Immortal Light
Wide Awake
John D. Sperry
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any other similarity of characters to real persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
Immortal Light: Wide Awake
Copyright © 2012 by John D. Sperry
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission, please email all queries to
John D. Sperry at [email protected]
Visit: johndsperry.com
Lyrics of “A Melody, The Memory” courtesy of MAE. Song Copyright © 2009
ISBN:
ISBN-13: 978-1480139817
ISBN-10: 1480139815
Printed in the U.S.A.
First edition, November 2012
Second Edition, December 2013
The text type is set in “Imperator.” Titles in “Lightfoot”
Book design by John D. Sperry
For sarah
If ever there was a woman more lovely and more beautiful, more
brilliant and more wise, she must certainly be a fairy tale character. My Sarah is my fantasy come true.
Part I
Preface
It didn’t hurt; not yet, anyway. He told her there would be pain and Lucy wasn’t going to underestimate someone who was trying to kill her. She wanted to do something about it, but that would only make things worse for Kat and even Benjamin and his brothers. All Lucy could really do was wait.
The tide of the bay was rolling in softly and Lucy’s anxiety had subsided enough for her to find her favorite spot on the beach: an ancient, weatherworn tree that had probably fallen centuries before from the cliff above. As she walked to it, she picked up sand dollars and pebbles. Looking at them in her hand, she was still amazed at how real they seemed. They were only creations of her memories, her subconscious, yet they were perfect in every way; even the gritty texture of the sand dollar made her fingertips tingle.
The crook of the tree was cozy and Lucy was comfortable with dying there, even if it was only in her haven. She pushed the reality of the forgotten and mildew-ridden motel where her body lay out of her mind. She hoped that Kat would be released or might find a way out, because it would be an awful place for her to die.
With a sudden gust of uncharacteristic wind, Lucy looked up at the waves that were starting to crest into whitecaps. It wasn’t normal; he must have started already. In what she perceived to be her last moments, Lucy gave in and thought of Benjamin. She tried to keep him out of her thoughts; he would try to stop her and she loved him for that, but this was not to be stopped. It was the only way to save him and everyone she loved.
For a brief moment, she was carried back to summer when she first met Benjamin and how far away that seemed. The time hadn’t been long enough; she wanted to rewind the clock and do it all over again, but the pain was starting and the clock was about to stop ticking altogether.
Chapter 1
“You heard what he said, Kat. It’s going to take me two weeks at least, but I’m not going to give him the satisfaction of seeing me upset about it.”
“Yeah, but you could at least ask him one more time. I mean, today’s your first day, Luce.”
“No! No way. I’m not going to grovel. I’ll do something; I don’t know what, but something. If it doesn’t work, then I’m going to suck this one up.”
“Lucy, you know you don’t have to prove anything to him. He’s been wrapped around your finger since you were born.”
Lucy sighed into her phone as she found her purse and the right shoes.
“I know, but this is big. It’s not like I’m five, asking for a candy bar in the checkout line. No. I’ll do anything but beg.” Just then she saw the brightest possibility of hope. “And I have just the thing.” Lucy smiled as she uncorked the rubber stopper on the purple piggy bank she’d had since she was three years old.
“I don’t know what you’re going to do, but don’t make it worse on yourself,” Kat warned.
“I won’t. This will work.” She smiled at her own cunning. “Okay, gotta go. Love you.”
Lucy listened as Kat lightly giggled at her friend’s absurdity.
“Love you, too. Call me later.”
“I will.” Lucy slapped her phone shut and dumped the piggy bank full of silver coins into her purse and headed to breakfast.
She walked as casually from her room and down the stairs as she could. There was no sign of her father anywhere. He was either still in his room or already in the kitchen drinking his coffee. Lucy threw her purse over her shoulder, the sound of coins jingling around as the purse came to rest.
As she walked through the kitchen, she saw her mother, Laura, standing at the stove, flipping pancakes. Her father, James, was at the coffee pot.
Perfect, Lucy thought to herself.
She walked over to the kitchen table with a deliberate blankness on her face. Without looking at or greeting either of her parents, she pulled her purse from her shoulder and carefully turned out the trove of silver coins onto the table. They slid out onto the wood and formed a handsome pile. Lucy sat down in a chair and immediately started separating the nickels, dimes, and quarters from one another.
“Morning, Sweetheart. Pancakes for breakfast?” Laura’s voice was pleasant.
Lucy just shook her head as she focused on her task. She didn’t want to lose track of what she was doing. At least that’s what she wanted them to think.
James Higgins walked over to the table and casually placed the morning paper next to his daughter. Lucy could feel his presence behind her and she tried not to let the sipping of coffee distract her. She was hoping he would ask what she was doing. Counting out change for the bus, Daddy, was the response she had ready in her head. But, he said nothing and continued sipping.
Lucy’s three piles of coins were nearly separated and James had yet to say anything at all to her; she was running out of time. He wasn’t even going to have to call her bluff because she would be forced to beg.
