Cracks In The Foundation

By Jade Newcastle

A forest holds a living shadow; a sketchbook holds premonitions; and a dormitory that should hold three students only holds two. It shouldn't be up to Clementine and Mona to find a roommate they've never met, but no one else is looking for her. The path to her is dangerous, hidden, and anything but straight.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jade Newcastle
• Release date: Dec 1, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393066620

Jade Newcastle

Jade is a fantasy writer from Canada. She and her rainbow wheelchair can often be found at the library, filling notebooks with story fragments.

Book preview

Chapter 1

College was a defining time in a lot of people’s lives. It marked when they stopped living with their parents and began living alone. The end of curfews and asking permission to go to the bathroom during class; the beginning of needing to get themselves out of bed and buy their own toilet paper. There’s excitement there, and freedom, but it’s rare that fear doesn’t sit below.

Clementine did her best to ignore the rising panic she felt as she entered her dorm room for the first time. She was alone for the first time, not just away from her parents, but her friends as well. She was alone, and that cost felt higher than the price of textbooks.

She was moving into a room for three, which featured furniture made of thin plywood and walls painted a faded white. The high point of the room was the view of the pine tree forest, after which Pinepoint University was named. One of the three wardrobes was already full of black clothing.

With a polite knock, another roommate entered. Hello, I’m Mona. Her voice was quiet, contrasting with the boldness of her yellow jumpsuit. The colour looked beautiful against her dark skin, and Clementine did her best not to stare.

Nice to meet you! I’m Clementine. Her voice cracked a bit, and she distracted herself from embarrassment by focusing on the task at hand: fitting all of her clothes—mainly Hawaiian shirts and jorts—into a small wardrobe. She noticed Mona unpacking a lot of books, and broke the ice with, What stuff do you read?

Poetry. Mona gestured to the collection of Sappho’s poetry that she had been shelving. What do you read?

Clementine felt a bit of tension ease from her shoulders. Not much. I used to like comedies, but I haven’t read any in a while.

Why not?

A different tension took its place. Life, you know? You get busy.

Mona nodded, and that seemed to be the end of the conversation. She began unpacking her bags and Clementine focused on her own, trying not to imagine a year’s worth of halting conversations.

Mona’s clothes were mainly dresses, with a few more jumpsuits thrown in for necessity. She had more books than shelf space. Her drawing tablet was in good shape from gentle handling, which contrasted with a sketchbook so full of loose scraps that it barely closed.

Their third roommate never arrived for introductions. Think June’s running late? Clementine asked.

June?

Our last roommate. Clementine opened their door to point at paper name tags taped to it. Although her stuff’s here, so maybe she’s getting food or something. None of June’s things were in boxes, her bed was unmade, and a chair was piled with her dirty laundry. Weird. Doesn’t really look like she just got here, does it? But I don’t think anyone was allowed to move in before today. The pamphlet said they were doing a deep clean after the summer semester.

I read that too. Mona took out her notebook and a set of pencil crayons. She crossed her legs, put the book in her lap, and hunched over it, her long braids covering the pages from view. The pencils moved furiously and continuously. When a pencil broke she would grab another, sometimes of a completely different hue. Without warning, she stopped, blinked a few times, and looked at