Secondary Silence
By
Virginia Johnson
Book Detail Stuff
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Shelby West
This book is a work of fiction. People, places, events, and situations are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, or historical events, is purely coincidental.
© October 2017 by Virginia Johnson
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder.
ISBN-13:
978-1978132153
ISBN-10:
1978132158
Table of Contents
Book Detail Stuff
Dedication
A Definition Tease
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Dedication
This book is dedicated to the people that ensured it would get done.
My amazing PA, Janneke and the beta team!
Y’all kicked my ass through this.
***
I listened to the Glee soundtrack while writing this book.
My bad.
A Definition Tease
Blood
noun: the red liquid that circulates in the arteries and veins of humans and other vertebrate animals, carrying oxygen to and carbon dioxide from the tissues of the body
Electromagnetic energy
noun: a form of energy that is reflected or emitted from objects in the form of electrical and magnetic waves that can travel through space
Prologue
Ashley
When sight is unseen, there is a moment of clarity that is lost to the darkened void. Trust and deception become risks that one must make in order to survive the chaos of the night. To be the trusted one, there is a level of responsibility that you must consider sacred. The truths that you are meant to keep are the difference between life and death. I am not at risk of death, or life for that matter being the ones that I have sworn to protect, keep me a secret as I do them.
Death is not quick. It is a slow and painful process designed to make moving on easier to deal with. The higher powers at hand make damn sure that you are sent in the right direction, even if it means crushing your dreams as they decide your fate. As the soul begs to stay connected to the body, you are left to fight for life in heaven or hell; or so we are taught. I have learned that there are eternal fates worse than hell. The Devil may reign in the apparent underworld, but the real monsters live next door.
Good girls go to heaven and sinners descend to be tortured by Satan,” I repeated to myself as my soul refused to move on. I could feel myself being both torn from my existence, yet anchored to the same realm.
The pain was momentary as I slipped away, just far enough to dull the fiery burn to my flesh. My heart stopped pounding erratically against my chest as I accepted the inevitable death to my body. Fear raced through me while I realized that everything I had been taught was a lie.
We are able to accept death in the form of reward if we lived by the way of the bible. Unfortunately, people like me don’t move on, we don’t get to be judged. All of the good that was done as a human is void as I am forced to begin a new life as a stranger to my friends and nothing more than a ball of energy to the more sensitive.
Everyone has a future; a reason for life. The task of “doing the right thing” is relative to the person that defines “the right thing.” I was gifted an asshole with entitlement. My deciding angel made it clear that I would serve another purpose on Earth. My time was up as the person that I was and I would now be the person that I had to be. Good or bad – there was nothing stopping me from doing the right thing.
As time passed, I became more and more convinced that I had been forgotten and my hope for everlasting eternity crumbled at the door of the only person to accept me for what I was; a girl with nothing to live for with an ability that had gone untapped. My future held more than wandering the earth as a peasant while living the life that I couldn’t avoid… until now.
Chapter One
Ashley
Without warning, I am thrusted in to a vision only meant for me. Duty calls.
“Will this be all for you, sir?” The petite clerk asks the next in line as she reaches for a plastic bag. One item at a time, the bag fills with random snacks and drinks.
The man responds with a stiff nod that goes unnoticed by the girl but not me. Watching closely, his eyes flicker back and forth between the window and the door. The empty gas pumps show no sign of immediate use, as the man otherwise, stands perfectly still waiting for his total.
Behind him, a younger guy rounds the gum rack, stopping directly behind the first. His eyes are unmoving; unblinking. Tattoos peek out of the top of his t-shirt as he fidgets with the bottle of water in his hand.
The first guy doesn’t make eye contact with the girl as he hands her the cash and walks out without his change.
“Sir…” the clerk tries to stop him, but he quickly disregards her attempt.
The second guy pays for his bottle of water and leaves, turning in the opposite direction as the first.
Like a movie on repeat, the scene replays, again.
The clerk greets. The first guy sees something outside that is obviously fucking with him. The second guy leaves.
Repetitive dialogue and moments caught in time are what I am left with. There has to be something that I am missing, I thought as I closed my eyes and started it over for the hundredth time. The girl, the guy, the guy, the empty parking lot, blood.
My eyes shoot open as the end suddenly changes. The delicate girl behind the counter was tied to the ceiling by her own tendons and veins that had been pulled from her wrists. The bloody ropes were that of her own body. The blonde ponytail that she had delicately tied back, was used as a noose as it was tightly wrapped around her neck. Her eyes, void of sight, were removed from the sockets leaving a hollow grey mass of dying muscle and flesh.
