The Keymaster: Mina's Journey

By T.L. Smith

The Keymaster: Mina's Journey is the epic tale of a mysterious being who is on a mission to help heal the hearts and minds of several tortured souls. Mina Chase is a young girl whose life takes a dramatic turn for the worse after an unspeakable act of terrorism leaves her both mentally and physically scarred almost beyond repair. Mina's life takes one extreme twist and turn after another, sending her spiraling down a long, hard path of self-destruction from which she finds herself unable to escape. She constantly battles the gripping aspiration to seek vengeance on those responsible for her awful plight. Then all at once, her journey to heal and forgive leads her to the Keymaster who will ultimately present Mina with one final, unimaginable opportunity to fix her mess of a life and hopefully gain the peace and happiness she so badly desires.Author T. L. Smith invites you to embark on a journey into an unfamiliar fantasy realm where the impossible becomes possible and those who have been victimized are suddenly faced with a crucial challenge and tempting opportunity to turn the tables and brandish themselves the title of villain.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9781638146070

T.L. Smith

T.L. Smith is a USA Today bestselling author who loves to write about characters with flaws so beautiful and dark they’re hard to turn away from. Her books have been translated into several languages. She can be found in her home state of Queensland, Australia, or off traveling the world—sitting on a beach in Bali or exploring Alcatraz in San Francisco or walking the streets of New York.

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The Keymaster

Mina's Journey

T. L. Smith

ISBN 978-1-63814-606-3 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63814-607-0 (Digital)

Copyright © 2021 T. L. Smith

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Table of Contents

The Parade

Recovery

Home

The Lake

The Shed

Unhappy Anniversary

Dr. Derrick K. Marshall

The Gatekeeper

The Calm before the Storm

Dormant Feelings

Insanity

The Psych Ward

The Keymaster’s Lair

A Glimpse into the Past

The Journey Begins

True Desires of the Heart

Revelations

What Have I Done?

To my two youngest children: Jaleel, thanks for jump starting this journey for me, without you there would be no Keymaster and Jordyn, the brilliant mind that gave me the title for my book. Love you both to the moon and back!

Prologue

Vengeance

/venjƏnce/

Punishment inflicted or retribution exacted for an injury or wrong.

At some point in life, almost everyone in existence has undoubtedly felt victimized or mistreated by another person. Whatever the wrongdoing and whomever the oppressor, serves as no consequence to the fact that, by the laws of human nature, we all feel we deserve some sort of atonement for being made to suffer at the hands of another. Left unchecked, a vengeful state of mind will often consume sufferers until retribution becomes the most essential and sometimes only matter of importance to them.

Then it becomes ammunition.

More often than not vengeance is either extremely difficult or even impossible to obtain. In those circumstances, the best option would be to let go of the feeling and move forward in life. But what happens when a person is unable to do that? What other possible options are there? And if a victim could in fact get the opportunity to exact revenge, would they be able to carry out whatever plans they had in mind? These are the exact questions that I asked myself after enduring unthinkable pain and anguish as a result of being the victim of a heinous act of terrorism. Hurting and incapable of forgiving my persecutors, my life became a whirlwind of an existence and I went barreling headfirst into a dark, lonely place that I fought daily to break free from. I longed for a way to gain closure, and then was one day presented with the chance to do just that. But the opportunity came in a way I never dreamed possible when life’s path led me to a mystical being known as the Keymaster.

The Keymaster’s story began long before I was born. His earthly name was Donovan Miles. Before experiencing a tragic life-changing event, Donovan was a happily married husband and father who could never have imagined the effects that a vengeful heart would one day have on him. Unable to deal with the loss of his wife and son, he became obsessed with gaining vindication for their lives. In an unthinkable act, he turned the tables and he himself became the offender after taking matters into his own hands. An act that would assuredly prove to be the biggest mistake of his life. His actions brought onto him a punishment that has left him stuck in a mysterious world that he is unable to break free from, unless he finds a way to atone for the damages done and the lives that he took. Filled with grief and eternally plagued by guilt, the Keymaster has spent decades searching out people like myself in an effort to help free us from the same suffering that he was once unable to escape.

In the aftermath of my own tragedy, I experienced unthinkable turmoil and mind-altering adversities. I constantly flip-flopped back and forth between sanity and complete irrationality, until one day, I was given a rare opportunity to rectify what had been done to me. The chance came in the most supernatural and unusual way. In the beginning, it actually took quite a bit of persuasion before I believed the unmanageable prospect that was presented to me. If I hadn’t witnessed and experienced certain things for myself, I would never have believed that they could happen. But they did and I am here to tell my story in hopes that others who suffer a similar plight would heed the warnings and remain true to themselves. My life began the day I was born into this world, but I never knew what it meant to really be alive until the day I met the Keymaster.