No begging! She reminded herself of the morning’s motto.
Just as hope was dwindling, Lucy saw her father move out of the corner of her eye. He leaned down near her and reached out his hand. He was still too far around her side that she couldn’t see what he was setting down. She closed her eyes and prayed it was what she thought it was. But when she opened them, her heart sank and a grimace crossed her mouth as she looked at four dollars and ninety-nine cents worth of irony. Next to her on the table was her father’s “World’s Greatest Dad” coffee mug, a mug she had gotten for him nearly a decade earlier on father’s day.
She felt his presence disappear as footsteps lead to the stove where he was undoubtedly picking at the pancakes still on the griddle.
“Stop it, James. Those aren’t done yet,” Lucy heard her mother say, followed by the sound of plastic slapping fingers.
“Ouch!” James hollered with a laugh.
Lucy felt him close behind her again, but he only picked up his drink, took the last sip of coffee and walked his “World’s Greatest Dad” mug over to the kitchen sink, and turned on the water. Finally, he addressed his only child, who sat visibly dejected at the table.
“Interesting story on the front page today, Goosey. You should take a look; I think it’s right up your alley.”
Usually referring to him as “Daddy,” her words were prickly with disdain.
“You sure? It’s a great article.”
Lucy cocked her head sideways and glared at him. “Yeah, I’m sure,” she said, shooting daggers.
There was no more pretending. She had lost, and she was going to live with it. No begging today.
“Okay, suit yourself,” James said, picking up the newspaper.
As he did, Lucy heard something slide out of the folded paper and hit the table with a familiar clank and thud. It was a familiar sound, the sound she heard every day when her father would get home from work; it was the sound of keys hitting the table. She froze. Looking down, she saw a small set of keys resting right next to her. It was a set she had seen only once before. The slightly worn Chevrolet logo stared up at her as if to say, “Hello.” Eyes wide, she slowly reached for them, and looked up at her father who was standing over her with an expression on his face that seemed to say, What do you say?
Quickly grasping the keys, Lucy jumped up, questioning, “Really?”
“Yeah, really,” he mumbled.
“Oh thank you, thank you, thank you, Daddy! You’re the best!” She threw her arms around her father’s sturdy frame and squeezed him with all her might.
“You’re welcome, but remember, thirty-five dollars a month for insurance and you pay for gas.”
“I know, I know, I promise.”
Lucy grabbed her purse and pushed the coins back into it. Her excitement was nearing critical mass.
“You should have enough gas to last you two weeks if you only drive to work and back. Don’t waste it.” His tone had turned to a lecturing timbre as Lucy raced around the kitchen grabbing her things.
“I’ll see you at dinner, love you,” she called to both of her parents and then turned around again. She ran to her father and gave him another big hug. Jumping up, she kissed him on the cheek and thanked him again.
Trying to hide his joy, he responded with a surly, “You’re welcome,” and encouraged her to thank her mother.
Lucy raced over to the stove, repeated the sentiment with a hug and a kiss, and was out the door before anyone could change their mind.
Laura stood with her hands on her hips and shook her head with a smile. “You’re such a softy. You know that, right?”
James glowered at his wife. “I just wanted to see if she knew I was serious about paying for the privilege of driving, that’s all.”
He leaned over and kissed his wife goodbye. She simply rolled her eyes and smiled.
***
Lucy drove her beige Chevrolet Cavalier, a present she got three months earlier on her sixteenth birthday, to her first job ever. She was told she had to pay for insurance up front if she wanted to drive it. That meant she had to get a job. That job was at the Coos Bay public library.
Pulling into the small parking lot, Lucy looked for some sort of employee parking spaces, or at least a designated zone, but she saw none, so she parked near the front of the library. The clock on her stereo read 9:19 AM. She was early. That worked to her advantage, as she didn’t want to make a bad impression with her new boss her first day on the job.
The library opened at 10:00 AM so Lucy knew she had a good thirty minutes of training ahead of her, but there wasn’t a single other car in the lot and didn’t seem to be any life inside the library.
She turned off the car, removed her keys and for a moment admired the way they looked in her hand; her very own keys to her very own car. It felt good to finally be driving it. Unbuckling her seatbelt, she pulled the door handle and stepped out into the parking lot. The door slammed with a nice solid click. Just the sound of it made her smile because it was her slamming door and her solid click.
Before heading to the front door, she looked herself over once in the reflection of the side window. It was hard to look at herself sometimes because during her middle school years she went through what her mother called an “awkward phase.” If awkward meant being too skinny and too tall to fit into any clothing, having teeth that didn’t seem to fit into her mouth, and having zero curvature to her body, then Lucy agreed that she had gone through an awkward phase. It was just before her fifteenth birthday that she finally started to see a little bit of real femininity in her design.
