Authors: R.L. Mathewson
They needed a better beginning. I tried to write a prologue a few times, but each and
every time it felt forced and I hated it. I wasn’t going to do it, but my beta readers kept
pushing for a beginning. Deciding that I’d rather just write one instead of getting slapped
around by them cause they’re pretty damn vicious, I sat down and prepared to do just that. I
wrote one. It sucked. I deleted it. Again.
I was just about to write an email to Jodi when I realized why nothing felt right. It’s
because Tristan and Marty already had a beginning to their story. They were the very first
words that I’d ever written. It was their beginning and I decided to use it. The only problem
was that I deleted it years ago.
Or so I thought.
Years ago, when I’d experienced computer problems, I’d saved all my documents to a
memory stick. Crossing my fingers, I hunted down those memory sticks and was amazed
that Marty and Tristan’s original story was still there. The crappiest book ever written, lol.
I copied the prologue and set to work on it. It took me a whole day to fix this thing and
while it doesn’t look like my writing style and there’s a chance that it will throw off a few
readers, I decided to use it.
If you want, you can skip the prologue and it shouldn’t affect the story for you. I put it in
the book because I felt that it deserved its place. They were the first words that I’d ever
written for a book and in a way they gave me my start.
This book is part of a definite eight book series with a possibility of a ninth book. This
story line will continue on. There are no cliffhangers here, well, there shouldn’t be.
On behalf of my children and myself, we hope that you enjoy Marty and Tristan’s story.
Mo shonuachar
Soulmate…..
“I told you that we shouldn’t have brought him here!” the young woman sitting on the
floor cried as she struggled to restrain the young boy in her arms.
“I’m sorry! I know that I should have listened to you, but I’m sick of not being able to go
anywhere or do anything! I’m sick of this!” her husband yelled as he let go of his son’s legs.
Without another word, he stood up and walked over to the window. Once again, leaving her
to deal with their son alone.
Struggling not to lose it, she fought back the tears that she knew wouldn’t help as she
looked down at her son. He’d stopped fighting, but he was still panicking. She knew the
signs well by now. His eyes were squeezed shut and his body was tense.
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-
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He was trying to tear away from her, from the house, from everything, but he
couldn’t free himself or even scream for help. His mother had him restrained on the floor
and she was doing everything that she could to keep her hand over his mouth. She didn’t
want his grandmother to hear him, to know that he’d had another “episode” as she liked to
call it. When he felt her hold on him relax, he made his move, too desperate to get out of
the house to care about what happened next.
“Ow! He bit me, Shaun!”
As soon as she released her hold on him, he was up and running down the hall
towards the stairs. He tripped over something, but didn’t dare risk opening his eyes to see
what it was. He used his hands to help guide his way. He fumbled with frames on the table
that he’d seen barely a half an hour ago and was soon moving his hand along the wall.
As soon as he felt the banister he knew that he was almost there. All he needed was to
get down the stairs and out the front door and then he’d be safe. Desperate to get out of the
house, he started to run faster, too fast, down the stairs and tripped. He blindly reached out
to grab onto the banister, but it was too late. He fell down the stairs, hitting what felt like
every step until he landed on what felt like the hardwood floor in the front hall. Keeping his
eyes tightly closed, he stood up on shaky legs and ran as fast as he could, praying that he
was going the right way.
Stumbling forward, his legs suddenly gave out, sending him flying and slamming him
face first into what felt like the thick leg of the mahogany end table that his grandmother
kept by the front closet. He could feel hot liquid stream down his face, but he didn’t care.
He needed to get out of the house. The pain was intense and any attempt to get up was
immediately met with more pain and dizziness. He struggled until the only thing that he
could do was rollover onto his back and pray that his grandmother finally followed through
with her threat and threw him out.
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“Oh my God, Tristan!” his mother cried, running down the stairs, taking them two at a
time.
“Julie, is he okay?”
“No, Mom, we need an ambulance! He’s bleeding everywhere!” Julie said, shaking
Tristan’s small shoulders as she tried to wake him up, terrified that he’d finally killed
himself.
“I called them twenty minutes ago when he started to go into hysterics,” her mother said
as she joined her in kneeling over Tristan’s still body. “Honestly, Julie, there is something
wrong with that boy. I told you that I didn’t want him in my house.”
Barely listening to her, Julie pulled her sweater off and placed it beneath Tristan’s head.
A moment later, she reluctantly left his side and quickly made her way to the kitchen. She
grabbed her purse and dumped the contents onto the floor. When she found the small
business card that she’d thrown into her purse a few months ago, she grabbed her mother’s
phone and dialed, praying that the damn doctor would listen to her this time and do
something to help them.
“Dr. Myers, please,” she said as soon as she heard someone answer the phone.
“I’m sorry, but he’s with a patient right now. If you’d like to leave a mess-“
“I don’t care if he is with a patient!” Julie said, cutting the receptionist off. “Tell him
that Tristan McCree has had another panic attack. He’s knocked himself unconscious this
time and we’re taking him to Province Hospital,” she rushed to explain, hanging up before
the receptionist could argue or ask her any questions.
Feeling exhausted, she walked back to Tristan, praying that this would be the last
time that they had to go through something like this. Honestly, she didn’t know how much
more she could handle. Tristan was too much for her. She hadn’t been ready for him seven
years ago when she was barely sixteen years old and discovered that she was pregnant and
she wasn’t ready for him now. She just needed a break. She needed someone to fix him,
or…..
