by Jamie Gray
Copyright © 2020 Jamie Gray
All rights reserved
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 author.
ISBN-13: 9781234567890
ISBN-10: 1477123456
Cover design by: Patrick Knowles
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018675309
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Copyright
Prologue
Lexi
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
Epilogue:
Void
Jamie Gray
Prologue
The woman shrieked in agony as her face turned bright red. Sweat drenched her entire body, dampening her pure white hair and nightgown.
"One more big push, come on," the midwife told the shrieking young woman, kneeling at the end of the bed with her arms out and ready. "Are you ready?" The woman nodded, out of breath as she gripped her husband's hand. "Push."
The white-haired woman took in a deep breath, clutching the bed-sheets with one hand, while the other squeezed tightly around her husband's as he stood over her, panicked and frantic. She then pushed with every ounce of strength left within her, screaming out, as she was unable to hold back her cries any longer. A rush of relief washed over her entire body as she heard the cry of her new-born child.
The midwife rose to her feet, a tiny baby crying in her arms, as she wrapped the child in a white knitted blanket. "It's a girl," she cheered, handing the baby to the shaking woman lying in the large bed.
"Thank you, Alvina," the man thanked, smiling gratefully.
"The pleasure is all mine," she replied, scrambling to pack her supplies in hopes of leaving as soon as possible.
"No! Leave it. You must get out while you can," he insisted, waving her away.
"But..."
"Take the tunnels," he ordered, pointing to the passages hidden behind the white rock walls. "Go!"
Alvina dropped whatever supplies she had in her hands, rushing past the slim man who leaned against the side wall, and ran towards the hidden rock door. The wall had a small opening; it was more of a crack that Alvina had to squeeze between to get through. "It has been a true pleasure," Alvina bowed before sprinting down the open tunnel.
"Terrence. Look," the woman urged her husband as she revealed the scar-like mark on their baby’s wrist. It was of an upright triangle, with a large circle overlapping it. “What do you think it means?”
“I have no idea,” he replied, leaning closer to analyze it, but came up with nothing. “Rodrick?”
The slim man, who had been standing silently at the back of the white-walled chambers, began walking towards them. His skin was a rich black, and his turquoise hair was finely buzzed. He was slim, no taller than the average woman, and he wore a dark mint green suit that was beautifully accented with golden buttons and threads. The man held himself with poise, his hands clasped behind his back as he strode to the couple with perfect elegance and posture. He bent down to study the baby’s marking but froze as he recognized the design. “Clarissa Lovett,” he muttered under his breath.
“What?”
Rodrick re-straightened himself as he bafflingly stuttered. “Her mark…” he trailed off, entranced by the child. He shook his head, refocusing his attention. “A legend-from the old religion,” he explained, his voice deep and sharp.
“We’ve been over this, Rodrick,” Terrance sighed.
“Yes, of course,” he nodded compliantly. “But we need to leave now.”
Terrance agreed. “Quickly, grab the pendant." He waved his hand, alluding to the dresser beside the turquoise-haired man.
Roderick stiffly turned and grabbed a necklace from the wooden dresser beside him. It was a simple piece of jewelry, with a thin string and a large rock-like pendant that glowed white. He passed it to the young woman in the bed, who then shakily placed the necklace around her daughter's neck. The baby began to fiddle with the white pendant, revealing an engraved L in the center of it. As the mesmerizing glow faded away, she started to cry.
"Quiet, my darling," her mother shushed, her heart racing with fear that her daughter's shrieks may give away their location.
"Come. We must take the tunnels if we wish to live," Roderick insisted, briskly walking back as he pushed the hidden door further open. Terrence nodded, attempting to lift his wife off the bed, but stopped as she screamed out in pain, causing the baby girl to begin shrieking again. "All this noise is going to lead them straight to us," Roderick whispered sternly.
"I can't," the woman wept, failing to stop herself from crying. "It hurts." Her entire body ached in pain. Her muscles sore, and her lungs burning with every breath. She couldn't move.
"I know Madelyn," Terrance replied softly, kneeling down beside his wife as he took her hand. He wanted so badly to take her pain away. He placed his giant rough hand on his child's head, softly rubbing her forehead with his thumb. His lip quivered as his baby girl peered up at him.
"You need to take her," Madelyn sobbed, turning to face Roderick.
"What?" Terrence gasped, holding his daughter's shoulder as he looked up at his wife, distress swirling through his expression. "No."
Loud bangs erupted from the main door, causing the baby to begin shrieking, and the young white-haired man to leap to his feet. Terrance immediately pulled out his sword, prepared to defend his family against anyone who came through that door.
"Roderick, you need to take her. She must survive this," the woman begged.
"Madelyn..." Terrence spoke back but stopped himself. His gaze interlocked with his wife’s. Her identical grey eyes had turned glasslike, filling with tears as she silently pleaded with him to listen. She was shaken with fear. Fear for what would happen should their child stay there with them.
