Monsters Among Us (Deception Series Book 1) Read online

  MONSTERS

  AMONG

  US

  by

  Margaret Afseth

  Amazon/kindle Edition

  Copyright 2015 by Margaret Afseth

  Creative Commons License. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only and may not be reproduced, copied or distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes, as it is the copyrighted property of the author. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy here, where they can also discover other works by same author. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  ISBN:978-0-9921638-5-3

  Publisher's note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and similarity to people living or dead purely coincidental.

  This book is dedicated to my sister Ann, who passed away unexpectedly while I was preparing this book for publication. She died a lost soul, silent and alone, found too late, because her situation was poorly monitored. Her leaving was way too soon.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  PROLOGUE:

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Epilogue:

  About the Author

  FIRE AND ICE

  PROLOGUE:

  A new life was ahead. The wedding and consummation were still pleasant thoughts in the background, but now the future was beginning in earnest for Gemma and Sam.

  The small crumbling house, with the overgrown, treed-in back yard, was on special at the real-estate office, not even up on the board, yet. The realtor only mentioned it, when they turned away at the high prices, declaring them all out of their price range.

  "A bargain," the man declared. "The owner wants to unload one of his rental properties; he is getting old, and has too much to handle. He will practically give it away.

  "How much can you afford?"

  They should have been suspicious right there, but when they saw it, Gemma immediately called it her dream home.

  Sam said; "I can landscape the yard; redo the carpets."

  With a little paint, and decorative edging, Gemma could envision the end result.

  How can it go wrong at twenty thousand, with housing prices so beyond our reach?

  And small town life might be different, but it's do able.

  ****

  Gemma was re-hanging the drapes in the living room; Sam had gone to see what takeout he could get at the hotel diner. Someone had told them, they made excellent pizza.

  She thought she heard the back door open, but it was way too soon for Sam to be back. Believing she was mistaken, she ignored it, and lifted her foot, to step up on the small stool.

  ****

  He entered the house like a spirit, unseen, because her back was turned.

  When the couple had first moved into the tiny village, the woman had come to their attention as a prospect. The pair had already spent considerable in the businesses about town; on the flooring and carpets; paint and new windows.

  He could see, they were still renovating.

  He had waited impatiently for the woman to be left alone.

  Now is the perfect time!

  Cloaked and invisible to the naked eye, he still crept toward her cautiously. With the heavy rod in her hand, she would not have seen him, anyway.

  The ungainly thing in her arms, made it impossible for her to see beneath her feet, and she miss-stepped, stumbling over the short first step up to the stool.

  He pushed her; one hard shove from behind, and she went sprawling, face first into the wall.

  She never realized, she lost consciousness; only seconds spanned the time between the push and the waking; but that minute of timeframe, changed her life, forever.

  Rolling her quickly to her back, without mercy, he drove in the implant, up the nose cavity, shooting home the nanobot that would tag her for life.

  She is ours now!

  He raised her from the floor, switched her position, so she appeared to be coming off the wall, just as she was regaining her senses, and let go of her.

  Then her attacker quickly fled the scene.

  ****

  Gemma sat on the floor stunned, blood dripping on the new laundered drapes.

  What just happened? I could swear someone shoved me hard from behind.

  But she was just as alone, as she had been when Sam left.

  I guess, I tripped, and just hit my nose against the wall. Feels like it's broken. We can't afford a medical bill...I'll just pack it until it heals.

  ****

  Sam's money had run out.

  But he'd promised Gemma to create not only the fairytale cottage, but to build a beautiful garden to go with it. And they had succeeded, searching the many nearby garden centers, from here to the city, for plants, and flower varieties; ornaments, ponds, and fountains, that would make it spectacular.

  However...the cost had added up, and now, there was nothing left to finish his driveway.

  He had heard tell, that at the town dump, you could have what was disposed of for free, and someone had also informed him, the municipality was resurfacing the nearby highway, and dumping the unneeded crushed rock in their landfill.

  Sam was quick to ask if he might have that discarded gravel. They were overjoyed to give it to him, as it took up too much space, and would eventually need to be dealt with; all he had to do was haul it away.

  The next day, Sam was just outside of town, shoveling a load of gravel into his dilapidated pickup box.

  What a godsend! It would cost me a fortune, if I had to pay for this. So what if it's oily and discolored...it's free!

  ****

  He had waited patiently to finish his job; for hours he had watched, until the man was alone. Now, he had the perfect opportunity.

  Unseen, he came from behind, with the syringe in his fist, driving the injection into the meaty thigh of his victim.

