CHAPTER 1
I’ve never seen Mary angrier. Not even the time I woke to find her grinning at me while sharpening the knife given to me by my dead mother. She’s practically spitting in protest at what I’ve suggested.
“You think just because he dumped me that I feel less bad about leaving him behind?” she shouts from across the bunkroom in our tiny cabin in the woods. “Newsflash, Nada: Isaac and I are friends, too. I have a right to go!”
Her honey curls are dripping wet from swimming in the lake as she clutches a fluffy white towel around her body. We don’t have swimsuits. We only arrived at the cabin five hours ago and I’m already getting ready to leave.
I had a feeling Mary would react this way when I told her Daedric and I would be setting off in search of Isaac. After leaving Isaac behind seven weeks ago as a prisoner at the Salton Sea I couldn’t bare to live inside my skin. The shame of abandoning my best friend has been eating away at me from the inside out like maggots. I knew Mary would be upset with my suggestion that she stay behind at the cabin with Eve and Daedric’s seven-year-old sister Elysia, but I didn’t think she would protest so vehemently.
“Fine,” I say, as I slip my arms into the straps of my backpack. “And I know you and Isaac are friends… some of the time.”
Mary changes into dry clothes and repacks her backpack. Daedric and I trudge into the kitchen where Eve and Elysia are busy eating bowls of ramen noodles.
Elysia slurps the noodles and gets broth all over her face sending her and Eve into fits of giggles. I glance at Daedric’s face to see how he’s holding up. His golden hair shades his green eyes. He puts his hand on the small of my back and leads me toward the kitchen. The regret in his eyes makes my stomach twist.
“You can stay,” I whisper.
He shakes his head as we enter the kitchen. The tinkling laughter explodes in my ears. A mess of ramen noodles is splattered across the vinyl tile in the tiny kitchen.
Eve smiles at me. “She’s the one who made the mess,” she says, pointing at Elysia.
Fifteen-year-old Eve has only known Elysia for seven weeks, but they’re already like sisters. Elysia has forced Eve to peek out of her protective shell and take a look around. Grave robbers assaulted Eve five months ago and I imagine Elysia’s innocence reminds Eve of the way things were before that day. If I leave, will Eve regress?
“Elysia, clean up your mess, please,” Daedric commands, his voice is soft and comforting. “You have to keep this place clean. I’m not gonna be here to do it for you.”
Elysia laughs as she kneels and picks the sticky ramen noodles off the floor.
Eve sets her bowl of noodles on the counter and looks at me. “You’re leaving?”
Daedric nods and Elysia drops a handful of noodles into her bowl on the counter. “Where are you going?” Elysia asks, but she’s still smiling. She doesn’t know what Eve means.
Daedric picks Elysia up and sits her on the counter. “How’s your shoulder?”
Elysia shrugs the shoulder where she was shot seven weeks ago then she shrugs both shoulders as if to say, “I guess it’s okay if I can still do this.”
“We’re going to look for someone,” Daedric says to her. “When we rescued you from the bad place, one of our friends got lost. We gotta go back for him, just like we went back for you. Do you understand?”
Elysia’s not smiling anymore. “We have to go back there?”
“No, honey. You’re not going back there,” he says. “You never gotta go back there. Just me and Nada and Mary. We’ll be gone for a while and you’ll stay here with Eve. And you two can eat all the noodles and swim for hours until you’re sick. But you still gotta clean up your mess. Is that okay?”
Elysia appears torn between nonstop swimming and losing her brother again.
“You have to stay,” I say to Daedric. “I’ll go alone with Mary. We’ll be fine without you.”
Daedric chuckles. “Gee, thanks.”
“You know what I mean,” I say. “You have to stay here.”
Daedric turns back to Elysia. “What do you think, sis? Should I stay with you or should I go with Nada to find our friend?”
Elysia pinches her chin and tilts her head as she thinks. “You should go get him,” she says with a nod of her head and her brown hair falls forward around her round face. “You can’t leave him in the bad place.”
Mary enters the kitchen with her backpack on and her wet curls wrapped in a knot on the back of her head. “I’m ready.”
“Listen to Eve while we’re gone, okay? And when I get back I’ll build us a boat so we can go fishing,” Daedric says and Elysia’s eyes light up.
The light in Eve’s crystal blue eyes flickers out. I wrap my arms around her and she barely pats me on the back in return.
“Are you okay?” I ask her.
She nods. “Don’t promise me you’ll come back,” she says. “Just promise you won’t let them take any more pieces of you.”
“Next time, we’re going back for you,” I reply. “And please build some traps around the cabin, just in case anyone stumbles upon this place.”
This is the first time I’ve seen Eve with her hair pulled back in a ponytail. Her black hair normally hangs around her face hiding her fair skin and eyes. I don’t know if it’s her hair or the mild sunburn on her cheeks, but she appears livelier than ever. Or maybe I’m just trying to fool myself into believing that Eve is strong enough to be left behind. Her and Mary exchange a brief hug and Mary whispers something in her ear that makes her smile.
We leave the cabin and set off down the steep slope we climbed when we arrived just hours ago. Daedric immediately reaches for my hand to help me down.
I pull my hand back. “Thanks, but I can do it alone,” I say, as I grasp a small boulder and lower myself down the incline. I’ve descended inclines steeper than this a million times in the Angeles Forest.
“Yeah, I kinda got that already,” Daedric replies. “I was just trying to help.”
Mary makes it to the bottom first. “Are you guys going to be bickering the whole way?” she says as she catches her breath. “I’ll just keep my distance if you don’t mind.”
I can’t help but roll my eyes as she sets off a few paces ahead of us. Mary is the last person I need a lecture from on bickering.
Daedric smiles at me as if I have a booger sticking out of my nose.
“What?” I ask.
“I saw that look,” he says with a grin. “You’re still peeved about her and Isaac.”
“Oh, please. I’m over that,” I reply.
Daedric’s laugh punctures the still forest air. He can see right through me.
Books by T.S. Welti
No Shelter Trilogy (Post-Apocalyptic Love Story)
No Shelter (#1)
Left Behind (#2)
Buried Alive (#3)
No Shelter Trilogy Omnibus Edition (#1-3)
Tangled Hopes (The Prequel) coming soon!
Darklandia (Dystopian)
Carrier Spirits (Paranormal Romance)
Parallel Spirits (#1)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I was born and raised in Southern California and have lived in three countries, three states, and a zillion different cities. I write mostly science fiction, fantasy, and romance for readers ages thirteen and up. In my spare time I love traveling; misquoting movies and TV shows; consuming mounds of books and chocolate; obsessing over music and lyrics; and pretending to be a celebrity chef.
I began telling stories when I was five and began writing t
hem down when I was six. I was painfully shy as a child. Writing and reading provided an escape from the scary world. In fact, I was so introverted, I once wrote a story about a girl who got rejected by her imaginary friend and the story was based on true events. I know, how sad. Thankfully, as I got older I grew out of the shyness, for the most part, but I never let go of my books or my pencil.
You can find out more about me and my books at https://tswelti.com.
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