Antidote Trilogy: The Complete Box Set

by Taylor Hondos

  With choice comes sacrifice, and Pen must decide which side she’s willing to risk everything fighting for: the light, or the dark.

  Frost by E. Latimer Megan Walker’s touch has turned to ice. She can’t stop the frost, and the consequences of her first kiss are horrifying.

  When her new powers attract attention, Megan finds herself caught up in an ancient war between Norse giants. One side fuelled by a mad queen’s obsession and an ancient prophecy about Ragnarök, the other by an age-old grudge. Both sides believe Megan to be something she’s not. Both sides will stop at nothing to have her.

  Fire or frost. It’s an impossible decision, but she’ll have to act soon, because the storm is coming.

  PROSPECT

  TAYLOR HONDOS

  Copyright © 2016 Taylor Hondos

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

  Cover Design by Ashley Ruggirello

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to similarly named places or to persons living or deceased is unintentional.

  Print ISBN : 978-1-927940-56-3

  EPUB ISBN : 978-1-927940-57-0

  To my grandma, until we meet again.

  PART ONE

  Prologue: Dr. Alona

  SHARDS OF GLASS covered the floor. Blood mixed with the glass, and made the sight before me look like a crime scene. One that no one recovered from. Not an inch of wood was visible on the floor. Spilt blood, antidotes, medicines and a series of different glasses covered the floor, until there was a mask of red and silver. The antidotes sent fumes into the air that made it so that I could no longer breathe without coughing after each gulp of air.

  Unthinkingly, I slammed my palm into the crushed glass on my desk. It was from the latest failed attempt at an antidote. I sighed in angst. I slowly and dreadfully pulled out the jagged pieces that were smashed into my flesh.

  The television hung above me on the wall. Spider cracks filled the features of the newswoman as she appeared on the screen for the latest information in town. The cracks fueled my anger from my latest rampage of destroying my lab. I was surprised that it still stood. There was nothing in the room that should have worked, but somehow it did.

  There was so much depending on me, and yet so little time to fix anything at all. The news report caught my attention as it showed the news report of the first case of Dermadecatis. Isaac. He was taken into the wrong hands and I wasn’t there to stop it.

  Earlier that week, I had received a warning of what would come next. I knew the warning was from someone who worked for Dr. Ravana. As soon as Isaac died, the disease spread like fire. It consumed everyone around me. The letter informed me of something very important. The sickness wasn’t the only issue any longer. Those with the disease would become something unthinkable. Robots. Unable to control themselves any longer. The letter didn’t tell me how this would happen, but I didn’t want to find out either. I had to protect my loved ones but I couldn’t even fathom to begin to figure out how.

  I bowed my head in my hands and pressed stiffly against my ears. I tried to drown out the sound of her voice, but it was as if the volume escalated to drive me mad. I didn’t know what there was left to do. I shivered as I realized my newest failure. I let Jared down; I let my family down and ultimately, I let the world down. The destruction to come might as well have been by my own hands.

  Lily, my wife, was going to die. She would be given the disease and I knew she would be the first. I knew this because the note clearly told me who would be next. If only I understood how to stop the disease, then I could save Lily and everyone in the world. I could take Lily away tonight, but I knew it would be a failed attempt. I didn’t know how it would spread or how it was even contracted. There was nothing I could do at all anymore.

  I slammed my knuckle down in anger hitting the glass once again. Blood poured from my hand. I watched as it streaked down beside the lines of dried blood. I glanced down to find that my white coat was bathed in red. Some blood was from tonight and some was from other nights. Cursing myself, I lifted my palm up to see the damage. I didn’t care anymore so I left the jagged edges in my skin.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw what haunted me daily. My lab was a mockery of me now. My most prized possession was destroyed and left in disarray since the outbreak. I shook my head in shame.

  I picked up the shattered picture from my desk of Robert and myself. The man I once trusted stared up at me. I was unbelieving for a moment that this man was the one who betrayed me.

  I let him in on my plans to save the world from all types of disease and this is how he repaid me. He grinned up in the picture and I clutched the picture, and felt the glass prick my fingers. I didn’t seem to feel the pain at all anymore. I felt numb looking at the picture.

  My arm was slouched around his shoulders like we were the best of buds. The truth was, we were the best of buds. We met in college and were inseparable for years.

  I could not see that he was such a terrible man until now. I should have seen the signs when he continued to tell me that life was a feeble thing that could be taken at any time. He always told me that we had to take control of life and death. He used to repeat this over and over in this very room; it seemed to echo off the walls in that moment. If it weren’t for Lily, I might have gone down the path he wanted me to go down.

  I walked over to the second to last vial in the room that wasn’t shattered. I had so much hope for this antidote. It was silver liquid as all the others had been. There was one big issue with it. It burned the skin off of anything it came in contact with.

  I grabbed in from its holder and slammed it on the ground. I screamed loudly into the air as it burned against my thumb. The house was empty because Lily took Lena to the store to buy her books. Lena was always full of life, always reading, and I was going to kill her because I couldn’t save her. There wasn’t anything to do. She would catch this disease and she would die. Just like Lily.

