Radium Halos: Part 2

by May, W. J.

  Brent’s jaw tightened. “Where do you want to go? Wherever it is, I’ll come with you.” His eyes suddenly seemed to look a lot older than seventeen years. “I can protect you.”

  Always the soldier of protection. “Somewhere Kieran would never think to look.” An owl hooted and the tree branches clacked against each other as the wind picked up. Snow fell from the trees in muffled drops.

  The noises of the night came back alive. Could all of me?

  Chapter 17

  The local paper ran Rylee’s death like it was the most exciting thing in Elliot Lake. They used horrible photos of the ambulance, her body on a gurney, the tree and then pictures of the tree after the farmer had cut it down and left a tall stump. The reporter wrote how the farmer couldn’t look at the spruce and see beauty in it anymore, all he could see what the mangled body of a young girl.

  I tried to avoid the papers but I’d see a copy on the table or Dad’s desk and be unable to turn away. The day the stump photo covered the front page I must have squealed or cried out of something. Dad came running into the room. “Are you okay?”

  The laugh that came out of me sounded hysterical or something you’d expect to hear from a crazy person. It was the morning of the funeral and I’d stepped into Dad’s office to grab a pen. I’d bought a card for Rylee’s parents and wanted to add a note. “The picture. Have you seen it?”

  He nodded, his mouth set in a grim line.

  I waved my hand. “No, did you see our picture? The paper’s got some excess red ink on it. The tree looks like it’s bleeding. Like blood is coming out of the cuts. Like tears of blood from being cut down. It’s awful.” Angry at not noticing the tears coursing down my cheeks sooner, I swiped them off my face.

  Dad stared at me, then at the paper clenched in my hands and then back to my face. “It’s just a bad ink run. It’s not…” His words trailed off, even he didn’t know what to say.

  “Forget it.” I stuffed the paper under my armpit and stepped around him to get out the door. “Mom’s outta the shower and I need to finish my hair.” Mom and I had slept over at Dad’s since the accident. I knew they were sleeping in his room together but didn’t say anything.

  We all were keeping secrets these days.

  Inside the bathroom and behind the locked door I glared at the image in the mirror and then dissolved into tears. How in the world do you bury one of your best friends? Rylee would never graduate, go to university, be a pageant queen – she’d have made a darn good one, she’d never get married or have kids. Her parents wouldn’t know if their grandbabies looked like her or anything.

  Mom’s soft footsteps stopped by the bathroom. She didn’t say anything, just stood behind it with sad, long breaths. I heard her sigh and Dad whisper from down the hall, “Give her a moment. She’ll be okay.”

  I straightened and grabbed tissue to blow my noise. You’d think I’d have run out of tears after the past few days, but the well never seemed to run dry. I pulled my hair of out its bun and wore it down, the way Rylee liked it. The black dress I wore was the one Rylee had bought me for my birthday. A bit cold to wear something sleeveless but my mom let me borrow a fancy expensive scarf she had and I wore it over my shoulders like a shawl. It matched perfectly. Rylee would have loved it.

  The lump in my throat needed to go. I swallowed hard and went to get my boots.

  We drove to the funeral in silence. Entering the church through a side door, I heard Brent, Seth, and Heidi before I saw them. “Mom, I’m going to find my friends.” I trudged toward their quiet voices before either of my parents could reply.

  Brent found me just before I turned the corner at the end of the hall. He hugged me tight. “You okay?” he whispered.

  “I’m managing. What about you?”

  He sighed. “It sucks.” His lips brushed against the top of my head and he held me tighter.

  I let my weight lean into him. I could hear people whispering in the sanctuary and other students gossiping. No one knew about our abilities. At least if they did, no one was talking about it. I tuned the whispers out and as I did, I thought about Kieran and how he had figured out how to get me to do it in the hyperbaric chamber. Fresh tears came to my eyes. Thank goodness for waterproof mascara. I pressed my face against Brent’s chest and tried to muffle the cry.

