Clan of Redemption

Clan of
Redemption

by Rushell Ann

Published by Rushell
Ann

Copyright © 2016 Rushell
Ann

Cover Photo copyright by
Captblack76

Table of
Contents

Chapter One ( My Friend )
Pg. 5

Chapter Two ( Questions )
Pg. 16

Chapter Three ( The
discovery ) Pg. 41

Chapter Four ( Dinner
Nightmare ) Pg. 77

Chapter Five ( Driving me
Crazy) Pg. 100

Chapter Six ( Grandmother )
Pg. 114

Chapter Seven ( Healing )
Pg. 163

Chapter Eight ( Grandfather
) Pg. 214

Chapter Nine ( The Meeting
) Pg. 241

Chapter Ten ( The Council )
Pg. 269

Chapter Eleven ( Artemis)
Pg. 296

Chapter Twelve ( A Life for
a life ) Pg. 306

Published by Rushell
Ann

Copyright © 2016 Rushell
Ann

Cover Photo copyright by
Captblack76

Contact
Information:

email:
[email protected]

web:
RushellAnn.com

www.facebook.com/RushellAnn

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accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning,
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author's rights.

This book is a work of
fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product
of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any
resemblance to actual events, locals, or persons, living or dead,
is coincidental.

Acknowledgement

To myself for sticking with
it even when you didn't think it was good enough.

My sister Teri has always
supported me whole heartedly in everything I've set out to do and
this book was something she encouraged me every step of the way.
When I was put on this earth, the powers that be made sure that I
had you to help me through it!

I love you
sister!

My Friend

Logan is my best friend
and the first boy I ever kissed. I was about to say goodbye to him
forever. It’s still hard for me to understand what has happened,
one minute he’s knocking on my door asking if I want to go swim and
the next minute he’s gone. We had plans to go swimming when it
happened, but I had to finish up with some last minute college
paperwork. When I arrived at the lake I could hear the commotion,
it was as if I was in the wrong place. People were everywhere,
ambulances, fire trucks and police, swarming the lake with rescue
divers going through their gear. I asked what was happening, and
all anyone could say was a boy had drowned.

It was so loud.

My heart was pounding so
hard. I ran down the beach to where Logan and I regularly swam,
screaming Logan’s name. His towel was next to the tree we carved
our names in, but no Logan.

“Jayden, honey I’m sorry,
but they think Logan drowned,” Sam sobbed. She was standing behind
me watching the divers thoroughly searching the waters.

“What! Logan could not
have drowned. He’s one of the best swimmers. Why do they think it
was Logan?” I said hysterically.

I scanned the rippling
water, trying to cover my eyes from the glare of the
sun.

“Someone….saw Logan
swimming out to the dock, dive under and not come back up,” Sam
said with tears streaming down her face.

“That can’t be, I was
supposed to meet him here, I saw him earlier, what...he’s….no, they
must have made a mistake,” I said with certainty.

Sam and I sat on Logan’s
towel holding each other, waiting to see if they would find his
body. I was in complete shock not sure what to do. I wanted to swim
out to the dock and look with the divers, but I was frozen. I could
not cry because to me it wasn’t true.

Logan has a swimmers body.
His hair is a light golden with curls that wrap his face. I love to
stare into his eyes; they are the color of swirly jade. All the
girls in school would stare and whisper whenever we would walk by.
He turned the heads of most girls, but to me he was my best friend
and my right hand. I didn’t see what they saw. Logan and I had
known each other since school began, he and I were inseparable. To
try to wrap my head around Logan being dead wasn't something I
could think about.

It was close to midnight
before the rescuers gave up for the day. Sam tried to get me to
come to her house with her, but I wouldn’t leave. I knew that there
had to be some explanation for Logan’s disappearance. I needed him
to be alive. What would I do without my best friend? I don’t
remember falling asleep, but I woke up with something wet on my
face.

“Ewe, what is that.” I
looked up and saw a dog staring at me; it had been licking my face.
I must have slept here all night. My face had a layer of crusty
tears, what the dog didn’t lick off at least. I wasn’t sure what
time it was, but I knew that if I ran home that Logan would still
be alive. This must have been a dream.

I started running, half
way home I realized that this dog was still with me.

“Go on, go home,” I said
sternly. The dog wouldn’t budge, he just stared at me. “I have to
go, you go home before you get hit by a car.” I made hand motions
but the dog just stared at me.

The dog just sat looking
at me with its tongue hanging out. I continued to run home not
caring if the dog was following me or not. I had to make sure that
Logan was ok. I ran to my front door and stopped for a minute and
realized that my dad was going to be furious with me that I had
been gone all night. I had never not come home, or been late for my
curfew. My Dad could be a worry wart. I composed myself and walked
through the front door. In the living room sat Sam and my
dad.

“Jayden, are you ok?” Sam
asked as she stood up. “Can I get you some ice-tea?”

