Breathless (The Breathe Series Book 1)

by Christy Johnson

“Okay.” He comes back over and sits on the bed a little closer to me this time.

  He rubs my shoulders soothing my wild spirit. I allow my muscles to relax, rolling my neck around. With my eyes closed, I rest my head back on the pillows. He moves his hands up further to my neck, massaging out the kinks and then to my scalp, stimulating my hair follicles. I breathe out slowly.

  He snatches me by my hair causing me to stare at him, mouth slightly opened from his grip. He gazes into my eyes deeply, “There is nothing being hidden from you. Everything is perfect.” He snarls.

  “Yes?”

  “Yes.” The Rose Pyrrptase glows, almost lighting up the entire room.

  “There are no secrets between us. You are in love with me. You trust me.”

  “I love you and I trust you.” My voice robotic repeating everything he says to me.

  The necklace dims. “Now try to get sleep.” He says, losing his grip he had on my hair, standing after he kisses me on the forehead. I nod and snuggle into the Care Station bed. Devin turns to walk out of the door but is stopped by the sight of Riley peeking in through the window, dismayed by the compellation.

  *****

  DEVIN

  “What are you doing here?” Devin pushes Riley against the wall, demanding for answers.

  “I was coming to see Nora. Didn’t expect to see you here.” Riley sneers.

  “You stalking her or something? How did you know she was here?”

  “Not a chance but the real question is, what are you doing to her? I saw you, Devin.”

  Devin chuckles. “Don’t forget Riley, the way I killed you off on Keuria could be the same way I do it here, too. Watch yourself.” He threatens.

  “I won’t let you hurt Nora. Do whatever to me but leave her alone.”

  “And how do you expect to protect her if you’re dead?” He grimaces. Riley doesn’t respond. He stays pressed against the wall. “Humph, that’s what I thought.” Devin smirks, jerking his hands down away from his clothes and walks away from Riley. Riley clenches his jaws and balls up his fists, watching Devin walk down the hallway.

  “Alright, son. We have one chance to get this right. Keplor only wants Nora so she will not hesitate to kill you. You must enter there and offer her to the creatures. We have to get Nora on our side.” Luke stares into Devin. “Do you understand, son?” Devin nods, afraid for his life. “Okay, good luck.” His father exits his office.

  Devin walks over to the only wooden wall in his father’s office. He knew what it was for and he knew why it was the only one in the entire building. Shivering, he knocks on it seven times and the wall comes crumbling down to the floor. He steps over the pieces, gasping as the breath is sucked from his body while entering The Broken Realm.

  “Devin—such an unpleasant surprise.” Keplor, the leader of the dark creatures, says through sarcasm.

  “Nice to see you, too, Kep.” Devin lifts his chin, trying to mask the fear in his heart.

  “Why are you here?” She sneers. The creatures behind her sit side by side in the large, dark auditorium with their heads dropped. Their black hats covering half of their face. Devin gulps as she turns to face him, hissing in his face. Her long black dress flowing behind her. Her long white fingers stretching out to meet his fuzzy beard and her black fingernails nicking the side of his cheek only slightly.

  “I have something you want.”

  “Something like what?” She lifts her head to show her blank face. Her black eyes gape at him, causing him to buckle.

  “The Ultimate Chosen.”

  “She’s already been here, wanting to see what was in the casket.” She unhands his face as Devin glances to the back of the auditorium.

  “When?” He snarls.

  “Months ago,” Keplor turns to face her creatures, who are still sitting in place, waiting for her command to move. “She actually did a number on two of mine.” She jeers, “Why would I want her?”

  “She is an Ultimate. The only Ultimate. Do you know what kinds of power she can and will possess? Powers you and your crea–” Keplor lashes her face back at him, gleaming at him. He clears his throat, “– people could do with that? I know you like to feed off souls. That is the only way you can thrive, isn’t it? Trading her soul for dark powers is a fair trade, don’t you think?”

  “She isn’t ready. We showed her what was in the casket already.”

  “And what’s in it?”

