Red Bell Ring

By Aubrey Moore

War. Fire. Death. As the world burns, Maya and her followers create a new life inside the underground caves. They wait and help those seeking refuge, and Maya is now the Albino Buffalo. When Adler discovers a way to defeat Nadine, Maya must leave her people behind, but she is not alone. Who will follow her when the end is approaching? And who will turn against her? In Maya's finale, will she die as she always dreamed as the fire nears? Or...will she LIVE?

Read the rest of the Red Butterfly series from Aubrey Moore:
Butterfly Red Sky (Book 1)
Red River Run (Book 2)
Red Fire Night (Book 3)
Deceit Red Liar (Book 4)
Red Fire Day (Book 5)
Red Bell Ring (Book 6)

And Introducing a new heroine in Book 7, 8, & 9: COMING 2019
EnKarra - YA - Dystopian
The Red Place
The Red Wedding
The Red Sail

• Language: English
• Publisher: Aubrey Moore
• Release date: Oct 18, 2018
• ISBN: 9781732872011

Aubrey Moore

I was born to write. Since I was ten I sat on the stairs outside my grandparents' house and just...wrote! As a kid I'd write anything from romance to ghost adventures to "how to become a rock star."Every Friday and Saturday night-instead of going out with friends, I'd be writing. Didn't matter what-I just had to write! I was consumed-a hermit no doubt, but I couldn’t sleep or work on homework until I had the next chapter or scene complete.I started writing screenplays when I was twelve. I literally have over two-hundred story ideas written in journals (either full/complete stories or just ideas). Someone asked me-where do you keep all them? Where I can access them the easiest-under my bed in a massively large bin...The Red Butterfly series came to me when I was sixteen. I wrote a screenplay about a girl who had "special powers" and could see ghosts. When I decided to evolve my characters and create a novel based off the story I quickly realized-Maya Colebrook's character needed to live on through multiple books. Thus where the six-book series came in.Among the Red Butterfly series I have also been working on a Young Adult fantasy series in which a heroine must go on a “quest.” She too has “special powers.” These books will take place in a world not like Earth.During this new adventure of mine, I’ve also started a publishing company, RipplEffect Books, in which I encourage young writers (16-22) to...write! The “ripple effect” notion is just as I intend to use it for-to help young writers establish themselves and to make their dreams come to life.2018: I'm currently 30 years old and reside in Nevada with my wonderful husband, wild and carefree daughters, & a couple pets. I look out onto my sanctuary and thank God every day that I am ALIVE and doing what I love.

Book preview

To my one and only, Christopher.

Without you, I do not exist.

Prologue

Is this a dagger which I see before me,

the handle toward my hand?

Come, let me clutch thee.

– Shakespeare; Macbeth Act 2 Scene 1

Part I

Live

A bell from the church rang in the distance…Heaven’s bells…ringing to alert my arrival.

Bong.

Bong.

Bong.

Live. A woman’s voice whispered through the darkness. I have healed you once more. Take this gift and this life and continue to fight.

I stood outside the gates, just as I did six years before—when I was just a girl. I was here, again, dead from Mayor Ward’s torture. Why wasn’t I allowed in? I shook the golden bars, frantic.

The woman appeared, but she did not reveal her face. The long white cloak covered most of her braided blond hair.

I don’t want to live! I yelled back to the faceless woman who spoke to me. I don’t want to feel the pain anymore!

You must. Your journey is not over—it is just beginning.

Where’s Lizzy? She’s supposed to be here! I cried in response, tears falling as I looked beyond the woman behind the gate. Lizzy was supposed to be waiting for me.

I was pulled away, my body floating through the air, down through the clouds, stopping inches from the ground.

Lizzy! I screamed up to the skies. Where are you?

Live, the woman repeated, her voice echoing from above.

Church bells were just a faint ringing in the distance, my feet now planted in the field—the field in which the girls’ rotting bodies laid. The girls who had been murdered by Mayor Ward.

The red barn slowly started to fall apart, the nails giving way to the blowing winds. The boards flew all around me. Trees and bushes uprooted, all circling around, a twister taking everything away until there was nothing but the hay field I dreamed about for so long. My body whirled in circles. I was still in that same dream.

Lizzy? I begged to see her face one last time.

