The light gradually increased in size, and Parklon saw it was a glowing orb, that flickered like a light bulb that was about to blow. The eerie humming sound became louder when a startlingly orange, small electric car, with one broken headlight pulled up next to the portly Derobmi.
"Bloody hell! Why didn't you just drive up with a neon sign saying dodgy dealings on it?" The raspy voice of the Derobmi shattered the silence like breaking glass, making Parklon jump slightly. The accent was foreign to him, and the voice deep and sharp.
"This vehicle has its uses, have you done as I asked?" A hollow voice came from the partly opened window of the still humming car. The portly man shuddered at the voice and lowered his tone in submission.
"Yes it's done," he said looking around. "It's for the best, now I'm done with you. We … we part ways from here on,” he stammered.
"Yess," hissed the hollow voice from the open window of the car. "We have no need to meet again." In the blink of an eyelid, there was a sharp streak of purple light from the car window, and the portly Derobmi visibly shook all over when it hit him. He crumpled to the ground and slumped there unmoving.
Parklon gasped while the car sped off out of the car park. In the flash of purple he'd seen the red glowing eyes of the attacker.
He ran over to the injured man and knelt beside him. The green-skinned man wasn’t breathing. His eyes were open with a glazed and shocked look permanently set on them now, and he was most certainly dead. Parklon checked him for a pulse, but there was nothing. He started to panic. He didn’t even know the emergency services phone number in this colony. He’d only just arrived here. He needed to find a telephone. He looked around for a pay phone, and saw a glass doorway out of the car park in front of him. In it there was a long corridor, with a pay phone at the end. He stood up and ran over to the door, bursting through it and running as fast as he could down the corridor, until he reached the pay phone. On the front of the phone was a list of emergency numbers, Thank Budda! He paused for a second. The emergency number here was 101? He blinked and then shook himself back to the task at hand, and dialled the number.
“Welcome to Derobmi Emergency Services, how may I help you?” A female voice asked him.
“There’s a man. He’s been shot. I think he’s dead!” Parklon shouted down the phone, completely unaware how shaken he really was by tonight’s events.
“Can you tell me where you are sir?” The woman asked.
Parklon looked around the corridor for a name of the car park, or a hint of where he was. Then he saw a health and safety sign on the wall next to him. “City View Car Park. It’s on the outskirts of the city,” He told the woman.
“And have you tried to revive the person who’s been injured?” the lady asked calmly.
“Er, no. He’s not breathing and he has no pulse,” Parklon replied, “should I?”
“Emergency services are on their way sir, if you can wait there they will be with you soon. Can I take your name sir?” She asked.
Parklon didn’t know why, he did it, but he said. “Sure it’s Jeff Jones,” and then he hung up the phone. Blame it on fear, anxiety or just plain panic. Giving his real name had just seemed like a really bad idea.
Parklon ran back to the car park, he needed to make sure the man was dead. If there was even a small chance he could save his life, he had to try. He dashed through the glass doors into the empty car park and looked around wildly. The body was gone.
He stared at the spot where it had been and some part of his brain ceased to function. What the hell was going on here?
Sirens could be heard in the distance and Parklon decided he'd had enough intrigue for one night and in a moment of panic ran to his car, got in it, and drove in the opposite direction of the sirens, down a winding dark road and into the maze of city streets.
OUT NOW!
Shattered | Preview
Life isn't all it was cracked up to be, and the opportunity to run away from her problems, sends Carla on a life-altering journey to Zoola...
Follow Carla on her adventures as she travels to Zoola on a quest to find her friends. But a darker side to her powers, and her nature emerges in a foreign land and the Carla we know begins to disappear. High on power and escaping from the life she didn't choose, Carla becomes engrossed in a dangerous world of escapism and pleasure, completely unaware of the devastating effects it will have on the people she cares about the most.
Read the first two chapters on the next page.
Find out more about the books series at: www.wbots.co.uk
One | Holiday From Hell
They had been running non-stop for four days, only stopping to sleep when they couldn't go on anymore. Minutes here and an hour there, not enough rest, barely any food and the sun burning down through the trees in patches of fire on their skin. It was unbearably hot, sticky with humidity, and the air was dirty with dust and pollen. Their bodies criss-crossed with numerous cuts and itchy scratches, and Bob knew if they didn't find water soon they wouldn't survive.
