Grey Dawn Read online

  Grey Dawn

  Book #3

  K.L.Rymer Social

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  Grey Dawn

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  Copyright ©2019 by K.L.Rymer

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder.

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental

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  ASIN: B07XF5T448

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  Cover Illustration by GermanCreative

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Foreword

  1. Eli

  2. Misaki

  3. Crystal

  4. Eli

  5. Misaki

  6. Crystal

  7. Eli

  8. Misaki

  9. Crystal

  10. Eli

  11. Misaki

  12. Crystal

  13. Eli

  14. Crystal

  15. Eli

  16. Crystal

  17. Misaki

  18. Eli

  19. Crystal

  20. Misaki

  21. Eli

  22. Crystal

  23. Eli

  24. Crystal

  25. Eli

  26. Crystal

  27. Eli

  1. Eli

  Foreword

  I have added a sneak peek into my Novella, Tainted. It’s a prequel to Eli’s life before he met Crystal. I have included links to download the full book, so look out for those.

  1. Eli

  So, this was death?

  Everything’s dark. I can no longer feel my arms and legs.

  There’s no heaven or hell. Just oblivion.

  What a horrifying thought.

  So why the fuck am I still self-aware?

  If death truly was the end, why do I still have thoughts? In fact, I still remember my name. Eli Black— son of Randall and Lily Black.

  Am I even really dead? Or have I just become a ghost like in all those movies?

  Everything would make more sense if I could just see. Though considering I no longer have a pair of eyes to see with anymore, I’m probably asking for a bit much.

  My real eyes, or whatever you prefer to call them, are probably still attached to my dead body, the one Crystal’s father killed.

  It’s not fair that a cunt like him should go on living while Crystal and I are dead.

  I just hope Misaki doesn’t join us soon.

  The last thing I remember seeing before I died was Crystal’s blue eyes, and for a moment I thought I was looking at heaven.

  But then I ended up in this dark place.

  What else did I expect? A demon like me would never be accepted into heaven.

  Crystal probably went straight there. St. Peter probably didn’t even think twice before he opened God’s pearly white gates and let her inside.

  The girl was already perfect.

  Me, on the other hand, will suffer an eternity of this oblivion.

  True hell. I’d have taken being burnt and tortured by Satan’s minions over this.

  Just as the oppressive thought runs through my mind, a small speck of light appears.

  It continues to grow, chasing away the darkness, and suddenly I’m falling. I don’t know how I’m aware of this since I no longer have a body to feel with, but there’s no doubt that I’m plummeting down to earth faster than the speed of light.

  I land at last, and the fall knocks the breath from my lungs. I keep my eyes closed for a while, gasping for air. When they finally open, I stare, confused.

  Stars. That’s what I see. Great big clusters stretching across a velvet night sky.

  My chest continues to rise and fall as I breathe once again, my heart ringing inside my ears. I lift my hands, bringing them to my face.

  I’m alive... but how? I’d felt that bastard’s beam seeping into every ounce of my being, killing me in seconds. I should be dead.

  The ground below me is soft, and I spread my arms out, feeling sand.

  I sit up, gazing around. I’ve landed in some surreal desert-like landscape. Everywhere I look, there are sandy white hills.

  Stars aren’t the only thing in the night sky. There are planets too, and one looks suspiciously like earth.

  Nothing makes sense, and I rub my head, wondering how I even got here.

  Could this be the afterlife? Or did I just take some LSD and never died at all?

  A loud whine echoes through the night sky, and I peer up. A gigantic blue whale glides through the stars, swirling the pretty lights aside as if they’re nothing but water.

  Yep. Definitely LSD.

  I rise to my feet, looking down at my hemp pants. I’m shirtless, wishing I had something to cover up.

  As the thought crosses my mind, a black shirt appears over a hanging branch of a nearby tree. I move forward and pick it up.

  It seems this world could pretty much summon whatever I desire.

  In that case...

  “How about a black Italian suit?” I ask.

  On the next branch, a clean black suit appears and I smile. “And the shoes. Can’t expect me to walk around barefoot now.”

  Again, a pair of black leather shoes materialises at the base of the tree, and I smirk, trying on my new clothes.

  The desert summons a full-length mirror, and I gaze at my reflection. I’m still me. The same black hair, grey eyes, and fair skin.

  My mother pretty much, and my heart pounds.

  Wait... mother. Will I finally see her again?

  I cast my eyes around the landscape, wondering who runs this show. Someone or something is watching me. I’m no fool.

  “I would like to see my mother, please.”

  Nothing happens, but I carry on in vain.

  “My mother. Can you bring my mother to me, please...”

  A dull wind blows up from the ground, sending grains of pure white sand to my eyes. Some get in my mouth and I spit, scowling up at the starry night sky.

  I guess that’s a no then.

