Shine: Season One (Shine Season Book 1)

by William Bernhardt

  I wouldn’t be able to save myself. I knew that. But as long as they were okay then I had hope. My death would mean something as long as they lived.

  My only regret was leaving Memphis behind. I wished I could’ve said goodbye, and maybe told him how I felt—how I really felt. I’d never felt that way before. And now that I did—I might not live to see him again. It made me wonder if he was cursed after all.

  The pilot maneuvered the choppercar beneath the thunderheads as we approached Green Wood Island.

  The sight of the castle-like towers brought back memories I would rather forget. The Revens had brought me here. They’d intended to leave me here for good. When I’d escaped, I’d sworn never to come back. Yet here I was.

  We circled the parapets, then hovered over a cobblestone courtyard. The windows were dark. I didn’t see a single light anywhere. The last time I’d been here, there had been girls wearing white jumpsuits, security officers, and nurses wandering the halls and courtyards. Now the place looked abandoned.

  The castle-like towers loomed overhead as the choppercar landed with a jolt. The gables of the Victorian manor encircled the parapets. I’d always found this place an odd hybrid of Victorian manor/medieval castle. The odd conglomeration reminded me of Lavalle, and sent shivers down my spine.

  As Blake opened the doors, lightning streaked through the sky, followed by a loud clap of thunder. We stepped outside.

  Blake may not have taken extra precautions around me, but the guy strutting toward us didn’t seem to have the same idea.

  He walked through an arched tunnel. He wore a dark sweater with a hood that he’d pulled low over his face, yet I recognized his gait and the bulkiness of his muscles as he moved toward us.

  I also recognized his Glock.

  “June Brighton,” Creighton said, leering. “I’m so glad we could finally meet as civilized people.” His voice was softer than I expected, and somehow, more intimidating.

  “You can lose the gun,” I said. “You know I won’t escape anyway.”

  He shrugged, keeping the Glock casually aimed at my chest. “Old habits. Besides, we wouldn’t want a repeat of last time, would we?” He glanced at Blake, his strange pink eyes narrowed. “Cuff her.”

  Blake gripped my wrists. I kept my eyes on Creighton as he snapped the bands into place. The cold metal bit into my skin.

  “Follow me,” Creighton said. “Your family’s waiting. We wouldn’t want you to miss the reunion.” A sneer caught his lips as he said the word reunion.

  Thoughts spiraled through my head as they led me through the stone archway. I had to convince them to let my family go. But how? They needed me. They didn’t need my parents and sister. If I could convince Creighton and the others that I would cooperate, then they wouldn’t need my family anymore.

  I followed Creighton to a set of oaken doors, easily two stories tall, the kind you’d find in an old-world castle. His muscles bulged under his sweater’s fabric as he pushed them open.

  We entered an enormous room. Our footsteps echoed through the cavernous chamber. A domed ceiling loomed overhead. A wall of windows spanned the length of the back wall, giving us a view of an immense lake. Its dark churning waters matched the gray skies.

  The room’s light came from the windows, which did little to illuminate the room.

  A woman stood at the window. With her hair pinned up on her head in an elaborate weaved bun, and her white, floor-length gown, I recognized Addie Hawthorne. I’d never met anyone else who dressed so sophisticated. The sound of her heartbeat filled my ears, a whoosh followed by a whisper, similar to the sound of Memphis’s heart.

  “June,” she said. She spoke with a soft voice that managed to carry through the room and echo against the walls. Blake tensed as we approached her. He stopped a few paces behind me and Creighton. “I trust you made a safe trip?” she asked.

  “Safe?” I laughed. “I wasn’t aware that you cared about my safety.”

  “Indeed, you are wrong,” she answered with her back still turned to me. “I’d hoped to find the best solution possible to keep you safe from harm. You need to be healthy, dear. I’m dying, you see. And you’re the only one who can help me. I never wanted to frighten or injure you, though you’ve made it quite difficult for us to keep from doing so.”

  She finally turned around.

  My stomach sickened.

