Sticks and Stones (26 page)

She stood and stared for a very long time. When her knees gave out, she lowered herself onto a stretch of grass to the left side of the lot. She wasn’t aware of how long she sat, but the sky gradually lightened. The heat at her back flickered and died. She was done. Running on low. Nothing but air beneath her skin, a scarecrow held up by sticks and stones.

The sun was high in the sky when Danny and Jack arrived. Their stolen black car spit up gravel and burned rubber when they braked. Jack left the car first, running to her, hands grasping at her before Danny was halfway there.

“Jesus, look at your hands. You’re covered in blood,” he said, and Sandra looked up to find that so were they.

They’ll cut a bloody swath
, Jeremiah said inside her head and Sandra closed her eyes, let Jack’s hands run over her, let Danny whisper, “It’s okay,” into her temple and gather her close. “It’s okay,” as Jack wrapped his arms around her, sandwiched her in between the both of them.

Who do you think will win? he’d asked
. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I’m sorry,” and wasn’t sure they understood what she was apologizing for.

“Shh,” Danny’s lips whispered. He kissed her temple, kissed her forehead, kissed her lips. She smelled of smoke and they smelled of blood and she said sorry again, getting into the front seat with Jack, on his lap, as Danny drove. She heard Jeremiah Epps’ words in her head all the way back to the motel. But Jack didn’t let go, and for once Danny didn’t stop talking, and Jeremiah Epps’ got a little quieter.

“You could leave,” Danny said, when they got back to the motel, car ticking in the heat and the sudden silence. And she could. She could leave them now. Before any more of her nightmares came true. Jack’s arms tightened. He didn’t say a word and Sandra shook her head.

“You’re my family,” she said, for better or worse, and Danny nodded, and they all got out of the car.

Jack carried her inside. She’d forgotten about her shoes – she’d kicked Epps’ off outside the warehouse. He sat her on the tiny bathroom counter, nearly falling into the sink, and Danny got the first aid kit, dug glass out of her feet and bandaged her arms.

She stared at her wrists as Jack glued them back together, covering everything with cotton pads and gauze. Finally, she chased them out of the bathroom, but not before pulling Danny down by his shirt collar, kissing him messily and hard, in a way that hurt. She pressed so close that the heat was almost too much. Her eyes burned with unshed tears and she never wanted to let go. He wrapped around her, placed one hand on the back of her neck and hung on just as tight

“We’re okay,” he whispered and Sandra wanted to believe him.

He left and Sandra used the threadbare cloth by the sink to wash. The strong floral soap masked the clinging odor of smoke and gasoline. It lingered inside her nose, too sweet, like something rotting. In the mirror, she studied her pale and scraped face, eyes so bruised that she looked like a skull.

Sandra wondered if she’d been right, all those years ago. That her boys were going to change the world.

Maybe they already had.

Sandra Daron leaned close to the mirror, and wondered if her eyes were growing darker.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

If you enjoyed this read, please leave a review.

Author Bio

Angèle Gougeon
is a Canadian writer and artist, with several short stories published in literary magazines and the creator of several more book covers. Though she’s recently branched into the digital art world, she finds her roots in the traditional mediums of watercolors and acrylics. She writes stories of all genres, but has always been especially drawn to the fantastical and tales of the paranormal.

Sticks and Stones
is her first published novel, and she hopes to bring you many more adventures in the future.

More titles from EDGE-Lite:

Stranger King

By Nadia Hutton

They came. They conquered. We few survived.

Lena
Greenwood
is known as a “Daywalker”, a select type of mercenary who has adapted to working in the deadly radiation of post-war British Columbia. When Earth is invaded by the Mokai, a hostile alien race, she and her company escape into the Canadian Rockies. Her last hope is to survive the harsh realities of a shattered world while the rest of humanity is culled or enslaved.

Thegn, a Mokai priest and a representative of the interspecies council who sanctions the Mokai, is captured and held hostage by a still free group of humans hiding in the mountains. It is his task to document and study the human species who he believes is sentient and worth protecting. When his interactions with the humans bring to light similarities between himself and his captors, Thegn must face the reality that to save those he learns to love, he may have to go against everything he once believed.

Stranger King
is a story of love and conquest, of the patterns that immerge through the passions of love and war. It is the story of survival.

