Kindle a Shadow of Youth

By Alexis Allinson

When Paulos Sinopolis lost his wife Fontini during the birth of their daughter Kindle 7 years ago, he made himself a promise. He swore that he would protect his little girl.
Kindle is sick he is prepared to do everything humanly possible and some things that aren't to ensure that he never loses her.
A trip into the Underworld to save her and an encounter with the Gods themselves may cure her illness, but at what cost. A meeting between Hades and Lucifer and the signing of a contract means that Kindle will have to fight for her new life, potentially forever.
With the eyes of death watching every move, encounters with the beings of nightmares, unexpected enemies and unlikely allies, Kindle's life is not that of the average 7-year-old.
Mystery, magic, mayhem and eternal love seem to follow her while she struggles to survive and understand her existence.
Contracts have fine print. If you don't take the time to read it, you may get more than you bargained for, and a contract is binding...forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9781794876835

Book preview

Kindle a Shadow of Youth

Kindle; A Shadow of Youth

A Darkness Rising Universe Novel

Gnome On Pig Productions

Written by: Alexis Allinson

Edited by: Dirk McKeown

Cover Art by: Mike Allinson

Copyright© 2013 ©2019

ISBN:978-1-79487-683-5

All copyrights are reserved to Paramount Pictures for the Star Trek quote used in this book from Star Trek: Voyager Episode Titled: Cold Fire. This quote has been modified from the original script from where it was taken.  All ownership rights belong to Paramount Studios and their affiliates.  This quote was chosen to set a mood for the book and no other purpose by the author.

All copyrights are reserved to Psychopathic Records for the use of the chorus or hook from their original song written and performed by the group Dark Lotus under their label.  Exert comes from a song titled Black Crows from their album Tales from the Lotus Pod.  All ownership and rights belong to Psychopathic Records, their artist and affiliates.  This song piece was chosen by the author to set a mood for the book and has no other purpose aside from this.

This is a work of fiction.  All names, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictionally, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright© is held by Alexis Olsansky-Allinson for this and everything in my creation of the Darkness Rising Universe.

Gnome on Pig Productions has permission from the author to recreate and reproduce this novel under the terms of the contract signed between Gnome on Pig Productions and Alexis Allinson.  No other publications, reproductions or other vices in whole or part can be used without explicit permission from Gnome on Pig Productions and/or Alexis Allinson submitted to them in writing for consideration.  Any violation of this will result in possible lawsuit by the publisher and/or author.

Special thank you to all the beta readers who dedicated themselves to reading and reviewing this novel for my benefit.

The Gnome on Pig Productions logo is licensed only to by used by Gnome on Pig Productions and the company owns the copyright to this logo as of the year 2014.  Artwork for the logo was created by Elizabeth Eichelberger.

Cover art for Kindle; A Shadow of Youth was created by Ojan Borot and is owned and copy-written by Gnome on Pig Productions in conjunction with Alexis Olsansky-Allinson in the year 2015.

Printed in the U.S.A.

Other books in the Darkness Rising Universe

The Redemption of D.C. Hayes (novella – ebook only) released in 2012

The Dark Age of Bruce Mael released in 2013

The Redemption of D.C. Hayes (extended) to be announced

Dawn the Hunter to be announced

Dedicated to:

Irvin

A man who wouldn't let life's little downs keep him from being picked up.

Adam and Nathaniel

Who know the trials that your mother was put through, in seeking the best possible outcome.

Without the darkness, how would we recognize the light?  Do not fear your negative thoughts; they are a part of you.  They are a part of every living being.  To pretend it does not exist, creates an opportunity for it to escape.              - Commander Tuvok                                                              

Star Trek: Voyager, Episode Titled: Cold Fire

Prologue

London, England

Hospice for New Mothers

September 12, 1898

A penetrating scream echoing down the long gray hall of the hospice wasn’t normally out of place for outsiders, visitors or staff to hear emanating from the rooms where mothers were delivering their babies.  Therefore no one paid any attention to the scream coming from behind the white door of room 158 or the fact it wasn’t being produced from a mother suffering the pains of childbirth, but from a nurse. 

Nurse Judy Ipswich had worked in the health care field since she was only twelve, and thought she had seen everything.  Placing her fist in her mouth to stifle another scream she watched with baited breath as the doctor delivered the newborn via caesarian section.  Her brown eyes forced as wide open as they could possibly be.  The trauma of what she was forced to witness would have made anyone faint, or at least weak in the knees, but she had to persist in her witness to the event.

