Shattered: A Salvation Society Novel by Bella Emy (pdf to ebook reader .TXT) 📕

The girl looks at Erin like she’s got two heads. Unfortunately, she looks wasted, and I don’t think she was able to process Erin’s words.

“What?” she asks, eyes half-closed.

Figures.

“Ugh! Never mind!” Erin roars, throwing her arms up in exasperation and turning back around to face us. “I’m never going to find her in this mess.”

“We’ll find her. We just have to keep looking,” I say, hoping to reassure my friend.

Erin shoots me a horrified look and that’s when Kalen intervenes.

“I’ll be right back,” he says to Erin and Jason, and then to me, he says, “Wait here, babe,” placing a kiss on my forehead and then turns to leave the kitchen.

“Yeah, right, we’re not waiting,” Erin says.

She pulls Jason with her and I follow behind them as we make our way through the house. We catch a glimpse of Kalen racing up the stairs.

We follow as fast as we can, and sure enough, there’s a long narrow hallway with three doors on either side. All of them are closed. A bunch of people are littering the hallway, drinking or making out. Kalen pushes his way past them, saying excuse me, but no one bothers to notice.

He gets ready to knock on the first door to the right, when suddenly, we hear a girl scream, coming from the middle door.

“Stop, please!”

There it is again. It gets the attention of a few of the people in the hallway, but no one moves an inch except for the four of us.

We finally reach Kalen and stand closely behind him.

“That’s Kennedy!” Erin shouts, but Kalen doesn’t hear her.

As he lifts his hand to knock on the door, there’s another scream, this time from a different voice, making him act on impulse.

“Hey! Open this door!” he shouts, turning and twisting the doorknob. Now more people look on, but still no one does anything.

“Go away, dude! This room’s taken. Try another,” a male’s deep voice booms from the other side.

“Help us! Please!” the first girl shouts again.

“Kennedy!” Erin pushes forward.

“Stand back,” Kalen says.

I gently reach forward, grabbing Erin and holding on to her.

“Shut up, bitch!” the male’s voice says.

More people are now on alert and some of them crowd around us.

“What’s going on?” one of them asks.

“Stop! Don’t touch me!” A voice from inside the room bellows.

“Oh, my God! That’s Kennedy!” Erin screams again. “Let my sister go!”

Kalen pounds on the door, hoping the guy will open up, but we all know he’s not going to.

“Fuck!” he shouts in frustration.

“Yo, let me try to open it,” Jason says, walking up, but as he grips the knob and tries turning it, it’s no use.

We need to act quickly; there’s no time to waste. Whatever is about to go down behind those closed doors, it’s going to be soon. We need to get Kennedy and her friend out of there as soon as possible.

“Stand back, guys,” Kalen says, preparing himself for the impact.

The three of us move back, and as he takes a deep breath, he charges at full force at the door. In an instant, it barges open, and the four of us rush inside.

In the middle of the room, Kennedy and Tisha, stripped down to their bras and panties, are sitting on a bed. Their clothes are scattered all over the floor. From the horrified looks on their faces, this was definitely a forced attempt. Thankfully, it looks as though we arrived on time.

A guy probably around twenty-one or so stands at the corner of the bed, staring back at us wide-eyed. Another guy around the same age as him is standing against the wall with his arms up in the air.

“What the hell are you doing in here? Didn’t you hear me? I said this room was taken, man,” the first guy says and walks up to Kalen.

My heart is beating in my chest. I’m so afraid this guy is going to try something on Kalen.

But Kalen doesn’t back down, standing his ground and looking him straight in the eyes. “Look, man. They don’t want to be here. They’re leaving, so just let them be.”

The guy laughs, tilting his head back. “Why the hell should I listen to you?”

I can sense Kalen’s temper beginning to rise. “Because if you don’t, I’m going to have to make you let them leave.”

He scoffs at Kalen. “Oh, yeah? Try me, hotshot.” He shoves Kalen with both of his hands, but Kalen doesn’t lose his footing.

Before I know it, Kalen’s fist connects with the guy’s face, and he goes reeling to the ground. We all look over at the other guy and he’s still holding his arms up in the air, but this time, he speaks. “Hey, man, I’ll be right out of your way!” He quickly exits the room past us.

“Erin!” Kennedy shouts.

Erin runs over and embraces her sister. “Oh my God, Kennedy! Are you all right?”

She nods. “I’m sorry! I didn’t know things were going to turn out like this. Tisha and I just really liked them, and we were so excited when Josh and Devin noticed us… I texted you as soon as I felt like things were changing and before I knew it, they began kissing us and touching us over our shirts and… ugh, we didn’t know they were going to… well…”

“Shhh…” Erin wraps Kennedy up in a blanket. “It’s all right. You’re fine now. But these guys are bad news. You’re lucky we arrived in time.”

I walk over to them and help Tisha up. “Thank you,” Tisha says as I hand her her clothes.

“Let’s wait outside while they help the girls get dressed,” Kalen says to Jason, and they both exit the room.

They close the door to give us some privacy and wait for us to come out.

“Wow, Kalen was really stellar, wasn’t he?” Erin says to me as she helps Kennedy into her clothes.

I smile. “Yeah, he was amazing.”

Her eyes widen as she smiles back. “He was a superhero. He stopped something really bad from taking place, and he