Erasing: Shadows (The Erasing Series)
Erasing: Shadows
The Erasing Series, Book 1
K.D. Rose
Lycaon Press
Calgary, Alberta
www.lycaonpress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or
persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Erasing: Shadows
Copyright© 2013 K.D. Rose
ISBN: 978-1-77101-212-6
Cover Artist: Fiona Jayde
Editor: Leona Bushman
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations
embodied in reviews.
Lycaon Press
www.lycaonpress.com
Dedication
For P.J., Michelle, Madison, Morgan, Zachary, and Brian.
And for Lucretia Fresquez, without whom this book would not exist.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Hope Welsh for her invaluable input, work, and advice; thank you to Jeremy Parker for the astral map; to Fiona Jayde for her cover art; and thank you especially to Leona Bushman who puts up with more than any editor should have to.
Chapter One
The Ross Family
Mira Ross whistled in the kitchen to her three-year-old son, Brandon. A blonde-haired woman who looked barely forty in a beautiful way, she moved gracefully, even when washing dishes. Mira also occasionally sang to Brandon while doing the dishes. Her son cooed from his baby bouncer. His “ooh, ooh” baby sounds warmed her heart. She had just started the second verse when it struck her as odd that he had stopped mid “ooh.”
As she turned around—some objective part of her realized that if she weren’t seeing this, she would never have believed it—Brandon’s physical body started disappearing in front of her. At first, Mira was paralyzed. His head had already turned translucent amidst the rest of the kitchen, then actually disappeared. The rest of Brandon appeared ghostly, as if he were traversing between this world and another. Instinctively, Mira frantically threw herself around him, but it didn’t make any difference.
His arms evaporated in front of her eyes, and then his trunk just disappeared, leaving a faint afterglow. In despair, and crying, she grasped hold of his legs and pulled them to her. Until now, she hadn’t been able to get a word out. As his legs started to evaporate as well, she held on anyway and grabbed his little red tennis shoes, hard. “Not my baby!” She wailed as she clutched the shoe with anger. Then the right shoe disappeared. Mira felt a tug as she watched the last ankle go, the left shoe still limp in her hand. A blood-curdling scream rent the air.
It came from her.
She shrieked like a banshee. Michael, her husband, and Morgan, her youngest daughter, ran in from the backyard at the first sound of her screams. Mrs. Ross, Mira’s mother-in-law hurried down the stairs. Usually a no-nonsense, stern woman, she currently held a countenance of fright on her face. The ensuing chaos further upset Mira as no one knew what was going on, and Mira could not yet coherently explain.
“Brandon...Brandon!” was all she could get out at first. Her husband sat her down on a kitchen chair and hugged her. He tried to wipe away her tears away as much as he could, but a torrent streamed down her face.
When she calmed down enough to recount the events—between wails—she couldn’t hold back, Mrs. Ross spoke first. Her tone matched the accusing finger pointed at Michael and Mira. “This is because of that meddling the two of you did when younger.”
Michael regarded his mother with exasperation. “Now isn’t the time to bring up the past. We need to figure out what just happened and how to get Brandon back.”
“What about Madison?” asked Morgan.
“She’s at swim practice.” Michael answered with a calm he likely didn’t feel, for his daughter’s sake. Madison, at seventeen, was often away at school activities. “She can stay there for now. There are more important things to discuss and do—and in a hurry.”
“Fine, don’t listen to me. I’ll just be upstairs out of the way,” said Mrs. Ross in her usual curt manner.
“Mrs. Ross,” said Mira, a peacemaker by nature, “we need all the help we can get. Please stay.” At that moment, she wished she’d been close enough to her mother-in-law to call her Mom. She looked at her husband with pleading eyes.
“You’re wasting time,” said Mrs. Ross, ignoring Mira. “You kids will come up with a plan, I’m sure. I’ll just be upstairs.” With that, she climbed the stairs to the second floor, a determined look in her eyes.
***
Michael said, “She’s right. Every minute we stand here, something else could be happening. We need a plan right now...Mira?” His tone turned softer. He was still in love with his wife after all these years. “Mira, you’re the best one at traveling the other plane. Do you remember when we were younger? What do you suggest? I mean, I assume this has to do with astral world travel, just like Mom did.”
Michael and Mira had met when they were both very young and had gone on many adventures together, along with a tight group of friends. After dating others back and forth like all teenagers do, Michael realized that Mira was ‘the one.’ Michael remembered that when he finally got up his nerve to ask Mira to marry him; she had smiled and told him it was about time. But then, she was a bit older. Still, they married young and had never regretted it.
But now, Mira sat on the couch, a pillow clutched in her hand, tears streaming down her face. She lamented between cries. “I’m not sure I can think straight. Besides, who would want to take my little boy?” She dabbed her face with tissues. Michael held one of her hands tightly and stuffed more tissues in the other. The family was in shock.