  Her makeup couldn’t mask what remained of her face. Her skin had grown tight around her cheekbones and eyes. The skin around her nose had also shrunken, making her face appear skeletal. Her skin was gray, though fissures appeared in the ridges along her forehead and cheekbones. Dark blood seeped from the open wounds.

  I drew back.

  “Terrifying, aren’t I? I understand if you’re afraid. Who wouldn’t fear me?” She took a step forward. She brushed her hands against her dress, as if trying to straighten out the lace, when I noticed that the skin on her hands looked worse than her face.

  Yellow pus oozed from the open abscesses as the skin tightened, opening fissures that looked as if they would never heal. What had happened to her? I’d seen her only a few weeks ago and she’d seemed fine.

  “The serum began to wear off,” she said, as if reading my thoughts. “It gave me twenty years. It gave him two hundred.” She nodded to the far corner. I followed her line of sight when I saw him.

  My heart leapt into my throat. I would never get used to seeing James Lavalle. The absence of his heartbeat seemed too unnatural. Perhaps he wasn’t a ghost as I’d once suspected, but that made him no less frightening.

  A shiver ran down my spine as he walked toward me. His footsteps made sharp thumps that I barely heard over the pounding of my heart.

  “June Brighton,” he breathed. He spoke with a slight drawl that reminded me of Memphis, though Lavalle’s voice was raspier and devoid of emotion, a sound that made me shudder. “I’ve been searching for you for a very, very long time. More than a lifetime.” His eyes glittered, cold and dark. “Odd, isn’t it? That I would search so long to find the right person. To finally find you now, right before the time of my own death, could only be divine intervention.”

  Divine intervention? Honestly, standing here and facing this man right now, I was fairly certain that he’d gotten help from the other guy.

  Smooth pale skin covered his face and hands. His old-fashioned suit hung from his thin, drooping frame. Lightning flashed outside, reflecting in his eyes, which I noticed were tinted a dark violet.

  Goosebumps crawled over my skin. I had the insane urge to run.

  Run!

  But my feet stayed rooted to the floor. I couldn’t breathe, let alone move. His wrist flicked, he brought his hand to my neck. That’s when I saw the needle.

  I had to move, to run. Get away! But just as the last time I’d met him, my fear overrode my thoughts.

  His hand tightened around my arm. I let out a gasp, but could do nothing more. The feel of his skin on mine sent cold shivers through my body that kept me immobile.

  The sharp jab of the needle bit through my neck. He injected a solution that felt like ice water as it flowed into my veins. Cold. So cold that it burned. The pain stole my breath. My knees buckled.

  Lavalle caught me as I fell. Iciness radiated from him as he lifted me up. The room spun around me. I saw the storm clouds and the lake, but couldn’t tell one from the other. He carried me out of the room.

  Blake stood in the shadows.

  “Help,” I managed to gasp. “What about…my family?” But he didn’t move.

  I couldn’t make sense of where Lavalle took me, only that stone hallways encircled us, wrapping around us like a spider’s cocoon. Adelaide followed, her face emotionless, the sound of her shoes making sharp ringing sounds.

  Nausea roiled through my stomach as the poison spread through my blood. I felt it inside me, attacking my cells first, transforming them, and searching for a pathway to my heart. I knew that once the serum reached my heart, I could do nothing to stop it.


  I had to stop it.

  We entered a small room with a metal surgeon’s table. I shut my eyes as Lavalle placed me on the surface.

  Lavalle’s voice came as if from far away. “Test her blood…the serum…an hour…perhaps two.”

  I heard Adelaide respond, but couldn’t make sense of her words. Light pulsed under my eyelids as the pain increased. The pain couldn’t get worse. Surely it couldn’t.

  A needle slid into my arm. Another dose of the serum poured from the needle and entered my bloodstream, stinging and burning with a deep cold that shattered my blood vessels.

  I heard a scream. My voice grew hoarse, but I felt the pain as if from far away, a raw ache that I only noticed in passing.

  Time ticked by, though I couldn’t be sure how long. A tiny voice made me open my eyes. I squinted against the light, following the sound of the voice.

  “June,” she said. My sister’s voice.

  Katelyn! I wanted to scream.

