Scary Beautiful

Elizabeth Speckman

Description

Killian Marlow has been running from his past for two years. He never stays in one place for long. That is until he comes upon the seemingly laidback, sleepy town of Autumn Falls. But Killian learns that even quiet towns hold dark secrets.Emily Porter has lived in Autumn Falls her whole life. She and her siblings live under the ever-watchful eye of their aunt ever since their parents died. The thing is, Emily, her siblings, and their friends are not human. They all have powers and are lethal with any weapon. One fateful day, Emily's secret comes out with Killian watching. Emily ends up telling him everything. Killian knows he should stay away from this deadly girl, who's frightening and intriguing, but he soon learns that your past always has a way of sneaking up on you-turning the love of your life into a scary beautiful enemy.

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Date de parution: 31 août 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781645754510
• Langue: English

Extrait

Scary Beautiful
Elizabeth Speckman
Austin Macauley Publishers
2020-08-31
Scary Beautiful About the Author Dedication Copyright Information © Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24
About the Author
Elizabeth Speckman was born and raised in Illinois. She currently resides outside the St. Louis area. She started writing short stories in her youth and has never stopped. Ideas pop into her head and she has to get them down on paper.
Dedication
To Mom. Without you, this would not be possible.
Copyright Information ©
Elizabeth Speckman (2020)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.
Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Ordering Information:
Quantity sales: special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.
Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data
Speckman, Elizabeth
Scary Beautiful
ISBN 9781645754497 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781645754503 (Hardback)
ISBN 9781645754510 (ePub e-book)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020912149
www.austinmacauley.com/us
First Published (2020)
Austin Macauley Publishers LLC
40 Wall Street, 28 th Floor
New York, NY 10005
USA
[e-mail]
[phone]
Chapter 1
Some would call me a drifter. Others might call me a runaway. I didn’t care much what people referred to me as, I just made sure that I didn’t stay in one town too long. Staying draws attention. No matter how much you try and keep a low profile, word somehow always spreads and ends up in the ears of those you try to stay away from.
I made sure that I moved about every six months. That way, I was still able to keep up with my schooling. It was tiring though, always moving, always keeping an eye out for familiar faces in crowds, and always being a few steps ahead. It was a wearing thing for me to do, but I did what I had to. I was too young to be so tired.
I had broken promises to people I loved. I had left behind those I said I never would. I left a trail of heartbreak from all the people I had grown close to in other towns and left abruptly without any warning. It was all a part of my life now. I had grown used to it. I did what I had to do to stay alive.
I was walking along the edge of the road where the gravel crunched underneath my boots. Over my left shoulder was slung a bag that carried all that I owned in this life. My dark hair had grown long in the past months and was held back by a simple band to keep it out of my face. A dark scruffy beard covered the lower half of my face.
I had no idea where I was, but it was too warm out for my clothing choices – dark jeans, boots, and a black Henley with the sleeves shoved up.
I took my eyes off the road in front of me to survey my current surroundings. A steep grassy hill rose up on the other side of the road. A sign reading ‘Watch For Mudslides’ was posted at intervals along the stretch of road. I glanced up the hill before I turned my attention to the other side.
A guardrail separated me and the road from a cliff that dropped off rather abruptly to a beach down below. The air smelled of salt and that dry scent that I associated with sand. It brought me back to a time during my childhood when my dad would take my sister and me to the beach. It was rare that he took us, but it always felt like the best day when he did.
I stepped over the rail and sat down with my legs dangling over the side of the cliff. The fall wouldn’t have killed me, but it definitely would have left me broken.
Down below, teenagers around my age were enjoying a day at the beach. There were guys playing volleyball with a swarm of scantily clad girls surrounding them. The guys were so wrapped up in the game that it seemed they didn’t even care or know they were being watched. The giggles from the girls drifted up and made me want to vomit. I was never one to go for that kind of girl.
