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Chapter 227: Retreat
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The True Nature Series Chapter 228: Of One Mind
THADDIE AND I JUMPED away from each other, our eyes wide as saucers. "Shanna!" I breathed out in surprise. But her voice had faded away. "What the heck?" Once again, I'd lost my connection to her."Your eyes turned blue," said Thaddeus with surprise. "Does that happen often? Was that our sister?"I pressed my lips together, frustrated that we'd been so close to talking to her. "Yes, it was Shanna. But she's gone now. Dang it." He opened his mouth to say something else, but I beat him to it. "Wait. Did you just say my eyes turned blue?" "Yes," he answered, looking at me strangely.I thought my eyes had done that before, too, when I'd heard a strange voice. But at the time, I'd convinced myself that it was my imagination. Did this happen every time she talked to me? I held out my hands to Thaddeus, hoping that together we could bring her back. He looked at my outstretched arms with confusion."Just testing a theory," I said. "Take my hands. Maybe we need to be in physical conta
The True Nature Series Chapter 229: Picking Up the Pieces
BOTH POLARIS AND THE Efotis arrived within minutes of each other. The folks from Polaris had found several locals disabled or dead outside the park, as well as two empty police cars. Someone must have called the authorities about the gunshots or the helicopters. Others had probably been curious enough to investigate the noise themselves. The Nasaru had silenced them before they could see anything. With heavy faces, Polaris began searching the perimeter for more victims and loading up bodies on stretchers to take them away. When the Efotis arrived, Caroline rushed up to me, her eyes wide and desperate. She grabbed me and hugged me like she was never letting go. Despite my reluctance to admit she was my mother, I found her arms comforting. It just felt right. Thaddeus stood as still and straight as a fencepost watching us with soft but wary eyes. I completely understood. My reintroduction to Caroline had been rocky. In fact, it had been like meeting her for the first time, because I'
The True Nature Series Chapter 230: The Promise
ZANDER WAS STILL GROGGY, and I helped him lean up against the railing of the general store. I wanted to stay with him, but another problem had cropped up. Polaris was trying to move Dad, and Knox wouldn't let them. No one wanted to risk getting close to his teeth and I feared they might try to drug him or something worse. I sighed and pushed myself up."I'll be right back," I told Zander.I headed across the road and carefully approached the growling Knox. "Hey there, buddy," I said in a soothing voice. "You still have me, remember?" I reached out my hand, letting it hang in the air like Dad had taught me the first time Knox and I had met. Knox's ears flattened, and he whined as he pressed his nose into my fingers. If dogs cried, I'd say Knox was crying now. His eyes looked sticky wet. I ran a hand down his neck, coaxing him off Dad's body and toward me. With a hand on his collar, I eased the two of us several feet away, allowing the others to move Dad. When his limp head dropped t
The True Nature Series Chapter 1: Back from the Dead (Volume 1: Secrets of the Sleeper)
Lydia Parker - Ten Months ago"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU did that! I hate you right now!"My daughter's words echoed in my head as I turned the car toward downtown. I wanted to talk about it, but I knew I would be wasting my breath until she calmed down. So, I ignored Tru, who fumed in the backseat, preferring to sit as far away from me as possible. I imagined what she was thinking: I have the most overprotective mother on the planet! You embarrassed me in front of all my friends! I'm the only person in my entire school who isn't at that party. I took a deep breath and unclenched my hands from the steering wheel. Getting angry was not going to help, and neither was feeling guilty. Sure, I knew the parents of the girl who threw the party. Sure, they seemed like a nice family. But, if I had learned anything during my forty years as a schoolteacher, it was that families were more than they appeared on the outside, and that really weird stuff happened in the "nice" families as often as i
The True Nature Series Chapter 2: It
