Take Me Tomorrow (24 page)
Authors: Shannon A. Thompson
I
sputtered up dust and curled into the fetal position when the pain caught up with me. My ankle screamed, but my fingers ran over the face of Noah’s watch. The metal pressed against my wrist, and my eyes squeezed shut as the ground shook below me. Noah’s train was rumbling away, speeding across the tracks, further and further away.
Noah was gone. Rinley was safe.
I was enveloped in darkness.
“Sophia! Sophia!” Lily c
alled, collapsing next to me. Her white hair looked like fluffy clouds against the blue sky.
I blinked. The sky should’ve been orange. It was still morning. But it wasn’t. The sky was as blue as the afternoon was hot.
“Oh. God. Are you okay?” Lily never stopped talking. “Please, say something.”
“I’m okay,” I groaned. The taste in my mouth was the worst part. It was sweet like blood
, but bitter. I had bitten my lip, and the blood mixed with the mud on my face.
“You’ve been out for a while,” she explained, but I couldn’t ask for how long because Miles was shouting his sister’s name.
“We’re okay,” Lily shouted back.
I turned my neck and looked backward, over my forehead. The ground was the sky, but a truck rolled toward us. The rumbling I had felt was the truck’s engine, not the train. I had never felt the train. I had passed out.
“Is she okay?” Miles asked as the door creaked open. Two sets of feet jumped out.
“She’s fine!” Lily shouted as I drifted in and out of consciousness.
“Where’s Sophia?”
I was in Lily’s bony lap. I was in a man’s arms. I was off the ground, bouncing lightly as someone carried me across a path. I was
in a forest. I was in a car, lying down in the back. I was mumbling. I was asleep. I was awake.
“Sophia?” The passenger leaned
over to look at me.
I opened my eyes to a
gray-eyed man with salt and pepper hair. “Can you hear me, kiddo?”
“Dad?” I croaked the rarely used word
. “You’re home.”
“I’m here, kiddo,” he said, and the truck bounced over a dirt part I had never seen before.
It was dark now, but the headlights weren’t shining in front of us. He understood land more than I did.
“You did good, kids,”
he spoke to Miles or Lily, or me − all of us − and I closed my eyes to concentrate on his rough voice. “We’re all going to be fine, and tomorrow, we’ll be home.”
We hadn’t won the war, but we had won the battle.
About the Author
Shannon A. Thompson has been a writer for as long as she can remember, but most people remember her as “that girl with the book.” At sixteen years old – with the continuous support of her father and brother – Shannon’s first novel, November Snow, was published. Many years have passed since then, but Shannon continues to share her novels, poems, and ideas with the world, and she hopes that you will continue to enjoy them.
Currently, Shannon lives in the Midwest with her loyal cat, Bogart. She has more than ten books in various stages of publication, and her poetry has been published in the United States and Norway. She has a B.A. in English from the University of Kansas, but she hopes to teach writers herself one day. Until then, she continues to speak with readers and writers on her insightful blog at
www.ShannonAThompson.com
.
Other Books from Shannon A. Thompson
MINUTES BEFORE SUNSET (BOOK 1 OF THE TIMELY DEATH TRILOGY)
Goodreads Book of the Month
Eric has less than a year left before his fated battle when he meets her. She’s a shade like him, but separated from the Dark – and with more power than she should have. And he can’t stay away.
Jessica is new to town and desperate to figure out who, or what, her birth parents were. But she can’t find them without overcoming Eric, and she won’t let him stop her.
SECONDS BEFORE SUNRISE (BOOK 2 OF THE TIMELY DEATH TRILOGY)
Eric has weeks before his final battle when he’s in an accident. Forced to face his human side, he knows he can’t survive if he fights alone. But he doesn’t want to surrender, even if he becomes the sacrifice for war.
Jessica’s memory isn’t the only thing she’s lost. Her desire to find her parents is gone and so is her confidence. But when fate leaves nightmares behind, she decides to find the boy she sees in them, even if it risks her sanity.
NOVEMBER SNOW
In the city of Vendona, bad bloods aren’t considered human; they aren’t even considered animals. They are lower than that. The parents of these creatures abandon them. The cities shun them, and the government massacres them.
In 2089, an election threatens a revolt, and two bad bloods meet. Among the chaos, their accidental relationship reveals a twisted history, and citizens
are forced to make a decision. Battles begin, love blossoms, and three brothers’ past repeats, while bad bloods focus on their only goal: to survive.
And very few of them will.
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. Or, to learn more about these and other
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