Imagine you are given two choices. Choice #1 gives you a stable life with little to no uncertainties. You can have a comfortable existence but you may never experience the thrill of falling in love or the satisfaction of taking that leap into the unknown. Choice #2 gives you all the thrills and all the satisfaction but you also have the possibility of heartbreak and failures along the way. Which would you choose? For Aurora Butler, this is the exact crossroads she has come to as she starts her Senior Year at a new school. Her head is telling her one thing but after meeting Owen Marshall, her heart is telling her something entirely different. Choices are made even more difficult as responsibilities take a toll on her and she realizes some choices requires sacrifices she just isn't able to make. Just when she thinks she has it all figured out, bodies of young women who look eerily similar to her start showing up as the town realizes there is a serial killer walking among them, one who has particular tastes when it comes to his next victim. Will Aurora's instincts lead to the right choices or will her choices have deadly consequences? Can she survive to have it all or will she lose everything in the end?
View MorePROLOGUE
My hands trembled as I searched for the phone. I knew it had to be around here somewhere. She was never without it, always within reach, waiting for that next call. The call that would lead to either the next big hit or the means to an end. My hands felt blindly, frantically through the sheets. Not finding what I needed, in desperation, I ripped them from the bed. I breathed a sign of relief as I heard, no felt a thud on the floor next to me.
I was temporarily deaf. The pounding of my heart fueled the high amounts of adrenaline running through my veins, creating a dull roar in my head, an endless pulsing wave rolling back and forth, blocking out all other sounds around me. My heart beat was strong, albeit a little too loud and unnecessarily quick at the moment.
I scooped the phone off of the floor, my knees buckling as I flipped it over in my hands. Pain ricocheted through my legs as I hit the hardwood on impact, all strength leaving me as I collapsed to the ground. The screen glowed brightly in the dusky darkness of the room. Her background was a picture of me holding Nate, taken the day we had brought him home from the hospital. I became so immersed in the image that I lost all train of thought, feeling the numbness seep in as I stared at the screen, lost to everything else.
A single tear splashing against the glass shook me from my daze. I hurriedly swiped them away from my cheeks and dried the screen against my shirt. I could not show weakness, not now. That little boy needed me and I needed to do whatever necessary to keep him safe and keep us together.
I opened her contacts, fighting the angry flames of betrayal and the bile that rose in my throat as I scrolled past the many disgusting and perverse nicknames in her list of clients and otherwise. If the beer bellied swine on the police department in this godforsaken podunk town really cared about the drugs and the prostitution rings that resulted, confiscating her phone would be on the top of their list of priorities. They could take them all down in one fell swoop. But, of course, it would take an IQ higher than fifty or actually giving a damn about your job to begin with for that to happen so I knew better.
This town was just like all the rest. The police department was long ago bought and paid for by the highest bidder. All paid to look here, not there and don’t do anything to rock the boat. She was just another useless face, a snag in their otherwise picture perfect days. That arrogant prick in the living room would end his day most likely climbing on top of a woman just like her, hooked on the high the drugs promised and willing to sell anything and everything, including herself, to get that next fix.
I cursed as I scrolled, struggling to find the name I needed. Why couldn’t she have just been normal? That’s all I ever wanted. No riches, no luxuries. Just some semblance of normal in our lives. Thinking I could possibly go with “Paycheck”, I scrolled on further, just in case. Coming across “Sperm Donor”, I’m thankful that I did but scoff at her audacity and the pedestal she propped herself upon to think she was any better of a parent that he was in the short time I knew him. If he was “Sperm Donor” she was little more than “Birth Giver”.
I was the one that took care of that little boy since the moment he entered this world, making sure he was fed, clothed and bathed. Walking the floors with him when he was a colicky newborn. Making sure he was at every appointment he needed, including dragging her to the ones that ensured he had formula and everything else a baby needed to survive. Shoving cup after cup of thick, black coffee down her throat to sober her up enough to fake our way through whatever ring of fire the government agencies made us jump through to get the handouts and giveaways. All so Nate could be a happy little boy and never know the pain and heartache I have had to face.
Not that any of that would matter if I couldn’t manage to pull one more miracle out of thin air. The last sixteen months will be for nothing if he won’t take us in and play along. With that in mind, I stabbed at the contact number with a forceful finger and with baited breath and a still shaky hand, brought the phone up to my ear.
After just two rings, he answers.
“Dammit, Janet. I am not doing this with you today! I’m at work and I don’t have any more damn money to send you!”
“Janet’s dead,” is all I manage to croak out before my lower lip wobbles and the dam breaks.
After the longest pause, I hear him take a deep breath and roughly exhale again. “Rory?”
“Yeah.” I clench my eyes tightly shut, trying to stop the tears.
“Where are you?”
I told him where we were staying and heard him curse again. “That’s five hours away. It’ll be dark by the time I get there.”
“Okay, but you are coming, right?”
“Yeah, I’m coming. That’s my kid.”
“There’s one more thing, Phillip.”
“What’s that Aurora?”
