Copyright © 2011` by J. E. Nicassio.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.
www.authorjenicassio.com
@jennie3963
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ISBN-978-0-9991621-2-5
Editor Lisa Cerasoli
Interior Design: BookDesign.com
Cover Design: Y. Nikolova
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Dedicated to those who seek the truth.
“I can assure you that flying saucers, given that they exist, are not constructed by any power on earth.”
———President Harry S. Truman.
Prologue
I’m not sure how I ended up there, but there I was. I used to be a normal teenage girl, worrying about boys, my looks—you name it. My life was changed forever by the intrepid, dark-haired stranger who saved me. Lucien Foster was that stranger. He was not the average, teenage boy. He was special, to say the least. He had remarkable, snowy-diamond eyes that could see into my mind and read every thought. Lucien Foster possessed certain abilities that, if known, would endanger his life—supernatural abilities. The funny thing about all this was he was an alien from a planet, billions of light-years away from Earth, and I fell in love with him. I know what you’re thinking, this girl is a nutcase. They need to lock her up and throw away the key. However, what I say is true; my boyfriend was not from this world.
At the time all of this transpired, the day after the Christmas solstice, I didn’t think my life could get more complicated than it already was. I had no idea what I was getting myself into that fateful night on a mountainside in New Mexico. Boy, did things go wrong.
1 The Cabin
I found myself huddled deep in the corner of the cabin, shivering. A man in a uniform hovered over me, and I was naked. Haze washed over the cabin as I watched small dust particles drift through the air.
“Help me,” I managed to say.
“What in the hell? How’d you get in here?” He clenched his keys in his hands.
“Where am I?”
“The Ranger Station.”
“S-station?”
He knelt next to me. “Cibola National Park. What happened to you?”
“I don’t know.”
“What’s your name?”
I don’t know. I thought a moment. “Samantha Hunter.”
“Samantha?” the park ranger asked, giving me a warm smile.
“Wat-er.”
The ranger went over to the sink and ran some water. He brought a glass, holding it to my lips. I drank fast, almost choking.
“Whoa…slow down.”
My eyes met the ranger’s. “Lucien?”
“Lucien, the guy who did this to you? You kept mumbling his name. Goddamn sick mother-effer.”
“My clothes?” I whispered, not sure of where they were. “Please help me.”
The ranger took off his coat. His fumbling caused an icy breeze as his coat wrapped around me. I couldn’t stop my body from trembling.
Under my nose felt cold and wet. I touched it. Blood. I tried to stand. When I did, something wet between my legs crawled down…. A chilling sound came from my lips.
“Aw, no, girl, sit. Man, you’re bleeding. You’re not pregnant, are you? Holy crap! It’s bad.” He searched for his cell phone, checking all his pockets.
“Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?”
“We need an ambulance at the Cibola National Park. A young girl… Samantha Hunter. She’s hurt. I think she’s been raped.”
“No, no. I wasn’t.”
“Hell, if you weren’t. Sit back down. You’re gonna hurt yourself more.”
A stabbing cramp ripped through my belly. What’s happening?
“You’re white as a ghost. Geez, why is this happening on my shift? Damn, girl. What were you doing out here in the middle of the night anyway?”
“My clothes, where are my clothes?” I looked around the station.
“Whoever did this to you must’ve taken them.”
I cringed as I touched my skin. A thick film of yellow goo, like the goo Lucien’s uncle, Jordan Taylor, used to heal Lucien when the government took him to Area 51.
“Stay down!” The ranger took hold of me.
“No! I need to go.”
“You aren’t going anywhere except to the hospital. You be still until they get here. It’ll be okay.”
I stood again, feeling ill. Barely making it to the garbage can, I heaved, spilling the contents of my stomach until nothing was left but burning bile. I scrambled, searching for something to wipe the goo from my skin. I have to leave.
The ranger rushed to a locker and took out a uniform. “Here, put these on.”
My hands trembled as I fastened the buttons. Once dressed, my eyes shot to the clock on the wall. “It’s 9:33 in the morning?”
“That clock hasn’t worked since the night of the eclipse…strange, right? It’s only 6:00 p.m. Sun’s just going down.”
I had no recollection of what had happened after I wrapped my arms around Lucien. The brilliant blue light and metal above took us.
2 Dad
While I waited for my father at Memorial Hospital’s ER, a female detective greeted me with questions I couldn’t answer.
“I don’t remember.”
The detective grimaced. I don’t think she believed me. She was about to ask me another question when Dad walked in.
“Sammy, baby, I’ll kill him. I swear.”
My father ran to my side. He looked as though he hadn’t slept in days. I was glad to see him but had no idea what to tell him. He would never understand. I had a hard time believing it myself.
“Daddy,” I said, hugging him. “Lucien didn’t do this.”
He sat down next to me, taking hold of my hands. “You weren’t like this when you left the house, Sammy. Someone did this to you!”
