Flesh: Chapter 1 by Nicola Collings (best novel books to read txt) 📕

                     It was suit-and-tie-man who started down the middle isle to where Jesse trembled.

                     “Another? What makes you think this one will be of any use to us?” he asked.

                     “Its... specific.” Murmured Jesse. “I foretold the coming of the shadows. Now I’m seeing a girl- a shadow- in Edinburgh.”

                     Suit-and-tie-man laughed a little. “My dear Jesse, you are so young for such a gift. We can assure you, the shadows are still sleeping soundly. If they have awakened, there would have been sightings by now. Now, I see you are breaking the rules of your banishment.”

                     Jesse sighed. “I know you’re not going to believe me, but I just want to...inform you. There was a girl, her faces was as pale as the moon and her eyes as white as the snow that was falling. She was on the cathedral steps. She was a shadow.”

                     “You see, they are-”

                     “Fran! It’s ok.” Jesse interrupted Fran, who was staring at suit-and-tie-man, determination in her face.  “I’ve told them. If it comes to pass, then I will have warned them. I can’t do any more”

                     Suit-and-tie-man smiled. “There now Jesse. Why don’t you run along back to your hovel, and we’ll forget you broke exile and this whole thing will never have happened.”

                     Jesse sighed and exited the church, Fran in toe. Outside the cathedral, day light was starting to send it’s rays over the line of old buildings. The street was empty and a blanket of snow covered the old cobbles. He’d always loved Edinburgh- the old buildings that rose up on either side, the little shops and cafes, the history.

                     “Say Fran, while we have time, why not go for a coffee. I want to enjoy this city before we leave again.”

                     “Again... I guess.” Fran’s face hung, sadly. “What a twat! Will they never let you redeem yourself?”

                     “Ah, leave it, shit happens.”

                     “How can you say that?” Fran strode after Jesse towards a little cafe decorated with Scottish flags and fairy lights. “Aren’t you angry? I would be! I’d be inclined to rip them to shreds!  If I was strong enough.”

                     “Yes, well, this is why the rest of the lights stay away from the elders. To them, the youth can’t do anything right. We don’t know any better. In fact, we hardly know anything at all.” Jesse sighed, just wanting to enjoy the serenity and the tranquillity. He took a seat and gestured to a waitress inside. Snow started to fall, softly. Fran sat opposite him.

                     “You’re not that young. I swear you were born just after the shadows were sent to sleep.”

                     Jesse looked at her. His face did not deceive her. He was older than the majority of the colony, but still not as old as the elders. It was this horrible middle ground he hated. In fact, he hated the whole system.

                     “I was, but to them, I’m still young.”

                     The pair fell into silence after ordering their drinks. People started to dot the white street, going about their working business or walking dogs.

                     It was straight through the middle of Jesse’s slice of tranquillity that a blade came slicing down. As the sky lightened, the darkness receded, and a girl came falling from the sky. Silently, she fell through the cold air, her body cracking on impact and sliding halfway up the street before she came to an icy halt in the snow. There she lay, bystanders gasping and yelling and calling an ambulance. Jesse knew who this was. Her skin was not the pallor of a human and her clothes...

                     But she was early! By 2 days! No, something had to happen before she ended up on those steps.

                     “Jesse! It’s...” Fran cried.

                     “Wait, Fran!” Jesse grabbed her wrist before she could leap up. “Something else has to happen! She needs to end up on those steps!”

                     “But if we intervene now, then she won’t have to! We can nip it in the bud!”

                     “Something tells me we can’t. I have a gut feeling!” he looked into her confused face. “Trust me!”

                     Part 4: Edinburgh

                     Luna lay on the cold floor, lights flashing on in the distance and the blurry faces of humans flocking around her wearing bright colours.

                     Human authorities...

                     Her mind, still stretched taught by the Cleanse, went through thoughts slowly, not really registering at all. Tired, so tired. All she could do was lay and let the humans do...whatever it was they were doing to her.

                     Her consciousness faded slightly then she was in a moving vehicle, her body felt tight and rigid, like it was wrapped tightly. She tried to move but something was holding her in. Something was over her face. More lights and blurry images and voice shouting words like ‘broken’ and ‘fracture’ and ‘bleeding’.

                     Fading in and out of consciousness, she caught glimpses of what looked like a hospital theatre, a doctor wearing scrubs, machines, one flat green lines and shocked faces.

                     And then she woke up properly, consciousness bitch-slapping her across the face, lying in a bed that seemed so high off the floor it made her dizzy. She was lying flat, an oxygen mask over her face and wires attached to her arms and chest and forehead. Upon trying to sit up, she realised her back was broken, and upon closer inspection, in several places. She could feel slices of broken bones, ribs and bits of sliced organs littering her insides. Her body, unlike a human’s could simply regenerate itself, rebuild itself form even the smallest amount of remains. This scale of damage would take a while to fix, however. She tasted blood in her mouth.

