Novels by Kahea Long

Mr. GreenBlue appeared gradually. Dark at first. Then lighter. Layers of color moving into one another like ocean water changing with depth. Familiar. Fluid. Soft. Calming. There were no walls here. No hard edges. Nothing requiring resistance. Meditation had always been this way. I let myself sink farther. My thoughts returned to Hunter. Then the woman. The blue shifted. I waited.Green appeared beneath it. Murky. Brown followed. Then black. I opened my eyes. The woman remained asleep several feet away. Hunter's adjoining door remained open. Nothing in the room had changed. I closed my eyes again. Blue. Green. Brown. Black.“What the hell,” I said to myself.The colors continued bleeding into one another. I concentrated. The movement stopped. That was unusual. I reached toward it. My fingers met with resistance. I pulled my hand back. There shouldn't have been anything to touch. I tried again. The surface gave slightly beneath my fingers. Soft. Almost gelatinous. I pressed. It thicke

JohannaI couldn't sleep.Apparently, moving from a hospital to one of my father's secret houses in the middle of nowhere wasn't enough to exhaust me.Neither was whatever had happened earlier.I didn't know exactly what happened. I knew there had been shouting, people moving quickly through the house, and enough security activity outside to tell me something had definitely happened.No one had come to explain it.Which, considering my father, wasn't particularly surprising.If someone was trying to kill me, I assumed he'd eventually mention it.Probably after he'd handled it.I stood near the window and looked outside.Purple Gardens was beautiful at night.Flowers, trees, stone paths, perfectly maintained lawns. Someone had spent an obscene amount of money trying to convince nature to behave.Tonight, however, security guards kept walking through it.Flashlights moved between the trees.Another beam swept across the lawn.Then another.I watched them for a while.The hidden beams of

The WomanThe house was quiet again. Cozy. Warm. Sleep was coming over me. I walked into the library and headed toward the couch. Something moved outside the window.Black. My body stopped. A man. Black clothes. Black holster. Dark shape against darker glass.Then, A corridor. Black clothes. A hand around my arm. “Move,” a man said with his weapon poking into the side of my body. ”You don't speak unless you're spoken to.”Fear came over me. The man saw me. His hand moved toward his radio. I moved first. The blade left my hand. His head snapped sideways. It missed his eye by less than an inch. Blood started dripping down his face. "What the—." I was already on him.Hunter"Contact—east residence—,"the radio transmission crackled. The security officer responded but I was already running towards the library. By the time I reached the house, I could hear thumping and grunts. Then glass shattered. Another impact. I knew what was happening before I reached the library. I still wasn't prepar

Mr. GreenThe house was finally quiet. No whispered arguments. No doctor repeatedly checking her temperature. No Hunter asking the same question in six different ways. No Taryn answering him with progressively less patience. The woman was sleeping. Her fever had continued to decline, eventually settling at a level the doctor considered manageable. He'd left instructions, medication and a number to call if anything changed. Hunter had listened to every word. Twice. Then repeated most of it back to him. I'd considered asking the doctor to sedate Hunter. Instead, I'd left. I sat in the smaller study across the hall from the library, a book open in front of me. I hadn't turned the page in several minutes. The house felt different with people in it. I'd spent considerable time here alone over the years. That had been intentional.The east residence wasn't designed for entertaining. It wasn't used for meetings. Business rarely crossed its threshold.There were reasons for that. Tonight, the

Hunter“Go make soup, Hunter,” I mocked Mr. Green. I’ll prove to you I can contribute to helping her get well. I searched the cabinets for what I needed. Taryn ordered herbs that wasn’t present in this residence from the substantially bigger residence. I put finely chopped veggies into the pot with boiling water. Added herbs as I was instructed when enslaved by the group. The smell hit first. Strong. Bitter. Familiar. I hadn't made it in years. I hadn't needed to.I remembered she made me drink it when she almost killed me at the house she was assigned to. Gosh, that seemed so long ago. The Group used it whenever somebody got sick. Nobody cared what it tasted like. The point was to get you functional again."That smells terrible,” I heard and looked over my shoulder. Mr. Green stood in the doorway."Medicinal soup," I stated. His expression remained unchanged."I was being facetious." "Should've specified," I answered. Taryn walked past him and looked into the pot. "That is unfortunat

The WomanEveryone was talking because I could see their mouths moving. I stopped trying to listen. The doctor had said something about my temperature. Taryn had responded. Hunter had asked another question. Mr. Green had answered him. Or maybe the doctor. I wasn't sure. It didn't matter. I was tired. Not the kind of tired that sleep usually fixed. My arm throbbed beneath the fresh bandage. My head felt heavy, and every movement around me seemed to demand attention. A door closed. Footsteps, everywhere. Someone set something on a counter. A vehicle moved along the drive. Voices. Shoes. Doors. Water running. Too much. I stood. Hunter immediately looked at me."Where are you going?"I didn't answer. I wasn't sure. I just needed somewhere else. Somewhere quiet. I walked without a destination."Hey!" Hunter followed. I heard Taryn say something behind us. Then Mr. Green. I kept walking. Being outside made whatever was happening to me feel grounded. The air moved differently. I followed a