Unholy Page 18

  The guard near Kate cleared his throat. “What should we do with him?” He asked as he gestured toward Simon’s dead body. “The pit?”

  “He’s the most Unholy of us all,” the woman said.

  Kate was starting to not only feel overwhelmed but also claustrophobic. She blew out a deep breath and turned to the guard. “Why are you asking me what to do?”

  “Who else would we ask?” the guard looked confused.

  “No idea, but not me,” Kate said taking another step back right into Ethan.

  “We trust you, Kate,” the woman said.

  Kate shook her head. “Why?” Her voice squeaked in a higher pitch than usual. She rubbed her hands up and down her arms as though she felt hundreds of ants moving over her skin. “I… I don’t know what to do.”

  “You’ve been out there,” the guards said.

  “Not only that but we hear you’re the best,” the woman pulled her shoulders back. “You know, at killing The Unholy.” She cleared her throat. “Those things.”

  “The fence will keep them out,” Kate said quickly.

  The woman shook her head. “And if they don’t? It could fail again.”

  “I need to—”

  Laura approached with her two kids pressed against her body as if they’d been glued there. “Kate, please, whatever you do, don’t leave us.”

  Kate felt as though she couldn’t breathe. She pressed her hand to her chest and turned away from the crowd. Before she knew it, her legs were moving. She was running into the darkness away from the crowd… away from the town… away from everyone. She didn’t stop until she slammed into the fence.

  Tears started to flow out of her eyes. Simon had been right, she was weak. Why would any of them think for even a second that she knew what to do?

  The whole time she’d lived in the town, everyone had seemed to ignore her. No one had really given her the time of day, and now here they were begging for her leadership.

  Leadership. That was a word that had never been used when describing Kate. She knew it and everyone her whole life had known it… Kate was a follower.

  Kate dropped down to her knees and pressed her forehead into the chain-linked fence. She should be out there, on the other side of the fence battling The Unholy far, far away from The Way.

  “Kate?” Ethan’s soft voice floated through the air and into her ears. He sat down on the ground next to her. “If you want to leave, we’ll leave, but—”

  “No,” she said holding up her hand, “why are there always buts?”

  “Hear me out?”

  Kate turned and leaned back against the fence. She sat there, shoulder to shoulder with Ethan not sure if she wanted to hear what he had to say.

  “Fine,” she said burying her face in her hands.

  “He’s gone. Everyone is happy he’s gone.”

  “I didn’t even think about it. I just reacted.”

  She could feel Ethan’s eyes on her. “It doesn’t matter. But think about what we have here. We’re safe inside this fence, with food, water, and shelter. Out there is an unknown. With Simon gone that changes everything.”

  “Does it?” Kate wasn’t being cynical, she seriously wasn’t sure if anything would be any different. Maybe fewer people would die for no reason, but maybe they wouldn’t.

  “Of course it does. In here, we have a real chance to change things, to make them better, not to mention we’d struggle less.”

  Kate shook her head. “I’m not the type of person who can take care of an entire town.”

  “Everyone out there seems to think you can.”

  “I’m just a woman who couldn’t take it anymore.”

  “And all of them were fed up, I was fed up, and none of us could do it. None of us had been able to do what you did.” Ethan put his thumb on Kate’s chin and forced her to look at him. “I believe you can do this, just as much as the others do, if not more.”

  Kate swallowed hard as her stomach twisted. Ethan pressed his forehead to Kate’s.

  “I will follow you to the end of the earth if that’s what you want, but if we stay, I will stand at your side helping you with anything.” Ethan smiled. “We can fix this.”

  “I don’t know,” Kate said, turning away from him.

  “How about this? What if we give it a try, and if at any time you want to leave, we go? We just tell everyone sorry, pack up, and leave.”

  Kate pressed her palms to her knees. “Why do you want to stay? You were all ready to leave this shit hole behind.”

  “I wanted to leave Simon and what I thought were his followers behind. Now that he’s gone, this place can be polished up into a sparkling gem. It can be what I thought it was going to be since the beginning.”

  “I don’t know,” Kate said shaking her head.

  She knew that the people in the town would be helpless without someone to fight The Unholy. If they broke through the fence, it would be the end of everything they had. The townspeople didn’t know how to fight The Unholy, and who knew if those that did would bother to stick around.

  Could Kate really just walk away when there were people counting on her? Maybe it was time for Kate to stop running away. Maybe it was time for her to see if she was stronger than she gave herself credit for.

  “Okay, we’ll stay,” Kate said holding up a finger. “On one condition.”

  “What’s that?”

  “That once we get everything running smoothly and people trained to defend themselves against those creatures, that then, we can leave.”

  A grin spread across Ethan’s face. “If that’s what you want.”

  “I do.” Kate nodded as she turned and looked out through the fence into the darkness. “There could be something out there.”

  “And maybe there isn’t.”

  “One day, I want to find out.”

  Ethan stood and stretched out his hand. “So it’s settled then? We’re staying?”

