Chosen_Book One Read online

  “You ladies are out late.”

  Based on the sign outside, Hallie was not expecting a cute, petite woman with big hazel eyes and mousey brown hair down to her shoulders to be looking at them from behind the wooden bench. She was wearing a simple black summer dress with flowers on it and was smiling warmly.

  “Uhhh, yeah, we’ve been at the rave down near the waterfront,” Hallie explained.

  Clearly the other girls were baffled as well because none of them spoke.

  “Are you Mindy?” Kiara asked, eventually.

  “Oh, no, I’m Lily. I just run the shop. Mindy should be out shortly,” she informed them. “Are you all looking to have your palms read?”

  “No, just my girlfriend,” Hallie nudged Kiara over towards the desk.

  It could have been because she was drunk, but she could have sworn that Lily was looking at Kiara like she already knew her.

  “Which one of you is Kiara?” an elderly voice asked from behind them.

  They all turned on their heel, a little freaked that Mindy already knew her name. The elderly woman was a lot more like what they were expecting. Full length everything, scarf around her head, rings on each of her fingers.

  Kiara hesitantly lifted her hand.

  “Come over here, dear. Sit. The rest of you can make yourselves comfortable.”

  Still feeling creeped out, the ladies positioned themselves on various chairs and stools around the small, round table in the center of the room. Kiara sat nervously in the seat opposite Mindy, her chest rising and falling a little quicker now that the lady appeared to be more legit than the fortune peddlers at Blackpool that Hallie had tried last summer.

  "Place your hand out flat on the table for me, dear, palm facing upwards."

  Kiara did as she was told. Hallie looked back at Lily who was watching intently, her focus on Kiara more than Mindy.

  Mindy gently traced the lines on Kiara's palm with her wrinkled forefinger, muttering to herself. Hallie couldn't really hear what she was saying, she wasn't sure they were real words.

  "You will have a great deal of love in your life," Mindy said eventually, looking Kiara in the eye. "It will come from a handful of close people, some you know already and some you don't know yet."

  Kiara glanced back at Hallie who offered her a reassuring smile. One of those people had to be her. She loved Kiara so much and she didn't see that ending any time soon.

  "You will soon uncover old secrets, kept from you for a long time. It will change your life."

  That sounded more like the sort of thing that psychics would say to catch the person's attention, make them hopeful for the future.

  "And you will do great things with this change, however..."

  Mindy drifted off and closed her eyes, looking pained. Hallie couldn't tell at this point whether it was an act or not, the upset looked so real.

  "Your life will be shorter than most."

  Hallie felt a lump lodge itself in her throat.

  "How short?" Kiara asked quietly, sounding unsure as to whether she believed this woman.

  Mindy took Kiara's hand in both of hers and clutched it tightly, squeezing her eyes more tightly shut, like she was concentrating harder than she ever had in her life.

  "Five."

  The ladies looked at each other, confused.

  "Five what?" Hallie asked.

  "Five years. To the day.”

  Her eyes flew open and she stared right at Kiara, like her eyes were piercing Kiara’s soul.

  “Five years until Kiara Shaw is no more."

  ~

  The silence was deafening. Of all the things Kiara thought some psychic shop lady might say, predicting her death, to the day, was not one of them. She sat there with her mouth slightly open, unable to comprehend whether this was real. Why would someone who peddled dreams and fantasies say something like that to someone? That was definitely not the way to get new customers.

  Kiara was still deep in thought when Jen loudly blurted out, “Pffft, yeah right!”

  “Shut up,” Hallie slapped her hard in the arm, eliciting a quiet whimper.

  Mindy let go of Kiara’s hand and said, “It is up to you whether you believe it or not, but I suggest you use your time wisely.”

  As Mindy rose from her chair, Kiara found herself faltering.

  “No, wait, I have questions.”

  “I’m afraid that’s all I can tell you. You will have to get your answers elsewhere.”

  As Mindy disappeared into the back, Hallie stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Kiara’s shoulders.

  “Don’t worry, babe, it’s not real,” she murmured, pressing her lips to Kiara’s cheek, trying to comfort her.

  Kiara looked at Lily, who gently shrugged her shoulders. Hallie was right, it couldn’t be real. Mindy was just playing with them, trying to make it more dramatic. Or she was trying to make it seem like everything was more urgent so that Kiara would go out and make those changes herself, be the prophecy.

  “Not real,” she agreed, finally.

  “Let’s get the hell out of here,” Theresa said, hopping to her feet.

  “Yeah, let’s,” Kiara said, wrapping one of her hands around Hallie’s.

  They were halfway down the street, heading towards the tube station when Hannah asked, “Wait, did we pay back there?”

  All of them were so drunk, no one noticed.

  “No, damn,” Kiara said, feeling a little guilty.

  “They didn’t ask and don’t deserve it for being so freaky,” Jen said.

  No one disagreed with her. The mood was decidedly sour now, which didn’t suit any of them.

  “We need to get some of the fun back, how about we play a different game?” Hallie suggested, obviously not wanting to end such a good night on a low.

  “How about I Spy?” Theresa said.

  It was innocent enough, there didn’t seem like any danger there.

