Shallow Breaths: The Breath of Riley (Breathe Series Prequel) Read online

  Shallow Breaths

  Christy Johnson

  Copyright © 2017 Christy Johnson

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 1543294359

  ISBN-13: 978-1543294354

  DEDICATION

  To you. A place in time still belongs to us.

  CONTENTS

  1

  Planet Keuria

  1

  2

  Beginnings

  7

  3

  My Perfect Stranger

  11

  4

  Impatience

  17

  5

  Tranquility

  21

  6

  Just for Tonight

  26

  7

  Illegitimacy

  31

  8

  Parting Breaths

  34

  1 Planet keuria

  “Riley, time to come inside now!” Mom calls from the window of our home.

  “We just started playing, mom! Can I have just five more minutes, please?” My lips curl downward and my eyes widen with plead.

  My mother smirks, “Alright but come in soon after and don’t get too close to the ocean!” She warns. While father’s away, I am really all she has. I was the love of her life, as any child would be to their mother.

  “I won’t! Yes!” I fist pump then turn back to my new friend to play. “This one is called a Mud Millipede.” I lift the slimy bug from the ground, examining it.

  “EW!” The boy exclaims and I laugh, plunging the bug into the boy’s face. “Stop!” He giggles.

  “It won’t hurt you. It’s completely harmless. Just touch it.” I hand the millipede to him but he hesitates to touch it. “C’mon, trust me.” My green eyes widen and he finally reaches out his hand slowly to gently rub the creepy bug with a million legs.

  “It’s slimy.” He exclaims.

  “Of course, but the best part about this species is its legs. They allow it to move swiftly away from danger.” I smile, feeling like the smartest boy on the planet.

  “That’s what all of those legs are for!?” He screeches and I laugh at him again.

  “Yes.”

  “Riley! It’s been five minutes. Time to come inside now.”

  “Okay, mom!”

  “Hey, will you be okay getting home?” I ask him and he nods.

  “I live across the street.” He stands to his feet, turning from me, almost running away.

  “Hey, wait! Want to play again tomorrow?” I ask before he could slip away.

  “Yea, sure!”

  “Oh yea, what’s your name?”

  “Devin! Devin Miller.” He says, jogging over to his home.

  “I’m Riley! Nice to meet you!” I shout out to him.

  “Yea, you too!” He waves his hand to me as he’s running, slipping into his home. I turn away, smirking at the new friend I had made. Friends didn’t come easy around here, that was for sure. Well, not for me anyway. A boy who liked to play with bugs had seemed to scare them all off. I put the millipede back down on the ground and walk over to the door of my home.

  “Who’s your friend?” Mom asks.

  “His name is Devin Miller. I think they just moved here. They live across the street.” I say, watching mom carefully study the house across the street as a man trudges in.

  “Mm.” She hums.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Oh, nothing sweetheart. Did you get a chance to do your homework before you played today?”

  “I did.” I smile, closing my eyes pleasurably.

  She flashes her beautiful smile at me, “I don’t know why I asked that. You always get your assignments done. Well, I guess we can start eating dinner. Go wash your hands. I’m sure you found some new species to play with out there.” She giggles.

  “Okay, mom!” I run to the half-bath right off the kitchen to wash up. In the mirror, I study my mother. I study her as she watches herself in the mirror in the kitchen. She flips her brown shoulder length hair back off her shoulders, wiping the incrusted eyeliner from under the eyes and wiping away the nude lipstick she had spread across her lips from work earlier today. Her eyes reflected more blue than green but she did have just a hint of it in them. Her eyes flicker over to me and she smiles. I look down to pay attention to the water spewing out of the faucet onto the floor.

  “Careful, sweetie.” She comes in, shutting the water off and handing me a towel.

  “Are you okay, mom?” I couldn’t help but notice the bags under her eyes.

  “Yes, I’m fine. Why do you ask?”

  I look down, “You just seem tired, that’s all.”

  “Just had a long day.” She smiles faintly. “Come on, the food is ready.” I nod my head and she takes my hand, leading me to the dinner table. She had made spaghetti and meatballs tonight, my favorite but something was different tonight. I had no appetite. I twist and turn my fork, playing with the noodles.

  She slurps, “Mm, excuse me.” I snicker slightly to ensure her that it was okay. She didn’t need to impress me. “What’s wrong?” She asks once she had swallowed her food down.

  “Hm?” I try to act as if I didn’t know what she was talking about.

  “Riley Pemberton.” She scolds.

  “Why is dad always gone?” The words slip out causing her to stop chewing. She looks down at her plate as if I wasn’t supposed to notice that he hadn’t been here for more than a week at a time all year.

  “You know he works a lot.” She takes another bite of her spaghetti, slurping the noodles again. “Sorry.” She grins, trying to change the subject.

  “Seriously?” I was getting too big for my own pants, I guess.

  “Excuse me?” She lifts her brow.

  “I want to know, I have the right to know! He is my father!” I yell at her.