A few girls were lying on the beach with magazines spread out in front of them. And there was a cluster of people in the water. Some were swimming and some were splashing water at one another. There were girls sitting on guys’ shoulders and guys dunking each other under water.
Then there was her.
She was a good distance away from the others. She was standing in the water that hit her about mid-thigh. She had her hands raised in the air. I had no idea what she was doing. I guessed it was some form of water yoga. She then tilted her body back until she was floating in the water. Her body just moved with the waves and the current – like she was a part of the ocean itself.
She stayed like that for a while. I didn’t understand why those guys down there were giving their attention to those other girls when clearly the most interesting girl was floating further away from them.
After a while, another girl swam down to her floating friend and gently roused her. She twisted her head to look at the girl and a smile lit up her face. She stood up in the chest high water and the two of them just talked for a while until the group of people who were already in the water swam over to join them. Before long, all the volleyball players and their salivating groupies joined in as well. She was quickly swallowed up by the mass of bodies.
As the sun began its descent toward the horizon, looking as though it would crash into the ocean, a handful of the guys exited the water and started to drag armfuls of varying sizes of driftwood to a central location. They made a teepee out of the wood with the larger pieces on the outside and smaller pieces on the inside.
They stood around surveying their work until one guy bent down and lit it on fire. I didn’t see him pull a match or a lighter from anywhere, but I sure saw the spark before the wood went up in a blaze.
I rose from my perch on the cliffside and headed down to the beach. I needed to see these people closer up. I was quite fascinated by them.
I sat down on the beach not too far from the bonfire. I made sure to keep far enough away that I wouldn’t draw their attention, but close enough that I could hear and see them.
The group that was still in the water began to exit slowly. A few people would walk up to the fire and then a few more until the only person who was left was the floating girl. She was just standing there watching the sun set. She seemed almost fascinated by it – like it was the first time she’d ever seen the sun do that.
Once that fiery ball disappeared, she walked slowly up towards the fire. She was walking at an angle that would bring her nearly right in front of me. As she passed me, she smiled. No one else paid me an ounce of attention, probably because I looked like some sort of beach hobo with my long hair and my scraggly beard.
I glanced at her after she went by me, and I noticed a tattoo running right down the center of her back on her spinal cord. It started just below her neck and stopped right above her black bikini bottoms. I couldn’t tell what it was though. Actually, I couldn’t see much about her at all other than she had dark hair and a tattoo.
As soon as she arrived at the fire, one of the volleyball players draped his arm over her shoulder and pulled her into his side.
“Hey baby,” he said with a lazy smile.
It would figure that she had a boyfriend and one that seemed like a prick too. Why did beautiful girls always fall for the assholes?
She shrugged his arm off. “What do you want?” she asked in a bored tone, like she had been putting up with his shit for a while now.
Clearly, they were not together. Maybe she was one of the smart girls who stayed away from the assholes because she knew that all he’d do was break her heart.
“You know what I want,” he said, stepping closer to her. He was a good head-and-a-half taller than she was.
“No,” she replied simply.
“Come on, Em. You’ve had the summer. Let’s just get back together. I’ll be good. I promise,” he begged.
Okay, obviously they had dated. She let out a breath and looked to the side. Her eyes connected with mine briefly before she looked back at the blond volleyball player.
“Mason Monroe never makes promises,” she stated.
“Exactly! I am. So please believe me.”
She stood there for a moment, processing his words. I thought she was going to actually give in to his bullshit. He had that cocky smile on his face like he knew that her answer would be what he wanted to hear.
“No.” She then turned and walked away from him.
He was standing there with his mouth hanging open in disbelief that she had rejected him. One of his friends walked over and clapped him on the back.
“You, my friend, fucked up.”
She walked to the other side of the fire and started talking to the girl with white blond hair and a small face. It was the girl who had joined her in the water. I was guessing that they were best friends.
I couldn’t hear what they were saying, since the voices of the others drowned them out, but the blond girl kept glancing over at the volleyball player and throwing him a dirty look.