  He continued to hold me and stroked my hair.

  Seth and Heidi came and stood by us. I gave Brent another tight squeeze and straightened so I could hug Heidi. We started crying all over again.

  My father appeared in the hallway with a large box in his hand. “Zoezey?” He cleared his throat. “This just arrived for you by UPS.” He opened a door to a nearby room and set it on a table.

  I followed and tried to think of who would send something here, today. Dad offered his Swiss Army knife and I cut open the box. There was another one inside with a note taped on top of it.

  I gasped. The note wasn’t signed but I knew who wrote it.

  Zoe,

  Please take care of this. I want the two most precious things in my life together.

  With shaking hands, I opened the second box and moved aside the packing peanuts. Wrapped in bubble wrap lay a Waterford crystal Scottish thistle.

  “Who’s the crystal from?” Seth asked, leaning over my shoulder. Heidi stood on my other side.

  I closed the box, hoping they wouldn’t figure out the shape inside the bubble wrap was a Scottish thistle. “I’m not sure. Probably an aunt or something.”

  My father’s eyebrow rose but he didn’t say anything. Thank goodness. He stepped forward. “Why don’t I put this in the trunk of my car for now?” He gathered the box and carried it out of the room.

  Brent checked his watch. “The memorial is going to be starting soon. They’ve reserved a row for us by Ry-Rylee’s parents.” He swallowed hard.

  Seth leaned over to Brent and clasped him on the shoulder. “We are going to find Kieran and make him pay.”

  Heidi pulled away from beside me. Her face sad but more determined than I had ever seen it. “We’ll find him. Stupid sixth sense can’t see all five…” she choked on the last word, “I mean four of us, coming after him.”

  I stared at my three friends, my heart torn in every direction.

  Unlike the others, I didn’t care about revenge. I had no stake in the outcome of Kieran’s life or his future.

  It’s hard, I thought, blinking back the tears. I wanted to believe people could change, even people who are damaged. I inhaled long and deep, then released it slowly.

  But I don’t know if they can. I just don’t know.

  THE END

  … For now

  NONSENSE, the third installment of the Senseless Series, coming Summer 2014

  I hope you enjoyed Radium Halos. I love to hear from readers so please feel free to contact me or post a line or two review so others can find the series!

  Looking forward to see you for book 3, NONSENSE,

  W.J. May

  MORE BOOKS BY W.J. MAY:

  THE CHRONICLES OF KERRIGAN

  Book Trailer:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gILAwXxx8MU

  BOOK BLURB:

  How hard do you have to shake the family tree to find the truth about the past?

  Fifteen year-old Rae Kerrigan never really knew her family's history. Her mother and father died when she was young and it is only when she accepts a scholarship to the prestigious Guilder Boarding School in England that a mysterious family secret is revealed.

  Will the sins of the father be the sins of the daughter?

  As Rae struggles with new friends, a new school and a star-struck forbidden love, she must also face the ultimate challenge: receive a tattoo on her sixteenth birthday with specific powers that may bind her to an unspeakable darkness. It's up to Rae to undo the dark evil in her family's past and have a ray of hope for her future.

  ** FREE CHAPTER EXCERPT **

  The Chronicles of Kerrigan

  Rae of Hope

&n
bsp; by

  W.J. May

  Copyright 2012 by W.J. May

  http://www.wanitamay.yolasite.com

  Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-WJ-May-FAN-PAGE

  Cover design by: Patrick Griffith

  The Chronicles of Kerrigan

  Book I – Rae of Hope Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gILAwXxx8MU

  Book II – Dark Nebula Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca24STi_bFM

  Book III – House of Cards, coming March 2014

  Book IV – Royal Tea, coming June 2014

  RAE OF HOPE

  Chapter 1

  Guilder Boarding School

  “You can’t undo the past. The sins of the father are the sins of the son, or in this case, daughter.”

