Flux (The Flux Series Book 1)

  Flux

  The Flux Series

  Book One

  Marissa Farrar

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  About the Author

  Also by the Author

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  “I hope you ordered one of those for me.”

  I dropped my bag to the ground and sank into the seat opposite my sister, who was about to shovel a huge spoonful of chocolate sundae into her mouth. She chomped down on the ice cream and shook her head, clutching the glass flute of dessert closer to her body.

  “No way, Ari,” she told me. “This baby is all mine.”

  We were sat outside at our favorite cafe overlooking San Francisco Bay. Sure, it was full of tourists, with the ferry shipping boatloads of them out to Alcatraz Island every half hour during the day, and if the wind happened to be blowing in the wrong direction, you often got a lungful of the rank smell of all the sea lions that had hauled themselves up onto Pier 39, but we still loved it. We’d grown up here, and being able to see the Golden Gate Bridge—at least on the days when the fog wasn’t obscuring it—made me happier than any place I’d ever been.

  “You’ll get fat, you know,” I told her with a smirk.

  There was no way my super skinny sister Karina was putting on weight anytime soon. I was the one who had to watch what I ate before it ended up on my thighs. I’d always told myself it was puppy fat, and I’d soon shoot up just like she had, but now she was twenty-four and I was twenty-two, and I had to admit the growth spurt probably wasn’t going to happen.

  She swallowed her ice cream, then offered the glass flute over to me.

  I shook my head. “No thanks.” I signaled the waitress. “I’ll get my own. I don’t want your drool all over my food.”

  Karina laughed and swept a strand of her jaw-length blonde bob away from her face, before spooning more dessert into her mouth. She always looked so mature, and I wondered for the thousandth time if I should get my own blonde hair cut into a shorter style. But mine was wavy, while hers was poker straight, and I was pretty sure mine would end up looking like a helmet if I tried to get it any shorter than the current middle-of-my-back length it currently was.

  The waitress came over and I gave her a smile. “I’ll have what she’s having, thanks.”

  The waitress returned my smile. “I’ll bring it right over.”

  “Thank you,” I said, thinking I’d give her a decent tip. I’d been doing exactly the same job for the past eight hours, and I knew what hard work serving tables was. Where my sister had some important job in an office, I still hadn’t figured out what I was going to do with my life. Waitressing would have to do for the moment. I still lived with our dad, so it wasn’t as though I had massive bills to pay, though I always tried to contribute. He waved my money away, but I made sure I slipped my fair share into his wallet when he wasn’t looking.

  “So how was work?” I asked my sister.

  Karina gestured at her dessert. “How do you think?”

  I grimaced. “Bad as that, huh?”

  She gave a deep sigh and sat back in her chair. “I just don’t think I can go to work every day and pretend like everything is okay. He calls me in for a meeting, and I have to smile and act as though I wasn’t sitting on his face last week, and that he didn’t just completely stomp all over my heart.”

  I tried to hide my smile at her description. I knew this wasn’t a laughing matter in her eyes. She caught my expression anyway.

  “Ari!” she scolded.

  “Sorry, but you can’t talk about sitting on someone’s face and not expect me to smirk.”

  “No, but you need to focus on the heart-stomping part.”

  “I did tell you it wasn’t a good idea to get involved with your boss. Especially considering he’s ten years older, and has never been in a serious relationship. He’s all smart suits, and expensive cars, and keeping women for the weekend.”

  She gave another sigh and swirled her ice-cream around with her spoon. “Yeah, I know. It was a very bad idea, but when he stared at me in the office in that intense way he always did, I just about melted into a puddle.”

  My lips twisted. “Yeah, and I bet he knew exactly what he was doing.”

  “Yeah, he did. I’m such an idiot.” She shook her head, glancing down.

  I reached out and took my sister’s hand. “No, you’re not. You’re not the first woman to fall for an unsuitable guy.”

  The waitress wove between tables, my sundae balanced on a tray.

  “Ice cream will make—”

  The sound struck me first, a deafening roar, followed by the feeling all the air had been sucked out of the atmosphere. A massive bang exploded in my ears, and a blast of heat and pressure sent both me and my chair flying. I hit the ground, stunned, my ears ringing. Things rained down upon me, pieces of brick and glass, hitting my arms, legs, and torso. I lifted my arms to protect my face, curling into a ball until the assault slowed.

  The world felt like it had ended around me. The air was filled with screams and people crying. Confusion and fear reigned. Forcing myself to be brave, I blinked open my eyes to find myself surrounded by a cloud of dust. It caught in my throat, making me cough, and I covered my mouth and nose with the back of my hand. At least I was able to move.

  What had happened?

  I tried to piece together the moments before.

  Oh, God. Karina. I’d been sitting with my sister.

  I opened my mouth and choked out her name. “Karina?”

  I couldn’t make sense of where I was. The scene looked nothing like it had only moments before. Everywhere were piles of rubble and twisted metal. I caught sight of people helping each other, of bloodied faces and people crying for help.

