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

“I learned from my other foster parents before I came here. She taught me how….” I was cut off by him before I could finish.

“Yeah, I’ll stop you there before you start crying on me” he smirked at me. I must admit, it was a rude attempt but I went along with it anyway

“You arrogant jerk, I would rather choke on my tears before you get to see them” I said half-jokingly.

To be honest, I made a promise to never cry in front of anyone, am not that weak. I glance up at Alec and find him busy thinking about something. Before I can ask what’s on his mind, a loud crash that sounded like metals colliding outside our front door takes the very breath out of me.

For a minute, I was scared to think of what could have caused that horrible sound but when I saw Alec rushing towards the door, adrenaline kicked in and I rushed behind him to see for myself. What I saw made my whole body and mind stop for a while.

 I couldn’t move or think as I watched my as dad hold my mom and blood spilled from her head. He was covered in blood but looked okay.

“Dad! Mom! Oh my God!” I cried as I rushed towards them. Dad looked up for a brief second before he turned his attention to my mom who looked like she was in deep pain.

“Elroy, tell her the truth before it’s too late” mom whispered. Dad pulled her close and I resisted the urge to cry.

“Not yet Shelly, we have to do it together like we promised,” dad said in a low, soft voice. He looked up at me with sad eyes, “Am sorry Chloe but I have no other option now.” Before I could understand or question what he was trying to say, he spoke again but in a calmer tone, whoa, talk about mood change.

“Dusk, activate protection code 19165E.” his voice was devoid of any emotion and I would have been scared if he was not my dad.

“Command accepted, activating protection code 19165E.,” a voice said. Realized it was my own voice but it sounded so cold and detached, nothing like how I sound.

Again, before I could ask what was happening, my body turned right, away from my parents and towards a car that was approaching at a high speed. It came to a halt a few meters away from me and three huge men stepped out looked at me. I wanted to turn and run or at least ask what I was doing or what I was supposed to do but my body could not move. It was like I was a puppet being controlled by an evil master. The men came closer as I watched their sizes increase with each step they took.

They looked like freaking hulk minus the green. I was freaking out really bad now and I was scared my body would turn to a puddle of sweat, one of them took a step towards me and I felt my arms lifting.

“Halt, you are not allowed past this point or I will be forced to use force against you.” There was that annoying voice from my mouth again. I really wish I could shut it up. I watched as the man’s face morph from curiosity to confusion before settling on humor.

“Listen, kid, I don’t want you to use ‘force’ as you so put it but I have to get through so how about you be a good little girl and let us through. It’ll be real quick, I promise” he tried to reason with me.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Say yes you stupid mouth. I tried to open my mouth but it was useless. “I am sorry but you are not allowed past this point” the annoying voice spoke again, still cold and detached. The man pressed his lips into a thin line.

“If you want to do this the hard way fine by me. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He said as he took a step towards me.

This is it, goodbye cruel world! I thought as I watched the man twist his fingers in the most inhuman way possible, producing horrible cracking sound, I internally cringed at the sound but felt my head tilt to the side as if to mock him. It seemed to work because he threw the first punch. I was terrified and contemplated on screaming but even I knew it was no use.

Okay puppet master, this is your chance to show me what you got, I thought to myself as I watched his arms stretch with a lot of force. I don’t know how or when I became that flexible but I dodged it with the fastest reflex ever seen.

I was still reeling from the pride of dodging that I didn’t feel my arm swing and land on his face. The shock on that guy’s face would have made me laugh if I wasn’t so terrified.

I landed two heavy blows to his chest area before he could recover from the punch and heard a grunt as he stumbled back. Wow, I am so on the roll today, I thought as I felt my body move towards him and landed a swift and clean right hook.

I watched him fall and wondered just how I was able to take down such a huge guy. I mean, I was as athletic as a vegetarian lion. I couldn’t even run to save my life and here I am, kicking someone’s ass like a trained ninja. I didn’t know I had the potential to be this good.

