Broken Souls (The Chronicles of Mara Lantern, Book 2)
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BROKEN SOULS
The Chronicles of Mara Lantern, Book 2
D.W. MONEYPENNY
The Chronicles of Mara Lantern on Amazon:
Broken Realms (Book 1)
Broken Souls (Book 2)
Broken Dragon (Book 3)
Broken Pixels (Book 4 - Coming Soon)
Learn more about the books at my website.
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The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. No part of this book may be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise—without express written permission of the publisher.
Copyright © 2014 David W. Moneypennny
Published by Nevertheless Publishing
E-book ISBN: 978-0-9960764-2-5
Paperback ISBN: 978-0-9960764-3-2
Copy Editor: Denise Barker
Cover Design: damonza.com
“Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.”
–Walt Whitman
CHAPTER 1
The creature made a wet snuffling sound as it rolled over on the back lawn, its tongue lolling out of its mouth. It came to rest on its side, all four scaly feet pointing toward Mara as she walked up to her mother and brother. A string of slime dripped from its lips onto the grass nearby.
Mara grimaced and turned to them. “That’s not a dinosaur. That’s the giant iguana you rode into town on a couple weeks ago,” Mara said, looking at her mother. “Remember?”
“You’re saying I RODE that?” Diana brought a hand to her cheek, which had lost all color. “I simply don’t remember any of it.”
“You guys went across the river again, across the Oregon City Bridge, didn’t you? I thought we agreed you would stay away from there until all your creepy-crawly friends dispersed and found new homes. They can’t follow you home if you don’t go down there.”
“They are not my friends,” Diana said deadpan. “And what am I supposed to do? Never go shopping again? What are we going to eat?”
“There’s all of Oregon City, not to mention Portland, on this side of the river, Mom. There’s nothing across the bridge that you can’t get over here.”
Mara looked around to see if any neighbors had noticed the arrival of the truck-sized reptile. It didn’t appear so. The slate-colored two-story craftsman the Lanterns called home blocked the view from the street, and the backyard was flanked by tall trees and untrimmed shrubbery, so it was unlikely anyone could see them or their visitor. Besides, this neighborhood in Oregon City was quiet during the workweek. Most traffic stayed closer to the business district along the river or the shopping plazas near the main highways and interstates.
The twenty-foot-long red-and-black iguana snored quietly, a scaly semitruck in Neutral.
Mara looked at her brother, Sam. “Did you prompt it to sleep, or did it flop down out here for a nap?”
He smirked. “I prompted it to come back here and take a nap, but we need to do something with it before it wakes up. If it tries to follow Mom into the house, it’ll tear down a wall.”
“What are you grinning about?” Mara asked.
“You have to admit it’s ironic that, two weeks ago, Mom was leading this pack of reptiles across the bridge from an alternate reality, and now she’s completely freaked-out that they are following her home.”
“I am not freaked-out. Of the three of us, I think I have been the most sanguine these past two weeks. It’s the two of you who have a lot to learn and to accept about this situation.”
Mara and Sam rolled their eyes.
Diana glared at her daughter and said, “I’m not the one who’s avoiding dealing with my new reality. I’m cool with the notion that I had an alter ego from another dimension who tried to invade this realm. And I’m cool that she brought me this handsome son who doesn’t know what a banana is. You two on the other hand . . .”
“What?” Mara and Sam said simultaneously.
The iguana growled and smacked its lips. Mara and Sam jumped.
“I’m the one who’s freaked-out,” Diana said, failing to hide her own smirk. After a moment she pointed and asked, “What are you going to do about this thing? It looks like it’s getting ready to wake up.”
“We could call animal control or an exterminator,” Mara said.
“You think some guy from Orkin is going to be able to spray him and make him go away? This isn’t a mouse or a bug. Anyway I’m not comfortable spraying chemicals all over the place and needlessly killing these creatures just because they creep me out.” She nodded toward a patch of tilled dirt in the back of the yard. “Not to mention I have an organic herb garden that would cease to be organic if we start spraying toxins all over the place.”
Sam leaned down, patted the iguana’s snout and made a shushing sound. It seemed to settle into a deeper sleep. “Mara could send it back to where it came from, if you can get her to quit being a head case about her abilities,” he said.
“Shut up, Opie. You know I’m not doing that.”
Sam raised the hand that had touched the creature. It glistened as he reached for his sister’s sleeve. Mara dodged the swipe, and he laughed. “Wimp.”
“Back off, snot boy.” Mara stepped away, maneuvered so their mother stood between them.
Sam waved a hand threateningly over Diana’s shoulder.
“Sam, don’t slime your sister,” Diana said, pushing his arm down. She turned around and stared at Mara. “What does he mean, you can send it back?”
“She could use the Chronicle to return the iguana to its realm, but she’s a big wuss,” he said.
“Is that true? You can send this thing back where it came from?” Diana asked.
“Well, I’m not . . .” Mara said.
“Yes, she can do it.”
“I told you guys. I don’t want to, you know . . .”
