The Next Chance

by Shannon Reber

  THE NEXT CHANCE

  A Madison Meyer Mystery

  Book 7

  SHANNON REBER

  Copyright © 2018 by Shannon Reber

  First Edition

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means

  (electronic, mechanical, photo‐copying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

  Published by Magic Fire Publishing

  This book is a work of fiction. Incidents, names, characters, and places are products of the author's imagination and used fictitiously. Resemblances to actual locales or events or persons living or dead, is coincidental.

  Printed in the United States of America ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Table of Contents

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  TWENTY-ONE

  TWENTY-TWO

  TWENTY-THREE

  TWENTY-FOUR

  TWENTY-FIVE

  TWENTY-SIX

  EPILOGUE

  About the Author

  “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”

  ― C.S. Lewis

  ONE

  I always thought that when I died, a light would lead me to my afterlife. It turned out, there was no light for me. All I could see was blackness.

  I wasn’t sure what that meant. Was it possible I wasn’t dead? Or was it more likely the blackness WAS my afterlife? There was no way to know for sure and that was a frightening feeling.

  I remembered the sound of the gun being fired. It had been so loud, though the pain in my ears was nothing to what exploded through my chest. It had felt as if my heart was ripped to shreds by some monster with fiery talons dipped in acid.

  The pain had been so intense, yet it was the horror on Ian’s face that really hurt me. The memory of his anguish as he’d held onto me made the blackness seem welcoming.

  In a finger snap, the dark was gone. It was similar to waking from a long sleep. The odd, disoriented feeling compounded as I looked around.

  I stood in a crowd, everyone talking at once. Laughter and music filled the air along with the smells of fried food and popcorn. It was obviously the fair although I hadn’t been there in years.

  A hand touched my arm, so I turned to look. Dark blond hair. Caribbean blue eyes. Ian. He was there.

  I leaned in, feeling warm and comforted as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close. Nothing mattered other than the fact he was with me. It didn’t matter that nothing made sense. All I cared about was that we were together.

  He smiled, leaning down to touch his lips to mine. “You look happy,” he commented, tucking my hair back behind my ears.

  “How could I not be happy? You’re here,” I said, speaking a truth I had never said aloud before.

  He smiled at me, pulling me a bit closer as we turned to walk through the crowd.

  Someone made a scoffing noise not far from us. “Okay, Ian. You need to back off. You’re making me want to puke.”

  I turned, my mouth falling open at the sight of her. Her straight, dark blonde hair and Caribbean blue eyes were identical to her brother. Unlike Ian, though, Emma’s face was twisted in a sneer.

  I stared at her. Emma. How was it possible? What was going on?

  Nightmarish images floated their way through my mind. Emma hanging from the rafters of their garage. Emma in a casket. Emma’s ghost in a white dress, her eyes fixed on me in rage.

  No. It couldn’t be true. It couldn’t. Emma was right there, whole and alive. My best friend. The sister of my heart.

  As a child, I had always felt plain and inadequate around her. My brown hair and fair, freckled skin had seemed boring by comparison. As an adult, I didn’t feel quite the same way.

  I had become a bit more confident in the last few months. Ian had helped to bring that about in me. He made me feel beautiful, which was something I had never felt before.

  I knew Emma wasn’t happy that Ian and I were dating. She hadn’t made a secret of it. She had gotten used to it, mostly accepting us as a couple. Mostly.

  Dylan smirked, hooking his arm around her shoulders in the same way. “Come on, Emma. Let’s let boo-one and boo-two grope each other in private,” he said, grinning at us in a mischievous way.

  Ice worked its way up my spine. I did not trust Dylan Funar. I had known him my entire life. Maybe I’d never really known him at all, though. I could sense a darkness in him.

  “Emma, wait,” I called, holding my little finger out between us.

  She glanced at me and rolled her eyes. “We’re not little kids anymore, Maddie,” she scoffed but she hooked her finger around mine, pulling me away from Ian.

  She linked her arm with mine in a way that felt rather confining. It was clear she was in a mood. I knew all of Emma’s moods so that one was no real surprise to me.

  I stopped, waiting until she looked at me before I spoke. “I love your brother. Nothing you say or do is going to change that. If you can’t accept us, it’s going to hurt me but it’s not going to change me and Ian.”

  She folded her arms, then unfolded them and threw her hands up. “Ian,” she snapped, turning to look at him. “You’re boring, annoying, and bossy and I do not like you most of the time but you are Maddie’s boyfriend, so I’m willing to put up with you,” she said, making a face at me. “There. Happy?”

  “Ecstatic,” I said drily, yet my smile belied my tone.

  Ian twined his fingers with mine, meeting his sister’s eyes. “You’re right, Emma. I am boring. And you’re a brat.” He shrugged a single shoulder. “I’m cool with that.”

  Emma huffed out an impatient breath. “Come on. The carousel needs us,” she said, towing Dylan along behind her.

