When Comes the Stroke of Midnight: Otherworld, #2

By Madeline Walz

A normal day, or so it seems –

A normal boy, with normal dreams.

"A day like any other. Will nothing ever change?"

He has no way of knowing

He'll never be the same.

      Zaivyer Verling has never known his father. He knows only that he shares his father's name, his heterochromatic eyes, and the strange metal plate on his temple. The plate doesn't do anything – until he turns thirteen. Then his life changes. As he explores his new gifts, he starts to suspect that there is something much bigger in store.

      In this second installment of the Otherworld series, you will meet one of four people destined to save two worlds.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Madeline Walz
• Release date: Jul 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201781897

Madeline Walz

Madeline Walz attends the Savannah College of Art and Design, where she studies user experience design. Originally from Waukesha, Wisconsin, she now lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with her family of six people, a dog, and a parakeet. She loves reading seven books at a time, doing math puzzles, and browsing for typefaces.  You can visit her website at madelinewalz.com or find her on Facebook @MadelineWalzAuthorDesigner.

Book preview

When Comes the Stroke of Midnight

Also By Madeline Walz

Otherworld Book One:

Beneath Which Sky

Partivan: An Otherworld Flash Story

Otherworld Book Two:

When Comes the Stroke of Midnight

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Adore: A Poetry Collection

Nova: A Flash Fiction Story

WHEN COMES THE STROKE OF MIDNIGHT

An Otherworld Story

Madeline Walz

Text Copyright © 2020 by Madeline Walz.

Images Copyright © 2020 by Madeline Walz.

All Rights Reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review. 

Cover designed by Madeline Walz

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. 

Madeline Walz

Visit my website at www.madelinewalz.com 

For Eli, Amy, Sarah, Abby, Kate, Cameron, Todd, Anna, and Abby, who I worked with at the CMH Haunted House. It was fun while it lasted!

Also, for everyone who didn’t make it through the Haunted House tour. You missed out, but at least we know the rooms worked!

Whatever you are, be a good one.

—Abraham Lincoln

CONTENTS

The Story So Far

Part I

Part II

The Story So Far

Arkeda Mothran was born on the planet Otreau, in the city of Katósa, on August 17, 2031, to Damari and Kai Mothran. As he grew up, his parents learned that he had a photographic memory. When Arkeda was six years old, he began learning a form of martial arts called seulaitál, known on Earth as taido. It quickly became clear that he was a prodigy, rapidly mastering advanced skills.

Damari was the head of security at the Venetíchi Airfield in Katósa. Kai was a librarian. Both of them were also solar astronomers. While monitoring the binary star that Otreau orbited, they learned that the white dwarf star in the binary system would soon explode in a supernova. They tried to warn others, but Damari and Kai weren’t professional scientists, so no one listened. So they prepared their son for life on Earth.

Otrans communicate telepathically, sending their thoughts directly to another person’s mind. Arkeda’s parents taught him how to control the distance of his words, and how to move his lips to match what he said. This way, he would appear to be speaking aloud, like people do on Earth. They also discovered that, while the Earthen atmosphere was friendly to Otrans, there was enough of a difference that Otrans would float. Luckily, the Venetíchi Airfield had a simulation room. There, they trained Arkeda in an Earthen atmosphere, teaching him to control his height so he could blend in.

When Arkeda was eight years old, Kai and Damari knew they were running out of time. The supernova could occur any day. Damari pulled Arkeda out of his seulaitál class and brought him to the airfield. Only then did he and Kai tell him about the supernova and the reason for his training. They then sent him off-world in a one-man pod ship, using a portal to shorten the distance to Earth.

Arkeda arrived on Earth on August 28, 2039, in a field near a highway between Waukesha and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was found by Dominique Marton, who took care of him for a year while he took ESL classes to learn English. Around this time, Otreau’s sun exploded, destroying the planet.

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