Nonsense: The Senseless Series, #3

By W.J. May

Everyone needs to be a hero at one point in their life.

The small town of Elliot Lake will never be the same again. Six friends have become five and one is to blame, leaving the four remaining to pick up the pieces of their lives and try to carry one.

While mourning the death of their friend, Rylee, and dealing with Kieran's betrayal, Zoe, Heidi, Brent, and Seth all go to Mexico with Zoe's father for their winter break. While there, they discover Zoe's father has kept a few secrets of his own, and after Kieran secretly visits, Zoe begins to suspect that there's more to the story of Rylee's death than there seems.

Despite having a good time in Mexico, the past events come back to haunt them when they return to Elliot Lake. With tempers flaring and the sting from Kieran's betrayal still fresh in their minds, the friends begin to doubt if they can even trust each other. As the group begins to fall apart, something dark and sinister makes itself known in Elliot Lake.

Zoe knows she's being followed, but by whom, she's not sure. Kieran tries to solve Rylee's murder to protect his friends, but can only go so far before risking being caught by the police. However, after Heidi is trapped in a robbery, it becomes apparent that they need to stick together and work as a team once again if they ever want to survive.

An incredulous group of heroes. A traitor in the midst. Some dreams are written in blood.

This is book 3 of the Senseless Series. Join Zoe, Brent, Kieran on an epic adventure of supernatural, love, loss and thrilling mystery.

Radium Halos Part 1

Radium Halos Part 2

Nonsense

Perception

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dark Shadow Publishing
• Release date: Sep 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781516388066

W.J. May

About W.J. May Welcome to USA TODAY BESTSELLING author W.J. May's Page! SIGN UP for W.J. May's Newsletter to find out about new releases, updates, cover reveals and even freebies! http://eepurl.com/97aYf   Website: http://www.wjmaybooks.com Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-WJ-May-FAN-PAGE/141170442608149?ref=hl *Please feel free to connect with me and share your comments. I love connecting with my readers.* W.J. May grew up in the fruit belt of Ontario. Crazy-happy childhood, she always has had a vivid imagination and loads of energy. After her father passed away in 2008, from a six-year battle with cancer (which she still believes he won the fight against), she began to write again. A passion she'd loved for years, but realized life was too short to keep putting it off. She is a writer of Young Adult, Fantasy Fiction and where ever else her little muses take her.

Book preview

The Senseless Series:

Radium Halos - part 1

Radium Halos - part 2

Nonsense - Book 3

Perceive – Book 4

Find W.J. May

Website:

https://www.wjmaybooks.com

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-WJ-May-FAN-PAGE/141170442608149

Newsletter:

SIGN UP FOR W.J. May's Newsletter to find out about new releases, updates, cover reveals and even freebies!

http://eepurl.com/97aYf

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Nonsense Blurb:

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EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE a hero at one point in their life.

The small town of Elliot Lake will never be the same again. Six friends have become five and one is to blame, leaving the four remaining to pick up the pieces of their lives and try to carry one.

While mourning the death of their friend, Rylee, and dealing with Kieran’s betrayal, Zoe, Heidi, Brent, and Seth all go to Mexico with Zoe’s father for their winter break. While there, they discover Zoe’s father has kept a few secrets of his own, and after Kieran secretly visits, Zoe begins to suspect that there’s more to the story of Rylee’s death than there seems.

Despite having a good time in Mexico, the past events come back to haunt them when they return to Elliot Lake. With tempers flaring and the sting from Kieran’s betrayal still fresh in their minds, the friends begin to doubt if they can even trust each other. As the group begins to fall apart, something dark and sinister makes itself known in Elliot Lake.

Zoe knows she’s being followed, but by whom, she’s not sure. Kieran tries to solve Rylee’s murder to protect his friends, but can only go so far before risking being caught by the police. However, after Heidi is trapped in a robbery, it becomes apparent that they need to stick together and work as a team once again if they ever want to survive.

An incredulous group of heroes. A traitor in the midst. Some dreams are written in blood.