Chapter 1

The Parade

October 15, 2013, was a day that I will never be able to forget as long as I live. At 2:17 on a beautiful fall afternoon, I experienced a tragic event that would forever change me and my entire life as I knew it. It was a Saturday, the day of our city’s annual fall parade. That morning, when I awakened, I lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling, thinking about everything that I had planned. My eyes were barely open for five minutes before my best friend and roommate, Stacey, came flying through my bedroom door. She ran in full speed, jumped onto my bed, and started bouncing up and down. She was always so unbearably cheerful in the morning. As she bounced at the foot of my bed chanting my name, I couldn’t help but think that she looked exactly like an overly excited toddler waking her parents on Christmas morning.

Mina! Mina! Mina! she chanted.

Oh my god, Stacey, it is way too early for this. I let out a loud, aggravated sigh as I rolled over and pulled the blanket over my head.

Whatever, girly, we have a long day ahead. You may as well get up and get going!

She snatched off my blanket and threw it to the floor, before running from the room while hysterically laughing. I wanted to get up, chase her down the hall, and punch her in the face; but she was right, I did need to get going. We were riding one of the floats in the parade later that day. My track-and-field teammates and I spent months decorating and designing a rolling masterpiece to represent our team in the parade. In addition to that, my parents and older brother were traveling all the way to North Carolina from Florida to support me.

It took a while to drag myself out of bed, and by the time I finally got up, Stacey was already in the kitchen blending one of her breakfast smoothies.

It’s about time, she said when I walked in.

I waved my hand at her and grunted. I needed coffee before I could coherently start my day. As I poured myself a cup, I noticed one of Stacey’s science fiction novels sitting on the counter. I grabbed it before taking a seat at the kitchen table. As I was reading the back cover, Stacey walked over and pointed down at the book.

That’s a really good story, she said as she sat down in a chair across from me.

Hmm. I flipped it over and looked at the front cover. There was a woman sitting on an old rusty bench in front of a huge spooky-looking house with a bunch of dirty windows. A ghostly looking little girl was standing in one of the windows staring down at the woman. What’s it about? I asked.

The woman on the cover travels back in time to change her past. The kid standing in the window is her when she was younger.

I tossed the book down on the table. Eh, you know that science fiction stuff is not my cup of tea.

Yeah, I know, Stacey said as she picked the book up. This one is pretty interesting though. I can really relate to the main character and what she goes through.

Stacey, it’s a fictional book about time travel. How can you relate to that? Time travel isn’t possible.

She rolled her eyes and took a sip of her smoothie. I’m just saying that she experiences some things that I’ve dealt with before. And don’t be so quick to dismiss things you don’t understand. You don’t know for sure, Mina, maybe time travel is possible.

Yeah, well. I won’t hold my breath for that one.

One of the few things that I did not share with Stacey was her love for fantasy and science fiction books and movies. Ever since we were little she’d been fascinated with the idea of being able to travel to mystical lands to discover magical creatures. When we were in middle school, she spent an entire summer break trying to prove that mermaids were real. But, besides her science fiction obsession, we shared almost everything else and had so much in common that we always joked that we were twins separated at birth. Our physical features were remarkably almost identical, including our height, weight, and green eyes. The only difference is that Stacey is a brunette and I’m a redhead.

Our friendship began when we were both only five years old. We met in Mrs. Dixon’s kindergarten class in Ocala, Florida, where we were born and raised. On our first day, the classroom bully pushed me down and took my snack. I sat on the ground and cried because I was too scared to take up for myself. Stacey on the other hand had no problem with resolving conflict, even at such an early age. She took matters into her own hands and punched the bully in the eye before taking back my lunch. She got sent home as a punishment, but when she came back the next day, the two of us began to bond and pretty soon we were inseparable. In the years that followed, it was hardly possible to see one of us without the other. We did almost everything together. Then in middle school we joined the track team and discovered that we also shared a love for running. Track and field became life for Stacey and me, and we didn’t just love it, we were the best. We were so good that eventually we were both awarded full-ride scholarships, and of course, we chose to attend the same college, settling on Appalachian State University in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina. The change in climate was a bit of a shock at first, but eventually we settled in and embraced our new lives as independent college students. Our first three years we were lucky enough to have been assigned to each other as roommates. However, senior year, we were split up and that prompted us to move into our first apartment together. The day of the fall parade marked exactly one month that we’d been living off campus.

That morning after we had breakfast, we prepared ourselves for our usual morning run in the park across the street. By the time I stepped out of the door, Stacey was on the sidewalk, jogging in place, yelling at me to hurry up.

I’m coming! I yelled back.

