Touched by Darkness (Young Creator Trilogy)

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the
author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any
resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in
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A special thanks to all of those who supported me from the very beginning. Thank you Miss. E, Tina,
Anne, Sheri, Kristina, Liam, and Tracy. You all have supported me from the beginning and never get
tiered of me telling you about my story. Thank you for giving me advice when I needed it and believing
in me. Y’all don’t know how much I appreciate it
. I also want to say thank you to all of the people that
have given advice to me since I have fist published my book. Thank you Lisa, Sharon, Donna, Marinda
and Robin. I’ve never met any of y’all but all of your support and advice is greatly appreciated, I had no
idea what I was getting myself into when I first hit publish on Imagine.

Mary, my book fairy
. You won, I’ll admit it! I’m so happy that we got stationed together, I mean what
are the chances? You have become one of my closest friends and I’m so happy to have you in my life so
that we can talk about the hot janitor (just kidding), and our books.
Thank you Mom for all of your support and always being there, you are definitely the strongest woman
that I know. Finally thank you Nick for being the wonderful husband and father that you are, I love our
family! Christiane

There’s wet stuff hitting
my nose, causing me to open my eyes. I squint into the
bright light, which really hurts, and quickly shut them again. I try once more, this
time slowly, letting my eyes adjust. When I can finally focus, I notice that the
wetness on my nose is coming from a face hovering above me.

I concentrate on the face. There is something vaguely familiar about it, but I
can’t place it … it’s as if I should know her. Her,it’s a girl. I take in her features;
she has pale, creamy skin, high cheekbones, and wavy red hair. There is a black
streak that stands out from the otherwise bright hair. When she opens her eyes and
looks at me, I notice that her eyes are green with flecks of gold. We stare at each
other for what feels like forever.

“Keagan?” she utters in a soft
, breathless whisper, breaking the spell that has
been cast over me. She smiles, and it is as if all the sadness dissolves from her
face, which brings this overwhelming joy to me that Idon’t understand. Who is this
girl?
I slowly get up, but before I can get far she has thrown herself into my arms and is
squeezing me as if her life depends on it. I hug her back because it feels right, like
she belongs there. Slowly glancing around, I find myself surrounded by the people
that I came here with. Oddly, all of them have tears in their eyes, telling me that
something bad must have happened. I have no ideawhat’s going on. The last thing
that I remember is confronting Haddie, the evil Young Creator that was trying to
flood San Francisco. I don’t remember what happened after that, but I do
remember that there was a lot of pain… and then nothing. That is until now, until I
find this girl that I don’t know hovering above me, causing all of these weird
emotions in me.
WHO IS SHE

I throw myself at Keagan, unable to believe that he is alive. I really thought that he was dead,
that I would never get to talk to him or touch him again. After everything that has happened, this
is truly a miracle.It’s what makes the past not matter. Everything seems so insignificant; all I
want is Keagan. I know this now and my heart swells with happiness at the realization. Pulling
away, I gaze into Keagan eyes; he is smiling at me, but something is off and I can’t quite figure it
out. His eyes seem distant.

Separating himself from me, Keagan slowly gets up. He gives me a quick smile before
walking toward Riley. After embracing his sister in a tight hug, they walk away, in deep
conversation.

I take a deep breath, steadying myself, and look around. The Golden Gate Bridge is
severely damaged, large chunks have fallen and are now scattered all over. Thick steel wires are
loosely swinging back and forth, and a section of the bridge has collapsed. I really hope that no
cars or people were close by, and fell to their death in the cool, deep blue water hundreds of feet
below.

Taking in all of the carnage that has been left by the fight, I
can’t believe that this all
started when I made a broom hit my mom in the head because she was annoying the crap outta
me. I was just using my imagination, which resulted in this crazy adventure that I now call my
life. Being the daughter of one of the three Furies definitely changes things. I feel like the stuff
that I used to worry about, like making friends and getting good grades, are nothing compared to
what I deal with now.

Watching Keagan and Riley walking side by side, talking and laughing, brings a smile to
my face. I’m filled with excitement and relieved to see Keagan alive. I need to talk to someone;
I’m unable to contain all of this happiness. Not only did we beat Allecto and Haddie—my crazy
twin sister whoI didn’t even know existed until a few days ago—at their own game, but Keagan
is somehow alive. I just can’t say it enough … he’s alive. Looking around, I see Chelsey off in
the distance.

I make my way over to her. Just like everyone else, she had given us some space once
they realized Keagan was alive. She immediately gives me a huge hug, setting the rest of my
world back on its axis. Now I know that everything will be all right; Keagan is alive and safe,
and I have Chelsey by my side. When we part and I look into her face, I notice that some of the
tiredness and exhaustion I noticed earlier have disappeared. Even though still skinnier than last
time I saw her, Chelsey looks more like herself, eyes sparkling with mischief. “So, that was a
crazy adventure. You better tell me everything, you totally owe me, and I really want to know
what’s going on between you and Keagan!” I can’t help but laugh at her. Out of everything that
she could ask me about, she wants to know about my relationship. I really want to ask her about
her time as Haddie’s captive, but figure that she will fill me in whenever she is ready.