Tru Parker - Today"ALONDREA!"A ghostly plea, with the intangibility of a dream within a dream, induced a stabbing panic like I'd never felt before. It sounded far away, perhaps over that hill - the one I could barely make out through the smoky haze filtering through the thick trees. My heart pounded to one thought - Dan-ger-Dan-ger."A-lon-dre-a!" It was a woman's voice, a terrified voice, and it was fading along with the clear blue sky above. I wanted that voice, and the woman it belonged to, but my mind was like the smoke slipping between the pine needles above me, unable to grasp the moment. I began to cough.A dog howled, a ghostly entreaty echoing through my confusion. Fright stepped back as hope pushed forward. But a child's hitched sobbing pulled me up short. Heavy paws thumped toward the small form. The dog ... no ... not a dog ... a wolf opened up its toothy mouth and reached for-- **My scream must have woken up Dad, because as I shrunk away from the image in my
The True Nature Series Chapter 3: Zombie Girl
AT FIRST, WHEN I was really young, I didn't know I was doing anything weird. My parents were proud when their toddler dressed in the dark and ended up with a head-to-toe matching outfit. They bragged to their friends and said I was a genius child. But eventually, when I never bothered to turn on the lights for anything, they began to get weird looks on their faces. I finally noticed that other kids couldn't do those things. And I realized that "seeing in the dark" was making Mom and Dad upset. By the time I entered grade school, I figured it was easier to pretend otherwise. I started flicking on the light switch at night, commenting on the darkness, and keeping a flashlight near my bed. Eventually, Mom and Dad stopped looking at me like I was an alien. The thing is, I knew I was different even when no one else did. And the more I worked to be like everyone else, the bigger pain-in-the-butt teenager I became, a tidal wave that could only be stopped by something equally cataclysmic, wh
The True Nature Series Chapter 4: Checklist
I DRIED OFF AFTER an extra long shower and went about my morning preparations. Repeating the mantra that Ruthie made me promise to say every morning since she came back from vacation. Yeah, she probably got it from a fortune cookie, but whatever."Whatever the mind conceives and believes, it achieves."Then I was supposed to imagine the way I wanted my day to go. I closed my eyes tightly and tried to see myself as I wanted to be today.I got nothing. Honestly, I couldn't imagine what today was going to be like, at least in a positive way. Instead, I thought about the good parts of my life.Right now, the best thing I had going were my grades. School was easy for me, always had been, and since I didn't goof off in class (unlike my best friend), the teachers liked me. Thank goodness, because after my mom died, I dropped out of sports, clubs, and my social life. The teachers must have felt sorry for me, because I pulled better grades than I deserved. However, that scholarship to Stanf
The True Nature Series Chapter 5: Body-snatching Alien
BY THE TIME I got downstairs, Dad had my lunch packed and a box of cereal on the table. You'd think I could make my own lunch by now. "Hey, Sunshine!" Dad said, looking up from his newspaper and peering over the rims of his glasses.I was certainly not feeling sunny. First-day-of-school butterflies were swarming in my stomach. I was excited and terrified at the same time. No. Blustery or scattered thunderstorms seemed more appropriate."How'd you sleep?""Great," I lied, raising my voice an octave. Dad lowered his newspaper, revealing an ugly scratch along his face. The butterflies in my stomach stopped flying and got sick. What kind of freak attacks her dad? Frowning, I joined him at the table. "Oh man, Dad. I'm sorry about your face." I poured some cereal into the empty bowl set out for me, not feeling hungry but knowing he'd feel better if I ate something."What, this ol' thing?" He ran his finger down the ugly scratch. "The guys at work are gonna love it! I'll tell them I w
Latest chapter
- The True Nature Series Chapter 230: The Promise
- The True Nature Series Chapter 229: Picking Up the Pieces
- The True Nature Series Chapter 228: Of One Mind
- The True Nature Series Chapter 227: Retreat
- The True Nature Series Chapter 226: The Aftermath
- The True Nature Series Chapter 225: Just Like Dante
- The True Nature Series Chapter 224: From the Frying Pan ...
- The True Nature Series Chapter 223: Backfire
- The True Nature Series Chapter 222: Inconceivable Choice
