Keeper of the Innocents
By: Kristy Centeno
Keeper of the Innocents
Copyright © 2014 by Kristy Centeno. All rights reserved.
First Print Edition: July 2014
Limitless Publishing, LLC
Kailua, HI 96734
www.limitlesspublishing.com
Formatting: Limitless Publishing
ISBN-13: 978-1499299304
ISBN-10: 1499299303
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
Dedication
Life is a never ending roller coaster ride. Our family rode on that roller coaster for two tumultuous years. In the end however, we were rewarded with the most wonderful gift a mother could ever receive.
This one is for that little new addition to our family.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Epilogue
Prologue
I stood in front of my apartment building, near the front door, three steps away from the set of stairs that led to said door, but even as I observed my surroundings I realized nothing was as it should be. Yes, everything looked the same, but the similarities ended there. There were no people out and about. The normally crowded sidewalks were completely bare of human traffic. There were no cars parked anywhere. There were no cars, period.
The air that surrounded me felt unusually heavy, as if a great storm was about to hit. I could actually feel the hair on my arms stand with the charge of static electricity I sensed from the atmosphere. This alone was enough to really unnerve me because my preternatural senses told me I was no longer charting through safe territory. One wrong move could possibly end badly for me.
I don’t exactly know how I knew all this, I just did. Nine times out of ten, I had saved my own behind by listening to what my instincts told me. Whenever it spoke—and right now it was practically screaming at me to run away and hide—I’d come to trust what it had to say. Something wasn’t right and I was in deep trouble.
Even if it appeared I was looking at the neighborhood I’d come to know so well over the years, I knew I wasn’t in the same place. At least not in the same place I’d grown up. This place was completely colorless. Everything my gaze settled on was distinctively grayish, making it look as if I was caught in a black and white movie.
To top it all off, everything was unusually still, almost as if humankind had ceased to exist one moment to the next. And I, being the only human present, appeared to be the only one left alive.
My heart lurched, painfully beating against my ribcage as what exactly that could mean crossed my mind. I remembered going to bed and falling asleep. So, how did I end up on the sidewalk, looking up at the dark sky with no clue as to what happened? Had I slept through the apocalypse? If so, how in the world had I survived?
It was a crazy thought, but one good look around served to confirm the thought might not be too wacky after all. It was too quiet. Too still. Too empty. Where had every other human being gone? And why was I the only one still standing?
A dense fog kept my visibility to a ten, possibly fifteen feet radius, and the silence surrounding me was almost deafening. Something wasn’t right. Nothing was as it should be and the fact that I was alone only made my apprehension grow.
This was my world. Or at least I thought it was. Everything looked the same, but nothing felt the same. I didn’t feel the same. I felt vulnerable. Alone. Uneasy.
I took a step back and inhaled, trying to keep my nervousness under control, but what little calmness that managed to seep into my veins vanished the second an earsplitting scream sliced through the air. Acting instinctively, I turned, only to hear yet another heart-stopping howl shake the tranquility. The force of the unnatural shriek was so loud the double glass doors, which opened into the lobby of my apartment complex, shattered into a million pieces, forcing me to cover my face to prevent the tiny missiles from mutilating it.
Taken aback by the abruptness of the unexpected cry, I shook off what glass landed on my head, swatting at my hair with one hand, and glanced up at the hollow where a couple of sliding doors used to be, fully expecting to see the devil himself walking out to greet me. The only thing that welcomed me however, was an overwhelming silence and a sense of being watched.
There was no one visible, but I could sense a pair of eyes practically devouring me. That overwhelming feeling wasn’t new to me. I’d been in similar predicaments before, but somehow, this felt a lot worse. This felt a lot scarier than being stuck in a place with a supernatural creature I already knew was there. In this case, I had no idea who or what was staring back at me. I did know however, that whatever was watching me hid beyond the dark hollow at the top of the stairs a few feet away.
Even though the last thing I wanted was to come face to face with a potential threat, I knew the only way I would get answers was by seeking out whatever was waiting for me beyond the hollow doorway. Normally, walking into a life or death situation wasn’t wise, but in this case I had no other choice. I felt compelled to investigate. To know why I was being stalked, and the only way I could find that out was by moving forward.
Without giving much thought to what lay ahead, I reached for the bronze handrail and started up the cement stairs, keeping my gaze glued to the front of the building. The only protection I could rely on was my natural ability to sense danger and my ring, which was designed to sense evil. If it changed colors at any moment—something it had not done so far—I would know for sure I wasn’t the only one around.
Every time I lifted my boot-clad feet it felt as if each one weighed fifty pounds. Being that I carried a certain image of myself where I tended to believe nothing really scared me and that I was as tough as a semi-truck, my sudden apprehensiveness only served to prove to me that deep down I’m only human. And like any human, I’m just as uncertain under unclear circumstances as anybody else.
