The Forsaken (The Chosen Series Book 2), Patricia Bell [e textbook reader .txt] 📗

What in the—

Daniel turned toward the sound. There in the wall next to him was a crack. No, it was too straight to be a crack. It was a seam. And it was popped out just enough for him to notice it was there.

Where did that come from?

Gently, he pushed his fingernail in the seam, and it opened wider. He got a hold of it with the tips of his fingers and pinched it open just barely enough for his fingers to fit snugly inside. Glancing around, he felt as though he’d just been transformed into a CS Lewis novel.

As excitement built inside of him, he looked around once more. No one was around. Daniel pushed his finger into the crevice and pulled. The opening widened.

Pulling his hands back quickly, he was afraid of where it might lead. Was there another world waiting for him on the other side? That was nonsense. Stuff like that only happened in books and movies. Although he would not mind if it did. Anywhere was better than living in a secluded house with a madman. That was what his father had become. A raging, murdering madman.

Not anticipating the unexpected but hoping for it anyway, Daniel slowly pulled again at the seam, and it opened further. He peeked inside, almost expecting a coat closet filled with jackets. Nothing but darkness.

Footsteps sounded from the direction of the dining room. Quickly Daniel pushed the opening closed. As he pressed in on it, there was a click, and then it disappeared. Daniel rubbed his fingers across the wall to feel for the seam. The footsteps drew closer. There was nothing. How would he find it again?

“Daniel?” his mother called.

“Yes, Mother?” Daniel’s voice cracked.

With his fingernail, he etched a small mark in the spot he’d pressed on to open the hidden entrance. He’d have to come back later to see where it led.

“There you are. Where have you been?” she said as she came up from behind him.

He turned, trying to mask the anxiety in his face with a smile.

“Have you finished—” She stopped. “Daniel, are you okay? You are as white as a ghost.”

“I am not feeling well, Mother. I think I will go lay down.”

Daniel rushed past his mother to his bedroom. As he laid down on the bed and stared at the ceiling, he wondered what in the world he had discovered.

Chapter 4 ― Rachel

Rachel sat in the lobby of the doctor’s office and stared out the window. She was almost thirty-six weeks pregnant and felt like a hot air balloon about to burst. It had been six months since The Chosen had fleshed her out, or as the English would say “banished” her from her community. Shelly had saved her life that night when she’d found her almost passed out in the desert.

As soon as Shelly found out she was with child, she’d made her see a doctor. But she wasn’t at her obstetrician, this time. No, this wasn’t a routine doctor appointment, nor was it her normal doctor. Shelly called the lady a psychologist, but Shelly’s son, Lenny, had said it better. “A shrink.”

She’d tried everything she could to get Shelly to change her mind, but she wouldn’t budge. And being that Shelly was her legal temporary guardian now, there was nothing Rachel could say about it. It wasn’t right to speak to a stranger about matters so personal, and Rachel didn’t plan on talking to the lady. Shelly was only trying to help, and Rachel appreciated her for it, but Shelly did not understand the ways of The Chosen. Rachel had gotten over the fact that she was no longer Chosen, well mostly. Actually, she hadn’t gotten over it at all. It still broke her heart to know her community, her own family, had sent her away to die.

As she sat in a hard, metal chair, she pulled out the book she’d brought with her from her bag, but instead of trying to decipher the jumble of letters, she stared down at her stomach. In the last week, her feet had swelled to the size of a grapefruit, and it took every ounce of energy she had to get up out of a chair unassisted, much less the bed. That was almost an impossibility.

The headaches were the worst, but Rachel never mentioned them. She was sure the only reason for them was the lack of sleep she’d been getting due to the recent nightmares plaguing her each time she closed her eyes. The reason she now sat in the waiting room of the town psychologist, waiting to get her head shrunk or whatever it was they did.

Just months before, the court had officially granted Shelly full guardianship of Rachel. With no dispute from her parents, it hadn’t been hard to establish the need for Rachel to be provided with care. It pained her that her parents hadn’t even shown up for the court hearing and had therefore lost all parental rights to her. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s deputy had served them himself, so they knew she was alive, but still, they did not show up to claim their daughter.

Rachel sniffled to hold back the tears. Lately, just about everything made her weepy.

Shelly put her hand on Rachel’s knee. “It’ll be okay. I had to go see a psychologist for a while after the thing with my husband. She’s a really nice lady. You will like her.”

Rachel rolled her eyes. Another thing she’d learned from Lenny. Something she’d never have done at home.

But you are not at home anymore.

And that was precisely why Shelly was forcing her to see a shrink. The nightmares plagued her incessantly, night after painful night.

But what good would it do to talk about them? She’d feared them in her sleep, why did she want to fear them during the day as well? No, talking about it would do no good. It was all a waste of time.

She brought her attention