Earthbound

By Laura Lynn Allen

Orphaned at 13, Willow is forced to leave her childhood home and live among estranged family who are as different from her as demons are from angels, and whose habits and secrets are as unnatural as the darkness that pervades her new “home”. Did that darkness follow her there? Or did it lure her there?
Fear for her own safety takes a backseat when she meets their 300 pound dog who has been abused to the point of insanity. Even though she knows he would surely tear her to shreds if given the chance, she feels the desire to protect him. And when she finds three females neglected and left to die in the barn, she finds her reason for staying there.
Willow is the only one who cares about them, and the only one who can keep them safe. But how is one extra small girl going to protect four giant dogs all by herself? In her darkest hour, she is surprised to find that she is not alone, and when the darkness finally reveals itself to her, her angel of protection comes in a very unlikely form.
“He seemed to be surrounded by a soft white light. I had to be hallucinating from exhaustion. I closed my eyes and shook my head. When I opened them, the light was gone, and his eyes ... his eyes were calm, and instead of being full of rage and insanity, for the first time, I saw a soul there.”

• Language: English
• Publisher: Laura Lynn Allen
• Release date: Jun 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781311102126

Laura Lynn Allen

I grew up in a beautiful little town in Kentucky called Pewee Valley. The almost fairytale-like setting fostered in me a love of fantasy storytelling. My family relocated to Texas when I was a teenager. I have lived on the outskirts of Houston for over 40 years, but my heart lives in the Texas Hill Country, a place that reminds me of my Kentucky childhood. My first passion is dogs, whom I truly believe are our angels. They give us so much and ask for so little in return. My second passion is wolves, our angels’ misunderstood ancestors. Dogs and wolves share the traits we value so much: loyalty, protection and love of family. They also share a common enemy: Man. This is what I care about. This is what I write about.Laura Lynn Allen

Book preview

"If we could perceive our angels for just a single day,

this world would never be the same again,

nor would it ever wish to be."

–Anonymous

Chapter 1

I dreamed I was surrounded by angels. They wrapped me in their warmth and love and held me against their soft … fur?!

What?! No. Angels were celestial beings of light. Godlike beings. With wings. These angels had ears and tails and … the softest fur.

I tried to fix this dream, but they held me in their circle and took all my sorrow into themselves. It felt so safe I didn’t want it to end. I relaxed and floated in the cloudy softness of their love.

Until one of them swiped my face with its tongue.

I woke up spitting and wiping my face.

Ach!

Linus, my best friend in the world, was standing over me, shaking me.

Willow?

What?! I asked, irritated. Did you just kiss me? Ach!

He frowned at me.

No. Why would I do that?

Never mind.

He looked at me strangely.

I was dreaming, that’s all, I told him. How’s Gam?

Sadness came into his eyes.

Dad says you better get up there.

I jumped up from the chair I’d been curled up in and ran for the stairs. Taking two at a time, I reached the top and didn’t slow down until I skidded to a stop at the door to Gam’s room.

Linus’ father, Sam, was kneeling beside the bed, his head bowed, my gamma’s hand in his, and I knew that she was gone because it was quiet enough for me to hear his prayer. For days, the room had been filled with the most horrible sound I had ever heard. It’s called a death rattle, I was told. When the spirit keeps trying to force breath into a body that has stopped fighting. A repulsive name for something so fierce as the will to want to keep on living.

Janet, the hospice nurse who had faithfully occupied the chair next to Gam’s bed for the past four weeks, and who had earned forever a special place in my heart for taking such loving care of my gamma, looked over at me with sad eyes.

Linus stood behind me and looked over my shoulder.

I turned to him. We held each other’s teary eyes and he put a hand on my shoulder.

I stepped into the room and walked around her bed to the other side. Sam raised his head. There were tears in his eyes as well.

Willow, he whispered.

I climbed onto the bed and gently laid down beside her. Her eyes were closed and the deep frown of pain that had contorted her face for so long was gone. She was peaceful at last.

Gamma, I whispered and kissed her soft cheek.

"I love you so much," I sobbed.

