Secondary Silence Read online

  “Oh honey, I need you to run. Run as far away from here as you can. Find an adult and tell them to call the police. You are going to be safe if you let me do what I have to, okay? Do you understand, princess?”

  Her panicked nod was enough for me. I pointed her in the direction of the fast-food restaurant down the street, “Go there. Hurry.”

  As she made he escape I waited for the bastard in black to make his way towards me.

  ***

  I blinked, finding myself in a car. I was startled by my new location, but I knew exactly where I was. I was going to prevent him from killing a baby.

  The country music played as it did in my vision, causing him to sway to the song. The caramel liquor was flowing down his throat while I hoped he would choke on it.

  As if I had pressed play on a video, this vision played out as it did before. This time I was ready for whatever was going to happen. The driver wasn’t ready for what was going to happen, but I was ready. The car swerved back and forth over the double yellow lines as cars passed on the left. I watched the road instead of him. His choking caught my attention as he took another swig from the bottle.

  Not paying attention to the road I looked up to a yellow bus, loading the smallest of children. They were so small and not ready to leave this world. I looked over to the left, to see a minivan approaching. The minivan.

  Without hesitation, I flickered into the car, grabbed the driver and his wife. The small boy in the back seat was playing with the baby locked into the car seat. I grabbed the boy next, delivering him to outside of the vehicle on the side of the road. I struggled with the crying baby boy in the seat, “You need to trust me, little guy. I am going to make sure you live a very long life.” After releasing both the car seat and the buckle holding him securely in place, I delivered him to the grassy shoulder behind his loving family.

  Returning to the drunk driver, I yanked on the wheel causing him to run head first in to the empty van. Without me, he could’ve killed a countless number of undeserving children.

  ***

  Smoke and sweat burned my nostrils as the music started pounding through the oversized speakers. Standing off to the side of the stage, I watched as fans screamed and danced to the melodic vocals from the lead singer. His hips swayed in an inviting manner, causing the girls in the front row to melt to the floor.

  A crashing sound caught my attention behind the stage. Following the screams from a distance, I found myself in a long line of women holding a slew of things that they were wanting to have signed by the lead singer heart throb himself.

  There was a girl being escorted out the back door, wailing and screaming inaudible words. The music was too loud for me to understand her pleas as she was thrown out of the building like garbage.

  As the security guards made their way back towards me, their conversation was one that I could only hope that the girl in the back wasn’t a part of. I didn’t wait to find out, I hauled ass down the corridor to the exit.

  Pushing open the heavy metal, I saw the barely dressed girl rolled in to a ball in a pile of garbage bags. Her pulse was weak but she was responsive. “Hey, wake up, hun.”

  She moaned in to her elbow before looking up to me, “I said ‘no,’ but he didn’t listen. I didn’t want to go backstage. The syringe hurts. I don’t remember, but I am bleeding.”

  I started checking her arms for blood before moving to her neck. She grabbed my hand as I started to move away from her. “I don’t see any blood.”

  “Not here,” she lifted her skirt, revealing blood between her legs. “I never wanted it. I told him that, but he told me… I had to, that no-one would believe… that the lead singer of HypeJax… would need to… rape… me.”

  She lost consciousness as I stood with my own blood boiling. He raped her and I wasn’t going to let that go unjustified.

  As I walked back in to the venue, I was on a mission that I wouldn’t abandon. Halfway down the hall, I saw a door cracked open. Kicking it in, here lay another half-dressed girl with her legs spread but her panties were still intact. That was all it took for me to make sure it never happened again.

  Having spent hours on a stage, playing the piano, I knew exactly what to do. I slipped beneath the stage and released the pins holding the center of the stage intact. I heard the drum set unsettle and the cymbal crash to the floor. I needed to move forward a bit if I was going to stop the rapist from acting again. Kicking out the locking bolts, the stage began buckling.

  It was only a matter of time before he would put enough weight on the platform and end himself in the process.

  The smell of burning flesh was worse than the drunk driver, and I was ok with it.

  ***

  As the boys were running alongside of the train tracks, I watched from a distance as they waited for the train. I knew they were up to no good, but there was something off about the two hovering over a phone. They were more interested in the message than the racing train approaching them.

  “Do it. It will be funny, man,” was all I heard before moving closer to the boys.

  “Nah, he’s not worth it,” was all the boy had to say for me to move closer to them.

  Their ride was nearly there as one of the boys from the back shouted to them.

  Across the screen I saw exactly what was so important.

  Danny: Leave me alone or I will do it.

  No-one will miss you. End your life and everyone will be happy.

  MESSAGE UNDELIVERED

  Before he could hit send and without warning, I grabbed the kid by the shirt and pushed him in to the train. Danny wasn’t going to be bullied today.

  ***

  There I stood in the woods, surrounded by scurrying animals and falling leaves. There was a truck parked near an opening within the forest. I saw a smoldering piece of paper alongside of the blue 4x4. I stomped on it, extinguishing the flame. There wasn’t much I could read, but I saw enough.

  To the parents of Sarah Lynn,

  The life insurance policy will reflect the changes that you have requested. The amount of $500,000 will be paid to the listed beneficiaries upon death.

  As soon as I finished that sentence, my heart dropped. I could hear a little girl counting from the trees and I needed to find her before her parents did.

  I grabbed a gun from the front seat of the truck and took off after the little girl. She disappeared through the thick brush, leaving me with little to no time to find her.

  I heard the bullet enter the chamber as I came up on the side of the man. I held my arms up and pointed, “Don’t do it,” I warned.

  I saw his finger twitch against the trigger, so I pulled mine. She didn’t deserve to die, not at the hands of her own father. “I am so sorry. I didn’t…”

  “Did you catch it, Daddy?” Sarah came running towards her bleeding father, leaving me with no choice but to keep her safe.

