by S. L. Gavyn
Fable City
Book Two of The Fabled Series
By S. L. Gavyn
Chapter One
Sometimes I wonder if it’s possible to just go into a permanent stasis brought on by intense boredom. My entire life has been one big repetitive routine. I rise in the morning, feed the chickens and collect the eggs, milk our Guernsey then return to the kitchen to cook for my father and four brothers. From there the day is a mixture of household and farm chores until evening. The only highlights to my days are the nights spent doing online classes. My father would never agree to me gaining a degree in anything but luckily my brother Tate likes to surf the internet watching porn and Youtube videos. So several years ago he began using money from his part-time job to pay for internet service. Of course they don’t provide high-speed internet this far out in the boonies but any internet is better than none. It’s my one connection to the outside world.
The first thing I did once I had internet access was to take the money I had been saving ever since I turned twelve and started cleaning the house of our local doctor and buy a small laptop on one of our annual trips into Oklahoma City. I secreted my computer away as I’m not allowed to use anything that might bring me into contact with the outside world. Our local high school offered GED night classes and once a month a professor from University of Oklahoma would come and allow residents to take the GED test. I couldn’t actually attend the classes just as I wasn’t allowed to actually go to school but I signed up to take the test. Once I had earned my GED I applied for a Pell grant and, since my father didn’t work very much, was approved for a full scholarship. Of course I had to take online courses since I didn’t have transportation to attend the closest college which was over two hours away.
Over the last four and a half years I have managed to obtain, first, my Bachelors then Master’s degree in business administration. I also minored in nursing and am currently a registered nurse with a secondary degree in trauma. What is the point in these degrees you might ask? Hell if I know. I just think I might go insane if I’m forced to stay here for much longer.
I’m currently in the pasture dropping hay bales for the cows. Father is once again drunk as a skunk passed out in the recliner. If the cows don’t get fed, it will somehow turn out to be my fault so I have learned to just automatically do his work for him when he’s like this. Part of me really wants to hate him for his treatment of me but part of me feels sorry for him. After all, he lost his wife in child birth and was left to raise a child that wasn’t his. Oh, it’s never come out that my mother had any kind of affair but all I have to do is look in the mirror and the evidence is literally written all over my face.
I am the complete opposite of my father, all of my brothers and even my mother looked nothing like me. They all are of Native American descent. Where they have dark hair, eyes and complexion I have fair skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that momma had her hand in someone else’s cookie jar. I just wish she could have stuck around long enough to tell me who my father really is. Instead, I’m stuck in this hellhole with a man who is really no relation to me and his sons who at best are my half-brothers. Maybe I was switched at birth. That would make more sense than my mom having an unknown affair and her child looking nothing like her.
I stopped and watched the cars driving by on the highway nearby before throwing another bale from the back of the truck and I want to scream with the injustice of it. I don’t want to be here anymore. I haven’t wanted to be here since I was eight years old and my brother called me an alien baby for the first time. That was when I truly realized I was different, I didn’t belong and no one wanted me.
I bent over and put my hands on my knees. The weight of my hatred at this cosmically fucked up world is more than I could bare. I want out. How can I get out? I thought my degree was the ticket to freedom but still I have no real options. I stood back up and looked at the sky before screaming at the top of my lungs. Once I finished I took a breath then said aloud. “I just wish I could get out of this place! I don’t belong here!” I slapped my hand over my mouth. What was I thinking?!
I heard wheels screeching and I looked up in time to see an eighteen wheeler jackknife in the middle of the freeway. There was an SUV beside it that was pushed off the road and began flipping repeatedly. The front of the semi slammed into the side of a truck and it wrapped around the front bumper. Two cars behind the semi couldn’t stop fast enough and the small coupe actually ran under the back of the trailer while the luxury car hit the back corner and the entire front end was crushed.
I was running before I knew what I was doing. The back of the semi was closest so I approached the coupe that had run under the trailer. The entire roof and front windshield were pushed back and flattened. My virtual trainer from my RN class popped into my head and told me to save those I could and let God save the ones I couldn’t so I ran around to the man in the luxury car. He had a head injury that was bleeding but otherwise he didn’t have any visible injuries.