  I watched them go, a feeling of foreboding filling my chest. Something was wrong. I didn’t know what it was. There was no doubt in my mind something was off.

  Emma and Dylan both felt strange to me. Emma was exactly as she always had been but Dylan . . . my mind wanted me to remember something that was just out of reach. I tried to think of it. It simply slipped away.

  I looked around the fairgrounds, recalling a day when I’d been fifteen. I had come to the fair with Emma. Dylan had been there. Ian had as well. The only thing I didn’t remember was the fact Ian and I hadn’t been a couple in that memory.

  Emma and Ian had been squabbling most of the day. Ian had threatened to leave us there to fend for ourselves.

  Both of us had known he’d never do it. He was a rule follower and his parents had told him to keep an eye on Emma. That had been the problem for her.

  She felt as though her parents had made Ian her babysitter and as a fifteen-year-old, she found that offensive. Then again, she’d found pretty much everything about her brother offensive at that point.

  I turned to look at him, a small smile coming to my lips. He’d always been the rule follower. I knew he’d mellowed quite a bit in the last few months. He wasn’t boring in the least.

  Ian smiled at me and squeezed my fingers. “You’re dying, Mads,” he said and everything changed.

  The person holding my hand was a man with wings. Wings? What?
That was when I remembered him. Erramun. My guardian angel.

  I had been shot. And the pain made my chest feel as though it had been stabbed by the sword of light, then crushed by some kind of avalanche. I needed to get out of there. I had to find a way to keep the demons I had released from hell, from hurting anyone. I had to fix my mistake.

  I blinked, my eyes again fixed on our group at the fair. Emma. Dylan. Ian. Me. It was a habit. Neither good or bad. Something all of us were used to.

  Ian was the one thing I knew for sure was right. He was my world. No matter what happened around me, if Ian was there, everything would be okay.

  TWO

  Noah did his best not to make a sound as he slunk through the yard. He hoped no one had seen him. His body quivered as adrenaline pulsed through his system.

  He knew he needed to concentrate on staying alive but his eyes were so dazzled by the light, he found it hard to think of what he had to do. He had never seen blue sky before and the sun . . . he was mesmerized by the sight of it.

  He gave himself one minute to revel in the warmth and light before he got back on task. He hoped that when he was done the world would change. He doubted he would know about it. He hoped they had made the right choice.

  Noah braced himself as he peeked around the side of the building. It was early days of the demon uprising, so he knew there was less danger. It was not safe by any means.

  It was late in the day and very few people were around. He supposed that meant very few demons were around as well. Or that was the hope, anyway.

  It was time to move. He couldn’t stand out in the open. He needed to get inside the house as fast as possible.

  His sturdy little frame was thin from the long famine, though he was used to hunger. It was simply a way of life for him. He had been warned to be careful about what he ate while he was there.

  Thinking about the size of his stomach was boring, so he pushed the thought away and hurried up the steps onto the back stoop. Again, it was a marvel to him how bright everything looked.

  He blinked several times, reaching out to lay his hand over the doorknob. He was surprised that it turned. He had expected it to be locked, maybe even with something heavy pushed against it.

  It wasn’t smart to leave doors unlocked. He opened the door and stepped in, turning both the lock and the deadbolt as he closed it behind himself. There. At least it would slow them down a little.

  He turned again to look around, wrinkling his nose in disgust at the mess. The kitchen he had stepped into was small with white cabinets and black countertops. The sink was so full of dishes, a cloud of bugs swarmed around. The garbage can was even fuller with even more bugs surrounding that.

  Noah shrugged and wandered through the house, looking around curiously. Everything was the way he remembered it. Even the placement of the furniture.

  He swallowed back the lump in his throat and got down to business. He had a very important job to do. Once he did it, he would have time to look around.

  He grabbed the laptop from its usual spot in the bedroom, took the device from his pocket, and got down to business. It didn’t take him long to finish, his mind spinning in a million directions. He hated being bored.

  His lips quirked up in a sly grin as he saw a laser pointer on the table next to the couch.

  Since he had finished his work, he picked it up and started fiddling. An image formed in his mind of what he wanted it to be and his mind formulated a plan. It was far easier than he liked. It was still fun.

  Noah blinked a little while later when the front door opened. His heart rate sped up as he saw the man’s eyes turn in his direction. Noah was aware it wasn’t the same man he knew. He still recoiled at the sight of him.

  “Who are you?” the man asked, his eyes narrowed as he shoved his hands into his pockets.

  Noah swallowed hard, drawing the scanner out of his pocket. He had to be sure. It was possible he was already too late.

  He looked at the screen and let out a slow sigh. The man was human. Okay, so he had time. Thank God.

  Noah took in a shaky breath. “You should clean your kitchen. It’s gross,” he said, his voice a little shaky.

  The man’s eyes narrowed even further. “Can you please tell me who you are and why you’re in my house?” he demanded, his voice making Noah want to cry.

  He turned his eyes away, picking up the laptop and opening it. He didn’t speak, deciding to let her explain instead.