  To him, it will merely feel like an insect bite...

  The dastardly deed was done in seconds. The stalker quickly fled, having no qualms, that he had just sentenced another man to death. After all...

  Where I come from, a man's life means nothing; there are way too many men.

  ****

  Gemma sat among her neighbors, and husband's many relatives, and friends. The full impact of what had transpired these past three months had still not registered. She simply felt numb, unable to accept that she was now alone.

  Sam is dead! This isn't real!

  Yet, there in the coffin was ample evidence...a cold, wax persona of the man she loved.

  The cancer had appeared like a thief i
n the night. One minute Sam was working on his driveway, shoveling the last bit of gravel from the truck, raking it smooth, then turning away... and, vomiting the lunch, he had just eaten, on the ground.

  From then on, it had been downhill all the way. He had gone downstairs to lie down in the rec-room. He thought, he had merely gotten too much sun.

  But that evening, the man who would relish any dish she prepared for him, had not even wanted to look at his supper.

  Before she was finished with her own meal, Sam needed to go to the emergency at the small town hospital.

  Oh, why did we ever move here? Something must have been in that gravel from the dump...otherwise, how come he got so sick, so quickly?

  The night they went into emergency, had been the roughest night of her life: first the ambulance ride to the city, Sam's operation, and the long hours of waiting for word. At last, in the wee hours of the morning, the physician came to the waiting room to share the prognoses.

  Sam was filled with cancer. They had removed a large tumor blocking the intestines, at the cross-section between the lower and upper bowel, but when they realized there was so much more, they had simply closed him up, and left him to his death sentence. Two months, and the tumor had grown back again, to twice its original size.

  Her poor lover had suffered much pain during the remaining three months of his life, bloating up like a pregnant woman about to give birth. Sometimes, to relieve the pressure, the doctors had drained up to seven liters of fluid from his belly in a week, only to have it return within days.

  His last few weeks had been spent in palliative care in their small town hospital. Every day, Gemma rose at six, was there by eight, so she could help feed and wash Sam. She spent the rest of the day watching him sleep, or reading to him, while he moved restlessly on his bed of agony.

  The last afternoon, just before she went home for supper, he begged her to take him with her; he didn't want to spend his last minutes in a hospital room. He wanted to die at their storybook home...with her.

  "They are giving me a pill at night," he told her. "I don't know what it's for...I don't think it's good for me."

  She hadn't really paid attention to his accusation. Gemma was afraid...she didn't think she could care for him by herself.

  What if he should he fall, or get worse?

  She never expected it to be her last moment with him. Gemma thought they still had days.

  The call had come at four o'clock in the morning.

  "Your husband died about an hour ago. Would you like to come, and say goodbye?"

  Gemma was so angry. She even asked, "Why didn't you call me sooner? So I could sit with him."

  I didn't even get to say goodbye!

  "Well...no one noticed he was gone. We could hear his loud breathing all down the hall. He was such a disturbance to the rest of the floor...we simply ignored it, blocked it out. We didn't realize, at first, he had quit..."

  Dear God! He died all alone; struggling to breathe.

  Gemma would never forgive herself for not being with him. But...when she thought on it further, she was almost certain, they had put him out of his misery!

  However, there was no proving her suspicions.

  ****

  The people around Gemma, seeking to display comfort, were mostly Sam's friends, and family. It had been the same at their wedding. She had only her sister, Bella; their parents had been killed in a car accident, years before.

  And, Bella was seldom a comforting soul. Her version of encouragement was always ill placed at best.

  "After this is over," she whispered in Gemma's ear, as the precession of mourners followed the casket out of the church, to begin the ride to the cemetery. "You'll have to get right back out there; find yourself another man to look after you. The longer you stay off the horse, the harder it'll be to get back on."

  Disgusted, Gemma shook her head in rejection of what her sister implied.

  No one will ever take Sam's place! There is not another like him!

  Aloud, she contradicted Bella.

  "He was gentle...a God-fearing man! They are a rare find these days. He would never have hurt me!"

  "Yah, but he's gone, now. You have to make plans for your future. He left you with nothing."

  No matter how true that was, Gemma didn't want to think on that just now.

  Together, she and Sam, had created the doll house; he had slaved over the beautiful garden, the fountain, and pool. The yard now had a bench swing, a fire pit. She still had that!

  He will never sit with me on that swing again, watching the fountain splash, as night descends...Oh, God. What will I do without him?

  But she was too proud to let them see her cry. Crying was for private...not in public.