Time stopped, trees did not sway, birds were not chirping. My bare feet sank deeper into the ground with my heavy steps. I bent down, feeling the wetness. Blood soaked my fingertips. The girls who saved me appeared; their worn faces were now beautiful again.

Thank you for setting us free. They floated up to the clouds, a bright light shining down as they were taken home, free of the demons living on Earth. Why was Lizzy not being taken up to Heaven with them? Why was I not among them too?

I screamed to God, Why? Just take me! What are you waiting for? Why won’t you take me? I fell down to my knees, begging for salvation. Did I not believe in Him enough? Was I not worthy to be one of His children? His disciple?

The dead pulled me underground, the blood entering my lungs, drowning me. I felt the heat of the lava from Hell once more and closed my eyes.

Instead of the fire I expected to see when I opened my eyes, I stood in a river, my white nightgown no longer torn, I had no bruises; my body didn’t ache. Fog began to roll in, creating a mist about my face. The heat from Hell was gone.

Lizzy appeared on the shore, her hand gliding through the shallow water back and forth. She watched her reflection in the ripples. She didn’t look up at me, but instead fled into the trees. I frantically trudged through the water—the bodies from the underworld trying to keep me from getting out.

Lizzy! Wait! My hand reached the mud along the shore, and I sunk deeper into the wetness. The mud on my nightgown turned to blood as I ran after her. The fog became heavy, reducing my sight to darkness until I couldn’t see more than my hand in front of my face.

I circled around and around—like the twister in the field, my body being elevated off the ground, until I floated like the red butterfly.

Live.

I woke from my dream, my eyes adjusting to the morning sun coming from the window above me. The girls were still asleep in their cage, Mayor Ward was dead, and I was alive.

The memories of my childhood…of my parents, my life, Nadine—my sister…it all returned. I lay back in the straw below me…remembering…remembering the night I first died.

Black Magic

Twelve Years Old

December 18, 1999

Low chanting and whispers filled my ears, my dizzy head pounding. I had been knocked unconscious—I didn’t know how long I had been under.

I needed to rub my eyes, but my wrists and feet were chained to something. Stake torches lit the night sky; the smoke in my lungs made me cough; the chanting was getting louder and louder. The rustling of wind through the thick forest created a howling sound.

Vivere Satan! the voices murmured in unison.

My chains were attached to rebar in the dirt. I tried to pry my wrists through, but there was no use—they were too tight. I closed my eyes. Make the ground shake, like you did before, Maya, I said to myself. If I could get the ground to move, I could pry the rebar from the dirt and run away.

I tried, but there was so much going on, I couldn’t concentrate. Slowly I was able to turn my neck all around. I counted thirteen figures, all wearing brown cloaks, their faces covered, their foreheads to the ground as they worshipped the devil. My fears took over, making my teeth chatter.

Mama and Papa talked of this ritual often. They called it a séance. Nadine and I didn’t know what it was; we just knew we’d have to face a demon one day and we’d either live, or we’d die.

My fingernails dug through the frozen dirt. If I could just dig my way out I could escape. I pressed myself to try harder. Where was Nadine? Maybe she could use her fire to get us out of here.

I screamed as I watched Nadine’s body levitate from the middle of the circle of bodies, the chains around her wrists keeping her body from floating away. The chanting grew louder. The fire reached up like hands toward her. If she were any lower, her nightgown would catch on fire. Where had her curly locks gone? Someone buzzed her hair short, like mine. The fire grew stronger as she moaned.

Nadine! I tried to get her to wake, but her mind was in the underworld, with the demon…and I was next.

She moaned louder, her body jolting in the air. Blood dripped from her nose. Something was torturing her. I yelled her name again, and again, until her body thumped down—the fire going out as she hit the ground.

I watched as Mama and Papa took her from the chains.

I told you she would be the one, Papa said with his thick Spanish accent—what did he mean she was the one? They moved her body outside the circle.

Hurry up, we might be lucky. Mama waved her hand. The cloak covering her head fell back, revealing her short wavy brown hair blowing in the wind.

A man approached me and disconnected my chains from the rebar in the ground. He carried me to the circle with a pentagram created with blood from the pig they murdered in front of us.

