Young Adult
Eden Cove Vol. 8
"A mask tells more than a face".-Oscar Wilde Amelia laced up her running shoes and carefully made her way out the door of the B&B and down the stairs to avoid waking anyone. It was barely sunrise and Gracie was on Kai duty. She needed the run to clear her head before Kaden arrived and before her lunch with her sister. Amelia was a woman with a lot of secrets. She often felt as though no one in her life understood her and she wanted them to, then again, maybe she was happier if they didn't. She liked her secrets. The running calmed her mind and helped her plan her next moves. Millie was a nice person, but she was a calculated person. She suspected that the constant movement helped keep her from the boredom that sometimes crept in. She had come up with no other words for it other than boredom, restless, she wasn't really unhappy. She felt it early in childhood, this nagging sensation to do something, anything, different than she had done before. There had been all the hobbies she ran through when she was young, forcing her mother to keep up. That quickly turned to an obsession with boys in middle school, which quickly turned to sex by her freshman year in high school. She played on the girl's volleyball and field hockey teams and went to every boy's varsity sporting event EC hosted. Her parents thought she was really into sports but she, and Miranda, were really into the attention from the boys. Millie and Miranda learned a lot and learned it young. She met Kaden in middle school and while she dated him on and off, she kept it from getting serious. When he really made the move for a relationship during their junior year of high school, and since her obsession with him had never faded, she said yes. She really loved Kade and for a few months, he had all her attention. When she ended up in the back of a football player's truck one night, she realized she should stop but she didn't. She told Miranda she would tell Kade and it would never happen again. But she didn't, she couldn't find the words to tell him. Kade treated her so nicely and she found in him a kindred spirit, she had no doubt he would marry her and get her away from here. Miranda encouraged her to keep it a secret from Kade because she thought they were perfect together and that he might dump her if she confessed. She made Millie feel better about the little slip-up with whats-his-name. A few months later, Kaden got the flu and had to skip Miranda's birthday party. When Millie woke up in bed with a hot guy she met at the party who played ball at Dunmore Community College, she smiled. He wasn't going to be saying anything to Kaden. Of course, Miranda found out what happened but she didn't seem to think it was a big deal. And this pattern continued right up until Amelia and Kaden exchanged wedding vows. Millie had decided to be faithful to her husband. But she insisted they get far away from the Cove, she needed to start a new life and be a new person. They started over together, built a happy life, or so she thought. When she first realized that Kaden was having an affair, it took her by surprise and she did what it took to end it, without saying a word to him, she got pregnant. He was shocked that her birth control failed. Idiot. She just stopped taking the pill. Gracie snapped him out of that situation and things got back on track. But a few years later, she felt restless and started to think they needed something else, something was missing in their lives. The first kid worked so why not a second one? Tristan seemed to further help things, the perfect family. When Tris was a few years old she started running, she loved it. It grounded her and she was feeling better about life in general. They started trying other sports together as a family, they went bungee jumping, scuba diving, and zip lining. The kids loved it all. Then Kaden had his next affair and Amelia was so confused. Things were going so well or so she thought and so she got pregnant again. Then she joined a gym, got a hot younger trainer, she worked hard on her body and tried to stay relevant. Now, Amelia was suffocating and needed out of California and the life they had created. She didn't want to get a divorce, even though plenty of the women she knew in Cali were divorced. She hoped Kade would just go along with her new plans and things could be normal again.
By Sasha Austin3 years ago in Fiction
Line of Constant direction, Chapter 1
Chapter 1 Anchor Up The security guards on patrol turned off the last light in the corridor. Xu Heng was the only one left in the office, facing a table full of messy case files and materials. The fast food box delivered by the takeaway had already cooled, and the characteristic greasy smell of the gutter oil after it had cooled drifted away, filling the small, closed compartment.
By Randy L Devine3 years ago in Fiction
Eden Cove Vol. 7
"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out". - Walter Winchell Jessamyn and Molly both slept in Monday morning following the opening weekend of Carnival of Chaos. It had been a huge success for the park and they had already extended the park hours for the next weekend. Both girls were exhausted but they had a busy day ahead of them. If they were going to keep their bills paid, the limited hours at KK's were not going to cut it and they needed to pick up a second job during the week. Karol's was now down to just operating three days a week for the Halloween event and even though the girls could expect to be scheduled open to close all three days, it wasn't enough. Candy had called last week and told them her new friend, Guy, was the manager of the brand new craft store that had opened in Dunmore Point, which was in the next town to the north of Eden Cove and only a 20-minute drive. Candy "might have" pulled some strings and got them both interviews with Guy on Monday afternoon.
By Sasha Austin3 years ago in Fiction
Silver Starling
It looks like a monster. I've never seen something so fearsome, so sharp, so loud. Every line is sharp and jagged without a hint of anything soft. I get the sense that it's ready to devour me as soon as I make a single wrong step. And it's not forgiving, either. It will make sure I'm consumed.
By E.J. Robison3 years ago in Fiction
Natural Magic Chapter 15
Read Chapter 14 Here After she left the table, Key went in search of Kaylee, who had waved to her as she walked by with a boy... at least, he looked like a boy--mostly. He had short black hair and a flat chest, but instead of wearing jeans, like most Faraday students, he had on a black skirt like Miriam usually wore, and multi-colored striped tights. She meekly followed them to their table. The boy saw her first and turned.
By Molly Marjorie3 years ago in Fiction
Silent Screams
Silent Screams By: Steven Dean Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. Jarvis wondered why the psycho that had boarded their ship, with his equally deranged crew, was so fascinated by that idea. Thirteen people had died so far, so that this poor excuse for a human could test whether or not he could actually hear them scream once he threw them out the airlock.
By Steven Dean3 years ago in Fiction
Eden Cove Vol. 6
"The trees are about to show us how lovely it is to let the dead things go." Justin pulled Foxy, his old Beagle, up the old driveway towards the front door to his old house. Unlike most kids his age, Justin wasn't in a big rush to move out of his parent's house, which was his grandparent's house before that. His parents, Patrick and Sadie, had gotten married when they were both 30. They wasted no time starting their family, Adalyne was born just before their first wedding anniversary. Sienna barely a year and a half later, the perfect "Irish twins", as they looked very similar both taking after Sadie, fair skin, with light brown eyes, and hair. The actual twins followed three years later, Blake and Brighton, looked like the perfect mix of Patrick and Sadie, with a much deeper brown skin tone and eyes, like Patrick, but the same light brown curly hair Sadie had. While some people may have assumed the kids were accidents or that they never wanted more with four kids so close in age, Pat and Sadie shared the mindset that the Lord would give them the children that they were meant to have. After a few years, they assumed they might be getting too old to have more. But at 40, Sadie got a surprise when she continued feeling sick at odd hours and decided to take a pregnancy test. Justin, their only baby boy, would complete their family and be doted on by both his parents and his sisters. When Justin was only eight, Sadie tried explaining to him that she was a little sick, nothing to worry about, but she may be more tired than normal. By the time Justin was nine years old, he understood what cancer was and how it attacked someone's body. Right before his tenth birthday, Sadie died at home, surrounded by her family.
By Sasha Austin3 years ago in Fiction