  “We can stay for now.” Kate took his hand, and he helped her to her feet. “But I’m not staying in Simon’s office. In fact, I might have it burned to the ground.”

  “As you wish,” Ethan said bowing his head.

  “And that guard was right.”

  “Right about what?”

  Kate raised her eyebrow and pulled her shoulders back. “We need to burn Simon’s body.”

  As they walked back toward the town, Kate felt a small bubble of confidence growing in the pit of her stomach. Then again, maybe it had always been there.

  Together with Ethan, Kate was going to help the town pick up the pieces. When they got back to the town center, most everyone had dispersed. A few remained whispering to one another as they waited to see what would happen.

  Kate walked over to Simon’s dead body and shoved her hands into his pockets. She removed a keychain with several keys and stuck it into her pocket.

  “Burn it,” Kate said to the guards that were still standing in the area.

  “What about him?” one of them asked jerking his thumb at Philip.

  Kate shook her head. “For now, lock him up.”

  “Aw, Kate, come on,” Philip whined.

  “For hitting me,” Kate said raising an eyebrow.

  “Should have killed ya!” Philip spat as he was dragged away.

  Laura was on her knees with her arms wrapped around her children. She looked up at Kate her eyes redder than an apple.

  “What should we do?” Laura said, her voice scratchy.

  “I’m so sorry for your loss. It shouldn’t have happened,” Kate said biting her cheek to feel pain instead of the sadness that radiated out of the now fatherless family. “What do you want to do? You’re more than welcome to stay. I mean if you want.”

  “Okay,” Laura said looking up toward the hotel room. “Until I figure it out.”

  “Tommy,” Kate shouted over her shoulder, and he came running. “Would you escort Laura and her kids, she’ll show you where to go.”

  Laura sniffed hard. “Thank you,
Kate.”

  Kate nodded, but she hadn’t done anything. In fact, she probably could have done more… she wished she would have done more.

  It didn’t take long for everything to be cleaned up and everyone to disperse. Kate stood there staring down the empty road.

  “You okay?” Ethan asked stepping up next to her.

  “Yeah, I think I am.”

  Ethan smiled. “I really think it’s going to be okay.”

  Kate nodded even though she knew there were things she’d have to deal with. Things she’d have to figure out. But she could do it, and she believed she could do it better than Simon had.

  She wasn’t going to run… at least not yet.

  This is the end of Unholy the first book in the Falling Darkness series.

  Sign up for my mailing list to be one of the first to find out when book two is released.

  If you enjoyed this book you may also enjoy the Ravaged Land Series or The Island Series!

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  Thank you for reading! If you liked this story, please leave a review!

  Books By Kellee L. Greene

  Falling Darkness Series

  Unholy

  Ravaged Land: Divided

  The Last Disaster - Book 1

  The Last Remnants - Book 2

  The Last Struggle - Book 3

  Ravaged Land Series

  Ravaged Land -Book 1

  Finding Home - Book 2

  Crashing Down - Book 3

  Running Away - Book 4

  Escaping Fear - Book 5

  Fighting Back - Book 6

  The Island Series

  The Island - Book 1

  The Fight - Book 2

  The Escape - Book 3

  The Erased - Book 4

  The Alien Invasion Series

  The Landing - Book 1

  The Aftermath - Book 2

  Destined Realms Series

  Destined - Book 1

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  Coming Soon…

  Book two in the Falling Darkness series is in the works! Please subscribe to the mailing list to be one of the first to know when it’s available! And follow Kellee L. Greene on Facebook.

  About the Author

  Kellee L. Greene is a stay-at-home-mom to two super awesome and wonderfully sassy children. She loves to read, draw and spend time with her family when she’s not writing. Writing and having people read her books has been a long time dream of hers and she’s excited to write more. Her favorites genres are Fantasy and Sci-fi. Kellee lives in Wisconsin with her husband, two kids and two cats.

  For more information:

  www.kelleelgreene.com

  Ravaged Land - Preview

  The Ravaged Land Series - Book One

  Ravaged Land - Chapter one

  I think I took it all for granted. I had become accustomed to my daily routine and to be totally honest, I liked it. In fact, there was nothing I enjoyed more than sitting still, reading a book, soaking in the bathtub, watching a movie, or other simple things that some people think are monotonous. They are always on the go, scheduling the next event, sending text messages and taking quick showers, but I didn’t mind being slow. I relished it. I thought everyone should take a more leisurely approach to life, what was the rush anyway? Had I been able to see into the future, I may have thought differently. I might have changed how I had lived my life.

  There had been something drastically different in the air that afternoon, but I couldn't quite put my finger on exactly what it was. The whole day had been hot and humid, the weatherman had predicted a thunderstorm, and we were under a tornado watch. My clothes had been soggy from dripping sweat all day in the unpleasant claustrophobic classrooms they refused to air condition. I had felt gross and was eager to change into something dry, ideally right into my pajamas. This day had been draining, and I was exhausted. Maybe I'd curl up in bed after a cool bath, read a book and listen to the storms pass by. That sounded like heaven.