  I gasped as I saw my thumb once more. There wasn’t skin left and my thumb bone was visible. I bleached as I backed up slowly to my cabinet full of first aid especially since I had become so reckless in here. I reached into the cabinet above me and covered it with a white cloth. It immediately turned bright red and I winced. I would have to clean this wound later but right now I didn’t have time.

  The truth was there was no use of trying to heal any of my wounds because I would be dead soon. I wouldn’t die of Dermadecatis. That would be too easy. He would find a way to frame me into being the killer of the human race. I knew him better than he would like me to.

  I began pacing back and forth. Nothing seemed to work. No antidote was strong enough. Not a single drop of one of my antidotes cured a rat, which was once the easiest to cure of my disease. Who could I trust other than Jared? He was just a child.

  I wouldn’t lie to myself though. I was suspicious of him at first because he was Dr. Ravana’s son after all. I knew that he was true to me after a while though. He was sharper than a whip, and he was handier than his father ever was. Jared had a talent. If you told him what to build, he would do it in an instant. If you told him anything, he did it because his mind was particularly gifted in that way. I had come to love Jared as I loved his father. He was witty, and he was loyal. Above all, he was kind. He had hardened over the years that I knew came to him from his mother’s death, but Jared was trustworthy. I felt it in my heart and I always chose to go with my heart now.

  The main question that filled my mind daily was who could I count on to protect Lena? The whole world was going under and there wouldn’t be anyone left with the knowledge of the disease. I would be dead sooner than I could decide how to cure the disease and cure the robotic mind con
trol when that time came. Dr. Ravana would come after me. He had begun to watch the house. He wanted me dead. Who was there left that he couldn’t touch? Who would I want to protect?

  Lena. A voice whispered to me.

  I popped my head back up. The only person Dr. Ravana couldn’t harm. It would be too obvious. Her blood was too precious. She was used when we made the disease. Her blood was in the potion when we made this disease.

  The disease was made to help people, to make the world a better place. I even once wanted to name it Lenima because she was the reason it was created. I created this so she would never die of a deadly disease. I created this so that all people could die from a deep slumber instead. Dr. Ravana destroyed this world and he destroyed the purity of my disease. This disease could have been revolutionary and he destroyed it.

  If I could stop the disease, there wouldn’t be any mind control to worry about. But what if I couldn’t stop the disease? I had to try to make a remedy for both.

  I stopped myself. I had to let him think he won. I had to give him hope and then take it from him as he did with my disease. If I couldn’t cure the disease in time then the only thing left to stop was the mind control. I would. I would protect her from it.

  I knew what I had to do. I picked up the last vile in my lab; the vile was bigger than the others that I had shattered in my fury. It was the only vile not touched by my destruction. It was like it was waiting on me to make up my mind; see the right decision, the choice that would change life forever. It would change Lena forever. The last hope, the last chance for the antidote.

  I knew Lena would be punished for my own faults. I knew she wouldn’t be able to understand the severity of the situation before it was too late. I hoped she wouldn’t die but then I had a masterful plan come into my thoughts. I grinned widely as I began mixing and creating the last hope. I knew this would turn to dust if I wasn’t careful.

  I would be with Lena always and I would be with Lena when the world became too much to handle.

  Who was the only hope left in the world?

  Lena.

  Lena

  Chapter One: Who Am I Exactly?

  THE RUBY LIGHT was derisive to me as it moved forward. It was an unattainable chase. For hours, I continued to reach out to the light just to have it soar away from me and vanish into the distance. Although I couldn’t touch it, it was always within eyesight. It floated through the air above my head. Beyond me the rosy light would reflect off the glass and blind me. After a while, I realized that this glass was a mirror, but I didn’t have time to keep staring into it. I had to catch my light and I didn’t know why I continued to chase it but it held an answer. I knew it did.

  The chase seemed everlasting and wearing, but something kept me continuing on. It had to be the message it contained. I knew when the light would fade, that it would hold a secret. My breath did not falter and I wondered where this new sense of power came from. The breaths I took filled my lungs with such rich air that it felt as if I would never have to take a new breath again.

  The light felt out of reach for so long that I gasped as I realized I was finally nearing the light, and this time it wasn’t budging. I extended forward on the tops of my toes to touch it. Just as I was going to touch it, I felt something rough bump me. I looked down to see that a wall appeared. I groaned in frustration. To my surprise, the light didn’t move still. I smiled and licked my lips as I elongated my body over the wall. Just one touch and something would become clear to me.

  I squealed lightly as I realized I was almost there. It slowly neared me, and I felt hope that I could finally touch the light. I leaned in some more and bit my lip as it was nearly in my hand but I felt my balance wavering too late. I collapsed face first over the wall and twisted in all directions. I smacked my face on the ground but somehow felt no real pain from it. I blustered in exasperation as I looked up to see the light had moved away and the wall I just toppled over, was gone as well. I searched my tired eyes around the room until I saw it. This time it was flashing as if it wanted to be found.

