Eternal (Eternal series)

by Chantelle Nay

  Eternal

  by Chantelle Nay

  Text Copyright © 2013 Chantelle Nay

  All Rights Reserved

  To my family, especially my daughter Kylie who spent

  hours and hours proof-reading and editing.

  And to my husband Todd who taught me how to fish

  and took me on my first four-wheeler ride

  and made me believe in true love.

  Table of Contents

  Preface 6

  Chapter 1: EXISTENCE 8

  Chapter 2: NEW BOY 14

  Chapter 3: LONGINGS 18

  Chapter 4: DESTINY 23

  Chapter 5: COMPROMISE 29

  Chapter 6: CHOICES 35

  Chapter 7: FLESH AND BLOOD 41

  Chapter 8: INVITATION 46

  Chapter 9: PROM 51

  Chapter 10: REALMS 56

  Chapter 11: RUMORS 61

  Chapter 12: COMPLICATIONS 66

  Chapter 13: DREAMS 72

  Chapter 14: SEEING 78

  Chapter 15: DECISIONS 83

  Chapter 16: KNOWLEDGE 87

  Chapter 17: OPTIONS 92

  Chapter 18: ALONE 97

  Chapter 19: DESIRES 101

  Chapter 20: CONDITIONS 106

  Chapter 21: TORN 111

  Chapter 22: CAUGHT 117

  Chapter 23: BATTLE 122

  Chapter 24: SPECIAL 127

  Chapter 25: ANGUISH 133

  Chapter 26: MONSTER 138

  Chapter 27: CONFESSIONS 143

  Chapter 28: MEMORY 147

  Chapter 29: TRUTH 151

  Chapter 1: WARNING 157

  Just as Eve was created from one of Adam’s ribs,

  there are souls out there who are two pieces

  of one heart–split apart at the beginning of time.

  Destined to find each other here on earth and put the pieces

  back together, making them whole once more.

  Never to be separated from one another again

  throughout the rest of eternity.

  Preface

  “I don’t want to leave you,” the words flooded out swiftly past the strangled sobs threatening to burst forth. The sheer agony of the moment was apparent on her tear streaked face. She couldn’t stand causing him any more pain, but there was no way she could endure this alone.

  The pain was rearing up in huge waves before her, crushing her, pummeling her, breaking her. He was her strength, her core, he always had been. He was her true other half. How could she survive without him?

  The battle was raging all around them. “You have to go now, my love,” he said in a calm, reassuring voice. “Everything will be okay. You have to trust me. Can you do that?” His finger tilted her chin upwards until she could see into his clear blue eyes, there was no doubt in their depths.

  She tried to believe it would all be okay like he promised, but she was being ripped in half. She was trembling uncontrollably with fear and her heart ached and burned as if it were being pulled slowly from her chest. Her whole soul felt like it was being wrenched in two by the eminent separation before them. She had suddenly become weak in her previous resolve.

  Why had she ever wanted this?

  It was not supposed to be like this. This had never been part of the plan. It was supposed to be a joyful time, full of hope and faith and expectation.

  This was the opposite, a stark contrast of the vision she'd once held onto. Everything had changed in what seemed like an instant, a mere moment.

  Would she ever see him again? Would they ever be together like they were right now in this precious moment? He was her everything. He made her complete and now she was being pulled away from him.

  She didn’t want to go.

  Not without him.

  Not like this.

  “What if I never see you again? What if you can’t find me?” The sobs were building in her chest, threatening to explode. She refused to let them out.

  She could see the staggering pain etched across his perfect face. It was a pain she knew was, in some ways, far greater than her own. He felt responsible for what was happening to them now. It wasn't his fault. They both knew there was no other choice for him.

  He was a soldier, a servant to the greater good. He couldn’t just turn away from that. He had a duty to fulfill, a mission to complete.

  It was bigger than saving the world, he would be a protector of every soul that had ever, or would ever exist throughout the great expanse of time.

  So many had already been lost.

  He couldn’t turn his back when the call came for a select few to stay behind for the sake of protecting the others. This mission must be completed. There was no other way. Otherwise they were all damned, never to progress, never to reach their potential.

  But why did it have to be him? And why did she have to go now?

  She was so afraid. She had never been afraid like this before. A feeling of panic choked her. She knew what she had to do.

  She had wanted nothing more for as long as she could remember. But now the moment was here and everything had changed, because now he wouldn’t be going with her as they had always planned.

  “I will find you somehow," his voice was thick with the promise. "If there’s any chance that I can come then I will, you know I will.” He stared fiercely into her eyes, willing her to know the truthfulness of what he spoke. “And if I...can't come," his eyes were soft and infinitely sad but still bored into her soul, "know that I will always be with you. I will never let anything happen to you, my love. I promise you that. We are eternal souls; two pieces of one heart. There is nothing in heaven or on earth that will keep us apart.”

  He placed his hand over her chest, connecting his heart and spirit with hers. A warm wave of calmness and security washed over her as a few stray tears broke free and began to fall.

  “Do you promise....promise to always love me, no matter what happens now?”