Tears streamed down my face for this sweet woman who had been both grandmother and mother to me my whole life. I laid my head on the pillow next to hers and let my eyes roam over her face, trying to memorize every inch. Janet and I had bathed her just that morning and she smelled like her favorite lavender soap. A tear had slid out of the corner of her eye and left a streak down the side of her face. I brushed the wetness from her cheek gently, a sob catching in my throat as I realized I would never touch her soft skin again. How I had any tears left at this point, I didn’t know. I had cried more in the last few weeks than in my whole thirteen years of life.

All the waiting, weeks of limbo, and now the end was here and I wasn’t ready. It’s a strange state of being waiting for someone to die. Waiting for the body to give up so the spirit can fly free. I knew that I was supposed to feel relief that her pain was at an end and her soul would no longer be earthbound. But I was selfish. I wanted her here with me. My small, insignificant life was barely a spit in the well of Time, so why couldn’t I keep her here for that short while?

Linus came to the bed and knelt next to his father. The three of us looked into each other’s eyes. For as long as I could remember, the three of us, along with Gam, had been each other’s only family.

I stayed with my gam, holding her hand, touching her face, smoothing her hair, whispering words of love, until they came to take her away.

Standing on the porch, I watched as they wheeled my gamma’s body out of her house, the house she had been born in and lived in her entire life. The sky had darkened, as if a storm was coming, and the air had cooled and blew forcefully in all directions. I felt freezing cold, inside and out. I shivered violently and could not unwrap my arms from around myself for fear that everything inside me would come falling out. When they slid her body into the back of the hearse and closed the doors on her, I couldn’t breathe.

I gasped like I was choking and then out came loud, violent sobs that shook my whole body. Sam grabbed me up in his arms and hugged me to him and tried to soothe me with words that in my grief I couldn’t even understand. I wanted to wrap my arms around him and let his love soothe me, but I couldn’t unwrap them from around myself. I couldn’t do anything but let my deep, dark sorrow pour out of me.

He carried me into the house, up the stairs and into my bedroom. He gently laid me down on my bed. I rolled onto my side facing the wall and curled into a ball. He rubbed my back and my arm. Linus climbed onto the bed and snuggled up against my back.

The storm moved in and hovered over Gamma’s house, and my tears poured out of me as strongly and loudly as the heavy drops of rain that fell from the gutters outside the windows. And when the storm had run its course, my grief settled into a quiet sadness.

I felt the warmth of Linus’ breath on my back. I rolled over and faced him. He looked sadly into my eyes with red ones of his own. I leaned my forehead against his and closed my eyes and he held both my hands in his. As he whispered to me that everything would be alright, I drifted off to sleep and dreamt again of the furry angels. They tried to soothe me but I wouldn’t let them. Not now. Nothing could soothe me now.

When I woke, the house was dark. Linus was no longer next to me. I leaned over the edge of the bed and saw that he was asleep on the floor beside my bed. He had unrolled his sleeping bag there, like he’d done so many times before. I watched him sleep and thought of how lost I’d be without him.

When my parents and Linus’ mother were still alive, our two families had been best friends. Linus and I had been inseparable since our births two days apart. Gam said it was almost as if we were twins, and that was obvious by the picture that lived on my nightstand of the two of us in our playpen. Two white-blond curly tops with large, bright hazel eyes peeking over the railing. All that separated our houses was seven acres of Texas hill country. Linus and I discovered together the wonders of the land where we lived. We went through school side by side. We did everything together. Without Linus, I’d be lost. He was everything to me. He was the mirror of me. We would be together always. Or so we had thought.

I wrapped my arms around myself and thought about my situation. I missed Gam so much already, but more than that, I was scared. I was an orphan now. Sam had told me that he and Gam had worked out everything. I would come and live with him and Linus. It wouldn’t even be all that strange since I’d spent as much time at their house growing up as I had at my own. But if everything was set, why had they worried? And they had worried. I’d felt it, and I’d heard their whisperings when they thought I wasn’t listening. My fear was that now that I was an orphan I would go into the foster care system. If that happened, I could disappear. But I don’t think that that was what Gam and Sam feared. No, it was something else. And I wondered if this would be the last time Linus would sleep next to my bed.