He could see a clearing ahead and hear water running, he motioned for Isabella, his exhausted companion, to run in that direction. It had been hours since they had heard the threatening hooves of their pursuers, pounding the earth as they neared their prey. Perhaps finally, they had run far enough, and left the Hunters miles behind them. Perhaps now they were safe, and could finally rest.
Bob grabbed Isabella’s green-skinned hand as they broke through the clearing of exotic trees, and he squeezed it in hope. He should never have come home, he'd forgotten how dangerous it was here, and it had only gotten worse in his time away.
His heart skipped a beat as he cleared the trees and realised, too late that the path ended at the edge of a cliff. He gasped as his momentum dropped him over the edge and he began to fall.
In a moment of pure terror Bob clawed at the cliff face with his free hand. Then the fall abruptly ended and his arm jerked painfully, as Isabella’s grip on his hand tightened and held onto him.
The cliff face dropped down, into angry waters below. His only grip on the solid world was in the small hand of his companion.
"Bob, no!" Isabella Foamy cried out, as her compact green body was dragged to the ground, now holding his considerably larger orange-skinned form in both her small green hands.
Sweat stung his eyes, as it rolled off his brow and his bright orange hair stuck to his head, now darkened with dust and perspiration.
He glanced down. It was a fifty-foot drop into a fast moving river below, with sharp rocks and violent waters crashing against them. He tried to grip on to the cliff face, bits of moss coming away in his free hand. This was it, he was going to die.
He looked up at Lady Isabella Foamy. She looked so young, her blonde hair tied up in a messy ponytail, her lime-green skin glowing from the sunshine. Covered in dirt and sweat in her little denim hiking shorts and a vest, she looked beautiful. He wasn't going to take her with him on this journey. She deserved to live her life out happily far away from here.
"No," She cried, as he let go of her hand, and dropped like a stone into the crashing waters below.
The last thing he heard was her screaming his name. Then the cold waters encased him and swallowed him whole.
Two | Working Girl
Carla Mainston looked out across the muddy fields of the Derobmi landscape. Rain dribbled down the window pane slowly, like a tangle of crystal snakes racing to the bottom. The landscape had once seemed so bright and green, and the sun had shone more often, she was sure it had.
Carla sighed at her reflection in the window. A pretty purple girl with wild black hair sighed back at her. Her sparkling green eyes were filled with sorrow. Carla looked away from her reflection and down to the test tube she had been cleaning. What was wrong with her? She was so maudlin and sad all the time. It made no sense, she was never unhappy, or at least she never used to be.
She had everything she wanted, freedom, a happy home, good friends, a good job. But somewhere in all t
hose accomplishments was a big, black, cloud of disappointment.
"Slacking off again, are we?" a sneering voice snapped her out of her pondering. Oh wonderful, Carla thought, my fabulous new boss; the essence of my discontent.
Godfrey Hanns had been recently hired as Carla's new superior, in place of her best friend, who had been promoted to bigger and better things.
Godfrey was a lanky, green-skinned, thirtyish go-getter, with the attitude of a used car salesman and about as much honesty. He was all snide commentaries, with a dollop of gross misuse of power in the personality department. Carla despised him, perhaps more than she had ever despised anyone. It wasn't that he was the worst person she had ever met. It was more that she was unable to do anything about him that drove her to hate him more than anyone else she’d ever encountered.
She gritted her teeth before turning to face him. “Just cleaning the lab up,” she told him with a false smile. He looked around the lab casually.
“Have you only just started? It looks like a bomb’s hit it!” He flicked his dirty-blond bangs out of his eyes in a mildly camp manner and glanced at the sparkling counter top with distaste. “There are marks all over this.”
Admittedly the counter top did have scratches in it from age and use, but it was cleaned to perfection.
“Would you prefer me to sand it down and re-varnish it?” Carla snapped, and then mentally kicked herself for speaking her mind. It always led to more problems than a resolution. Godfrey had a talent for taking everything she said and turning it around to suit him, and Carla knew today wasn’t going to be any different.
“There’s no need to be snide, it’s unprofessional.” Godfrey’s condescension grated on Carla’s nerves. “You use any excuse to get out of doing your job properly. I’m not your best friend and I won’t be giving you a free pass just because of your past glories. Clean it again and this time I want every inch of this place to be sparkling!”
