Sharp Like Shadow: Book 1 of A Wrath Unseen

Chapter 2

Alice slipped into the house and clicked the door into place behind her.

    She rested her back against the door, pressing herself into the solidity of the wood and trying to still the slight tremble that had followed her home. Closing her eyes, she took a slow breath, working to avoid the nagging truth that scratched at the back door of her brain, whining for attention like a starving puppy. It was a fact Alice found more terrifying than anything she'd ever faced.

    Her death-visions were back.

    It had been almost ten years since Alice had a vision. As a young girl she would see them all the time. The last one came when she was seven-years-old, and a kind elderly man who bent to retrieve her notebook from where she dropped it in the street transformed into some kind of hairless monster with glowing red eyes and yellow fangs. Alex had screamed at the monster and said every swearword she'd ever heard. The next day she was taken out of her school, and sent to a special school for "troubled" children. Over the years, with the help of many counseling sessions, she managed to convince herself that the visions she saw were nothing more than the figments of a child's overactive imagination.

    But this time was different. This time she knew what she had seen, and it was no hallucination. Alice wasn't sure why, but somehow she knew deep in her bones that what she'd seen today was real. That man sitting in the principal's office was dead with a capital "D". No question about it. She had no idea what the thing was that now lived inside the dead-man's body, wearing him around like a cheap suit, but she did know that it was evil. And she knew that it had seen her.

    That thing had seen the look on her face. It knew she recognized it for what it was. She had the horrifying feeling that whatever it was, it did not want to be identified, and there was no way it was going to let her walk away now that she knew it was there. But what could she do? It's not like her grandmother would believe her if Alice told her what she'd seen. None of her teachers at school would either. Talking about her vision would only get her sent back to those mind-numbing therapy sessions. Or worse, this time they might lock her away for good.

    "Alice?" her grandma called from the other room. "That you, baby?"

    "Yeah, Grandma," Alice said.

    "Better get supper going. Royce needs to eat before practice."

    "Okay."

    Alice took a deep breath. She stepped away from the door and forced her limbs to stop trembling.

    She didn't have time for this. Her brother needed dinner before basketball practice, then after the dishes were clean she had a pile of homework waiting for her in her bedroom.

    She didn't have time to lose her mind right now.

    Alice moved down a short hallway to her bedroom at the back of the small house. She put away her things from school then headed to the kitchen to start dinner. While she cooked, she allowed her mind to drift, losing herself in the practiced motion of her work and never allowing her thoughts to settle in any one place.

    Royce wandered through the door. He kicked off his Jordans and slid past Alice in the tiny kitchen to rummage in the pantry.

    "Get outta there." Alice scolded, reaching up to swat at Royce's head. "I've got dinner on right now."

    He'd hit a growth spurt this year, and Alice still wasn't used to looking up at her brother. When he hugged his big sister, Royce's arms would wrap around her small frame and she felt like she was being smothered by a giant. Today he wore his standard athletic shorts and a faded Star Wars t-shirt. Alice had seen Royce do some amazing things on the basketball court, but she knew her brother loved science just as much. His bedroom sported an odd blend of basketball memorabilia and science fiction fandom. Royce could land a jump shot one minute, and expound on the physics of the ball hitting backboard the next, walking the line between athlete and science geek. Alice had always been jealous of her brother's duel nature. She loved him for it even as it drove her crazy.