Also by Réussie Miliardario
Girl Enchanted (Book 2 of The Girl Trilogy)
Outlaws (Endless Love, #1)
Bad Girl (Endless Love, #2)
The Bad Boy
Girl Possessed
by Réussie Miliardario
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Copyright © 2011 by Réussie Miliardario
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to real people, mass media, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, things, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, persons, or things, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Summary: After the downfall of the U.S. government, a sixteen-year-old girl falls madly in love with a dangerous, supernatural boy.
Girl Possessed
1
I rushed out of the ocean into a dark nook along the Malibu coast. I was breathing fast. My long black hair clung to my naked body covering the hump on my back and the edge of my skinny thighs. I carried a chain of live fish and a bag of oysters for bargaining. The sky was black with an orange haze along the horizon likely from the pollution of looting fires in the city.
At the edge of the woods, I dressed in my under garments and sundress that were still draped over a branch from yesterday and grabbed the rope and bridle I had hidden between the rocks.
Suddenly, adrenaline rushed through me. My body stiffened. I sensed I wasn’t alone. In the gentle rhythms of the night, I heard the slightest sounds of breathing. I turned around, but nobody was there.
A branch snapped behind me. When I turned to look, I saw silver eyes staring at me through a bush. My heart pounded fast.
“I’m not afraid of you,” I said trying to feign confidence. But, before I finished the sentence, the eyes were gone.
I heard someone rush away, but I couldn’t get a clear focus on the figure that moved very fast down the beach. I saw it was a man or possibly a serpent person. But, a serpent person would have attacked me instead.
I stood there dumbfounded for a moment. The night air was still and hot as I hugged my skinny, boyish body to calm myself. But, I couldn’t waste time. I was in a desperate hurry.
In the other direction, I saw the stray horses sleeping as usual at the edge of the canyon, standing below the trees. I released myself and edged closer, not allowing myself to be distracted by thoughts of the man on the beach. I had to focus on my goal at hand.
As I neared the animals, I swung the flopping seafood and oysters over my back. I took a deep breath and aimed the rope, lassoing the black horse’s neck.
Startled out of his sleep, he reared. Dust flew up into the moonlit air. The other horses ran off.
“Hey there buddy,” I whispered, approaching with a firm grip on the rope. The gelding snorted and danced a bit, kicking up more dust, but I had a gift with the creatures of the wild. These horses were actually formally domesticated, but likely wandered off after their owners’ deaths. I bridled the fellow and swung my leg over his sleek back.
At a fast pace, we galloped along the dry mountainous trails toward West Hollywood’s Sunset Boulevard. My long hair flew behind, drying in the hot wind.
It was extremely dangerous going into the city, but my mother needed antibiotics for her stab wound. I left her in the cave on the island. If I was fast and didn’t get killed, I might be able to save her.
I hadn’t been into the city since we fled to the island after the Great Sun Scorch and the U.S. Economy Crash in 2039, but I had heard about the serpent people and their take over. Fury ran up my spine.
They were the brutal shape shifting descendants of the original serpent who seduced our foremother, Eve, into eating the apple from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden. They thrived during our times of famine and thirst, needing much less water than humans.
The boulevard floodlights flashed through the trees where I tied the horse to a thick branch. For a second, I thought I saw the silver eyes watching me from another bush. But, when I looked closer, there was nothing there.
I made my way down the dark hillside on foot hiding behind abandoned houses as I descended.
A techball rolled across the sky. I hoped I wasn’t spotted. I didn’t have time to worry.
Sunset Boulevard was quiet. Smoke rose from some of the buildings. The monstrous dome cinema billboards were still intact, some even lit up with sparkling lights. In their vanity, the serpent people must have preserved those.
Most of the stars and famous or powerful people of the U.S. past were serpent people shape shifted in human forms, so I wasn’t surprised to see their ads glaring at me like false gods. The street was quiet—most people couldn’t afford to drive speed waves anymore.
I was told I could trade fish for medical supplies at the looted and now closed down Zapod’s Zip Shoppe where some humans hid at night. My heart raced with fear as I entered the dimly lit dilapidated building through the back.
The dark air was musty and smelled of urine. I heard a scuffle. Something darted from one side of the room to the other. My pulse accelerated. I looked around, but the place was hazy and scattered with boxes and broken furniture obscuring the view.
Then, at once, someone grabbed me and threw me to the floor.
“Who are you?” the person turned me over roughly onto my back and held a blade to my neck. His breath was hot upon my face.
“Cordellia Dressemme,” I answered, afraid I might pass out from fear. The hump on my back ached tremendously. I was always very careful to not put pressure on it, but now a tall man with a graying beard forced his weight upon me. “I brought seafood for trade of antibiotics. My mother was stabbed.”