Five people stood forming the points of the star, while the others surrounded them in a circle. There were others behind them—maybe thirty or more—too many to escape from.

The man who carried me lay me down in the middle of the circle and attached my chains to a pole. He held a matchbook up so I could see. Black with red lettering. I’ll remember his face, I told myself. He lit the match. The small flame made his eyes yellow.

This is my lucky matchbook. The man snickered. See the I in magic? It’s a flame, he whispered. Black Magic, Las Vegas, Nevada, it read. The flame is what is going to take your life tonight if you choose the wrong side. Keep that in mind, little girl. He ran his right index finger up my nightgown and smiled. I already told your parents I think you’ll choose wrong. It’s too bad—such a waste of beauty. He kissed my cheek with his wet lips, turning my insides to stone. I have big plans for you one day, if you decide to live.

Hurry up, John—quit playing with her. We don’t have much time before the portal closes! a woman yelled to the man. She was young—possibly in her twenties, the shadow on her face was ghostly.

John. I repeated his name to myself. I now had three names of the people who were trying to hurt me: Carl, John, and Randy. I needed the other eight. I wanted to know who these monsters were so when Nadine and I escaped I could tell police their names and what they looked like.

John pulled a needle from his side pocket and injected a yellow liquid into my arm. This will help you see a little more clearly while you’re in the presence of our God. If you survive—it’ll give you quite the headache in the morning.

He flicked his match against the paper as it lit, and dropped it. The fire roared all around me, the kerosene feeding the flames. The heat hit me first, my screams tantalizing the audience more. They wanted to see me burn. I wouldn’t get the chance to escape. I was going to die.

No! Mama! Papa! I reached my hand out to them, praying they’d save me, but they just smiled.

Choose! Papa yelled over the others’ chanting.

Nadine was still unconscious. No one was going to save me. I closed my eyes, waiting for the fire to take my life. I could feel my insides turn to fire from the drug John injected me with.

A voice spoke; I could feel its hot breath—hotter than the flames surrounding me, like the dragon from Nadine’s fairytale stories.

I opened my eyes to see a demon, his long, beast-like nails clicking together. From how Papa described it, I was in Hell. Other demons and dead bodies surrounded us, watching, waiting for me to be in reach so they could destroy my soul. I stood on a rock, lava flowing on either side of my feet. I was stuck—there was no exit out of Hell. The demon’s saliva dripped down their pointy teeth, waiting to get a taste of the human child.

I can give you everything you’ve ever wanted. The demon’s horns tilted from one side to the other, studying me. He knew all of my secrets, desires, nightmares. Do you want revenge for what your parents have done to you for all these years?

No! I yelled out. I couldn’t give into what he wanted. I’d have to die. They told me if I chose to live, I’d be rewarded with toys. I didn’t want toys. I wanted to eat more than just bread…go to school…be free of my parents hatred and the chains.

Don’t you want to avenge your sister, Nadine? His voice deepened with rage. They let that man do what he wanted to her. Carl’s his name, am I right? Carl will die—I will make sure he does. All you have to do is join me.

I won’t give in! I stood my ground.

The demons were angry as they hissed at my response.

Throw her in the fire! one of the devil’s minions spat.

Is that what you want? To die? the demon questioned with a twisted smile.

Yes! I yelled over the sound from the fallen rocks.

You will die. You will be nothing. Your sister will continue to be tortured for eternity. Or, you can join me, and live. I can give you the tools and the skills to kill all those who have hurt you and your sister. You’ve repeated their names in your head. You want them dead—don’t you?

No! I don’t want anyone to die! My tiny voice was barely audible over the lava and demons yelling.

Choose, the demon growled. Choose now!

I will never follow you!

Then your choice has been decided! Die! The demon waved his hand and the level of the lava began to rise, swallowing up the area of the rock where my feet were standing. A wave of molten torture took over me and the lava devoured my body. I felt my heart pulsate, my veins pumping with blood, running like a river through me until my heart stopped.

I felt the warmth of Heaven—a soothing warmth, one that left me with the peace of my decision. The clouds migrated slowly through the air; church bells chimed from behind the Gates of Heaven, just as I had imagined it to be in my dreams. Just as Nadine told me it would be like.

A woman’s voice echoed from beyond the golden gates. You’ve chosen to die over giving into the evil. Now, Maya, you must live.