Of course, my current predicament really didn’t allow any room for progressive thinking. This seemed to be a spur of the moment kind of thing. Either I acted fast or there would be no answers to guide me. Keeping this in mind, I simply moved up the stairs as fast as my shaking legs would allow.
Every now and again I would spare a glance at my ring, hoping it would signal the approach of something menacing, but so far it was still a light shade of blue green, which told me I was still in the safe zone. I didn’t let that fool me, though. I knew well how fast things could get ugly, just as I knew if something hid beyond where my magical ring could pick up on it, it was only a matter of seconds before I could keep myself from getting killed.
As I reached the top of the cement staircase and approached the hollowed doorway, I had the split second thought to turn around and go back where I came from, but that decision was taken away from me when a loud rumbling—like that of a heavy object being forcefully shoved aside—stopped me dead in my tracks. I looked down at the round ring on my middle finger and quickly noted the change from bluish green to mahogany, indicating the presence of evil somewhere nearby.
Acting on instinct, I readied myself for the worst and placed my left hand on the broken frame that once held the huge glass. I glanced inside the abnormally dark room, where there should have been a desk where the building’s security guard made sure no strangers walked in without checking in with him first. The room was too dark for me to see anything. It was also unusually cold in there. I could actually feel a light breeze blowing out from within.
I took a step forward, not yet sensing anything alarming. As far as I could tell, whatever threat lay unseen was probably deeper in the building, and hopefully, far enough away from me. I could call on every magical trick I could think of, but in this grayish world I had the sinking feeling my powers wouldn’t work well—perhaps not at all.
That theory was quickly put to the test when a large, ape-like hand shot out of the darkness in front of me and grabbed a hold of my black and white hoodie. It happened so fast the only reaction I could pull off was a quick flinch, a soft yelp, and an involuntary step back. I struggled to get free, pulling back as the large hand pulled me forward, but my strength was nothing compared to that of the barely visible being in front of me.
The creature—whose outline only I could see—fisted its large hand on my hoodie and drew me closer to the gaping hole left by the shattered glass doors. I knew if it managed to drag me inside, something really bad would happen, so there was no way I’d go in without a fight. For some reason the unknown being wouldn’t come out, but there was no way I’d let it haul me into its dark hole.
In a panic, I lifted my hand and used my mood ring, which doubled as a protection charm, to ward off the threat by placing the band on the purplish blue skin of my attacker. It worked the way it was supposed to, burning the flesh of what I could only assume was a demon, and causing enough pain and discomfort so the massive fingers uncoiled and released me so abruptly I slipped and fell backwards, landing on my butt on the hard concrete floor.
The unknown being howled in pain, smoke rising from the burned flesh as its hand slithered back into the darkness. I backpedaled away from the broken doorframe, my gaze glued to the building’s interior. It did occur to me that perhaps the beastly thing inside could and would come after me at any given moment. Just because it hadn’t didn’t mean it couldn’t.
However, as I picked myself off the concrete floor, using the handrail to lift my body up, I was shocked to spot a pair of glowing red eyes appear from within the pitch black hole. The eyes, very similar to those of humans with the exception of the color, stared back at me with a mixture of hate and interest.
I swallowed hard, not sure what to make of this new development. Was the creature looking for a way to come after me? Was it contemplating its next move?
I had no time to ponder these possibilities, for at that moment the beast-creature spoke. In a completely terrifying and inhuman voice it said, “Get out before it’s too late.”
It was hard to say for sure whether its words were meant as a threat or a warning but I figured I’d better listen…
Chapter One
Life As I Know It
I woke up in a cold sweat, kicking off the sheets with my feet as I bolted upright on the mattress. Even though I’d had this dream every night for a week it still scared me half to death. It was confusing, and felt real enough so that I feared waking up in that same world.
To make sure I was still where I should be, I wiped my sweaty forehead with the back of my hand before scrambling off the bed. Much like I did every time the nightmare ended and I was catapulted back into reality, I hurried to the single window above my nightstand, moved the lavender colored curtain aside, and glanced out. I scanned the backyard of the apartment complex, hoping to see human activity.
Thankfully, I spotted Mrs. Harris from apartment 4A supervising her three year old grandson as he played on the castle playground at the back of the building, which was an activity that took place every Saturday. A few feet away, Mr. and Mrs. Brem jogged across the sidewalk, heading in the direction of the nearby Oakland Park. This brought an instant sense of relief to me. Nothing had changed as far as I could tell.