  He opened the program he had written, tapping the button that would connect them.

  After a second, the screen flickered and the face of the woman who’d raised him showed up on the screen. She was in her late thirties, with brown hair, brown eyes, and fair skin spattered by freckles. Her cheeks were a bit sunken although it was still possible to see the beauty she had been years before.

  Noah grinned at her, waving toward the man. “The house needs a shower as much as he does,” he said, picking up the laser light he’d been playing with.

  The man stepped closer, his mouth hanging open. “Quinn? What is going on?” he asked, turning his eyes from her face on the screen, to the little boy who sat in his kitchen, enthusiastically zapping bugs with a cannibalized laser light.

  Quinn’s eyes softened slightly as she looked at him. “Hey, Ian. It’s been a while,” she said with a tiny excuse for a smile.

  Ian folded his arms. “I saw you half an hour ago when you kicked me out of Maddie’s hospital room and told me you were going to get your brothers to drag me out of there if I didn’t go willingly,” he grumbled, clearly unhappy about their conversation.

  Quinn sighed and shook her head. “The last time you saw me, I’m sure that is what happened. The last time I saw you, you had black eyes and had just slit my brother’s throat. Noah and I barely got out of there alive.”

  Ian drew back, the little bit of color in his cheeks fading away. “What are you talking about?” he asked on a croak.

  Quinn turned her eyes to look at the little boy. “Ian, I’d like you to meet your son, Noah. Noah, the guy next to you is what your dad was before the demon took him.”

  Noah glanced at him and grinned. “Hi,” he said easily, turning his attention back to the bugs.

  Ian opened his mouth to speak, closing it as he looked more closely at the little boy. “How . . . old are you?” he breathed, his eyes scanning Noah, searching for the truth in his face.

  “I’m eight,” he said, looking up to meet his eyes. “Quinn likes to tell me stories about you and my mom, about what you guys were like before the demon uprising. She says my mom was super cool and she says I’m a lot like her.”

  Ian held up his hands in a hold on gesture. “This . . . isn’t possible. I can’t have an eight-year-old son.”

  Noah smirked. “Can so. Quinn says you were twenty-three when you married my mom and twenty-four when I was born.”

  Ian turned his eyes back to the laptop screen, his eyes fixed on Madison’s sister as she looked at him. “But . . . time travel is something Maddie has told me isn’t real.”

  “Madison was wrong. Noah and I worked together to build the device that took him back in time.”

  “How are we talking?” Ian asked cautiously, chewing on the inside of his cheek as he looked at her.

  Noah beamed at him. “It was so cool! It was my idea to use the portal generator to make the time travel device but Quinn wanted to be able to talk to me, so I put a portal generator inside the video chat app. Me and Quinn are the only ones who can talk ‘cause nobody else has the frequencies,” he enthused, zapping a bug with a quick flick of the laser.

  Ian blinked, running his hand back through his already rumpled hair. “What’s going on, Quinn?” he asked in a weak voice.

  She met his eyes and inclined her head. “Noah doesn’t remember Madison. She was killed a week after he was born. You raised your son alone in the house you’re in now, for his first four years of life. That was when you were possessed by a demon and tried to kill your son
. Noah went back in time to help you stop the demon uprising before it destroys the world.”

  Noah beamed at him. “Yep. I’m the demon Terminator,” he said happily, cocking a pretend shotgun in his hands and pointing his imaginary gun at the back door.

  Quinn smiled, her eyes still fixed on Ian. “I know you well enough to know you’re not going to believe this,” she said, turning her screen so he could see her world.

  The layer of smog that covered the ground had bled upward, obscuring the sun. The ground was pitted by craters where bombs had apparently gone off. There was nothing green, only a desolate wasteland with a few tents scattered around.

  “Ninety percent of the world’s population is dead. The people left are so desperate for relief, most of them have sworn allegiance to the demons,” she said in a dull voice.

  Noah lifted his chin. “We won’t, though. Right, Quinn? We’re going to fight. We’re going to stop this,” he said, no doubt in his mind at all.

  Quinn nodded to him before she looked back at Ian. “There are only a handful of free people left and the demons have begun moving to other realms. It is the end of all the worlds if you don’t help Noah find a way to stop it.”

  Noah beamed at him. “You get to be my sidekick!” he said, turning his laser to zap another bug.

  Ian gazed at Noah, tears rising in his eyes. “Maddie and I get married and we have a son. That means she lives until she’s twenty-two,” he whispered, slowly turning his eyes back to look at Quinn. “What do I do?”

  THREE

  It made me smile as we walked into the house, to find Daw raiding my fridge. I should probably be annoyed simply because I was running low on groceries. I didn’t care right then.

  I scooted up onto the counter, my brows edging their way toward my hairline. “Don’t you have a fridge of your own?” I asked, smirking at him when Quinn walked in and swatted the back of his head.

  “Yes,” she agreed, folding her arms. “You do have your own fridge. Leave ours alone.”