Mind Over Easy (32 page)

Authors: Bryan Cohen

Tags: #Kids, #Teen, #Fantasy and Magic, #Fiction & Literature, #Fiction - YA, #Fantasy, #Fiction

BOOK: Mind Over Easy

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Ted kissed her forehead. "I will."

Though they embraced for several minutes, it felt like five seconds in Erica's mind. Before she knew it, he was waving goodbye as the door to the aircraft closed for departure. Erica had the strange feeling that he wouldn't be the same Ted when he returned.

She felt a hand on her back. It was Natalie's. The cheerleader put her arm around the basketball star and they watched together as the plane flew away.

"Good riddance." Everyone looked at Dhiraj, who burst out laughing.

The others responded with chuckles and tears in equal measure.

He let out a big sigh. "What do we do now?"

"We wait for something bad to happen." Erica wiped away the last of the moisture from her face. "Then we stop it."

Natalie kept her arm around Erica's shoulder and gave her a squeeze on the back. "It almost sounds like you want something bad to happen."

Erica looked up in the sky and watched as Ted's plane disappeared behind a cloud. "I have a feeling that we won't have much of a choice."

The four of them piled back into the SUV and headed home.

Epilogue

The samurai sat in a meditative state in the middle of the damp cave. He could hear the droplets of water land on the rock below.

Whap. Whap. Whap. Plop.

The difference in sound clued the warrior into the presence of other men in the cave. After a full night without food and water, he knew the exercise was about to begin. The samurai stayed in his meditation as long as he could. After all, this fight wasn't going to last very long.

He used all of his senses to plot his next move. The sound of the water dripping on the cave floor and the men's footsteps told him the number of people coming his way. The feeling of the moisture in the air and on the ground informed him that the fighter who made the least movement had the strongest chance of victory. A faint scent of cologne told him that at least one of his attackers didn't plan on breaking a sweat. He let his eyes open to see how well his other senses had informed him.

Sure enough, there were five attackers and one of them looked like he'd rather be anywhere but here. Two men with beards looked ready to prove themselves and a wide brute with a scar on his face appeared to be out for vengeance.

The samurai readied himself by getting to his feet. Instead of waiting for his attackers to surround him, he went straight for the man with the scar. Before his opponent could get his bearings, the samurai peppered his body with six kicks in rapid succession. As the man fell, the samurai used the body as a springboard to leap into one of the two bearded men. The warrior repurposed the man closest to him as a shield, absorbing blows from one bearded man into the other. He used his strength to pick up the now-pummeled assailant and toss him into the other. There were just two attackers remaining, and they were huddled together in the corner. The samurai ran toward them, and they started to flee. Before they could get very far, the warrior had grabbed the hair of one and slammed him into a rock face. The fifth man – the one wearing the cologne – stopped in his tracks.

"This isn't a date." The samurai bent to the ground and swept the legs out from under his last attacker. He looked toward one of the cave walls. "Is this the best you can send?"

Lights turned on throughout the cave, and the dark cavern became illuminated in a hurry. The cave wall turned clear and three men with clipboards took down some notes. A fourth man spoke into a microphone.

"Thank you, everyone. Yoshi, the council would like to see you."

The samurai nodded, walking up to a nondescript part of the cave. He reached for part of the rock. The stone turned in his hand and a doorway made itself apparent.

The man with the cologne called out. "How do you always know where the door is?"

Yoshi considered smiling, but he knew his attacker didn't deserve it. "Some rocks don't belong."

With that, he left.

The five-man council sat around Yoshi in higher chairs than were necessary. Their beards were long and white, as if that would convey wisdom. Yoshi wondered if the council members realized how ridiculous they looked.

One member of the council stroked his beard. "Your skills are top-notch as always."

Yoshi felt the urge to rip the man's facial hair clear off his face. "But not strong enough to be made the living soul."

Another man whose voice shuddered with each syllable spoke up immediately. "The light souls work in mysterious ways. We are here to serve them and nothing more."

Yoshi wanted to pound the walls, throttle the old men and leave this place forever. "I once again ask for permission to leave and join the living soul."

The man with the shuddering voice spoke up again. "The answer remains no. Your place is here. If the war comes, we need you here to fight for our world."

Yoshi repressed his urge for violence and bowed to the members of the council.

The following morning, when the cologne-scented man came to wake Yoshi for his daily training session, the samurai was nowhere to be found. None of the guards had seen or heard him exit. It was as if he'd vanished out of existence.

Hundreds of miles away, Yoshi laughed as he accepted a cup of tea from an attractive, blonde flight attendant. "Thank you. I hope my English isn't completely terrible. It's been a long time since speaking it."

The woman laughed. "Honey, you have better English than most of the people I know. What brings you to the States?"

Yoshi sipped the tea. It was the perfect temperature. He wondered if it was a good omen. "Business. I'm here to collect something that belongs to me."

The flight attendant was intrigued, as if she'd heard the latest celebrity gossip story. "And what's that?"

Yoshi grinned up at the woman as she leaned in closer.

"My birthright."

About the Author

Bryan Cohen is the author of
Ted Saves the World
, the first book in a planned seven-book YA sci-fi/fantasy series, and a collection of creative writing prompts books. He has written over 30 books, which have sold more than 30,000 copies. Bryan is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 2013, Bryan appeared on an episode of the nationally televised "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." He did just fine. Bryan lives with his wife and their Netflix account in Chicago.

Acknowledgements & Legal Info

Thank you to everybody who made this book possible. My beta readers Julianne Clancy, Tim Matson, Annabel Lang, Ben Harpe and Rachel Bean helped me fix more than a few flaws. Candice and Logan Conner, along with Alisa Rosenthal, Michael Silberblatt, Cordelia Dewdney and James Olsen made this cover stand out. Ashley Gainer worked her heart out editing this book, and I couldn't be happier with her contributions. Lastly, thank you to my wife for letting me work the long hours needed to make this book happen.

I'd like to dedicate this book to all my English teachers over the years that believed in my writing abilities.

Click here to read for this book's legal information.

Thanks from Bryan

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my novel
Mind Over Easy
. It would mean a lot to me if you could
post a review of the book on Amazon.

Message me here
with any thoughts on the book.

Please follow the latest updates for the
Ted Saves the World Series
by
subscribing to my email list.

Ted Finley will return in book 3…

Look for the next chapter in mid-December!

Table of Contents

PART ONE