UNTOLD
The Complete Watcher Series Mini Novellas
AJ Eversley
Contents
Books by AJ Eversley
Kenzie
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Coleman
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
Max
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Aelish & the Ladies of the Muted Forest
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
SNEAK PEAK
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
About the Author
Untold
Copyright © 2018 by Amy Eversley
First edition 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Edited by Q Book Editing
This complete collection of the Watcher Series Mini Novellas includes, Kenzie, Max, Coleman and Aelish & the Ladies of the Muted Forest. Bonus content – the first five chapters of Watcher – Book One of the Watcher Series has been included. (Please note: all novellas may be read prior to, or following, any of the Watcher Series main novels.)
Books by AJ Eversley
THE WATCHER SERIES
Watcher
Carbon
Savior
Untold – The Complete Watcher Series Mini Novellas
Including…
Kenzie – A Watcher Series Mini Novella
Coleman – A Watcher Series Mini Novella
Max – A Watcher Series Mini Novella
Aelish & the Ladies of the Muted Forest – A Watcher Series Mini Novella
Kenzie
A Watcher Mini Novella
Chapter One
I had learned a long time ago, that if you can’t prove yourself useful to someone, then you might as well be a liability. And that’s what I became. A liability.
“Please, dad, don’t leave me here.” I clawed at his jacket but he swiftly pulled it away, keeping his eyes sternly locked on my mom’s, so she wouldn’t break. So he wouldn’t break.
I turned to her next. “Mom, I can be better. Please, I’ll do anything. Don’t do this,” I begged, but she refuse to look at me, even when her lip began to quiver. My dad gripped her shoulder and steered her towards the door.
The bright orange room spun around me as the space grew smaller and colder. Beads of sweat coated my neck and I felt nauseous and dizzy. It was like a prison and I had become an unwilling prisoner.
I tried to break away from the men holding me back, pushing against them with all my might, but they held tight.
And, without a glance back, without a single tear shed, my parents left the room, and me, for good. They didn’t say goodbye, they didn’t even leave me with an explanation. All I could assume was that my disability had become too much for them, and in exchange for my life, I had overheard that they would be compensated greatly.
Any strength I had left, escaped out the door with my parents and I gave up fighting as the two men let me go. I dropped to my knees as the men let me go. Tears flowed from my eyes, and I used my good arm to wipe them away. My bad arm was wrapped and hung limply at my side as it had since the day I’d destroyed it so thoroughly it was left useless and broken. Though they never said so, that day was proof that it made me different and inadequate to them. I had become a liability.
That moment had haunted my dreams since I arrived here. It had only been four weeks and I still couldn’t get their faces out of my mind. My mom’s sandy blonde hair that curled in all the wrong places, flowing out the door for the last time. My dad’s cold eyes as he didn’t even say goodbye. But most of all, I missed him. My brother, Marc. The only one who never saw me as useless, who didn’t see me as anything but a big brother to be looked up to. He was the one I should be there to protect, but I wasn’t. I worried about him now. And the fear of what might have happened to him kept me up most nights, waiting for the nightmare to be over. I didn’t even get to say goodbye to him.
I prayed and prayed those first few weeks to wake up, for it all to be just some horrible dream. But deep down I knew it was reality—something I had to get used to one way or another.
I squeezed the sharp object in my pocket hard enough that its pointed ends broke skin. But I didn’t cry. I was strong. I had to be strong.
I peered out the thick glass window in front of me as I flexed my left hand, squeezing the star pendant. That was as far as I had come since they repaired the arm that was once so broken I couldn’t even clench my fist. I was still learning how to use this new limb, and it was just as frustrating having something I couldn’t control as it was not having it at all.
Outside my window, it had begun. Cytos had already fallen, and its people with it, but it wasn’t over. It had already been two weeks and the devastation continued. I wasn’t sure that it would ever end. Smoke filled the air as bombs detonated across the city, rattling buildings and uprooting the world around me. This glass prison shielded me from the screams I knew rang loud and clear, but I couldn’t hear them. Darkness hung over the city in the form of a plume of ash, blood, and death.
He had warned me this would happen. The man who took me in and made me whole again. He had assured me my family would be safe, but how could they be safe from the wreckage before me?
Bodies lay sprawled across the pavement in misshapen forms. Witnessing the carnage sent a shiver down my spine. Some were unrecognizable, but I knew they were human. We’re the targets after all, the mission.
