Astral Trilogy, Book Two: Becoming

By Nicole OBrien

Veronica Lucent's adventures in the astral realm become even more challenging and complex as she is faced once again by her demon nemesis and is forced to fight for the ones she loves. The second book in The Astral Trilogy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nicole OBrien
• Release date: Nov 10, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301898862

Nicole OBrien

Nicole has worked as an actress, writer and director in Los Angeles, Detroit and New York. Emerging marks her debut into the world of literary fiction. She currently resides in Sonoma County, CA.

Book preview

Becoming

Astral Trilogy, Book Two

by

Nicole O’Brien

Smashwords Edition

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Published By:

Nicole O’Brien on Smashwords

Becoming: Book Two, Astral Trilogy

Copyright © 2012 by Nicole O’Brien

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events is entirely coincidental.

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This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

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Author’s Note: This is a novel, approximately 40,000 words in length, or 160 pages. It is the second book in the Astral Trilogy.

Book Two: Becoming

1.

The rotted floorboards creaked under my feet and I could feel mini gusts of cool air on the back of my neck coming form the cracks in the windows. I walked toward the stairs at the back of the large open room, trying to avoid the tufts of fur, animal droppings and the mummified carcasses of small rodents. The moonlight was steaming in through the windows on either side of the cabin revealing the holes and decay of the wood on the stairs. Small shadows of movement could be seen before disappearing into the holes: spiders. My heart lurched. The spiders that lived here in Guerneville were like small animals, three inches in diameter with brown furry bodies and large mouths.

My feet kept moving forward, compelled to walk up the stairs. The construction of them was crude as was the rest of the cabin. Years of abandonment had not only led to the rot and dead wildlife but had also left the roof sagging slightly so you felt like any moment it was going to fall onto your head. I glanced upward to the top of the stairs and the darkness of the loft space above the large room. Something was beckoning, pleading for me to go up there.

I took each step, slowly, trying to avoid anything moving. When I reached the top, I was relieved to see an open space – no critters. Cobwebs were everywhere. I delicately stepped forward, not knowing how well the floor would hold. There was a single bed in the far corner with an antique metal headboard that had rusted from all of the years of moisture exposure. The mattress had water stains all over it and there was an incredibly disgusting pillow leaning up against frame on the floor. A wooden dresser with chipped drawers and a full length oval mirror on a stand were the only other things in the room.

I walked slowly around the space, trying to discover what it was that brought me here. I walked toward the rectangular window on the wall opposite the stairs which still had all of the panes intact, unlike the ones downstairs, and looked out into the surrounding woods. It was completely quiet, as it usually was around here, but it was not still. I felt something directly behind me and spun around. I almost screamed, startled by my own reflection in the mirror. I stood there for a moment, looking at my pale face in the moonlight and the towering trees behind me outside of the window.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move in one of the window panes. I turned around again to face the window. Nothing. My eyes scanned back and forth. I stood there, not knowing what to do next, staring again at the trees and darkness outside. The moon was high in the sky, there was otherwise no source of light. My eyes were playing tricks, I thought. I was about to leave, when I saw the movement again – this time in the opposite corner of the window, in the top right pane. I walked closer. As I did, the movement shifted to the middle pane.

I stopped, frozen. It was an image, plain as day, of a woman leaning up against the hood of a car, a vintage car, maybe from the 1970’s. The image looked like a reverse negative of a photograph. Just as I was about to completely take it in, it disappeared. A new image, this time in the far left corner appeared. I quickly walked close to it; it was a man laughing, an expression of joy in his eyes. Then it was gone. My breath was coming quickly and my heart was pounding. What was this? All of a sudden, the images exploded, one after another, appearing for a few seconds at a time in random frames. I stumbled backward, almost falling into the mirror. Just as I was about to bolt down the stairs, I heard a wailing, sobbing scream…

2.

Veronica! I jolted awake, nearly falling right onto the floor. My heart was still pounding, as I took in the warm, bright surroundings of my room. Hey,V, open up! Skinner’s smiling face was outside of my window.

I swung it open and said, Good morning…you know it’s Sunday, right?