I joined her, jogging in place while waiting for traffic to clear so that we could cross. I slung my headphones over my shoulder as we trotted across the street. We were standing by a bench stretching our legs when we saw a couple of the floats that were going to be featured in the parade later that day. I was immediately filled with excitement when I thought about sitting on top of the float waving to the crowd as if I were a member of some royal family. I continued to stretch, pulling my legs high up to my chest one by one. Stacey pointed to the right one as I did.

Hey, I just realized that birthmark under your knee is shaped like a strawberry.

I shook my head and laughed while I continued to stretch.

Are your parents still coming to see the parade?

Yeah, they should be on their way now, I said excitedly.

Even though I had just seen my family less than a month prior during fall break, I was still overjoyed for them to be coming to the parade that day.

We finished stretching, then took off running our laps in the cool morning air. After we finished our run, it was time to get ready for the big event. There were going to be five of us on the float. Besides Stacey and myself, there was our teammate Jennifer Roberts and twins Kris and Lily Jenkins. I’d known Jenny since freshman year. The first week of classes one of our instructors assigned us to each other to work on a group project, and I quickly gathered that Jenny was quite charming and had an amazing sense of humor. We became friends instantly, and once we found out that we were both on the track team, our bond grew stronger. Jenny was very fast, almost as fast as me, and she had the longest legs of any woman I’d ever known. She had been given the nickname Flower Girl because she always decorated her huge curly Afro with the biggest, brightest flower-shaped hair clips I’d ever seen.

The twins Kris and Lily were amazingly identical. Everyone, including their own parents, often had a hard time telling which was which. They both had shoulder-length sandy-blond hair and beautiful bright-blue eyes, and each stood over six feet tall. Kris and Lily were also the most competitive members on our team and were constantly fighting with each other. I met them sophomore year during our first track competition.

Riding the parade float that day was already exciting, but the fact that I would be joined by my four best friends made it all even better. Stacey and I arrived downtown about an hour before the start of the parade. By that time, I literally felt like I had butterflies in my stomach. We were looking for the other girls in the enormous crowd of people that seemed to get bigger by the second. I spotted Lily waving at us from a parking lot across the street from where the floats where lined up. I waved back and poked Stacey to let her know I’d spotted them. We joined our teammates, and the fun began. The excitement was building as we were all chattering and fixing our hair and outfits, all the while pointing out people we knew. It was a very festive day. The street was lined so far with parade goers that you could barely see where the mass ended.

As we were all getting prepared to man our floats, I saw our school’s band members putting some last-minute touches on their Independence Day-themed float. They decorated it with red, white, and blue banners and streamers and topped it off with a huge replica of a bottle rocket. A few of the band members were sitting on top of the rocket waving American flags. Next to them were two confetti-filled war cannons ready to be fired. I thought that was going to be quite a spectacle. We started to hear trumpets and tubas blaring as the bands practiced their numbers, along with the rhythmic chants of dancers and cheerleaders going over their routines. It started getting so loud we could barely hear one another.

Jenny leaned over toward me and yelled, Let’s head over to the float!

She motioned for the others to follow. We crossed the street, the five of us happily holding hands and laughing all the way. As we made our way over to the float, I thought about the fact that we were in our senior years of college and would most likely be splitting up soon. I was just glad to have my girls there at that moment. Little did either of us know that would be the last time that the five of us would ever be together again. Once we crossed the street, we all climbed onto the beautifully decorated float and prepared for the ride. As we settled into our places, I caught a glimpse of my parents frantically waiving and blowing kisses at me. I waved back and looked around for my brother who was supposed to be with them, but he hadn’t arrived yet. I couldn’t believe how many people were already there, and so many more continued to arrive that I thought there may not be room in the entire city to hold everyone. Police cars lined the streets, and there were officers standing between huge wooden barricades that where positioned side by side, blocking the spectators from getting too close to the floats. A group of young men had been standing near a building behind my parents. Someone blew a whistle, prompting the group to split up and board their designated parade floats. One of them quickly jogged toward the girls and me. He wore a yellow baseball cap and maroon sweatshirt with a lion on it. He ran over and hopped inside the small compartment beneath our float. I tried to get a look at him to see if I recognized him, but I was momentarily distracted when Lily leaned over and tapped me on the shoulder.

Look! she yelled while pointing toward the crowd.

My brother was making his way through the hoard of onlookers to where my parents stood. I watched as he wiggled his way through the thick crowd until he finally reached them. He leaned over to yell something in my mother’s ear. She pointed at my float, and he looked my way. He waved at me and gave a thumbs-up. I blew him a kiss and waved back.

Everyone was starting to take their places as the drivers got the floats started. My heart was racing and beating so hard I could hear it in my ears. I’d been to several parades before, but sitting atop the huge float looking out at all of the excited people made the experience very different. We heard a local high school marching band start their number, and that was our cue that things were about to begin. The driver started the engine and slightly accelerated. The float quickly jutted forward a few times, causing the five of us to rock back and forth. I looked at Stacey and laughed as she tried to balance herself. She was twirling a finger around in her long, curly hair like she usually did when she was nervous or excited. At that moment, she looked just as anxious as I felt. She was at the top of the float right behind the twins and Jenny. I was up front, sitting on top of a life-sized replica of a gold medal.