His friends rushed over and before I could think of the next step, a sharp pain filtered through my face from my left jaw. That hurt like hell and I was so sure it would bruise. I felt my body being lifted and a punch landed on the left side of my stomach and I fell to the ground. It felt like my bones were all broken.

Okay puppet master, I’m dying here and I don’t think that was part of the plan. I was able to see the three of them surrounding me. The first one shot out his leg and I felt a sharp pain shoot out from my stomach. Before the second hit could come, I felt my arm shoot out to someone’s knee and heard a hiss of pain come from one of the guys.

One of the guys lifted me up by my hair, which was really painful by the way. My mind could only think of the pain but lucky me, my body moved swiftly, landing a strong kick to one of the guys’ stomach making him stumble back a few steps. I moved again and this time it was faster than I have ever gone in my life landing a swift roundhouse kick to one of the other guys and another perfectly strong kick to the chest. He fell with a thud, dead, I hoped.

I Turned around and was greeted by another painful blow to the face but before he could retract his arm completely, I held it and twisted it making him drop to one knee and I stood behind him. I didn’t think twice as I twisted his neck and produced a loud cracking voice. At least the puppet master didn’t feel any remorse but I was really freaking out, how could I not, I just killed a guy, maybe two, I mean, I didn’t do it but my body did while I just watched. I heard tires screeching and I turned around to find the third guy was already bolting out of here. The other two just lay there lifeless.

On one side, I was proud of myself that I was able to beat up three guys, with the help of the puppet master of course but on the other side I was really freaking out, I just killed two guys.

My body turned away from the two bodies and from my point of view, I saw a pair of green eyes. This seemed like the best time to approach…whatever it was but they disappeared as quickly as they had appeared.

I turned and walked to where I left mom and dad and found they weren’t there. I was about to go looking for them when a voice, soft and unsure penetrated my left ear.

“Chloe?” I turned to find Alec looking as frightened as I had never seen before. “What have you done?” he questioned, fear evident in his eyes. I couldn’t think of a good explanation, it’s not like I can just say ‘hey, the puppet master took over my body and killed these two hulks in a matter of minutes’ without making him think I was crazy.

I searched my head for the more believable reason but for the life of me, I couldn’t come up with one. Before I could attempt to explain what happened, I felt my body go limp and darkness took over. The last thought on my mind, however, was ‘oh freckles, I’m going to jail when I wake up’.

^^^^^

“you still haven’t told her yet, have you? You ass!! You said you would call it quits last week!” Jared, my best friend, all but yelled at me.

I’ve been looking for a reason good enough to break up with Chloe for the past week with no luck. I’m not heartless but I just don’t see her like that anymore and I just realized that I like someone else. I scowled at him.

“Dude, you don’t have to yell, I can hear really well. I’m going to do that but I just don’t know how it’s not like I can just go to her and say ‘I don’t like you anymore’ without being the bad guy.” I tried to reason with him. I must admit, Chloe is an amazing girl; she’s sweet, great and definitely one of a kind but it doesn’t feel right. Every time I hang out with her, it feels like I’m hanging out with one of my friends. It’s just not as cool as it used to be.

“If you want, I can do it for you.” Jared’s voice broke me from my thoughts. If it was anyone else, I would’ve jumped at the opportunity but it's Chloe we’re talking about so that’s a no.

“Naah, I don’t want to hurt her feelings any more than necessary. She’s been through a lot and I can’t add more to that”. I grabbed my car keys and I was about to walk out when Jared held me back.

“Where are you going?”

“To Chloe’s.” was my simple reply. He furrowed his brows in confusion.

“But we usually hang out at the joint today. Saturday’s always a ‘guy-day’ and Clayton and Reece wanted us to try out a secret menu.” He argued out. “Or did Chloe have another breakdown and you’re rushing to her rescue,” he said, his features darkening with every word.

By now I’m sure you guessed that Jared doesn’t like Chloe that much. He thinks she’s whiny and seeks attention through her pitiful adoption story.

“I’m going to tell her that it’s over you, dumb idiot.” I counter irritably making him put his