The Forsaken
The Chosen Series Book 2
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Patricia Bell
Copyright © 2020 by Patricia Bell Original copyright 2018 with the same title.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
***
The Forsaken is a work of fiction. All Characters and incidents are from the author’s imagination. Any similarities to real people, living or dead, are purely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
The Forsaken
Chapter 1 ― Abigail
Chapter 2 ― Luna
Chapter 3 ―Daniel
Chapter 4 ― Rachel
Chapter 5 ― Malachi
Chapter 6 ― Abigail
Chapter 7 ― Luna
Chapter 8 ― Daniel
Chapter 9 ― Rachel
Chapter 10 ― Malachi
Chapter 11 ― Abigail
Chapter 12 ― Luna
Chapter 13 ― Daniel
Chapter 14 ― Rachel
Chapter 15 ― Malachi
Chapter 16 ― Abigail
Chapter 17 ― Luna
Chapter 18 ― Daniel
Chapter 19 ― Rachel
Chapter 20 ― Malachi
Chapter 21 ― Abigail
Chapter 22 ― Luna
Chapter 23 ― Daniel
Chapter 24 ― Rachel
Chapter 25 ― Malachi
Chapter 26 ― Abigail
Chapter 27 ― Luna
Chapter 28 ― Daniel
Chapter 29 ― Rachel
Chapter 30 ― Malachi
Chapter 31 ― Abigail
Chapter 32 ― Luna
Chapter 33 ― Daniel
Chapter 34 ― Rachel
Chapter 35 ― Malachi
Chapter 36 ― Abigail
Chapter 37 ― Luna
Chapter 38 ― Daniel
Chapter 39 ― Rachel
Chapter 40 ― Malachi
Chapter 41 ― Abigail
Chapter 42 ― Luna
Chapter 43 ― Daniel
Chapter 44 ― Rachel
Chapter 45 ― Malachi
All books by Patricia Bell
The Surrogate – A Stand-alone Book
Canyon Rock Suspense Series
A Light in the Darkness
An Eye for An Eye
The Chosen Suspense Series
The Chosen
The Forsaken
The Sacrifice
Karina’s Journey Series
From House to Home
From Good to Bad
From Lies to Truth
Girl Unbroken
Karina Boxed Set
The Elysian Chronicles – A Portal Fantasy
Saffire
Elusion
Discord
THANK YOU TO MY LORD and Savior. The One who heals the brokenhearted. And to my husband, Cliff, who is my greatest earthly inspiration. Thanks to the sweet friends and beta readers who inspire me to keep writing: Kristen Overholt Iten, C.S Johnson, Cindy Hamilton, and Shoba Sadler. And to my dad who reads everything I write, and lovingly points out my flaws. Also, a special thank you to Lisa DeBartolomao for her wonderful editing skills and for putting up with me even when she disagrees.
Chapter 1 ― Abigail
“Do you really believe they have — died?” Abigail whispered to Tabitha as they sat at the last quilting table of their assigned work building. “All three of them?”
“That is what the elders have spoken,” Tabitha mumbled, her eyes on her quilt.
“And Rachel? Do you think she could have survived? Jacob promised he would come back for me when he found her.”
Tabitha sighed and set her quilt down on the table. “He cannot come back for you if he is dead, can he?”
“I shall not believe it. Not until I see for myself.” Abigail pulled the threaded needle through her own blanket using a quick-stitch to bring together the two fabrics with the soft layer of batting in between.
“You did see it for yourself.” Tabitha sighed. “We all did. Do not tell me you do not remember.”
She did. They had all seen the truck storm through the front gates. And only a few moments later they heard the crash, saw the smoke. Each of them had witnessed the servants of the devil come into their community with their sirens blaring and lights flashing. They trembled at the sight of the big red fire trucks that came to put out the fire at the Smithfield barn. The fire that Abigail had started. A shiver ran through her at the thought of what she had done. And it had all been for nothing. They were dead. All of them. At least that was what the elders had told them.
“But how do we know for sure? What if they are lying to us? What if they lived? How do we know what those policemen really said? Maybe they—”
“Theeeey—” Tabitha drew the word out for emphasis. “Are the servants of the devil. You know as well as I do that one look at them, and they could steal your soul. Prophet Daniel is the only one allowed to speak with them. And he would not lie to us.” The end of her statement came out more of a question than a statement.
“Do you really believe that?” Abigail didn’t. She’d gotten a glimpse of them as they passed through. They did not have forked tongues or red glowing eyes. Maybe their clothing was a bit strange but other than that they looked like regular people.
Even the devil can disguise himself as an angel of light. Elder Aaron had given that sermon just after the accident. That’s when he’d referred to a demon possession that had crept into the community and sought to destroy it. Once again, he hadn’t said the name out loud, but the people of the community knew he was speaking of Rebecca.
The devil is a liar. He will stop at nothing to tempt us into sin.
Goosebumps lined Tabitha's arms. Maybe she was wrong. Maybe they were all dead. She just couldn’t be sure.
