Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 82949 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82949 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
I go to sidestep him and make my way into the living room when his words stop me. “We’ll head out so you can have this thing out on the beach.”
Do I want them there? No. I barely know two of them, but I can’t deny the fact that it feels like I have known them three lifetimes already. I read somewhere once that when you meet someone who you feel like you’ve known all your life, it means you knew them in past lifetimes. I’m not sure if I believe in all of the past life and reincarnation stories, but now, I see why people do believe.
Leaning on the threshold that separates the living room and the steps that lead up to the rest of the house, I fold my arms across my chest. “You don’t have to. You can all stay, it’s fine. Knowing Cooper, he would have invited the whole town.”
Sparrow bows his head an inch, so I turn back around to make my way back to the room I’m staying in. I need to figure out why I feel the way I do about all three of them and how I’m going to navigate my way around my mother’s death.
I stare blankly at the orange flames as they roar against the night. I was twelve years old when I realized my mother probably wasn’t as well as the rest of us. I think over time, I assumed she was sick. I asked her many times if it was cancer or any other disease that I needed to know about.
She would wave me off, kiss my forehead, and tell me not to worry. But I did. Every month, the same time. She would lock herself in her room for an entire week and then resurface on the seventh day. As I got older, she said it was her period, but every other person I knew who had theirs would always sync up to their mother. Mine came weeks after hers.
“You think she’ll like this?” Cooper asks, massaging Dani’s bare leg.
God, he needs to leave her alone. Not that any girl deserves what Cooper will put them through, but Dani is something else. She tolerates Cooper in a way that no one else will, and I know it is because she is bi too, and they very much share the same kind of dynamic.
“I do. I think she would.”
Dani leans forward, taking out another beer from the cooler in front of her, wrapping the hoodie she’s wearing tighter around her body. She cracks the can and leans back into Cooper’s embrace. “I’m sorry about your mom, Shiloh. I know how close you both were.”
Dani’s parents owned the library downtown. The library is about as old as the caves in Hades Hollow, but no one thinks too much into that. In fact, I’m pretty sure it was the first building to be built in Hades Hollow. A bit like the mansion that sits behind us.
“Thank you.” I smile.
The group Cooper gathered isn’t bad. There are around ten people all from our school, and since it is outside on the beachfront, it doesn’t feel so crowded.
“Oh shit—” Cooper taps at Dani to get off his lap as he disappears somewhere behind us.
“Tell me something about your mother?” Dani’s dark eyes widen in excitement. I don’t want to crash her high hopes, but I probably don’t have a lot to tell her.
“Well.” I toss a handful of sand at the raging flames. “She could never sit still. She always had to rearrange our house or redecorate. I learned to never expect the house to be the way it was when I left every day.”
“I could be friends with her.” Dani laughs, tying her hair in a high bun until the ends are sitting on her shoulder. She leans back slightly, bringing the bottle to her mouth. “I could definitely be friends with her.”
I leave out the scary parts on purpose.
I don’t buy the recruits. The same words echoed through my mind as the night went on. I wanted to leave earlier tonight. Mostly, I didn’t find an issue being here. With them. But there was something different about tonight. As if the girl haunted every single area of the ship. Like we were not meant to be here without her permission. She was the scorned woman who would burn us all to the ground.
I was probably being dramatic. She was most likely dead. Just as I would be if I didn’t obey orders.
My job.
I turned to face the open ocean when a small island came into view. Where the hell were we going this time? I didn’t like to be too far from home.
I really didn’t like it.
Shiloh
The footsteps in the sand were fresh. Almost as though someone had only just ventured over the damp shoreline. A clock ticked in the back of my mind, and chills broke out over my skin. I had been here before; I knew I had. The cliff wasn’t to the right, though, like it was at the main beach, it was to the left.