  And here I was hoping to ask for Crystal.

  “Fine. Then at least give me a cravat to complete the outfit. I’m practically naked here.”

  At my request, a white cotton cravat appears on the tree, and I yank it up, looking into the mirror as I tie it around my neck.

  There’s the Eli Black I know and love. Even in death, I’m a handsome devil, and I pull away, searching the terrain.

  My new leather shoes sink into the sand, and I really should have asked for more appropriate footwear. Yet I carry on, trying to see how far the land stretches. Maybe it just goes on and on.

  Would I ever find anyone else?

  “You know what would really complement the look,” I say next. “A cigarette. I’m dead now, one smoke wouldn’t hurt.”

  The desert sighs once again, blowing sand in my eyes, but this time it grants me my wish. At my feet, buried beneath a pile of pearly white grains, is a pack of cigarettes. The desert even thought to give me a lighter too. That’s awfully kind of it, considering I no longer have my fire breath.

  My earthly body is gone and with it all my powers.

  But I still try.

  I take out a cigarette, blowing carefully at the end. Nothing. I truly am utterly powerless now.

  This must be what it’s like to be normal. Ironic death would grant me that perspective.
<
br />   “So, what now?” I move along, blowing out smoke as I light the old fashioned way.

  I’m talking to no one in particular, but like I said, I’m definitely not alone. Someone watches...

  “Am I destined to walk this strange terrain for the rest of eternity? It definitely beats oblivion. Though lose the whale. It’s fucking scaring the shit out of me.”

  At my words, the whale gives a long, prolonged cry, fixing me with its all-knowing eye.

  I shiver. Perhaps it’s the whale running the show, but I doubt it. It’s just for aesthetics, adding to the fuckery of this surreal afterlife.

  I take another drag, gazing up at the planet that resembles earth. There’s one that looks like Saturn and another Jupiter. I wonder if I really am looking at the universe. Well, the solar system in the least. The universe is unfathomably larger.

  “Why am I here? What exactly is this place? It’s neither heaven nor hell, nor space for that matter.”

  I tread down a white sandy hill, truly seeing no end to this desert. I was right. It just goes on.

  “Do I have to find her? Is that it?”

  No reply. Not even a breath of wind.

  “That’s it, isn’t it? Somehow, this desert will lead me to Crystal. I’ll find her. I always do.”

  I peer up at the sky, smug. The stars twinkle down at me, and if I’m not mistaken, they’re twinkling in some strange code. There’s a pattern to them, and I stop, gazing in awe.

  It’s the stars... they’re the ones watching me. Millions of them.

  Flying whales and sentient stars. This land really is fucked.

  “Who are you all?” I ask, neglecting the cigarette in my hand.

  At my words, the stars float down, and it’s then when I see they’re not really stars at all, but specks of light.

  They dance around me, giggling like small children, and I freeze like a statue.

  What’s happening?

  One lands on the end of my nose as several others close in on my arms. Another plants itself on my cheek, making a loud kissing noise, and I drop the cigarette, waving them away.

  “Get off!”

  At my protest, they laugh even louder. The one on my nose says in the sickly sweet voice of a small girl. “Don’t worry, Mister Black, we got you now.”

  “Wait, what are you—?”

  They lift me in the air, the millions of floating lights, and I struggle in their hold. “No... put me down.”

  But they continue to drift me higher until everything turns white, and the desert, the sand and the whale disappear as I’m transported to another plane.

  Who knew the afterlife would be so messed up.

  2. Misaki

  The light goes out in Eli’s eyes once White delivers his final killing blow, and I drop to my knees, a haunting wail leaving my lips.

  Tears gush from my eyes, ruining my makeup, but I don’t care anymore.

  My cousin. The only family I have left in the world is gone. Memories flood my mind, memories of us laughing at the estate, playing hide and seek, or locking the cook’s son up in the pantry. Then in another memory, Eli puts his arms around me after my mother left, telling me he would always be there for me and would never leave me.

  But now he’s dead. And that bastard White’s to blame. Not only did he take my cousin, but he took my best friend too.

  Sweet Crystal... she didn’t deserve what he did to her.

  He’ll probably kill me next, but I’m past the point of caring. The two people I cared most about are gone.

  White comes to stand before me, but I don’t dare meet his eyes. One look at that smug blue gaze, I know I won’t be able to control myself.

  But maybe that’s not such a bad idea. At least then he will kill me too, and I can finally see Eli and Crystal again.

  The man doesn’t say anything for a while, just continues to watch me, and I finally peer up.

  I almost want to throw up when I see the sympathetic look in his eyes. I don’t want his fucking sympathy.

  Yet I don’t look away, wondering how I had ever been attracted to this man. Sure, he’s buff in the way most sixty-year-old men could dream of, but he was nothing but a cold-blooded killer. A phoney. What kind of monster kills their own daughter? Especially one like Crystal.

