Elemental Anomaly (eBook)

Sammi Bee Gonzalez (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021 | 1. Auflage
288 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-0983-8131-8 (ISBN)

Infos

Humanity wasn't done yet. The will to survive burned brighter in bones than in flame. After years of war and destruction, the world crumbled and burned. Out of the ashes, some members of the human race developed the ability to control the elements and rose up to save the world from near apocalypse. But with that power, they were also feared. Years later, citizens are held under the thumb of a power-hungry, corrupt government organization, the Purgatio, whose primary mission is to track down the remaining people with the Elemental Anomaly. Piper Eden is a simple girl, orphaned from the Burning, making the most of her circumstances. Everything changes when they take away the only thing that matters to her-her sister, Natalia. After Natalia is taken as a suspected Elemental, Piper Eden's life is turned upside down as she is hurtled into a world of secrets, discovering not only the dark side of the world she lives in, but the darkness within herself. Will she be able to tunnel through all the secrets in time, or will her world go up in flames once more?

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Humanity wasn't done yet. The will to survive burned brighter in bones than in flame. After years of war and destruction, the world crumbled and burned. Out of the ashes, some members of the human race developed the ability to control the elements and rose up to save the world from near apocalypse. But with that power, they were also feared. Years later, citizens are held under the thumb of a power-hungry, corrupt government organization, the Purgatio, whose primary mission is to track down the remaining people with the Elemental Anomaly. Piper Eden is a simple girl, orphaned from the Burning, making the most of her circumstances. Everything changes when they take away the only thing that matters to her-her sister, Natalia. After Natalia is taken as one of the suspected Elementals, Piper Eden's life is turned upside down as she is hurtled into a world of secrets, discovering not only the dark side of the world she lives in, but the darkness within herself. Will she be able to tunnel through all the secrets in time, or will her world go up in flames once more?The Elemental Anomaly is the first novel in the author's dystopian YA trilogy featuring a broken world and a new race the Elementals.

Textauszug

CHAPTER SEVEN

“Piper! Wait up!”

Willa called, running to catch the girl, Finn, close at her heels.

Piper didn’t know where she was going. She doubted it mattered anyway. She wanted to feel the slow numb replace the burning that was coursing through her entire body.

Exterminated. It was a word so cold and unattached. Like that girl’s life meant nothing at all to them. And those people had her sister.

“Piper!”

Heels sinking into the ground, she finally turned to face her friends. They flinched when she eventually turned around, and she worked on fixing her features.

“This doesn’t mean anything. I mean”—she nudged the folder clamped in her hands—”it does, but it doesn’t mean that Nattie’s, you know—”

“Dead?” Piper challenged, stepping forward and tugging the folder back, peeling the cover back to stare at the name.

“No, I mean, she could still be—”

“Even if she isn’t dead, or”—a breath that felt like a punch to the stomach left her body—”exterminated… Does it really matter? Maybe it would be better if she was!”

“You don’t mean that. Don’t say that,” Finn said, eyes wide, head shaking.

“Look what they’re doing to her! To all of them! Shock treatments. Transfusions. This Eldora didn’t even last three years! And Nattie? She’s been gone five! And if she is alive—which I’m pretty sure she isn’t—they’re hurting her! Over and over and over again, every single day! Experimenting on her like some sick science experiment!”

“Then we do something about it!” Finn said. Tears streamed down Willa’s eyes, silent but steady.

“What can we do? I’ve tried to do something about it for years, and I can’t figure it out! There’s no information on Elementals anymore. I don’t know if I can do it anymore.”

“Of course, you can. For her,” Willa murmured, carefully pulling the folder out of Piper’s hands and wrapping her arms around her friend.

“How?” The word was small. Barely a breath. Barely a sigh of air.

“We find her.”

“Where?”

They were all quiet. The river was too far away to pump life into this part of the forest, but a breeze with aggressive sharpness rippled around them. It ruffled their hair and clothes. And finally, the folder and the papers within. And it was true. They had a lead they’d never had before. Finn glanced down at the folder and then back at the girls.

“The Expurgate Asylum. We start there.”

* * *

“My!” the woman gasped, peering through the dim candlelight of the kitchen. “You scared me, Piper! What are you doing up at this hour?”

“Sorry, Maggie,” Piper said, quickly tucking the folder under a notebook. She was dwelling on the fate of Eldora, she knew it. But it wasn’t something she could help. Besides, it didn’t matter whether she had the file in front of her or not. The name still burned behind her eyes like a neatly typed branding.

Several weeks had come and gone since they’d stolen the file. But every visit to the library, scouring old newspaper clippings and articles, brought them no results. Wherever the Asylum was, it was kept hidden. Sure, they’d play it off as it being for the community’s own safety. Protecting them against the dreadfully dangerous Elemental children as they treated them humanely and gently. Right.

They didn’t dare ask any of the teachers at school or even the librarian. Most of them were under the thumb of Blanche Porter or some equally awful Goblin. And the last thing they wanted was for the Goblin Lady to get on their case.

