The Light in The Darkness Book 2: The Curse in The Spell

By Amanda LaBorde

Six months have passed and gone since the death of Zack’s love, Kelly. He has a new house, some new friends, and a new job that has nothing to do with the spirits that he can no longer see. For the first time in his life, things are finally normal and he is slowly getting back to being happy; that is until Kali returns with news that shatters his world once more. The Curse in The Spell takes Zack on a journey that will change the way he sees the world, and the way he sees himself; but not without resistance. He is still hunted for his body and Kali sends him on a suicide mission to help rid the world of what’s trying to free the hold between all the realms. Zack will have to delve into parts of himself that he never knew existed in this second installment to The Light in The Darkness series, as he tries not only to save the human existence from a supernatural takeover, but to also find the one hope he has to save the most important thing to him, Kelly.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amanda LaBorde
• Release date: Aug 24, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311019158

Amanda LaBorde

I am 22 years old and am in the process of publishing my first ever book. I have been writing for as long as I can remember and I finally want to share with the world, my worlds I have created in my mind based on dreams and feelings.I am married and I do own 2 beautiful cats!

Book preview

The Light in the Darkness Series

Book 2: The Curse in the Spell

By Amanda LaBorde

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Smashwords Edition

Copyright ©2014 Amanda LaBorde

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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 recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Cover by Linda Boulanger

www.telltalebookcovers.weebly.com

Other Titles by Amanda LaBorde

The Light in the Darkness Book 1: The Secret in the Plot

Visit the author page for news and information on upcoming releases, cover reveals and much more.

www.amandalaborde.weebly.com

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Linda Boulanger for the wonderful cover design that’s helped bring my book to life yet again, my mother Candi Johnson and my friend Sarah Taylor for their hard work on helping me edit the book in such a short time, William Smith for taking time out of his busy life to help me brainstorm the entirety of my book in just one night, my husband Joshua LaBorde for being there with me every step of the way and encouraging me when I felt that writer’s block would get the best of me; and I would like to thank my family and the friends who cheered me on when I needed it the most. Thank all of you, without you this sequel would not have even been possible.

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

Prologue

The ash-grey sky overhead roared with the sound of thunder as a warning from the oncoming storm that threatened to shorten Zack’s final goodbye; the wind began to pick up as the smell of fresh rain was tossed all around him, alerting him to its closeness. Zack stood above Kelly’s headstone staring at the plot that was now her permanent new home; an onslaught of tears fought their way into his eyes, but he held them back in fear that all his harbored emotions from the past few days would take his body over if he let himself shed even a single tear.

He kneeled on the cold and desolate earth beside her grave and placed the single red rose he had been holding close to his heart during the entire funeral ceremony, on the black and grey swirled marble headstone above her name. His hand left the stem of the rose as his fingers traveled their way to the letters that make up her name, he traced each of them softly one by one, taking in the cold, rough, harsh edges and groves which formed them. It felt nothing like the real thing; Kelly’s body had always been warm and smooth to his touch. But from here on, this headstone, the harsh material that replaced the gentleness of her skin, would be the only thing he could feel.

This is so hard for me to do Kelly. I still don’t understand what exactly happened to you, but I promise I will find out. I love you and I need you to know that. Zack closed his eyes in one last attempt to fight off the tears that pushed their way out, but he couldn’t fight a moment longer; the realness of her death was slowly sinking in. He let every tear fall as he knelt beside her headstone longing to hold her in his arms one last time. In that instant, everything hit him. The fact that their last kiss was one of awkwardness and that the last time he was romantically close to her was the night before they stopped talking; all the anger he felt towards her back then now turned to guilt.

He felt guilty for the way he had let things go the morning she left, he felt guilty for Kelly being involved in the spirit realm. Zack felt that if he would have been around, instead of playing house with Rose, then he could have been there to understand what she had gone through. He blamed himself for everything that happened to Kelly, but most of all he blamed himself for her death. If only I could have saved you. If only I would have known what to do.

Since Kelly’s death a week ago, nothing had been easy for him. Zack had to explain to the police why she was dead, he had to endure the countless hours of questioning from not only the police but Kelly’s best friend Lana and from her parents, which was difficult in and of itself since they were like family to him. Everyone blamed him for what happened to her, especially Lana who wouldn’t leave him alone about it for a minute; just yesterday she was in his apartment complaining about anything and everything she could think of.