Terrance allowed his head to fall, scrunching his face together to keep from sobbing.
"We have no choice, Terrence," she replied, tears running down her cheeks like spring waterfalls.
The bangs began to get louder, as yells and indistinct shouts come from the other side of the locked door.
Finally, Terrence nodded, clenching his jaw as his lip quivered. He took a step closer so that his knees were up against the bed frame. He looked down at his wife and child, his face red as he bent down to give his daughter a soft kiss on the forehead. Tears dripped from his eyes and ran down the sides of her chubby face.
“Yes, but first I must cover that mark of hers,” Rodrick interrupted as if talking aloud to himself. At the same time, he rummaged through shelves and cabinets of colourful liquid vials.
“Are you mad?! That’s illegal,” Terrance barked.
“I’m afraid I don’t have a choice,” Rodrick quickly replied, finally pulling two vials from the shelf as he poured o
ne into the other. As he carefully mixed the liquids together, the contents turned a dark blue-violet colour, to which he then cautiously dipped a brush into. He speedily reapproached the couple, telling them, “If she is to survive, I must.”
Terrance and Madelyn both nodded, and Rodrick proceeded to paint over the baby’s marking, but only the circle as he left the triangle untouched. Once he had finished, the circle disappeared, as if it was never a part of the design to begin with. “There, it will be undetectable now,” he promptly assured them, revealing the vial as he placed it and the brush back onto the shelf.
“Rodrick, what does that legend say?” Terrance sharply asked.
“It-”
A thundering bang erupted from the main door, shaking the entire room as Terrance rushed to hold back the door.
As the baby screamed, her mother hushed her. “We love you, my daughter,” Madelyn wept, kissing her child's head before handing her to Rodrick. “Take her somewhere safe,” she told him, trusting him with everything she had.
"I will," he replied sincerely, firmly nodding to them both. He understood how hard it was for them. However, they all knew that he, if anyone, could get their child out and to a safe place.
Roderick walked briskly toward the hidden passageway, grabbing a small glass vial filled with a thick purple liquid from inside one of the cabinets, before slipping through the cracked open wall. He quickly slid it into his minty green suit pocket and closed the white rock door behind him. He continuously ran, holding the crying baby girl tight in his arms, as the tunnel slowly became smaller and smaller the farther he ran. He jumped as he felt tiny specks of dirt fall from the carved ceiling, and run down the walls. The white stones that made up all sides of the tunnel were starting to crumble apart as if someone was attempting to break through them.
His heart dropped when he heard a loud roar of dozens of warriors yelling and charging towards him. They each wore black cloaks that concealed their form, making them appear ghostly as they all rushed down the passageway. It was like a horde of demons were coming for him, and they would be less than merciful with his soul. “It appears that our plan will need to change, little one,” he told the child that he held firm in his arms, pressing his feet harder against the floor to keep running. He would need to come up with a new strategy if either of them were to survive.
Roderick slowed his running to a halt and stuck out his one free hand, making a tight fist. He then slowly began to open his fist as his wrist turned, creating a perfect circle shaped portal with a teal glow. The portal grew larger as he opened his hand further. Finally, having gotten it big enough, Roderick was about to try and pass through, the newborn still in his arms, but he was caught off guard when a sharp black-coloured energy rushed towards him, nearly slicing off his extended arm. Falling back and against the wall behind him, Roderick lost his concentration, and the portal zipped shut. Suddenly, the wall in front of him collapsed, allowing for more of the black-cloaked warriors to flood in.
Roderick forced himself off the wall and back onto his feet as he dodged through and slipped past the waves of warriors that charged him through the wall. He had no choice but to ignore the alarming signals of his body as his muscles hung loose, and his rapid heart rate caused sweat to drench his entire body. The exhaustion from all his running, on top of creating the portal, had nearly depleted every ounce of his energy. He was practically stumbling down the passageway, pushing his body well beyond its physical limits, while he still held the baby in his arms. His legs and arms ached with burning pain as his legs gave out beneath him, and he collapsed to his knees. His heart pounded like thunder, and his eyes burned red at his attempt to keep them open. Knowing that he had mere moments before the murderous warriors caught up to him and the child, Roderick used whatever strength he still had within him to create a small portal in front of him. He could, at best, create a passage large enough to fit a newborn child. She would have to make this trip on her own.
Feeling the ground shake beneath him, Roderick knew the soldiers were nearly upon him. He softly placed the child through the small glowing teal portal and onto the concrete ground on the other side of it. As he took his last glimpse of the child, he spoke to her in an old forgotten language. "Vi maelaa weeld ymenn, Clarissa Lovett," he whispered in the old tongue, before letting go and carefully pulling his arm back through the teal glowing circle. Suddenly, his arm was grabbed and he was aggressively yanked back onto his side.
