Seconds Before Sunrise (The Timely Death Trilogy) Read Free

hoping to forget the scene as quickly as it came, but it echoed through me, refusing to leave. “It’s just a dream.”
    “If it was, you would’ve stayed in bed .” She raised her thin eyebrows. “You used to have really bad nightmares as a child.”
    “I did?” I couldn’t remember.
    “All the time, but you grew out of them.” Her face tilted to the other side, and her ponytail waved over her shoulder. “They were really confusing for you.”
    “Why?”
    She bobbed her foot up and down. “You thought they were real.”
    I couldn’t breathe.
    “I thought it was entirely probable they were caused from trauma—”
    She stopped because she didn’t have to explain.
    “They were fleeing, you know,” I said, recalling the newspaper article about my parents’ untimely death.
    “I wish you wouldn’t take Crystal so seriously, Jessie,” she dropped her tone into a scorn. We had the conversation numerous times during the summer, but she wasn’t budging. “She doesn’t know any more than the police do.”
    I bit my lip and looked away. The lack of information had been the most aggravating part of my adoption. Even with months of researching, I couldn’t find extended family. It was as if my parents had only existed to bring my life into the world, nothing more. I couldn’t even find people who remembered them, and residents rarely left Hayworth. It seemed impossible, but it was the truth, and I didn’t like it.
    “Is that what you’re dreaming about?” my mother guessed. “The car wreck?”
    “No,” I said, fighting the flashing forest as it burned into my mind like a memory.
    She ignored my answer. “What’s done is done, Jessie,” she said. “There’s no worth in losing sleep over it.”
    “They were my parents,” I argued quietly.
    “And they still are,” she agreed. “But death doesn’t mean they aren’t around you.”
    I groaned. “You sound like a Disney movie.”
    “I’m old. I’m allowed to,” she said, standing up to approach me. She opened up her arms, and I fell into her embrace, closing my eyes. She smelt like lavender. “Get some sleep. You have school in the morning,” she whispered.
    I stepped away. “Thanks for the reminder.”
    “Good night,” she said. “I love you.”
    “L ove you, too, Mom,” I said.
    S he left the room, her robe dragging behind, and disappeared around the corner. I collapsed in her chair, unable to settle down. While some of her words had been comforting, the others disturbed me. As a child, I thought my dreams were real, and despite the illogical notion, I saw the truth in it.
    My dream had felt more like living than my current life did. Every part of me wanted it as a memory instead of a nightmare.

     
    Eric
     
    I shoved my head into my locker and breathed hoarsely. It was the first day of school and sitting next to Jessica was already killing me. I wanted to talk to her, hold her, be with her − anything really − but I couldn’t. If the Light realized who or what we were, she’d be killed, and there was nothing I could do except stay away.
    “ You okay?” Jonathon asked, his voice squeaking through the slits of my locker.
    I leaned back to stare at the blind artist. I wouldn’t believe he was Pierce, a powerful shade, if I hadn’t known his identities myself.
    “I’m dealing,” I grumbled, unable to keep eye contact as Jessica passed us.
    She flipped her brunette curls as she playfully hit Robb McLain’s arm. Robb McLain with his sparkling teeth, gelled hair, and playboy personality was the perfect jerk.
    Robb slipped his arm over Jessica’s petite shoulders, and I gripped my locker.
    “I am this close to killing him.”
    Jonathon chuckled. “I’d like to see that.”
    “This isn’t funny.”
    Jonathon’s hands struck straight up. “No. No. Of course not.” He tried to smother his laughter. “Not funny at all.”
    I ignored his humor and uncurled my hand from the locker. “This is a lot harder than I thought