  “All right, I Spy with my little eye, something beginning with… P,” Hallie said.

  Hallie’s P for ‘potted plant’ and Hannah’s S for ‘street light’ kept them guessing all the way back to the station. They were making their way onto the empty platform when Hallie finally guessed it.

  “How is it your turn again?” Jen whined, leaning up against the tiled wall.

  “I’m just that good,” Hallie grinned.

  Kiara wasn’t even really playing. She was still distracted by what Mindy had said. Five years didn’t seem like a long time at all. And what had she said about secrets? Something about her finding out stuff that had been kept for her for a long time? She wanted it to sound like a load of junk, but, there was something about the way that Mindy had looked when she was speaking--

  A shriek cut through her thoughts. Kiara looked up just in time to see Hallie, who was standing right on the edge of the platform, slip and fall out of sight with a crash.

  “No!” she gasped, running forwards to the edge and looking over.

  Hallie was lying across the dirty tracks, her face contorted in pain, tears streaming down her face.

  “Hallie! Are you okay?”

  “Oh GOD, that hurts!” Hallie cried, pulling her arm across her face so the others couldn’t see her quietly sobbing.

  “Stay there, I’ll go get someone,” Hannah said, running off back up the stairs. Theresa and Jen were both stood beside Kiara, the three of them trying to figure out if they could do anything before Hannah got back. Then they heard it. The quiet whoosh of an approaching train. Kiara’s head whipped around to look at the sign. It was due in one minute.

  “Hallie, Hallie, I need you to get up,” her voice was frantic now, the three of them beckoning Hallie to them.

  Hallie could hear the train too, the panic stopping her tears for now. She tried to lift herself up, but when she tried to put weight on her leg, she buckled and screamed.

  “I think I’ve sprained my ankle,” she said through gritted teeth, trying again but to no avail.

  Before she rea
lly knew what she was doing, Kiara was kicking off her heels and lowering herself down onto the tracks. The other two yelled for her not to at first, but it was the only way to stop Hallie from becoming a tragedy.

  “Come on, I got you,” Kiara said, hoisting Hallie up onto her feet.

  Out of the corner of her vision she could see the train’s headlights, they needed to get moving.

  “Move it, move it.”

  Kiara supported Hallie over to the edge, pushing her towards the other two’s outstretched hands. “Go, go, please!” she pleaded, trying to hurry them up.

  The rush of air before the train was blasting her now, blowing her hair across her face. With one final push, she felt Hallie’s waist leave her hands and she overbalanced, falling back. There was a blinding light and tremendous, ear-breaking screeching, then everything went black.

  ~

  “NOOOOOOO!” Hallie banged her fists against the stopped train’s windows, her eyes so blurry with tears she could barely see.

  Theresa and Jen were holding her, but she couldn’t feel them. She couldn’t feel anything but the anguish. The train doors opened, and the driver stepped out, shocked, wobbly on his feet. Hallie shook the two girls off and hobbled over to him, intending to take out her agony on him, but she was so unsteady that he had to catch her when she swung at him.

  “I saw her at the last second,” he murmured, shaking.

  Hallie pushed him away, wiping her eyes so she could see him this time and sock him properly, then she noticed something.

  “Shouldn’t there be… person all over the front of the train?”

  It sounded so stupid when it came out of her mouth, but it was true. There should have been splatter or something, something of Kiara to show that she was dead. She didn’t know whether it was the horror speaking, or the denial, but when the driver looked over too, he was equally confused.

  “Move the train,” she ordered, thrusting him back towards the driver’s seat as she went to peer around the front.

  There was no sign that anyone had been hit by anything. Not on the lower part of the carriage, not on the wheels.

  “Move, move, MOVE!”

  As the tube driver edged the train forwards slowly, Hallie hurried as quickly as she could back down the platform to the other two girls and waited. Inch by inch, the train rolled away from the spot where Hallie had fallen to reveal a hole between the tracks. Kiara was there, hanging onto a broken pipe for dear life, choking from the dust.

  It was that moment that Hannah and two station workers burst back onto the platform, looking around at the scene.

  “Get down there and help her!” Hallie said shrilly, desperate for them to save Kiara before she fell and really did die.

  They scampered down onto the track and pulled Kiara up in the nick of time, making sure she and the ground beneath them were stable before breathing a sigh of relief. It was a miracle. Kiara was alive.

  “I was so scared,” Hallie said, pulling Kiara into her arms as soon as she was back on the platform, “I thought you were dead.”

  “Me too,” Kiara breathed, both of them unable to comprehend her terrible and brilliant luck. What were the odds of that happening to anyone, let alone someone who had just been told they had five years left to live?

  “Never do that again,” Hallie ordered, squeezing her even tighter.

  Kiara let out a soft laugh, “I’ll try.”

  “Girls?”

  They held onto each other a little longer before turning to face the man in the high-vis jacket who had just helped save Kiara.

  “You’ll need to stay a little while to talk to the police and get checked out by paramedics, but then we’ll make sure you get safely home, okay?”

  “Okay,” Kiara nodded, still overwhelmed with relief.