Another man, short and skinny with red hair and a beard scanned some sort of ultra-violet light across my body. “Her legs are dry, almost scaly like them, but she’s human.”
The tension lifted and the gray haired man got off me.
Standing up, I handed him the chain of fresh fish and the bag of oysters. He nodded and walked behind a counter where he sat them down. The red head went out of the room.
“Where you come from? You’re a kid.” He was looking through the shelves in the dim light. There were a couple of lit candles hanging from the ceiling.
“I’m of teenage years.” I knew I looked young and that irritated me. “We go from place to place,” I said vaguely. “Haven’t found anywhere to settle, but my mother and I stay out of the city.”
“You’re lucky to be alive. The serpent people rape girls and if they don’t eat them, they take them as slaves.”
I shivered even though it was extremely hot in the room.
“You’re not ugly—you’re eyes are a pretty aqua color, so they’d probably keep you.” He handed me a plastic bag of pills. “Give her one twice a day for seven days.”
“Thank you.�
�� I put the bag in my pocket. My back was starting to feel better, but it throbbed a little.
He wiped his forehead with a cloth. “Be careful crossing the road. If the techball spotted you, they’ll be looking. If they come, run as fast as you can into the hills.”
I tried not to listen. It frightened me too much to think of the danger. “Ok. Thanks.” I turned to leave.
“They look like upright snakes with arms and legs—the size of tall humans. When they’re hungry, they can swallow a human whole just like a snake gobbles up a mouse. Watch out.”
I went out the back door and snuck through the darkness across the lots behind the buildings, figuring that if I had been spotted, the serpent people would be waiting for me in front of the store. At the next block, I would cross the street and make my way back into the hills.
When I reached the third lot, I came upon a dimly lit building with serpent people inside. I crouched down as I passed, but I did glimpse through the large window several serpent men and women partying. Their voices were low grumbles muted by the glass. I don’t think anyone saw me.
But then, someone called me over in a whisper. My body tightened. I didn’t want to look.
“Hey! Unlock the fence for us.” A human woman waved me over. She and several other women and girls were locked inside a roofed fence on the other side of the parking lot wedged between some trees. “The key’s around his neck.” Her voice was pleading.
A green, scaly serpent person was sleeping with his mouth open, holding a bottle of X in his lap, slumped back in a chair before the pen.
As I moved closer staying out of the line of vision from the window, I noticed a blond girl younger than me by a few years whimpering quietly in the corner of the cage. She stood up and came to the edge of the fence.
“Please,” she pleaded in a squeaky voice. “My little sister will die without me. The serpents will molest us.”
Another girl with a long neck like my mother’s and a couple years older than me said, “He’s so blitzed that he won’t even wake up.”
I didn’t want to leave them, but I had seen so many people die that I had grown colder with experience. “I’m sorry,” I said. My heart tightened, but I turned and hurried away.
“One of the girls cried out, “Please! Please save us.”
How could I be so cruel to leave them? As much as I didn’t want it to be so, that empathetic part in me was overcome by her cries. I couldn’t help it. This was suicide.
I jogged back and crept up to the sleeping serpent person. He looked like a hairless man, dressed in normal clothes with a human shaped head, but he had snake features and green scales where humans had skin.
Terror rose up in me. I held my breath as I gently lifted the key off his scaly neck and over his cocked head. My heart raced faster than I thought possible.
He shifted his position. I felt like I was going to hyperventilate from fear as I froze. But he didn’t wake up.
The women and girls gathered in a huddle before the pen’s exit. With the key now in my hand, I rushed to the fence and unlocked the padlock.
There was a rattle as the lock fell out of my hands and hit the fence. My fingers fumbled as I tried to slide it out of the metal holes to release the gate. Lots of nervous fingers from the girls reaching through got in my way.
The serpent person moved in his chair and groaned. I turned to look at him and to my great terror he opened his eyes at once.
I gasped as our gazes met.
Rage rose up in me. I wouldn’t die in the hands of a serpent.
The blond girl whimpered slightly. I pushed the lock out of the holes. The gate flew open. I almost lost my balance as the metal links slammed into my face, but my adrenaline was full charge and I managed to run away before being trampled by the caged females.
The women and girls were behind me. I could hear them at close distance as we ran through the parking lot. Some were screaming.
The serpent was yelling to the partiers inside the building. I heard more ruckuses. Now the drugged out group yelled and laughed amongst themselves as they pursued us.
I ran toward the street. The girls followed.
“Catch them and put them back into the cage,” a serpent man called out.
“Party time!” Another serpent hollered.
The others laughed.
I could see flashes of light extending from behind me in my peripheral vision, but I didn’t know what the flashes were, though I assumed they were machinations of the serpents.