                     “Ah, you’re awake, can you tell us your name?” came a male voice form somewhere nearby. His face came into view. The doctor was middle-aged and had a face that didn’t really stand out in any sort of way. In fact, it looked like all the other faces in the hospital.

                     “Luna.” She croaked.

                     “Well Luna...” he started to reel off everything that was wrong with her. She wasn’t really listening, until he asked, “Do you have any other conditions, you know, a heart condition or...” he trailed off.

                     Luna just frowned, until he made his parting upon realising she wasn’t going to answer with a “Hhmm” and left her vision. She could tell he was still in the room, however, and she listened out for his voice. It was only soft, but he was talking to a nurse in the corner, a faint clicking coming from his clip board. Was he writing, perhaps?

                     “...she’s not right...her heart, it’s not beating, yet she is conscious. And with the amount of sedatives and morphine we gave her, she shouldn’t even be conscious now! And then there’s her pallor. I don’t know, something’s not right...”

                     Luna smiled to herself, feeling the beginnings of mending and repositioning within her body.

                     It was just over 24 hours before Luna could sit up and take the mask from her face. She still felt groggy from the drugs and hungry...awfully hungry, but there was nothing she could do about this now.

                     She dropped from the bed, realising she wasn’t dressed. After spying her clothes on a chair in the corner, Luna made for them, dressing herself quickly, the watching the doctor’s shocked face as she left the hospital. Her leg was still broken and one of her organs was still bleeding, but that didn’t matter, she pulled her broken body along, focusing on the pain rather than the overwhelming hunger she felt.

                     Spitting blood from her mouth, she hobbled down the street. Edinburgh? Why did she end up here? There was ringing in her ears which disorientated her and she could still feel the immense pressure of the shadows, despite the fact that they were gone. And she just felt tired...

                     The street was full of people, some of which gave her odd looks, although, no one spoke to her. They probably through she was just homeless.

                     Snow started to fall.

                     There was a building in front of her. Just a big, dark shadow in her blurred vision. The darkness of it’s corners called to her. Making for the shadow, Luna felt her consciousness drift all of a sudden, but made it to a set if steps.

                     She would have reached to door handle, had it not been that coughs wracked her body, causing her to fall and lie there, for a moment.

                     All she felt was the soft snow beneath her as she eventually fell into darkness.

                     Jesse:

                     “We should get the elders! Now they’ll see! Come on Jesse!” cried Fran, pulling at Jesse’s arm. They’d stood in the snow for 2 hours now, waiting for this moment, and Jesse thought it strange since they were well within the elder’s range, why had they not been noticed? Why had the elders not come and banished him again? Or killed him? Or done something? Anything would have set his mind at ease. But no, going to the elders now would be a mistake.

                     Opening the door that the shadow was reaching for was a mistake.

                     Humans had started to gather around her unconscious body. Something was wrong with her. Granted, she’d just fallen from the sky, but she was a shadow. The shadows Jesse had known had been violent, angry and full of energy. Why did this one seem so...lifeless?

                     But two choices now presented themselves to Jesse; he could show the elders, show them that his visions did come true and have the possibility of being let back into the colony. Or he could find out why the elders hadn’t come when they sensed him, follow his instincts and find out what was so different about this shadow.

                     Of course, the old curiosity inside him had its way as it always did.

                     “No, Fran, Wait! I have a hunch, we have to get that girl out of here.”

                     Fran stopped and frowned at him. “Why? She’s a shadow! She’d kill us if she was awake. And I don’t want to live in banishment anymore!”

                     “But we’ve been banished for the past two hours and the elders are not 10 metres from us! Why haven’t they said anything? We should have been killed by now.”

                     She paused, looking confused.

                     Jesse started towards the group of people. “Come on, lets get her out of here. I have a plan. Go start the car.” With that, Jesse strode towards the cathedral, feeling Fran’s look of disbelief on his back.

                     On approaching the group of people Jesse started to jog and adopted a panicked expression.

                     “Oh my God! Stephanie! Stephanie, Jesus, Stephanie!”

                     When people heard him shout, they parted ways for him, and Jesse rushed to the shadow’s side, kneeling and cupping her face. A human male was knelt next to him; he’d put his jacket beneath her head and was on the phone, presumably to the emergency services.

                     “It’s ok, I’ve called an ambulance!” he said in a calm, yet urgent tone.

                     Jesse smiled and scooped the girl up, hugging her to him. “Thank you, but there’s no need, I’ll take her there myself!” he adjusted his position, hugging her cold body to him and jogged in the direction of the car. She was surprisingly light, yet incredibly and unnaturally cold and pale. Fran was sat in the driver’s seat, parked down a small side street, clutching the wheel and looking a mixture of saddened and irritated. Even so, she got out and opened the back door.

                     “Thank you, let get back to ours.” Said Jesse as he laid the shadow on the back seat and draping his jacket over her.

                     “It’s over 2 hours away, do you think she’ll make it?” asked Fran, getting back in the car.

                     Jesse got in the passenger seat. “She’s a shadow, they don’t go down easily. Yes, I think she’ll make it.”

                     The drive was mostly silent, except for one occasion where