Wide Awake - Academy of the Fallen Series

by Daniele Lanzarotta

  At that moment, Hunter felt her hand squeeze his.

  He smiled. “Just please, Kayla. Try to stay away from anything dark. I thought of something I could do to bring you back. I just need you to hang on.”

  “Hunter,” he heard Kayla say in a low voice. He was still looking at her, but her eyes were still closed. She wasn’t moving.

  “Kayla? I heard you. Say something!”

  Daniels walked in, surprising Hunter. “What is going on here?” He asked.

  Hunter, realizing that he was still holding her hand, quickly let go.

  “I heard something. She called me, said my name.”

  Daniels looked from Hunter to Kayla, and then to the monitors that she was hooked up to, realizing that her heart beat was uneven.

  “You need to leave, Hunter. Whatever you were saying, or maybe you just being here, must be causing her stress.”

  Hunter snapped. “You think that is the reason her heart is racing? Well, it is not. After it all happened… after Benjamin attacked her, her spirit was still around. It wasn’t until the Doctors took her away from me that she went to—well, you know where she went to.”

  Daniels looked as if he was deep in thought. “That doesn’t make any sense. You wouldn’t have the power to keep her here. You are just—“

  Hunter cut him off, finishing his sentence, “I’m just one of the haunted, unlike you, who just pretend to be one.”

  “You are out of line, Mr. Chambers!” Daniels said. “You need to leave!”

  “Hunter,” it was Kayla’s weak voice calling his name again.

  Daniels froze in place.

  “You heard it too, didn’t you?” Hunter asked.

  “We need to get her back,” Hunter said. “I have an idea on how to do that.”

  Daniels looked at Hunter, doubtful. “She needs to find the way back on her own. No one can help her.”

  “That is not true. I found my way back once. If she can really hear me, I can walk her through it, I can pull her back.”

  Daniels considered it. “But you will have to summon her to pull her back. If things go wrong… you can end up in the Otherworld with Kayla.”

  Hunter looked determined. “I’m willing to take the risk.”

  Daniels finally agreed. “Okay, but I will be here with you.”

  “I can’t focus if you are here. That will not work.”

  Daniels was getting frustrated now. “Fine, but that door stays open. I will intervene if there are any problems.”

  Hunter quickly agreed and rushed Daniels out of the room.

  THIRTY-FOUR

  Hunter sat on the bed next to Kayla and closed his eyes. He just sat there silently, just focusing, and it was Kayla who called his name.

  “Hunter.”

  “Kayla, I need to know that you can really hear me.”

  Her voice sounded weak. “I want to get out of here. I want to go home.”

  “I know you do, Kayla. You need to listen to me. I was there before and I’m going to help you find your way out, but you can’t give in.”

  “But there are so many of them. So many lost souls, and they keep saying that I can help; that I’m one of the children. I don’t understand.”

  “I don’t want you to think about that right now, Kayla. I want you to find a place where you can focus, where you can be alone.”

  KAYLA

  I had never been so lost and scared in my life. I knew where I was. The place was exactly how Carolyn had described it, only when she talked about it she never mentioned other beings trying to get to her… following her. Whenever I asked what they wanted, all they said was “Help me”, and then someone else would come along, and scare them away, only to do the same exact thing.

  I took advantage of those distractions to run away, only I felt more and more lost. I just felt as if I wanted to sit somewhere and just stay there, sadness taking over me, but then, I felt something. I heard him call my name and that was enough to basically jumpstart my brain.

  I couldn’t see Hunter, and I was frightened, but just the fact that I could now hear him, gave me hope.

  I wasn’t exactly sure what he meant by staying out of the darkness. All places were dark, but I did find a place, it was a dark place, but that seemed to be the only spot where the others left me alone.

  That was the darkest place I had ever been to, and I was suddenly overcome by a feeling of emptiness and despair. “I think… maybe I should stay here, Hunter. I don’t belong there anymore. Kelly and Andrew have someone else they need to take care of now.”

  “Don’t talk like that, Kayla! Don’t give in. Here is where you belong. I can help you. You need to be back.”

  “How are you so sure that is where I belong?”

  Hunter hesitated, but then, I felt a pressure on my hand and I just knew that back in the real world, he must have holding my hand. “Hunter?”

  “Kayla, I know that you belong here because I – I think I’m in love with you.”

  ***

  ACADEMY of the FALLEN: NEPHILIM

  COMING IN 2012

  Turn the page for a sneak preview of Imprinted Souls

  Available at

  www.danielelanzarotta.com

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  Chapter 1

  Today had marked the one-year anniversary of Matt’s accident, the accident that had taken him from me. And today, I felt just as empty as I had one year ago, with only one difference, the anger that I felt back then faded over the months. Now, I just felt numb.

