The Keeper of Memories (Child of Horus Book 1), page 1
Copyright © 2018 by Dee Hatcher
Cover art by Kellie Dennis of Book Cover by Design
Published by JTL Books
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Acknowledgments
It takes a lot to write a book: research, patience, time, but above all, it takes support from the people who put up with endless questions, offer shoulders to cry on or a celebratory smile, and humor weird author behavior such as turning on the light at 2AM to jot down the best idea ever. I’m blessed to have quite a few in my life:
My amazing mother, the most supportive husband ever, my four children and two grandchildren who provide me with so much inspiration, for people in my life, past and present, who have led me to where I am in life.
Special shoutouts to Nurse Sarah, for medical knowledge, to Beatte, who shared her knowledge of raptors, and vet Karla, who answered endless questions about animal behavior. Karla also knows her mythology.
Also, big hugs to Nina, Z, Doug, and Lynda, who’ve traveled on this author adventure with me.
Finally, for the readers. May you enjoy the worlds and people who live in my head.
Prologue
Gina Malcolm—Eight years old
No matter where we went, sooner or later we fled monsters in the middle of the night.
I screamed but nothing came out. Mama? Mama! Once more I yanked the covers over my head, crying out for my mother without words. If the monsters couldn’t see me or hear me, they couldn’t find me. Don’t let them get me!
Could the monsters hear my thudding heart? I breathed in slowly, quietly.
Like last time, my insides twisted.
The switch snapped and the light came on. “Regina? What is it? Did you have a bad dream?” Mama’s bare feet slapped against the floor.
Mama! I pulled the covers down far enough for her to see my face and hissed, “Something’s out there.” Couldn’t she tell?
My throat burned.
Mama smiled and sat down on the edge of my bed. “Oh, Gina, there’s nothing out there. We’re safe here. I promise you, they can’t find us.” She brushed the hair out of my eyes with one hand and fiddled with the charm on her necklace with the other.
The charm she swore kept us safe, along with the funny drawings she and Daddy spent hours drawing in the dirt around the house. “Now go back to—”
“But I feel them!” Squirming, squiggling worms in my belly grew harder to ignore. Goosebumps raced up my arms.
Furrows appeared between Mama’s eyebrows. She always got those lines when she worried. Her voice went low. “What do you mean you feel them? Like last time?”
“Yes! Like I feel you and Daddy.” Only, not like Mama and Daddy. They never made my stomach sick.
Mama’s face turned white. “Are you sure?”
The blankets squished in my arms from how tightly I clutched them. “Yes, ma’am.” I wriggled my toes in my footie pajamas to make them stop twitching on their own.
My mama hopped up, stumbled on the hem of her nightgown and nearly fell. “Craig! Get up! Get Bobby. They’re here!” She spun and held out her hand. Her voice remained steady but her fingers trembled. “Gina, honey, c’mon. We’re gonna take a ride.”
Her fear tasted bitter in my mouth.
The things outside got closer. I nearly doubled up from the pain. No! I breathed through my mouth to keep from throwing up. “Mama?” I pulled the covers up under my chin and stared at the window. Outside something moved. My stomach rolled again.
Mama glanced at the window, grim-faced. “Now, Gina!”
One, two, three. I launched myself out of the bed and grabbed Mama’s hand. She yanked me through the door.
Glass shattered.
Mama slammed the door, dragging me behind her. “Hurry, Gina!”
Her voice shook. Her fear turned to panic. The plastic feet in my jammies slapped out a rhythm on the floor.
We ran past Bobby’s empty room and down the stairs. Daddy stood by the back door, hugging Bobby to his chest and clutching a gun in his free hand. “How did they find us?”
“I… I don’t know.” Mama trembled. “What if we changed?”
Daddy shook his head. “We can protect the kids better this way. It’s no longer us they want. It hasn’t been us for a long time.”
She whispered, but I still heard. “They want Gina.”
Tightlipped, Daddy nodded.
Bobby screamed.
“Shh…” Daddy rocked my brother back and forth. “I’ll go first with Bobby and try to lead them away. Hopefully, by the time they figure out we’re the wrong ones, y’all be long gone.”
Mama plucked keys out of the bowl by the door and handed Daddy his. “Take the truck. I’ll be right behind you.”
Daddy nodded and they kissed.
“I love you.” Mama kissed Daddy again and let go of my hand long enough to hug him and Bobby. She let out a sob.
Why was Mama crying? We’d always gotten away before. We would again. Only, this time, they didn’t have enough warning to throw suitcases into the car.
Shivers raced up my spine. In my mind, shadows swirled, coming closer, closer…
Daddy bent as much as he could while holding Bobby and kissed me on top of my head. “Be Daddy’s good girl. I’ll see you soon.” No fear came from Daddy, only anger, but not at me, Mama, or Bobby. The things out there made him mad.
Daddy held Mama’s gaze. “It’ll be all right, Emma, I promise.”
He shot out the door. The truck fired up a moment later, and kicked up rocks down the driveway. Ooh! Mama would be so mad! She hated when he drove too fast.
“Ready?” Mama’s smile wasn’t really a smile, but more like when the lady from next door came over and yakked and yakked and wouldn’t leave.
