Hawthorn (20 page)

The flu bug we’ve been suffering from has finally lifted. I feel almost normal. Danny and Heather were hit hard, Danny especially. Jules was worried it might turn to pneumonia, but thank goodness he pulled through.

I watch him running up the beach, all wrapped up; bundled up in fact. Heather is on his tail. They are playing Aeroplane. Jules is serving up her a beef stew tonight, cooking in the slow cooker back home. Can’t wait! Everything is perfect. Yet I feel… I feel as if there’s something missing.

Jules feels it too. We talked about it last night and we agreed. The family feels incomplete, and Jules had the perfect suggestion.

We’re going to get a dog.

It’s dark here, always dark. I feel them suckling from me, drawing from me, and I no longer fight.

This is my purpose.

I no longer exist.

I am nothing.

“Stupid giving up girl. Girl with the eternal soul. The light of lights. A gem, a sparkling gem to be set in a crown. Stupid girl, do not give up, the trickster has a plan and the trickster never gives up.”

The words settle in my breast and my empty grey heart flares with crimson. Lub, dub, lub dub, I hear the beat, the incessant beat that never gives up.

About the Author

Amos Cassidy is the pen name for Richard Amos and Debbie Cassidy. Amos is a 31 year old Diva and Cassidy a 38 year old mother of three; well, four if you include the husband. A common love of all things Joss Whedon, Urban Fantasy, and a tug of war over Jensen Ackles, brought them together, and one cold February afternoon, over nibbles and coffee, their partnership was born.

You can find Cassidy hard at work in her fortress of solitude which has eaten up the majority of her garden, and Amos…well he’s still trying to get the invisibility gizmo he got off a friendly alien in exchange for a pair of earphones to work. Funnily enough, he hasn’t been seen around much lately…

Frequent doses of sugary snacks, coupled with regular injections of caffeine, aid in their production of a unique brand of cross-genre tales. They are always writing, but are happy to take a break to chat to their wonderful readers, so drop them a line at amoscassidy.com, or just pop over to see what they’re working on and they’ll bust out the biscuit tin.

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A Note from the Author

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