Shallow Breaths: The Breath of Riley (Breathe Series Prequel)

by Christy Johnson

  “But I don’t know what that is!” He screams.

  “Follow your heart, Luke. Do what is best for your son.”

  *****

  “Colleen, where’s Devin?” Luke barges into his home.

  “Why?”

  “Because I know who this Chosen is and I think it’s time we pay him a visit.”

  8 parting breaths

  RILEY

  I open my eyes to see Nora standing over me. I sit up slowly, trying to stand up to protect her from the crowds of Eskojis in my house. “Get down.” She says, her hair whipping around behind her. I stay tucked behind her, almost like a punk but if she was my resort of keeping me safe, I would let her. You’re so sad. My brain scolds me. I stand up straight, trying to get in front of her to protect her, although I didn’t know the reasoning for this attack anyway. “Riley, I said get dow –”

  “Did you hear that?” A man’s voice booms through the house, shaking the walls.

  “Here.” I yank her arm as we scurry into the nearest closet. We huddle up, sitting close to each other. I see the fear in her face as her breathing parts. “You okay?” I whisper, knowing that that was a dumb question to ask. She didn’t seem to fear them, she seemed afraid of what would happen to me.

  “Yea – now, be quiet before they hear us. I have to get you out of here.” She looks around the closet, trying to find a secret getaway. She stands slowly, carefully patting the walls.

  “Nora, they’ll hear us. Please don’t –”

  “They’ll hear us if you keep talking.” She snaps. I had never seen her this passionate about anything before. It was almost as if I didn’t know this her. She slumps down quietly onto the floor, “I’m sorry. I just need to save you – I can’t lose you, Riley.” Her eyes water but I bring her in close to me before I could see her tears fall.

  “I’ll be okay.” I promise her lies and false hope. I kiss her forehead and she looks up at me, her eyes searching mine. “I love you.” I say, feeling an excruciating nervous pang burrowing its way into my heart. The feeling immaculate but still disturbing.

  “And I love you more than you’ll ever know.” She bats her eyes lightly and I smooth her hair back, diving in for a kiss. A jolt rushes through my body, taking me over.

  “In here!” A voice says outside of the closet door.

  “Get them.” Another voice muffles. Without warning, the door swings open. A stubby woman standing at the door, smirks down at us. Nora closes her eyes shut, gripping my wrist tightly but only for a second.

  “Where did she go?” The woman asks. I look around searching the closet for her but she had vanished. A man comes over, yanking me up from the floor.

  “I – I don’t know.” I panic. This was it. It was my time to die.

  “Tell me!” The stocky woman whips out her knife, drawing it to my neck. I gulp, keeping my mouth shut anyway.

  “We need him. Put your knife away, Kendra.” The man holding me says. I corner my eyes up to him. His face mushed in, his eyes blue, and his nose is long and pointy. The stubby woman, Kendra doesn’t pay him any mind, though, she just keeps the knife idled at my neck, nicking it. I grunt at the pain, feeling a small amount of blood ooze from the wound.

  “Nora!” I call out as she appears in front of us, wanting to warn her of the crowd closing in on her. She whips around to the massive troop of women screeching at her. One shouts at her about her dead fiancé that Nora killed in the doorway and all the other women cry out to her, wanting to demolish her. Nora backs away from them slowly. I fear she didn’t have a plan on how to defeat these women.

  She jumps as someone in the crowd fires off a gun past her and then glances back at me, her eyes defining fear but not of those women, of something else. It was almost like she was afraid to show a part of herself to me that I would judge so instead, she runs. I lose sight of her, dropping my head, hoping she’d make it through this. I hear feet smack the hardwood floor as the crowd follows behind her.

  “Over there!” Kendra shouts, pointing into an apparent direction of Nora. I lift my head, scoping out what was going to happen next. I see Nora pull herself up from under the staircase, facing the knife Kendra had gutted at her neck but Nora doesn’t hesitate. She sticks the sword into her neck, feeling the blade puncture her flesh. Blood gushes from her jugular, showering Nora with freshly, red blood.

  “Kendra!” A woman from the crowd screams, rushing over to Nora, sizing her up before she attacks.

  “I don’t want to hurt you. I just want Riley and we can go.” Nora negotiates. The woman screams, bombarding Nora but luckily, she dodges her blade, whipping around her to climb onto her back, yanking her head back by her hair and slicing her throat open. She winces at the pain. I close my eyes for a moment, not wanting to witness the blunt situation but I had to know what happened next. I open my eyes to see the woman falling to her knees, her body slamming into the floor. Her eyes still open, her mouth fixed with horror. Blood leaking out onto the floor, staining it with tragedy.

  “No!” A woman with protruding moles and boils on her face screams, “What have you done!?” She thrusts her small body towards Nora with a javelin. The blade of it shaped into a diamond, pointed to her gut.

  “Don’t.” Nora utters, her face grim but the woman ignores her warning, jabbing at Nora’s gut, almost stabbing her. Without thought, Nora leaps into the air, levitating to crouch on the ceiling. My eyes widen, what are you? “I said don’t.” She glares, pouncing down onto the woman, knocking her to her knees. She locks her right arm around her neck, her left arm gripping her hair. “What do you want?”