“I told them you are my dad, too.”
Silence. Complete silence to the point that I pull the phone away just to make sure we have not been disconnected. He’s still there but he says nothing for what seems like forever.
“Fine. I’ll deal with it when I get there. Anything else I might need to know?”
“No.”
“Be packed and ready to leave. I have work in the morning.”
As I walked down the hill, away from the school, I realized two things. One, it felt great being out in the cool, fall morning air. It was both refreshing and rejuvenating, especially considering my mood and everything I was feeling. But, more importantly, I realized the obvious second thing. That I hadn’t really thought this completely through when I left the school.Owen had drove both of us to school this morning so I was without a vehicle and a mile from town. Not that a mile was a big deal but I was six miles from the house and that was a bigger problem. As I contemplated my options, I decided to go to the diner. It was only a mile and a half and that distance was much more manageable.I made it down onto the road without anyone running out of the school chasing after me so I breatehd a sigh of relief and started walking back toward town, staying in the short grass along the side of the road. The traffic was fairly light and nobody really paid me any attention. If there was anyth
The second Chloe walked out the door with Courtney, Owen swiftly turned to me and started to talk but I raised my hand to stop him.“Not here.” I hissed.I threw my history book in my bag and zipped it up before standing up and draping it across my back. I didn’t even glance at Owen as I marched across the small space from our desks to the door. I could hear him behind me but at this moment, I didn’t even know if I wanted him to follow me. I was upset and I needed to be alone and I knew that was something he wasn’t going to allow.I made a beeline down the hall for the stairs and practically ran down them. There was only one place I could think to go right now, the same place Courtney and Danny had taken me to talk the last time I was so incredibly upset with Owen, the balcony over the gym. I glanced back to see Owen still behind me, head down and looking completely distraught.I felt guilty for the way I was acting but I couldn’t help what I was feeling at the moment. It wasn’t his f
Every insecurity I had ever known since meeting Owen came rushing back as the rush of blood drowned out everything except my heart beating loudly in my ears. I watched as Mr. Hanson’s mouth moved and in the recesses of my mind, I could hear the echo of his big, booming voice but couldn’t comprehend a single word he said. Whatever it was, the blond bombshell standing in front of us only had eyes for one person and it wasn’t our history teacher.Her entire focus was on my boyfriend and as I looked over at him, he was looking anywhere and everywhere except her or me. I watched as he finally settled on the safest position he could manage at the moment, his head down. He looked distraught, guilty even and for some reason, the fact that he wasn’t looking at me and begging forgiveness just pissed me off.As my luck would have it, there was only one empty seat in the entire classroom and it was on the other side of Owen. But, who was I kidding. There could have been twenty empty seats and she
The news Chief Harding and Detective Clements brought to our doorstep had me in a funk all day Sunday. One that I just couldn’t shake. I went through the motions and did actually enjoy our time with Nonna but it was always there, right in the back of my mind that there had been yet another body found. Another young woman’s life taken too early by this crazy madman that just seemed to be in the wind at every turn.I was completely shook at the fact that the crimes had now escalated to include sexual assault in addition to the murder. It was bad enough to think of these poor women being strangled and the very life being choked from them but to know that he had now escalated to torturing his last victim and committing the ultimate crime of brutality, shame and degradation was almost too much to even fathom. I can’t even imagine what that poor woman went through in her final moments and I know this psycho has to be stopped but I am powerless to do anything about it right now.My mood was
I stared at Chief Harding like he had just grown a second head. My heart was pounding so hard, I could hear it in my ears, blocking out most other sounds. Another body? Victim number five? But not around here. What did that mean?I voiced the question aloud. Chief Harding looked back at Detective Clements before both looked back at me again.“Honestly, Miss Butler, we don’t know. The Tennessee Bureau will take over and let us know. It could be that he has moved on or it could just be that he knew the heat down here was too much right now.”“I am so sick of this,” I whispered, looking down at my hands in my lap. “Why can’t I just live a normal life?”“I’m sorry, sweetie,” Chief Harding answered, dropping the formality. “I have kids, two daughters and I would be going crazy right now if either one of them were going through something like this. I can’t promise you that this will be over anytime soon but I can promise you that we will try our best to keep you safe. As of today, I am putt
The next morning, I woke to the delicious smells of bacon and pancakes wafting through from the kitchen. With my eyes still closed, I reached over in the bed, finding the spot Owen occupied empty and already cold. I sat up, stretching and yawning before throwing on my camisole and shorts and venturing out to see what my amazing boyfriend was up to.He didn’t hear me open the bedroom door and step out so I took that first few moments before he noticed to just appreciate everything that was mine in that amazing, muscular package. He was bare chested, wearing just a pair of sweatpants that hung dangerously low on his hips. His hair was still tousled from our love making the night before, made even worse by then going to sleep.I watched as the muscles moved and contracted across his back as he worked and I ached to just go to him and run my hands over those hard ripples or plant kisses over every inch I could see. He was the epitome of masculine sex appeal and he was all mine. He grabbed
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