This is book 3 of the Senseless Series. Join Zoe, Brent, Kieran on an epic adventure of supernatural, love, loss and thrilling mystery.

Contents

The Senseless Series:

Find W.J. May

Nonsense Blurb:

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

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

The Senseless Series

Find W.J. May

More books by W.J. May

Chapter 1

Zoe

YOU FOUR NEED A QUIET winter break, Dad said, his eyes passing over us where we sat on the couch in Brent’s living room. They lingered on me, the love and worry in them familiar after the events of the last few months. All of our parents stood in the room, silently nodding their heads. Somewhere warm, away from Elliot Lake.

I don’t really feel like going anywhere. Heidi played with the Kleenex in her hand. Rylee’s dead.

And Kieran’s run off. Brent glanced at me from Heidi’s other side, his fingers curling into fists.

I say we hunt him down ourselves, Seth grumbled. His eyes grew wide when he realized he’d said the words aloud.

Brent shot him a warning glare.

Sweetie. His mother came to the side of the couch and rubbed his shoulder. There’s nothing you kids can do. Let the police do their jobs. They know what they’re doing.

Adrenalin rushed through me. I wanted to run away and hide. No one, except maybe Brent, knew the entire truth of the story. No one knew that I had no interest in trying to find Kieran or making him pay for what had happened.

Dad cleared his throat. I have a friend—a fellow doctor—who owns a holiday house in Mexico. It’s in a small city, away from the big tourist places, but near some great Aztec ruins. It’s safe, like a fortress. It’ll make for a quiet week, with some healthy sunshine. I’ve already booked the time off work to take you guys down there. He glanced at the other parents, who nodded. All your folks agreed. But there is one catch...

No parents? Well, except for Dad. Maybe it was time we let him in on our little secret. No parents, and no snow, and no memories of Rylee around every corner.

All four of us must have thought the same thing. Let’s go, we all said, nearly at the same time.

Dad laughed. That was easy. Aren’t any of you concerned about the ‘catch’? He stood and clapped his hands. We leave tomorrow morning at four thirty. Flight takes off at seven.

Seth groaned.

So did I. I hadn’t been sleeping much the past week and a half, and I doubted the others had either. Has it really been a week since Rylee died? Since Kieran left? Sometimes it felt like it had been months. I woke up, and couldn’t remember what it had been like to not feel the hole in my chest where they had been. It was worse when I forgot. When I dreamed about Rylee twisted around in the passenger seat of the Bug to tell Heidi some juicy bit of gossip, or Kieran sitting beside me on the porch swing at the cabin. Those nights, I woke up, and it all felt so close, like I was losing them all over again.

Some broken part of me missed Kieran, missed what we could have been if he hadn’t- I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t talk to any of the others about it. All of them were furious with Kieran. They hated him. And I... I hated him too. Hated him, and loved him, and didn’t know how to stop doing either of those things. I didn’t know if I should tell the rest of the gang about Kieran’s past, or if it even mattered. He had killed Rylee. And I still didn’t understand entirely why. None of us knew what exactly had happened that night, except that she had died and he’d run away. Maybe in Mexico we’ll be able to talk, and start finding some answers.

Zoezey? Dad tapped my knee lightly. I tried not to flinch at the nickname. The only other person who’d called me that was Kieran.

Yeah? I blinked, focusing on him.

How about you sleep at your mom’s tonight? I’ll pick you up in the morning.

Sure. I didn’t mind. Mom had actually been awesome over the past week. She didn’t ask questions or pry, she’d just hand me the box of Kleenex when I couldn’t dam the tears back any longer, and give me a tight, silent hug. It was a nice change of pace from Dad constantly asking if I needed anything and Brent finding every possible chance to let me know he was there for me. I knew both of them meant well, but there was nothing I could tell them without causing trouble. Neither of them could give me what I really needed.