I glance around to make sure that nobody is within ear shot. When I spot a few members
of our group close by, I grab Chelsey and lead her over to a private area that has not been
destroyed.

“Chelsey
, I know that this may be hard to believe, but I think that I’m falling for Keagan
… and I know that he wants to be with me,too.” Chelsey’s eyes get huge and she hugs me
tightly. I honestly was not expecting this from her since she was around for Haven and what
went down there between Keagan and me.

“Aww
, Trish,I’m so happy for you! You and Keagan are perfect for each other. I think
the only time I saw you both truly happy was when you were together and getting along. I know
you and Keagan went through a lot together, but I’m glad that y’all worked it out.”

“So how about
you, how are you holding up? Sam told me how Haddie and Allecto
treated Kiawhen they had her. I was hoping that it wasn’t like that for you.” I know that I had
told myself not to bring it up, but I just have to make sure that she is all right, and let her know
that she can talk to me.

Chelsey, who just a moment before looked happy and excited, cringes and draws into
herself. “Trish, I love you and will always be your best friend, but I do not ever want to talk
about what happened. So pleasedon’t ask,” she pleads.

That’s when we hear a scream filled with
so much pain and heartache the hairs on the
back of my neck stand straight up. Turning around I see Sam kneeling over his sister’s
decapitated body, shaking uncontrollably while tears stream down his face. I can’t believe that I
completely forgot about what happened to Kia. All my thoughts were consumed with Keagan. I
was so overcome with grief when I thought I had lost him, and then joy when I found that he was
alive. But now the reality sinks in. Sam loves Kia, and regardless of what she did she was his
little sister.

I walk over to Sam and kneel next to him. I want to give him a hug, wanting to comfort
him, but decide to give him his space. I just want him to know that I’m here for him. It seems
that the rest of the group has the same idea and surround Sam in a semi-circle. Sam shakes and
sobs over his sister’s mutilated body, Ican’t imagine the feeling of loss that he must feel. He
eventually calms down and looks around the semi-circle until his bloodshot eyes land on me.

“Please
, Trish, please bring her back. I’m begging you bring my little sister back to me. I
promise if you do this I will never ask for anything else. I saw you do it for Keagan. I know she
did some horrible things, but I know that we can fix her. Please do it for me.” I glance at Aunt
Tisi for some sort of guidance.

“Trish, you know I do not have any experience with this sort of thing
. You can make the
decision, and whatever you decide we will all support you.” I have no idea how Keagan is alive,
or if I actually had anything to do with it… much less if I did, how I accomplished it. Sam is
staring at me with pleading eyes, and I want to do this for him but I don’t know if I can.

“Look
,Sam, I don’t know how Keagan is alive and I reallydon’t know if I had anything
to do with it,
but
I will try for you. You are my friend and I care about you. I know how much
Kia means to you, so let’s see what happens.” I kneel next to Sam and take Kia’s hand, which is
surprisingly still warm, and I find it totally creepy. I don’t really think that this is going to work;
at least Keagan still had a head. At the same time, his wounds were completely healed when he
got up.

I close my eyes, and instead of focusing on my dislike for Kia because of her betrayal, I
picture Sam and Kia together. I bring forth the conversations Sam and I had about their
childhood and every interaction that I have seen them have since I met them. The only thing that
I can’t do is have any sort of personal investment or emotion of sadness come forth. After all,
Kia did betray all of us when she choose to attack Keagan, Maximus, and Sam and once my
protective field was down take my powers from me. One more mystery to what I call my life
nowadays, apparently all Young Creators have an ability to cast a protective shield that allows
for some self-defense. Strangely enough, I don’t control my force field… Keagan does. I try to
refocus on Kia and that her hand is growing colder. Her body is slowly getting rigor mortis,
which I learned in my biology class is one of the signs of death. It is caused by chemical changes
in the body, but I could have sworn that it is supposed to happen about three hours after death.
However, it seems that Kia’s rigor mortis is kicking in much faster.

I try to put myself is
Sam’s shoes and feel the pain of losing a sister.I don’t have any
siblings and my mom is the only person that I consider my family, but I remember the feeling of
loss and hopelessness when I thought Keagan was dead. I imagine Kia alive, but instead of the
sad, hopeless girl that I have come to know, I picture her full of life and joy, a big smile on her
face as she rushes over to Sam to share some sisterly secret with him.

I open my eyes and look at Kia. Unfortunately, instead of seeing a smile on her face and
sparkle in her eye, all I see is her decapitated body in front of me.
“I’m sorry, Sam,I really tried I don’t know why it’s not working.”

Sam pleaded and begged for me to bring Kia back, holding on to me and looking at me with his
big, sad eyes. I had never seen such grief, and after a while started feeling uncomfortable with
the whole situation, especially since I could not do anything to make him whole again. After
what felt like forever, Sam somewhat regained his composure and released my hand. He even
apologized for putting me in such an uncomfortable position, saying he knew that I did
everything within my power to bring Kia back to him.

When I finally separated myself from the situation and took a step back, I realized that
the regular people who were on the bridge seemed aware of the destruction to the Golden Gate
Bridge, but not the loss of Kia’s life or why the bridge had been destroyed.