She just needed something.
Tristan was still unconscious when the ambulance arrived. The Paramedics bandaged his
head and stabilized his spine and were starting to load him onto a backboard when Julie
realized that Shaun hadn’t come downstairs.
“I’ll be back in a minute. I just want to tell my husband that we’re going now. Please
don’t leave without me,” Julie explained in a rush as she ran upstairs.
She found Shaun sitting on the floor with his back against the wall. “Hun, I have to
go. Can you drive the car to Province Hospital? I’m going to ride with Tristan,” she
explained quickly before turning around to leave, hoping to avoid another argument. “I’ll
see you there soon.”
“No,” was his reply.
She quickly turned around and walked back up the stairs so that she didn’t have to yell.
“You can’t go with us. They’ll only allow one of us to go with him. Baby, you have to drive
there or I won’t have any way to get home.”
“I said no, because I’m not going. I’m done. He’s wrecking our lives. We can’t go
anywhere with him! We’re stuck in our house when we’re not busting our asses off to pay
all the medical bills he makes for us. For Christ’s sake, this is the first time we’ve came to
your mother’s house in three years! I’m sick of this. He needs more help than we can give
him. He needs to be in a psychiatric hospital! The doctors have been telling us that for three
years now. You won’t do it, because you think it will make you a bad mother and right now
I don’t fucking care! He needs help!”
“I don’t need this right now!” she screamed at him, almost pleading with him to just do
it, to free them from this nightmare that Tristan brought into their lives.
Sighing heavily, Shaun got to his feet and went to her. “I’ll go this one last time, but only
to make sure that he gets the help he needs and then I’m done. I can’t be his father
anymore.”
Julie bit her lip as she looked away, hating herself for wanting nothing more than to walk
away from Tristan and pretend that he’d never existed. Shaun was right. Something was
wrong with Tristan, had always been wrong with him. She didn’t want to admit that her six-
year-old son was disturbed, but maybe now she didn’t have a choice.
“Ma’am, we need to go!” one of the EMTs yelled.
Shaun cupped her chin and raised her gaze to his. He brushed her blonde hair out of her
face and kissed her forehead. She couldn’t say anything to him. She just wanted to wrap
her arms around him and pretend that only the two of them existed.
“Julie, he’s coming to!” her mother yelled, destroying all her hopes that she could forget
this was happening.
Nodding, she stepped away from Shaun and slowly made her way back downstairs.
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“Alright, on my count, one…two…three,” Tom counted off for his partner as they
picked up the backboard holding the little boy. Without a word, they carried the child out of
the house.
Tom watched as the little boy slowly opened his eyes. When he looked around, Tom
assumed that the little boy was looking for his mother. As soon as the little boy’s gaze
landed on the house, the violent tremors began.
“Whoa! Tom, hold up I think the kid is seizing,” Jeff said. In a well-practiced move, they
placed the backboard on the ground and re-checked the little boy’s vitals.
“He’s having another panic attack,” the boy’s mother said flatly, sounding exhausted as
she stood by them, making no moves to comfort the boy as he started to scream.
Tom looked at his partner and then back at the boy’s mother, pissed that she wasn’t
helping. The kid needed his mother and she was just standing there, looking like she didn’t
care. “Ma’am, it’s kind of chilly out here. Why don’t you wait in the ambulance and stay
warm?”
With a slight nod, she walked over to the ambulance and climbed in the back. Shaking
his head in disgust, Tom finished looking the little boy over, making sure that they hadn’t
missed anything.
When he was done, he nodded towards the boy and without a word they picked up the
backboard and headed towards the ambulance. They found his mother sitting on the tech
bench. When they strapped the backboard to the stretcher, she finally looked at her son.
She gave the boy what looked like a forced smile.
Tom watched as the little boy looked up at his mother and started to return her forced
smile when an expression of pure terror spread over his face. In seconds, he was screaming,
his eyes were squeezed shut, and he was tearing at the safety restraints that secured him to
the board. He was just about free when Tom managed to grab a hold of him and restrain
him on the board. “Jeff, get back here now!”
Tom tried to hold Tristan’s arms down, but he could barely manage it. He was shocked
at how strong this six year old kid was. In matter of seconds, the little boy broke free and
lunged for the door. Tom managed to grab the kid before he could jump out of the truck.
He had the kid back on the board when the kid took him by surprise and kicked him in the
groin.
“Get the kid!” Tom yelled when Jeff opened the back doors, in too much pain to move,
never mind wrestle with the kid again.
Jeff barely managed to catch the kid when he jumped out of the ambulance. The boy
was like a rabid animal, kicking and swinging his fists as he struggled to get free.
“Tom, grab the restraints and call the police! I can’t handle this kid!”
Still huddled on the floor of the ambulance, Tom struggled to stand up and when that
didn’t work, he crawled to the front of the ambulance. He grabbed the portable radio.
“Echo 14 in need of police assistance on scene. I repeat, echo 14 in need of police
assistance.” Still gasping for air, he lowered the microphone and waited for a response.
“
Echo 14, sending police assistance to 13 Derry Road. Is that correct
?” dispatch
returned.
“That’s correct.”