Sacred Time

By Steve Husk

Both Rob Banning and his girlfriend had the ability to change time around them. She used her ability for fun, but lost control of it, and one attempt sent her somewhere that almost killed her.

Rob used his ability for criminal acts so he could afford a specialist to investigate her ‘ability’ and hopefully rid her of it. He knew he was also losing control of his ability, but he kept going. On what was supposed to be one of his last attempts, he was sent to the end of life on Earth. Except, he somehow stopped time before he died, then brought himself back.

That drew the attention of someone who seemed to know quite a bit about how Rob and his girlfriend contracted this ability to manipulate time. This counselor, who projected his image from the future, was adamantly about them never using this ability again. Rob agreed to comply, but he soon found a major contradiction in the counselor’s claims. Rob’s curiosity towards the truth inspired him to use his ability once again to take a look at particular future times. The further into time he traveled, the worse the future got. Exactly what the counselor didn’t want him to see.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Steve Husk
• Release date: Dec 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005020446

Steve Husk

Some say Steve Husk is constantly going up against his demons and the many voices in his own head. Truth is, Steve has recruited most of them as his advisors. Some of them want to start a band with him.Steve is a retired software / web application developer and security control center officer. He currently works his writing (and sometimes music) craft in northern Virginia, USA.

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Sacred Time

Book Two of the series

Some Other Time

Steve Husk

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Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2022 Steven M. Husk

Cover art Copyright 2022 Steven M. Husk

All rights reserved.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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It seemed eerie for Rob to feel no wind and almost no waves on the Chesapeake Bay. Even the seagulls were uncharacteristically silent. It was as if nature itself wanted his next target to hear the approaching inboard motor as a warning.

Rob inched his fishing boat to within fifty yards of a smaller boat, then shut off the motor. His phone’s camera was already focused on the occupant.

Excuse me, sir? Are you Mitch Cherner?

A bearded man, with hooks on the brim of his faded and sagging baseball cap, looked up from preparing a lure. I am. To whom do I have the pleasure of meeting?

Rob glared at the water directly beneath Cherner’s boat, then conjured the thoughts he grew to hate.

That area of water disappeared. Dense dust and ripples of heat belched out from the hole in the bay. The small boat fell into the hole. Cherner’s scream of fright and confusion didn’t last long.

The bay waters rushed forward to fill the vacancy, with the currents attempting to take Rob’s boat with it.

Present time.

The missing water returned to resume its place as part of the bay. The displacement caused a few uneven waves that rocked Rob’s boat, but everything soon calmed to match the bay’s previous gentleness.

Rob rubbed his forehead, just above his eyes, to soothe a mild sensation of pressure. This time wasn’t as bad as before. Maybe, he was finally getting used to the residual discomfort.

He closed his phone’s video app just so he could gaze at the wallpaper photo again. The love of his life. Long red hair being played with by the summer breeze. Her right elbow resting on his shoulder, her forearm in the air, showing off over a dozen brand new shimmering tennis bracelets, wearing the smile of a woman who was relieved in finding a small island of peace in her life. His arm was around her waist, smiling with the knowledge he was that island. Rob was quite proud of that photo, proud of how they both did so well at hiding their terror of what the very next moment of their lives might bring.

Rob felt the inside of his body move. The phone fumbled out of his hand.

Not again, dammit! he yelled to nobody.

The bridges and the seagulls and the distant shore moved away in a blur.

He clamped his hands around the pilot’s chair.

A hard jolt hit his mind. In seconds, his vision cleared. The bridges returned. The seagulls returned. Everything was back to where it belonged.

Rob slumped forward in emotional fatigue. He even heard himself hyperventilating. When was this torment going to end?

How did it even start?

He saw the phone lying on the floor of the boat, face up. Lizzi’s smile made him feel better. About everything. If his numerous past failures with women taught him anything, it was that relationships could only be successful if both gave a hundred percent effort, one hundred percent of the time. That’s why he was here, doing what he was doing, so they could someday resume building their relationship in peaceful times instead of while struggling within a nightmare. The mere existence of any doubt that Lizzi wasn’t offering the same effort while they were away from each other made no sense to him.

I’m hanging on as long as I can, baby, he whispered to the picture. Just one more job, and you’ll be safe.

#

Rob never sensed an expenditure of time when he was with Lizzi, except that he wished there was more of it to spend. It never mattered to him what she wanted to do; seeing her enjoy his presence was worth surrendering his choice to her.

Their first month of dating was awkward for both, neither knowing what to say to each other. Rob could tell she wanted to open up, but wasn’t sure how. He