The Drew Chronicles by April Harrington (a court of thorns and roses ebook free .TXT) 📕

Do you ever feel like your parents are hiding something? Well, I felt like that a lot. But they were hiding a secret darker than me, my brother, or my sister knew. And, if you really want to know, here it is.
For starters, my name is Rachel Drew. I…….. I’ve always been kinda different, you know, rejected. Part of that is because my dad deals with “ghosts”. I believe this is rather stupid. He gets calls from people who think their house is haunted, and he goes to their house and gets rid of them. At least, that’s what he says. Do you think I believe them, definitely not. He tried to get me to come with him to the hauntings a few times, but knowing me, I rebelled. My brother Blake did the same. But then we came to the problem of my sister, Kali. She’s the same kind of crazy as my dad. Ok, after that little overview, we should start the story. Here goes nothing. Oh wait. The other part of me being different is because, well……… I’m kind of scary looking. I dyed my hair black (w/ purple streaks, by the way) and I wear like three pounds of eyeliner, and I’m paler than snow. Ok, there you have it. Different.

I walked out of 7th hour English. And was surrounded.
“Hey, Rachel! Nice make up. Depressed looks really good on you!” Ah, crap. The school queen. The demon herself. Haylee Kane.
“Really, Haylee? Cause I think you need to look at yourself before you look at me, because you have some problems.” I hissed back.
Haylee and her group of followers glared at me. I thought I was done for, but then Blake stepped into the group. Yeah, he was popular, but he was still my brother and would do anything for me.
“Stop, Haylee. She doesn’t need this.” Oh and did I mention that Blake and Haylee were dating? Makes you wanna puke, doesn’t it?
“Fine, fine, whatever.” She said.
“Come on, Rachel. Let’s find Kali and get home.” Blake said. He waved goodbye to Haylee, and we walked away.
As we were walking, I said, “Thanks for saving me out there. I was toast.”
“Yeah, I know. You get that a lot, and I’m sick of it.” We saw Kali. She was standing by the doors. “Come on, Kali. Let’s get going.” He said. We hopped into his car and we drove home.

When we got home, Dad wasn’t home. He was probably dealing with a “ghost problem” as usual. I went up to my room and got my guitar out. And started randomly singing.
“I had a really crappy day today. I got surrounded by weirdoes, yeah.” I kept going until I hear an ‘ahem’. I looked up. Blaze was standing in the doorway, laughing silently.
“Well, you seem to be having fun. Hey, do you wanna get pizza for dinner, because Dad probably isn’t going to be home until tomorrow, you know he’s working on a case.”
“Yeah, sure. Do you want me to order it or do you just want to drive us all to the place?” I ask.
“I guess you can just order it. Meat lovers, by the way.”
“I know, that’s what we always get, smart one” I say, slightly annoyed.
He rolls his eyes, laughs a little, and walks out of the room. A few minutes later, Kali walks in.
“Hey, sis, do you know where Dad went?”
“He’s out on a case.” I reply. She should know that, she’s the one who believe in that bunch of crap.
“I know that, but do you know specifically where he is? Like what the address is?”
“You know he doesn’t tell me anything about that since I told him that I didn’t believe in ghosts. If he told anyone, he would’ve told you.”
“Fine, fine, just asking.” She walks out of the room. I go out to the living room and grab the phone. I order the pizza and they say it will be here in 20 minutes. I go back up to my room, and my cell starts ringing. It’s my boyfriend, Chris. He wanted to know whether I’m free or not tomorrow. I say yeah, and we talk for a little while, until the pizza gets here.
I answer the door. “Here’s your pizza, ma’am.” The guy says.
“Thanks” I reply, and give him 20 bucks. Then he goes away, and we proceed to chow down. After dinner everyone goes to their own rooms. Today was Friday, thank God, so we didn’t have school tomorrow. I was planning on just waiting for Dad to get home then go to bed. So, me and Blake played the Wii for a bit while Kali was doing this big project for school.
And we waited. And waited. And finally, at 5:30 in the morning, Dad got home. He looked like crap.
“Dad, what’s wrong?” Blake asked
“Nothing. Just go to your rooms and go to bed!” He yelled. So we did.

“What do you think is wrong with him?” Blake whispered to me as we walked up the stairs.
“I don’t know, but he didn’t seem drunk. He never drinks anyways.” I say.
“Maybe it was something to do with the case.”
“I don’t know, but he never comes home from a case this late. He always says his customers are a priority but he wouldn’t leave his kids home alone practically all night. Without calling us, at least.”
“I guess we’ll ask him tomorrow, if he’s in a better mood.”
“Okay. Night, Blake.”
“Night, Rachel.” And we went to our rooms.

That night, I had a really weird dream. I was walking down some hallway in a strange house, watching Dad. He started walking down the stairs to the basement of the house. I had a bad feeling about the basement, I don’t know why.
“Dad, don’t go down there!” I said, but he couldn’t hear me. I stepped in front of him but he walked right through me. So I followed him.
We stood there in the basement for a few minutes, until this glowing thing (Dad calls them orbs) appeared. And then it flew into Dad’s chest. And then Dad started evil laughing. And then I woke up screaming and seeing Blake run into the room.
“Please tell me you didn’t have the same dream I did, Rachel.”

Publication Date: 01-04-2012

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