into my eyes as if I was the answer he had spent his whole life searching for. "I won't break my promises to you," he said quietly.
"I don't think we've made many promises to each other yet," I whispered back, unable to take my eyes from his.
"Then I guess we should do that," he responded. We stared at each other for a minute more before he moved away from me. I missed his touch as soon as it was gone.
He walked out of the room without another word, leaving me with a million unanswered questions.
A few boxes on the side of the room caught my attention though. Walking towards them I lifted up one of the flaps and gasped in delighted shock as I saw that Derrial had been telling the truth. These were boxes filled with my possessions. I forgot all about my strange interaction with Derrial as I spent the rest of the afternoon going through everything. It felt like another life when these things belonged to me.
And as I looked at the pictures and some of my photo albums, I couldn't help but feel like I was looking at a stranger.
“It’s been two weeks,” Corran said as he strode into the room.
My stomach dropped. I turned to look outside the window. It was dark out, and I could barely see anything beneath the faint touch of moonlight peeking through the dense trees, but it was better than facing what he was reminding me of.
“I-I d-don’t think it’s been enough time, we don’t want a false positive,” I stuttered.
Corran came up behind me and pulled his arms around me, holding me tight. “You can do this,” he told me reassuringly, even as I could feel the tension in his hold.
“What if it is positive?” I whispered; my head buried in his chest.
“Then we’ll have a child,” he said matter of factly.
“And what if it isn’t yours?” I asked, not daring to look at him.
“There was always a chance it wasn’t going to be mine to begin with. This just expanded the pool a bit,” he said wryly. “Even if it’s someone else’s, it’s still yours. And how could we not love something that had a part of you.”
I melted at his words. I could feel the truth behind him. I could feel the love he had for this child.
“How do we do this?” I asked, wondering if the Vepar also peed on a stick to find out if they were pregnant.
“Just a tiny drop of blood from your finger is all I need,” said Corran, releasing me and pulling a small white device out of his pocket no bigger than my pinky.
“I’m surprised you didn’t do this while I was sleeping,” I teased him, even as my hands shook at my sides.
“I guess you’ve changed me,” he said with a wink. I laughed weakly but held out my finger.
“How long will it take to find out,” I asked, my voice fading to a whisper as he brought the machine closer to my hand.
“It’s instant,” he said, right before I felt a small pinprick.
“What does it say?” I asked. But it was obvious as Corran’s eyes started to fill up with awestruck emotion what the test had shown.
I was having a baby.
Epilogue
(Corran)
I once believed monsters were born. But I was young and an idiot because after everything I’d seen in the past few years on Veon, there was no doubt in my mind that they were made. Formed by the ugliness around them, by society, by hatred. This wasn’t the kind of world I wanted to bring up our baby with Ella… so that meant change was needed. Massive change, starting from the top.
“I can hear your brain cogs working from over here.” Thane tossed a snapple at me from across the room, and I caught the purple fruit with one hand before biting into its sweet flesh. I wiped my mouth from the juices dripping down my chin.
Thane lounged on the sofa, reading from his monitor while picking at the bowl of fruit in his lap.
“Our Council is broken,” I stated.
“What’s new.”
“They need to go. Get replaced with fresh blood and no corruption.”
Thane snorted a laugh. “Fuck yeah they need to go, but corruption is close to impossible to eradicate. I vote for finding a new planet to live on.”
I ignored his suggestion. Leaving our families here wasn’t an option, and neither was running away. “We start at the top because everything has a trickle-down effect. Just need a plan to overturn the Council. End their corruption.”
“And then the next in line step in, who are just as corrupt.”
“No, that’s the thing. We show evidence to the public, let the civilians see the truth, and we push for a forcible removal of the Council.”
“That could lead to rebellions in the streets, which brings a lot of attention. We would need strong evidence.”
Right then, Derrial emerged from the bedroom and shut the door behind him.
“How’s she doing?” I asked.
“Tired. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that Vepar pregnancies are usually half the length of human ones. She’s panicked enough as it is.”
“We’ll tell her later, and that once she hits two months, we should be able to test for the baby’s father.”
Thane groaned and placed the bowl on the table in front of him. “I really hope the baby’s one of ours.”
Neither of us replied. In truth, I wanted that too, we all did, but we’d have to deal with whatever happened.
“Ella and the babe are ours, regardless,” Derrial murmured, his shoulders rising and falling with each rapid breath. “What was this corruption you were talking about?”