  Uncle Argyle’s ominous words had echoed in Rae’s head long after he dropped her off at the airport. “A proverb of truth” he had called it. Who spoke like that nowadays? Some good-bye. Tightening her ponytail and futilely trying to tuck her forever-escaping dark curls behind her ears, she looked at her watch, then out the bus window at the tree lined countryside. It seemed strange to see the sun. All she remembered was rain when she had lived in Britain nine years ago.

  Trying to get comfortable, Rae tucked her foot up on the seat, and rested her head against her knee as she looked out at the scenery flashing by. A sign outside the window showed the miles before the bus reached Guilder. It’d be another twenty-five minutes. She popped her ear buds in, blew the bangs away from her forehead and stared out the window across the rolling farm fields, trying to let the music from her iPod distract her.

  It didn’t work. Just when she felt the tension begin to ease from her shoulders and she started to get into the song, something caught her eye. Black smoke billowed just near the top of a lush green hill. Rae stared, her heart fluttering as an old memory began to take hold. She knew what that smoke meant. She’d seen it before, long ago.

  Someone’s house was burning.

  Crap, crap crap, no I don’t want to go there. Her heart started racing and her stomach turned over, making her feel nauseous.

  Dropping her knee, she gripped the seat in front of her, burying her face in her hands taking deep breathes, like the therapists taught her to do. She’d gone through years of therapy to treat what had been called “panic attacks”. It didn’t matter what other people called it. To her, it was simply hell; like being sucked back in time against her will, to a place she never wanted to revisit. So she breathed the way she’d been taught, slow breathe in, all the way, then slow breath out, all the time chanting it’s not real, it’s not real in her head.

  It helped calm her racing heart and made her feel more in control, but it didn’t erase the memory. Nothing on Earth could do that. Being back in England for the first time and seeing the strange smoke, Rae felt six years old all over again.

  She’d been in the living room coloring with new markers before bed when her mother told her to take them to the tree house her dad had built for her and play there until she called her in. That call never came. The blaze bounced horrific shadows around the inside of the tree house. The stinky black smoke slithered in and scared her little six year old self in ways the monsters under her bed never had.

  Rae shuddered and lurched upright, forcefully bringing herself back to the present. Could this school be any further into the sticks?

  Glancing around the now vacant bus, she wondered if the driver had purposely left her until last. She’d watched the last few people get off at a school about fifteen minutes ago, Roe-something or other. They all looked the same, all pretty girls with blonde hair, not one of them thin, pale, and tall like her. They hadn’t been friendly. Big surprise there… She was used to it. She tended to fly under the radar at best. So she handled them the way she always handled the ones who instantly didn’t like her for no reason she could come up with. Rae avoided making eye contact and tried to appear immersed in the Guilder Boarding School brochure. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to make friends. She’d just never really had any. Most kids her age either didn’t like her or didn’t notice her.

  It bugged her that Uncle Argyle had pushed so hard for her to go when Guilder sent the letter. He’d been the one to move them all from Scotland to New York when she’d come to live with them, taking her away from the horrible tragedy of her parents’ death, and now, he suddenly leapt at the chance for her to go back? It didn’t make any sense. It sort of sucked to leave her current high school. She lacked close friends, but she also lacked enemies, which was a plus in her book. The girls there seemed just as stuck up as the ones who’d gotten off the bus earlier, but they’d simply ignored her. Rae always told herself it didn’t matter anyway. Cliques were so passé in her opinion.

  Another weird thing that she couldn’t seem to find an answer to was why Guilder would choose her? How did they even know she existed? Her uncle boasted how big a deal it was for her to be selected, but he’d never once explained how they’d even come to know about her in the first place. She had the grades, the brain part always came easy for her, but she didn’t have any extra-curricular activities at all, nothing to make her stand out. So, how had this amazing school she’d never heard of before decide to take her on? It didn’t make any sense. She tried a few times before she left to corner her uncle and get him to explain part or all of it, but he’d always seemed to be busy.