  I wanted to put a name to the smell floating in my nostrils. It was salty and musty, making me think of under-cooked French fries. Both the smell and the feeling in the air had been unsettling and I couldn’t wait to get home. I walked faster hoping I’d beat the rain since my clothes were already wet enough. I crossed my arms in front of me and let my backpack hang off my shoulder as I walked fast with my head down. After the bell had rang letting school out I had practically sprinted out of the building leaving a little earlier than I usually did. Since it had been the last day before summer vacation, everyone else was lingering and making plans for the summer with their friends. They had all apparently been oblivious to that unusual fragrance in the air.

  “Have a great summer Roslyn!” A tall girl shouted to me from across the street, waving at me altogether too excitedly as she opened the passenger door of a beat-up blue corvette. I couldn't remember her name, so I smiled awkwardly and waved at her. Then as if I felt weird about my hand up in the air, I dropped it down to gather up my dark blonde hair letting it fall down over my left shoulder.

  I was probably about halfway home when I looked up from the sidewalk. Across the street was a boy in my class I didn’t really know, but I recognized him only because he was often the object of discussions I’d overheard the other girls chittering about. He was cute, dark hair, dark eyes but guys like that don’t have an interest in girls like me anyway. He wouldn’t want someone who was as boring and low-key as I was. A boy like that is only interested in the most popular, the most beautiful and the most interesting girls. In front of me was another boy from my class, Ryan I thought, kicking a stone as if it were a soccer ball. Another one of the boys all the girls went crazy over, he was absolutely gorgeous, but he didn’t know it, or at least if he did, he didn’t care.

  There was another group somewhere behind me. I could hear them talking, making plans for the night, and next they’d probably plan out the whole summer. After I rolled my eyes, I was hit smack dab in the middle of my forehead by an abnormally large drop of wetness. I wiped my skin dry with the back of my hand and tilted my head upwards. The dark ominous clouds looming ahead traveled at what seemed to be an unrealistic speed. Only moments ago the sun had been shining but now a darkness akin to night was setting in, the feeling made me shiver even in this heat.

  I looked to the others to see if anyone else had noticed the extreme raindrops but the boy across the street still had his head down and was even further ahead of me. The other boy, Ryan, who had been in front of me had turned off and was walking into what I assumed was his house.

  The drops of water started to fall quicker, each one smacking against my face and the exposed skin of my arms with small but annoying stings. I swung my backpack in front of me to look for something I could put over my head. Before I even got a chance to unzip my pack there was a loud thunk followed by the clanging rattle of a street sign. It had made such an unusual high pitched noise that my ears started to ring.

  Another chunk of hail hit the ground a foot in front of me with a thud, crashing so hard it broke into countless smaller pieces on impact. They scattered all around my feet looking like little chips of glass. This was by far the largest and most dangerous hail I’d ever seen in my entire life. Within thirty seconds of each other, another two large pieces fell only a few feet away from me, and thankfully not on my head. How many more of these large ice blocks would fall? These pieces of hail weren’t the small and smooth pebble-like hail I’d seen a hundred times before, instead they were rough and thick, jagged like chipped and broken rocks. I put my backpack over my head hoping it would at least protect me from the falling shards, but in all reality they probably weighed several pounds and the backpack wouldn’t do much of anything to soften the blow.

  Down the street a car window shattered with a loud pop and crack. I hadn't been expecting it and I jumped backwards startled by the sudden noise. My house was still a fair dist
ance away, and the hail didn’t seem to be letting up. If anything, it was getting worse. I needed to find a place to hang out temporarily until this lethal storm passed. The girl in the group behind me let out an awful howl. I whipped around to see watery blood streaming down her face. Her crystal blue eyes were wide with surprise. I guessed that she'd been hit by the small chunk of hail that rocked to a stop near her feet. Had it been one of the larger pieces she wouldn’t have been able to let out her painful cry.

  The house Ryan had walked into had a covered porch. I called over to the group behind me, pointing as I ran up the walk. “Over here, come this way!” I said, and they followed. I didn’t think he’d mind... considering.

  A car barreled down the street and I realized what was about to happen only seconds before it did. The driver didn't have a chance. The girl next to me with the gash in her forehead let out a scream that made my bones ache. It had been like something out of a horror movie. The boulder of hail which had been the size of a large watermelon smashed through the windshield. Copious cracks sprouted out from the hole that had been left by the chunk of hail further weakening the glass. The car slammed into a parked van, and the driver was ejected from his seat. The broken windshield had slowed the drivers exit and his body was sprawled out on the hood of the car like a rag doll. Blood pooled out from his middle and oozed out of his nose and ears. He laid there staring blankly towards me, his body motionless. Oh crap, was he dead?

  The boy who had been ahead of me on the other side of the street was running towards the car, but he stopped suddenly when he saw the body spread out on the car. He put his hand on his forehead and then both hands over his eyes. I guessed it had been someone he knew. The winds picked up and the booms from the thunder and lightning shook the earth so much I worried it was an earthquake. It was terrifying.