  I followed toward it carefully. It began to move but I noticed this time it travelled slower than normal. I didn’t know where it wanted me to go but I knew it was a part of me. It was a part of my life or plan. Even if it wasn’t, there must have been a reason it didn’t want to be caught.

  The hunt continued as fatigue overcame me and slowed my movements. The easiness I felt earlier had completely vanished. The light stopped ahead of me, teasing me. I almost gave up but it still felt so right to catch this sucker. I moved eagerly towards it. “Got you now.” I whispered through gritted teeth. I moved close to it. As I approached it, I realized it was no longer moving.

  I stretched my hand forward, expecting the light to move away like always or for some crazy force to knock me over, but nothing came. I sighed in satisfaction as it floated into my hand. The light illuminated my hands and beamed into my eyes.

  The beauty of it on my hand was like no other. The blushing florescent light irradiated the features of my hands. My aqua, freshly painted nails were shining in the light. I smiled brightly as I turned my hand over and over. The exquisiteness was sickening in the pit of my stomach. It felt unnatural to see such beauty in one’s lifetime. No one’s hand was this perfect.

  I smiled and gazed at it. Light beamed into my eyes and I shielded myself. I looked up to find myself in front of a mirror. The same mirror I had left in my haste to chase the light.

  The mirror revealed a gorgeous woman. Her hair was kinky with golden brown curls and pulled back with a clip to reveal her face. She was gaping into the mirror at me. The emerald color of her gown made her hazel eyed stare look forbidding.

  I beamed at the beautiful woman and was shocked to see her grinning right back. How could it be? I was staring at myself. I was never beautiful, and I was never as elegant as she was.

  My smile quickly evaporated as I caught sight of the light once more. The light was still illuminating my hand but I felt a sickness fall over me. This time I saw what was underneath the light. The mirror showed me the truth and what the light wanted to reveal to me.

  The chase of the red light was to show me who I was. Under my skin was something concealed, something peculiar. My hand wasn’t a human hand. It was instead a robotic arm. I continued to watch the glowing light in the mirror as I felt my mouth gaping open.

  I was shaking and I knew this wasn’t who I was. I was not an abomination like this. I looked back up to the woman who was somehow me, and watched as she shook her hand at me. She screamed loudly in my head, “Get out. I can’t save you.”

  A stinging sensation ran up my spine. It shook my body severely and ran up through my hand and slammed down into my arms. I screamed loudly as the feeling of pure agony intensified. I looked down to catch a glimpse as the flesh from my hand quickly disintegrated. Inch by inch, the skin was fading and revealing silver that didn’t belong to me. The sight of the metal within my skin made my stomach churn but I was too much in shock to know what was real.

  I began to sweat as I felt heat around me. I watched in the mirror as the red light began to surround my entire body. Heat smothered me after a while and I couldn’t breath. Intense pain ran all over my body. I fell to the ground as the fire began to scorch my scalp. I touched my hand to try and pat it down.

  I watched as my hair singed clean off my scalp. I threw my head into my hands and tried to weep but no tears came. The sensation to cry made my eyes burn but no relief came as tears simply wouldn’t come.

  I took a deep breath as I realized that I no longer hurt. I no longer felt anything. I knew this was my nerve ending dying or it was the pure adrenaline warring off the pain. I dared to look at myself.

  I took in a deep breath as I saw what I was now. I was no longer clothed. I was completely naked. My skin was replaced with metal. My eyes bulged out of the metallic circles. The fire burned around my body but it no longer hurt me. I was invincible. I was hideous. I was a monster. I was who I was m
eant to be.

  My body twitched as I heard loud voices in my head. “This is who you were meant to be,” it shouted at me. I jolted forward and almost screamed as I watched as a red glowing light reached around me until it was beside me. My dream was real. I squeezed my eyes shut and willed the light to go away. When I dared to peek, the glow was gone.

  My heart continued to pound beneath my skin. I felt the ringing within my ears and felt the batter of each beat. I cringed at my dream but I knew it was just that, a dream. I counted each pulse of my heart to remember that I was human. I had a heartbeat. I was alive and not a monster. I put my hand to my heart and paused. Beneath my hand, I felt a faint beat, even though my ears were ringing. As the beating slowed in my heart, I tried to count my heartbeats. There were only three in a minute. I felt crazy and decided that it was in my head.

  Willing the crazy thoughts out of my head, I eyed the room I was in, with ivory linens all around. Everything was white, except the walls. I gripped my blanket to my chest. Everything in the room was a simple color and it strangely reminded me of a hospital except for the blood red wall in front of me. I didn’t know why my heart fluttered as I imagined a hospital room. The memory flashed so quickly; I didn’t get a grasp on it. My eyes flickered to a beautiful face. He had brown eyes and blond wavy hair. My hearing ability seemed to leave my body.

  My dream of the chase wasn’t the only thing I remembered. I had another dream. In this dream, I had been kissing a mysterious boy. What took me by surprise was the fact that his eyes were wide open as we kissed. He never blinked as he stared at me with those majestic eyes. I closed my eyes to stop seeing his stare. In that moment, I felt happiness elope around me as I realized that this was someone I loved dearly.