The Midnight Stand (The Elysia Saga Book 1) by Louis A. Affortunato Read Free Book Online Page A

lower that, will you!” she yelled into the living room.
    “What?” Lucas yelled back. His voice was barely
audible over the war going on.
    “I said lower that game, we can’t hear ourselves
talk in here.”
    “Okay.” The blasting died down. Lucas and Jasper
both stood in the middle of the living room with Real View glasses on and
remote rifles in their hands. They were hunched over as if they were moving
through enemy territory trying not to be noticed.
    “A little too realistic, isn’t it?” Sara asked.
She was still in awe of all the things the AutoHome could do. Dana’s home was
once again upgraded recently and it came with the new Real View gaming system.
The system could simulate any environment in any situation from sports to
battlefield combat and even space exploration.
    “Lucas just loves it. He’s on it most of the
day,” Dana said as she sat down at the table. “It would be great for Jasper. He
could be anywhere in the world with it. Of course that means you would have to
upgrade yourselves.” She said this as she peered over the top of her cup at
Sara. The look said everything it needed to. “It does appear a bit odd that you
haven’t yet.”
    Sara bit her lower lip. “Harley’s still
resisting it. He says he won’t give up the home his grandfather built.”
    Dana sniffed at that. “I think that husband of
yours is backwoods. I don’t know how you could have married him when you could
have chosen Edward Stantz. You would have been the wife of a Council
representative by now and be in the lap of luxury.”
    “Harley’s very resourceful”, Sara said, “he can
fix almost anything by himself and can even cook his own food.”
    “See that’s what I mean,” Dana replied, “no one
needs to do any of that. Everything fits in perfectly with everything else. If
something doesn’t work, you just get a replacement part and fit it in. The
house we’re sitting in right now can be pulled apart and put back together in
under forty minutes. Can Harley do that?”
    Sara had a sudden urge to dump her tea over her
sister’s head. She hated when Dana talked down about Harley in that
condescending tone of hers, but at the same time Sara felt she was right. Why
couldn’t she have what her sister had? Why did she have to still wash clothes
and prepare meals when these things had already been conquered?
    “He was always a strange one,” Dana continued. “Always
shifting around and distrustful of everyone. You know I hear people talk about
him. They think he’s off”. She waved her hand back and forth while saying it.
    “He’s not crazy. You don’t know anything about
him,” Sara said.
    “And isn’t that weird?” Dana asked. “You’ve been
married, what, nearly ten years and I hardly ever talk to him, let alone see
him. He never invites us over or accepts any of our invites. He acts like he’s
hiding something.”
    Sara shook her head. “He just prefers privacy.
He doesn’t like to be around too many people.”
    Dana narrowed her eyes at Sara. “Why? What does
he have to be so private about?”
    “Nothing and stop trying to imply things.”
    “I’m not implying anything,” Dana said
innocently, “you’re the one who said it. Of course, there was that incident a
couple of years back.” She took a sip of tea and dabbed her mouth delicately
with a napkin.
    “That was a misunderstanding. You know that,”
Sara said. Her anger was starting to rise. She regretted coming here tonight
and wondered why Harley even suggested it in the first place.
    “I know the Council ruled that it was a
non-offense, but that was only because of Richard’s doing,” Dana said. The
smugness in her tone was biting. “And if I remember, Richard didn’t even get a
thank you from him.”
    Richard was Dana’s husband and he worked as an
advisor to the Council. He was away tonight at the City Centre, also known as The
Nucleus, on official business. According to Dana he was being courted as one of
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