Midnight Curse Read online

  Midnight Curse

  Title Page

  Prologue

  Part One

  Part Two

  Part Three

  Part Four

  Midnight Curse

  Midnight Curse

  Book Two in the Midnight Trilogy

  By: Faellin Angel

  December 2014

  Smashwords Edition

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any mean without prior permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This book is fiction and from the imagination of the writers. No part within is fact or contains facts. All names are fiction. Please do not copy this book but purchase your own. It is illegal to obtain copies except by purchase.

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  Acknowledgements

  There are many people who have made me the author I am today. Without their help, input, advice, and edits I would never have grown. I can definitely see the difference between now and when I first started to write. Every new story is a step forward for me. Every edit I get, is a lesson learned.

  My personal friend and usual editor, Kathy Ree, can tell you I can be a bit stubborn or forgetful about certain things. When she read my first book, I was astonished at all my errors, but I felt deep within she’d be good for me. This time, since I’ve sent her a book there were probably only as many errors or suggestions as there were on page one of my first book. I definitely think I’ve progressed.

  So Kathy Ree, I wish to thank you for all the times you stepped in and saved the day. You are a beautiful woman, full of compassion and honesty, and I love your sense of humor. You are one of the most special women I’ve found in my journey in becoming a published author. I hope that this journey we are on, finds both of us infamous and on the beaches of Maui together, sipping Daiquiris. I can totally see us comparing notes while being on vacation! So literary sister, I bow to your genius!

  Also I’d like to thank my good friend, J.L Cooper, for his tremendous work on my plethora of covers. Not once has he abandoned me! You can find him on my Facebook scaring the crap out of me with his pictures of spiders. Keep up all the good work my friend!

  There are just a few more that I’d like to thank for their support and willingness to stand by me through the last few years. My idol, my role model, and literary genius Nathan Squiers, who has taught me many things, stood with me in dark times, gave me the courage to be myself. To Deidre Frost, who always takes the time to read my manuscripts and point out my mistakes, encourage me to be me, and loves me as much as I do her. To H’deel Batnij who gave me the chance to work with her as she began her literary career. She is one of my closest friends even though we met online. These three people were monumental in my rise in my literary world. They gave me the things I needed to continue when I thought I was done. You guys are wonderful.

  Dedications

  Many of my books were proofread and edited by a dear friend of mine. Unfortunately, she could not do so with this book. Crissy Rearley, I know you are looking down on us from heaven and shaking your head. Did you ever know you were loved this much? Did you think your life had made this big of an impact on some people, strangers, or people you knew but never met? Your name will live on in the hearts of many people. You made so many of us happy.

  There were so many days I woke up, ate, and got straight on the Xbox to play one of our games. That was what made gaming so epic for me, not the game, it was the people with whom I played. I never got along with female gamers, until you. We went from one game to the next, having the time of our lives as we had many adventures, mining away until one of us fell into a lava pit or was attacked by a monster. We’d all panic and run for our lives, laughing as we did.

  Shooting each other or the other team was a total chaos, but the most fun I’d had in years. When you accepted me onto your team, We Suck Don’t Shoot, I felt so happy. I fit in it perfectly. I totally sucked at that game and you guys never once said anything. So many times we planned, tried different strategies, and your voice got us working together.

  It won’t be the same gaming without you. It won’t be the same going over my books and having you right there pointing out ways to make it read better. You got inside my head and knew exactly what I was trying to say.

  Wherever you are, heaven or standing by each of us, please know that I truly enjoyed having you in my life. Your humor, kindness, honesty, and character will be forever in our hearts and minds. RIP Crissy Rearley. With wings, you now have the winning advantage in every game you ever play.

  Prologue

  In Midnight Omen, a story of loss and destiny twine together, to start a journey that one girl may not be capable of surviving.

  Born and raised in the deep woods and swamps of Georgia, Angel Tala has run as wild and free as the wolf. When her Grandpa, her sole provider, dies, everything changes. Having never left her small world, she suddenly finds herself the only one capable of protecting and providing for her small, bereft family. Because her Pa has abandoned them, Angel knows that without her they would starve.

  Using the hunting skills her Pa and Grandpa passed down to her, she sets out. She is the hunter and night is her playground.

  In all the time Angel has hunted and fished, she has never found anything out of the ordinary. It was just a swamp and her home. That is until, under the light of a full moon, she fishes out something truly beyond her wildest imagination: a man, half dead, who she pulls out of the river and into her lap.