Crimson drops fell from her mutilated arms as the remaining heartbeats ceased to push the blood from her open wounds. The spatter pattern was… missing. There should be blood, something more for me to focus on. It was as if this vision was designed for me. If that was the case, I know exactly who was responsible for it.
“Dammit, Thaddeus! You son of a bitch.” I fought the urge to scream, but the thoughts couldn’t be contained. “Get out of my head!”
My eyes shot open to find a very humored Thaddeus standing in the doorway. His dark hair hangs in his eyes as a smile crosses his face. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that he didn’t want me to figure out who these guys were or what was happening in that convenience store.
“Sorry, Ashley. I couldn’t help myself. You were taking yourself way too seriously.” He leaned against the door frame as he spoke.
I threw myself against the bed as I stared at the ceiling in hopes that he would disappear. “Is this real, or am I chasing a ghost?”
“You are a ghost, it would only make sense that you would try to catch them,” he said as he pushed himself from the door. “On a serious note, did you see anything
that I didn’t”
“No, Thad. Unless the blood bag that was suspended from the fluorescents was a normal occurrence?”
“Come on. There is only so much vision that I can take without having a little craving.” He winked as I rolled my eyes.
His cravings were the worst for my visions. I saw the things that he couldn’t see but when he fucked with me, there was no way for me to focus. Working for a vampire was no small task especially since he couldn’t trust anyone but me. I swore to help him ever since he found me. I was born sensitive to the other side and I died to serve them. I hadn’t moved on and I was at peace with that future. When I met Thaddeus, he showed me the potential for good that I could do for him. He was the first and only person to ever see me, if you can call it that. He ensured that I would be his for as long as he was alive.
“The first guy was waiting for something. I don’t know what he was watching for but there was definitely something outside those doors that had him on edge.” Giving him my opinion was always accepted and never wrong.
“I’ll let you be. If anything changes, let me know. I need to find someone with a pulse if I am going to put up with you much longer,” he said as he smiled and left the room.
I always expect him to mess with me and he knows how I feel about his feedings, but they are a necessity for his survival.
After he left me to my own movie time, I took my chances that he had stopped influencing the facts. There was something in the parking lot and it was my job to figure out who or what it was. With unnecessary deep breaths, I closed my eyes and focused, this time I put myself at a different angle. I watched from the closest gas pump as the first guy approached the register.
Inside the store, I had already memorized their actions. I watched lips move as I followed the timeline, knowing the missing information was outside based on the flickering eyes of the first guy. Scanning the lot, I saw nothing out of the normal. Trees swayed with the breeze, the street lights flickered and the bats flew high above… nothing.
I saw nothing. Nothing more than what everyone else sees in the dark. Pacing back and forth in front of the store, I refused to blink as I waited for the store to clear out. Guy one, left his change with the clerk and he pushed through the door taking a sharp left. I could hear her yelling for him with no response. So far so good, nothing has changed from what I saw the first hundred times I replayed this.
What I didn’t see, what could not go unseen, was the way his body thrashed against the brick wall. What looked like the climax of a horror movie, was my dark reality and there was nothing I could do about it. Blood was the only thing left against the brick while the ground pooled with falling intestines and organs that weren’t meant to be exposed. His body moved through the air, folding itself in half as I watched his soul step away from the scene and fade to dust. The only problem was that I couldn’t tell Thad who it was that was attacking him. I wanted to, but there was no way I could.
The attacker was… me.
Chapter Two
Ashley
I am an undead being, leaving me with no reason to be passed out on the floor like a frat boy on a Sunday morning. I have been this way for a long time and I have never experienced the visions as I have over the last week. Finding out that I was responsible for the attack at the gas station has taken its toll on me.
Thaddeus continues to ask about the scene but I am quick to tell him that there is nothing that relates to the events. Nothing has changed from the order of events, it all ends the same. I am always the reason for the death of a seemingly innocent man.
I can’t help but think that maybe he was on his way home to his kids with the bag of random snacks. Maybe his pregnant wife was patiently waiting for him to return with her midnight craving. Ugh.
I can’t do this anymore and constant focus has led me down a rabbit hole of emotional turmoil. I want for nothing more than to return to the life that I once had. I was a good person, did the right things and always looked out for others. The fire was an accident that I couldn’t escape. Having fought like hell to get out of my house, I waited for the fire truck to come and save me. The movies make it look so hopeful as the fireman races in to the raging flames that lick at the boots of the hero while he saves the girl. I can assure you that the movies are wrong.