  “Nothing, now. She was supposed to die from that car accident. She would have been gone from Jeshyria. Her soul was already in the casket and we would have been feeding for centuries but she didn’t want to stay. She wasn’t ready for the darkness.”

  “So, you mean she would have already had those dark powers if her soul would have stayed here in Broken?”

  “That’s what I said, stupid child. You don’t know what you’re doing with this one. Something or someone is keeping her steady and alive. She needs to be completely broken to accept what can truly be hers.”

  “And how can darkness be hers, exactly? What steps must we follow? Luke always said that a pure soul isn’t an inhibitor for the darkness.”

  She laughs and the walls cave in more, “You don’t know her at all. She isn’t all pure.” She flicks her pale face back over to him. “Break her, Devin. Strip her of everything. That is the only way we can both get what we want.”

  “I don’t understand, though. How exactly can I break her?”

  “Get rid of the thing she loves most and if you can’t do that, trick her into believing it isn’t there anymore. Show her that it is you that she needs.” She grins sadistically, showing her white teeth. “Trust me, you’ll want her dark anyway—more power and I know that’s what Luke sent you here for.”

  “So, this must mean we have a deal?”

  “Oh yes, we have a deal.”

  *****

  NORA

  “I felt you. I don’t know how but I—I felt you and it was so strong this time.” Riley gazes out into the trees. He said this is the land he and would meet up at all the time. I roll my eyes at him, ignoring his idiocy.

  “You’re the same guy I saw from the gym last week aren’t you? Thanks a lot for knocking me down, by the way.”

  He turns to me with fear in his eyes. He's afraid for me. “Nora, it’s time you knew.” He says, ignoring my question. “The last time we were here, I masked the meeting as just a dream so that you wouldn’t know too much but you have to know. I’m really here—I don’t know how but we are connected. I’ve seen you in my dreams even before I met you. Who are you was the question I asked you?” His voice cracks.

  “Okay, you’re scaring me now.”

  “You have a lot to learn about who you are.” He pauses.

  “And I’m guessing you will tell me?”

  “I’m not supposed to but I don’t care about what happens to me anymore.”

  “Just tell me.” I try to remain calm.

  “You’re special, Nor. You aren’t like those Elite girls or any other girl, for that matter. You are very important, so important that it’s causing you to be in danger. You weren’t supposed to know until after your graduation from Apalachicola because that way you would be trained and it would give me more time—I just…” His voice fades out as he tries to hold back the tears.

  “So what am I?”

  He shifts, facing me. “Not what, but who. I mean, you have abilities to do things that other people can’t, only you haven’t tapped into those abilities yet.”

  “What am I?” I whisper again.

  “Devin is out to sabotage you. You cannot trust him, Nora. He has willed you to forget everything that you were meant to see, to know. You’ve already learned so much but you can’t remember because he has compelled you.”

  “What. Am. I?” I say, more crisp this time.

  He takes my hands into his, “The necklace is his source of compelling you. Once you get rid of it, you will gain back all the information he has programmed you to forget. The love yo
u two share isn’t real, Nora.” He grabs my hands. “Remember what’s real. The pain I caused you. The love. The laughs. The hurt.” He drops his head. “Remember us. Please? We are the only ones who can save you and you are the only one who can save us all.”

  “What am I?!” I snap, pulling my hand away from him.

  He sighs with regret of ever telling me but he knew he had to save me. “You’re Chosen, Nora. You’re a Chosen One. The Ultimate.”

  I turn away from him allowing my mind to drift off to what I knew now. “Chosen? What is that?” I turn back to face him only to find that he had gone. I plop back down onto the ground, “Who is that guy?”

  I breathe in deeply. My eyes open slowly as I awaken from my slumber. I’m still in the Care Station room, alone. I choke back the tears as I reach up to grab the necklace. I yank it off my neck waiting to remember whatever I had forgotten but nothing came flooding back in. It was all a lie. I wrap the necklace back around my neck allowing its power to consume me; allowing the darkness to seep back into my skin.

  26 secret’s out

  GRANT

  “What were you thinking!?” Stephanie paces the floor.

