Penny's Journal: Fortune Lost

By Gina Detwiler

Grace and Jared are gone. Disappeared without a trace. A pandemic sends the planet into turmoil. Violence, war, and famine ensue. Then a new leader rises up, promising to save the world.

Penny, drug-addict turned Christ follower, records her struggles in her journal and prays that God would reveal her role in stemming the chaos. Through it all, she finds solace and endurance in her faith, in the promises of the psalms, and in the comfort and wisdom of her family. She even falls in love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: vinspirepublishing
• Release date: Jan 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9781005799700

Book preview

PENNY’S JOURNAL

Fortune Lost

A Novella Set in the Forlorn Series

Gina Detwiler

A picture containing text Description automatically generated

Copyright ©2023 Gina Detwiler

Cover illustration copyright © 2023 Elaina Lee/For the Muse Designs

Formatting and Interior Design by Woven Red Author Services

First Edition

Printed and bound in the United States of America. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system-except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine, newspaper, or on the Web-without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, please contact Vinspire Publishing, LLC, P.O. Box 1165, Ladson, SC 29456-1165.

All characters in this work are purely fictional and have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

ISBN paperback: 978-1-7363662-9-5

Bible verses are from the following versions: Common English Bible (CEB), the English Standard Version (ESV), and the New Living Translation (NLV)

For Cheri

A real-life Penny

I looked on as he opened the sixth seal,

and there was a great earthquake.

The sun became black as funeral clothing,

and the entire moon turned red as blood.

The stars of the sky fell to the earth

as a fig tree drops its fruit

when shaken by a strong wind.

The sky disappeared like a scroll being rolled up,

and every mountain and island was moved from its place.

Then the kings of the earth,

the officials and the generals,

the rich and the powerful,

and everyone, slave and free,

hid themselves in caves and in the rocks of the mountains.

They called to the mountains and the rocks,

"Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one

seated on the throne and from the Lamb’s wrath!

The great day of their wrath has come,

and who is able to stand?"

~ Revelation 6:12-17

Author’s Note

The events in this book take place during the fifteen years that Jared and Grace were missing in the novel Forbidden.

YEAR ONE: Gone

May 14

Dear God,

Grace is gone. Again.

Yesterday, I was praising you for bringing her back after she and Jared had disappeared. That still seems like a bad dream. An EMP—electromagnetic pulse—hit downtown Buffalo, knocking out the whole power grid in a three-mile radius. There were all kinds of chaos, looting, and stories of a monster out of nightmares tearing up the streets like Godzilla. Jared and Grace went to investigate—they never came home.

But yesterday, I talked to her on the phone. She told a bizarre story of being kidnapped and flown to a castle in Switzerland by that lunatic Darwin Speer. But she and Jared had escaped, and now they were coming home. They just had to get new passports and wait for the airports to re-open after the explosion at CERN shut down half the country, but otherwise, they were fine. Everything was going to be okay.

And now they’re gone again. They never went to Bern to get their passports. They never bought plane tickets. It’s like they vanished into thin air. I called Grace’s phone a hundred times until it started going straight to voicemail. Ripley searched for her phone with GPS but could never pinpoint her exact location.

We’re holed up in a motel in Lackawanna because the EMP fried our generator. Ripley, Ralph, Miss Em, and me, along with many other refugees from the city. Ripley, our resident hacker, had to buy an old PC from a second-hand store—every place was sold out—and he’s searching hospitals and police stations in Switzerland to find Grace and Jared. The Swiss police and the US Embassy aren’t too interested in helping—they claim there’s no record of Jared and Grace being in the country. Apparently, even if you are kidnapped, you still have to go through customs.

Ripley did manage to track down the couple who helped Grace and Jared after they escaped from Speer. The wife said they had left in a van with their sister-in-law, Josephine, headed to Bern. There were a lot of sinkholes and aftershocks and strange seismic events following the explosion, so they think something happened to them on the road. But their search has come up empty.

Grace Fortune, Jared Lorn—where are you? Lord, can’t You tell us?

I don’t know how to tell Grace’s dad. Silas is still in the hospital, dying of lung cancer. He doesn’t have much time left, the doctors say. I was sure Grace would make it home to see him, but now…this will crush him.

At least he got to talk to her yesterday. He didn’t tell her how bad it was. Didn’t want her to worry. Typical Silas. He’s survived so much. He survived Shannon Snow, survived Lester Crow. Are You going to let cancer get him?

I know I should have more faith. Silas does. He’s not afraid. He’s ready to go home to be with You. But I want him to stay here until Grace comes home. I know I should be praying for Your will, not mine, but I can’t help it sometimes.

Ripley says Speer used the EMP to kidnap Jared. Sounds nuts to me, but he’s sure of it. Speer stole Jared’s DNA to create a treatment that cured his fatal disease, and he was planning to sell the treatment to other people. Speer claimed it would not only cure you, but it would make you practically immortal. Like Jared. It also might turn you into a psychopathic maniac. Speer didn’t seem concerned about that part.

He’s dead, they say. Speer. Died in his bunker when CERN blew up. At first, some people said he survived and was fine, then they said no, they were mistaken. That seemed a little strange. Why did they suddenly change their stories?