  Where was she? I searched the room. A light shone overhead, so bright it blinded me for a moment.

  “June,” she said again. “It’s okay. I’m here.”

  “Where?”

  Lavalle and Adelaide had gone, leaving the needle in my arm that was attached to a clear tube. I followed the tube and found it connected to a machine. A bag filled with silver liquid hung suspended on a metal hanger.

  Clicks came from the machine, pumping the serum into my bloodstream at a steady interval. The pain relented a tiny bit.

  “Katelyn,” I called, searching the room.

  “Over here.”

  I turned, following the sound of her voice.

  She lay on a table like mine. Her skin was so pale it looked as if she’d been drained of all her blood.

  I reached out, letting my Shine find the sound of her heartbeat, a light patter that was almost indiscernible from the machine’s clicking.

  She smiled, a small, gentle smile, and closed her eyes. “I knew you would come. I knew you would save me.”

  But I hadn’t saved her. I hadn’t saved anyone. I swallowed my fear, afraid to tell her the truth. Soon we would both be dead. But I couldn’t let her see my fear. “Where are Mom and Dad?” I asked, trying to sound confident, though my voice was hoarse and cracked as I spoke.

  “They took them. Dad fought. He said it was his fault. That he should’ve been stronger and protected us. He was so brave. I think he felt bad—for what he did. For everything he did.”

  My heart gave a painful thump. Dad’s reaction wasn’t what I’d expected. For the longest time, as far back as I could remember, Dad’s work came first. We all knew it. He’d sacrifice anything to win the next election, to get to a higher position on the political ladder. He’d been under pressure and made deals with the SSS, even went so far as to publicly support the new Shine bill, even with me as his daughter, knowing what would happen to me if anyone ever found out. Mom had gotten angry. She said that this time, he’d gone too far. This time, she wouldn’t support him.

  And then they’d left for Seattle. I wasn’t sure what would happen. But since then, I’d tried to forget what he’d done. We’d gotten so distant, I wasn’t sure we’d ever repair our relationship.

  Until now.

  Dad had fought for me? It didn’t seem possible. He’d never stood up for me before. Had his trip to Seattle changed him?

  If we got out of this, assuming we made it out alive, maybe our family could be together again—the way it should have been all along.

  A tiny seed of hope took root inside me.

  “Katelyn,” I said. “We have to get you out of here. Did they sedate you? Can you move at all?”

  “I can move. It’s just these leather things on my wrists. I can try to unbuckle them.”

  I craned my neck, trying to see if she could unfasten her bindings, but her bed was placed at an awkward angle to mine, and all I could see were her head and her feet sticking up.

  “I’ve got one—hold on.” The snapping of metal buckles came from her table. “I’ve got one off!”

  “Good. What about the other one?

  “I’m trying. It’s really tight. I can’t move it.”

  “Try again.”

  “I am. Wait—I think I’ve—got—hold on.”

  “Did you get it unfastened?”

  No answer.

  “Katelyn?”

  “Just a minute. I’ve got a finger underneath under the strap.”

  I squirmed on the table, trying to make my limbs respond. My bones felt as if they’d turned to rubber. I managed to open and close my hands. As I did, the life returned to my muscles, to my nerves.

  The pain wanted to snuff out my newfound energy, but I inhaled a deep breath, and pushed it aside as best as I could.

  I fisted my hands and flexed my arms. My brain started to reboot. The first thing I had to do: get rid of this line in my vein.

  They’d taped the catheter to the crook of my arm. I peeled the tape off and then ripped the plastic tube out.

  The world reeled. The pain receded, though with it came a wave of dizziness that threatened to make me black out.

  I clawed at the table, feeling the pressure of the cold metal against my fingertips. The room tipped from end to end. I was on the ship with the Revens again, battered by immense waves that would take me under the moment I let go. Rocking back and forth. Nothing made sense.

  Hang on. I’m here. I’m with you.

  My sister’s voice brought me back.

  Gasping, I regained consciousness. A taste of metal coated my tongue. Katelyn stood beside me. Her skin was so pale, it almost appeared translucent. She wore a hospital gown that looked three sizes too big.

