Redeeming the Darkness

Prologue

Copyright 2017 by Whitney Morgan

I'm going to be submitting this book into the 2020 Wattys! That means Redeeming the Darkness is no longer available anywhere else, but the full novel will be available here for the very first time! I do all of my writing in an app called Scrivener, so I'll be able to get the full story on Wattpad pretty quickly! 

I'm excited to share the complete story with you all! <3 Please feel free to comment and I appreciate every vote! :) 

*I tagged this story with themes of abuse. I want to make it clear before you get started there is NO physical abuse between the love interests. The scene(s) in which I tagged it for is much later in the story. 

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Ivy, fifteen years old

"Ivy Kendall Murphy! You better get in here right now!" Mom's voice carried from the kitchen. She'd used my full name and that usually meant business. Dad chose the middle name when I was born, deciding to name me after Mom. She always said it was strange when she would yell it because she felt like she was yelling at herself.

"Coming!" I shouted back to her from my room. If I wasted any time responding I'd have to deal with Dad, so I hurried down. She didn't hesitate when I rounded the corner, getting right to the point of this meeting.

"Do you know who stopped me when I was leaving the school today?" she asked. I moved to the island and sat down on the bench. Mom was our school's counselor, so it didn't matter how secretly I did things, I could never hide anything from my parents. I decided playing dumb would be a mistake and opted for the truth.

"Mr. Carp?" I asked.

"Correct. Mr. Carp pulled me into his classroom and made me sit at a desk like I was a child. And do you know why he pulled me into his class?"

"Because he was missing his toupee?"

"Correct again. Ivy, that's the third time this year that his toupee has gone missing."

I tried to stifle my laugh but I couldn't. Dad walked in and seeing Mom's face; he narrowed his eyes at me.

"What happened this time, another fire?" he asked. He crossed his arms over his chest and looked even bigger than he usually did. Why did parents seem so big when you were in trouble?

"Your daughter has been stealing Mr. Carp's toupee and hiding it in other classrooms," she said. She acted as if I were doing something worse than pranking a teacher. I took my time moving my eyes toward my father. I dreaded his reaction but was surprised to see his expression.

His cheeks were twitching like he wanted to speak or smile, I wasn't sure which until I looked at his eyes and realized he was about to lose it. Laugh lines on both sides were starting to become more visible as the seconds ticked by and he eventually took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"I'm confused," he said, tilting his head to one side like that would help him see the situation differently.

"Ivy has been stealing a hairpiece out of a teacher's classroom and hiding it around the school for him to go find, Brennan. What are you confused about?" Mom was waving her hands around like she did when she got flustered. I hated when she got flustered because I usually got grounded afterward.

"I'm sorry, babe, but I'm not prepared to handle this situation." He turned and quickly walked up the stairs and out of sight.

"I'm sorry," I said. I turned and looked back at my mom's disappointed face.

"I just don't understand how you keep finding it. Albert said after the teachers bring it back, he hides it in a new spot."

"His first name would be something like Albert," I fake gagged.

"Now that's just silly." She walked to the cabinet to get a glass and filled it up with water from the freezer door. "Albert is a perfectly normal name."

"Albert Carp? Nothing about that name is normal."

"Ivy, how do you keep finding his hairpiece?"

"The real question we need to ask is, why in the world does he have a toupee at school in a drawer? Do you think he's trying to impress a lady or do you think he wears it for bingo night?" I asked.

"Heaven help me! It doesn't matter why he has it. I want to know how you keep finding it."

"I look at it as a scavenger hunt," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"But why would you want to touch it?" She let a laugh slip and tried to disguise it as a cough.

"I usually borrow the janitor's gloves."

"You steal George's gloves?" Shock covered her features.

"No, he lets me use them!" I nearly shouted, not wanting her to believe I was stealing, too. Stealing things other than Mr. Carp's toupee, that is.

"He lets you borrow them?" her eyes got a little bigger and slightly crazy looking.

"Mom, have you ever heard how Mr. Carp talks to George? It's like he's dirt or something and I can't stand it! So, me and George figured out a way to get back at the old fish."

"I can't listen to this!" She was laughing now. With no way to disguise it she covered her ears and started walking away. "You can't scheme with other faculty members anymore, Ivy. Daniel almost lost his eyebrows last time."

"How was it my fault that he lit the fire too soon? He didn't give me enough time! Mom, Daniel should have been paying attention to my signal, if you ask me!"

"Ivy! Your father and grandfather are respected, retired police officers in this town and I work at the school. You have got to calm down with your insane pranks."

"They're not pranks," I corrected. "I'm just curious."

"Curious. And what was the goal outcome of hiding the hairpiece?" she asked.

"I don't want to say," I answered. I looked down at my hands sitting in my lap and pretended to pick something off my nails.

"Tell me," she demanded. I took a steadying breath.

"I wanted to see if he would flounder," I admitted.

My father's booming laugh broke the silence and Mom was barely holding it in. She pointed to the stairs. "Room, now!"

"Yes, Ma'am," I said. I dragged my feet all the way up the stairs and into my bedroom. When I got to my bed, I fell face down onto my comforter.

I turned and looked at the wall to my left, staring at the pictures of cool maps I'd collected over the years.

I wanted to explore and discover things in the world. I loved all my family, but someone was always trailing me.

I wanted adventure.

I wanted to do something no one in my family had ever done before.