“Sir, can you hear me?” I asked as I opened his door.
“Uh...yeah.”
“Can you feel your arms and legs?”
He nodded. I grabbed his suit coat that had been thrown over the gear shifter and put it to his head.
“Hold this here to minimize the bleeding. Do you have a cell phone?”
He reached for the center console and I helped him open it and pull his phone out.
“You’ll have to unlock it so I can call the police.”
He unlocked it and I made the call letting them know to bring in every EMT within a thirty minute radius and life flight would be needed which meant they would need to call them in from nearby Guthrie then I gave him his phone back, told him to just stay there and await the police, and went to check on the other victims.
I came to the Semi driver next and he too was only banged up without any major injuries. The driver of the truck had an obviously broken leg and, by the sound of his breathing a rib had punctured his lung. I couldn’t do more than help him lean against the passenger door and rip my flannel shirt to tie on his arm that was cut pretty deeply then I ran for the SUV.
I prayed to the Seven Deities of Avalon that there were no children in that vehicle. I would have enough to atone for once this day was done without having the death of a child on my conscience.
I approached the driver and had to choke back the tears. It looked like he was dead before the vehicle ever stopped rolling. I checked the passenger and back seats and sent a prayer of thanks that they were empty. I turned back to look at the carnage my wanting had caused. Several of the drivers of the cars backed up along the interstate were out of their cars attempting to help the victims who were able to be helped and I could see the flashing lights in the distance so I lowered myself to the side of the road, pulled my knees up to my chest and rested my head on them.
What was I thinking? No amount of suffering on my part was worth all of this. I know better than to make wishes to the heavens. They never bring anything but pain and suffering. Now, I have these deaths on my hands.
“Are you alright?”
I looked up at who had spoken and found a man standing above me. He looked to be in his mid-forties with balding hair and glasses.
“I’m fine. I wasn’t in the accident,” I told him.
“Oh. Why did you come here then?”
“I heard the accident and ran over to see if I could help.”
“You heard it? From where?”
Why did he care where I was?
“I was in the field over there feeding the cows.”
I pointed to were the truck was parked.
“Why in the world would you be feeding cows?”
“Because my father’s too drunk to feed them.”
He looked confused by that then stuck out his hand.
“I’m Corbin.”
I looked at the hand. I don’t like touching people especially people I don’t know.
“Zade,” I replied.
He pulled his hand back. “Isn’t that a boy’s name?”
“Do you know many boys named Zade?”
He smiled. “No, can’t say that I do. Do you mind me asking why you’re feeding cows in the middle of nowhere?”
“What else would you do in the middle of nowhere?”
He laughed. “It’s just that you don’t look like the type to be living on a farm.”
I looked down at my worn jean, boots, t-shirt and flannel. If I didn’t look like a farmer then I don’t know what one looks like.
“I’m not referring to your attire,” he clarified.
“What are you referring to exactly?”
He pointed to his head. “I’m talking about what is in here.”
“I’ll have you know that most farmers are very adept at what they do. You have to be to be able to keep everything on schedule. Forget one thing and the results could be disastrous. But to answer your question. I don’t belong here. I would presume that’s what brought you to me today.”
He seemed pensive for moment before nodding.
“Since it seems it will be some time before I can move on from here do you know of somewhere we might talk that is less...” He looked around at all the carnage and the paramedics scrambling around helping the injured. “Distracting.”
Distracting. Yeah, that’s one way to say it.
“If you can pull your car off the road, I’ll take you to the only cafe in town,” I told him.
He nodded before turning back toward his car. I got up and started walking to my truck. Normally I wouldn’t even think about letting a stranger into my vehicle but he was here because of me. It was my doing that messed up everything and brought him to a halt in front of me. I might as well listen to what he has to say. It was probable that our destinies were combined now. May the Gods help him.
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Available Books by S. L. Gavyn
The Forged by Magic Trilogy:
Brimstone (Book 1)
Iron Made (Book 2)
Ange Noir (Book 2.5)
Dragon’s Flame (Book 3)
The Avery Tywella Series:
Darkened (Book 1)
Deadened (Book 2)
Deceived (Book 3)
Find S. L. Gavyn online:
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