THE GENESIS PROJECT
PROPHECY OF THE SEVEN
COPYRIGHT 2014 C.L. DELEON
All rights reserved by C.L. De Leon. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Published by C.L. De Leon at Smashwords
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people or real locations are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places and incidents are the product of imagination by the author, any resemblance to actual events or locations or person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE GENESIS PROJECT
PROPHECY OF THE SEVEN
C.L. DE LEON
Cover art by Steven Novak: http://novakillustration.com
www.facebook.com/stevennovakdesign
Copy editing by Amanda Haury: www.elance.com/s/edit/amandahaury/
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people or real locations are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places and incidents are the product of imagination by the author, any resemblance to actual events or locations or person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
FOR THE LOVES OF MY LIFE: ALFRED AND GENESIS
~YOU ARE MY WORLD~
I would like to thank friends and family, without whom this book would have never been completed.
I would like to give a special thanks to my Husband, Alfred. Thank you for always supporting me in everything I do and pushing me to achieve anything and everything that my heart desires. I love you.
To my Mammy (Mom) Thank you for everything… You are the best!
To Lisa Ann Goble—my dearest and oldest friend—thank you for pushing me through writing Prophecy of the Seven and for allowing me to bounce my ideas off of you consistently.
I love your face!
C.L.D.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 45
CHAPTER 46
CHAPTER 47
CHAPTER 48
CHAPTER 49
CHAPTER 50
Dear reader
Characters
I can’t believe it has been one year, one year since they came… We had no chance… We didn’t see it coming from a mile away. Literally.
We were no match for them, but we would not give up easy.
One year of death and pain. One year of war, of having to relearn everything we thought we knew about life.
Everything innocent about me had been erased overnight.
The person I thought I had been was nowhere near the woman I have become. The woman I had to become. I had no choice but to be strong.
I sighed, thinking of the day our lives changed. The day the world changed. The day I learned who I truly was.
CHAPTER 1
It was my seventeenth birthday. I was enjoying the beautiful weather as I sat on the porch. I loved to sit outside and relax on our swing. I listened to my mom in the kitchen making dinner singing a song all her own.
I smiled to myself remembering how she’d always sung when she worked around the house. It had just been Mom and I for as long as I could remember.
My Dad was in the military and had passed away overseas when I was four. I let my head fall back staring at the sky. Falling back into myself even more.
It had been a long week. I got dumped by my boyfriend. He felt it would be easier this way with him going to college in a few months at one place and me another. I sighed. What a jerk.
The wind kicked up, blowing my hair as I rocked back and forth. I rolled my head from side to side looking from my mom in the kitchen to the people race back and forth on the street.
My mom had been anxious all day and I didn’t know why. She’d watched me as if she’d been waiting for something to happen, and she was baking her heart out.
She always baked when she was anxious or upset. I wondered why she looked as if someone died. I sighed again, hopped up and went inside.
I went to the kitchen; it smelt so good. Lots of baked yummies set out on almost every counter and on the table as if we were having some huge party.
I wasn’t having friends over. Most of my friends were out of town with their families, and there was no one but me and mom. We didn’t have anybody else. No cousins, aunts or uncles. Just us. It had always been just us.
I grabbed a sugar cookie and hopped on the counter, staring at my mom. She was beautiful. Five foot three and stocky, she was in great shape for being in her mid-forties.
I loved her hair, long straight and black. So black that it shined blue in the light. Her beautiful green eyes the same as mine, a weird shade of bright emerald green.
She had a beautiful tan complexion that came naturally. You couldn’t get that from a booth, that’s for sure. How I wished I looked like her. From her little nose to her almond shaped eyes.
I’m five foot two, just an inch shorter than mom. I had the same coke bottle frame, stocky up top and big hips. Where her complexion was tan I was pale… Okay… I lied I am pasty.
Her hair is black and straight, mine was red and curly. I sighed again and taking a bite of my cookie.
When had life gotten hard? I thought. I glanced up to see that my mom had finally turned to look at me. The look on her face was complete despair.
“What’s wrong Mom?” I asked.
We just stared at each other in awkward silence.
“Mom, seriously… What is it? You’ve been acting weird all day, almost like you’re avoiding me…..It’s my birthday, Mom. Just another day…It’s not like I’m moving out tonight just because I’m eighteen.”
