Transcend Read Online Free PDF Page B

eternal darkness. Silence accompanied the void, snuffing out everything else. The feeling unnerved him. Terror began to well up through his mind and body. He began to shake.
    “Ien. Ien. You’re alive. You must open your eyes. Open them now.” Kiera’s voice came as a whisper on the fringe of his existence. “Please, Ien. Come back to me. You promised that you’d never leave. Don’t make me exist without you.”
    Once more he tried to obey her commands. And once more he wrestled against an abyss poised to strangle him. He pushed against its hold, wiggling free from the emptiness. The harder he pushed, the more he strained, the heavier the air that enveloped him became, stripping the oxygen from his lungs. He gasped, releasing a fresh scream. It started at the base of his spine, rushing up his esophagus and exploding from his mouth. “Kiera! Help. Me.”
    Be quiet. Bequietbequietbequiet .  Ien’s brain pleaded over and over as his heart beat erratically against his ribs.
    Thump thump.
    Kiera’s not here.
    Thump thump.
    She can never be here again.
    Thump thump.
    Mother said to stay away from her. Warned me of the consequences.
    Thump thump.
    Dire consequences.
    Thump thump.
    Maybe even fatal—
    He stopped mid-thought as he registered the distinctive scent of Mother’s hand lotion, peppermint with a hint of eucalyptus.  Fear bloomed throughout his mind. A raw, feral fear that spoke of untold horrors that awaited him. He held his breath and opened his eyes.
    Mother was leaning over him, wiping the sweat from his brow. The room shrunk as her smile faded. Joy passed from her expression, morphing into something else, something sinister. Something unexpected.
    Revulsion. Terror.
    And utter disappointment. 
     

 
    6.
    “One word
    Frees us of all the weight and pain of life;
    That word is love.”
    ~Sophocles (Oedipus at Colonus)
    ~
    Mother turned without a word and the room continued to shrink around Ien as he wished for the black hole of unconsciousness again. But his wish went unanswered, and he remained painfully awake and aware, staring forever into the phantom of her face and the expression it held.
    That look stayed with Ien over the next several days, invading his dreams and hiding in the shadows of his waking hours. It was the same look she had given him the night his brother died. The same look she had when he first told her about loving Kiera. A look that filled him with shame and fear, just like it always had.
    Ien turned his head and stared out of the large window, wishing the world would swallow him whole and his suffering would end. The sun glistened on the glass, casting shards of brilliance around his room, rare for a day in December. It should have made him smile, should have brought him joy.
    Nothing could make him happy now. Nothing but the death he wished for.
    His own.
    In a chair next to Ien’s bed, Jenna leaned forward. “What were you thinking about just now?”
    Ien tried to roll over, every movement sending waves of pain rolling through his body.
    Concern flooded Jenna’s eyes. “You look sad today.”
    Jenna and Ien had been friends his whole life. The daughter of the grounds keeper, she lived at the Montgomery estate with the other servants. At thirteen, she took up her position as one of the housemaids. And now, four years later, she was still one of Ien’s most trusted friends.
    “It’s nothing,” Ien mumbled. Friend or not, he wasn’t ready to talk.
    Jenna stood, smoothing out her uniform. She was petite in build, her blond hair tied in a neat bun at the nape of her neck. She retrieved a damp cloth from the bedside basin and wiped his brow and hair, careful to avoid the bandages that seemed to cover all of his face save his eyes.
    “Suit yourself,” she said, sounding far too familiar for a servant. “But you know you’ll tell me everything sooner or later.” She winked, a playful glint in her soft brown eyes.
    Ien stared at her face. She was right, of course. He would