Her hair had always been beautiful, long and blonde with just the right amount of body, and for that she was grateful. As she looked at her reflection she realized that the rest of her might not be half bad. She had sparkling blue eyes. Her porcelain skin looked perfect with just a little bit of make-up and under her name-brand clothing she saw fullness and curvature she was sure hadn’t been there yesterday. To her own surprise, she might have even considered herself a little bit “hot” by high school standards.
Arriving at the front door, she pulled on the handle. The force of it jarred her a little bit when there was no give. The door clattered and remained in position.
“They don’t open until ten,” a warm voice said from behind her.
Turning around, she saw a guy about her age walking toward her on the sidewalk. The first thing she noticed was that he was tall, more than six feet for sure. He wore beige cargo shorts with flip flops, which wasn’t exactly surprising in Coos Bay during the summer. Hanging loosely on his torso and over the top of his shorts was a white button-down shirt rolled up at the sleeves. The contrast of the white accented the perfectly tanned shade of his skin, but it wasn’t a summer tan; from what she could tell, the color was native to his skin. She could see that his hands and forearms were toned, as were his legs. While her heart fluttered at the sight of his chiseled jaw and perfect features, his most dazzling feature was his eyes. They were spectacular green emeralds glowing in the daylight and framed by dark, black locks of hair that fell around his face. His gaze seemed to grab Lucy’s attention and hold it hostage.
“Oh, uh, I know. I work here,” was all she could manage to say.
“And you don’t have a key?”
“Well, I mean, today is my first day; I was kind of expecting someone to be here already.”
He stopped in front of her, gripping a backpack over his shoulder. He just raised his eyebrows and stared. Lucy froze in the silence wondering why he was just standing there. A moment turned into seconds and the awkwardness was becoming palpable. Lucy pined for something to say, but the newcomer spoke first.
“Are you going to sit down?” He gestured to a bench near the library door that Lucy had not realized she was blocking.
Embarrassed, she stepped out of the way, and the boy gave her a closed mouth smile, dropped his backpack to the bench, and sat down.
Lucy tried to hide her flushed face. She had never felt so rattled in the presence of someone her own age, so she just stood, arms crossed, staring into the parking lot.
“Would you like to sit down?” she heard him ask from behind her.
Her mortification was obviously not going to be relieved.
“No, uh, I’m fine, thanks.”
Lucy walked over to the opposite side of the door and started pacing a groove into the sidewalk. After a minute of torment, she was granted a reprieve. She and her new morning companion looked up as the screeching sound of a car in need of some serious repair pulled into the parking lot. Navigating the vehicle to a spot at the edge of the lot, the driver turned to look at Lucy. He was pale to a near sickly degree, young, and gaunt. His expression was blank, his thin pink lips clamped together. He couldn’t have been more than twenty-five years old and the sight of him was just creepy enough to send a cold chill down Lucy’s spine. Lucy hoped he wasn’t coming for a visit to the library. As he turned his gaze back to maneuvering into the parking space, Lucy saw a long, black, stringy ponytail that hung down his back without being affected by the wind through his open window.
With a squeaky slam of his car door he approached the library, holding a black briefcase. He was so skinny that the navy blu
e long-sleeved shirt he wore hung loosely on his bony torso. Walking up to the door, Lucy watched the expression on his glistening, damp face change from a stern, miserable glare to a slightly softer, more innocent look.
“Are you Lucy?” he asked in a high sort of whiny, though not totally unpleasant, voice.
Lucy looked at him confusedly for a moment then thought she should answer him.
“Yes, I’m Lucy.”
“Kenny,” he said, leaving the keys in the lock and holding a sweaty hand out to her. “I’m the librarian here.”
Lucy’s heart sank as she took his hand. His fingers were almost ice-cold with a thin, vaporous layer of moisture.
“I’m sorry we haven’t met until now. I was at a library conference in California. That’s why the city HR people did the hiring.”
Kenny seemed almost out of breath with every word as his boney fingers fumbled at the lock. The process looked laborious, as though each tumbler weighed a ton.
Once Kenny had the door open, Lucy looked to the boy sitting on the bench. His face was buried in a book, so she didn’t say anything to him; she simply followed Kenny through the door that felt like the stone entrance of a tomb for all the trouble it gave him.
“Are you familiar with the library?” Kenny asked in his weak voice, not looking at Lucy as they walked through the entry way. It was obvious he was a rather timid person. “Do you read books?” he followed up. He also didn’t seem to have well-developed social skills.
“Yeah,” Lucy replied, not sure to which question she was responding. “I used to come here all the time.”
“And now you don’t?”
“I haven’t really had time. I sort of got busy with life and …”
Kenny slipped behind the circulation desk and disappeared into a darkened office. It was obvious he wasn’t listening, so Lucy stopped talking. Seconds later, all the lights were on and Lucy’s immediate impulse was to head to the fiction aisle, grab a copy of a favorite book, and hide from her weird, new boss in the children’s section, curled up on a beanbag chair.
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