A Time To Live: Seasons of Kane, #2

By Lauren Thell

Why God? Why me? Why did you pick me to live when everyone else died?

 

After a healing summer with Claudia, Kane heads back to Ohio for his final year of high school where he must face the friends and family of the three who died while he was behind the wheel. Questions abound as to what really happened that night, and some—including Kane—are still not convinced of his innocence.

Kane finds there's nowhere to go but forward, through the past.

 

A contemporary Christian YA fiction short story, number 2 of the Rebuilding Kane series. 35 pages.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lauren Thell
• Release date: Oct 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215454978

Lauren Thell

Lauren Thell is an author of Christian YA fiction full of characters who find themselves on the undersides of impossible situations. She is a professional musician, an amateur dancer, and a wannabe astronaut.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

H ey look, it’s Scarface back from the dead!

Kane’s thumbs tightened against the straps of his backpack. He ducked his head a little lower, a futile attempt to hide the jagged scar that made his face look like a cracked plate. This was the moment he’d been dreading all summer, and so far it hadn’t let him down.

"Nah, Scarface don’t look that bad. He looks more like Kylo Ren."

"You think he looks bad? You should have seen the other people who were in the car."

Pockets of laughter burst out at the tasteless joke, like fireworks at a funeral, igniting the anger in Kane’s chest. He spun to face his tormentors, a trio of former baseball teammates. Juniors. Guys who used to look up to him. Now their smug expressions evidenced the change that had taken place last spring.

He positioned himself squarely in front of the middle one, bringing a halt to the flow of traffic in the crowded hallway. Why don’t you take a good look, right now, he growled. Get it over with and move on.

The boy grinned. Oh, I can see it just fine from a mile away.

A new voice sounded from behind. You got what you deserved.

Kane whipped around. His scarred jaw went rigid.

Cam Dawes. Before the accident, Kane, Cam, and Jeff had been good friends. That would never be true again, and Cam knew that. Unlike the others, he put on no pretext of mockery. His expression held the sullen hardness of a granite tombstone.

You’re the reason Jeff is dead, he said, and you put the scar on your own face. I’d say justice has been served.

The same thing would have happened if anybody else had been behind the wheel, Kane replied through clenched teeth.

Cam shook his head. I doubt it. He walked away, his words adding another nail to the coffin.

An unnatural stillness filled the hallway. Dozens of eyes stared unabashedly, taking in Kane’s scar. Judging. He clutched the straps of his backpack and wove between the bodies, fixing his gaze below the sea of faces. Only the first day of school, and it was already happening again. The harassment, the finger-pointing, the stares, the whispers. The whole reason his parents had sent him away in the first place.

Around the corner, he spotted something that brought his breath up short and stopped his feet cold.

Impossible.

There, clutching an armload of books and