In the Dark (Dark Time Book 1)

by Iris Sweetwater

  Carlie didn’t know if she understood why this was something she should see. He was clearly in trouble, but it was the normal kind of trouble. But then she thought back to what she was thinking before she ended up here. She wanted to find another one of them, someone else with powers. Could this be one? She needed a sign.

  She watched as he stopped in an alleyway and was able to focus in on him better, watch from the other side, front the backs of the cops as they approached him. He was cute, and his smile as he looked them over told her he was up to something. Maybe this was the moment.

  “Nick Osborne, you are under arrest for the robbery of…” the officer that had started to speak trailed off, and Carlie could see why as a smile played on Nick’s face. The dumpster to his left had begun to move of its own volition. But of course, it couldn’t be moving by itself. But no one was pushing it. At least not with their hands.

  It started moving again towards the stunned officers, picking up speed, and Nick was looking at it, holding his hands in the direction of the dumpster as if he was controlling it. Holy shit, this guy was like an x-man or something. he could move objects with his mind.

  Suddenly, the dumpster picked up the pace and came barreling full speed, sending the cops running back in the direction they came with haunted screams. As much as Carlie wanted to laugh, this was not good at all. Being open about what he could do was a risky thing, it could get them all found out by whoever was in charge of everything, whoever had tried to keep them from finding out about time being stuck or the world ending in the first place. And even if whoever or whatever that was didn’t come for him, then the men in white coats surely would. He would be locked up and experimented on, and that would put them at risk for being found out and done the same thing to. This is what Tanner meant about splitting up. Someone was going to have to come and get this Nick guy to cool his shit and convince him to join the three of them. It looked like it would have to be her.

  Carlie felt a sinking feeling and then a dizziness as she was brought violently back into her body, gasping for air. She sat up, finding herself back behind some shops, near the coffee shop where Alex took them on the first day.

  “What happened, Carlie? It was like you were dead. You just froze and then dropped. I had to catch you. You didn’t breathe or anything.”

  “I projected while awake somehow. I was thinking about us needing to find more, that there are had to be more with more like combat powers and it took me there. I found one. I think this is where we split up, Tanner.”

  Tanner pursed his lips in displeasure. “I don’t know about this. What did you see, where is he?” he asked.

  “He is here in Kingsbridge, but he is on the other side of town; that bad part across the bridge. I understand why it needs to be me. He stole something, he’s in trouble with the cops but he’s using his powers against them. He is like out in the open with all of it. It’s nuts,” she said, remembering it all.

  “What can he do, Carlie?” Tanner asked, his brow ticking up with interest.

  “He can move objects with his mind. He sent a dumpster flying at these cops. It was insane. He looked like a pro. But I doubt he knows anything about why we have the powers, just that he has them,” she speculated.

  “Are you sure you can handle this alone? While you were out, I saw something, another angel fly towards the clock tower. I think it might have been that other one that you saw. I didn’t want to leave you like this, though.”

  “Shit!” Carlie said. “We don’t have a choice. I trust you to make sure we don’t get separated. I am going to get him and bring him back to the clock tower. Then, we are all getting out of dodge and getting some answers. Maybe Alex will even come down from there with some. I know that other angel knew things. I could sense it. I don’t know if he will tell her, but I feel like we can trust her to grill him for information. I don’t think he would harm her, he’s after Amon.”

  Tanner hardened his jaw and nodded. Both of them just looked at each other for a moment as she stood up and got her bearing, making sure the projection handle affected her too harshly since she had never done it while she was awake before.

  “I can do this, Tanner. I need you to trust me to do this.”

  “I trust you. Do you trust me?” Tanner asked her. She grabbed his hand and then pulled him into a tight hug.

  “With my life.”

  Carlie reached into her pocket and pulled out one of the two keychains she had stolen at the beginning of their journey and paced it in his hand. Then, she took off in a run before she could change her mind, weaving through the city streets in search for the direction to the bridge again to get to the other side of Kingsbridge. She wasn’t the best of people with directions, but the way the city was laid out was pretty simple. She just needed to keep the capitol at her back.

  Carlie was panting, her heart hammering in her chest by the time she made it to the bridge, but she knew she couldn’t stop. She couldn’t help but think everything was about to converge on them on this day. She needed to get to this Nick guy and get back to the other two before the shit hit the fan.

  She kept on running, following her instincts as she weaved through the stinky and dark streets of this side of town. It didn’t even look at all like it belonged with the rest like it was a completely different place or a dump for all the trash. She got a little angry thinking about that. That’s probably how many of the rich city people treated the rest of them; like trash. She had lived that life before. Most of the home she had been in were poor and in bad neighborhoods, and it was like they were worth less than other humans because of it.

  Carlie scrambled to find where she had seen him before, and she heard screams, the screams of the cops. So, it looked like she had arrived just in time for the actual event. She followed the sound and hoped she wouldn’t come in on the wrong side and get caught up with the cops in the one of the dumpster. But luckily, there he was, Nick, right down the alley, she could see the back of his head. His short hair and the black shirt he had on. She could see his strong stance just as he began to move the dumpster.

  She waited until the cops ran and the dumpster put a distance between them before she barreled into him, knocking him into the wall and breaking his concentration. “Well, why there,” he said with a wink as if she was some fan girl or some desperate slut who came to get some from him because he had some power. What a douche.

