Fallen Knight: Past Knights, #0

By Ella Storm

A championship football game becomes the scene of a terrible massacre.

Among the survivors is Max Knight. But he can't recall how he avoided death, or why…

 

Local high school hero Max Knight can't silence the voices in his head no matter how many pills he takes. If only he could talk to his parents about it, but he's never met them - his only family is his uncle, and he's not revealing any secrets...

 

Just after his 18th birthday, Max's world turns upside down. Everywhere he goes he sees killer shadows and is tormented by jumps in time while he keeps running from a truth that threatens to tear his world apart. Can Max accept and control his supernatural abilities, or will his denial be his undoing?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ella Storm
• Release date: May 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393792277

Book preview

1

Prologue

07:30 AM, New Orleans, 2005

The day broke like any other day. Except Max Knight was celebrating his eighteenth birthday. Life as he knew it would never be the same. Time has come to claim its debt.

He believed that on this day, he would turn into a man, courtesy of Chelsea and her splendid body. She had hinted at giving him a birthday present he would never forget. Max hoped to commemorate the milestone of turning eighteen with losing his virginity. He smiled, thinking of all the guys willing to trade their souls to be in his position.

He would first celebrate with his friends, and later they would discreetly exit the birthday festivities for an exclusive celebration. Chelsea had organized everything, including a downtown location away from prying eyes.

After his shower, Max dressed and splashed eau de toilette on his cheeks. He felt like a million bucks, decked out in his threadbare jeans and his favorite Urban Heritage T-shirt he found in a thrift shop. The style and the fit made him appear brawnier.

The atmosphere buzzed with electricity. Something in the air made him feel restless and excited. At precisely midnight last night, a sequence of short and turbulent storms shook New Orleans. Each downpour, more thundering and violent compared to the preceding one, would knock off the power grid for the duration of the storm. The trees in the woods behind the house seemed to uproot, and the roof rattled as if about to fly away. Then everything would cease. The light would come back on, and a deafening silence would befall until the next onslaught. The weather forecast couldn’t explain it. No atmospheric sensors, weather balloons, radar, and satellites had foreseen these storms, nor their severity. Conspiracy theorists predicted it announced an alien invasion, and voodooists smelled in the winds the advent of judgment day.

For the first time since he could recall, Max Knight had slept soundly throughout the night. The storm had kept at bay the nightmares that tormented him most nights.

The birthday boy is running late. Breakfast is on the table, Alexander Knight shouted from the kitchen.

Max presented himself for breakfast by leaping over the railing right into the kitchen. The stack of pancakes with blueberries and maple syrup made his mouth water. Enough food to satisfy a family of three lay on his plate.

Alex Knight recognized that as a maturing lad, his nephew needed all the nourishment he could consume. And as the star player on the football team, Max’s wiry and energetic form required a constant intake of nutrition. So he feigned not to notice the way Max raided the fridge each night before heading to bed or the size of his meals.

But in truth, Max Knight wished to be muscular with the body women would salivate over. On weekends, he retreated to the makeshift gym he put together in the spare room. The rest of the week, he used the school fitness facility, pumping iron with the other fellows.

Though he lacked patience, he was determined to achieve his goals the natural way, through hard work, dedication and healthy eating. He started his regimen three months ago, and already changes in muscle tone were visible. His arms were more defined, and his shoulders broader, stretching the fabric of his T-shirt. The way the girls looked at him when he moved through the hallways of the school pleased him. Their hungry eyes and discreet biting of their lips inflated his vanity.

This will be a memorable day for you. Your birth date coincides with scouts in the crowd for the big game tonight. Afterwards, we are celebrating your team’s triumph in the gymnasium. So don’t even consider spiking the punch, Alex warned while pinching his nasal bridge with his thumb and index finger, trying to relieve the discomfort of the mild migraine between his eyes. He had spent the entire night awake, watching over his nephew while he slumbered. His brother had instructed him to keep a watchful eye on Max, specifically after he turned eighteen, and Alex had believed those fears unfounded as there had been nothing to fret about while the boy was growing up. But when the first storm shook the house, Alex hasted to hold vigil by his nephew’s bed, his book of enchantments open and ready to cast protective spells. He had counted eighteen storms with intricate displays of lightning in an array of patterns, but nothing else had appeared.

I will be there to watch you from the stands and cheer you on to victory. Don’t concern yourself with the antagonism between the two schools, they occasionally take matters too far. We want to show the scouts you respect fair play, so you must be the bigger man if things get out of hand. Alex expected his nephew to succeed in whatever endeavor he undertook, but couldn’t resist sharing his words of counsel.

I can manage the stress. Nothing gets to me. Maybe I inherited my cool temperament from my father. Oh, I forgot… I wouldn’t know. You never discuss him and change the subject every time I ask about him. The way Alex massaged his temples showed that Max was getting on his last nerves.

Alex rose and retrieved the dishes, These storms have people baffled. I will spend the day installing heavy-duty doors to the windows in the event they happen again. Your help would have been welcomed, but I know you have a full day ahead of you. Besides, I’m guessing you have plans with Chelsea after the birthday party. My gift to you is to release you from your curfew for one night.

Tonight might be the night, Max rubbed his hands together, all gleeful and giddy, She hasn’t said anything outright, but she has alluded to having a surprise for me. It can only be one thing.

Alex stumbled on his way to the sink. Max’s statement caught him unaware.

Max laughed, Don’t worry, I will be careful as I have no intention of ruining my life for one evening of pleasure, he patted his back pocket to reassure himself the half dozen condoms were safely inside.

First time intercourse is an enormous deal, and I assume you are ready. Alex didn’t want his nephew’s first time to be a monumental failure, so he ensured Max received a thorough sex education and maintained an open mind when discussing his sexual life.

The books you made me read were particularly enlightening and explicit. Max rose and picked up his backpack. I have to get going. I’ll see you at the game. He folded two more pancakes, making them into a sandwich of blueberries and maple syrup on his way out.

Just as he slammed the door behind him, he caught a peek of the yellow rear end of the bus going around the corner and cursed, realizing that he’d have to scamper at a decent trot to get to school before the bus arrived at 8:30 a.m.

The last thing he desired was to get detention for being late, so cutting across the dense