But Maggie… Piper trusted Maggie more than almost anyone. There was something sweet and strong about her. There was no resentment in her job. She kept the kids well-fed, and, even if it wasn’t in her job description, she was always around if any of them needed to talk. She kept herself ready and available. She cared. And there weren’t many people in their world who Piper could honestly say cared about them.

And Maggie was around more than even the Hunters, who were often away on business. They, too, did good work. They got kids out of the darker Homes that littered their world. On the downside, it meant they weren’t around much for the kids they took care of. Sure, they left a full staff behind in their wake. But if it wasn’t for Maggie, Piper suspected that The Nightingale Home would be a very lonely type of place, even with all the people running around.

Yes, she could trust Maggie, who was now placing a warm hand on Piper’s forehead and tutting before making her away over to the stove and getting a kettle going.

“I’m going to make you some warm milk. Should settle you down a little.”

“Maggie?”

“Yes?” Maggie stretched on her toes to pull two mugs down from the cabinet above the stove.

“Do you…” She watched a bit of hair fall out of Maggie’s topknot, auburn curling softly against her cheek until she looked up and shook it out of her eyes.

“What is it, sweets?” she hummed, busy warming the milk.

“Just”—she shook her head, worried little crease at her brow—”could I have a little cinnamon in mine? I like it a little sweeter.”

“Of course.” She smiled kindly. They were quiet for a few moments before Maggie clinked her way over with the cups.

“Thanks,” Piper said, curling her fingers around the mug and examining a chip in the handle. That was the danger of an overcrowded cupboard. The cups and dishes all sat too closely together. It was inevitable that they chipped and cracked from the careless movement.

It was the danger of getting too close to anyone, really. They wanted to be so close to you and chipped away, taking tiny pieces of you with them.

Pieces they could never possibly give back.

The alternative, of course, wasn’t any better. You could wrap yourself up in paper and tuck yourself into a box and hide from the world. But it would be a very lonely way to live. Piper put her thumb over the chip and looked up at Maggie again, candlelight bright her in eyes.

“Maggie, have you ever heard of the Expurgate Asylum?”

Maggie was careful with her answer. As she was with most everything she did. Quiet a moment, she took a long drink of her milk, and Piper followed suit by taking a gulp of her own. Finally, Piper set her mug down and leaned forward, hands folded carefully, one over the other.

“Yes, I have. But I happen to know they’ve done their best to get rid of most of the place’s records. How have you heard about it, dear?”

“I—” Piper shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. I just need to know anything you can tell me about it.”

“Have you asked anyone else?” Maggie’s own brow furrowed her.

“No,” she said quickly. “No, I didn’t have anyone else to ask.”

“Good. Don’t.” Maggie nodded, relaxing a little. “And… this is about Nattie, I’m assuming?”

“Yes. I just—”

“I know.” Maggie gave Piper’s hand a quick squeeze. “I’ll tell you what I know. But you need to be very careful going forward, Piper. You’re treading on very dangerous waters.”

Piper only nodded, and Maggie sighed, gathering her thoughts together. When she spoke, she kept her voice low.

“My brother worked there. A long time ago. I only visited there twice before they shut the doors to guests. It was…” She shook her head, looking at something in the distance. Piper had the feeling she was in a different world altogether. “Do you know the feeling of fear you get, just for a second, when you’re falling asleep, and you feel yourself falling through the air? It feels a bit like that. Only you don’t wake up. You keep falling and spinning and trying to catch your breath. But you can’t.” She frowned. “Not until you leave at least.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s… disorientating, I suppose. A scary place. Run by some scary people. My brother; Joshua, was his name. He worked with the patients’ medications. He was going to work his way up the ladder. But he had some disagreements with the higher-ups.”

“About what?”

“Oh, well. He didn’t like how they were treating the patients. Some of the things he told me they were doing to those poor people.” Maggie shook her head. “Well, it makes me sick thinking about it. But he dreamed of making it a safer place. A better one.”

“What”—Piper swallowed hard—”what happened to him?”

Maggie sighed, light dimming in her eyes. “He was killed. A few years back. Drowned, actually. By one of the patients. It wasn’t their fault. Poor dears are all so scared there…”

“Aw, Maggie. I’m sorry,” Piper said sincerely.

“I am, too. I miss him a lot.”

Piper nodded. “So it’s still around? The Asylum?”

“Oh, yes. It’s around, but they’ve upped the security. And they keep all but patients and staff from entering the building. And they keep publicity very low. They had a problem with reporters and family lawyers a few years back. I think they want to avoid anyone seeing what goes on behind closed doors. And if it disappears altogether, who’s going to come looking?”

“Where is it?” Piper was out of her seat now, milk forgotten on the counter.

“I shouldn’t—”

“Please, Maggie. I need to know.”

“I can’t, Piper. It’s...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 10.8.2021
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Fantasy
• ISBN-10: 1-0983-8131-9 / 1098381319
• ISBN-13: 978-1-0983-8131-8 / 9781098381318