  “You’re one lucky girl,” he added, squeezing her shoulder, “Don’t take what comes next for granted.”

  Hallie and Kiara looked at each other and smiled a little.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t.”

  Chapter Three

  Caleb wasn’t sure how this was possible. Five Oracles in the city and not one of them had a visit from a new Chosen last night. He had double checked with all of them before calling Master Mahmid to see whether anything had changed. Nothing had. So, it was entirely possible that there was someone out there in the city right now, none the wiser to the fact that they had abilities which could help change the world. It was his job to find them, but it had got so late in the morning that he had to go back to the university to give two classes and sit his office hours, so students could come see him for guidance with their dissertations and other essays.

  On any other day, he might have broken his flawless record and taken a sick day, but he remembered he had said he would help Kiara with her project. Hallie and Kiara were important to him, so he wouldn’t let them down if he could help it.

  It turned out that Kiara was the one who almost missed the meeting.

  “I’m sorry, so, so, sorry,” she said as she ran through the open door.

  “No worries, sit down, breathe. All the important things,” he said.

  Kiara offered him a grateful smile before nudging the door closed and seating herself in the chair by his desk.

  His office had more stuff in it than his whole apartment, because of the nature of his work. There was a lot of stuff that you could research online these days, but there were a lot of books that he used for his lectures that he had to keep on hand, should he need them for classes or to lend to students. Between the bookshelves, there was a direct line between the door and his desk, the spare chair, and that was about it.

  “You’re the last person I’m seeing today anyway, so don’t sweat it.”

  “Thank you for doing this, I really appreciate it,” she said, pulling her work out her bag. There was something about the way she was still struggling to catch her breath that suggested she was more tired than normal.

  “Did you not get much sleep last night with all the partying?” he asked.

  Kiara looked up at him confused for a moment, then remembered.

  “Oh yeah, the rave. Yeah, we were out until the early hours, I barely got any sleep,” she admitted.

  “We can do this some other time if you want, if you need to go back home and catch up on some sleep.”

  “No, no, I want to do it now,” she assured him, but then fumbled her papers, spilling them all over the desk and floor.

  “Shit,” she cursed, then slapped her hand over her mouth.

  Caleb laughed. “Don’t worry, it’s not like I don’t swear.”

  “My Mum would be so ashamed,” Kiara said as she crouched down to start scooping up the mess she’d made.

  That was when Caleb noticed her hands.

  “Kiara.”

  It took a moment for her to look up at him. “Hmm?”

  “What happened to your hands?”

  They were covered in cuts and bruises.

  “Did someone hurt you while you were out last night?” Had someone hurt Hallie? He felt his blood begin to boil pre-emptively.

  “What? Oh, no,” she shook her head quickly before the anger could build any further. “I had an accident.”

  “An accident?”

  Kiara got back up and sat down, placing the papers down carefully this time.

  “It was so freaky. I don’t even know how to explain it.”

  “Try,” Caleb said, concerned now. Anything that busted up her hands that bad couldn’t have been a simple accident.

  “The five of us were heading home after the rave. We went to get the night tube home, like normal, but Hallie fell onto the tracks.”

  Caleb’s head shifted back, alarmed.

  “She’s fine, just a sprained ankle. It’s fine.”

  Caleb didn’t feel relieved, but he gestured for her to carry on anyway.

  “Hannah went to get help, but there was a train coming. I got down onto the tracks myself to help Hallie back up. I got her up saf
ely, but I stumbled just as the train was coming. I thought for sure I was dead, but the next thing I knew, I was falling. I grabbed out for anything, clasped my hand around this pipe that was there and held on until they figured out I wasn’t dead and came to get me. That’s why my hands are so bad.”

  That was one hell of an accident, Caleb would give her that much.

  “I’m so lucky and so happy that I’m alive and safe, and that Hallie is safe. I wasn’t going to bring it up, I didn’t want you to get that look on your face, like the one you’re doing right now.”

  Caleb loosened his expression and looked at her properly. “Sorry, I just… You’re right, you’re very lucky.”

  The odds in that moment had to be stacked against her, a million to one. Ten million to one… He’d encountered flukes before, they happened all the time when Chosen were first starting out, but he’d never heard of anything quite like that before.

  “Fingers crossed nothing like that ever happens again, hey?” he said, making her smile and nod.

  “Absolutely. Being scared shi- uh- less once is enough for me,” she caught herself this time, even though he’d said it was fine.

  There was a moment of silence between them, then Kiara looked back at the papers on the desk.

  “Maybe we should…?” she suggested.

  “Yeah, yes, of course.”

  Caleb started sifting them back into a proper order for her, then she seemed to remember something.

  “Oh! Hallie asked me to ask you if you want to get coffee with us this weekend? Her exact words were, ‘When you almost get mowed down by a freakin’ train, you realise you should probably spend more time with the awesome people in your life.’ Lucky you,” she smiled.

  Caleb chuckled. “Nice impression. And yeah. I’m going to pretty busy, but message me when you head out and I’ll meet you.”

  “Ace.”

  ~

  “There you are! I was starting to get worried!” Hallie declared when Kiara rounded the corner, heading for her student flat.