  While this wasn’t exactly abnormal behavior for him, it still left her with a sense of foreboding, something that had clung to her ever since she got the letter. She couldn’t figure out why, but she had a strong sense that something big was coming. Whether it was good or bad, she didn’t know.

  A movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention, pulling her mind out of the endless circle of questions in her head. She turned to look out the window, and was stunned to see the largest bird she’d ever seen in her life. Maybe an eagle? The thing flew parallel with the bus, right beside her. Pressing her face against the cool glass, her gaze focused intently on the curious sight. She jerked back when its large wings flapped, brushed the window, and then veered away. She watched its graceful flight as it soared and then swooped to settle onto the limb of a large tree just ahead. As the bus passed by, the bird seemed to lock eyes with Rae and she was mesmerized. Rae had always wondered what it would feel like to be a bird, to fly so free, go anywhere the wind took her. She continued to watch the bird until she couldn’t see it anymore, then slumped back into her seat as the bus sped onward down the long road.

  Guilder Boarding School. She gnawed at the cuticle on her thumbnail a little too hard and ripped the skin, drawing a wince from her. She couldn’t help it, she always did this when she was nervous. She’d be the only American girl. Well, not really American. She held a British passport but had moved to New York after her parents died in the fire, leaving her orphaned. So…not really American, not really British; a little of both, but belonging to neither.

  The bus cruised by an aged stone sign. Guilder Boarding School, Founded 1520. One of Britain’s Finest Educational Institutions. Rae read the sign and wondered how a school could be that old and not be featured in stories or online. She found nothing when she tried researching it. They drove under an old, leaded window arch that connected two round, red-brick towers. The stream of people coming and going from the doors at the bottom made her think it must be some kind of office. She craned her neck to get a better view. The buildings were old but were well kept and held an almost magical aura of their original Tudor era. She half expected to see men in tights and codpieces strutting down the road, leading their horses, with corseted ladies perched delicately atop them. The mental picture amused her and she absent-mindedly smiled. Her eyes were drawn to the ornate, brick chimneys along the buildings’ roofs. She glimpsed the other buildings beyond. This place looks huge…hope I don’t get lost.

  The driver pulled to a halt in front of a building with an embossed plaque that said “Aumbry House”. The ancie
nt building had ivy growing all over it. It looked like it was probably older than Henry VIII, leaving Rae with horrifying visions of chamber pots dancing in her head. It better have indoor plumbing…

  The bus door slid open with a hiss. Rae gathered her two small suitcases and her book bag, clambered down the aisle and finally, blessedly, off the bus.

  “Welcome to Guilder, Ms. Kerrigan.” Rae awkwardly spun around to face the voice, finding that a tall, thin woman stood on the concrete steps of the building, her eyes darting left and right, pausing on Rae for barely more than a few seconds.

  Rae stared, wondering where the lady had come from. She wasn’t there a moment ago. Rae looked at the woman’s long, wool skirt. This might be England, but today is sweltering. How is she not melting in this heat?

  “I am Madame Elpis, your house mistress.” The lady darted down the large concrete steps, pausing on the last step and, in one fluid motion, tucked her clip board under an armpit and extended her hand.

  The woman’s features reminded Rae of a bird – her jet-black hair, dark eyes, and especially the jutting nose. Rae nodded and dropped a suitcase so she could return the handshake, her fingers crushed by the woman’s claw-like grip. Ow, ow, ow! So you’re freakishly strong, got it.

  “Come along. No time for dilly-dallying.” She turned and marched up the steps, not checking to see if Rae followed or needed any help with her bags.

  Huffing out a breath, Rae grabbed her things and clambered to follow, hearing the bus driver chuckle as he closed the door behind her. I’m spending the next two years here? What joy; What freakin’ bliss.

  Hammering and drilling noises from above greeted Rae as she came through the entrance. The clamor echoed throughout the building.