  “We just want you and the boy dead.” Her voice escapes through her crushed throat. Nora doesn’t hesitate, she just lifts her head up and twists it until it cracks, breaking her neck. Her limp body drops to the floor.

  Nora stands, facing me. My eyes still on the woman lying on the floor dead. My eyes flicker up to Nora to see her covered in blood. She pants softly, almost threatening the man still holding me hostage when I scream, “No!” A dark figure casting behind her.

  She grunts in agony as a blade separates her flesh, her blood spilling out onto the floor. Small specs of it bouncing from the floor onto her bare feet. She looks down to see the blade sticking through from her back to her stomach, splitting her. With trembling hands, she reaches for the sword sticking through to the front of her. The figure pulls her hair back to whisper something into her ear.

  I watch her fall to the floor, her face smacking the hardwood. I scream out in pain. Losing her would be the death of me as I panic, pushing the guy away from me, punching him in the face. His jaw cracks as he falls to the floor. I climb on top of him and punch him repeatedly as the blood spews from his mouth. He grunts with pain as I continuously beat him to death. I run over to Nora, flipping her body over slowly to look at her beautiful one last time. Blood running down the side of her mouth but I still kiss her sweetly. That jolt we once shared diminishes as the sky cracks, rumbling the house. I screech out in pain, looking for the figure that killed my Nora but he had gone. Or so I thought he had. Something buries its tendons into my shoulder, digging further into it. I wince. “Get up.” The dark figure demands.

  “I won’t.” I rebel, wanting to stay by Nora’s dead body forever.

  “Get up, Chosen!” He stresses.

  “Chosen?” I turn around to face him, looking up to him to see that he was a normal person under a black hood. He hides his face before I could make out who exactly he could be. “Who are you and why did you kill her!?” I stand to face him. He still blocks half of his face with his hood.

  “She was in the way.” His voice masks a hint of remorse. “Now, let’s go. Let’s get this over with.” He turns sharply, walking in the direction of the door.

  “Get what over with?”

  “Venit!” He shouts, holding one hand up, yanking me closer to him with supernatural force. “ I said let’s go.” I grip at my throat, at the black ent
ity stripping me of breath. I pant through the small amount of space left of my esophagus, eyes watering from the compressions. I look back down at Nora one last time, soaking in all her beauty. Goodbye. I wanted to utter but, instead, I’m pulled through what was left of the front door, still spellbound to the darkness, forcing itself upon me.

  The water crashes against the cemented block behind our home, the sky greyed from its original color of mint green – washing fear over us all. I notice my neighbors crawling back into their homes, locking their doors, peeking through their curtains at me. Their eyes deeming to help but their bodies struck with terror of the anomalous creature swallowing me. A bolt of lightning seizes the darkness veiling down onto Keuria, brightening up the horrific day. I feel my insides begging for the bolt again, seeming as this would probably be my last time ever witnessing its beauty. I struggle to look to the sky, tears running down the sides of my face, my heart screeching out for mercy. The ground creaks, splitting in half. Houses diminish around us, sinking into the grooves of the planet but this doesn’t stop the creature stringing me along. He moves swiftly, dragging me behind him. Where are we going? I want to ask but wasn’t sure if I was ready for the answer.

  He turns my body, facing the water, gently letting me down on the ledge. My feet are glued into the top of the cliff; I’m unable to move. The water still ferociously crashing against the brick, blackening into night. I turn my head slowly, trying to see what was going on behind me with the figure – wanting to know what was my fate and what was taking so long for him to “get this over with”. My eyes still raining hurt and fear as I picture her face, her perfected smile. I envision her dancing in the car on the day we met. Her dark hair pinned behind her, her lashes batting against her beauty as she purses her lips to apply a small touch of lipstick. I envision her in my dreams, her telling me to save her, find her – maybe, I was supposed to die for her. I look to the water, contemplating my own demise. I look up to the sky, noticing the small breaks. I glance at the world around me, realizing that the planet was dying. What is Chosen? I should have asked long ago. I should have tried to understand before all of this. I look back to the water again. A life without her is no life at all.

  “A life without her is no life at all.” I whisper.

  “You’re right, old friend, it isn’t.” Devin’s breath directly on my neck. His hand digging around in my body. I grunt, trying to mask the pain. Riley. I hear her sweet voice. We’ll meet again, my love. Just let go. She says to me, beckoning for my release. It’s okay. The veins protruding in my face, eyes watering now from the ache of my breaking heart which is now left lifeless in the hands of Devin. Let go. Lifelessly, my body falls from the cliff, ripping through the wind, smacking the hard water. Death captivates my soul, cleaving me to shreds, hypnotizing my longing spirit. Sadly, I love it because it loves me and to Death, I will continue to return but only for my Nora.

  Instafreebie: portion of Book one of the Breathe Series available:

  Breathless

  https://www.instafreebie.com/free/Z9gwz

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  amazon.com

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  BOOK two: breath of me Coming soon!

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  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Christy Johnson, a graduate of Winston Salem State University, lives in a small city in North Carolina with her soon-to-be husband, Gerald Hargrove. Her interests have always been writing poetry and short stories. She is grateful to be able to expand her interests into her first series – Breathe.

  “Sometimes it’s better to fly alone than in a flock and go unnoticed.” –C.J.