I feel bad for Ralph. He’s so…sad. Lost. He’s been Jared’s protector, his guardian angel, for almost all his life. I think he feels as though he’s failed somehow.

I have to go to class now. It’s hard to focus on studying with all this going on, but at least it gives me something to do, a distraction. I’ll visit Silas after. They had to move him to a different hospital after the EMP—it’s been a mess.

Maybe I should wait a while before telling him his daughter and son-in-law are missing again. They might still turn up. No need to worry him, right? He’s got enough on his mind. Better to let him hope.

I keep thinking of the man with the possessed child who said to You, I believe; help me with my unbelief! I get that guy, wanting to trust you, but still not understanding.

My psalm for the day. This was one of Grace’s favorites because it was all about singing and making music. For her, music was a weapon against the darkness, against fear, against despair, against evil. That’s why I read it today, but this part spoke to me the most.

We put our hope in the Lord.

He is our help and our shield.

In him our hearts rejoice,

for we trust in his holy name.

Let your unfailing love surround us,

Lord, for our hope is in you alone.

~ Psalms 33:20-22

June 9

Dear God,

Back in the Hobbit Hole, finally. It’s good to be home after a month in a motel, but it’s so empty without Grace and Jared. I miss Jared’s guitar, Grace’s silly laughter.

Ripley’s gone into the Lair—he won’t come out unless he smells food. Miss Em stays in the kitchen, mostly. She bakes when she’s anxious. At least the smells are better than the motel, which always smelled like stale cigarettes.

Ralph sits in his chair with a book in his lap, not reading. I try to talk to him, ask him questions about stuff he used to love to talk about, but he barely hears me. I’m no substitute for Grace or Jared, I guess.

Still no clue what happened to them. Praying for answers.

Listen to my prayer, LORD!

Because of your faithfulness, hear my requests for mercy!

Because of your righteousness, answer me!

~ Psalms 143:1

June 11

Dear God,

Today I got a call from Grace’s number—my heart skipped several beats. But it wasn’t her. Instead, a man said he was a police officer from Switzerland. They’d found Grace’s phone in a van on the CERN campus and called the last number she had dialed. My number.

I was confused. CERN? Surely, he meant Bern. That’s where Grace and Jared had been heading. But no, the officer said the van was at CERN—that place with the giant collider.

I put Ralph on the phone. Suddenly, he sat up straight, his eyes were wide open as he listened, his book dropping to the floor. He asked a lot of questions but didn’t seem to get very satisfactory answers. The police said they found the van in a wooded area, but there were no people—or bodies—around. There was a huge hole in the side of the van, perhaps the result of a bomb. But if it had been a bomb, where were the bodies? There was no charring, either, like one would expect from a car bomb. Nothing burned. The police were stumped as to what had caused the hole.

After he hung up, Ralph talked over the situation with Ripley. Maybe it was the monster, Ripley said. The Nephilim monster who had escaped the castle with Jared and Grace. I’d forgotten all about him. Was the monster in the van too? Why hadn’t Jared told us about it?

Or maybe it was Jared who did it, I said. Jared was a Nephilim himself, if not a fully formed one. Maybe he had changed. Maybe he knew Speer was in trouble and went to rescue him. Or worse, Jared had decided to join Speer, after all. But what had he done with Grace? And Josephine?

Ralph got up and went to his room, shutting the door behind him. I couldn’t blame him. I didn’t want to believe it either.

I need a word for today. Help me to believe.

whenever I’m afraid, I put my trust in you—

in God, whose word I praise.

I trust in God; I won’t be afraid.

What can mere flesh do to me?

~ Psalms 56:3-4

June 12

Dear God,

Before class today, I went to visit Silas. He looked so much weaker and paler. He had an oxygen tube in his nose and breathed with difficulty. I was prepared to tell him the truth about Grace. I’ve been telling him that the airports haven’t reopened yet, which was the reason for the delay. But I couldn’t put it off any longer.

I didn’t have to say a word. He was too weak to talk, but he handed me a letter. The envelope said, For Grace. He smiled and nodded, and in his eyes, I saw he knew the truth and that he forgave me for lying to him. I shoved the letter into my backpack, holding back the tears that threatened.

I heard a soft knock behind me and turned to see someone standing in the doorway, holding a bunch of flowers. My mouth dropped open. It was Mace—Mason.

Let’s just say we have a history. Like, he tried to kill me back when he was a drug-addicted Satanist. But then he changed, found Jesus, and got rid of his demons, thanks to Ralph, and maybe me too. I helped with his deliverance. He used to work with Silas in the bike shop, but I hadn’t seen him since Grace’s wedding. I hadn’t been able to reach him—I thought he had just ghosted me.

His hair was combed neatly, and he was growing a beard which made him look so much older. He still had a nose ring, but most of his other piercings were gone. Mason? I said. I tried to hide how glad I was to see him.

He came over and did that bro-arm-clenching thing with Silas and said a few words about how much he appreciated Silas helping him recover and giving him an interest in fixing things. He had enrolled in auto mechanic