  ****

  Gemma endured the funeral luncheon, feeling too distant even to relate to his brothers. Most of the people simply talked around her. They were Sam's friends and acquaintances. He had always been the out-going one; she the silent, listening wallflower, preferring to hide away in her garden.

  They're just here for the free food, anyway. None of them ever tried, or cared to get to know the real me...

  Sam was ever, only, my real encouragement...my support. My one true love.

  But still...Gemma wouldn't let them see her weep. After all, she was too self-conscious to ever cry in public.

  ****

  The garage sale was a success. There was little left to do. The house was sold; possession date set for next week.

  She had rented an apartment in the city; the movers had already taken off, loaded with the little she felt she would need to survive.

  Gemma would follow in the dilapidated pickup truck. When she was done with it, she intended to give it to Bella.

  Don't need that memory haunting me.

  Bella would never pay her for the vehicle, so it would just be a free gift.

  Not a single neighbor had shown up to wish Gemma good luck.

  Oh, well. It's as if it was all a daydream. My life with Sam, seems but a nightmare...dream yard gone...others enjoying what we built...

  Gemma swallowed the lump in her throat. As she stepped into the cab of the truck, a tiny tear escaped, and travelled unnoticed down her cheek.

  Chapter 1

  From birth to puberty, Loni lived almost exclusively with his mother. She was of another race, and taught him many things others would not want him to know, but then, they couldn't tell what she was showing him. She was both slave, and free...mind free.

  Among the things she taught him was to show mercy, forgiveness, and love; emotions the rest of his world regarded non-essential; conditions totally unfamiliar in their society.

  His mother was no more than a child herself, when she gave birth to Loni. Together, they grew up, climbing the catwalks at the top of the dome, watching from above, as the workers tended the gardens that fed them.

  Loni never knew his father; he had been eliminated soon after the boy was conceived, and mother, put among the unclaimed, to be taken by another partner, after she delivered.

  But somehow, long after the appointed time to separate mother from son, she had managed to avoid detection.

  Then the day came, when males entered the birthing quarters, to cull the older ones they had missed, tearing them away from women who had long hidden them to protect them. Most of the children went obediently, but Loni chose to fight.

  In the ensuing battle, Loni accidentally knocked over a lamp filled with hot oil. The raging fire spread swiftly; took two days to put out, and when the blackened shell finally cooled, it was realized a number of females, and young infants, had perished.

  This was a society in which, to ensure a clean bloodline, baby girls were never allowed to live. Instead, genetically altered women were brought in to bear the young, and the crime of killing one of these, or the males born to them, was unforgivable. Someone must pay!

  It was discovered, Loni was to blame!

  When they found him, for the first time in his li
fe, the young boy learned the meaning of discipline. First, they used a round, flat, iron skillet, applying it soundly to his posterior, until he could take no more, and begged for mercy.

  When his screams had quieted, and turned to mere whimpers, they took him away to the physicians. These brutal beasts held him down, one on either side, and carefully poring acid into the ear channel, intending to deafen him, burned away even the outer ear flap in the process. Loni was now scarred for life.

  But, as was stated previously, Loni's mother had taught him many things. He could still understand those around him, every word they said, and...he was aware of many more facts, they would not want him to know. Extraordinary and never anticipated by this race, not admitting such a fact was possible, his people were unaware, Loni was already a telepath.

  Upon his recovery, Loni was immediately put among the flawed, to work in the gardens. The youth didn't much mind that work station; he had always loved the growing things, but, from then on, his fellow workers, and the overseers, became a constant affliction in his young life.

  ****

  "You stupid little Flaw!" exclaimed the face, at the grate, peering in at him. "What the devil you doing in there?"

  Loni did not dare reveal to the overseer, that he'd spent the night in the drainage tunnel; that the separated twins, Galar and Scar, were responsible, had locked him in.

  The pair always worked together to corner him. Even though missing a leg, Galar was quick on his crutch, using his arms to trap, or send his victim close to that one powerful arm Scar had left. Twice Loni's weight, and both, taller than he, the bullies found great pleasure in tormenting the supposed deaf-mute.

  With an exaggerated movement, the overseer unlocked from the outside, the barred gate covering the drain tube. Swinging it outward, he motioned for Loni to step out.

  "You stupid male, don't you realize you could drowned in there?"

  Loni peered around the corner of his prison, not quite ready to accept that his oppressors had finally gone away, half expecting, at least Galar, to be nearby waiting.

  "Get you back to the sleep quarters!" impatiently ordered his liberator, with a growl. "And... as your punishment, you'll miss the morning feed. You'll also lose your liberty for this day. Stay within the bounds of your work area. No recreation period! Do you understand?"