Being that the world seemed to be following its usual weekend schedule, I realized that once again I’d experienced a very realistic dream. Well, by this point, it was turning out to be more of a very vivid nightmare. Unfortunately, knowing it had only been a nightmarish personification of my unconscious mind didn’t make things easier. Reliving such a dramatic event over and over again for seven days was really playing havoc on my peace of mind, and judging by the dark circles under my eyes, my physical appearance was also paying a hefty price.
Having vivid nightmares wasn’t something I was accustomed to. At one point I had a more powerful way of seeing that which others could not, but that changed drastically approximately two years ago. So knowing or even trying to decipher the meaning of this persistent dream was beyond difficult. It was frustrating. I had tried magic to figure out what was going on, but that pretty much blew up in my face—literally. I almost lost an eye trying to come up with a potion strong enough to allow me to interpret the dream, which resulted in a very nasty explosion in my mom’s kitchen.
That was a mistake I wasn’t willing to repeat. Apparently, no amount of magic could help me come up with a solution to this problem.
At times it felt as if I was being warned about something, but no matter how much I tried to analyze what that could be, my mind was permanently stuck on blank mode. Not to mention how the dream just didn’t make sense. How was I supposed to make sense of something so chaotic? An invisible creature? A bad imitation of the world I lived in? A warning? Or maybe it wasn’t a warning. I had no idea.
About ninety percent of that didn’t make sense at all. At least, nothing was evident to me. Maybe I really was missing something big. I just didn’t know it.
Stepping back from the window, I sighed heavily and proceeded to make my bed. It did occur to me that perhaps I was reading too much into a dream, but being born a witch taught me not to dismiss something just because it barely made sense. It was in my nature to really overanalyze everything—especially when it carried a hint of the supernatural.
With a busy day ahead of me, I decided not to take more time than what I already had thinking about the unexplainable, and hurried to change into a pair of jeans, a white top, and running shoes. I walked into the bathroom, where I proceeded to brush my short, strawberry blonde hair until it hung in a straight veil over the sides of my face. Satisfied with my appearance—with the exception of the dark circles under my eyes, of course— I continued with my morning grooming ritual.
After running back into my bedroom to disconnect my Nokia Lumia 1020 from the charger, I hurried out into the dining area where my dad was quietly finishing his daily cup of joe, and placed the phone on the table in front of me. Dad greeted me with a smile as I sat on the chair next to his, but said not a word.
It could have been the lousy night I had, but I could have sworn he gave me one of those you’re-missing-something looks, which of course, put me on edge. However, since he didn’t say a word, I figured I’d probably imagined the whole thing. After all, my brain wasn’t exactly keeping up with my busy life as good as it used to.
When Mom walked out of the kitchen and placed a bowl of Honey Nut Crunch in front of me, and handed over a spoon without asking me why I hadn’t gone into the kitchen to prepare my own breakfast as I usually did, I almost protested. Something was definitely off. It helped little that I had no clue what I was missing. This could mean trouble for me. I tried tracking bac
k to the last conversation Mom and I had, but that provided no clues. We’d gone clothes shopping in preparation for my move to campus in a few weeks and the only thing we had discussed were jeans, tops, blouses, and shoes. We hadn’t really conferred much after that, so I was at a loss when it came to Mom’s sudden seriousness.
Since Mom walked back into the kitchen without speaking a word, I decided not to worry too much and eat my breakfast. I could do with a few more minutes of quiet time and stuffing my mouth seemed like the best course of action.
Rushing through my morning meal was probably the worst way of pretending everything was fine in my everyday life, but I was running late for my babysitting gig and it was imperative for me to make it there on time. Plus, avoiding Mom’s probing gaze was my number one incentive. Even though I avoided making eye contact while she handed me the bowl of cereal, I was pretty sure she could tell something was up with me.
The recurring nightmare showed no signs of stopping. My parents had caught my moans and thrashes late at night and, being the concerned adults I knew them to be, they probed me for answers, but I refused to talk about it. I was allowed to have a secret even if it wasn’t one I wanted to have in the first place. Besides, I didn’t think it was wise to alarm my parents when I was almost sure my nightmare was only that and nothing more.
Plus I had no clue as to what was really going on behind the whole dream, and knowing Mom, she would worry unnecessarily over something I couldn’t control. Rather than put her through that stress, I opted to keep quiet until I could figure out why those creepy images kept coming—playing themselves over and over again every night without fail.
By this point I was beginning to think the dream kept coming back on purpose, but trying to figure out why gave me a migraine. Of course, keeping my secret from Mom wasn’t easy. She could always tell when I was hiding something. The fact that we were witches might have a hand in that. Then again, she was my mother. If there was one person in the entire world who’d know when I wasn’t myself, that would be her.
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