  “And he is my husband!” She slams her hand down on the table. “That is enough. A child should stay in a child’s place. This business is none for a ten-year-old.” She mocks. I squint my eyes at her, wanting to run to my room. Closing her eyes, she breathes in slowly. “I’m sorry.” She mumbles.

  I look down to my plate, humbling myself, “I just want to understand why I am ten years old and I still don’t know my dad.”

  She sighs, “The time will come when you will know. Now please, eat your food.” Her words firm but still soothing me. I don’t argue back, although I had many questions as to what I needed to know. I open my mouth to rebut but instead, I take a huge bite of my spaghetti, filling my mouth with before angry words could.

  2 Beginnings

  LUKE

  Luke slams the door into the wall as he trudges his way into his home. Colleen stands from the table to meet her unsteady, drunken husband at the door. Her long, black hair following behind her as she whips around the corner. Her loose fitting, white dress flowing. “Again, Luke?” She whispers as she slips herself under his arm to stable him. “Why are you always with those Eskojis drinking yourself to death? Devin and I deserve more than this.” She scolds him. Her dark cutting to him. She purses her lips, waiting for his response.

  “Yea, yea, yep.” He blabbers. They pass the kitchen where Devin is sitting and eating his dinner. He corners his eyes at his dad, afraid to look at him fully.

  “Stay there, Dev. I’ll be back down soon and we’ll finish our conversation.” She smiles at him, stomping up each step with her husband leaning on her, pushin
g open their bedroom door. She flops him down on the bed, slapping him slightly on the cheek to sober him up. “I don’t know how much more of this I can take. We can never have a decent conversation because you’re always too drunk when you make it back home! I need more.” She sneers.

  He sits up on the bed, almost flipping over the side of it but catching himself. “Wh – what chu want from me?” His mouth numb from the liquor, making his words slur.

  “What I really want is for you to leave and never come back! You scare the shit out of Devin. I mean, for Creator’s sake, he won’t even look at you and I can’t stand the sight of you. I swear!” She prances into the bathroom, wetting a rag with cold water. She comes back into the room and slaps the cloth to his face. “Here, try to get yourself together.” She says, rolling her eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Colleen.” He expresses. She stops by the door, grasping the handle tightly.

  “I know about the affair.” She says with pain swollen eyes from the tears. “I know about your other child. For ten years, you’ve made me think that she was nothing more than a coworker but turns out, she means more to you than Devin and me.” She turns back to face him, “I hate you, Luke. I don’t think that will ever change.” She starts walk away.

  “I’m an Eskoji.” The truth spills out of him, stopping her at the door again, except this time, she closes it slowly. She stomps over to Luke, punching him in the face. His head whips over to his shoulder as blood spews out on the quilt.

  “What did you bet!?” She yells.

  “I deserve that.” He says, wiping his bloody mouth with the white cloth.

  “What did you bet this time, Luke!?” She asks again, not masking her anger.

  He lowers his head, “Devin. I betted Devin’s life.” She steps back, horrified.

  “Do you not love us at all?” She asks, not looking at him. “Do you even care?” Her eyes fill with tears. “This isn’t the life I wanted – the life I chose.”

  “But I do love you and I owe you everything!” He gets on his knees, pleading to her.

  She glares at him, “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, huh? Not after how you gambled me away first for some fucking powers that you can never obtain! Why can’t you just be happy with those that you have!? If I would have never killed those Eskojis you pawned me off to, I would be dead! Maybe I should have left him alive so he could take me because Devin doesn’t deserve this and you, damn sure, do not deserve my son, you ungrateful bastard!” She screams at him.

  He weeps, “Please? What can I do? I need you to stay with me. I’m nothing without you.”

  “You damn right you are nothing. No, I take that back – nothing is something so that’s too kind for you, scumbag.”

  “If I get the Chosen, Devin will be safe!”

  “So you betted your son’s life for a Chosen that probably doesn’t exist here? We have no idea who these Chosen are. That is just a rumor going around, Luke.”

  “But it isn’t and I can prove it.”

  “And how do you expect to do that?”

  “Just trust me.” He pleads. She hesitates, scanning the room as if it contained her trust for him, her answer to him. “Please?” He says again.

  She looks back at him, “I don’t think so.” She kicks him away from her, walking back over to the door behind her.

  “I’ll give you more powers. More than just that small shapeshifting power.” She stops. “Just help me. Help me keep our son safe.”

  She looks over her shoulder back at him, “You won’t keep him safe, I will and to do that, I need those powers. Get started, Luke and if you let us down again, wherever we land after Keuria, I will kill you.” She flings open the door to go back downstairs.

  3 My perfect stranger

  12 YEARS LATER

  RILEY

  I wipe the smudge of chocolate from the side of my mouth, laughing at a girl as she whispers something sweet to me – wanting me to expose all the chocolate cake in my mouth. I watch her as she tosses her head back, clutching her gut, laughing at something I must have done but my attention is snatched away by eyes gazing at me. Eyes so big and brown that I’m drawn into them. They were the first thing I notice when I looked at her, then it was her smile. She seemed shy but she was relentlessly watching me and I wondered if I knew her. Serenity washes over me as I feel the tug at my heart from her.