  “Karina!” I tried to cry again, but my voice was hoarse and her name ended in a series of coughs as the dust surrounding me caught in the back of my throat.

  I managed to get to my hands and knees. Was I hurt? I didn’t think I felt anything more than battered from being thrown in the explosion and from debris hitting me. I was more stunned than anything, my ears ringing from the roar of the blast.

  I crawled forward, my focus on finding Karina. She’d been right here, right in front of me when the explosion had happened. She couldn’t have gone far, could she?

  I called her name again, my knees and palms crunching through broken glass. I tried to get to my feet, but my balance was all off, and I teetered then fell back to all fours.

  People staggered around me, each crying out for their own loved ones. I spotted the waitress who had been bringing my ice-cream. She wore a mask of blood, but she was on her feet, stumbling away from the destroyed building.

  My mind tried to piece together what had happened. A bomb? Had it been a terrorist attack? Why would someone want to blow up an innocuous cafe in San Fran?

  I heard the distant sound of sirens. H
elp was on its way.

  The weight of a hand landed on my back. “Are you okay, miss?”

  “My sister,” I managed to rasp. “Where’s my sister?”

  “I don’t know,” the male voice said. “Let’s get you out of here.”

  I struggled against him trying to help me to my feet. “No. Karina. I need to find Karina.”

  My gaze scanned the survivors, desperately hoping to recognize her among them. There were men and women, even a couple of children, to my dismay, all with their arms around each other as they tried to get away from the wreckage. Then I spotted something and my heart lurched, ice water blasting through my veins. The world spun around me as I made out the sight of a body, broken and bloodied beneath a pile of rubble. Strands of blonde hair, tinted red with blood, spread like seaweed from beneath a rock, the same hair I’d been coveting only minutes before.

  I opened my mouth to scream, but more movement came from above as another piece of the building dislodged.

  And I was gone.

  Chapter Two

  I woke with no idea where I was.

  For a moment, I’d forgotten what had happened, but then it all tumbled back down on me, horror crushing my soul. I tried to lurch upright, but a hand pressed on my shoulder, pushing me back to the soft bed beneath me.

  “It’s okay, Arianna,” came a male voice which, after a moment, I recognized as my father’s. “You’re safe. Try to relax.”

  I blinked, trying to focus on the room around me. My eyes felt sore and dry and gritty, but gradually my surroundings came into focus.

  “Try not to move, sweetheart.”

  I turned my face toward my father’s voice, wincing as pain lanced up through my neck. His face appeared in my vision, and his big warm hands took hold of mine.

  “Dad,” I managed to rasp. “There was an explosion ...”

  “I know, darling. I know.”

  “Karina ...?”

  He glanced away and I noticed how red-rimmed his blue eyes were. His face looked beaten, bruised shadows beneath his eyes, his jowls drawn down. I knew what that glance away meant, remembered the bloodied hair I’d seen fanned out beneath a pile of rubble.

  Disbelief, denial, all rose up inside me. “Oh, no. Please, Dad, no. Not Karina!”

  He looked back to me, his eyes flooding with tears. “I’m so sorry, baby. She’s gone. We lost her.”

  A painful lump caught in my throat and my vision blurred. I shook my head, frantic, ignoring the agony shooting through my body as a result. I didn’t want to believe it. I wanted him to take it back. Wanted to rewind to the day before when none of this had happened and my big sister was still alive.

  “Please, Daddy, please,” I begged as though I was still a little girl who believed her father had the ability to change the world for her.

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart.”

  “No,” I said again, my voice growing louder. The pain at the thought of never being able to see or speak to my sister again was too much. I couldn’t even imagine a life without her. My beautiful sister who I’d looked up to my whole life. She wasn’t just a sibling, she’d been my best friend. “No!”

  Above my head, the fluorescent lights of the hospital room flickered. A sudden gust of wind hit my face, and something went pop, and glass shattered, sprinkling down on me like confetti. I let out a scream and covered my head with my arms. A flashback of the explosion hit me, the fear and panic sending my heart rate soaring. Instinctively, my father covered me with his body, sheltering me. The slats of the blind on the window rattled, and then everything fell still.

  We were both breathing hard, trembling.

  The door flew open and nursing staff rushed in.

  “Oh, my goodness,” cried one of the nurses, a dark-haired woman who didn’t look much older than I was. “Are you all right? I don’t know what happened.”

  My father released me and placed a hand on my head. “It was nothing. Just a broken lightbulb. Bad timing, that’s all.”

  The young nurse rushed to my bedside. “Don’t move. We need to clear this glass off you.”

  I remained still as they lifted the sheet covering my body. Most of the glass had fallen onto it, so they were able to remove any dangerous shards easily enough. I still needed the rest of my sheets changed, however.