“Stranger King
is born out of a greater feminist science fiction tradition. It is informed by a colonialist narrative and presents a bisexual woman as its lead. What marks it differently are the contrasting halves of the novel. We establish Lena as a heroine from early on, letting us understand her as a person before we switch perspectives to that of Thegn. We are seeing her through his eyes, already knowing her from hers. We see mistranslations, misunderstandings, and ultimately see the power dynamics working in the oppressor’s favor.”
– Author Nadia Hutton

***

The Red Wraith

By Nick Wisseman

Magic awakens
in early America. The Red Wraith is born.

Cast into exile by his clan for being a spawn of human and spirit, Naysin is lost in a world of change as pale men from the sea arrive to plunder the riches of the New World. Guided only by the devious facets of his spirit father, Naysin has no choice but to master his powers to survive the destruction of his people. But the nature of that power is both light and dark and so the legend of the Red Wraith begins. On the island of Bimshire, he inspires a slave rebellion before abandoning it; near his former home, he marches European settlers to their deaths; and in the forests of Edgeland, he ends a battle by massacring both sides. Such acts cause much of the New World to see him as the Red Wraith, an indigenous monster who delights in butchering white innocents. The infamy is well-earned, but the monster is not what Naysin set out to be. And when he encounters a group of fellow magic-users, Naysin realizes he may yet have a chance to set things right, but to do that he must conquer the only thing that ensured his survival, the dual facets of his father.

An intriguing coming of age fantasy novel set in early American history,
The Red Wraith
will appeal to older young adult readers and fans of Sabaa Tahir’s ‘
An Ember in the Ashes
’ and Jacqueline Carey’s ‘
Kushiel’s Legacy
’ series.

Praise for
The Red
Wraith
:

“…an innovative and brilliant novel that touches upon countless ideas. It incorporates a clever magical world and blends it perfectly into this historical fiction. Nick Wisseman’s way with words definitely helped create an enchanting novel.”
– Lashaan
& Trang | Bloggers and Book Reviewers

“This blend of historical fiction and fantasy about Native Americans and the Europeans that disturbed their peace was a great story with a unique magic system and a fascinating setting. The most interesting to me was the concept of the protagonist, who was torn between the darkness and light, trying to find his way in the rapidly changing course of life in his country. The tension it created was both about the demons in every one of us and the hope, and so this fantasy story explores some very serious topics along with the magical world in it and the boy’s destiny.”
–
Alexandra, Reader

“This was fast-paced and exciting. The writing was very good, the plot interesting, the settings and historical touches finely detailed, the characters engaging and believable. (Although Naysin is a teenage boy, so not always the most lovable protagonist – but I stayed interested in him and his fate even when he was acting annoyingly.) Overall, a great book!”
– JKD, Amazon Reviewer

“This novel should appeal to young adults, fans of magic and the history of North America … carefully planted seeds we encounter along Naysin’s journey are crafted into a satisfying and action packed final act that is hard to put down…”
– David Campbell

“A great story that I just could not put down until I finished it and then was hoping for more! I, with full intent, give it one of my highest ratings to date! Great story and I look forward to seeing more from him.”
– Alan R. Vance, Amazon
Reviewer

***

For more EDGE-Lite titles and information about upcoming speculative fiction please visit us at:

www.edgewebsite.com

Details

Sticks and Stones

by Angèle Gougeon

Copyright © 2016 by Angèle Gougeon

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published by

EDGE-Lite

An Imprint of

HADES PUBLICATIONS, INC.

P.O. Box 1714,

Calgary, Alberta, T2P 2L7,

Canada

The EDGE-Lite Team:

Producer: Brian Hades

Acquisitions Editor: Ella Beaumont

Edited by: Michelle Heumann

Cover Design: Ella Beaumont

Cover Art Elements: egorr, jaroslav74, fotoplanner

e-Book Design: Mark Steele

Publicist: Janice Shoults

e-Book ISBN: 978-1-77053-110-9

* * * * *

All rights reserved. Under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-Book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

* * * * *

EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing and Hades Publications, Inc. acknowledges the ongoing support of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the Canada Council for the Arts.

(EBK-20160115)

www.edgewebsite.com