  “She was asleep. She wasn’t supposed to be awake, Steph! She was asleep.” Grant slaps his forehead.

  “Did you at least make her forget what she saw?”

  “I didn’t have time! You heard them trying to break down the door before you got there to rescue my ass.”

  “We need a plan. This is deeper than it is supposed to be. If Devin or his father finds out that we are protecting her that will be it for the both of us. Luke is so much stronger than us, Grant.” She continues to pace the floor.

  “Steph, I know. C’mon, sit down. You’re making this worse.”

  “I tried to tell her but I swear that girl isn’t wrapped too tight. I mean, she acts as if she is just a twit! How dumb can you be to believe you have schizophrenia because your lunatic mother says so? And how could she not see sooner that her mother and Greg were doing it?”

  “Well, to be fair, you used your powers on her before she knew anything of magic.” Grant buts in.

  “How in the hell is this girl supposed to save us all if she can’t even save herself? She’s vulnerable. Weak!” She’s still pacing the floor.

  “Mind your mouth, Stephanie. She has to save us or we will all be dead by the end of the year. If she carries on her legacy with Devin, we are all screwed.”

  “Thanks to you, lover boy, she may just pop one out by him since you healed her! I mean, what in the world Grant?” She scolds him.

  “I was thinking about her. I mean, what if she would have died from that tumor?”

  “She can’t die, moron!”

  “What? The Creator never granted her with the power of immortality.”

  “I think he did—just like that car accident. She should have died and Mason would have been the true Chosen. I like Nora but she is just so whiny and too vulnerable to boys. What does she see in you guys, anyway? I would much rather have a girl.” She smirks and winks at Grant.

  “What if she tells Luke what I’ve done?” Grant stares off into the distance disregarding Stephanie’s wants. “Luke has no clue who I am. For two years, I’ve hidden in plain sight of him.”

  “Who cares!? I just want to know if you completed it at least.”

  “That’s the thing, I don’t know.”

  She stops to stare at him, “We’re screwed.”

  *****

  NORA

  Cho•sen

  1. Past participle of choose.

  Adjective

  1. Having been selected as the best or most appropriate.

  I tap my fingers against the computer desk. There was nothing on the web that could tell me about Chosen, except for the obvious, of course. I had been back at Apalachicola for three days now and everything that had happened was burning its way into my skull.

  “Okay, now I’m getting really annoyed by you.” I jump at Stephanie appearing into my room.

  “You again? Who are you and how do you keep popping up like that?” I hang onto my seat, fearing for my life.

  “I’ve told you more than once before but you’re too vulnerable and stupid, I guess. I’m Stephanie for the last time.” She rolls her eyes at me and holds out her hand to examine her nails.

  “What do you want?”

  “It’s time for you to get it together. That’s why I’m here. You’re letting a boy dictate you and let me just say, you’re on the losing side. Yes, it sucks that Riley chose another girl or whatever but you have to pick yourself back up.” She kneels down in front of me. “Devin is no good for you, Nora. He’s just using you for what you possess.”

  “And what do I possess? And who is this Riley everyone keeps talking about?”

  She rolls her eyes, “Chosen powers and some douche bag you fell in love with.”

  I laugh at her, positioning myself upright into my chair. She had been the third person to mention the word “Chosen” and I was becoming flustered with the whole idea. “So you’re crazy too, huh?”

  “Apparently, you are too.” She says pointing to my laptop screen.

  I snap it shut, “That’s nothing.”

  “Listen, I know it’s hard for you to take my word for it or anyone else’s, for that matter, but we need you.”

  “Who needs me? And why do they need me? I didn’t ask to be needed!”

  “Take my hand.” She holds out her freshly manicured hand. I hesitate for a moment, not wanting to take her by the hand but I had to know more. A familiar feeling of “craving to know more” rushes over me, chilling my spine as I link hands with her. I close my eyes for no reason at all but when I open them, I was in that same sacred place that boy Riley said I would always go to in my dreams. I glance out into the openness of the land, the tan grass swaying from side to side. I close my eyes, pulling in the crisp air into my nostrils.

