Pull (Deep Darkness Book 1) by Stephen Landry Read Free Book Online Page B

of
us,” I continued.
I was read to cry but I felt that I had to stay strong.
I couldn’t let my true feelings out no matter how bad I wanted to.
My shirt was weit with Aira’s tears. How long had she been leaning on
me crying?
Hours?
I had to be strong for her.
I continued to speak when I should have shut the hell up, “Somewhere
in time, somewhere out there someone is seeing through Dom’s eyes, they are
seeing him make his mother smile, his father laugh. The are seeing him live
his life over and over,” I thought then about how someone was seeing this
moment as well. What would they think? Would they feel the sadness I feel
bottled up inside me? WOuld they care for my loss? Somewhere in time
someone was watching Dom’s life - - they were also watching him die.
When we got back to the school it was late and our parents were waiting
for us.
“I don’t want to go home with you!” Aira screamed.
Her mother had always bad mouthed us and said if she could stay on
Errikus she would. Not everyone was happy about leaving. Her mom was a
sleeper. She would go in and out of stasis every ten to twenty years only for
short instances or trips off world. Most sleepers would spend their time
cooking or helping with upkeep but they weren’t awake often. They had no
purpose. ‘Users’ like myself would be awake the most on the ship, sometimes
stasis wouldn’t even be an option. I guess there was something about being
trapped on a ship for so long and waking up in intervals to the same day after
day routine that made sleepers feel bitter as if the walls were closing in. I
would feel pretty bad too if the only thing I was designated good for was
cleaning anthers mess. Aira was the first in her family to be born with the
gene that made her a ‘user’ like me… and like me and the others she would
die long before anyone in stasis ever woke up. Aira’s mother had nothing but
resentment for her daughter and our kind.
“It might as well have been you,” her mother said.
Aira slapped her across the face - Not that it made a difference.
My mother on the other hand wasn’t going to allow that kind of abuse to
continue. Aira was going to stay with us after that but for some reason (guilt
maybe) she decided to go with her mother instead. I couldn’t wait to leave
Errikus forever. Aira’s mother would go to sleep and Aira would begin her
use of the nexus just like I would. We would be on two different ships but we
would both be safe. We would always have the COMs and special occasions
to talk to and see one another. Errikus was never really our home.
Eulogy
    Nine Days.
We made a memorial to Dom. The Arr7 and the Eek that tried to save
him came and helped us too. They brought flowers that originated on their
home world. Flowers that were precious and valuable and would have made
good trade now lay planted to the ground, their roots buried in the last place
my best friend had stood smiling, laughing, playing.
Eight Days.
Everyone began to prepare for the three starships to arrive. It was going
to be a huge gathering filled with festivities, music, and food. Not just the
humans were excited ‘The Trinity’ was bound to bring with it gifts from offworld. They would bring news of the outside, the ins and outs of other
worlds, fashions, and news on the war with the Skrav. The elders onboard the
Erebus and Aelita would probably even spend a week or two on the surface
sharing news and tactics that they had learned from the Arr7.
“How are we at war with an enemy we have never seen?”
I had asked my mother this question many times but now it seemed far
more important then it had ever been. I listened close to her words as she sat
me beside her and told me stories that she had heard and even smaller battles
she herself had lived through as a little girl. She would tell me about a
monster named Scar, another named Molack, and another called Vile, human
names given to the Skrav to incite fear and