Dr. Julian Cameron was nowhere near his retirement, even though his creased face and solid white hair may have told the world differently.  The wrinkles on his forehead and the crows feet showed the years of concentration he had put into his patients.  At this moment they appeared exaggerated to Judy in the glance she gave his face to pat sweat from his brow.  Dr. Cameron didn't seem to notice Judy's touch as his focus was completely on his patient.  The nurse quickly returned her eyes to the event she would prefer not to witness, even though she would not turn her back on someone in need.  The doctor too had to witness many atrocities in his life, and this was most likely at the top of his pile.  The Hippocratic Oath he had taken upon receiving his diploma as a doctor of medicine was taking a large hit right now.  He was teetering on a fine line as he performed the operation.  His way of dealing with it ethically at the moment was by keeping a firm frown on his face and ignoring the blood that washed onto his hands, as he used his scalpel with precision to complete his work quickly.  Although he knew his chosen profession would sometimes force a decision to perform a procedure he didn't like, he had hoped it would not be as gruesome as this one when that moment showed itself.  He focused his thoughts on the task itself, ignoring in his conscious mind, the fact that there was any ethical or moral questions tied to this.  He looked at his hands like an entity in themselves.  They could perform without his thought.  He knew what had to be done, so his hands did it.

As the nursed watched, frozen in her spot as the doctor sloppily dropped his blade to the floor so that his hands were free to dig into the mother’s uterus.  Ignoring the gush of the amniotic fluids and blood, he grabbed a hold of the baby’s head and shoulders to ease it out into the world.  Snatching for clamps and scissors off of the tray beside the bed, Dr. Cameron expertly closed off and cut the umbilical cord, untying the infant from its mother.

Dr. Cameron gently forced his right pinky finger into the newborn’s mouth.   With a practiced ease he scooped out the mucus to help clear the airway of the infant.  As he did this, he mumbled a simple prayer, the same prayer over and over again, Not too late.  Please, not too late.  The babe’s skin had turned a purple/blue hue due to the lack of oxygen from not yet having taken its first breath.  He only hoped the baby had not drowned in the time it took for him to dig it out of its mother’s womb.  He felt it had taken an eternity to free the tiny infant from the tangle of the female internal reproductive organ.  In reality the operation had only taken less than four minutes from incision to this moment, but to Dr. Cameron and Nurse Ipswich, they were possibly the longest four minutes they would ever experience.

Nurse Judy suddenly blinked as she came to her full senses after the shock, realizing that the child was out of the mother and in the cool air of the room.  Absently she inched forward toward the doctor as he continued to perform life saving measures on the infant.  She was just beginning to comprehend the baby was free when it also occurred to her that there were no cries yet.

The doctor’s hands worked nimbly and swiftly, but so far the child had not responded to any stimulation.  Deciding to handle the infant a little more crudely, he turned it over across the palm of his right hand and using his left hand he rubbed and patted on its back.  Still holding onto his silent prayer, Dr. Cameron gave consideration to using an old fashioned slap on the baby’s bottom to see if that would get the baby stimulated.  With the good graces of his work, he let out a relieved sigh; he didn’t have to resort to such a barbaric procedure.  The limbs stirred with a sudden sharp flailing motion and within a moment a shrill cry arose from the tiny person he held his hands.

Breathing another sigh of relief, the doctor forced back his tears.  Remembering that he was not alone in the room, he motioned to the nurse to bring over coverings as he turned over the infant to be cradled.  With a quickness, Nurse Ipswich gasped, not even realizing she had been holding her own breath.  She responded instantly to the doctor's request.  She gathered up receiving blankets and hustled them over to him and the baby.  He gave her a slight nod as she stepped toward him with the clean warm coverings.

The baby whom Dr. Cameron held more delicately now, was undersized in his hands.  Placing the baby into the blankets, he allowed himself a reserved smile as he appreciated the deftness at which his hands had worked. It had been enough to ensure the infant’s survival.  During these last few minutes, he had felt clumsy in a way he hadn’t since performing his first surgery on a live patient.  All those years ago he had hoped he would never have to experience that again, but as fate would have it, that was not to be, and today he felt that same uneasiness once again. 

Allowing a greater smile to cross his face he watched as the nurse tightly bundled the child.  The baby’s skin coloring was already returning to normal and the cries clear of any gurgling sound from blockages to the airways.  It could now be assumed that the infant was going to be fine.