“Is there anything else?” Thad pulls me from the memory of my loss.
“Nothing more than an hour ago. Are you going to tell me more about what I am looking for? It would help.” I start to plead with him for something more to use to avoid my own guilt.
“You know that I can’t tell you what I know. I need you to be focused on what you see, not what I have been told.” His steps are heavy as he passes me on the floor. “This has never taken so long before. Is something wrong?”
My need to please him is fighting with the necessity to know the truth, “I don’t know what to tell you, I am doing everything the same.”
“Alright then.” He seems upset by my response, but I am not sure that I am ready to explain it all to him, yet. He placed his hand near mine as he sat down on the bed. I crawled from the floor to the bed next to him and felt an overwhelming need to see something else. The adrenaline that was surging through me may have been anxiety but I was ready for something; something different than the man in black.
“Is there anything else that I can see? I need a distraction, Thad.”
Before he can answer, everything goes black. At first, I am convinced that I passed out again but I can hear his voice within my thoughts. His whispers immediately calm me down and allow my mind to open up to his mental influence.
The front seat of the car is littered with fast food bags and beer cans. The driver belches while wrapping his dirty fingers around the pint of whiskey resting between his thighs. His inability to decipher the difference between the gas and the brakes were obviously alcohol induced. I watched as he slammed the bottle against his brittle teeth as I waited for one to chip. The steady stream of liquor from the corner of his mouth fell to his lap as the muscles in his face neglected to respond any longer.
Through the slurred lyrics poorly sung from his diaphragm they were causing my face to twitch and focus even more on the scenery outside of the vehicle. I couldn’t continue to watch the double yellow lines swerve below the death trap he was driving. I was getting nauseous while encased within the car. The smell of the man’s breath caused bile to rise, threatening to fill my mouth. I haven’t had this experience since I was alive.
Trees rushed by as the speed increased. The world passed at such a fast pace that I never saw the other car coming. The man veered off to the left, smashing in to the front end of a passing mini-van. The car came to an abrupt halt, locking the seatbelt in to place. The driver was pinned between the steering wheel and a car seat.
Tears filled my lower lid as I realized the severity of the crash. Time stood still before it moved in fast forward. Before I could move to help the baby locked in to the car seat, the engine of the car burst in to flames. I was frozen in place as the history of my past repeats itself. A man and woman stand off to the side with two small children wrapped within their arms. Pointing to the engulfed car, the woman tried to run to the car seat with the man securing her wrist, preventing her from moving any closer.
I felt for the woman as she watched the body of the baby cremate itself on top of the burning hood of a drunk driver. The blackened smoke made it impossible to see what was happening but I certainly tried and there was no way the baby was surviving. If Thaddeus gave me this vision to see, there had to be a reason and I didn’t want to let him down, again.
“Ashley, are you okay?” Thad’s voice could be heard through the screams from the family. “Ashley!”
The concern in his voice pulled me back from the hell that I was witnessing. “I am here. Sorry, that was not an easy one to see.”
“What are you talking about? I didn’t have a chance to give you a vision,” he admitted, worrying me and my sanity.
&n
bsp; “I saw the drunk guy, the crash, the family; I didn’t make that up. I saw it all and it was real.”
“Maybe you need to take a break,” he started to say.
“Maybe you need to shut the fuck up and let me do what I do. If you didn’t send me that vision then who did?” I may not have intended for it to sound as harsh as it came out, but he needed to know how I felt. I just told a vampire to shut the fuck up, I must be losing my mind.
His laughter filled the room as he sat down without touching me, “You have been working on this for weeks and you are surprised that you are seeing things? Ashley, what you need to do is read a book or take a walk through the garden. This isn’t doing you any favors.”
He was right and I was not willing to admit it, yet.
“I will take a break when I figure this out, okay?”
“I have some things to do over the next few days, will you promise me that you will not work yourself in to a coma? I kinda need you.” His eyes softened with his tone.
“I am not going anywhere. If you get out of my room, now, I will go for a walk. Does that work for you, boss?” I said sarcastically.
He stood, turning towards me, “Don’t get yourself saved while I am gone.” With that, he walked away, leaving me to my horrific vision and no desire to see it again.
There was no reason for any of them to die. The blood and the fire was all too much for me. The memories of my existence prior to Thad, were kept suppressed for good reason. Maybe he was right, I need to get out of this room. The garden was everything that I had ever dreamed of while I lived in the city; beautiful and mine. I was unable to plant the flower beds, due to my transparent condition, but Thad followed directions and gave me a place to go when I needed to relax.
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