I looked at the clock. 3:48 a.m. I slipped quietly out of bed, stepping over Linus, and went to the bathroom.

When I came out, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I walked the dark hallway. The door to the guest room was open and a light was on. I peeked inside. Sam had fallen asleep on top of the covers, still fully dressed, only his boots were removed and sat on the floor next to the bed. I knew that he fell asleep that way so he’d be ready to jump up from there and get to me quickly if I should need him during the night, because … well, that was Sam.

At the end of the hall was Gam’s room. I pushed open her door and stepped inside, closing it quietly behind me. One soft light was on; the only light that had been on and stayed on in that room for the long weeks that Gam was bedridden. It was a small, antique, stained-glass lamp in the shape and colors of a monarch butterfly; Gam’s favorite. Orange and gold shadows cast themselves across the wall next to her bed.

The light had been as much for me as for her. A darkness had come over my soul lately. It was something I would’ve normally shared with her and she would’ve made it easier to bear with her loving wisdom. But I’d refused to lay this burden on her when she was so sick. So I tried to ignore the blackness of it but it was heavy around me, always there at the edge of everything. The constant light of the butterfly had soothed us both.

I crawled into her bed and got under the covers. So many nights I’d slept there next to her when something had frightened me. I was frightened tonight but she wasn’t there. I hugged her pillow to me and breathed in the lavender smell of her, and cried myself back to sleep where the furry angels surrounded me once again. This time, I let them.

For the next three days, Sam and Linus let me grieve in silence. They cooked and I ate. Linus gave me hugs several times a day, and Sam took care of the business of putting Gam’s body to rest. I was so grateful for them. I knew they were grieving too, and while their way of getting through their pain was to busy themselves, they understood that mine was to crawl inside myself and lick my wounds. They were my family and they always just got me.

I tried sitting in Gam’s garden, but it just made me sadder. Being November already, we’d missed the yearly migration of the monarch butterflies with Gam being so sick. Now they were gone and all the life seemed to have gone out of the garden with her passing. The multitude of milkweeds that attracted and fed the thousands of monarchs that visited us each year now seemed as sad and lonely as I felt. The hummingbirds were gone, no dove coos could be heard, just silence. Gam’s beautiful garden that had always been full of life, was barren. I didn’t stay long.

Thursday morning, we got up early and put on our dress clothes. We ate a quiet breakfast together and then climbed into Sam’s pickup to head to the funeral home. I sat between them in the front seat and looked up at Sam. His handsome face was filled with his usual calm strength, but I saw the sadness around his eyes and realized what a heavy load he was carrying by himself. He was taking on the responsibility of another child.

Sam was a Texas Ranger, like my father had been. When my parents and Linus’ mother were lost in a tragic accident when Linus and I were only three, Sam took over as protector of both of us. H’d always been like my father, but now he wouldn’t have Gam’s help. I would have to try and not be too much of a burden to him. He looked down at me and winked and I gave him a small smile.

I looked over at Linus. Linus. My rock. He’d combed his hair until it was slicked back like his dad’s, and he fiddled with the collar of his dress shirt. When he noticed me looking at him, he sat up straighter, gave me a smile and a pat on my knee. He was trying to be strong for me and I thought that was really cute.

I didn’t understand the purpose of funerals. I was glad that Gam had wanted to be cremated ‘cause I really didn’t understand why people wanted to come look at a dead body in a box. I had held her body after her spirit had left it, but what they put in caskets seemed like dressed-up mannequins to me. I guessed maybe it was for all the other people who hadn’t gotten a chance to say goodbye, but I just didn’t understand why they’d waited until she was gone to do it.

People came up and spoke to Sam in quiet voices. They patted me on the head and gave me sad looks. During the service, I sat quietly between Sam and Linus in the front row. They held my hands. I heard but didn’t really listen to the prayers the preacher spoke. I was sad and I didn’t want to be there. To me, the whole process had nothing to do with Gam. I would have rather been home, where her spirit still lingered in every room, where I could be surrounded by her things. All I kept thinking was that she was there alone while we sat here with a bunch of people who didn’t know her or love her as we had. I just wanted to go home and be with her.