“No, I’m not thirsty.
Where’s Logan?” I asked as I looked from my Dad and then to Logan’s
mom.

“Sam, isn’t Logan with
you? He did come home last night didn’t he?”

“No honey he didn’t,”
Samantha looked down towards the ground.

“You fell asleep last
night while we were sitting on the beach, waiting to hear any news.
I tried to wake you, but you were insistent on staying at the
lake.” Sam walked over to me.

I hugged her as if I would
never see her again.

“I just can’t believe he’s
gone, my son. It just doesn’t seem real.”

Logan was Sam’s only
child; I can’t imagine how she must be feeling. He was my best
friend, but for Sam, Logan was her life. I couldn’t stand to stare
at my Dad and Sam any longer.

“I really need to be
alone. I’ll be up in my room.” I started to walk towards the
stairs.

“Jayden, do you want to
talk about it? I really think you shouldn’t be alone,” Dad said
with concern.

“Dad, I’ll be alright. I
just need some time to myself,” I sounded firm. I don’t remember
even walking up the stairs. I was in such a daze. Time just seemed
to stand still, but I do remember my door opening and food being
offered at some point during the day. I think I heard my cell phone
ring a few times, but I couldn’t get myself off my bed, I didn’t
even change my clothes. I do remember dreaming a few times, about
Logan and I swimming at the lake. The lake was our favorite place
to go, besides camping or hiking. In my dreams, Logan and I were
racing each other to the dock about 100 yards out from shore. Logan
was always competitive with me (always in fun) but he always seemed
to push me to my limits, especially during swim practice. I
remember seeing Logan’s smiling face when he beat me. He’d chuckle
to himself and tell me “Next time little one.” He always called me
little one, I always thought it was strange, but he always seemed
to be a little out of the ordinary.

I don’t know how much time
passed, maybe a day or two, I faintly remember my Dad coming in a
few times trying to get me to eat and helped me to the bathroom,
but other than that all I could do was sleep. I woke up to someone
stroking my hair. I really wished my mother was still alive, its
times like this that I miss her the most.

I started to wake up to my
favorite smell of coffee, as much as I didn’t want to open my eyes,
coffee just can’t be ignored.

“Was it just a bad
nightmare, or is Logan really dead?” I said with my face buried in
the pillow. I could tell who it was sitting on the bed next to me
without looking at her, she smelled of lavender.

“It wasn’t a dream. They
still haven’t found his body. If you aren’t ready to wake up, I’ll
just have to take this Starbucks caramel macchiato and dump it down
the drain. It’s not like I will drink this crap,” Sully
said.

Sully's a close friend of
mine, maybe a little too crazy at times, but still a friend. She
didn’t hang out with us as much because we weren’t as extreme as
she is, and frankly we bore her most of the time. Sully is most
comfortable when she is risking her life by bungi jumping, hang
gliding, or the occasional drunken brawl with a biker. I met Sully
when she joined our swim team our sophomore year, she had
transferred from some private school in New York. We had always
attributed her dress style to the high fashions of New York. She
wasn’t popular at school, but I knew that didn’t bother her and if
you asked her about it, well she’d give you a piece of her mind. I
loved the way she doesn’t care what anyone thinks and seems to be
laid back when it comes to Logan and I.

I wonder what color her
hair is today, I wanted to look but I didn’t want her to see me so
messed up. Sully isn’t big on expressing emotions unless it’s
anger.

“Don’t you dare dump that
gold down the drain.” I sat up and took a sip; it helped with my
dry throat.

“So, when did you get a
dog?” Sully asked.

“Dog, what dog, I…Oh there
was this dog,” I started to sit up fully.

The dog leaped from the
floor onto the bed right onto my lap and shoved me over.

“Get off me!” I yelled and
I managed to set my coffee on my night stand without having a spill
to clean up.

“I had no idea you were
such an animal lover,” Sully grinned.

“I don’t mind dogs, I had
one once with I was 8, but this dog just won’t let up,” I
said.

“Jayden, the three of us
were supposed to have a practice swim tonight. I know that you
probably aren’t up for going so I thought we could skip it and I
would take you out on the town, see if we can find some trouble. I
still have that fake ID that you used last summer, at Jasper’s. I
still can’t believe that we made it home with the amount of
electric ice teas that you sucked down. I think you proposed to a
few bikers that night.” She winked at me.

“I don’t think so, I just
want to be alone. But thanks for coming, I know that you cared for
Logan too.”
“Yeah, he was an ok guy, not tough enough for my taste but nice
enough. I'll miss him, but having my folks die when just out of
diapers, just made me move on and push those feelings aside. They
don’t do you any good anyway, they just make you feel shitty. I’m
sorry but if you don’t get up and change your pathetic clothes I’m
going to have to march downstairs and tell your Dad about your
hidden ladder in your closet and how you like to use it on a
regular basis. That isn’t the only secret that he would be happy to
find out.” Sully got up, went to my closet, and started to pick me
out something to wear.