Finally, Morgan piped up. “You can do it, Mom. Remember that time when I was little and jumped in the deep end of the pool because I didn’t know what I was doing and you couldn’t swim? Without even thinking, you grabbed a cushion and jumped in right after me and saved me.”
Michael looked at his daughter with appreciation. “She’s right, you know,” he said to Mira as he put his arm around her and held her tight. “You always know just the thing to do. Our little boy is missing, but we don’t know that any harm has come to him. And from what we know of the astral, he is probably okay. I know how strong you are, love. See if you can put your emotions aside and concentrate. We’ll all try to help.” He kissed Mira’s cheek.
With that, Michael and Mira came up with a plan. It would be dangerous, but journeying to the other world always held some amount of danger, no matter how good you were.
Michael tried to hide his worry.
Brandon is only three! Who knows where he is? But what other recourse do we have?
So they arranged for Morgan to stay with her grandmother in case Brandon showed up again. Meanwhile, Michael and Mira would prepare for the trip of their lives. It had been a long time for both of them, but Michael was sure it would be like riding a bike. Some meditation, some physical yoga together, and soon they would be…elsewhere, or in this case, in an inexact replica of their world, called the astral plane.
Michael knew the rest of the family had no clue how extensive the traveling that they and their friends had done in the past. Except for his mother.
She knew.
Michael sometimes wondered if that was the reason for the distance between Mira and his mom. Perhaps she hadn’t liked Mira doing all that dangerous astral traveling with her son when they were younger. Brandon was too young to know anything about travel, though. Michael had no idea what could have gone wrong. He understood that Madison and Morgan knew about travel in general—just from what he and Mira had told them, but so far, neither had shown much interest. The family had certainly never witnessed anyone leave physically from here.
Even Mira and Michael had rarely seen others take their physical body with them when traveling. It took powerful energy to do that kind of thing. When they and their friends used to go between worlds, only their consciousness went. Although once they arrived, everyone existed in a replica of their physical bodies constructed naturally from their own energy. The age of the body however, was always unpredictable. But their physical bodies, the real body of the person, stayed in the real world. Now Brandon had somehow traveled—or been taken—physically to the other world, right in front of Mira. “A full-bodied assault,” Mira had cried.
Michael hugged his wife again and kissed her on the cheek. She would get through this. He knew her to be strong—even headstrong—and when it came to her children, nothing would stop her from protecting them. Michael was positive the love connection between them and their son would take them right to him. That was one less thing to worry about. What else would be there when they found Brandon, though, he didn’t know, and it concerned him. Lack of knowledge could be dangerous at any time, more so in the astral plane. And for a three-year-old! Michael felt his face flush. Somehow this was his entire fault. He had to make it right. Who knew where his baby was right at this moment?
Was it really an assault like Mira had said? Michael tried to put such thoughts out of his head. Mira had been a prodigy—when she was only a kid, maybe Brandon—but at three? With his whole body? He couldn’t fathom it.
***
Morgan went upstairs to check on her grandmother. “Grandma, are you all right?” She leaned like a cat against the doorway. Then she noticed her grandmother’s mood had changed a little.
“I’m all right, sweetie, I just needed to check on a few things.” Mrs. Ross sat on the edge of her bed, legs crossed, looking relaxed.
“What things?” asked Morgan.
“Well,” said her grandmother. “I’ll tell you something if you promise to keep it a secret.”
“Of course, Grandma, what secret?”
“Brandon is okay,” she said, then added, “for now.”
Morgan had a quizzical look on her face. “How do you know that?”
“I don’t want to go into the details,” whispered Mrs. Ross. “But Morgan, I’ve trusted you with this so you need to keep it a secret, okay?”
“Okay, Grandma,” said Morgan. Her face showed excitement at having a secret to keep, then she looked crestfallen. “Are you going to tell Madison too when she gets home?” She strummed her fingers over the quilt on the bed.
Her grandmother chuckled. “No, Madison is a wildcard. I reckon her parents will have trouble with her rebelliousness one day. Probably more than with Brandon at the moment.”
“But Brandon is okay?”
Mrs. Ross stood up and looked out the window. “Yes, I know that he is safe for now. And I have faith that your parents will figure out a plan that will keep him that way.”
“But you won’t tell me anything more?” asked Morgan.
Mrs. Ross turned and hugged her granddaughter. “Not at this time, but I will when you’re older, I promise.”
“But not Madison right?”
Mrs. Ross chuckled again. “You girls should stay out of competition. You’re very different. Yes, I’ll tell you more when you’re older. Madison, however, will learn everything on her own, the way she wants it. That’s her nature.”
“Okay, Grandma.” Morgan didn’t really understand what her grandmother meant, but if Grandma said that Brandon was okay, then he must be. Some people didn’t like her because she came across as gruff, but Morgan knew she could always trust what Grandma said. This wasn’t the first time they had had an intimate talk. Morgan gave her grandmother another hug. “Okay Grandma, it’s just between you and me.” Then she waltzed out of the room.