  I looked out of my window to see that the day looked awful; cold and dark, which complemented exactly how I felt, so I took advantage of that awful weather and decided to head to my favorite place.

  I sat at the unusually deserted beach, staring at the sea and reflecting on what had happened over our time together and on the turn that my life took after that awful day.

  Matt and I had dated since our freshman year in High School, three years ago. He had approached me on our very first day of school; I was running late to my English class, trying to rush, but when he saw me reaching for the door, he yelled out from the beginning of the hallway. “Hold up!” At first I looked around, thinking that he must have been talking to someone else. I surely did not believe that the gorgeous guy, tall, athletic, tanned and with deep green eyes, which even at a distance were impossible to stop looking at, was actually talking to me. But after looking around once again, I realized that there was no one around but us. He ran in my direction, sounding breathless when he finally reached me, and it turned out that he did all that just to open the door for me. We met each other’s gaze, both of us smiling, and that was it. I knew right away that had found my soul mate.

  Being with Matt was always so easy and we grew so close, so fast; we were just meant to be. We spent most of our free time together, we liked the same things, and our friends, well, the people who I thought were my friends at the time, always made fun of Matt and I at the many moments when we finished each other’s sentences. Everyone saw us as the perfect couple, and at times we were more like best friends than anything else.

  That weekend, the worse weekend of my life, Matt and the rest of the football team had gone out of town for a game championship tournament. The whole team rode the bus for hours to get from Pensacola, Florida to NYC. That had also been our anniversary weekend and the reason Matt was in that flight home instead of riding the bus back with the rest of the football team was so we could have spent our anniversary together. The plane never made it. It crashed within one hour of take off. There were no survivors, but also, Matt’s body was never found, which made it even harder to believe that he was gone. There was a nice memorial service held by his parents, but there was no one to say good-bye to.

  At first, I could still feel that he was still with me; that he was not really gone. I spent most of my time sleeping, just to be closer to him. The dreams were always so vivid, and he was always there, by my side. Once the dreams started to fade, there was nothing lef
t, expect for memories. I felt as if I had lost everything.

  Being so lucky to have found my soul mate and then having my whole world, hopes and dreams, shattered into peaces when he was taken away, feeling every impact of his non-existence, it was all painful to say the least. But now, sitting at the beach, thinking about those events no longer impacted me, over the months, the tears dried out; I could no longer cry, and even the guilt that I had one day felt was now inexistent. It was as if I was a body without a soul, an empty shell, with no real emotions, good or bad; there was nothing left in me and even thought I was aware of what was happening and how unhealthy it was, I had no desire to do anything about it. Matt had been my soul mate, and my soul was taken with him when he was gone.

  I was now about to start my senior year, the year that Matt and I had made so many plans for, only now there was only one plan left, to graduate and leave town. And in spite of me being an awful company to anyone around, my best friend Leah stuck around and she certainly helped me put on a façade for my parents who couldn’t see things were as bad as they were. Although they weren’t completely clueless, after all, my parents did insist that I kept busy, to get my mind off things, so Leah and I both got part time summer jobs at an amusement park. I guess that was cheaper than paying for a therapist.

  Leah had been my best friend since middle school, she was in all of my classes, and we planned on going to the same College next year, somewhere not as humid as Pensacola, Florida. Leah and I were both planning on going to college at NYU, that had been the plan since middle school, and it was the only plan in my life that had not fallen apart, expect for the part where Matt would not be coming with us.

  I wondered just how self destructive I was being, planning to move to the city where Matt had been last, the city where the accident occurred; still, somehow that was what I was looking forward to. In the mean time, I was expecting a very long summer and senior year, surrounded by people talking behind my back. Walking through life as if I was a zombie; at least that was how I heard someone at school describe it when the news spread that I had quit every single extra curricular activity that I had been involved in, from cheerleading to clubs that I was a member of, none of that mattered anymore.

  And the whole Matt wouldn’t want to see you this way speech that I heard so many times, just drove me insane. Fact was that Matt was no longer around to say anything.

  I knew what mostly everyone was saying, that I was exaggerating, that I should have come around after a couple of months, but I just didn’t care. Although sometimes I wondered how my life would be if the memories would have gone away along with the dreams and emotions that no longer existed, but I would have never traded those memories of Matt, even if that would make my existence less pitiful.

  Unfortunately, I knew that those memories would not be enough, so I would just have to endure the rest of my life, which I was becoming an expert at.

  All right, enough of this. I though to myself as I got up, shook off the sand from my clothes and headed back to my car. Time to put on a happy face and go back into the real world.

  Chapter 2

  I left the beach and went straight to Leah’s house, she was always easy to spend time with, in fact, most of the time I was just there, she did all of the talking and I just nodded every once in a while. Sometimes I wondered why she stuck around after the accident when I knew that I was an awful company, but for whatever reason she didn’t seem to mind.