Nurse Ipswich, who had first let out a terrified scream when the delivery began finally allowed herself to weep just a little, so not to disturb her professional modesty.  She had been sure that everything was going wrong.  Without any further thought she had taken the crying baby from the doctor’s blood soaked hands and wrapped it up tightly in fresh linens.  She then pulled it close to her chest, missing the brief grin that had been on Dr. Cameron’s face when he realized everything with the baby was going to be fine.  Looking at the little one starting to settle its cries of protest, she marveled at the site of the miracle she now held in her arms.  It was small, very small, but all the wonder of such a miracle welled up inside of her as the tiniest fingers rested around her own.  She is lovely, Judy was finally able to comment past her own emotional tears and sniffles.

Dr. Cameron nodded as he wiped away the blood from his hands and forearms with a towel.  He then crossed the room with an exhausted drag to his feet so he could dunk his hands into the wash basin that was waiting to remove the dirt of his life’s work.  That she is, he finally spoke aloud agreeing with the nurse.  The mother did a good job.

Taking her attention away from the newborn in her arms, Judy then looked around the room.  What is that smell? she inquired with a sour look.  The odor was becoming overpowering around them.  It was like that of the corpse flower that had just opened for the first time in years to release its foul stench onto the world.

A frown came across Dr. Cameron’s face as he nodded in a pointing fashion toward the mother of the infant.  Fontini Sinopolis was lying dead on the bed. He had sliced her open from sternum to pelvis, ripped through her innards as if they were weeds in a garden to be rid of just to get to her womb.  Lastly, he spent no time thinking when cutting open her uterus to extract the baby.  Looking at the mess he had left in the wake of his butchering, made his own stomach burn.  No matter what the reason or the outcome, this was not the type of operation he had ever imagined performing when he first began medicine.  All of his time and care he normally would take to conduct a C-section was not used here.  He turned from the basin, and was drying his hands wondering if he would ever recover from such a horror as this.  You smell her rotting, he eventually stated to the nurse.  She was consumed by cancer.

Absently, mindlessly, the nurse clutched the peaceful infant closer to herself.  A look of fear mixed with sorrow crossed across her face.  The baby will be fine? she asked as her voice shook.  Looking at the darkened entrails of the mother on the bed forced the reality of the situation to sink into Judy’s mind. 

Yes, Dr. Cameron nodded.  The cancer was with the mother and not the baby.  A divine force was looking after that little girl and I have no doubt that it still is.

Judy looked down at the infant.  Dark brown eyes stared back at her.  The baby had turned a healthy shade of pink and was alert with inquisitive eyes.  Judy found herself at peace in her thoughts as the infant explored her face from her deep innocent eyes.  Then, the actuality of the motherless child flooded her thoughts giving a new focus for her mind to worry over.  A new surge of emotions took hold over Judy.  This was not the first time for a baby to lose its mother during childbirth and Judy doubted it would be the last, but she felt compelled to have a happy ending with this child.  It was an unwarranted set of emotions for her as she had no real connection to the child except for the fact she was physically holding it at this time.  What do we tell the child’s father?  I mean… she was choking back tears.  Although she had been a nurse for decades, and had experienced losing mothers and infants, this one was resting heavily on her heart. 

Dr. Cameron sighed.  He was never good with the delivery of bad news when a mother was lost.  Then he rested his eyes on the baby.  He thought deeply for a few moments as the nurse waited patiently.  Silently he watched as the nurse cradled the baby tightly and rocked her own body to sooth it.  Without comment, he had noticed the nurse also humming a soft lullaby on and off.  He thought he recognized the song As I Was Going to Banbury, but her strangled hum seemed to cut off the tune and restart it somewhere else.  Letting his mind wander, he turned his head to look upon Fontini.  Her face looked peaceful and sleeping even though it was a pale purple.  Her hair spread out over the pillow neatly in a way that furthered the fact she was resting.  He didn’t look further down her body.  Dr. Cameron knew of the damage that was there in stark contrast. 

Keeping to himself he walked to the cabinet and pulled out a new fresh sheet.  Closing the door he bent his head, closed his eyes and mumbled another silent prayer; this time for guidance.  Turning around, he headed toward the end of the bed.  Pausing, Dr. Cameron kept his eyes on Fontini’s face.  He didn’t want to forget her face.  Using a jerk of his hands he unfolded the sheet to spread it out over the top of the woman on the bed.  He moved around the bed, taking great care to ensure every part of her was covered, except for her calm and lovely face.  He then, with a gentle manner, went over to the nurse with the baby in her arms.