“Mara, I understand you’re still getting used to the idea of having these abilities, but, if you can send this thing back, that probably would be best,” Diana said.
Mara glared at her brother. “I’m simply not comfortable with doing that, Mom.”
Diana looked exasperated and then her features dropped in resignation. She turned and walked toward the back door of the house and said over her shoulder, “Okay then, you guys figure out what that thing eats and work up a schedule for taking turns walking it. You have now adopted yourselves a giant lizard as a pet.”
Sam stared at his sister with wide eyes and raised eyebrows. “She doesn’t really mean that, right?”
“What did Mom feed it in your realm?” Mara asked.
“Mostly people she didn’t like,” Sam said. He leaned over the creature and pulled back its upper lip to expose a row of sharp teeth.
“Stop touching that thing, and go get the Chronicle. It’s in the top left drawer in my desk,” Mara said.
He turned and jogged toward the rear of the house. “Hey, Mom, come back! She’s gonna do it. You gotta see this. It’s very cool.”
A minute later he bolted back out the door carrying the Chronicle of Creation, a jewel-encrusted copper medallion slightly larger than his palm. He jogged up to his sister and handed it to her. “Wait for Mom, so she can see this.”
Diana stepped onto the back porch. “Do you want to be alone while you do this?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Mara said. She held up her hand with the medallion on her palm and closed her eyes.
“Show me creation,” she said.
A translucent bubble exploded from the light, engulfing the entire backyard, its static border stopping at the edge of the porch where Diana instinctively leaned away. “Whoa!” she said.
Mara found herself feeling a little embarrassed. This was the first time she had used her metaphysical abilities in front of her mother since the incident two weeks ago at the Oregon City Bridge. It seemed like months had passed since her mother’s counterpart from an alternate reality had taken possession of her mother’s body and tried to bring her reptilian cult into this realm. While Mara had found a way to save her mother, hundreds if not thousands of serpents and other creatures had crossed over. Now they follow Diana home whenever she goes near the river.
Mara and Sam stood within the blue bubble, watching lines being drawn along its periphery. Every once in a while, a node would appear along the lines, causing them to split off into different directions. Eventually the bubble filled with lines and nodes, one of which positioned itself in front of Mara. A different one appeared between Sam and the iguana.
“Sam, I think it might be best for you to join Mom on the porch,” Mara said.
“Oh, come on! I want to watch,” he said.
“Fine, stick around. Once I tap that node, you’ll be sucked back into your own realm with your mother’s iguana.”
“Yeah, I’ll go stand on the porch,” Sam said, running through the translucent bubble to the back of the house.
“I don’t understand,” Diana said once he had arrived.
Sam pointed to the iguana. “I’m from the same realm as the lizard. When Mara opens the node, it’ll suck me back in if I’m too close.”
Mara reached over and tapped the node next to the iguana, and it burst open into a black rift in the translucent bubble that surrounded them. The black hole sucked in air, and pulled in loose leaves and debris from the backyard. Mara leaned against the wind.
“What is happening?” Diana yelled over the noise.
“Watch,” Sam said.
The iguana luminesced and spread out into a cloud of glowing mist. The pull of the rift drew the mist toward it. The creature slowly dissolved, dissipated into a stream of glowing particles flowing into the blackness.
Mara stood transfixed, watching as the scales and features of the iguana melted away until nothing remained except a depression in the grass in the shape of a large lizard.
“Mara! Sam’s dissolving!” Diana yelled from the porch.
Mara snapped from her reverie, turned toward the back of the house.
Sam stood on the porch with his hands to his own chest, a look of panic on his face. He luminesced, like the just-departed reptile, and was dissipating into a shiny cloud of particles. Some of him had already streamed across the yard toward the open dark maw within the bubble.
“Mara! Do something!” Diana yelled. “Shut it down!”
“Enough!” Mara said.
The rift collapsed, and the node reappeared, then the bubble imploded into the ball of light, and the light winked out. The copper medallion fell out of the air above Mara’s hand into her palm. She stood in the empty backyard, wide-eyed.
CHAPTER 2
Mara dashed across the yard and up the three steps to the porch. Sam had solidified but looked bug-eyed as he took inventory of his body by patting himself. Diana held him by the shoulders, did her own assessment and said, “Are you all right? Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine. I think I’m all here,” he said. “I don’t think anything dissolved, at least not permanently. No thanks to Mara.”
Mara looked relieved but said, “It was your bright idea. I told you that I didn’t want to use the Chronicle.”
Diana looked at the depression in the grass and said, “All in all I think it worked out for the best. You two get ready for dinner.”
As they turned to go inside, they heard the front doorbell chime.
* * *
Mara crossed the wood floor, passing behind the couch that faced the fireplace, as the doorbell rang again. She flipped the dead bolt above the doorknob. “I’m coming. I’m coming,” she said as she opened the door.