  During the drive to her house I recalled the night I overheard my parents saying that when I was spending time with Leah, it was the only time they were fully reminded that my old self is still within me, so maybe I hadn’t been as bad company as I thought.

  It didn’t take me but twenty minutes to get to Leah’s house. As I turned into her street I wondered if I should have just gone home instead, considering that it was around dinnertime, but then I saw my parents’ BMW parked in her driveway so I parked my Camaro and walked slowly towards the door, just thinking, wonderful! Be ready for the pity party, Lexi.

  My dad opened the door before I could even reach for the doorbell.

  “Hey Lexi, glad you got my message” My dad said, looking to be in an extremely good mood. I didn’t know if that was on purpose or not, but everyone acted the same way, as if today was just another day.

  “What message?” I asked, clearly caught off-guard by them even being there.

  But dad just laughed. “It doesn’t matter now, we made dinner plans this afternoon, and I wanted to make sure you would be here, that is all.”

  Mine and Leah’s parents had always been good friends, so I just assumed this was a regular Saturday night dinner, just to hang out, until I noticed that the dining room table was sat nicely; I mean, we usually just gathered around in the living room, holding our plates. This seemed more… formal.

  “What is the special occasion?” I asked Leah curiously.

  She shrugged. “My guess is as good as yours.” I noticed right away that Leah was totally annoyed; one thing about Leah, she hated surprises and secrets. And when she knew of a surprise or secret, even if it is not hers to let it out, she made damn well sure that it did not stay a secret for much longer. Yes, she loved to gossip.

  As soon as Leah’s mom announced that dinner was ready, we all went straight to the dining room and took our seats. Leah’s older brother, Logan, was also there; he was home for the summer from College, which made my visits to Leah’s house a little uncomfortable. Logan was nice, but he was just always hovering, trying to get me to go on a date with him, totally annoying. Don’t get me wrong; he was hot! He was not much taller than I, but he was athletic build, tanned, short blonde hair, blue eyes…typical Florida hottie, but besides the fact that I was emotionally ruined, it would have been too weird being that he was my best friend’s brother and all, at least that as my excuse. Truth is, even the thought of dating made my stomach clench, Matt had been the only guy I had ever dated and I had no desire at all of being attached to someone like that ever again.

  Leah’s mother prepared an amazing dinner; a fancy looking pasta, but besides the fact that we were actually eating in the dining room, there was nothing unusual about that dinner. We… well… our parents went on and on about Logan’s school, hockey games, and then some more about Logan. Leah and I just stared at each other, bored. As soon as we finished eating Leah gazed at me as if she is giving me a signal to excuse ourselves and go up to her room. We were just about to get up when Leah’s parents stopped us.

  Her mother, Janice seemed anxious, as if she was hiding something. “Lexi, Leah, don’t go just yet.”

  We relaxed back into our seats.

  Janice looked at her husband and at my parents; she seemed so anxious she could barely sit still.

  “Well, can I tell the girls?”

  All of them laughed at her; she was usually not very good at keeping secrets. Leah clearly had taken after her mom. Janice was so anxious I started to think that it must be something she had been keeping for a while. Finally, they all gave her the go ahead.

  “Well girls, we have an early graduation present for the both of you.” Leah and I both stared at each other, both of us confused. I mean… graduation was one year away! We had no idea what it could possibly be.

  “We know how hard the both of you have been working, and we all feel that this summer is the ideal time to use this present, and that is why you are getting it early…just in case you are wondering.” She laughed.

  Leah and I were both still clueless. I was starting to feel just as annoyed as Leah looked, and it was not that I didn’t like surprises, well, I used to love surprises, but at that point I just wanted to get this over with already. I usually didn’t have to put so much work into putting on a happy face for my parents and this was getting exhausting.

  I finally turned to Janice and with a begging tone I asked her to please stop teasing and tell us what it was already.

  She just could contain herself any longer, so that worked to
our advantage.

  “You girls are going to Italy for the summer!” Our mouths dropped, we are speechless.

  My dad cleared his throat. “Now, don’t get too excited just yet. You are both enrolled in a summer school program. It will look great on your College applications, so that will make us parents happy as well as you.”

  I honestly didn’t care what the reason behind it was, I didn’t even care that there would be school work involved; I was just extremely excited, to the point that I didn’t even have to fake my excitement, which felt very awkward. This had been the first time in a year that I remembered actually wanting to smile, and not just smiling to pretend that I was fine. I was just ready to get away from everything and everyone, except for Leah of course. I just needed time away.

  “Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!” We both yelled in excitement.

  “When do we leave? How long will we be there?” I just had so many questions that I just started asking whatever was on my mind without giving them time to answer anything.

  My dad finally stepped in to answer those questions; giving me the impression that he had made all of those arrangements.