“Corran plans on finding evidence to overthrow the Council finally.”
Derrial turned in my direction. “Do we have evidence?”
“We might, but it stays between us for now.”
Both of them stared at me strangely, like my words didn’t make sense. But they’d understand soon enough.
I headed to the side table near the window and pulled open the drawer. “When we were in the
testing facility recently, I discovered some files and I took them.” I turned around, holding in my hand several papers folded up to easily fit into a pocket.
“And?” Derrial asked.
I unfolded the pages and handed them to Derrial. Thane was on his feet, walking over and reading them over Derrial’s shoulder.
“The Council are purchasing kidnapped females from the Khonsu to conduct fertility experiments on. Those papers are the receipts. Which is why they’ve turned a blind eye to the Khonsu living on our planet, building communities on our planet, hunting down Vepar females. They allowed this to happen.” My blood was boiling at all the lies we had been fed, all the Vepar slayed and forced to live in tight cities while the Khonsu took over our world.
“Fucking bastards,” Thane spat.
“But the document shows something else,” I continued, pointing to the papers in Derrial’s grip. “It shows that the Khonsu have a separate camp just for females.”
Thane’s gaze met mine, his response flying out. “Ella’s mom could be there.”
He stole my words right from my mouth, and I nodded. “We need to find out urgently.”
Derrial was pacing. “This changes everything. We need to let all the people know about the Council’s corruption.”
“Agreed,” I answered, ready to do whatever it would take.
A beep came from the main monitor sitting on the wall. A new incoming announcement.
Thane switched it on a tap on the remote, and the screen flicked to life. A message in big white letters ran across the black screen.
Virus outbreak.
Emergency declared.
Everyone must remain indoors.
Anyone bitten by an inflicted should be quarantined.
It is believed to have originated at a Council laboratory. Investigation underway.
To be continued in the final book of the Fallen World Series, Belong...coming soon.
School of Broken Souls
Have you discovered School of Broken Souls yet? Here’s a sneak peek at the first chapter…
Blurb
Adeline Jones is perfectly average. Or at least she thinks she is until she receives an invite to attend Raven Academy, complete with a full scholarship. Raven Academy is the mysterious school that only the elite of the elite go and despite Adeline's misgivings about giving up her whole life to attend, there's no way her parents are going to let her give up such an opportunity.
But things at Raven Academy aren't what they seem. Everyone is a little too perfect, a little too rich, and a little too powerful for any normal student population. Things only complicate further when Adeline catches the eyes of Raven Academy's group of elite boys.
Can Adeline figure out what secrets Raven Academy is hiding before it’s too late? Or will the price of admission to the elite academy be more than she can pay...like perhaps her soul.
Preface
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.
-Edgar Allen Poe
Chapter 1
I grip the gun under my coat, and my hand shakes. All of me trembles.
What the hell am I doing here?
A drop of sweat slides down my back. It must be a hundred degrees in this store. Or maybe my nerves are just making me feel like I’m in the living embodiment of hell.
A sudden shriek has me jumping in my boots, and I flinch around to see a child stomping his feet when his mom takes away a bag of fruit snacks that’s he’s poached from one of the shelves. Listen to your mother, I want to say, but I can’t find my voice. Not now.
Not when I’m ready to run and hide.
But I have to see this through. People are counting on me. And I can’t let them down.
I won’t let them down.
I glance around at who else is in the store. There’s a teenage couple making eyes at each other in the row over, and a grizzly old man looking over the beer aisle, but other than that the store’s empty. I need everyone to leave before I do this though. This stupid, crazy, impossible thing.
I go through my plan again in my mind for the hundredth time. The gun is filled with water... a toy gun. But it will do the trick. Please God let it work.
The first time my friend Cody pointed it at me, I screamed. It sure as hell looks like a real handgun. The toy mirrors a Glock G43. I have no idea what the number means, but it’s black and looks real. That’s what matters.
Hopefully, the store clerk will think the same. And then when inevitably the police pick me up, maybe they will take it easier on me since it isn’t a real gun. At least that’s my hope, but I know I’m just fooling myself. I have to lie to myself, or I’ll never go through with this.
I need the money.
I need it despite the fact that I’ve always been a good girl, the type of girl who never walks outside the lines or does anything unexpected.
Until now.
Robbing a 7-11 is definitely going to yank that title from me fast. And if that is the worse it does, I’ll take it.
