(Un)wise

By Melissa Haag

(Un)wise

Copyright: Melissa Haag

Published: November 27, 2013

ISBN: 978-0-9888523-3-4

Cover Design: Indie-Spired Designs

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without express written permission from the author.

Titles by Melissa Haag

Judgement of the Six series

Hope(less)

(Mis)fortune

(Un)wise

Standalone titles

Touch

Prologue

I woke with a start, the terror of the dream still gripping me.  Sweat coated my face and my soaked shirt clung to my skin.  I looked around the room.  My room. Safe.  I let out a shaky breath and tried to convince myself that the dream had only been a product of my imagination.  Nothing more.

The alarm clock next to my bed showed just after five a.m., but it felt like I hadn’t slept at all.

Kicking off the covers, I got out of bed.  Clothes lay scattered on the floor, shadowy lumps that I stepped over on my way to the bathroom.  I turned on the light and scrunched my eyes against its bright glare for a moment.

Scrubbing my hands over my face, I leaned against the sink trying to shake the dream.  It just wouldn’t fade.  I dropped my hands to study myself in the mirror.  Dark strands of hair stuck to my glistening pale face, an unnatural flush on my cheeks the only splash of color.  Even my lips, usually a warm full pink, matched the surrounding colorless skin.  Glassy bloodshot eyes, too wide and filled with lingering panic, stared back at me.

I took a deep, unsteady breath. It wasn’t real.  I’m still me.  I let my breath out slowly with a self-depreciating laugh.  I looked like crap and needed a shower.  Great way to start my senior year.

The details of the dream continued to swirl in my head as I stepped into the shower.  The lingering sensation of fur hides brushing against my legs scared me.  It made it all seem more like a memory than a dream.  A memory from an era long past, seen through the eyes of a woman who wasn’t me...yet she was.

She wore animal skins and stood outside her mud and grass hut.  Other huts surrounded hers.  The heavily clouded sky cast a grey gloom on the primitive village.  Fear swelled within her.  Her fear filled me as if it were my own.  I saw what she saw. I was her...yet not.

People ran past her, sprinting between huts, terror in their eyes.  Her stomach turned sour with panic.  Her vision suddenly changed.  The world disappeared, replaced by nothing but tiny sparks floating in a vast darkness.  The sparks moved, flying past her in time with the sound of running feet.  After a moment, I understood what she saw.

She had an amazing ability that enabled her to see the location of people.  The sparks shrank in size as the view expanded.  Not just the location of those around her, but anywhere in the world.  She focused on the immediate area worried about her family, using her gift to try to find them.  She ran to check each spark.  The tang of smoke drifted in the air.  Her despair grew, and she ran faster.

All of the tiny sparks looked the same, making it difficult to find the right ones. Too soon an orange glow illuminated the dark sky.  Smoke burned her eyes and nose.

Close by, a different color appeared in her mind.  Panic flared within her when she spotted the blue-grey sparks.  She stopped running and stood still for a few seconds, terror squeezing the acrid air from her lungs.  One heartbeat.  Two.  She hesitated.  Despairing over her family, she spun away from the unique sparks.  Her heart clenched, and tears clogged her throat.  She left behind those she loved, hearing their dying screams as she ran.

The smoke masked her direction until the yawning abyss of open air loomed before her.  Skidding to a halt at the edge of the cliff near her village, she watched dirt tumble over the ledge.  She leaned forward, peering over at the broken rocks below.  Hopelessness and despair filled her.  There was no escape.  Her thoughts filled me.  Die as they had or die her own way?  She continued to stare at the rocks below as she made up her mind.

I struggled to separate myself from her, to scream at her to stop; but inside her own mind, she couldn’t hear me.

She glanced over her shoulder and saw a huge beast running at her.  A strange calm filled her.

I finally understood the fear and stopped struggling.

It looked like a wolf on steroids and had blood covering its muzzle.  As she watched, it changed midstride from beast to man, never pausing.

She turned and flung herself from the cliff.  As she fell, she twisted midair to look back at the fate she’d escaped.  The man stood naked at the cliff’s edge, blood smeared across his face.  He yelled in a language I couldn’t understand, but she did.  He cursed her, saying they would never give up.  They would wait as many cycles as it took until we were all theirs.

I woke before she hit the ground; but the fear, the feeling of freefalling, the willingness to die rather than to fall into the hands of that thing...it all stayed with me.

Chapter One

I needed a fix and I needed it bad.  Standing in the mall, I reviewed my options while nervously tugging the long sleeves of my shirt over my wrists to hide the scars there.  Since it was a Sunday afternoon, nicely dressed kids trailed behind their equally neat parents in the packed mall.  In my worn, dirty clothes from the day before, I stood out.  The clerk in the drug store would certainly remember me from yesterday.  I’d almost tipped over while waiting in line.  When my turn came at the register, he’d looked me over and asked for my ID.  His doubtful, long gaze at it had made my palms sweat.  When he’d finally glanced up at me, he’d asked, “Are you sure you want these?”

I couldn’t go back to the same clerk.  My ID was okay at a glance, but it wasn’t a great fake ID.  And he’d wonder why I was back for more pills when what I purchased yesterday should have lasted at least three days.

Shifting from one foot to the other, I chewed on my nail knowing what I needed to do but hating it.

Dani and her friend, Cadence, loitered near the food court, talking.  Dani stood six inches taller than me, had multicolored hair (pink and red today), and a cheek piercing to enhance her classic features.  She’d get what I needed if I asked. I knew she had a soft spot for me despite her slightly tough appearance.  She wouldn’t even ask for money though I did have it crumpled in my pocket.  No, she was interested in something else as payment.

Everyone knew Dani swung the other way.  Just like she knew I didn’t.  But it didn’t stop her from asking for a kiss anyway.  She didn’t demand a kiss from anyone else.  The first time I asked for her help, I thought she was doing it to test me.  To see if I was really serious about what I wanted her to buy.  I’d been desperate.  Yeah, I kissed a girl...and I didn’t like it.

If I was careful about when I bought, I didn’t need to ask her. I’d learned to be careful. I tried to wash up, change my clothes if there were any to change into; and I tried to close my eyes.  Not to sleep.  No, not that.  I just tried to relax so I wouldn’t look like a troubled kid strung out on drugs.  And I wasn’t.  Strung out on drugs that is.  I was definitely troubled.  More troubled than anyone around me would ever guess.