The fiction relay got back around to me a couple weeks ago and I have been really struggling with it.  I love the story, I love where it has been and where it is going, and I really worried myself sick thinking I might ruin it all.  TRG has so much faith in my writing that I could hardly write a word I liked…lol.  But finally, here it is…. 

To read the first 16 chapters you can find them HERE

The night was too quiet and with the heavy winter clouds his room was darker than normal.  Well it used to be his room until he started sharing it with Sam.  Raj really liked Sam and was glad to have someone he could talk to, especially since his mom died 6 months ago.  It was hard enough being a child living under witness protection but having lost his mom 2 days before his 10^th birthday made life in this old distillery unbearable.  He wasn’t sure exactly what happened that led him and his family to this place but it had become their home when Raj was 4 and without neighbors he had no friends.  For some reason his mom thought being home schooled would be safer so he passed his time studying, reading, wishing and hoping for a different life.  A normal life.

Nobody would tell him the details of his mom’s accident.  One day she was just gone.  Now his dad spent most of his time in the lab he had built in the cave behind their home.  His dad was brilliant but no longer had the ability to be a good father.  Raj saw the pain and heartache behind his dad’s eyes and it multiplied the loneliness that much more.  His dad had aged a decade in the last few months and very nearly never ate.  Raj felt helpless until Sam came to live with them.

A few months ago his dad found Sam hitchhiking on the side of Route 23, bruised from the beating his step dad had dealt him, and told Sam he could stay as long as he needed.  Sam and Raj bonded immediately both having been emotionally broken and angry at the world.  After Sam came to stay his dad started bringing home more kids.  It wasn’t long until Raj had 4 more roommates and his dad began donating large sums of money to a private orphanage.

Yesterday Raj had gotten up early to catch his dad leaving before sunrise only to find his dad’s lab was already empty.  Raj wasn’t allowed to be in the cave but his curiosity had been keeping him awake at night.  He turned the light to the underground lab on and was amazed at how cluttered the lab had become.  Pictures of him, Sam and other children hung all over the walls.  There was a map of the surrounding area and notes scrawled all over it in some sort of numbered code.  The room was musty and had a sickening rusty metal smell.  He crossed the tiled floor to the small ornate desk, it was the only clean surface in the room.  Behind the desk was a hallway leading to several lab rooms.  All of them locked.

Something was wrong.  He sat up in bed thinking it wasn’t just too quiet but his room shouldn’t be this dark even without the moon peeking in his window.  He was about to swing his legs out of bed to investigate when he realized his ankles were bound to the bed.  Panic surged through his mind when he realized his window was dark because there was no window.  This wasn’t his room.  His memory of standing in the lab’s hallway surged back and he remembered nothing after that moment.  He wasn’t even sure now what time it was or what day.  He stopped and tried to listen but there was no sound at all…for all he knew he could be deaf and blind.  He was about to try saying something just to make sure his ears worked when he heard a blood chilling scream.  It was Maegan.

Ok now I think it is TRG ‘s turn 🙂

RELAYERS

TRG
CC
Delilah
Ted
KC
Dawn