  The man recovers enough to tell her that his name is Abel. There is something about him that Angel doesn’t trust, yet she is attracted to him just the same. Abel is a conundrum to her.

  Making a hasty decision, she accompanies the man to his home. No sooner does she get there when, overwhelmed and beyond confused by her feelings, she flees.

  An unexpected turn of events sets in motion her destiny. A jealous and territorial she-wolf, bent on killing Angel, takes her by surprise and tackles her, right out of the boat and into the river. A battle of wills, claws, and fangs leaves Angel on the brink of death beneath a murky river.

  Midnight Curse

  Book Two of the Midnight Trilogy

  Part One

  Purgatory

  Before this very moment, there was absolute nothing. It was as if I had not existed. Had I been dead? Was I alive now? What had happened to make me forget…everything?

  A monumental amount of time seemed to pass me by, but it was all the same. It stood still. Nothingness was all that I was, and nothingness was all around me. I could not feel and I could not sense anything. All was dark, and the darkness was all I had. No body, no voice, and no me, which made me wonder if I was nothing more than a soul.

  At first, I was just a little anxious. Something inside told me that this was not how it used to be, how it should be, and that it would not always be this way. For now, the sinister nothingness was where I existed. No senses, only thought. I was alone, with only my thoughts for company. No pain, no mourning, no wants or needs. It was just absolute nothing. It would have been almost tranquil, aside from my ever-so-slowly mounting panic.

  I was not small or large, corporeal or ethereal. I just…was. I did not question this. There was no need to. Nothing mattered to me other than the idea that I existed.

  After some time, maybe a lot or maybe not so much, I felt I was not alone. Something was coming, and it was not something I c
ould deny or ignore. Its existence was much more than my own.

  Do you know what has become of you, dear Angel?

  It was speaking, or thinking, to me and yet I did not know this Angel. Was it something, or a who? Was I an angel? I only knew that I had not thought that or spoke it. Nothing had spoken. I could not see it, but I knew it existed.

  Yes, you are Angel, but not an angel. Yes, I am communicating with you.

  Is that what we were doing? Communicating?

  There is much for you to know and so little time. Just pay attention and try not to get distracted.

  I would do my best, but I could not guarantee this. I waited, a little impatient.

  You were and are Angel. You are now in Purgatory.

  Purgatory is where… I knew this. Purgatory was where the dead went when they had died! Which meant I was unfortunately now dead, but since I could not remember my life, how was that unfortunate?

  Yes. You died, Angel. Yet you still exist, as does your body. At this very moment someone is doing their best to keep your body going. They can save you and you can continue as you were, but not as you are.

  I don’t remember what I was. Only what I am.

  That is not the point. You have a choice to go back. You will not move on until you’ve made the decision.

  Where would I move to should I decide not to go back? There were more questions than answers, something that seemed to matter little to me at the moment.

  I can only tell you that once you decide. You would be judged and then the decision would be made. For now, you have the chance to go back.

  Did I want to? Why couldn’t I remember? Was there a reason I should choose to go back?

  Someone is doing everything in their power to keep you with them. There are others who would wish for you to stay with them, if they knew you were gone.

  Who are they? Where were they? How come I can’t remember them?

  I’ve said too much already. The decision must be yours. I cannot say nor do anything that might affect the decision in the least.

  Who are you? More questions and not enough answers.

  I am no one. I am nothing. I am everything. I am the living essence from which life and souls are derived.

  You are God?

  I did not know how I knew this word, but it was familiar. It was as if I had forgotten it until the entity with me had spoken.

  No and yes. I am not God. I am the thing that humans have labeled as God and misjudged. I am the beginning. I am the end. I am the thing you would return to someday. The thing you came from. I am life and death. I am the cycle of life. I am animal and human, both and neither, and mother and father. I am one with the air, fire, water, earth, and I am spirit.

  Instantly I understood. Instantly I knew that I loved this being. I knew this being loved me. I also remembered. Bits and pieces flickered within my thoughts, with no rhythm or rhyme. I had never chosen God, or a Goddess, before I had died. I had only gone along with my elders with whatever they’d chosen, but I had never fully immersed myself into it.

  There is no male. There is no female. I am both and neither. I am sexless. I just exist. I am what you are, but more. I am within and a part of everything, yet I am myself.