When it all happened, I was stuck here, unable to help even my own brother. I don’t know how I had expected to help. A ten-year-old boy with one lame arm didn’t scream ‘hero’. I wished I were there, even if just to comfort him and tell him everything would be okay. A lie.
“You may not understand now, but one day you will see why this had to happen,” his voice cut through me like a knife, cold and unyielding. It was Dr. Coleman. I glanced at his reflection in the mirror. He was so small, just barely taller than I was, but his grey hair exposed his age. The tone of his voice told me he was a man to be reckoned with. To his right stood another man, his second. He was tall and skinny, with salt and pepper gray hair that made him look much older than he was. I saw him often, but didn’t know his name.
“Why can’t you just bring them here?” I asked with a stubborn pout.
“Your parents made a decision. You know this, Kenzie. You cannot see them again. It would be detrimental to your progress, to your mission.” Coleman took a step towards me as he, too, peered out the window to the crumbling screaming city below. “They l
eft you. They do not deserve your sympathy. None of them do. You cannot trust anyone in this world now, Kenzie. This world is corrupt and broken, but I am going to fix it. And you will help me.”
“I don’t want to do this. I’m useless to you. How can I possibly help with your mission?” I flexed my hand again as a sob caught in my throat but I choked it back down.
“You will soon see that you are more important than you realize. You will be needed, and I am certain you will be ready when the time comes.” He placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it gently before he turned and left me alone again.
My eyes welled up with tears but I pushed them back. Anger started to build up inside of me and I felt it flow through my chest and into my heart. He was right, my family had left me. They gave me up because I wasn’t good enough, because I was different. Coleman believed I was important and that I meant something, so he was the one I should listen to. He was the one I could learn from.
It was only then that I realized Coleman’s second hadn’t left with him. He cautiously stepped forward as he looked around to ensure we were alone before he spoke.
“Would you like to see your family?” he asked. My heart skipped a beat and it took everything inside of me not break down into tears of joy. Just like that, all the anger inside of me subsided and once again, I longed for my family.
“Yes! Yes I really would!” I exclaimed, turning away from the window.
“Come with me,” the man said. “But first. This must be our secret and ours alone. You can’t tell anyone about this, even Dr. Coleman. Do you understand?”
I nodded, willing to do anything to see my family again, to see Marc again. And with that, he took me down the hallway and into a small room fit with only a desk and a tablet on top of it. He closed the door and turned the lock before sitting down in the chair and logging into the tablet.
I peered over his shoulder with curiosity as he typed in code after code until finally a multitude of little screens popped up. On those screens, I saw three familiar faces.
They were alive! My family was safe, just as Coleman had promised.
“They are hiding in the underground rail system. They will be safe there. I warned them a few days before all this started so they could find a secure place to hide.” The man moved out of the seat and motioned for me to sit down. I couldn’t take my eyes off them. They were the happiest sight I had seen in days.
Dust and dirt covered their clothes, and I could see the pain and confusion written across my brother’s face. But they were alive, and that was all that mattered now.
I finally turned back to the man. “Who are you? Why are you helping me?” I asked.
“My name is Peter Russo. I had a daughter around your age, but she is gone now. One day I hope you can help her,” he said. I was too happy to have finally been able to see that my family was ok to take much notice of what he was saying. “Keep this our little secret, no matter what,” was the last thing Peter said before he turned and left me to watch my family, safe and sound, on the screen.
That night as I lay in my bed looking up at the stark white ceiling above me, I was the happiest I had been in days. Maybe even in years! To see that my family was alive and well put my mind at ease a little, and for the first time in weeks, I felt the anchor of tiredness pulling me down.
As I rolled over in bed, I felt a slight jab from my pocket. I took the star pendant key chain out and examined its sharp, pointed ends and sparkling diamond interior. The day I arrived here, the day my family left me, this star pendant had been given to me by a woman I did not know. She had silky dark hair that fell to her shoulders in one straight line. Her gentle brown eyes bore softly into my soul from the moment I looked into them. She gave the pendant to me and said, “The stars are the key,” and had assured me that they would keep me safe. As my eyes became heavy and I clutched the pendant in my palm, I couldn’t help feel the safety within the object, my last connection to humanity. This pendant had become a symbol of a promise I hoped one day came true.
Chapter Two
The fork dropped from my hand and clanged on the plate as I attempted to lift my food to my mouth. I let out a cry of frustration. “Can’t I just use my other hand?” I argued.