A bespeckled young blonde stood on the front porch with a smirk and an attitude. “Dude, you’re home. I was sure you would still be at that godforsaken gadget shop,” Mara’s best friend, Abby, said. She walked in without a formal invitation and flopped onto one of the armchairs next to the fireplace. “So what’s new? I haven’t talked to you in weeks.”
Mara closed the door and followed her into the living room, sitting down on the couch. “I came home a little early from work because Mom was having a minor pest control issue.”
Abby wrinkled her nose, opened her mouth to say something, when Sam walked into the room holding a banana. She turned to him and said, “And who would you be?”
“I’m Sam.” He smiled and turned to Mara. “Mom says dinner will be ready in about forty minutes and wants to know if Abby is staying. You’re Abby, right?”
“Yeah, I’m Abby,” she said. “Your mom is cooking dinner and wants to know if I’m staying?”
“Right. She wants to know how much to cook.” Sam didn’t look at Abby; he was examining the banana, turning it back and forth in his hand.
Abby turned to Mara, who sat up stiffly, mute and wide-eyed.
“What’s bugging you?” Abby said, then threw a thumb in Sam’s direction. “Who’s the kid with the banana, and why is his mom cooking us dinner?”
“He’s, um, he’s my . . .” Mara’s face turned red, and she looked up at the ceiling trying to find the words.
“Brother. I’m her brother,” Sam said. “How do you eat one of these?” He pointed the banana at Abby.
Abby stared back at him and said slowly, as if she were talking to an idiot, “You just eat it, you know? Like. A. Banana.”
Sam raised it to his nose and inhaled. “What do they taste like?”
Mara rolled her eyes and said, “Sam, just eat it!”
“You don’t have to get snippy,” he said. He stuck the end of the banana in his mouth and bit down on it. The peel split open on the side, and the inner fruit spattered his face. He shook his head back and forth until a piece broke off. He chewed and swallowed, then wiped his mouth with his free hand. “Mmm. I like the inside, but the skin is kind of tough.”
Abby stared at him with her mouth hanging open.
“Sam, why don’t you go get a towel in the kitchen,” Mara said.
He laughed and pointed the half-eaten banana at Abby. “She never answered the question.”
“What question?” Abby said.
Sam mimicked her, talking slowly. “Are. You. Staying. For. Dinner?”
Mara stood up and pushed Sam toward the kitchen. “No, she’s can’t stay . . .”
Abby waved after them. “Oh, yes I am.” She raised her voice toward the kitchen. “Yes, Mrs. Lantern, I’m staying for dinner. Thanks.”
* * *
Diana stood at the kitchen counter, cutting vegetables for a salad, when Mara dragged Sam into the kitchen. He shook the decapitated banana at her and laughed. “Here have a bite. It’s good.”
They tussled back and forth until Sam backed into a chair at the dinette set and knocked it onto its side with a clatter. Diana turned to see Sam on the far side of the table trying to evade his sister, who slapped a wet dishcloth at him.
“What are you two doing?” Diana said.
Mara threw the damp rag, hitting Sam in the forehead, and turned to her mother. “He bit into that banana in front of Abby and then told her that he was my brother.”
“I told him that he could have it to hold him over while I was cooking. What’s the big deal?”
“He didn’t pee
l it first!” Mara pointed at Sam, who held up the mauled banana and shrugged.
Diana dried her hands on her apron and walked over to her son. “Sweetie, you need to take the skin off before you eat it. Look.” She took the banana and stripped away the peel and handed the remains to Sam.
“It’s like living with a feral cat,” Mara said. “I’m surprised he’s housebroken.”
Diana bent over, picked up the fallen chair and scooted it under the table. Locking eyes with her daughter, she said, “He’s your little brother. Deal with it. It’s not like you have an alternative.”
“What am I supposed to tell Abby? How are we supposed to explain that I have a brother and that you have a son who suddenly appeared out of nowhere?” Mara said, sitting down with a thud.
Sam interjected, “I already told her that I’m your brother.”
“It wouldn’t take much to convince her that you’re delusional,” Mara said, tapping her temple.
“No, we are not doing that. No lies. Sam’s a part of our family, and we’re not going to tell people otherwise. This doesn’t have to be complicated if we don’t make it so.”
Mara glared at her mother in silence, trying to think of a response. Her mother knew it and didn’t try to goad it out of her.
Sam flopped down at the table and shoved the rest of the banana into his mouth. For a few minutes the only sound in the room was his chewing.
Then Mara raised a finger and pointed at her mother. “Okay, then show me how,” Mara said.
“Show you how to what?” Diana said.
“Show me how to explain to Abby that Sam is my brother.” Mara lifted her jaw slightly as if challenging her mother.
“Okay, you’re on,” Diana said. She then lifted her own jaw and called out to the front of the house. “Abby, can you join us here in the kitchen for a minute?”
“Coming!” They felt the vibrations through the wood floor as Abby ran to the kitchen.
Diana pointed to two chairs on either side of Sam at the round dinette table. “Have a seat, and let’s talk for a minute.” Abby took one seat and Diana took another.