Catching Temptation (In Darkness She Fades (Book 1)

Catching
Temptation

In Darkness She Fades Series

Book One

By

Sarah Erber

This is a work of
fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons,
living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2014 by
Sarah Erber

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States.

ISBN 978-0-615-96533-8
(e-book)

For my mother, Louann,

who encouraged me to keep writing

and

to my sister, Ruthann,

for helping me write the song,
Alice Demented

Table
of Contents

Prologue

1
Rosewood

2
Rosewood High

3
Tormented

4
In Darkness She Fades

5
The Laws of Rosewood

6
Friends & Enemies

7
Five Minutes

8
Auditions & Accusations

9
Halloween Masquerade Ball

10
Jenkins’ Secret

11
Stricken

12
Reviving Memories

Acknowledgments

About
the Author

Works
in Progress

Prologue

Airbags explode. My body is in
agony as the car rolls down the hill. Sheets of music sail throughout the car. For
a brief moment, everything remains airborne.  A travel mug crunches
against my nose. Glass shatters everywhere and falls like hail. It stings my
body. My opera dress disappears out of a broken window. Mom’s body keeps
jerking without the protection of her seat belt. The roof slams against the
ground and teeters back and forth, creating a moan.

Gasoline fumes overpower the air.

Heat scorches my skin as my long
white hair dangles to the roof. Mom’s sprawled out form lays motionless beneath
Dad who is still buckled to the passenger seat.

“M-Mom!” I untangle myself from
the seat belt and land at an awkward angle. It hurts to move…to breathe. I
stretch my fingers toward Mom’s henna tattooed hand. It’s my fault. Hot tears
stream down my cheeks.

Cackles and a strong scent of
pine surround me. A rough voice whispers my name, “
Temptation…
”

Panic rises into my chest. I grip
my parent’s lifeless hands. Scoping out all of the exits, I cannot subdue the
tremors shooting through my body, nor can I suppress a nameless fear I have
developed over the past month. An invisible pain keeps haunting me and returns
stronger every day, like the moon that keeps coming back bigger and bigger,
until it reaches its peak, and brings out the madness in broken humans.

My peak contains monsters.

Flames lick at the exits. Gnarled
hands, the texture of rough tree bark, grip my ankles, hauling me out of the
car, and into the darkness of the forest.

Collapsing lungs voids me of
speech. I dig my nails into the cool earth, in attempt to stop the monsters
from taking me from my family. I long to fight back, but my broken body refuses
to move. Dry pine needles pierce my skin as the monsters drag me across the
ground. The cold October air replaces the heat from the fire. Ashes dust the
sky, stealing the beauty of the starry night.

The hands release me on a bed of
dried leaves.

Gasping.

Inhaling.

My lungs are struggling to work
properly. Sucking in one giant breath for a final attempt at life, my world
swirls, but before the darkness can claim me, an ugly monster wearing a strange
mask constructed of bones, leans over my broken body. My breath escapes my
bloody lips in a gurgled scream. Heart wavering in its rhythmic beating, I feel
my eyes bulge.

The monster grins.

I die.

Chapter One

Rosewood

I hate cars. Cars lead to
accidents, accidents lead to hallucinations, hallucinations lead to doctors,
and doctors prescribe visits to psychiatric hospitals. The car jolts as it hits
a dry pothole on West Ironwood Drive. Closing my eyes, I try meditating to
block my panic attack.

I touch the keychain photo
clipped to my purse of my best friend, Karma Linn. My skin will never retain a
milky white glow which Karma possesses. Instead, the Indian blood I inherited
from my late mother gives my skin a tanned glow. Mom would always mention how
lucky I am to have eyes, the color of jade. I would have been a goddess in
India, especially because of my natural white hair; a genetic trait from dad.

Eyes flickering to my reflection
in the window, I wonder – if mom were still alive – would she recognize me now
that I have purple contacts and the top half of my hair dyed black. Another
jolt from the car causes me to dig my nails into the seat.

“Why do we have to move to
Michigan? I liked Virginia.”

“For the last time, Nathaniel,
stop your silly whining. Your father wanted to move here and we agreed.”