“And what about Rachel? She could have made it to safety.”
“Abigail,” Tabitha spoke her name with exhaustion. “We have been over this a million times. There is no way Rachel could have survived out there in the hot desert.” Tabitha continued to sew a straight stitch around the quilt. “It was over a hundred degrees that day and with no water—”
“And that does not bother you?” Angry, Abigail put her needle down and stared at Tabitha. “That a girl was thrown out into the sweltering heat to die?”
Tabitha looked away. “Yes, it does,” she whispered. “But there is nothing I can do about it, so I choose not to dwell on it. You would do better to forget about it, too.”
“I cannot. I shall never forget. I miss my sister. What if there is a chance she is still alive?”
For the first time, Tabitha set down her quilt and looked into Abigail’s eyes. “I miss them too. Jonathan was my brother in case you forgot. And Lun ― Rebecca as well.” A tear slid down Tabitha’s face. “She was my friend.”
Abigail didn’t miss that Tabitha almost called the girl Luna. That had been her name before the elders thought it too worldly and changed it.
“Then you don’t believe she was a demon? Sent here by the devil?”
“Of course not. She was brought here by my father. He is not the devil.” Tabitha picked back up her quilt and turned away, signaling she would speak of it no more. “Let it go, Abigail.”
She shouldn’t press the issue, but Abigail couldn’t help it. Tabitha was the only one she could speak to. She was the
only other one who cared. “What if they are not dead. What if they told us that for, as they say, our own good? What if—”
“Stop, Abigail.” Tabitha’s voice raised a few decibels, and then she covered her mouth. “Please,” she whispered. “I can take no more.”
At the sound of Tabitha’s interjection, Sister Rhoda turned her head toward the girls. “Is there a problem over here?” she asked, heading in their direction.
“No, Sister Rhoda,” the girls chimed in chorus.
“Good. More work, less talk, or I will have to separate you.”
“Yes, Sister Rhoda,” they responded.
As Sister Rhoda turned to leave, Tabitha wrinkled her face. “Is she not meaner than a bull since Brother Thomas passed away?”
“Even before,” Abigail whispered back. “Ever since God closed up her womb without allowing her to bear children. Some say she is being punished for a vile sin.”
“Who said that?” Tabitha whispered back.
Sister Rhoda swiveled back in their direction and stared in warning. The two girls picked up their needles and continued their work. No need angering the woman. Besides, the conversation was over.
But before Abigail could pierce her needle back through her quilt, the industrial-sized double doors flew open letting in a whirl of blinding light.
“Abigail.” The boom of her father’s voice rang out and echoed through the building.
Every eye turned to stare.
Chapter 2 ― Luna
After narrowly escaping the confines of The Chosen, Jonathan was struggling. He’d not figured out how to deal with the strange ways of the English, the untimely death of his friend, Jacob, and being away from the only people he’d ever known.
After several arguments, Luna agreed to give him some time to figure things out on his own. She had some adjustments of her own to deal with. After being held against her will for half a year by a man who told her that her mother was dead, Luna had come home to find out that not only was her mother not dead, but the father she’d wished for all her life, but had never known, was there to greet her. And she had three siblings.
So, to give Jonathan time, she’d agreed to spend the summer in San Diego to get to know her father as well as her younger brother and sisters.
Meanwhile, Jonathan was still in Arizona trying to figure out the meaning of life, and what he wanted to do with his newfound freedom. It was like he was a convict being released after a lifetime prison sentence. Only, it was worse than a prison sentence. Prisoners at least had electricity and running water. To The Chosen, such luxuries were a sin. They lived off the land. The simplest life imaginable.
She got it. It must have been quite an adjustment to go from an outhouse to an indoor toilet, using electric lights instead of kerosene lanterns, eating a variety of foods, all of which were not grown in your own backyard. The differences were endless. Luna figured Jonathan was going through even more difficulty than she had when she’d spent months living in his community.
Still, amid his frustration, he took it out on her more than once. For example, things she found normal, he found painfully irritating. Turning on a light before entering a room. Televisions, radios, cell phones, car alarms ... the noise got to him on a level Luna could not comprehend. It made him moody and irritable.
So, when her father had asked her to come for a visit, she jumped at the chance. And Jonathan agreed they’d needed a break from each other while he got used to a life full of noise and strangeness. While he figured all of that out, Luna had gotten to know her father and her three siblings. Something that was all new to her. Not quite as strange as what Jonathan was going through, but different all the same.
But now, she missed him.
“The kids enjoy having you here,” Blake said. “They were so excited when you said you would come.”
Although she enjoyed getting to know him, she wasn’t ready to just up and start calling him Dad as if he hadn’t been missing her entire life. She got it. He’d apologized a million times, but still, she wasn’t ready to take the next step in referring to him as Dad, seeing how they just met.
Maybe someday.
“They are sweet kids,” she answered, her thoughts elsewhere.