I felt defenseless. “It wasn’t Lucien.”
“Then where is he?” Dad rubbed the weariness from his eyes. “You know what happened to my daughter?” he asked, looking at the detective.
“Mr. Hunter, I’m Detective Marshall. We spoke briefly on the phone. I’m the lead investigator in your daughter’s disappearance.” My dad shook detective Marshall’s hand.
“Well then, are you going to tell me where my daughter’s been for two weeks?”
“Two weeks? Are you sure?” I asked, wincing, trying to make sense of all this.
“Sam, what happened to you?”
When I didn’t answer, he squeezed his eyes closed. He was as clueless as I was.
“I don’t know—make it stop!”
Dad grimaced. “Are you in pain?” he asked, taking ahold of the bedrail.
“My ears,” I moaned, looking at my dad, pleading with him to relieve my pain. I closed my eyes, wishing it would go away.
“Detective, get the nurse.”
She left and returned with an Asian doctor. “Sam, are you in pain?” The doctor leaned in close, checking my pulse.
“My ears…they’re ringing.” I opened my eyes, facing my dad. “It won’t stop. Make it stop.”
The doctor pushed back my hair and examined my ears. “There seem to be two small puncture wounds right behind your daughter’s ears. Neither the MRI
nor the CAT scan found anything, so I’m not sure what these are.” The doctor turned to the detective. “Never seen anything like it before.”
I’m sure he hasn’t.
“And unfortunately, your daughter needs a rape kit to rule out sexual assault,” the detective said.
“A rape kit? Sammy, Christ!”
“I don’t need that!” I yelled.
“Your daughter’s bleeding. She’s not menstruating.”
“Sammy, you aren’t pregnant, are you?”
“Is it a possibility you may be pregnant? Would you prefer speaking to me in private?” asked the detective.
“No! I swear I’m not…I’m not.” There was an uncomfortable moment of silence.
“At any rate, we’ll do a pregnancy test to eliminate that. In the meantime, I’ll let you two decide about a rape kit,” the doctor said, breaking the silence. “You’re going to be fine, Samantha.” He turned and walked out of the room.
“We need to find the person who did this. There may be evidence, and a rape kit will find the DNA we need,” Detective Marshall said.
Why is he listening to her?
She’s mistaken. She has to be. I wish I could remember. The ringing was getting stronger with every moment. The more I tried to remember, the stronger the sound became.
“Sammy, what happened to you? Just tell me. I’ll kill him.”
“That’s exactly why I would never tell you anyway.”
“Sam?” I could tell my father was losing his patience. I didn’t blame him; I wouldn’t believe me either.
“Nothing. Lucien didn’t do anything. It was my fault,” I tried to explain.
“What was your fault?” the detective asked.
“Lucien didn’t rape me.”
“Samantha,” Detective Marshall said. “The nurse will be in, and a doctor will do an exam. The nurse will collect fluid samples: urine, possible semen, and hair samples. Okay?” She patted my hand.
I pulled away.
“Do I have any choice in the matter?” I looked at my dad, then at the detective.
“It’s up to your father.” Detective Marshall turned to Dad.
By the looks on their faces, I had to come to grips with their decision.
“Do it. It’s not up for debate.” My dad stood and walked out.
I watched him leave, gritting my teeth.
Detective Marshall smiled. “It’s going to be quick. Everything is going to be fine. Okay?”
She smiled again and left me to my thoughts.
3 The Switch
After the doctor checked me out, boredom set in. I began to count the tiles on the ceiling. I wished I were home in Pittsburgh; I wished none of this had happened. I stood up to look for my phone. That’s when Cassiel came rushing in. Cassiel was Lucien’s brother. When I first met him, he hated me…and resented his brother for saving my life. We were not quite friends yet, but not enemies, either.
“Sam—you’re alive.” Cassiel hurried to my side, taking my hand. “We’ve been going nuts trying to find out what happened to you. Daniel finally picked up on your whereabouts. For a while, there was nothing.”
Daniel was Lucien’s other brother. He could foretell the future and sense peoples’ locations, sort of like the GPS devices we humans have, but built in. Cassiel took my hand in his. When he did, a feeling of déjà vu swept over me.
“Cassiel?”
“You okay?” he asked.
“Maybe I should be asking you the same question.”
He let go of my hand.
“I’m okay, I think. The nurse was just going to take blood.”
“Yes, I was,” said a nurse, wheeling in a girl not much older than I was. “You have a visitor, I see.” She smiled at Cassiel.
The nurse put the girl in the bed next to me, closed the drape, then left and was back in minutes with a cart. She smiled before she pulled the drape shut behind her. A moment later, she put a couple of vials of blood on the counter next to me.
“You’re next,” she said, looking at me.
She took a piece of paper off a clipboard and began writing on it. Cassiel’s eyes met mine as if he’d read my mind, then he nodded in agreement. The nurse took a rubber band and tied it just above my elbow. She took a needle and jabbed me. The pain took me by surprise. Cassiel’s face wrinkled with nervousness. I jerked as the nurse took the needle out and undid the band.