“You must learn how to control it. You’re getting better. It will come with time and patience,” the nurse said as she picked up the fork and handed it back to me once again.
I was now able to move my arm up and down, but holding on to something while doing that wasn’t so easy, and I was getting frustrated with this mundane task I couldn’t quite manage.
I tried again, stabbing one single pea from the plate with my fork, and slowly lifting it towards my mouth. My hand started to shake and quiver as it neared my face, closer and closer, but I didn’t make it. The fork dropped on to my lap, and in a fit of frustration, I tossed the plate in front of me across the room, sending it smashing against the wall.
A quiet yelp sounded from the corner of the room, and I glanced up in time to see a young girl entering through the open door—right where my plate had just smashed.
“Kenzie! Control your temper,” the nurse ordered as she scrambled to pick up the pieces from the floor. “Sorry, dear.”
The girl just stared at me. She could not have been older than 16, although her tiny, delicate frame made her look even younger. She had long golden blonde hair and gold eyes like I had never seen before. Her piercing stare was what told me she wasn’t real. She was one of them. I knew it the moment she walked in. They felt different, these things, these clones. Although much like Coleman, her energy was faint and softer. They were different kinds of clones, not the obvious machines, that marched the halls. These ones were so subtle that only I seemed to notice. However, she still brought an energy into the room that unnerved me and stirred up my own anger once again.
“What are you looking at, freak?” I sneered.
She stepped back, shocked at the harshness in my voice. So was I. But I was so full of frustration and anger at that moment that I didn’t care what feelings I hurt in the process.
“Sorry, I was looking for my father,” she said in a voice so tiny I almost didn’t hear it.
“He should be back up in his office now, dear,” the nurse responded before I could spit out something stupid again.
“Thank you.” She turned to leave, but stopped. Slowly she turned to me and said, “Don’t become this,” and then she turned on her heels and left. I wasn’t sure if she was talking about the monster I could feel hiding deep inside of me, or if she was referring to herself, and what she had become.
I sat there, shocked at what this girl had just said. How could she possibly know what I was to become, or who I was meant to be? She was just some clone, some toy for Coleman to parade around as his daughter. But I knew the truth. I knew she was nothing more than a replica of what he wished she were.
Frustrated, I pushed the chair back, sending it toppling behind me as I stood.
“You have not finished your lesson, young man!” The nurse stood at the door as I went to leave the room.
“We’re done.” I pushed past her and stalked out of the room before she could object.
I sat alone in my small white room. Every room in this building looked and felt the same. White, cold, and lonely. The only one I’d ever seen different was the first room I entered when I got here…and I refused to ever see that room again.
Absently, I tossed a ball up and down with my good arm as I contemplated ripping off my broken one. It had been 6 months and I’d only managed to move my arm up and down, and even that took tremendous effort. I had grown more and more discouraged with the feeling of incompetence, and wondered why anyone had put any amount of effort towards helping me out.
The world outside my window was silent and dark. The ever-present smog lingering over the city was now a part of it. Daylight had become a thing of the past. After those first few weeks, I avoided the windows. I didn’t want to see what had happened. But now, as
the worst of it was thought to be over, the city sat almost peacefully. Though I knew that was a lie.
They had wiped out almost everyone. Not they—we. I was a part of this, too, even if it wasn’t directly my fault. The guilt ate me up on the inside any time I let reality sink in. So much so that I had barely slept in weeks, the nightmares kept me awake.
Coleman was gearing up for phase two of his plan. Soon he would send out his clones, those freaks—Carbons. They would finish the job that the Bots couldn’t. I just wanted it to all be over. I wanted whatever Coleman had planned to just happen. I was going stir crazy locked up in this building. And though it had already been 6 months since they left me, I still thought of my family every day. Every chance I got I would sneak into that small room with the single tablet and watch them on those tiny screens. Watched as they survived and lived without me. Without my help.
I threw the ball hard at the wall across from me. It came screaming back at my head, and I was forced to quickly duck out of the way to avoid it hitting me square in the forehead. I let out another cry of frustration.
Balling my fists, I sat up. Restless, even though my mind was reeling, I needed something to clear my thoughts. Pushing myself up, I slumped my shoulders forward and went to make my way to that tiny room to check on my family once again.
Untold: The Complete Watcher Series Mini Novellas (Watcher #4) Page 1