Gingerly he took his right hand and touched the baby, first on her forehead, then her cheek and finally on her chest.  As much as he was checking to see that she was healthy, Dr. Cameron was also apologizing in his mind to the infant for the mess that brought her into the world.  Taking his hands away, forcing them behind his hips and to cross over the small of his back, he looked into the nurse’s face.  Patiently she had been awaiting an answer and she could sense that now was the time for it to come.

Tell him that the baby came just before his wife died, he began to instruct the nurse in a soft yet firm tone of voice.  Tell him…she was able to see the baby and smiled at the wonderful miracle that they had been able to create.  This was far from the truth, but to tell an anxious, grieving father that his wife was dead before the doctor could get to deliver the child would not make things any easier.  The way he saw it, the less the father knew about the horrific turn of events that had brought his little girl into the world, the better it would be. 

The nurse nodded her understanding.  She had been the one to find the mother dead only moments before the doctor retrieved the baby.  How long she had been dead may have been up to ten minutes since she had last been looked in upon.  Shaking her head to remove the dark images and memories from her mind, Judy went back to looking at the baby.   It seemed that God was smiling on them that day.  The little girl was touched by prayers and good graces.

As Judy turned toward the door so she could speak with the father and show him his little girl, Dr. Cameron suddenly spoke, Tell the father that his wife also said that their little girl will carry her mother’s fire though she would be just an ember in her budding memory. 

Chapter 1

Paulos Sinopolis stopped the wary shuffle of his feet.  His arms twitched as they draped around the petite little girl he carried in his arms.  His mind wandered rapidly from memory to memory and finally took a pause on one moment over the last seven years.  Tears arose to his eyes as he reached the memory of when he first held this little person in his arms seven years earlier.

She was so tiny with her deep brown eyes inspecting him.  The nurse told him how her mother had just enough life to smile at the baby they had produced.   The final words of his wife stating that this child would carry her mother’s fire sunk into his sage teachings deeper than the nurse could ever know.  Thinking of this, made Paulos' eyes well up in tears in the same way he had when he was first given his newborn baby girl.  At the same time, his mind drifted further into the past to a place he often thought of as his own personal purgatory.

Fontini, Paulos wife had only just had her nineteenth birthday a couple of weeks earlier when she was first given the news that she had cancer.   She had been feeling out of sorts and thought briefly at first she was consuming badly prepared food or sour tea.  As the illness persisted and visits to her doctor seemed to turn up no true cause for the weakness she was experiencing, Fontini was recommended to a different physician.  It was he who discovered and diagnosed the cancer.  The disease was affecting every part of her body by way of her blood stream.   Melanoma was the name for this cancer.  Fontini would have to be careful of every activity for it would cause her bones to become brittle, her kidneys to shut down and her to experience fatigue as well as dizzy spells.

For the first few weeks after being informed of the cancer, Fontini was willing to take the medicines that were prescribed to her.  Constant consumption of fluid to maintain the strength of her kidneys was ordered by the physicians in their homeland of Greece as well.  Fontini appeared accepting of the entire ruckus at the start, but then she was hearing things would be better in London, England.  So without a thought to his career as a respected professor of historical artifacts and language, Paulos allowed himself to be swept away by his wife’s musings.  Raising their hopes for a better alternative to the treatments she was already receiving was what Fontini and Paulos were hunting for. The promise of something better was the only motivation they seemed to need to pick up their lives and move to another country. 

Paulos kept his own fears to himself.  In the weeks before the move he spent much of his time assuring friends and family that this was the best for them both.  It will help with Fontini’s recovery, he remembered telling each person over and over again.  Thinking back on it now, it was the line he was using to convince himself that everything would turn out for the better.  He really wasn’t trying to convince them.  It was him who needed the convincing.

The move to England had gone smoothly with referrals coming from the doctors in Greece to new doctors in London.  Along with the new source of healthcare and a modest house accompanying work for Paulos, they were settling nicely into their new home.  

Fontini restarted a different type of treatment the day after their arrival and it appeared to alleviate her anemia if not the dull aching from her bones.  Fontini often was quiet with a lost look in her eyes during this time.  When Paulos would question her, she would not complain about the present, but express her fondness for things to come in the future.  In particular, their future together is what she mostly spoke of.  After their time in England was done, she wanted to travel back to Greece for a visit and