One of my best friends had just died, possibly murdered in cold blood by my ex-boyfriend. Kind of ex-boyfriend. We’d never really had an official breakup—if we’d even had an official relationship in the first place—and even though I thought it should be clear that it was over, I wasn’t sure Kieran was ready to accept that. He’d given me the Waterford crystal thistle for safe-keeping, and the note he’d sent with it hadn’t exactly sounded like he was giving up. Both of them were in my room, still shut in the box at the bottom of my closet. I wasn’t about to set the thistle on my nightstand. The last thing I needed was another reminder of Kieran any time I looked the wrong way. I didn’t want anything that would take me back to that terrible, terrible night.

The parents started to depart, leaving us to our own devices. I could hear some of them, though, talking about us outside. Seth’s dad was telling Heidi’s mom that Seth had skipped out on two therapy appointments that had been made for him. He was worried Seth was going through more than normal grieving over a friend.

What’s normal grieving over a friend? It’s only been a week since she died. But he was right. There was more going on with Seth. There was more going on with all of us. And if any of us told anybody, even a therapist, about what was going on, they’d have us all committed.

You all right? Brent asked under his breath. No one else in the room could hear him; the question was definitely directed at me. I tuned out Seth’s and Heid’s parents and focused on Brent’s steady heartbeat, realizing it was much slower than my own. My shaking hands must have tipped him off to the fact that I was about to have my third breakdown since Rylee’s death, all because I’d thought about Kieran and his stupid Scottish thistle.

Yeah. I leaned against his shoulder, hands stuffed in my pockets. Just tired. That wasn’t a lie. When I wasn’t dreaming about Kieran and Rylee the way they had been, I was having nightmares about Rylee’s mangled body on the side of the road, and Kieran’s face at the moment I realized he was a murderer.

Brent put his arm around me and pulled me closer to him. I wrapped my arms around his waist, glad for the quiet comfort.

I still say we try to hunt down Kieran ourselves, Seth muttered. That bastard needs to pay.

We can’t just go out looking for him, Heidi argued. He knows everything about us, and we don’t even really know how his power works.

None of us had even known he had an ability until the night Rylee died. It didn’t follow one of the five senses like ours did. He’d thought, or claimed to think, that he hadn’t been affected the same way by the night in the mine because he hadn’t grown up in Elliot Lake. Except he had been affected, and what he’d gotten was a sixth sense. What exactly it was, and how it worked, not even I knew, but I knew that it seemed like he could read my mind, and he had an uncanny ability to guess what someone would do.

Let’s just let the police do their work, I signed. It’s not worth the trouble we’d be in if we conducted our own search. What good will it do anyway? Rylee’s not coming back.

You just want your boyfriend to get away with it. Seth glared at me.

Brent jumped up and faced Seth before I could say anything. You take that back, he warned. You don’t think Kieran hurt her too? She was betrayed just as much as the rest of us. And he was never her boyfriend.

Seth looked ready to fire back at Brent, and then he paused, and shook his head. He had the decency to give a sheepish shrug, holding up in his hands in surrender. Sorry, Zoe. Guess I was a little out of line.

I’ll say. I glowered at him. Just because I don’t want to waste time trying to track a ghost doesn’t mean I don’t want justice! I blinked back tears, hating the way my voice cracked. I wondered if it was noticeable to everyone, or just to me.

Look, I apologized. What else do you want? He scowled at me, arms crossed over his chest, not looking at all sorry anymore.

I want you to say it and mean it! I snapped. What do you think that I- I just- I pulled out of Brent’s arms and started toward the door.

No, Seth said. Don’t go. I will. But I can smell your guilt from a mile away, Zoe. He stomped out of the house, each footfall like a thunderclap.

The door slammed. Brent and Heidi stood in silence.

What’s happening to us? Heidi whispered finally. We’re just falling apart. A tear slid down her cheek.

I sank back onto the couch, my heart rate slowly returning to normal as my temper cooled. I’m sorry, guys. I was on the verge of tears myself. I don’t know what came over me.

Brent laid a hand on my shoulder as Heidi dropped down next to me. I think your dad is right, Zoe, he said quietly. We do need to get away from here. The sooner, the better.