Sweat is rolling down my back now. It slides under the waistband of my jeans and beneath the elastic of my underwear. Why is it so hot in here?
I think again of the other night when I walked into the kitchen at midnight and found mom crying over a stack of bills. Dad withers away in their dark bedroom, too weak to come out, and too proud to ask for help from anyone.
There’s a surgery that can help him, a surgery that can fix my family. But we need money for it.
I hated the word.
Need.
Just as much as I loathe the cancer slowly taking my dad from me.
My throat chokes, and I struggle to breathe. I glance around, finding the sliding door as the young couple leave.
Escape.
It’s there for me. But it won’t help my family.
I work two jobs after school and save every penny. But $8.00 an hour doesn’t add up fast. I often talk to mom about maybe dropping out of school for a little bit, but she won’t listen to me and threatens to make me quit my other jobs if I even mention it again. My mother and I both work as much as possible, but it’s never going to be enough. Or at least it’s never going to be enough in time to actually save my dad.
Another review of the store reveals three people wandering around the aisles, and this will be the best I can hope for. I swallow past a dry throat, my finger twitching on the gun handle, and I meander toward the only working cash register. The guard is at lunch, and I see no cameras. This is the right time, but hesitation slows me.
Dad. I have to think of him. Losing him isn’t an option, and the doctors say with the right amount of money, he stands a damn good chance to heal.
I want that chance, so with squared shoulders, I march closer to the young girl picking at her nails behind the register. She’s wearing her blue hair in a high ponytail and she has a small piercing in her nose.
My thoughts tangle into a web while fear squeezes my chest. What if I get caught? Mom and Dad will be horrified.
Shaking my head, I push that thought out of my mind. I can’t let those thoughts creep in, or they’ll cripple me. It took me three weeks to work up the courage to finally take action.
So, I have to do this.
I need this.
Fuck.
I lick my dry lips and approach the young girl. She looks up at me, disinterested, and my attention falls to her name tag.
Mary Sue.
I almost laugh out loud at the simpleness of her name, the cliché of it, but she distracts me.
“What do you have?” She eyes me up and down, seeing no groceries in my hand.
My mouth opens, but nothing comes out, and I will my hand to move. To pull out that damn gun. Sweat rolls down my neck.
“If you’re gonna order cigarettes, I need to see an ID.” She folds her arms across her chest.
My free hand juts out and I grab a handful of gum from a rack of candy, then dump them
on the counter. Six packets. She starts scanning them, and I inch the gun out from under my coat, the words of what I‘ll say roll through my mind.
Stick’em up.
Stupid. So stupid. She won’t take me seriously. What am I thinking?
I hold the gun low between me and the counter. I’m inches from showing her the weapon. I can do this; I keep repeating in my mind.
“Want a bag with these?” she barks, and I flinch so hard, I hit the gun’s trigger and it squirts water across the bottom section of the counter near my feet. A light hiss sounds.
Shit!
“Yes, yes,” I say, hoping she didn’t hear the noise.
She cocks an eyebrow. “Really? You want a whole bag for six packets of gum. What about saving the environment?”
I flick my gaze up. “Then why did you ask? And yes, I want the bag.”
She rolls her eyes and sighs as she leans over to grab one.
I lift the gun, placing it just over the counter, pointing it at Mary Sue, my body concealing the weapon should anyone behind me come to the register.
I can barely breathe when the front doorbell chimes. From the corner of my eye, I spot the navy uniform, the hulking form of the guard.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I shove the gun back into my coat and retreat from the counter, lowering my head.
“Hey, ma’am,” Mary Sue calls out. “You forgot your six gums in a bag?” she says sarcastically.
The guard stands in my way in front of the glass door, and I freeze, about to fall apart. When I glance up, he studies me.
“You okay, Miss?”
“Y...yeah, of course.” My voice trembles, and I sidestep him, sliding through the door. The bell gives another ring as I pass, startling me. The cool air does nothing to cool me down, not when my heart pounds inside me, and my mind screams the word run in my head.
A quick look behind me shows that the guard and girl are staring at me through the window. I’m sure they think I stole something. I turn away and walk fast down the sidewalk. The moment I take the corner, I run, still holding the gun under my coat. Over my shoulder, no one follows. I did nothing wrong, but still, I can’t stop sprinting past people meandering on the sidewalk. A man in a suit bumps into me, but I keep going without apology.