  She slapped him in the face. “I am not flirting with you, and I am not dealing with your antics right now. I know your name is Nick, and I know you have powers. I have powers too, and there is a reason. There are more of us, and if you don’t come with me, the world is going to end.”

  There was this cocky air coming off of this guy, and she knew she had to be tough with him and quick. There would be no other way to get him to do what she wanted.

  He pushed her off of him, though gently, and brushed himself off. “Woah, what mental asylum did you escape from? Not that I am complaining because I have always heard crazy chicks are the best.” Carlie balled up her fists and grunted as he came onto her again.

  “I am serious. How can you think I am the crazy one when you’re throwing inanimate objects at cops?” she asked him in annoyance. “I am being entirely serious. You have to believe me. I knew to be here because I can astral project. I saw this happening just a few minutes ago, and I came straight here. We have been looking for others like us.”

  “Who is this us, because Nick likes to work alone,” he said, strutting around her like he was hot shit. What was up with this guy? She had never met someone so infuriating.

  “It’s me and two others. Teenagers; peers just like you. I would love to explain everything to you right now, but I don’t like being split up from my friends. I think we should get back. There are some things about to go down, and it’s going to be up to us to make sure we save everyone. I don’t think we can do that if we aren’t all together.”

  Nick shook his head and laughed.

  Nick stopp
ed and looked like he might be willing to listen for the first time. “So, it’s up to a bunch of teenagers to save the world?” His eyebrow raised in disbelief. “I guess we need to prepare for what happens of the world falls apart.”

  Chapter 16

  The power of one, if fearless and focused, is formidable, but the power of many working together is better. ~ Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

  ALEX heard a sound, and she ran down the stairs to get out the door, finding that the world was going dark. But it didn’t make any sense. It was morning, and this would also signal a change, a change in what was happening, which hadn’t occurred in months, if she calculated correctly.

  She came flying out the door and found that Tanner was there, but Carlie was nowhere in sight. “Where is Carlie?” she asked as a sound grew close, a whipping sound not unlike a helicopter but less mechanical.

  He shook his head. “She had to go and get another one. She projected while awake and saw there is another one of us on the other side of town. She’s supposed to meet us back here. Are you okay? What’s going on?” he yelled over the growing sound.

  Alex shrugged, unsure what it was as they came out from under the shadow of the clocktower, and then it became clearer. They were too late. The Revenant had come.

  She looked up to the tower where Amon was now leaning over the side, revealing himself for all to see as they came out to look at the spectacle up above. “Run!” he called out to her in a booming voice.

  Alex shook her head.

  “No!” she called back. She looked at Tanner. “Do you trust me?” she asked him.

  “Do I have a choice?” he asked with an upturned mouth. “What are we doing?”

  “I think we should go with them. Maybe they have the answers. Actually, I am sure that they do. Whether they want us to know or not, they might be able to help us. Maybe we can convince them. I think it’s the only way, Tanner,” Alex admitted, screaming over the sound of the beating wings of the invasion.

  They both looked up to the spectacle in the sky, and she wondered what Carlie was thinking at that moment as they swept across the land. It looked like the end of days, and she hated to think Carlie would be facing this alone. Hopefully, they were on their way back already.

  A blinding light accompanied what looked like massive wings descending from the Heavens above. It was something she never thought she would see in her life and certainly not something she would have expected to survive, but she set her stance as she walked out into the middle of the old town square. She was going to survive this. She had to. They all were if she had any say in it.

  “Come and get me,” she whispered to herself.

  As she did, four of the angels dipped low, their white wings so white that they looked entirely unreal, like a color that had never existed in the world before. Their hands were on her in an instant, lifting her up, and they did the same to Tanner. She tried to keep her cool as they soared high up into the sky, over the town. It was like being on a roller coaster but with no seat belt, nothing at all to hold you to gravity. If the angels let go, she would surely die.

  “There are two others, on the other side of town!” she heard Tanner scream out as he squirmed in their hold. “A girl and a guy. If you’re taking us, you should take them too.”

  Alex felt a wave of relief wash over her. She didn’t want Carlie to be left out there alone with this person they hadn’t filled in on everything yet. Tanner looked over at her and nodded. “It’s going to be okay.”

  She didn’t know if he was saying that because he could see it and he knew or because he was being a good friend,

  Either way, she would have to believe it. k12

  THE END

  For now….

  Other Books by Iris Sweetwater

  The Brothers of Fang Series

  Water Coulored Memories

  Nicodemus’ Master

  Coming September 2018

  Dark Time II – Little Black Holes

  Pre-order Now!

  What if you and your friends were captured by a group of angels at the end of the world?

  Alexandra, Tanner, Carlie, and Nick have all been captured by The Revenant; a secret ruling body of light angels who may or may not hold the key to saving the broken world they all believe they have been fated to fix. Only, they don’t know if the Revenant will allow them to do the job they were meant to, and there are still so many secrets they don’t know.

  Alexandra is going through heartache while she hopes to find a way to save the man she loves but finds her heart entangled with another that tells her to let him go. Carlie might have finally met her match in wit, and Tanner finds himself confused and entranced by another captive the angels have in their possession. But is there even room for falling in love and growing up when the world is falling apart?

  Find out in Dark Time Book 2: Little Black Holes.