Chapter 2

WHEN WE FLEW, NO AMOUNT of ear plugs or swallowing could stop the headache threatening to crack my skull in half. The roar of the engines was constant and overwhelming, and with it came the gross sounds of eating and drinking, the constant scratch of a pen against a journal’s pages from the girl right in front of me, and the tap-tap-tap of a middle-aged man using a tablet keyboard two rows up. Not to mention the rustle of clothes and the hum of voices, the racket of a hundred different songs playing from a hundred different sets of headphones. Despite the sleeping pill I’d taken before liftoff, I stayed awake the entire flight, hunched miserably over a book I couldn’t concentrate on reading.

Seth sat across the aisle, wearing a grimace. He’d made the face as soon as we’d walked onto the plane, and apparently the smells hadn’t gotten any better. The poor guy had to use two of the paper bags stored in the seats in front of us. At least it got Heidi and Brent laughing, even though Heidi’d had to put her hand over her mouth when the airplane food was served out. I’d read somewhere that airplane food was really just as good as most other food, and it was the altitude or something messing with our sense of taste that made it gross, but Heidi’s superhuman taste buds were apparently just as affected as everyone else’s. It was without a doubt one of the worst flights any of us had ever been on, and we were all relieved when we finally landed in Mexico.

As soon as we got to the house, I went straight up to my room, changed into jogging pants, and crawled into bed. My head hurt, I missed Rylee, and—worst of all—some part of me still longed for Kieran. As much as I tried to fight it, I missed the comfort of his presence and his low, warm voice with its musical Scottish accent. It made me feel sick with guilt to even think it. But of course, I couldn’t tell anyone any of those things, so I just burrowed deeper under the covers, wishing I could disappear.

I must have slept, at least. I woke to strange sounds, with no idea how long I’d been under. The headache had left. Only the emptiness in my chest remained. Kicking away the covers, I took a moment to listen to the noises around me, glancing over the room I’d paid little attention to before.

Floor to ceiling windows looked out on beautiful greenery around a tiled pool, no sign of winter anywhere in the glittering water or the warm sunlight. Exotic-sounding birds sang outside, which let me know it was probably early morning, as the rest of the house was relatively quiet. My dad’s soft snoring came from just down the hall. The bright room I was in had the large bed I’d collapsed into, and a dresser and desk on the opposite wall. The artwork that decorated it seemed hand painted in coral red and turquoise blue. It was all gorgeous, and it felt like paradise compared to my room back home. The real world suddenly felt miles and miles away.

Rylee would have loved this place. I smiled, imagining her lounging around in a bikini on the beach, seducing yet another conquest with a glance and a flick of her fingers. I blinked back tears. You’re on a vacation, I reminded myself. You’re supposed to be having fun, not mourning. You think Rylee wants you moping in your room while you’re in Mexico? I smiled, although it felt a little shaky. Rylee would have dragged me out of the room by my hair if she had to. No way would she have stood for one second of moping around there was fun in the sun to be had.

I unpacked my suitcase and changed into a bathing suit. According to my watch, I’d slept for over fifteen hours. No way am I going back to bed, then. I slipped on a long, white t-shirt, and listened to the pad of my bare feet across the hardwood floor to the sliding door that led outside.

The heat hit me like a wave. Unlike the humid summers we had back home, this warmth was dry, but it was already hot for six in the morning. The air conditioning inside had hidden the heat perfectly. By the time I reached the pool, I’d already stripped of my shirt and tossed it on one of the chaise lounge chairs. I was ready to dive in.

The water caressed my skin, just cool enough to be refreshing after the heat, and the quiet under the surface was a blessing that had me staying down as long as I could manage. Eventually, though, my lungs won out. I surfaced for a quick breath. Then I swam the length of the pool under the water, only coming briefly for air before quickly dropping back down again. For the first time in a week, I didn’t feel like the whole world was screaming in my ears.

Twenty minutes later,