The Midnight Showers Book 1 OH HOLD

Chapter 3: The East Woods

“Riley, you are going to be in so much trouble!” Riley’s best friend, Beverly Santos, told her in shock. Riley Elizabeth shrugged, kicking a pebble as they made their way down the street. People didn’t look their way as the teenagers walked farther from the center of town and passed the bakery, which was the point where, after you walked away from the wooden building, you were technically in ‘Wood Territory’, the beginning of the forest.

People were starting to get up and make their way home, to get cleaned up and refreshed before they had to present the winner of the showers. No one liked to look at the Caverly children; they were just a reminder of what used to be, the lives of children that was ruined so quickly and changed into a punishment. And Riley Elizabeth wasn’t like her siblings; she wasn’t sweet and a goody-goody, like Allie, and she definitely wasn’t tough, brave, and ready to take care of the family at a young age, let alone fight to the death, like Sebastion. She was just Riley Elizabeth, the one who hated to follow rules and who always was caught doing the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Before her father died, Davion Caverly was the biggest talk in towns all around the country, all around North America. There were only a few towns for werewolves to reside in, but King Davion didn’t just provide food and shelter for his country, but for every single town in North America. He had everyone following the people of Luna, and soon, their small dainty town had bricks instead of wood, pavement instead of chipped stone, and real metal bed frames, not just pieces of old, rotting wood hammered together.

But, then, right after Allie was born, a suicide bomber came to their home, asking for help running away from one of King Davion’s supposed followers, who was trying to torture him. And, before any of his young children knew it, they were standing outside of an attacking zone. Riley could remember it clearly. Their house used to reside in the East Woods, which used to be alive and well. She would walk with her old friend, Cherie Brutes, around the lush green wilderness, before heading into the village to grab some bread or to play in the town square, which used to be a beautiful little circle in the middle of the shops, with a fountain the shape of a large stone wolf spitting water. The small trickles would flop into the water, where the two young girls would stand, barefoot, at five years old, and drink.

And, that day, Sebastion, at six years old, and their mother with a year old Allie, had joined the two best friends. They had left the house after the visitor arrived, and their father got an urgent distress call from another resident of the town, called Henning. Their leader, Henning Boyle, had supposedly threatened to bomb them all if they didn’t kill a young boy who had committed the crime of attacking an elder wolf. But, in the end, Riley saw the flames as the lying man let himself die for Henning Boyle, as her father was instantly killed and his body blown to bits. The forest had been permanently damaged. And their house lay only in ashes if you walked far enough out to see its old stand. The trees even still had the smell of King Davion.

And, later that week, Henning Boyle bombed the rest of the town. Many lives were lost, including Cherie Brutes, whose body was taken out of town alongside her parents. Riley never should have experienced such a disaster in all her life, but she did when she was not even in school yet. The Elders of Luna took it upon themselves to plan the new life and building of the village, and as usual, the other towns and cities followed. Soon, every place in North America had become overrun with werewolves, and humans were sent to live elsewhere. The Elders spent most of their money creating a school called Blackwater Training Academy with a campus bigger than the size of Luna, and left the towns scavenging and in barely livable conditions. And then came the Midnight Showers, which dragged every werewolf town into its grasp. Some werewolves started to rebel; became Rouges, didn’t participate in the Showers, and planned attacks on Luna. But all caught were killed, or, in Henning Boyle’s case, arrested and placed in a life time of gray walls and metal bars, helping cremate the bodies of the terror he helped create.