“Oh, baby, I’m so sorry. I’ve had a lot on my mind. I didn’t mean to push you out. It’s just…just…”
Mom began to cry. I jumped down to hug her. I wasn’t sure if it was just me turning eighteen making her so emotional or what.
“Mom? Mom…It’s okay, Mom…I’m not leaving you…I’m going to take a year before I go to college to help out the store, Mom…Why are you so
upset? Please just tell me what’s going on…You’re starting to really freak me out.”
I grabbed some paper towels off the counter and handed them to my mom and hugged her again. I stood back and waited. Mom grabbed my hand and led me into the dining room and sat me down.
She sat down next to me, turning her chair so she could see me better. Grabbing my hands with both of hers, tears silently spilling out over her long lashes. She began.
CHAPTER 2
“Reighlyn…My sweetheart…I don’t know how to begin. I don’t know what to say or how to say what needs to be said other than it has to be said…Oh…Don’t look at me like that I’m not crazy…I need you to promise me that you will listen to me…To what I have to say without interruption…I don’t know how…I’m just going to say this.”
She paused, releasing my hands and planting her face in them. She rubbed her hands over her face and under her eyes to clear any mascara that had ran. She looked back into my eyes with a determined look.
“Reighlyn, your father is not dead. I received a message from him.”
I’m sure I must have looked like a fish with my mouth wide open and my eyes open as wide as they could be.
“Mom, what do you mean Dad is al…”
“Reigh, I asked you not to interrupt. Please just give me a chance and the time I need to tell you what I know. Okay?”
“Okay, Mom.”
“Alright. I received a message from your dad. Or maybe someone saying they’re your dad. I can’t be certain. What I do know is that he used a code word… A secret word that only he and I used together in this package I got. Hold on,”
she said holding up one of her hands.
“I didn’t know what to make of this either. Dear Lord, I still don’t. I don’t know what to do, to think… I just know that I should have told you sooner. Talked to you about this instead of just dropping this on you, and for that I am truly sorry. I thought that I was protecting you by never telling you this. You must understand. Your Dad was in the military, this was true, but what I never told you is he was a part of a secret military operation.”
She paused, taking a few deep breaths before she continued.
“Your dad was…gifted… He could do things that others couldn’t. Well, there are others like him, yes… How many I don’t really know, but somehow, the government found out and they sought him out. They talked him into being a part of this group of people they put together… People like him. Gifted. I don’t know if this package is real or if he is really alive somewhere, but I’m going to take it seriously and I would hope you would as well. He wrote me a letter. He explained that the government was up to something. There was a terrorist group trying to turn off the power… I mean the POWER…Like no more lights, cars… Well, at least not the ones with computers. But my point is, they have apparently gotten what they needed to succeed. This group your dad is a part of, when I say gifted, I mean they have abilities… They can do things… Do you understand?”
Mom paused looking at me waiting for me to respond making sure that I was following her.
I just nodded my head yes. Things had been happening to me that were unexplainable. Things that shouldn’t happen have been occurring for two years now.
I could do things. I never told anyone because I thought I was crazy and that it was all in my head.
“Reigh… Are you okay, love? I know this is a lot to take in right now and so much so fast.”
“I’m okay, Mom.”
“Alright, well in the note it said they –whoever they are- were going to cut the power. He didn’t know when, he just knew it would be soon. How soon, I wish I knew. We may not have time to prepare but this terrorist group didn’t know how the U.S. military kept gaining information. In the note your dad said they captured someone and that’s how his cover was blown. He said we needed to go somewhere to hide. Reighlyn, these people are coming after people with gifts. They’re killing anyone who gets in their way. This world is going dark in more ways than one, love. We need to prepare and figure out where we should go. Where your Dad would take us if he were here with us.”
We sat in silence looking at each other. I secretly hoped this was fake and real at the same time. I wanted to see my dad and to hear his voice and laugh, to see if his smile was the same as in the pictures and home movies we have. But if this is real, will they come for me?
They must know of my dad if he broke his cover to warn me. Will he find us? Does he want to find us? My face betrayed my emotions; my mom turned my face back to hers.
She gently cupped my cheek.
“Reighlyn, my sweet girl, I know… I have always known. I didn’t know what to do or how to help you, so I gave you your space to see, to experiment and to learn on your own.