One of the cloaked warriors attempted to reach through the portal and grab the newborn, but Roderick whipped his hand into a fist and closed it, slicing off one of the man's fingers as the portal shut.
The warrior screamed in shock and pain, holding what was left of his hand to his chest.
Roderick then took the glass vial from his belt, attempting to drink it with his free hand, but it slipped from his fingers as his arms were grabbed, and he was yanked to his feet.
Upon hitting the white coloured rock floor, the vial immediately shattered, and the thick liquid flowed free, turning the white rock purple. Roderick knew he needed to break free as quickly as possible. He could not be captured. So he spread his fingers on both hands as far as they could go without ripping his skin apart, and lifted his hands up ever so slightly, temporarily lifting the gravity in the area. Suddenly, everyone inside the tunnel began to lift off the ground, spinning out of control.
In the middle of all the disorder, Roderick was able to slip free and move towards the floating vial shards and the drops of purple liquid floating in the air. Knowing time was sensitive, he immediately swallowed all he could, taking no care for the amount he would actually swallow. "You'll never find the child," Roderick said sternly, turning to face the warriors with a defiant expression. He then released his hold on the gravity as his energy had drained completely, causing each of them to crash down onto the hard white rock floor.
All the black-cloaked warriors leaped to their feet, yanked Roderick up by his arms, but he had passed out upon impact as his entire body hung limp. One of them launched their boot into his gut, aggressively waking the man. The warrior then shouted, "Where are they?! Where did you send the child?"
Roderick started to look around in confusion, trying to recall what had happened, his expression narrowed as he turned his attention back on the hooded warriors dressed in black, and answered truthfully, "I don't know."
∞∞∞
A young couple was taking their daily midnight stroll down the sidewalk when they heard the ear-piercing shrieks of a child crying. Incredibly concerned, they both sped towards the sound, hoping the child was okay. They quickly came upon a screaming newborn baby girl, wrapped in a white knitted blanket. "Oh my god," the woman wailed, immediately lifting the baby up off the ground and holding her tight in her arms, trying to calm the child down as she began wiping the blood and fluids out of its face. The baby was tiny, small enough to be held comfortably in one hand. "How could someone leave a child... a new-born baby, on the sidewalk, in the middle of the night?" She asked, baffled, turning to her husband standing beside her. “Did the mother give birth right here, and just leave without her baby?”
"I don't know. There are some cruel people in this world, Katherine," he replied, shaking his head at the ground. His attention centered on a small object on the sidewalk. “What’s that?” he asked, bending down to look at it.
“What?!” Katherine blurted, following his gaze. “Is that a thumb?” she asked, looking closer.
“No,” he chuckled before kicking it away, dismissively.
“David, what are we supposed to do? Do we try to find the mother? Do we drop her off at the hospital?”
David shook his head. "You know, you and I have been considering adoption as an option for a while now. Maybe this is the universe trying to tell us something," he suggested with a growing smile.
“What, no. David, that’s insane. We found this new-born child on the street. We have no idea where the parents are, why in god's name they aren’t h
ere, or if she has any family that can take her in.”
“And we will look into all of that,” he replied. “We will go through all of the legal steps, and do everything we can to locate any family we can, but until then, do you think we could just enjoy this time with the little tyke?” David went on, wrapping his arms around his wife as he propped his chin down on her shoulder to get a better look at the baby in her arms.
“This is a huge commitment, not to mention the responsibility we would be taking on. I mean taking care of a child. Even if it is temporary. I don’t know,” she mumbled on, trying to consider every variable that would come with a decision like this.
“It’ll be fine. We’ve wanted this for so long.”
“Don’t get too attached, David. I’m warning you.”
“What, me? I-”
“White hair?” Katherine had taken notice of the baby’s out of the ordinary hair colour as the child had fallen silent, blinking with tired eyes and with her tiny fingers held in her mouth. "That's interesting," Katherine found her eye caught on a scar-looking mark on the baby's wrist. It looked similar to a lightly coloured keloid scar but was far too detailed to be some accidental injury. “And what the heck is this?” she exclaimed, pointing to the triangular marking she had spotted on the child's wrist.
“I don’t know,” he replied, looking closer.
“What could it be? Do you think someone did something to her?”
“I don’t know, Katherine, but we’ll figure it all out, okay?” David paused, looking down at the baby's face. “For now, it’s what makes her different. She’s special, I just know it," he replied with an enthusiastic smile. "We can be her family... and she can be ours- assuming we can’t find anyone to take her in."
Katherine shook her head as she peered back down at the innocent baby girl in her arms. "What about you, hun? Do you want to be a part of our family?" she asked softly, but saw that the child had fallen sound asleep in her arms.
"That's a definite yes if I've ever seen one," David joked, pausing to listen for Katherine’s laughter.