  “How did you know about this place?” I gaze into her.

  “This place is real, as you already know but your heart is here and the only way you can really follow your heart is by physically following it.” She lets go of my hand and backs away from me.

  “What am I supposed to know?! No one is trying to be clear with me.”

  “But some of us already have been clear with you. It’s just up to you to decide if you want to believe us or not.. The first step is yours; take it, so we can finally save our planets. We need you. If you won’t listen to us, listen to Riley.”

  “She’s right, Nora.” I turn to face Riley standing in front of me.

  “I know you.” I say, pointing at him. “I mean, I feel, deep down, I know you.”

  He smirks, lowering his head in flirtation “You do.” His eyes dash back up to me.

  “How do I know you?”

  “Come with me.” He whispers to my heart holding his hand out to me. I back away from him. “Trust me.” He says meekly. “Just trust me.”

  “Okay?” I gape at him naively taking his hand into mine, feeling the strike fill us, the wind howling around us.

  “Close your eyes.” I didn’t understand but with him, I didn’t have to. I close my eyes and waiting to float away with him.

  At first, I saw nothing but blackness and myself being consumed within it. “It only works if you believe that you can remember. The mind is a terrible thing to waste.” He whispers into my ear from behind. I press my face back onto his lips, feeling that familiar jolt rushing back into my soul, filling it with pureness. I gasp as the memories flood back in.

  “Who are you?” He asks strangely.

  I chuckle, “What do you mean?”

  “There’s just something about you I just cannot steer myself away from.”

  “It feels different loving you, Nora. It feels inexplicable, almost like this love doesn’t exist. It always feels like I want to hug you so hard that eventually I mesh clean into you… becoming one with you. It’s—it’s the X’s and O’s, ups and downs, in-betweens,
our woes and here we are, we’re interwoven and I’m just constantly falling for you.”

  “I’m Riley. Nice to meet you.”

  With seconds flying by, time is slowed once more for me as I examine the other things I was forced to forget. A pang forms in the pit of my stomach as I witness Mairi and my mother betraying me, Devin compelling, and Mason losing the love of her life.

  I shift my face forward still reminiscing on when that familiar ache returns as I think of losing Riley. I screech out in pain with my eyes still closed, I reach back behind me to wrap my fingers tightly around his hands. I envision my father’s death, hiding under the stairwell, witnessing the murderous Luke and his small child Devin—I grunge with hatred but before my visions could consume me, I open my eyes, screaming out in anguish. I yank at the necklace gently resting around my neck. When it flies across the room, I realize where I am. I had fallen asleep in front of my laptop. As I pant and heave at my desk, I feel the room sink in closer to me. I stand from my desk, panicking still from the hurt of betrayal, loss, and amnesia. It was all happening too fast—whatever this was, was really happening, overwhelming me.

  “Okay! I believe!” I yell out to the ceiling hoping Stephanie or Riley or anyone was listening.

  “Good. Time to get started.” Stephanie appears to me, smirking.

  27 chosen

  “So there are basic things you need to know. Trust me, I know you have other questions but even we don’t know everything just yet.” Stephanie says as I sit in front of her in Riley’s and I sacred place. “Most of this crap is just played out by ear.”

  “I have a question before you continue.”

  “What?” She rolls her eyes with agitation.

  “Am I dreaming? I mean, it’s kind of hard to tell these days.” I lower my head hoping I actually was.

  “We are in your dreams but this is real. This is the only place where we can be safe to talk.” When I don’t respond to her, she continues. “The problem with all of this is you weren’t supposed to know any of this information until you graduated from Apalachicola and that’s because you would be well trained as a Judoka.” She tosses her curly hair backwards. She sits down on a small boulder and crosses her leg over the other. “I know this is a lot, Nora but trust me, you are our only hope.” Her eyes empathetic, passionate about this—whatever this was. “It was a lot for me too when I first found out.” She rubs my shoulder, trying to console me but I didn’t need consoling. I needed to see my psychologist and Stephanie needed to join me.