I nodded. Oh! Bobby dropped his stuffed dinosaur. He’d want Dinny wherever we were going.
Mama wrenched the door open. I snatched up Dinny and we took off for the car.
Something jumped out of the shadows.
Mama screamed, “Run, Gina, run!” She stood between me and the dark shape, arms flung out to the side.
Her hair changed. Gone were the long strands. In their place…
Somthing prodded at my mind. I tugged on the car door.
The door swung open and I hopped inside. Mama jumped into the driver’s seat, slammed and locked the door. She fumbled with the keys and dropped them twice.
Whumpf!
Something hit the windshield. What were those things? They’d never gotten this close before. Not close enough to see.
Only feel.
“C’mon, c’mon,” Mama chanted. She turned the key and the car started. Shadows dodged her headlights.
She hit the gas pedal and off we went.
Ding, ding, ding, alarms sounded.
I lurched forward, scrambling to fasten my seat belt and shut up the racket.
“Gina,” Mama said through gritted teeth.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Sweetie, I need you to do something for me.”
“What?”
“You’re projecting. We’re out of the circle. They can sense us now. Turn it off. That’s how they’re tracking us.”
“But…But… then I won’t be able to hear you and Daddy.” Some good the circle did us. We’d be safe inside the wards, they’d said.
Her face went ghost-white. “Please, honey. I need you to do this.”
Squeezing my fists tightly, I closed my eyes and let go of something in my mind, the way I learned from her and Daddy. I’m not sure what, but one minute Mama’s panic and Daddy’s rage battered my senses, and the next… nothing.
Whumpf, whumpf, whumpf.
Things beat against the windshield. The car jolted to a halt.
“Oh, dear God!” Mama gripped the steering wheel with both hands and gunned the gas. The car didn’t move. “When I say ‘go’, get out and run.” She kissed me on the forehead, her eyes wide in the darkness, took the charm from her neck, and fastened the chain around mine. “It’s not as effective as drawn wards, but it should help.”
The back window shattered. We both screamed.
The lock clicked. “Go!”
I swung the door open and Mama and I both scrambled through—right into a cornfield. My feet slipped, and I would have gone down if Mama hadn’t caught me.
I hated cornfields. They rustled and swayed, never still, and towered over my head. The scarecrows, well, they scared me too.
Better the cornfield than what chased us.
I crashed through the corn, hugging Dinny to my chest, Mama right behind me. I couldn’t see her and I couldn’t feel her, but heard her panted breaths.
The corn stopped swaying. All went quiet. Not even crickets sang. We stopped and I dropped to the ground.
Mama crouched down on her knees, hair wild, eyes wide, and wrapped her arms around me. “Gina, honey. Listen to me.”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“If we get separated, you remember where to go, right?”
The place she and Daddy had been trying to find for years. We’d find home one day, they’d said, where we’d be with what they called “our own kind”, and safe.
“I think so.
The place in my head I’d never seen before but in dreams and in her shared visions. She’d always told me that no matter what, I’d be able to find it—when the time came.
“Good. I love you, baby girl.” Her words came out choked.
We huddled together in the dark.
The kids at my last school called me a liar, but I could see pretty well in the dark, like the fat possum hiding a few feet away, heart pounding. Shortly after the kids laughed, we’d moved here. Mama home schooled me now.
We never stayed anywhere for long.
Whatever chased us scared the possum too.
“Ahhhh…” Mama shrieked and flew backwards, arms outstretched. Her cries turned to a screech.
“Mama? Mama!” No! “Mama! Don’t leave me!”
Even in the high-pitched squeal I heard, “Run, Gina!”
All went quiet. Too quiet. My breathing sounded so loud! “Mama?” No answer. My eyes burned. I’d never been alone before. I’d always felt Mama and Daddy. Even Bobby.
As quietly as possible, I inched back into a row of corn, heart hammering in my chest, hiding along with the possum.
The squirmy feelings in my gut grew worse.
“Mama? Daddy?” I whispered. Don’t leave me here alone!
Shapes swooped around. Inky-black shadows, like giant birds.
One dove right at me.
“Yah!” Heart stuttering, I ran.
Cornstalk leaves grabbed at me.
Oh God. Oh God.
Where could I go?
The neighbors. The closest house. But which direction? Faster and faster I ran, stumbling, tripping.
The shadows grew closer. No! They weren’t getting me!
A water hose caught my attention too late, and my foot a second later.
Ahhh!
Down, down, down, I fell, clinging to my brother’s toy.
Blind.
Help! Help!
The bird things pecked at my mind. No! Go away! Mama!
Only one thing left to do. Chills formed on my arms and legs.
I’d get in so much trouble, ‘cause the last time I did this Daddy and Mama had headaches for a week.
What else could I do?
The something else inside me, the me but not me, summoned up power, acting on instinct.
I dropped Dinny and struggled to my knees. Hands over my ears, I pulled up something from my hands, feet, heart, head, rolled the raw heat into a ball, and pushed. “Get out of my mind!”