Glow

I was twelve the first time I died. December 18, 1999, my twelfth birthday. How fitting to have been born and to have died on that day.

I died, again, just three days ago. My body couldn’t take the cold…Mayor Ward’s beating…and so, I became the winged creature in the ruby red sky, just as I had dreamed of since Lizzy was taken from me.

Not only did I die twice…I was brought back to life twice.

The woman in the white cloak saved me both times. She healed my wounds and ended my pain, but why? What for? Why couldn’t God end my suffering? What did I have to live for, besides a life of torment, lies, and demons? Who, if anyone, could I trust, now that I remembered it all?

Three days I lay in my bed at Ben and Tanya’s, resting, remembering, and contemplating my next move.

Mayor John Ward. The matchbook…his name…how could I not have remembered him? Why had I hidden him so deep in my mind when he was the one who set the fire to end my life just six years before?

John, Carl, Randy. These names ran through my head like a terrifying carousel ride. I wasn’t supposed to forget these names, but I did. Never forget again, Maya.

My life would be different now that I knew who my real parents were. They let me die—their daughter—letting the demon and fire consume my life. I remembered it all, yet there was something I still was missing—the truth of what I was.

I was alive, despite my wishes. The shadow man no longer hunted me—but now I had something even more evil lurking—the truth of my past and the questions I still had.

My parents were vile. They had tortured me from infancy—starving my needy bones and body. The stick figure walking along the highway, barefoot, with a shaved head and dirt in my fingernails—that girl was me.

My parents were imposters, living a life in the shadows, like Mayor Ward, giving into the demons that taunted them with false promises. What had the devil offered them—what was so tempting that they had to let their daughter die? They all wanted something from me, but not only was I part of their scheme—my sister, Nadine, was too.

Nadine had Mama’s features: her eyes—evergreen; her skin—flawless without any pimple scars like I had gotten after hitting puberty. I also had the same green eyes, but mine had a circle of brown to match Papa’s. Nadine’s curly brown hair was natural; I remembered playing with the twists, wrapping my fingers through it. I had Papa’s straight hair. How I longed to have waves like my sister’s.

Where was Nadine hiding? Why did she leave me in the dark after our parents died? Questions were all I had. I needed the answers. Would Nadine ever return for me? Were we special like she told me so many years ago?

Mama and Papa wanted something from both of us the night they performed the séance—to both chose the evil side—their side. What had Nadine chosen? Which side was she on? We both lived so both of us had to have been saved by the mysterious woman in the white cloak. Or...did she choose life—the devil’s side?

There was more I had to be concerned about. Something changed within me the night Mayor Ward killed me—something I couldn’t explain; something that wasn’t…human. I felt a surge running through me now—like an extra pulse or heartbeat inside me. My veins flowing stronger...hotter...like fire—like lava.

My dirty dark blue T-shirt fell to the floor. I stood in front of the mirror in my bathroom, steadying my weak body against the counter, observing each bruise and the long scar forming from my chest down where Ward cut me—one more scar to add to the list. The small red line around my left wrist was from the tight chains kept around me for eight years. I never knew where this scar had come from...until now.

The woman in the white cloak healed me internally from Ward’s beating. I could feel her hand touch my stomach, my ribs mending from his shiny shoes kicking me. I could breathe again, thanks to her. I was grateful she took away most of the pain. I still walked with a slight limp from my ankle twisting in the fall, but for the most part, I was alright.

By the time Tucker and Dale found me I wasn’t in the same state as I was before I died. I was delirious from having just come back to life again, but I could see their eyes, frightful of my crumbled body on the straw floor of the red barn.

That wasn’t all they were scared of.

Tucker…Dale…they saw it, questioned me, questioned it…but they listened to me as I begged them not to take me to the hospital. No one else could see what was coming from my back.

Tucker wrapped his jacket around my shoulders, holding me, his eyes in shock just as Dale’s were. He was scared to touch me and rightfully so.

How is this possible? Dale asked quietly, before the other deputies came in, before the girls in their cage woke.

I shook my head and looked away. Tucker didn’t say anything, but kept his warm body pressed against mine. The purple of my skin started to go back to its normal whitish-yellowish tone. He held me close, clenching my hand in his, just as he