The procession started to move slowly down the street between two thick walls of excited spectators. We all waved and smiled and danced to the music of the bands playing around us. Every once in a while the line would stop, and everyone watched as the dancers and twirlers repeatedly delivered perfectly rehearsed routines. The crowd cheered and clapped approvingly each time. I looked out and saw several people I knew. It seemed as though the entire city was there, including half the students from my school. I spotted a group of my classmates holding up signs for the track team. The five of us starting yelling and cheering when we saw them there to support us.

All of sudden the Independence Day float starting playing the Star Spangled Banner. In no time, everyone in the crowds and on the other floats began to join in. As we sang from the tops of our lungs, Aaaand the rockets red glaaaare! The bombs bursting in aaaaair! people in the crowds began to lock hands and wave them above their heads. When I turned around, the twins were hugging each other, rocking from side to side, and Jenny blew a kiss my way. Two men were walking around handing out little paper flags, one of them threw a few up onto our float. As I sat up front waving my little flag and singing the national anthem, I couldn’t have been more proud to be an American, or just to be alive at that moment. It was one of those times when the mood is so jovial that you forget everything else and just soak up the experience. We were all lost in a patriotic daze, celebrating our bond as Americans, when out of nowhere I heard a funny noise. It sounded like a cannon being fired, and I was sure I felt the ground shake a bit. I figured it was the band firing the cannons on the Independence Day float. But when I looked out into the crowd, a lot of people had stopped singing and they seemed to be confused. I thought I heard screaming in the distance, but I couldn’t be sure. I heard Kris yelling something, and I turned around. She was pointing down the street in front of us.

You guys look!

I could see smoke rising about a quarter mile ahead of us. I stood up on the float, taking hold to one of the side rails to keep my balance. I turned to Stacey and cupped my hands around my mouth. Can you see what it is? What happened? I yelled.

She shrugged her shoulders and threw both of her hands in the air, showing she was just as clueless as I was. Then there was another boom! But that one was much closer and louder, and up ahead I saw the lawnmower repair float immediately go up in flames and smoke. People were really starting to panic, and we weren’t sure what was going on or what to do. Either way I realized that something was terribly wrong.

I turned to the girls and yelled, We need to get off now!

We started to scramble and quickly began making our ways to the side of the float to descend the small ladder to the ground. Jenny was the first one off. She hopped down and turned around to grab Stacey’s hand to help her. As I waited for Kris and Lily to get off, I noticed several of the high school band members running toward us and away from the explosions. Our float driver with the yellow hat popped out from below us and quickly disappeared into the crowd. I was relieved that he realized something was wrong and made his way out. I’d forgotten that he was even under there.

In an instant, our jovial event had manifested from a happy celebration to a moment of sheer confusing mania. Everyone seemed to be in a state of panic. Everything was happening so quickly. To this day, I can still remember every second that led up to the moment my life was forever changed. You know that hair-raising, heart-pumping feeling of suspense you feel when you know something bad is about to happen? Like when you’re watching a really good action movie and you’re at the edge of your seat, holding your breath, waiting to see if the girl is going to make it to safety before the killer catches up with her! That’s how I felt when I realized I needed to make it off that float. Every second that passed seemed like an eternity as I ran behind the twins, trying to get to safety as quickly as I could. I heard a clock ticking away in my mind.

And then…time was up.

Suddenly, I was overwhelmed with the loudest noise I’d ever heard in my life. It sounded like a blast of thunder right in my ear. I felt an eruption of heat hit me from below, and a burst of pressure pushed me backward, and then my legs were swept out from under me. It felt as though something or someone pushed me, or pulled me. I wasn’t sure exactly what was happening, but I heard screams and glass shattering from the building beside our float. It seemed like everything was flying through the air, including me and a few of my teammates. It felt like millions of pins and needles were stabbing me in every inch of my body, all the while my vision was flashing in and out. Then all at once I felt like one of those fish at an outdoor market in some little foreign town. One of those fish that gets held by the tail and then whap! Their face gets slapped down onto a wet shelf or table. That’s how my face hit the pavement. I saw and smelled smoke. I couldn’t move, and the only other thing I could see were the feet of people that were frantically running around me. Did any of those feet belong to my teammates? They had all been right there beside me. Did they get whapped like wet fish too? I wanted to move, I wanted to look up and see if they had, but I couldn’t. I wanted to get up so badly, but besides the excruciating pain I was in, the ground seemed to be uncontrollably rocking and shaking. I knew that if I could have stood up, I would surely have had a hard time keeping my