That doesn’t mean I want to see you any less, he said as he leaned forward and moved the hair out of my eyes. We’d been officially boyfriend and girlfriend for almost a month now. I smiled and took his hand into mine.

Hold on, just let me wake up and get myself together. Why don’t you go around through the front and hang out with my mom upstairs. My mom loved Skinner. She was so happy when I told her that we were going out. I think she was always afraid that I was going to bring home some totally retarded redneck – there were certainly enough of them around here.

I quickly took a shower and got dressed, the whole time going over the dream I had just had. It was the third time I had dreamt about that cabin. The first two times weren’t that eventful, nothing like the wild display of frenzied images appearing and disappearing in the window frames. In all three of the dreams, though, I felt this overwhelming pull to be there.

The cabin, itself was located at the bottom of our roller coaster road. As you headed around the last turn before the final descent, you could see it in the gully below. It had been abandoned forever. It was a pretty large structure for a one room cabin, made of dark wooden planks, no insulation of any kind. I always supposed it must have been used only in the summer or else you would freeze to death in the winter, spring and fall. A lot of the homes and cabins were used like that around here, most of them built a hundred or so years ago by people trying to get out of the city and have a chill place to relax on the riverfront. A lot of it has stayed that way, although now more people live here year round. But I guess we we’re officially a resort town. I headed upstairs and found my mom and Skinner in the kitchen laughing about something.

There she is! My mom said. Skinner told me he wanted to walk with you into town to get breakfast, so I didn’t make you anything, honey.

Okay, yeah that sounds nice – looks like it’s going to be beautiful out today. I said looking out the window at the light streaming through the trees.

All set? I asked Skinner.Yep.

See you later Mom. I gave her a quick hug and we were on our way.

As we started down the road, I told Skinner about my dream. He knew about the other two already. We had always been creeped out by that cabin, so the dreams were of particular interest. When we were kids, we used to dare each other just to scale down the steep ravine and look in the windows. So the fact that I had actually been inside of it in my dreams three times now was a good one. He listened intently as I recounted the part about the images in the window panes and the horrible wailing scream.

Wow, that’s wild, V. It would be interesting to try to find out who used to live there.

I looked at him out of the corner of my eye. Well, actually, I was thinking that maybe I would try to project there…

What!? No way! Are you crazy! No! After what had happened with the demons that had taken over Emily Stone and Skinner, we had agreed that we wouldn’t project anymore. Skinner thought that there was just no way you could be safe while you were out. I didn’t want to make him feel worse than he already did about falling for demon Emily’s trickery, but I just knew that it was possible to go out and be protected if you were smart about it.

Ski…listen…I guided my dream last night, and I still couldn’t see what was in the cabin, besides the images. Whatever it is though isn’t threatening…it’s more like sad. I just feel like there’s a reason I’m being pulled there.

Veronica, there is no way I think it’s okay for you to project. I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to you. He stopped walking and took my hand. Promise me you won’t.

The look in his eyes was so caring and concerned, I couldn’t say anything else but, Okay, I won’t…but at least come with me there today on our way back from breakfast. I need to see it in person…I dare you. I said laughing.

Oh, you’re on.

I took the cabin in as we headed down the last leg of the road. It stood there quiet and lonely looking, isolated from all of the other homes around here, in its own pocket. I always thought it was such a strange place to have built a cabin, away form the river, no view of anything and too shaded by enormous trees. The images in the window panes flashed before my eyes again. I could see the casual pose of the woman, a broad smile on her face, and the expression of happiness and in the man’s eyes…

3.

We walked the rest of the way into town and arrived at the River Diner, your basic breakfast spot. They were open until four in the morning, so I’m sure things got really interesting for the poor waitresses who had to work that shift. Right now it was busy, but mostly populated with normal people, not the ‘river people’ as Jules called them – the freaky types that seemed to be attracted to this area. It was like they decided that this is where they were going to check out of life and hide; they all had that same worn, weathered look to them and looked like they just woke up from and crawled out of a cave in one of the hillsides.

We slid into an orange padded booth with a sparkly tan formica table top. The entire diner looked like time had stopped somewhere back in the ‘70’s and forgot to turn back on. A lot of the town was like that. We were looking over our menus and talking about how exciting it was that school was going to be out in less than two weeks when