  He grabbed her up in his arms and squeezed her tightly, kissing her beautiful tear streaked face. He gathered his courage and forced himself to be strong. He would not let her see his fear, his weakness. He had to be strong for her.

  “I promise to love you even longer than that, my love," he said with a steady voice. "I will love you forever and a day,” he promised, pure love filling his eyes.

  There was no more time left for them. He would stay behind and fight, for her and for everyone they loved.

  She ached with the knowledge that she would soon forget him. Her only comfort was knowing that he would always remember her.

  If this had been a mortal battle, taking place on earth, there would still be some hope— hope of them being together, of them finding each other.

  But it wasn't.

  This was heaven and he was an angel and she would soon be mortal.

  Chapter 1: EXISTENCE

  Hot tears stung her cheeks as they lost their fight with gravity and fell from her clenched and hardened jawline. Emma sat miserably alone on a darkened patio, no light finding her teary, swollen eyes. Even the moon seemed to hide its bright and comforting face. This only added to the heavy feeling of despair. She felt so alone. As a thirteen year old girl, the separation of her parents seemed cataclysmic. Emma's home had been taken away and her world shattered all in one day.

  What would happen to her broken little family now? What about her friends and school? She couldn’t stand the thought of having to start over. Making new friends and trying to fit in somewhere else wouldn't be easy. The weight of it all crashed down on her with immense pressure. Life as she knew it was over. She saw no hope, no reason for even existing.

  She began to plead with the darkness. She didn’t know what else to do. She needed a release from the pain. She
needed to know that there was some bigger purpose.

  That’s when it happened.

  The sudden warmth that came was overpowering in the cool evening air. The relief was like being wrapped in a familiar and comforting blanket. It was an overpowering feeling of loving arms being stretched around her and then pulling her in tight.

  Emma felt cradled in pure love. It felt so safe, so easy to breathe in the pure warmth.

  She would be okay. She was loved by someone.

  As the feeling began to lessen its hold and retreat back into the darkness, Emma was changed in the blink of an eye. All of her questions and fears were gone. The truth was emerging with unbelievable grace. That was the exact, precious moment that Emma believed—no, she knew—that God and angels exist. And whether we realize it or not, none of us are ever alone.

  

  Four years later…

  It was Friday, and Emma was more than happy to be leaving school behind as she urged her old clunker car down the familiar dirt road toward home. It was nearly spring in Eden. The cold clutches of winter were retreating from the mountain valleys into the higher peaks at last. This was usually Emma's favorite time of year. But lately she’d felt restless. She couldn't explain it. There was something in the air—an unfamiliar electricity.

  She was plagued by the feeling that something essential was missing from her life. She had no idea what it was. Things just didn’t feel quite right. It was nothing she could put her finger on, just a deep nagging from somewhere inside. Maybe that’s why she’d never quite fit in at this school—never thought like other kids her age.

  She didn’t like being different, but she couldn’t escape it. It wasn’t something you could see on the outside, but it was there, beneath the surface. Somehow other people seemed to be able to sense it, the glitch in her, that’s why they treated her differently. There was nothing she could do to change it because she didn’t know what it was.

  High school graduation was just a few months away. She should be thinking about college but it wasn't really an option. It was too far to commute to any of the local colleges and Emma couldn't afford to get an apartment, let alone pay the tuition for any of the ones further away. It was too bad. She'd been looking forward to getting out of this podunk town. The guy selection probably would have been better at college too. After all, anything's got to be better than nothing at all.

  “MOVE!”

  The voice came suddenly, with enormous force and urgency, snapping Emma out of her daze. She looked up just in time to see that she was on a collision course with a twelve ton snow plow on its return trip from the icy roads of the surrounding ski resorts.

  Her short, uneventful life flashed before her eyes as she cranked the steering wheel back toward her own lane. The car swerved sharply, mowing down some sagebrush just off the shoulder then skidded to a stop just inches away from a rusty barbed wire fence.

  The snow plow let out a long, blaring honk as it flew past. Emma tried to regain her stomach which was now lodged in her throat. She drew in a deep breath and then let it out slowly in a long sigh and laid her head back against the seat.

  Her life had just been saved. If it weren’t for that voice jolting her out of her daydreams, she'd be road kill right now.

  “Well that was exciting,” she mumbled to herself. “Thanks for not letting me get smeared across the road, whoever you are.” She said out loud to her invisible protector. She reached up and absently rubbed her shoulder blade. It was actually sore, like someone had physically shoved her from behind. That was weird, no one could have shoved her; she was alone in the car. She must have hurt it when she’d slid off the road.

  She opened the car door and stepped out noticing a Jell-O-like feeling in her legs. She knew she would need to walk that off before she got home. She didn’t want any evidence of her little “almost accident.” Her mom would freak out and probably ground her from driving for a month.

  Suddenly she got the weird feeling that someone was watching her. She turned and met a pair of dark eyes.

  “What are you looking at?” Emma scolded loudly.

  Less than ten feet away stood a large Black Angus steer. In a childish gesture, she stuck her tongue out at him. He seemed to roll his cow eyes at her before going back to chomping the yellowed tuft of grass at his feet.

