One (Alone Book 3)
Page 27
Now only two more stops…
Still in Brighton I had one more thing here left to do before I could do my final farewell. I pulled up outside the large block of flats and waited.
Just as I had planned a few people from the social services had been alerted to child neglect and abuse and where just coming out of the main entrance, two police officers accompanied them with a woman in cuffs. Followed by two sweet innocent little children who deserved all the happiness they deserved and being away from Helena was one way to bring them towards that. I had also ensured that in the mind of the social services that they had to be placed with a new family together and not separately. Sian and Ollie deserved to be together and happy… Back at the beginning…
~
Finally I drove all the way to the place where it all first started for me… Home.
Cain and Kian sat in the car as I quickly stepped out and walked over to the front door and as quietly as I could I posted a parcel through the door.
“Is that a present?” a familiar voice asked from behind me.
I spun round to find… Kaley… But she was a child, a small innocent child about seven at the most. But she was here, she hadn’t been erased… But she was here! Had she lived near me the whole time and I had never known? Or did a family member live near by that she was visiting?
“Yes, it is”, I smiled.
“They need a nice present”, she told me.
“They do?” I asked.
She nodded, “Look”. She pointed to a lamppost just by the end of the road, a poster was attached to it with my own face looking back at me.
“That’s their other kid, she went missing a few weeks ago. Never came home. They need cheering up”.
“I hope it will”, I smiled and then turned back to the car.
I drove off looking in the mirror as Kaley stood watching us leave, I felt happy she made it, she hadn’t been wiped out completely, she too could start over.
That night I drove all three of us down to the East Sussex coast. To Beachy Head. It was a renowned place for people going there to commit suicide and it seemed fitting for me. I wasn’t really committing suicide as such, I was safeguarding the world so I didn’t ever turn and infect everyone. I was cleansing my body and soul, so I could never accidently infect someone else and start the whole process again because there would be no going back then.
I could feel the virus swirling in my veins and in my soul, threatening to consume me whole but I wasn’t going to let it.
I pulled Cain and Kian close to me and kissed them both on the head. “I love you both and I will always be with you”.
“I will take care of him for you”, Kian told me.
“Thank you”.
“I’ll miss you”, Cain said sobbing, “And I’ll never forget you… Mum”.
My heart shattered, I knew I wasn’t really his mum and in this life neither was Tanya. He shouldn’t have existed, but he did, he deserved a chance at a real life, not one where fear was around every corner. To me he was indeed my boy, my family. “I’ll never forget you either”.
I then turned away from them both as I knew I only had minutes until the virus won, with each step I took I felt like stumbling and falling, the immense hunger was already growing inside me once again and I knew it was time. I reached the edge of the cliff and closed my eyes taking a deep breath and then I called to it, the darkness, the void. I felt the veins of the darkness and infection ripple through my body as I opened the hole before me and stepped into it. I felt no pain as the hole swirled around me, pulled me apart atom by atom until there was only my face left. I looked up to the stars and opened my eyes, let out my last breath… Then I was gone…
~
Tanya opened the envelope which contained a large notebook which had been posted through the letter box. With it a small note fell out and drifted to the carpet. A hand written note from Stacie, her younger sister. She felt pain and tears over whelm her but she knew what she had to do.
Ten years later…
The war over fossil fuels eventually died out when governments had the money to build more environmentally friendly wind turbines, solar panels and even hydro- systems to bring energy to the world, they no longer needed the dirty fossil fuels. The governments now had the money to spend because in this world they didn’t send it all to Enliven, they kept it and invested. The world moved on and began to grow once again. New and old businesses opened up along high streets, food gradually became no longer rationed, people could live happily and freely once again.
Tanya sat inside the bookshop, her hands sweaty and clammy, she was so nervous.
“You ready to sell these books?” Her mother and father said standing by her.
“This is Stacie’s story and it needs to be told”, she smiled nervously.
Within minutes the doors to the bookshop opened and people milled in to meet the author and to get a signed book. Tanya had signed about twenty or so when a dark skinned woman appeared with a child in a pushchair.
“Who do I sign it to”, Tanya asked.
“Monique please”.
Tanya looked up, “That’s funny, there’s a character called Monique in my sister’s story”.
“Really, oh how funny”, the girl laughed taking the book from Tanya and flicking through the pages and glancing at all the words that were now going to be known to the world, “I was only passing and saw the sign, something made me want to come in and buy a copy”.
“Well hope you enjoy it”, Tanya grinned as the girl walked off.
Neither of them knew that she was the Monique from the story, the Monique Stacie had known. And neither of them saw the two men standing at the back of the store smiling, one of them desperate to meet his mother but the mother who had no idea he existed other than in those very pages she had written in memory of her sister because in this life things had been very different.
As Monique left the bookshop she turned to first page and began to read…
…‘The rain poured down from the skies like the plagues of Egypt from god, a curse stowed upon the terrified world by man’s own hand, a whirlwind of panic erupted as the knowledge of what was really happening to the already broken land of Britain spread like the pandemic it was’…
For here on end the story of Stacie would always be remembered and how the world nearly came to end… How everyone nearly became creatures… And how in this world we will never be truly ALONE…
The END…
Thank you for finishing Stacie’s story and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Although I am sad she is gone, I feel with Tanya and Cain she will always live on.
If you did enjoy the Alone series would you please leave me a review on Amazon and or Goodreads, as reviews help us Indie authors.
And if you want to be kept up to date with new releases and my other books then check out my blog – www.mercedespruntyauthor.wordpress.com
Thanks again.
Xxxx