The girl with my mother’s long neck cried out in agonizing pain. I looked back and saw a serpent woman with a scaly womanly body rip off the girl’s legs with her bare hands while laughing as she threw her to the ground. Bones cracked. Blood gushed forth. The girl’s slip-on shoe shot through the air and hit another girl in the head.
I ran across Sunset Boulevard. The thud of footsteps followed in close proximity. Bitter cries stung in my ears.
When I got to the other side and part way up the hill, I heard a horrible hissing sound and then a serpent grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me backwards. I rolled to the bottom of the hill.
2
I looked over and a serpent man had me by the ankle. His eyes were blood shot and fierce. In a flash, he dragged me on my stomach across the dry, cracked dirt. It hurt like hell.
But, then, a boy about my age with black hair and silver eyes grabbed the serpent by his scaly neck and threw him down.
“Leave her alone,” the boy said.
I was stunned. The scaly creature held his own head as it wobbled in his hands. He didn’t get up. I wondered what his problem was and why he didn’t fight back. But, then it occurred to me that maybe his neck was broken.
In my quick assessment, it looked like the few girls that were still living were running down the boulevard in opposite directions. Some of the serpent people were smoking in the street seemingly too high to care about the girls who were getting away. The other girls were torn apart and on the ground. One body was split right down the middle. There was so much blood and guts.
A very young girl with red hair and freckles twitched on the ground, her limbs torn from her midsection. Blood and bile bubbled up from her gasping throat. A few of the serpent people stood over her laughing and pouring booze over her body.
The silver eyed boy lifted me off the ground. Were these the eyes that had been watching me at the beach? I was too shocked to say anything.
He ran with me in his arms down Sunset. We were only a few feet behind the blond girl with the squeaky voice. She was panting and whimpering as she ran.
Before he reached her, he cut across the boulevard and up a dirt trail, and then up the mountain. His body was cool compared to the heat of the night. In no time, we were back at the horse.
I wondered how he knew where to take me.
“We have to get out of here,” he said, looking around at the dry mountainous range and then down at the street.
I didn’t know how to respond as I stared at this devilishly handsome boy who just saved my life and now held me in his arms. The whole situation was utterly surreal.
He chuckled ironically and set me down.
Adrenaline raced through my body. I wondered how he could laugh at a time like this, especially after seeing so much senseless death. Agitation rose up within me, but he didn’t seem to notice.
He whisked his fingers through his shiny black hair. “We better make this quick,” he said as he swung his body up onto the horse’s back and then held his hand out to me.
Even though I should have been grateful that he had saved me, I was incensed. What the hell was he doing? This wasn’t his horse. It wasn’t mine either, but still. And why was he trying to save me? He didn’t even know me. If he was so heroic, then what about the other girls who were still running for their lives? His actions didn’t make sense to me.
“Come on, come on.” He snapped his fingers, trying to rush me into compliance.
Whatever his reaso
ns were for saving me, I had no choice, but to try to get out of this place as quickly as possible. I had to get these antibiotics to my mother.
I tried to cover my indignation toward the boy and grabbed onto his hand. Struggling somewhat awkwardly, my mind whirling from the rush, I made my way up behind him. I was surprised he knew how to ride a horse.
He was dressed in black pants and a t-shirt that clung to his thin, fit body. I was embarrassed to put my hands on his waist, but I had no choice if I didn’t want to slide off. My breathing was heavy as I tried to calm myself.
But in no time, we were galloping toward the beach and I had to hold on tightly otherwise I’d fall off. I could feel the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. He smelled like the trees. I knew I smelled like fish and the ocean, which should have been embarrassing, but I didn’t care. After we were some distance away, he said to me, “Where am I taking you?”
I was extremely uncomfortable that he was taking me anywhere as I thought of his silver eyes. What did he want from me?
“Thank you for saving me,” I choked out, repulsed with my words and concerned about his intensions. I couldn’t help but notice the feel of his muscles on his stomach beneath his shirt as I held onto him.
“My pleasure.” He looked back at me with a wry smile on his face that any other girl would find charming. “Are you Ok?”
I nodded. There was no denying it—he was wickedly handsome—the kind of attractive that made your blood boil with infuriating lust. My mind spun with so many thoughts—thoughts of why I shouldn’t trust him, thoughts of why I should.
He couldn’t possibly have saved me because he was attracted to me. I was dull looking with dry skin and had a hump on my back. Maybe he had some sort of weird fetish for that sort of thing? Possibly he had a deformed mother that I reminded him of? A Freudian complex perhaps?
I’m ashamed to say, I started laughing. I know the timing was entirely inappropriate as it had been with him just minutes before, but I couldn’t help it. Maybe it was a way to avoid the survivor’s guilt I was feeling in the face of so much death—a way to cover up my rage and unease. I didn’t know why I found the situation funny, but I laughed nonetheless.
Girl Possessed (Book 1 of The Girl Trilogy) Page 1