The pall in the air flew out the window when trouble blew through the door.

Everyone turned to see what all the commotion was about as a family of five came busting through the doors with all the noise of a stampede. My gut turned sour as I watched them. It had been, what, six or seven years? So it took me a minute to pull the memory of them out of the deep hole in my mind where I’d stuffed them. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Sam squeezed my hand so hard I squeaked.

The mother of this rude clan sauntered to the front of the room, obviously not caring that she was disrupting the solemn service, and came to stand right in front of me. She looked down at me like I was her long lost daughter.

Hi, sugar, she said, popping her gum. Remember your Aunt Sadie?

Chapter 2

Aunt Sadie was what Gam called a piece o’ work. Now I knew what she meant. Gam had also said that I had a gift for reading people, and in that moment, I realized what she had meant by that too. I barely knew my aunt, had only vague memories of her, but in a few swift seconds, I summed her up in my mind. Her clothes and makeup were outlandish, her extra thick Texas accent dripped all over me like syrup, and the way she popped her gum while smiling the fakest smile I’d ever seen was obnoxious. She wore a black leather mini skirt, a shiny leopard-print shirt, super tall black heels, and her lips and long fake nails were bright red and had the shine of a new Cadillac.

Yep. As usual, Gam had been right. This woman, my mother’s half-sister, was trouble. And it seemed trouble had come looking for me.

She waved her arm wildly, motioning the rest of her family forward. I watched as my Uncle Hank walked up the aisle pushing my three cousins in front of him the whole way. When they stood in front of us, Hank reached down to shake Sam’s hand, who looked less than happy about returning the gesture.

Hank tipped his cowboy hat at me.

My, my, Willow Jean, he said, grinning through tobacco-stained teeth, You haven’t changed a bit. You’re still as tiny as a mouse. And you’re still as skinny as a skeleton, I thought, but I didn’t say so.

Sadie grabbed her oldest boy’s arm and pulled him to stand in front of me.

You remember Bucky, now don’t ya, Willow?

What I remembered of my cousin Bucky was that he was twice as big as me and always made me cry. He was two years older than me, and since I hadn’t grown since the first grade and he had grown twice as big again, upwards and outwards, he scared the tar outa me just looking up at him. He looked down at me with the same dull eyes I remembered.

And this is Frank and Fritz. Last time you saw them they was just babies.

The twins were just smaller versions of Bucky. Except for their weight, the three boys looked just like their father, with bright red hair and covered in freckles. They were dressed like their father too, in jeans, cowboy shirts, boots, dress jackets and straw cowboy hats. They looked ridiculous.

Hank was talking to Sam but I couldn’t hear what he was saying over Sadie’s loud voice. I was wondering if she had a mute button when she leaned down and took hold of my chin.

Oh, honey, you’re just as pretty as your mama was.

Come on, sugar pie, Hank said as he pulled her by the elbow, Let’s set down. They’re fixin’ to start.

Linus and I looked at each other and I forced myself not to roll my eyes since it was clearly obvious we were halfway through the service.

Sadie jerked her arm out of Hank’s grasp and they started arguing. The twins pushed and shoved each other over who was going to sit where. And Bucky hit both of them upside their heads and made them holler. Aside from their noisy chaos, the place was as quiet as a tomb; everyone was apparently too stunned to do anything but watch.

Sadie kept up her chattering at Sam the whole five minutes it took them to set down.

… and, shame on you, Sam Montgomery, for not callin’ me to tell me Gam was dead.

I didn’t like the way that sounded; as if it was something to celebrate and she’d missed all the fun.

Sadie! Sam whispered through clenched teeth, Can we talk about this later?

Oh, sure, she said. Then she turned around in her seat and hollered at the audience behind her with a sweet smile. "Sorry, y’all. Just family stuff." Then she turned back around and waved her hand at the preacher, giving him permission to continue.

Linus turned and looked at me and we held each other’s eyes for a long moment.

The service didn’t last but a few minutes more. I think even the preacher had had his wind knocked out of him. He seemed to wrap up his prayers rather quickly after Hank and Sadie Scraggs and family had finally gotten settled in their seats.

As we stood in