  “Riley?” The girl sitting with me touches my arm to steal back my attention.

  “Yes, Lyla?” My mouth involuntarily says.

  “Are you okay?” Lyla’s eyes dashes over to the girl at the table next to us but her head is down. Her concentration seeping into her book.

  “I’m great.” She shifts her face back to mine. “Where were we?” I ask her, trying to cover my face from the girl’s eyes burning into it but something about her was still calling out to me, wanting me to drift over to her and be hers, forever.

  “So, um, what do you want to do later?” Lyla raises her eyebrows at me.

  “Oh?” I smile, shifting my attention between the two of them but my eyes so willingly stay on the other girl.

  “So?” She says.

  “Well, I have to really get home. Mom is expecting me.”

  “Well, that sucks.” She pretends to pout. “I’ll be back – I need to use the ladies room.” She smirks.

  “Right.” I say, my eyes following her but shifting back to the shy girl across from me. Who are you? I think to myself, intrigued by her. Her long, black hair sitting behind her shoulders perfectly as she sits upright, nervously shifting her feet under the table. Her long lashes flicker as her eyes dance in between me and the table. They finally rest on me and a familiar feeling soaks into me, almost as if I knew her – or I soon would. Is this real?

  “Hey, did you get the check?” I stand up, startled by Lyla, running her fingers down my spine.

  “Hey, yes. You ready to go?” I ask her, thinking of ways to stay longer to talk to her. Lyla nods, grabbing her coat and purse. The chairs scrape the floor as we slide them under the table.

  I open the door for her and she smiles at me as she walks past me, out of the door. She approaches the car, hoping I would join her but the girl inside the diner was still captivating my soul. “Listen, I’ll catch up with you tomorrow, okay?”

  “Where are you going?” Lyla asks.

  “I’m going to finish my last assignment here before I go home.” I smile.

  “Are you sure? I can give you a ride home?”

  “I’m sure.”

  “Okay, see you tomorrow.” She smiles at me, cranking her car.

  I walk back into the diner, smiling uncontrollably. I walk over to her, her eyes closed tightly. She opens them slowly to consider me. “I’ve been waiting for you.” She says.

  “What?” My smile fades.

  “There’s something I need to show you.” She glances up at me from under her brow. “Are you ready?”

  “Um, okay. I guess.”

  “I need you to be sure.” Her voice firm.

  “I mean it would be nice to know your name first.” I giggle nervously.

  She smiles, “You’ll know.”

  “Okay.” She reaches her hands out to me but I hesitate to touch her, afraid she’d own my heart if we touched.

  “Trust me.” I didn’t know her to trust her but somehow, that didn’t matter. My hands reach out to her, touching her smooth skin and tranquility suppresses me, electrifying my soul. I close my eyes unwillingly to see us, together. How can that be? I don’t even know you. I think to myself.

  “We are one.” Her mouth whispers to me. “Our connection is too strong for anyone to sever. Please, find me. I need you.”

  I kiss her forehead and she looks up at me, her eyes searching mine. “I love you.” I say, feeling an excruciating nervous pang burrowing its way into my heart. The feeling immaculate.

  “And I love you more than you’ll ever know.” She bats her eyes lightly and
I smooth her hair back, diving in for a kiss. A jolt rushes through my body, taking me over.

  “That feeling pulsing through you will be the feeling you feel with me. Embrace it. Don’t be afraid.” She says. “Find me.”

  “Bring him back!” She screams to the Creator. “Bring them all back!” She drops lifelessly to the ground. “I can’t breathe without him.” I wince at her pain, seeing her bellow out. I feel her loneliness and confusion.

  “But I don’t even know your name.”

  “Did you feel that!?” She jumps up from the bench.

  “Feel what?”

  “Nothing,” she sits. I notice the embarrassment consuming her.

  “You’re a real psychopath, you know that?” I tease her and she nudges me, causing me to feel that jolt run through my veins again.

  “Nora. My name is Nora.”

  *****

  “Nora.” I moan, tossing in my bed. “Nora.” I whisper.

  “Riley, wake up.” Mom’s shaking my shoulder. I open my eyes to see her nervous expression. She’s clutching her robe shut at her neck line.

  “What’s wrong, mom?” I sit up completely to face her. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m more worried about you, son.”

  “Wh – why?” I stammer.

  “Who is Nora?”

  I look away from her, trying to recollect myself, “Someone I need to find.”

  4 impatience

  “He can’t look for her, Mary.” Miles cadges around the room, throwing on his slacks from earlier and a button-up grey shirt, tucking the tail of it into his pants with haste. “I have to go.”

  “Where are you going!?” Mary whispers, still clutching her robe to her. “I mean, you just got back!”

  “I have to go back to the Creator. I can’t let this happen. He’s not supposed to be seeing her in his dreams. He doesn’t even have the power of Vision!”