  I wanted to reach out and hug her, but she shook her head and pointed at the door. “Hurry,” she mouthed.

  Getting to my feet, I tested my balance. The room tipped again, so I shut my eyes, took a deep breath, and followed my sister to the door.

  “Do you know where to go?” I whispered as she pressed her ear to the door.

  She nodded. “I snuck out yesterday and found Mom and Dad. The Revenants didn’t even know I’d left my room. I can be really quiet when I have to be. Come on. Follow me.”

  “Wait,” I said. “What if they find us?”

  “Don’t worry.” She smiled, and then darted into the hallway. I watched her go, not sure if I should leave the room. I wanted to call for her to come back, but thought better of it, and instead followed her into the hall.

  The corridor was lit with only a few lights, making the area dim and filled with shadows. Katelyn walked at a quick pace with light footsteps. She darted into a hallway that branched to our right.

  I flexed my fists, wishing Creighton hadn’t taken my knife. I’d feel a whole lot more confident with it. But for now, I’d have to rely on my own abilities.

  Katelyn outdistanced me, her form becoming smaller as she raced down the hall. I kept pace with her. The exercise helped to clear my head. Assuming we could get my parents free, maybe we’d have a chance of escaping this place. Could it be possible?

  Something nagged at me.

  There was no way Lavalle would let us escape that easily. But as Katelyn ran ahead, I heard no other heartbeats except for ours. Where was everyone?

  She stopped at a door and pressed her ear to the wood panels. “They’re in here,” she whispered.

  I stood beside her, the sound of my heartbeat drowning out any other sounds. She turned the knob and pushed the door open. I expected to enter a small bedroom, perhaps a room like the one they’d held me in.

  We entered the domed room. Lightning shot through the sky, burning spots in my retinas. A loud clap of thunder made the windows rattle in their frames.

  My mom and dad sat on the floor. They held Katelyn’s lifeless body.

  I blinked, turning to the door where I’d last seen her. She stood, staring at our parents, and then she looked up at me, her eyes shining with tears, and her form vanished.


  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “Katelyn?” I gasped, staring at the little girl lying lifeless in my parents’ arms. Lightning crackled as I crossed the room. My mind reeled. I tried to make sense of my situation. My sister had been right beside me. She’d been fine.

  Was I hallucinating?

  “June,” Mom called as I stumbled toward them. Nausea soured my stomach as I focused on my sister. Mom stood. Her arms surrounded me as I sank beside my dad. He held Katelyn to his chest. She looked too small, her arms and knees too skinny. Desperately I searched for the familiar light patter of her heart.

  I heard Dad’s heart beating with strong authority. Its strength was mirrored in his eyes, those brown eyes that I’d once looked up to. Now his eyes were clouded with tears.

  Mom’s heartbeat also filled the room. It beat faster than usual, an anxious speed that threatened to overwhelm my own heartbeats. I searched for Katelyn’s beating heart. Hers was a light gentle sound that had grown so quiet lately. I strained to hear her heart.

  I couldn’t hear it.

  She lay in my father’s arms. Her bald head looked so flawless and smooth. She’d always hated it. But really, it didn’t look so bad. It looked beautiful. She looked perfect, so still, so calm, like fine porcelain. I reached out and touched her tiny fingers.

  I wanted so badly to feel her warmth, her life. She wasn’t dead. She couldn’t be dead. This wasn’t real.

  But the iciness of her hand took my breath away. I pulled away, finally realizing the truth of the situation.

  Katelyn was dead.

  Something moved in the corner of the room. I jumped to my feet.

  He moved with silent footsteps, standing in the shadows, only his silhouette visible, yet I knew who he was. The patter-whisper of his heart gave him away.

  “Memphis?” I asked.

  “Yes, it’s me.” His voice came as a gentle murmur.

  “What—how did you get here?”

  “I’m not here,” he said. “You’re dreaming.”

  My breath caught in my throat. The room around me began to fade. The forms of my mom and dad disappeared. Katelyn’s body disappeared.

  Blinding white lights cut through the darkness. I squinted my eyes against the piercing brightness. My mind wanted to make sense of the situation.