  So many things flashed within my thoughts, moving so rapidly I could not understand them. Yet I knew that the being I’d chosen not to choose, not to believe in, had abandoned us on Earth. Why?

  Not abandon, little one. Never abandon. I am always with you. I will always be with you, but not a living part of you. Once you became your own being, left me, you had free will. I could hear and see you, but you could not me.

  What about everything I’d ever been taught? Were they only lies?

  They were only stories to pacify some and stories to give others power. There was no curse in which you were punished with free will. Free will is something that every being that is no longer connected to me receives. You are unable to hear or see me outside purgatory and outside of me, but I can hear and see you. You are a part of me, but not the whole. Even while connected with me, you are still you, only not alone.

  It was too confusing, too much to take in. I wanted—no, needed—answers, but this was pure nonsense to me. I felt incapable of understanding.

  Something you will not remember well anyway. Once more, you must choose.

  All I felt was how it was to be with this life form. How it was to be a part of something so great was overpowering and overwhelming, but in a pleasant way. It was what I wanted. The things that still flew through me, still in disarray, I could not understand. Yet I also knew that there were other beings that I was no longer connected to that I wanted to be with. It was a conundrum, one I was unable to solve.

  Would it be easier to know that you could always come back here, to be with me, but never with them until they too come here in time?

  In a way it did help. What I missed I could find, what I lost I could regain.

  Have you chosen?

  No. Will it hurt to leave? Not physically, but will I lose this thing I sense? If that was how I could describe it.

  Not exactly, humans choose to forget and choose to deny me. I do not ask to be one or the other. Just know the truth. I did not abandon you. I merely chose to create something else. To give it existence, and allow it free will and free rein, with all that it had or has or will have. It is like the word “infinity”. I am that, yet more. What you have when you leave me is that, only you have more. You get to exist in another form, in another realm, and make your own way.

  I was absorbing all of this. It was too much and not enough. I still had so many unanswered questions. Also, I had these overwhelming senses that were unexplainable.

  For only a moment, imagine your word for alien.

  Do you mean the alien from outer space or movies?

  Yes. Imagine I am an alien fifty times the size of your solar system. I am ethereal. I exist, but barely in your perception. I create planets and then life on one. It fails. I realize my infernal mistake. I did not take a part of myself and put it into that life. I try again to make something magical and precious. I create life, and then wait until it matures while learning all the while until it returns to me. I lose something while my creation gains something. In the end I shall gain what I lost and what my creation gained. I therefore created, lost, gained, learned, and only to repeat. I am alone always, even while creating life. You are not powerful enough to do more than just sense me. If you could truly see me, understand me, your mind would implode, similar to a black star.

  I lose what I have come to love. Those creations only forget me. They abandon me. I cannot step in and shape and mold their lives or it is not free will. It is only a manipulation on something I already manipulated. Why create something to watch it fail? Why create something only to make it be and do as I wish? There is nothing in that for me. Is it a selfish act on my part? Am I being unselfish in giving life? Am I selfish for not actively interfering in their tiny lives? The one unselfish act I can give is love. That is all, nothing more.

  Are you the only thing like you then?

  Yes and no. I am infinity. I have always been and will be. The more I create and let go, the more I am. If I had never created, I would have ceased to exist in the greater aspect of things. Still, I would exist, just not in the way it would matter. Are there others like me? Well, that is a matter of opinion, I suppose.

  You will not understand this. You must choose. Live as what I made or become a part of me again.

  There was no choice here. I’d been created to be, to exist. Therefore, if I was guaranteed to return, I would exist and allow this being to exist. How could I be so selfish as to deny others of their desires, when all I cared about was being a part of something, to exist?

  Close enough.

  Part Two

  Georgia, Awakening

  Before this very moment, there was absolute nothing. It was as if I had not existed. Had I been dead? Was I alive now? What had happened to make me forget…ever
ything?

  A monumental amount of time seemed to pass me by, but it was all the same, it stood still. Nothingness is all I am and nothingness is all there was. I could not feel and I could not sense anything. All was dark and the darkness was all I had. No body, no voice, and no me, which made me wonder if I was nothing more than a soul.

  At first, I was just a little anxious. Something inside told me that this was not how it used to be, how it should be, and that it would not always be this way. For now, the sinister nothingness was where I existed. No senses, only thought. I was alone, with only my thoughts for company. No pain, no mourning, no wants or needs. It was just absolute nothing. It would have been almost tranquil, aside from my ever-so-slowly mounting panic.