  ***

  The monitors in a hospital tell a thousand stories, finding the right cure can be much more difficult. Standing outside of the hospital room, I saw a nurse slip into the room with her hands in her pocket, facing the ground. Suspicions were high and I needed to know what was going on.

  As I peek through the door, I saw it was safe to slip in behind her.

  “If only you could be trusted to keep your mouth shut, this wouldn’t be a problem. I told you this was our little secret and you chose to use it to black mail me. Unfortunately, with you dead, your father will continue to need me in his life. With you in this state, no one will visit or ask questions.” I could hear her confession as if it were rehearsed. “It will be our little secret, until you’re dead, of course.”

  She turned around to face the TV as I slipped under the bed. The nurse pulled the medication from the syringe and inserted it in to the IV. I reached out, pinching off the vile feeding and hoped she would hurry out of the room.

  As I had hoped she did, but another set of feet appeared out of nowhere. I watched as she read the chart and walked over to the
machines. I couldn’t hold the toxic syrup from entering him for long, so I pulled the plug on the stand. The loud beeping was going to bring unwanted attention, so I crawled out of my hiding spot to come face to face with myself. She, I, looked scared. I held my finger to my mouth with a “Shhh…” If she was the me from earlier, she will understand as I did.

  Grabbing another bottle from my pocket, I inserted it in to a spare syringe and injected him with the necessary dose. Within minutes the boy came to, as the nurses and doctors filled the room.

  He had heard everything the woman had said and began his side of the story. I slipped out during the commotion.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Ashley

  The bright light flickered me back to the stone corridor. I looked around to find myself holding on to Thaddeus as the energy finished the transfer.

  “Hello, Ashley,” a voice that I recognized, welcomed.

  “What are you doing here? You turned me away.” I said to the decision maker that assigned me to wander the planet as a ghost.

  He looked to Thad and I as he continued, “Only a special person could handle the energy disbursement needed to accomplish what you just did.”

  “What do you mean, disbursement? I am right here, still pulling it from him in attempt to save his life,” I screamed. “I killed five people in my visions.”

  “No, you killed five people that deserved it. We are not to judge the actions of others, but we can save the future of our kind,” his cryptic talk was confusing me.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Ashley, the only way anyone, including yourself, were to absorb that kind of power would be to use it. Anyone else would have gone crazy with anger and fear, but you did the opposite. You acted out of love,” he clarified.

  “But I killed five people out of anger,” he cut me off before I could continue.

  “You did the right thing with the energy that you were given by accomplishing six tasks simultaneously. Your silence, strength and empathy for others controlled the outcome of the situations. You did the right thing with the power that was forced on you. There is a secondary part of you that most others of your kind are not gifted with.”

  He still didn’t make sense, but I was listening. “I couldn’t let him die,” I said as I turned to Thaddeus.

  “Because you love him,” he said factually.

  “Yes.”

  “You have earned your place on the other side, and I am here to collect you.” He said with sadness in his voice.

  “I don’t want to go,” I whispered.

  He looked to me with squinted eyes, “You are being offered a lifetime of peace and you are tuning it down for… this?” he looked around with his palms turned up.

  “No, I am turning it down for… him. I will choose him everytime.”

  He bowed his head, looking to the two of us in a tight embrace on the floor, “Then it shall be done.”

  With another burst of light, I was blown backwards to the floor.

  “Ouch,” I said as I tried to sit up. If I were a ghost, I shouldn’t have felt that. “Being a human, sucks.”

  I didn’t mean to say that out loud, as I hear Drake chuckle from my side.

  “I told you she would be fine. She isn’t like the other ones, Thaddeus,” Drake said as Thad moved closer to my side.

  “No, she isn’t. She is better than the others,” he responded to Drake before he leaned down to talk to me.

  “Hey. How ya feeling?” His fingers wrapped in to my hair.

  “Fine, I think. Falling hurts more than I remember,” I whine.

  “There are some downsides to being human, but there are some pretty great things, too.”

  “I know, I was human. Now, I am… Wait, what am I?” I look around for an answer. “He didn’t tell me?”

  “Who are you looking for?” he seemed concerned as he checked the back of my head for blood.

  “He gave me a choice and disappeared.”

  “What did you choose?”

  “You,” I whispered as his forehead met mine.

  “I forgot to tell you something, while you were off saving innocents.”

  “What’s that?”

  His eyes were a richer shade of violet than I remembered, “I love you, too, Ashley”

  His lips brushed against mine, leaving me breathless and wanting more. My eyes closed instinctively as he deepened the kiss.

  “I’ll just be in the Lords chambers until you’re done,” Drake said as he disappeared down the hallway.

  Thaddeus pulled away slightly, “I’ve missed this.”

  A tear fell from my eye while I watched him watch me, “I get to keep my powers and my vampire.”

  “At least we know I can make you real, or something like it, without killing you,” was the only thing he needed to say.

  “Take me home, Thaddeus.”

  Follow Virginia Johnson

  Indie Book Network

  http://www.indiebooknetwork.com

  https://www.facebook.com/indiebooknetwork/

  Facebook

  https://facebook.com/AuthorVirginiaJohnson/

  Twitter

  https://twitter.com/AuthorVJohnson

  Instagram

  https://www.instagram.com/charmedchic24/

  Newsletter

  http://tinyletter.com/VirginiaLeeJohnson

  Website:

  AuthorVirginiajohnson.com

  Indie book Channel

  https://www.facebook.com/TheIndieBookChannel/

  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeGKDtCb8TpoCounkSK0rpg

  Fan Group

  https://www.facebook.com/groups/KylesHarem/

  Tampa

  https://www.facebook.com/TampaIndieAuthorBookConvention/

  Tampaindieauthorbookconvention.wordpress.com