Ten Years Later
The unseasonal warmth of an early spring day carried into the night, and I slipped out my bedroom window without a jacket. One careful step after the other, I crept away from the home that wasn’t my home. Never had been home. Would never be home.
Foster care sucked, big time. I’d been told I had a real home once. A family. Some family if they deserted an eight-year-old in a cornfield and never came back. At least they could’ve left me some memories of them.
Nada. Nothing but a ragged stuffed dinosaur, a tarnished necklace, and dirty pajamas with the feet torn out.
Soft breezes brushed my face, carrying the scent of moisture. We’d have rain before dawn. The dampness kissed my face, causing a shiver.
I tiptoed away from the house, watching for any lights. Wouldn’t be the first time I’d been busted, until I’d learned to open my mind and make good and sure the Johnsons were asleep before slipping out. Except for the only one who mattered, who wasn’t home tonight.
The folks who got money to keep me in their house took to locking my room door at night to keep me from roaming.
Who needed doors? Windows were doors without knobs, even in the converted attic of the zillion year old farmhouse with the creaking boards and squealing water pipes.
With each footstep, the place I’d love to turn my back on for good grew smaller, the life forms inside weaker in my mind until their dreams drifted away—mental smoke on the wind.
The wonderful, wonderful breeze accompanied me, carrying the night sounds of crickets, frogs, owls, whippoorwills, and the scent of pine, spring flowers, and the coming rain.
Peace. The outdoors meant peace. In the woods I belonged. Why would anyone want to live inside?
Tonight I traveled alone while my normal partner in nighttime wandering checked out universities. A place I’d never get to go.
Nope, in a few days I’d turn eighteen, when the state no longer paid for my keep. With any luck Lucas would manage to talk his family into at least letting me stay until graduation.
Lucas Johnson. My one friend in this godforsaken wide spot in the road not big enough to be called a town. Not really a town. Just a place people passed through on their way to somewhere more interesting.
The faster the better.
Lucas should be here, trotting down the road, enjoying the adventure.
We didn’t even need to talk to enjoy each other’s company, though he’d be hummimg along to some music in his head.
The full moon overhead gave some light, but I’d always been able to see in the dark, a fact I’d hidden from my foster families after the third one had taken me back to social services for being too strange. Can’t have the weirdo infecting the other kiddies now, can we?
I’d told Lucus. He understood more about me than I did myself sometimes. I’m not sure how, but it’s like we shared some strange kinship.
Or maybe we were both weirdos.
If I cried, he’d be right there with a tissue. When cornered at school by some bully convinced the tiny girl made a nice target, he’d magically appear.
He wasn’t much bigger than me, but the boy had to be part Rottweiler. Or the fiercest Chihuahua on the planet, chasing the bigger dogs down the school hallways with their tails between their legs.
If I closed my eyes, I could sense him, there on the edges of my consciousness. Excitement, sadness, a touch of fear. Small wonder he lay awake tonight, when I couldn’t sleep either.
Too much on our minds.
Graduation should be a happy time. For the two of us caps and gowns marked the beginning of the end.
Once he left for college I’d be totally alone again. For a few years, with him around, someone had cared about me.
Better not to dwell on sad things now. Not when the night was young and I was free.
Free as a bird.
My tennis shoes barely made a sound on the packed clay road. I’d learned to be quiet. Full moon, light wind, and the night called to me louder than any human voice.
To my right, knee-high corn rustled. A few steps to the left put me at a safe distance. Nothing creepier than rustling cornfields.
Or shadows. Or shadowy cornfields. The worst.
I put more distance between me and my fear, stroking a finger over the charm hanging from my neck—which I’d worn ever since I could remember.
Through a ditch, up an embankment, and then a quick shimmy over an ancient chain-link fence. When you climbed water towers as a hobby, a puny fence didn’t slow you down.
The object of my desire stood before me, in all its massive, faded green glory. If I could reach the top, I’d be happy. I’d be home.
No one gave much thought to the rusted-out water tower anymore, no one but the skinny kid who went equally unnoticed. Rung by rung I scaled the ladder. The wind grew stronger with each step I climbed, threatening to sweep me from my perch.
Oh, carry me away, winds! If only.
Two minutes of climbing and I stood on the top railing, staring at the ground below. Lucas claimed he hadn’t seen a thing the nights I’d brought him here. Me? I saw everything, though muted in the moonlight.
Wild rhododendrons and mountain laurel bloomed all around, the sweetness of their blossoms adding flavor to the air. Three fox kits peeked out from under the shrubs, waiting for their mother to return with dinner.
Their hunger rolled through my belly. Lucas laughed when I told him such things, blamed my imagination. Still, for one moment in time, I merged with the tiny creatures, viewed the leaves and blossoms from their point of view.
A vixen dashed across the grass, mouth full of rabbit, and vanished under the bushes with her kits in tow.
The slight nip of spring stung my face, along with the stronger hint of coming rain. Not long now before clouds moved in and hid the moon. I’d be tucked back into my bed by the time the heavens opened up.
Flinging my arms wide, I embraced the night, closing my eyes and forming a scene inside my eyelids. A mountaintop with a river below, snaking through a wide valley. I’d never been there, but every twist and turn, every tree and shrub, existed in my mind.
