DUSK by Esther Machethe (top books of all time txt) 📕

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I stood there and watched her as she took down three men like they were children. She was born to be a killer, the perfect weapon and I was born to protect her, to secretly make sure she never gets herself killed, even if it kills me in the process.

She stood tall and proud over the unconscious body as she snapped the last man and watched his corpse fall to the ground. Her face held no remorse, no guilt and no fear; just like a true killer should but she didn’t know, hell, I doubted if she knew what she was capable of herself but that was not up to me. Part of me admired her, her flawless moves and her swift unpredictable moves but most of all, I pitied her because, like me, she’ll never get the chance to live a normal life because she’ll always have a bounty on her head. She’ll always be on the run.

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I screamed; as loud as I could and tried to take control of myself but nothing was happening, no sound came from my mouth and I temporarily wondered if I was crazy or if I was deaf. Everything I just did was not me. I couldn’t do that because I was only fourteen.

“Good job Dusk, now carry out a full assessment of the body code 193114E.” A man stepped in front of me whom I’ve never seen in my entire fourteen years.

“Affirmative, assessment code 193114 is complete. No serious or permanent body injuries to the primary host. Sir, will you inject the host with the Memory antidote 615187520 as usual?” my mouth moved against my will and I found myself wanting to ask what that was but today just wasn’t my day. I just want to go home.

“Not yet Dusk, I want to run some things with Mr and Mrs. Howard and I need you to be present.” He stated in a calm voice. The Howards were among the long list of my foster parent which I somehow doubted would end soon. I couldn’t wait to turn eighteen so I could move out and start my own life.

“Yes, sir.” My body replied. I realized that my voice was so unlike me, cold and robotic, it’s like I had turned into one. My internal eyes widened at the thought and I mentally asked if I had been a robot all along and this was my regular check up to see if I was still in good condition. I mentally smirked; this would be so cool, now all those kids who call me boring would want to be like me. They will be so jealous once they hear this awesome discovery. Wait a minute, if I had come here before then how come I don’t remember? I’ll be sure to ask this man who looks like he’s so fond of Dusk, who names a person like that anyway because I would have gone for a name like Amanda or Cassandra but Dusk is not, it sounds so blunt.

 I snapped out of my internal name discussion when I felt myself move and I realized that I had arrived at our house and I was on my way into the living room. The man who was so fond of Dusk walked in front of me and stopped abruptly when he saw my foster parents standing next to three armed men.

 “Dusk, activate defense mode now.” His voice was deathly low and I internally gulped.

 “Activation confirmed, “I replied with the same cold voice.

 “What is the meaning of this Blake?” the man asked in a low and dangerous voice and I watched as foster dad gulped, fear evident in his eyes.

“We’re sorry Elroy but she’s her daughter and Ilana just wants her child back. We can’t deprive her or that.” Foster mum tried to sound confident but the man’s angry glare made her fidget.

 “We’re taking the girl and not even her defense mode can stop us.” One of the armed men sneered in a triumphant voice. My only wish is that they won’t hurt my foster parents.

 “Besides, at least it would make our work easier now that she’ll go back to her mother and stop being a baggage to everyone,” Blake stated in an obvious tone and I resisted the urge to cry, I never knew he saw me as that. But it would explain the treatment I always got from him.

“Dusk, take care of those men and make it fast and clean. We need to leave before more of them come.” He stated as he moved further into the room and my body nodded once before I found myself take off towards the door. I could hear the heavy footsteps of the men behind me and knew it was the armed men.

 I stepped out and waited for the first man who came charging out like an angry bull and waited until he was close enough when I banged the door to his face. He hit it pretty hard due to his speed and fell. I took this chance to snap his neck before his friend showed up.

 When he saw his friend lying on the ground, he became angry and charged towards me. Internally; I was dying of fear but I guess I didn’t feel it externally because I didn’t move an inch. When he got close my body moved so fast that I internally couldn’t keep up, it’s like I was watching Flash take out his enemy.

