All The Pretty Ghosts (The Never Series Book 1) by Jamie Campbell (my miracle luna book free read .TXT) 📕

All the streets looked the same, all the kids just a blur of faces. Nothing looked familiar, little even looked real anymore. The roads stretched on forever and were all paved in hopelessness.

I stumbled down a few stairs before I realized they were there. I had to hold onto the cold metal fence to stop myself going down completely.

For only a moment, my head spun with disorientation. I lost all sense of where I was, whether it was night or day, and which way was up.

That’s when I saw them.

At first I thought they were a figment of my imagination, or spirits that had run out of patience waiting for me to help them. But these people were real.

I spun around, there had to be at least twenty of them. All surrounding me, ensuring there was no way out. They all faced me, staring with blank eyes and hard faces. I would not find a friend amongst them, of that I was certain.

My mouth opened but no sound would come out. I didn’t know what I could possibly say for them to let me walk away. I wasn’t even sure my legs would be able to do it.

I was in their territory. For whatever reason, they were a group, united to ensure the safety of their members. I doubted their membership was still open for new joiners.

They didn’t speak either. Their glares told me everything I needed to know.

They wanted to kill me.

I had to find a way out. Oliver wouldn’t be able to save me a second time. I didn’t know where he was and he certainly wouldn’t be able to find me. Not unless he got terribly lost, too.

“I’m sorry. I’ll leave,” I said with as much authority as I could muster.

They didn’t move.

My eyes scanned past the individual faces, trying to find a common thread amongst them. Some were older, some were much younger. As always, there was nobody over the age of eighteen.

No race was predominant, no gender greater represented. There didn’t seem to be anything that would unite these people into a hunting tribe.

Absolutely nothing.

I had no idea how to fight them. They wouldn’t tolerate my presence for much longer. I needed to make the first move, at least end the painful standoff.

I took a step in the direction I had come, the theory of retracing my path still the only valid one in my mind. If I could remain calm and simply walk away, perhaps they would let me. I wasn’t a threat to them if I merely left. I couldn’t be.

That one step was all it took to provoke them into an attack.

Chapter Ten

Before the Event, the thought of raising my hand to someone was sickening. Even if provoked, I never imagined it was possible for me to inflict pain on another human being.

That was before.

This was after.

As hands grabbed me from all directions, I pushed back. I used everything in my weak arsenal to hurt them. I kicked, I punched, I even bit down hard on an arm that strayed too close to my mouth. My fight for survival against them was a one woman campaign that was neither organized nor effective.

Two men had me in their hold. I kicked the one to my right’s shin so hard the sound of impact echoed off the barren concrete walls surrounding us. He relaxed his grip to grab at his injury, cursing me the entire time.

Using all the strength I had, I moved my now-free hand to slap the boy on my left. It stung like hell, probably doing more damage to me than to him.

He grabbed my stray hand and held it tight. Now he had both, but he didn’t have my legs. I kneed him in the groin, desperately trying to remember the self defense classes that had been mandatory at school for a semester.

Eyes.

They were the most vulnerable part of the body.

As the guy released my hands to cradle his tender genitals, my fingers went for his eye sockets. I closed my eyelids, not wanting to see the impact when we finally collided.

I never got my chance.

A woman younger than me grabbed my wrist, holding it mid-hit. She roughly twisted it around, sending bolts of shooting agony through my arm right up to my shoulder.

I squealed with the sudden pain. She didn’t relax her grip, instead twisting my arm further until I almost blacked out. A boy no taller than I was stepped up to hold onto my other arm. He held it in place calmly, like this was nothing but an ordinary day for him.

It probably was.

I used my foot to stamp on the girl’s foot, finding nothing but heavy boots there. She wouldn’t have felt a thing but it did remind her that my legs were free.

“Grab her ankles,” she smoothly ordered.

Before I had a chance to do anything further, two hands clamped down on my legs from behind. Looking down, a pair of male hands were firmly affixed to my ankles. They were as big as any man’s and stronger than the others had been.

“We’ll take her back,” the girl said.

I found my voice. “No, please. Just let go. I didn’t mean to enter your territory. I was lost. I’m so, so sorry. I promise I’ll leave and never come back.”

Whatever I said brought a smile to her lips. She gave my arm another twist, again making me cry out in pain. “There is a special kind of hell for intruders. You’ll go there soon enough.”

My feet suddenly left the ground as I was picked up from behind. The strong hands held my lower half while another two of the group had grips under my shoulders. There was no