“What’s going on with you?” he took a sip of his coffee. “You seem miles away. I know this is all new to you. A father and three siblings.”
But that wasn’t what was bothering her. Well, at least not as much as the issue that had weighed more heavily on her heart than all the other issues she’d dealt with since she’d been back to the normal world.
“No, it’s not that. It’s just so many other things.”
“Hold that thought.” He rolled his wheelchair expertly to the counter, grabbed a bag of bagels, then cream cheese from the fridge, and headed back to the table. “It’s never good to talk about stress-related topics on an empty stomach.”
Luna smiled. Her stomach growled in agreement.
“See,” he said.
Luna grabbed a bagel and spread a thick layer of cream cheese on it as she decided what she wanted to say.
“There’s just so many things crowding my brain all at once.”
“Would any of it have to do with that boy at your mom’s house?”
If nothing else, he was perceptive. “Yeah, well that’s part of it. A big part.” She took a bite of her loaded bagel and then wiped at the cream cheese that mustached her face.
“Do you love him?” he asked.
Strangely enough, Luna didn’t feel uncomfortable talking to him about relational things. “I think I do. But...” How could she know for sure?
“I loved your mom at that age,” he confided. “People said we were too young to know what real love was, but I never got over your mother. It was real.”
“Then why aren’t the two of you together?”
“Maybe someday,” he answered. “But we're talking about you, not your mother and I.”
Luna took another bite of her bagel and chewed slowly. “It’s not just that. It’s a lot of things. After being locked up in that ... that ... crazy camp, I had lots of time to think about life. To grow up, I guess. But I missed out on my last semester of high school. I was supposed to graduate.”
“That’s no biggie. You can get your GED.”
She’d thought of that. In fact, she and Jonathan had agreed to study together when she got back from her visit with her father. At present, he was living at her house, sleeping on her mother’s couch. Her mother agreed to it since Jonathan had nowhere else to go, and they had promised to abstain from any type of intimate relationship. That hadn’t been hard. After seeing what Rachel had gone through, being an unwed pregnant teenager, Luna was certain she wasn’t ready for any such life.
“What else?” he asked as if he knew there was more.
There was.
He took a bite of his own cream cheese bagel and watched her as she decided just how much she wanted to tell him.
“Abigail.”
As the wheels spun in her father’s head, he stared at her for a moment, before it came to him. “The girl who was left behind?”
“Yes. Jacob promised her he would come back for her. And now Jacob is gone. She’s Rachel’s sister and, well, I keep having these creepy dreams where she is ... never mind ... it’s stupid.”
“If it’s important to you, it’s certainly not stupid, but if you don’t want to talk about it, I understand.”
She did want to talk about it. She wanted someone to tell her she was not going insane. That her dreams were only ... dreams and they had no greater meaning.
“Well,” she spoke slowly. “Abigail was the girl who started the fire in the old barn as a distraction so we could get out.”
Her father nodded patiently for her to go on.
“So, every night, I have this same creepy dream. It’s Abigail, and she’s standing in the middle of her living room. Before her stands her father and three of the elders. They stare down at her in anger, and she bo
ws her head in shame. Then, Elder Aaron, he’s the meanest guy I’ve ever met, he says ‘Abigail Pence. You are being charged with the crime of Arson. How do you plead?’ And then it all goes kinda crazy. They grab her up and drag her to this door. I don’t know where the door is. In my dream, it’s like it’s right there, but it can’t be.” Luna realized she was rambling and stopped.
“So, what happens when they bring her to the door?”
That was the worst part. Each time Luna had the dream, they would throw Abigail in the door and then ― “It disappears.”
“You don’t see what’s inside?”
“No, well, not exactly. There’s this little window that appears where the door disappears. Only it’s not a window.” Luna was frustrated. She didn’t know what it was herself. How could she explain it to him? “It’s a small square opening. Barely big enough to put a hand through. Only you can’t pass anything through it because metal pieces are going across it like shutters.” She didn’t expect him to understand. She didn’t understand it herself.
“Like an air vent?”
“Yeah, maybe.” It was quite possible that was what she’d seen.
“Do you look through it?”
“Yes. It’s a dark room. In the middle there’s a pole and Abigail is attached to it by a thick chain locked onto her ankle.”
“Why do you think you are having this dream?”
That’s the thing. At first, the dream was fleeting. By the time she woke up from it, she would forget most of it. Only bits and pieces would stick in her head. And none of it made sense. But as time went on, the dream was more regular. And it was precisely the same each time. She’d memorized it from start to finish and tried to wake herself up before she got to the part where Abigail cried out to her, begging Luna to save her life. The guilt overwhelmed her.
“It’s my fault if something happened to Abigail. If she is really in danger, then it’s my fault. I was the one who thought of the idea of her starting the fire as a distraction ... and ... now she cries out to me in my dreams ... begs me to come back for her.” A picture of Abigail entered Luna’s mind. Her dress, torn and dirty. Her face swollen and bruised. Her hair a tangled mess. “She’s hungry and dying.”
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