“Pft! You mean you agreed.”

“Daniel, don’t you start either.”
Aunt Sally adjusts her rear-view mirror and spots her teenage son mumbling
insults. He shakes his hair that resembles a haystack drenched in rainwater.

I tug my plastic earphones out.
They tap against my earrings. The light beat of a song from my favorite belly
dancing music, pulses against my neck. “Can you tell us what city–?”

“No. I’m not telling you what
city we’re moving too, because you’ll all complain about how boring it’ll be.”

I attempted to get this
information out of Aunt Sally before we left Urbanna, but Aunt Sally insisted
on not saying a word. Karma helped me buy a pre-paid cell phone, so at least we
could keep in touch. The mystery of what town I am going to live in sucks,
similar to going on a blind date. Not knowing what to expect, entices endless
possibilities.

“Whatever.” Daniel crosses his
arms over his football jersey and relaxes in his seat. The leather beneath him
makes the sound of tape ripping off skin. “Are we there yet?”

“We should be coming up to the
town anytime.” Aunt Sally sighs and adjusts her stylish bangs to one side of
her wide forehead.

“Good,” Daniel says, “driving for
two days in the car sucks ass.”

“Watch your language. I don’t
want Nathaniel learning that kind of slang.”

I flip my black hair over my
shoulders and smirk at Aunt Sally’s scolding. It never fails. Whenever we take
a trip, whether to the grocery store or out of town, it always ends up in a
fight along the way. Though Nathaniel is only nine, he knows more curse words
than Aunt Sally. Dipping my hand into my Indy bag, I pop out a piece of gum.

A freckled hand snatches it away.
Daniel stuffs the gum in his mouth and sneers at me.

“I hope it gets stuck in your
braces.” I punch out another tiny piece. Chewing on the bubblemint gum, my mind
drifts. Occupying the same space as my cousins has major disadvantages.
Yesterday, Daniel reenacted the car crash with his younger brother’s Hot Wheel
cars, complete with dead Lego people. If only dad had another brother or
sister, then I would not be stuck with these brats. Once upon a time, I used to
think people showed sympathy for an orphan, not repulsion.

“Mom, Daniel won’t stop touching
me!”

Daniel kicks the back of
Nathaniel’s seat, causing him to jolt forward. “Snitch!”

“Daniel, will you please leave
your brother alone. You’re fifteen-years-old and you still act like a
two-year-old – there’s the sign for the town. Finally.”

Out of the tinted glass, I spot a
sign resembling an aged tombstone. Spidery vines devour most of the crumbly
stone. I squint to make out the words beneath the twisted vegetation.

Welcome to Rosewood.

I
freeze. The first time I heard the word, Rosewood, came from a dream I had
while the doctors tried to save me from a suicide attempt.

In the dream, my world is amerced
in darkness with chrome outlining objects. A mass of chrome fire glows from the
upturned car. Beautiful embers float through the October night air.
Creatures in bone masks gather
around a body on the ground.

My body.

Their lips whisper a curse in my
ear as they pour a shining liquid down my throat.

My body on the ground twitches,
before my eyes open. I watch myself scream. The memory of the old monster’s
body bent over me still makes my breath stop. His words are something I will
never forget.

“Silus will be pleased. She be da
one ta free us.” A flash of his pearly teeth when he speaks catches the sliver
of moonlight through the old trees.

I am like a ghost watching a past
memory. It terrorizes me even while I try to die.

A figure of a tall masked
creature emerges from the blazing fire. Double the size of ordinary monsters,
with a more distinguishable human body, he carries an unsettling power around
him. He is a god among the monsters.

I remember closing my eyes to
seal out the devilish vision.

His rough hands move in gentle
circles against the skin on my back. The monster’s embrace is warm and
comforting. I could rest forever in these arms.

As I wrap my arms around his wide
chest, I breathe in the scent of pine trees. A familiar scent, but I cannot
recall where I last inhaled the intoxicating aroma.

The image of my body and the
impish creatures fades, so nothing but a sea of darkness exists.