  She went back to inspecting the car for any damage. Everything looked good as far as she could tell. If there was a new scratch, it blended flawlessly with the rest of them. She'd only missed the fence by mere inches, which was good (busting down a farmer's fence was practically a capital offense around here). It appeared that all involved had escaped unscathed.

  Emma arrived home and took one more deep breath before she shut off the engine. Grabbing the stack of books from the passenger seat she pushed the car door open. It complained with a rusty moan and she slammed it shut with a little more force than she should have. She knew she was being over-dramatic. There was no reason to blame the car. Her car might not be the greatest but it was all she had. Riding the bus would be a total nightmare.

  Emma strolled around the side of the house and into the backyard where some sort of construction was taking place.

  Her freckle-faced little brother, Cody, was building something out of scrap wood in the middle of the thin cement sidewalk that connected the house to the barn. Bent nails were strewn out everywhere.

  Her mom would have a hissy fit when she saw that. They couldn’t afford to be replacing car tires. She didn’t have the energy to play substitute parent at the moment—she had just stared death in the face after all, and was still a bit winded from it—so she let it slide this time. Her mom would deal with it later.

  "What in the heck is that thing?" Emma said from behind Cody, startling him. He jumped and dropped the hammer, cursing under his breath.

  "Duh! It's a bike ramp stupid," he said indignantly, pushing hair out of his eyes and scowling. He picked the hammer back up and gave Emma an evil glare.

  Now that he mentioned it, she could tell it was a bike ramp.

  "Pretty good for a little kid," she said, not wanting to sound too impressed. Cody was ten and did not like being referred to as a little kid.

  "Hmmph" Cody replied indignantly.

  "What do you want for dinner tonight you little monster?" Emma was the designated cook at her house. Her mom, Catherine, worked two jobs, so she wasn't home much.

  Emma absolutely hated coming up with meal plans. There are only so many ways you can serve the same five dishes. Nobody was fooled, she was a horrible cook.

  "I'm not eating!" Cody said with youthful cockiness, "I have to finish this tonight!"

  “Whatever, you little worm.”

  Emma walked into the house and dropped her books on the kitchen counter. They made a loud thud reminding her just how much homework lay ahead of her this weekend.

  What a rip-off. As far as Emma could tell, teachers had too much time on their hands. Didn't they realize there was such a thing as life outside of school—well, for most teenagers anyway? Emma had never been much of a socialite herself, but she was willing to put up a stink about it anyway on pure principle.

  Emma pulled some fresh hamburger from the refrigerator and put it in a bowl. Seeing it like this, all red and mushy with the disgusting smell of the raw meat made her wonder why people ate such things. Seriously, who was the first person to cut open a cow and think: mmmm… that looks yummy? She dumped some spices, an egg, some oats and ketchup into the mix and stirred it together with her hands. Yuck! It felt even more disgusting than it looked. She loved a good meatloaf though—she was such a hypocrite. She finished it up and threw it in the oven to bake for an hour.

  Emma pulled a stool up to the counter and plopped herself onto it. She flipped open her math book and as the meaningless numbers of Calculus floated through her inattentive brain she thought about the voice from earlier.

  It had been a perfectly smooth, yet clearly urgent voice. She recalled it with vivid clarity a
s if it had been burned into her mind. Definitely a male voice—she was sure of that—it had made her insides rumble with its deep, pure tone. It was a voice she wouldn't mind hearing again, even if it was yelling at her.

  Her guardian angel possibly? If so, he had never spoken to her quite so forcefully before. Okay, so he’d never spoken to her at all that she could remember. His voice had sounded so real, so close. Something had physically moved her, shoving her back into reality, and none too gently either, her shoulder still ached.

  Emma was still lost in the memory when the oven timer beeped. She jumped up to grab the meatloaf before it charred around the edges. Had it been an hour already?

  The blank sheet of paper on the counter was staring back at her. She hadn’t even scratched a dent in her homework and her mom would be home from work any minute.

  Emma moved swiftly to the freezer and grabbed a bag of frozen corn and threw it in the microwave. She set some plates on the table and yanked a handful of forks from the drawer setting them next to the plates. They all shared one butter knife that was stuck in the butter tub for the next person.

  This was her idea of a formal table setting. It was a little red-necked she had to admit, but it saved on dishes later. They didn't own a dishwasher. Her mom saw no need for one. She thought they wasted too much hot water and ran up the bill. "Besides, I have two dishwashers already," she would always say—meaning Cody and Emma.

  That way of thinking had come from her mother, Grandma Lettie. Gram had grown up during the depression, and she didn't believe in wasting anything. She even washed out Ziploc bags and sheets of tinfoil and used them again and again. And heaven forbid you'd throw away plastic forks or spoons, she washed and reused them too, just like they were fine silver.

  Emma heard her mom’s car coming up the drive. Their gravel driveway made it almost impossible for anyone to sneak up unannounced but it was a big muddy pain-in-the-neck the rest of the time. The gravel was always sinking into the mud and it needed constant refilling just to stay afloat.