  My father helped me out of the bed. I needed to use the bathroom anyway, so he helped me into the adjoining room. Though my body was bruised, I had no major injuries. It wasn’t my body that hurt the worst, but my heart. I felt hollow inside, numb, as though I was watching this whole thing from a distance. My dad closed the bathroom door for me, leaving me alone, and I sank down onto the toilet, my head in my hands. In private and out of view, I gave in to my grief, and harsh sobs wracked through me. I didn’t want anyone asking after me, so I grabbed a towel hanging from the rail beside me, and held it over my face, stifling my cries.

  Above my head, the light blinked and stuttered. Beside me, the faucet suddenly came on, water rushing into the sink. In the corner of the room, the walk-in shower snapped on, pouring water down onto the porcelain base.

  All the movement distracted me from my tears. What the hell was going on in this hospital? They must have been experiencing some kind of power surge.

  I dropped the towel and stood from the toilet to turn off the water. The moment my tears ended, the water from the faucet and shower stopped. I glanced up at the light, which was now a steady illumination rather than the stuttering flashing it had been emitting a moment before.

  A bang on the bathroom door made me jump.

  “Everything all right in there, Ari?”

  It was my father’s voice, and my chest tightened with grief for him. I’d lost my sister, but he’d lost his daughter. The young woman he’d brought up on his own for the past twenty years, ever since our mother died. I couldn’t imagine the sort of agony he must be in.

  I unlocked the door and fell into his arms. We held each other, both of us crying onto each other’s shoulders.

  One of the nurses cleared her throat. “We need to check you over, Miss Sheppard. You didn’t have any major injuries when you were brought in—just bruising and some swelling—but I want to give you one more look. I’ll make sure we haven’t missed anything so we can give you the all clear to go home. It’s a miracle, really, considering how bad the explosion was.”

  My father and I exchanged a wobbly-lipped glance and her cheeks colored. She must have forgotten we’d lost our dearest in the explosion. What we’d experienced had been a long way from miraculous.

  “Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry,” she said.

  My father shook his head to tell her it was okay.

  I got back on the bed, eyeing the broken strip of lightning above me. I told myself it couldn’t break twice. The nurse did a final check on me then got me to sign some forms. I was free to go.

  “How bad was it?” I asked my dad. “The explosion, I mean?”

  He shut his eyes briefly and shook his head. “Bad. Fourteen killed, including Karina—” His voice broke and he cleared his throat and started again. “Thirty-seven injured.”

  “Oh, my God.” I could barely wrap my head around so many dead and wounded people. It broke my heart all over again. “Do they have any idea who did it?”

  “No one is claiming responsibility yet.”

  “But they think it was a terrorist attack?”

  “Yes. There were no gas leaks or anything like that which might have caused such a large explosion.” He paused then said, “The nurse was right. It is a miracle you are still alive. I couldn’t imagine if I’d lost both of you. I wouldn’t be able to go on. I assume you and Karina were together when it happened.”

  I nodded. “Sitting right across from one another.”

  “And she’s dead and you’ve barely got a scratch on you.”

  A wave of guilt and grief washed over me. “I’m sorry, Dad.”

  “Hush, you don’t have anything to be sorry for.”

  �
�I’m sorry I didn’t do more. I’m sorry she was the one who died and I was the one who lived. She had so much more going for her. She was smart and beautiful—”

  “Hey, stop that, now.” His tone was harsh. “You are all of those things, too. Don’t ever let me catch you thinking that you should have been the one who died. This isn’t your fault. It’s the fault of whichever sick fuck was behind planting the bomb and taking innocent lives.”

  His use of the word ‘fuck’ shocked me. I’d never known him to swear, or at least he didn’t around us girls, even though we were all grown up now.

  I squeezed him around the waist. “I know that, Dad.”

  We packed up my few belongings, getting ready to leave. I was struggling with the idea of stepping back into a world which no longer contained my sister. I kept hoping something would change and I’d flick back to a different reality where none of this had happened and Karina was still alive, but, of course, such a thing was impossible.

  Fresh tears filled my eyes, and I blinked them away. I figured I had a flood of tears still to fall as I mourned for her, but right now I just needed to see my way out of the hospital.

  We caught the elevator down to ground level and headed toward the exit. The hospital was busy, people rushing everywhere, some pushing wheelchairs, others on crutches. The smell of bleach filled my nostrils, and my sneakers squeaked on the linoleum floors.

  A shoulder smacked into mine, shoving me sideways, and I collided with my dad.

  “Hey, watch it!” I snapped.

  I got no response. I turned to look over my shoulder at the person who’d slammed into me. The man barely glanced back at me before he vanished between the multitudes of sick and injured, so I caught only a glimpse of dark hair and eyes, and a leather jacket. Then he was gone. The moment he vanished from view, the wail of alarms sounded and lights in the corners of the corridor began to flash.

  “What’s happening?” I cried.

  My father put his arm around my shoulder and hurried me to the exit. “Looks like a fire alarm. It’s probably only a test, but let’s get out of here, just in case.”