I didn’t know if he was dead or if he was unconscious but I didn’t wait to find out and I leisurely walked back in to find the man waiting for me. Once he saw me, he motioned for me to follow him and walked out of the house. We got into a black SUV and he turned to me.

“Dusk, activate code 192015185. Chloe, I trust you to always remember that all power lies in the brain, your brain. You’ll always be in grave danger but I want you to know you can trust and rely on Dusk because she is your one-man army.” He said in an assertive tone. Why is he talking like I’m going to die?

 He was silent for a few minutes before he said in a tired voice “Activate inactive code 1851920E.” he said and I felt all control on over my body loosen before the world begun to spin and I collapsed into someone’s arms, “I’m so sorry Chloe.” A faint voice whispered before everything went dark.

I fluttered my eyes open and soaked in the sight of lilac walls. My body relaxed on the comfortable bed before I realized that this was not my bed. I quickly sat up but regretted it the moment my head spun and I had to contain the gasp that tore through me from the pain I felt. Warm hands held me down and I turned my head to face a young woman who sent me a small smile and tried to make me lie on the bed.

 “Get some rest honey, you’ll be okay.” She said in the softest voice and I found myself relaxing into it.

 “Who are you? Where am I? What happened?” I blurted out and expected her to be angry with me but she didn’t look mad. She lifted her hand and I instinctively flinched and closed my eyes waiting for the pain to come but it never did. I opened my eyes and saw her face was covered with a hurt expression but she quickly covered it up.

 “You got into an accident and we’re keeping you here for a few weeks to see if you’ll get better here because it’s more comfortable. I really hope you like it here.” She said in a kind tone.

 “My name is Shelly and this is our home. As for your foster parents, I don’t think you’ll see them again but if you like it here then we’ll adopt you. I always wanted a baby girl.” She sounded excited that I found myself smiling at her.

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You ever get that eerie feeling that you’re being watched by someone or something? Is it only me because I swear almost every time I turn around I always see a pair or green eyes staring back at me, whether at school or at home, day or night; they’re always watching but maybe everyone has felt it at some point. Nah, I don’t think any normal teenager ever felt that but then again, I never felt normal or like the other teenagers.

When I was born, my parents gave me up for adoption and since then I lived my life from one foster home to another. No one ever had a good reason why they gave me back. Finally when I was fourteen, a young couple, well not so young, took me in since they couldn’t have their own. They were nice to me and gave me everything I wanted since to them, I apparently didn’t have that ‘I don’t care, you’re not my parents’ attitude. I moved here four years ago and enrolled into Hollow High where four years down the line and I’m still here. Lucky me.

Food…that was the first thing on my mind when I checked the time to find that it was 12:45 in the afternoon. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a time freak that everything has to be done at the right time but I’ve been hungry for quite a long time. A wide smile crossed my face when I turned to Alec, my boyfriend.

“Lunch time!!! Finally, I’m starving” I exclaimed as I headed towards our massive kitchen. My foster parents were freaking rich but they’re never home especially on a fine Saturday like today so most of the time it’s just me and Alec, which is rare on a Saturday or Emma or any of my friends. Emma bailed on me when she heard Alec was here but said she’d come over at four. Am not that social so I only have like three friends…okay, four including Alec.

I was so busy trying to figure out what to have for lunch when something grabbed my shoulder and alarm bells instantly went off in my head. I turned around so fast that I swear I would have fallen if the adrenaline level wasn’t so high. This only made Alec chuckle.

“Relax Chloe, it’s not the green eyed thing you keep talking about.” He shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal.

“You scared me half to death but you think it’s nothing big,” I frowned at him making him laugh all the more. I resumed what I was doing only to realize that I didn’t know what I wanted to have for lunch.

“What would you like for lunch?”  I turned to him but he simply shrugged before his eyes lit up. Uh oh.

“How about those rolls you make out of beef”.

I simply smiled at him before I got to work. We sat at the kitchen counter with our plates and he immediately took the first bite, sighing with content.

“These things are amazing, wherever did you learn to make these?”