“All done. The doctor will be with you in a minute,” she said.
As the nurse labeled my blood, a bell rang.
Another nurse came in. “The cardiac in room two just coded. We need you.”
The nurse who took my blood set it in the caddy and scurried out into the hall.
“Did you do that?” I asked Cassiel.
“Don’t worry. He didn’t have a heart attack. The machine just malfunctioned to buy us a little time.”
Cassiel took my blood from the caddy and carefully pulled my name off the vial. He poured it down the sink, turned on the faucet, and then pitched the vial in the hazardous waste can. “I’ll be right back.”
Cassiel came back a few minutes later with a vial of blood.
“Where’d you get that,” I asked, watching him put my name on it.
“I made a visit to the blood bank.”
“Whose is it?”
“Yours now.”
“No one saw you?”
“The attendant did, but he’s not going to remember a thing.”
“You didn’t hurt him, did you?”
“Of course not,” Cassiel said.
I had no idea if he was telling the truth. The last thing I wanted to do was get anyone else involved in my messed up life.
4 Deception
I felt like a prisoner in my own house, minus the ankle bracelet. Dad followed me around like my shadow. Enough already. My blood cleared, thanks to Cassiel’s quick thinking. The exam showed no abnormalities. The doctor’s never figured out what caused the bleeding or the puncture marks behind my ears.
Something happened, but what? How did I get back here? Where did I go? Nothing made sense.
For the first time since being home over a week, Dad left me alone. I didn’t waste any time; I left for the mountainside. The moon had a purple hue, reminding me of the lunar eclipse on December twenty-first—the last night I remember. Pondering what happened on the hillside, I stood looking up at the snowflakes before I got in the Mustang. My thoughts seemed jumbled. Nothing explained what happened, nothing. The Mustang’s engine came alive as I turned the key, making my way back to the eerie spot.
I edged my car into where Lucien’s Camaro had been the night of the eclipse. I looked around at the deserted park before stepping out. Not knowing for sure why I came, I trudged up to where Lucien and I had been standing. My shoes disappeared into the snow and the cold wind bit my cheeks as I walked to the spot where the light had taken us. I kept my eyes on the sky for a sign. Nothing but snow fell.
“He’s not here.”
I turned to see Cassiel walking toward me. I hugged myself, trying to keep warm. He looked sad, and his steps were heavy as he approached.
“I remember seeing you when the light took Lucien and me, but I can’t remember what happened….” My voice trailed off as I searched his gray eyes, hoping he had the answers.
“Sam, why did you hold onto him? I don’t understand you humans.”
“I had to….” The way Cassiel stared; he almost seemed upset with me for wanting to leave with his brother.
“You shouldn’t have done it.”
I had to.
“No, you didn’t.”
I have to do a better job of blocking him from my thoughts. Think of my favorite cartoon. Fred Flintstone. Yes. That’ll do it.
“Fred?” Really? Why did you do it? It was
stupid.” His voice cracked when he spoke, not at all like Cassiel. “Let me look at you.” He took my hands in his, turning them palm up. “You look better than when I saw you at the hospital. You know, you’re lucky they brought you back. Some aren’t so lucky.”
“Why didn’t you tell me he was leaving?”
“They brought you back, didn’t they? That’s what matters.”
“How did I get back?”
“You don’t remember?”
“No. What don’t they want me to remember?” Another truth I may regret learning.
“Everything.”
He settled next to me. He looked so much like his brother, even in his mannerisms. He was frightening and comforting at the same time. I wanted to scream and yell and smack him for deceiving me. The other part of me wanted to fall into his arms and beg him to help me find Lucien.
“My dad said I was gone for two weeks.”
His shoulder brushed mine. “You should have a coat.”
“So they made me forget,” I said, ignoring his comment.
“Yes.”
I watched the snowflakes fall one by one onto his black hair.
“They did something to me. What?”
“What they do.”
“Alien experiments? Don’t they do unthinkable, inhumane things? Don’t they, Cassiel? Is that what they did to me?” Tell me!” I pounded my fists on his chest with tears burning my eyes. “You’re one of them.”
“They think they have the right. You shouldn’t have done what you did,” Cassiel said, grabbing my fists.
“What does that mean?” I hated him right then. The alien he was and the man he was not. My life was on hold, all because of a freak twist of fate. I thought back to when Lucien saved me. I wished it had never happened.
“Samantha, they let you live. What were you thinking, grabbing hold of him?”
You’re just like them.
“I’m not. You’re alive.”
“I would have rather died than been brought back, not knowing if I’m the same person I was before I left—and what about Lucien? He deceived me.” What’s happening to me? This isn’t me talking. I love Lucien. Don’t I?
Equinox (Beyond Moondust Trilogy Book 2) Page 1