Zack was trying on the many tuxedo suits that his parents had bought for him through the years, to pick out the right one for him to wear to Kelly’s funeral tomorrow when he heard a light knocking on his front door. He stared at himself in the mirror looking himself over, making sure he was even a little bit presentable before he made his way to answer the unsuspected visitor’s call. When he peeked through the looking hole on his door to see who it was, his mood automatically changed, and he reluctantly opened it.

Hello Lana, to what do I owe the honor of being graced with your presence today? he asked, motioning for her to come into his still scattered apartment. As she walked by him out of eye shot of seeing him, he rolled his eyes in disgust. He and Lana have been butting heads ever since she got into town after his call to her about Kelly, and she was the sole culprit on blaming him for her death.

Zack didn’t have the time to tidy up his apartment too much since it had been the scene of a supposed murder; it wasn’t until recently that he received his keys to the apartment from police evidence and had more pressing things other than cleaning to worry about, and he could see that Lana was disgusted with how it looked. I haven’t had time to pick everything up, I’m sorry for the mess. Zack made his way to the kitchen and filled two glasses with cold water from the refrigerator and handed one to Lana who was looking over the few photos that were still intact in the dining room.

The photos were of him and Kelly from high school, and they were all candid shots, none of them posing. She looks happy here, said Lana with a small smile as she fought back the tears for the millionth time this week.

That was right before we went on our trip to the theme park. She was begging me for weeks to take the trip with her. I never got to go though, my parents were in town the same day she went and I didn’t get to see them much so I stayed home that day. As he thought back to that moment in the photo where Kelly was threatening to throw her entire chocolate shake on him for saying no, he let out at small chuckle.

Lana looked at him with disgust in her face. How can you laugh at such a crucial time? she sat her glass of untouched water on his disheveled dining room table. Better yet, how can you come back to this place after what happened to her? She died here, and you didn’t even bother to try and save her. Zack could see the anger building up in Lana’s face as her eyes widened and her lips pressed together.

It’s not like I have a choice Lana. This is my home.

Then find a new home, she cut him off before he could give her any more excuses. She was tired of hearing an excuse for everything, he was either too tired to talk to her about Kelly, or he was too hurt by Kelly’s death to help plan the funeral, which was in her will. Lana had no respect for Zack what-so-ever and did not want him to have anything to do with Kelly’s ceremony tomorrow, and he was making it that much easier for her to tell him that.

Not everyone has money like you do Lana. I can’t just pick up my things and move. I know she was killed here, and I hate having to walk through that front door every day for the rest of my life knowing that she’s dead and I did nothing about it. But it happened Lana, and I can’t go back and change that. There was an awkward silence in the room as both Zack and Lana stared at each other, apprehension lingering between them until Lana finally spoke.

I think that it would be for the best of everyone there tomorrow if you didn’t show up. She folded her arms across her chest as she walked to the door and turned around once more to Zack. You don’t deserve to be there. And then she walked out the door.

Zack stood up and wiped the tears with the handkerchief he had in his jacket pocket. Though he knew that what Lana had said may be true, and he should not have attended the ceremony out of respect of her parents, but out of respect for Kelly and what she did to protect him, he showed up and endured the evil looks he was given through the whole thing. He did not want to abandon Kelly in her death, the same way he felt that he had abandoned her in life.

As he was getting ready to leave the cemetery, something off in the distance at the top of the small hill behind Kelly’s grave, caught his eye. At first he thought that maybe he was seeing things, but after he did a double take and wiped the tears away from his eyes once more, he knew and felt in his heart that what he was seeing was real. Kelly?

Chapter 1

Zack heard the loud, obnoxious beeping of his alarm clock echoing in the background as he unwillingly awoke from a newer version of the, until recently, unchanged haunting nightmare that has been plaguing his unconsciousness since the day he saw Kelly’s spirit lingering in the graveyard, nearly six months ago. The nightmare always started with the encounter they had with Ryan in his apartment, it quickly went from Kelly attending to Zack’s wounds, to Ryan literally swooping in and invading her body before witnessing it fall to the floor in front of him with an empty thud; leaving it completely desolate and abandoned of any sign of life.