Your dad told me you would need that, but I can’t keep quiet now knowing they may come for you. I don’t know what your gift is. Your dad said each gifted has their own unique abilities. Some have the same gifts, some are stronger than others, some gifts are rare and then some of us are born without gifts,” she smiled. “I don’t have gifts Reigh, but I grew up with your father, watching him develop his. I can help you, tell you the things he told me, but first we need to prepare and plan I don’t know how long we have, and I’m hoping that we’ll get word from your dad again.”
She sighed and hung her head into the palm of her hand.
“I miss him so much.”
She sniffled. “Reighlyn, your dad was an elementalist. Do you know what that means?”
Elementalist? Obviously it had something to do with the elements, which meant that was what I was. That is what I am.
“Yes mom, I know what that means. He could control the elements right?”
“He could only control two, air and fire. He said it was rare for someone to control two. Most gifted only have one. It’s even rarer for someone to have three gifts, even if they’re correlating like the elements. It’s unheard of for one person to have four but four correlating...”
Mom looked at me expectantly and I knew what she was waiting for, but after keeping my secret for so long, I didn’t know how to say it even after she just told me she knew.
I sighed.
“Are you like your dad? Do you control air and fire? Or just one of those?”
“I… I can control all of them. The elements… I mean… and move objects without touching them physically.”
I waited for her to say something. Now her eyes were wide and her mouth was open.
“FIVE? You have FIVE! Oh, Reigh… Oh, my love, you’ve had to keep this to yourself. How scared you must have been when this started happening. Oh, sweetness, we’ll figure this out together. We’ll figure it all out.”
We began planning but dad’s message hadn’t reach us soon enough. Two days later, the world that we had known literally fell apart into utter chaos and anarchy, so we took what we had and held off looters and would-be thieves and possible murderers.
We stayed in our house as long as we could. We’d stock piled water and dried foods, candles, batteries and such, so we had enough of the essentials to last us till we could safely move out of the area.
I think part of the reason we waited so long to leave the house was in hopes that dad would find us before we left to our chosen safe place.
People began disappearing, fires raged, taking down whole neighborhoods, and dead bodies riddled the streets.
The terrorist group was more of a militia. When word came that they were in our area, we knew it was past time we took off. The world was a different place without lights, power and computers… Without technology of any kind.
How I missed my iPhone… I couldn’t allow myself to wish the past would come back. I had to think of the now and how I was going to use my “skills” to protect Mom. To protect myself…This militia had been collecting the gifted.
Trying to convince them to serving their cause, some did so willingly. Reaping the benefits of the destruction and chaos feeding their dark souls, with t
he pain and horror of their victims acting as if it were food to sustain them. I couldn’t allow them to get to us.
I had to keep us safe. I hoped and prayed my dad would find us, that he would come back and protect us. Maybe he knew of a way to stop the Militia. Maybe we could save others like us and not just ourselves.
Maybe then he could answer questions I had about these gifts, like why did I have so many? Does this mean I’m in more danger than most gifted? Mom thinks so.
I grabbed my notebook and began to write. I left a note inside the teddy bear my dad had given me right before he left for his tour, hoping he would find it if he didn’t find us first.
I told him how much I missed him and forgave him for not being there for mom and me. That we knew he did what he did to protect us. I told him I had the five gifts and that I knew he would be proud of me. Finally, I told him I loved him and to please find me and especially mom.
There’s never been anyone but you dad. It had always and will always only be you for her.
CHAPTER 3
We moved everything we had packed into the kitchen. It was closest to the back door, joining the garage and the house.
My Jeep was in there. Mom was thankful I had a taste for vintage cars. She said I was very much like my dad in that sense. I smiled to myself. I wondered how kids who hadn’t been around parents still reflected them in ways.
At 3:00 A.M., we packed down my Jeep with all the gas cans, water, food and the duffels with our personal possessions. I walked through my room letting my hand touch things as I passed them. My picture of my Ex-Boyfriend Blaine and me. We were so happy together. His decision still didn’t make sense to me, but I loved him enough to see that he wanted to experience life without me. Dad I want that? No. No, I didn’t want that. I loved him, but I would much rather have him as a friend than nothing.
I touched my bed bare of any linen now and sat looking around. This had always been my room. It was hard to believe that I would be waking up somewhere other than in my bed, in my room, in the only house that I’d ever lived in. Mom and I were literally walking away from everything that we’ve ever known.
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