Carla felt a moment of sadness. Her best friend wasn’t here anymore. Parklon had been promoted and sent to Zoola on a research project. She missed him every day since he’d gone and left her here.
She gave up trying to rationalise with Godfrey, he took pleasure in upsetting her and pointing out that she was nobody important. She knew he’d report her for something else today, thus marring her reputation even more. She nodded and hoped he’d leave. But he wasn’t quite done with her yet.
“You might think you’re special after your involvement with that criminal Lord Foamy last year, but most of us know what you really are.” He added snidely, looking down his long thin nose at her. “An illegitimate trouble causer.”
Carla burned with anger, the reasonable voice in her head faded away as his last comment hit the nerve it was aiming for. She spun around and faced him, waving a dirty test tube at him.
“I did more for this colony that you’ll ever know. You horrid lanky freak!” She knew as the words spewed from her lips that she was probably going to regret them.
Godfrey smiled nastily. He’d got what he wanted from her.
“Throwing another tantrum are you? Convinced you’re some kind of superhero?” He sneered, “They must have recruited you from an asylum.”
Carla wished she’d never confided in him about her special powers when he’d started working with her. He’d seemed okay then. She hadn’t known it was all an act until a few weeks later.
Her mind reading powers had just disappeared one day and there had been no one to talk to about it, so she’d confided in Godfrey. What a mistake!
She felt the irrational burn of anger bubbling inside her. “You haven’t even seen me angry yet,” she growled at Godfrey.
He smiled at her. “Threatening behaviour is against company policy. I’ll be issuing you with a warning for that.”
Carla lost all control of her temper. She’d had enough of him. She’d had enough of everything.
“I’ve been dealing with your shit for months now, taking every snide remark and nasty lie you’ve thrown at me.” She’d begun speaking calmly but as her anger burned, the volume of her words increased to a shout. “I’ve saved more people than you’ll ever know and been through hell and back along the way!” She didn’t notice the windows behind her beginning to shimmer and shake as she continued. “Everyone I care about has been taken away from me, and my powers, which were very real by the way, seem to have abandoned me too!” Godfrey began to look worried as she continued and the glass windows shook violently.
“Because this job is the only bloody thing I had left, I’ve taken all of your crap to keep it.” Cracks appeared in the windows behind her and Godfrey’s worried expression turned to one of fear.
Carla didn’t notice as her words continued to rise in volume and hatred. “And NOW you’re going to take my job too! SCREW YOU AND THIS JOB, YOU CAN GO TO HELL!”
The windows exploded behind her and glass shot out across the fields as a blast of something powerful hit them full force. Godfrey dropped to the floor and cowered there, pale with shock and unbridled fear of Carla.
She stepped over him calmly on her way out of the office and paused as she peered down at him. A puddle of liquid spread on the floor in front of him and there was a wet patch on his trousers, showing he’d clearly peed his pants very recently.
“Don’t forget to clean that mess up.” Carla looked at the puddle pointedly, “Oh and I quit!” She turned and walked out of the Derobmi Scientific Institute for the last time with a big smile on her face.
COMING SOON!
A Note from Bob
Psst. Yes you. C'mere.
Don't tell anyone I showed you this story, alright?
I found it when I was procuring some special items for a client.
Hey! There's no need to look at me like that. It was all above board, kinda.
Anyhow, before you go making a mountain out of a molehill. I think this story is connected to Carla, and thought I better show someone it before the hunters find me.
Oh don't go thinking you're all special now. You're just in the right place at the right time. You can keep a secret, right?
Keep it under your hat for now, you never know who's listening around ere.
Hold on to it for me, and watch yer back…
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 Claire Chilton
First Edition
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 and the United Kingdom Copyright Act of 1956 and 1988. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Ebook Edition
RAGZ BOOKS
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or deceased, is entirely coincidental
Cover Art by Claire Chilton
Contents
THE FALLEN QUEEN
Whatever Became of the Squishies | Preview
One | School’s Out
Two | Wrong Turn
Shattered | Preview
One | Holiday From Hell
Two | Working Girl
A Note from Bob
Copyright
Contents
The Fallen Queen Page 3