Zack tried with every fiber in his body to run and be by her side in the hopes of being able to somehow help resuscitate her back to life, but something held him back. There was an invisible power that petrified his body in place, his limbs felt heavy and stiff as they remained unmoved; it prevented him from relenting the scream that was building up in the back of his throat in reaction to the sudden surge of emotions that was now coursing through his veins. It felt to him, as if time had stopped in that moment and paused even his breathing. Every other night at this point in his nightmare, a white figure would appear out of absolutely nowhere and stand next to Kelly’s body as it stared down at it, hovering like a vulture over its food, waiting to take her spirit into the beyond, and then that would be the end of it, the end of his haunting dream that seemed to last for hours on end; but last night the nightmare took an unfamiliar turn.

The white figure did indeed appear after her death as usual, and like clockwork hovered beside Kelly like the vulture it appeared to be, but this time the entity wasn’t waiting to take her spirit from her body, it wasn’t even looking down in Kelly’s direction, instead the entity looked straight ahead at Zack as he stood immobilized against the back wall of his living room. He met the gaze of the white figure as one by one the facial features of the bright light that hid the true identity of the figure, started to fade away slowly. The emerald green eyes were the first things he saw come into perfect view, they alone should have been clue enough for him to recognize exactly who the figure was that so intently held his gaze in place; but it wasn’t until a single strand of blonde hair made its appearance as it fell into her eyes that Zack understood exactly what he was a witness to. In that instant, he knew it was Kelly’s spirit in front of him that was manifesting.

Before now, Zack has never had the opportunity to be able to witness the spirits as they manifest themselves from their earthly existence into the ghostly spirit form he now saw so clearly appearing before his eyes. It was an experience he had only wished he could see because that’s when the spirit is at its purist, before the spirit becomes tainted with whatever evil attaches itself to the entity that turns it into the kind of spirit he would usually hunt down and banish into the abyss. He stood with his back still pressed against the wall as he watched the love of his life form into the translucent being he knew all too well. Not only was this a rare experience in and of itself, it was even rarer yet due to the emotional bond between Zack and Kelly, he was able to feel the energy the entire process was emitting. It felt as if he himself were the one becoming the spirit.

He felt warmth all around him as the light vanished from around Kelly’s ghostly form, and in the moment that the last bit of light left her body, it felt like he was instantly thrown into a freezer. The cold pierced through every inch of his body and shot straight through to his heart; he could feel it constrict the blood flow in his veins and his lungs shrank with every other inhale and exhale, his breathing staggered. When his body felt stiff like a corpse in rigomortis, the invisible force that had been holding him at bay this whole time, finally let him fall freely to the floor. As Zack came crashing down to the ground, he tried to move his arms out in front of him to break his fall but they would not budge, they were frozen to his side with huge chunks of ice; not that he could have been able to move anyway, his body still felt stiff and unable to move regardless of the ice.

The world around him faded into an almost complete darkness that was lit just enough to see shadows, with a vague light above from an unknown source. The shadows around his living room that were cast from all the clutter on his floor, moved around the room like dancing flames in a fire. The floor beneath him was freezing and then a sudden onset of a snow-storm like wind began to creep its way in through the window that was now caked in a white blanket of snow with more pushing itself, clanking hard against the glass.

He searched all over the room for Kelly’s spirit which had vanished the second the world warped into the cold and desolate place he was occupying now, but no matter how many times he let his eyes scan the dark circumference of the living room, he could not see even a small sign that she was still with him. Suddenly, just as quickly as the icy cold had taken over his body, the cold around him dissipated and slowly the environment started to turn back into the ransacked apartment he remembered he lived in.

His arms were no longer glued to his side with ice blocks, he could finally take a breath without the threat of the cold closing in on him and crushing his lungs even more. The dark world he had recently been introduced to simply felt like nothing more than a bad dream. When Zack sat himself up he checked the rest of his body, his legs, hands, wrists, and torso for any signs of the damage he had previously felt, but he found no evidence of being harmed in that world.

A loud popping sound turned his attention from the puzzling mystery of what had just happened to him, towards Kelly’s