His voice, rich and deep, rumbles
against my forehead. “I’ve waited a long time for someone like you,
Temptation.”

My eyes flutter open.

His grip tightens. “Why did you
try to kill yourself?”

Something is not right. I am
waking up.

“I need you alive. Rosewood needs
you.”

I try to pull away. I want to
stay asleep, but he is making me wake up.

He grips my waist with one stout
arm and removes his mask with his other. Silvery outlining defines the sharp
features of his high cheekbones and strong jaw. Pointed ears poke out of his
hair. He drops the mask and it disappears into the swirling blackness, but I do
not notice. No monster could ever be so beautiful and frightening. His
fingernail follows the curve of my jaw. Invisible electricity flows from the
tip. He tilts my chin up. “I’ll not lose you, Temptation. I’ll keep bringing
you back. You cannot die. Free me.” As his lips touch mine, the death spell
over me breaks. Sounds rush around me and the clean scent of a hospital
replaces the smell of pine against the monster’s skin. I do not want to go; I
long to stay with the strange man. He is different from the others.

He cares.

My eyes flutter away the memory.
I found it and “it” is not another monster after all, but a simple town. My fingers
ache to dial Karma’s number. Of course, impossibility presents itself, because
calling my best friend and saying, “I figured out the monster’s riddle,” will
kill any chance of proving my sanity to Aunt Sally.

Zooming past the sign, trees on
both sides of the curved road loom over the car like cloaked reapers. The wild
tops of the maple trees rock back and forth as if bidding travelers a mournful
farewell. A stone wall and an archway line the base of the forest. It looks
ancient. Thick moss covers large areas of the wall. Movement beyond the archway
demands my attention to the forest floor.

Shrieking and jolting sideways, I
cause Daniel to slam against the car door.

Aunt Sally screams and swerves
the car into the opposite lane. Her French-tipped nails dig into the steering
wheel as she attempts to straighten out the car. After a few zigzags, her foot
slams on the brake. “Good grief, Temptation! What’s wrong? Are you having
flashbacks again?”

Daniel shoves me off his
shoulders, bumping my head against the window.

“B-Back there in the woods. A
creature wearing a strange mask – a bone mask.”

Silence stretches for a few
seconds before Daniel scoffs. “Hold up a minute,” he says, “you mean you almost
caused us to have a car accident because you’re seeing things? Are you popping
pills again? I don’t care if you still want to kill yourself, but I have better
things to do than play chicken with death.”

“Enough, you two. Temptation,
it’s probably a trick of the light. A mirage.” Aunt Sally’s chest drops with a
sigh. “Let’s forget about it. Besides, there’s the town up ahead.”

“I swear to God, if she starts
acting weird like she did at our last school, I’m telling the school
counselor.”

I punch the leather seat. It
leaves a light imprint of my zodiac ring. “I’m not crazy!”

“Right.” Daniel snorts. “Seeing
monsters isn’t crazy.”

“I said enough you two!”

Daniel crosses his arms. I lean
my forehead against the warm window. Reaching for the gold locket dangling
around my neck, I twirl the thin chain between my fingers. I salvaged it from
the accident. To me, the locket signifies a last gift from my parents.

I thought by moving, I would stop
seeing the creatures. Stop hearing their dark whispers. Over the last ten
months, I trained myself to ignore their stares.

The creature in the archway
looked stranger than the others did. It possessed a human edge to its features.
It wore a bone mask. I have not seen one like that since the accident. The
decision to ignore the creature came easy. Dark Temptation rules my life. Sweet
Temptation died months ago.

Shops flash past in a colorful
blur, snapping me from my trance. Strange. Nobody is roaming the town.

Aunt Sally turns left to Weeping
Willow Road. An abandoned gas station decorated with poor graffiti stands on
the left corner, while a Victorian house in the shape of a Gothic castle,
complete with gargoyles, stands on the right corner. Despite the lack of mortal
bodies, I secretly enjoy the idea of living in a secluded area. From the signs
mounted on the highway, all the major cities start at least fifty miles from
Rosewood, Michigan. No psychologists here; only my freedom.