  “Misaki Black...” he states, that solemn, sad look never leaving his eyes. “If it weren’t for you, I’d never have found my daughter.”

  He’s talking about the story I posted online about Eli and Crystal a million years ago. It may as well be a million years now.

  “Just a shame she turned out to be a bigger disappointment than I imagined. Falling in love with a demon like your cousin, for example.”

  My blood simmers and I grind my teeth, wishing I could strike this man. Nothing’s stopping me really. I could easily knock Ashley out behind me, but White would only kill me.

  Call it self-preservation or whatever. No matter how much I wished for death at that moment, I didn’t really have the gall to go through with it. White would most likely kill me anyway, a demon scumbag. I can practically hear Ashley drooling at the prospect.

  Ashley Fawn... my old friend and lover. He really has changed.

  “I guess you’re wondering when I’m going to kill you, dear child,” White says, and I close my eyes.

  This was it. The end.

  I never got to reconcile with my mother and father. Especially my beautiful mother. She was everything I wasn’t. Kind, pure and sensible. Many men were after her hand back in her home country, but she fell in love with my father, an Englishman, and then they got married and had a bitch of a daughter, me.

  I am a bitch. Always have been. Even when our family cat, Mister Whiskers, died, I’d laughed (because I had been the one who got him run over in the first place). I was three years old. A baby still.

  Plus, I was a bully in high school. Forget the simple bitches you see in the movies and TV shows, I was the ultimate Queen B. Every guy wanted me and every girl wanted to be me. I even got one kid expelled, and another committed suicide.

  I don’t deserve to live.

  “But I’m not going to...”

  Alarmed, I peer back up, meeting those sympathetic blue eyes.

  Lord White gives a wrinkly-eyed smile. “You have sinned far too many times, child, I see it in your eyes. But beyond those expensive fake eyelashes, there’s a vulnerable little girl who just wants to be loved, and the last thing I want to do is put an end to her.”

  I stare at him gobsmacked. “What?”

  “What?!” Ashley shouts behind me.

  I roll my eyes. I can’t believe I actually put this wiener’s wiener in my mouth once. Newsflash, girls, he’s got a small prick. Cry your hearts out now.

  “Lord White... I think you’re making a big mistake. She’s a Black. With them all gone, you can finally—”

  “I have made my choice, Ashley. Nothing you can say can change my mind.”

  “But Your Holiness, Eli Black was one thing, but this one... not even hell would want her.”

  Lord White sighs, placing a fatherly hand on Ashley’s shoulder. “That may be, young Ashley, but I’ve made my decision. Lady Misaki Black will live... so long as she joins our side.”

  Join their side? I raise my brows, cocking my head sideways to stare up at him. Lord White meets my gaze and I grit my teeth once again.

  “You’re a fool if you think I’d join your side, White. I know exactly what you plan to do.”

  I saw it with my own eyes at Crystal’s Awakening ceremony. He plans to wipe out the human population. Or the sinners so to speak.

  He cocks a brow. “Is that so?”

  “Yes. I won’t take part in your global genocide.”

  “Well, I will only start on the small scale, Miss Black. I am but one man after all. A magnificent, powerful man, but still... one man. Of course, I’d planned to lighten my load by having my daughter join my side, but she chose your cousin.”

  I cackle, surprised at my
sharp tone. “So you’ll enlist me for help instead?”

  Lord White leans close to my face. “Well, you are demon born after all, Miss Black. Killing is in your nature.”

  “As it’s in yours?”

  He stops a moment, stunned by my comeback. Then he chuckles good-naturedly and pats my cheek. I’ve never wanted to burn someone so bad. No one touches the face.

  “Yes, but when your kind kill, Miss Black, it is regarded as cruelty. When I kill, it’s mercy.”

  “Now you’re just twisting things. Killing is killing. No matter how you look at it.”

  Lord White sighs and rises back to his feet. “Not if it releases one from their suffering. The people are suffering, Miss Black. It’s everywhere. In the media, out in the streets, even at home. There is sin everywhere. Remove the sinners, and there will be no more suffering.”

  “And how do you define sin in this scenario? Gluttony’s a sin. Are you going to kill all the fat bastard’s of the world too?”

  Lord White throws his head back and gives a crazed, maniacal laugh. It’s coarse and hollow, and even poor Ashley looks terrified.

  “My, not just a pretty face after all, are you? But to answer your question, yes. Gluttony can lead to many life-threatening diseases, and we’re not just talking about food here. There’s also drugs and alcohol misuse too, tearing families apart and ruining lives all over the world.”

  I pull a face. “So just educate everyone. No need to kill. You’re pretty much God, aren’t you? You have the power to create change.”

  He shakes his head. “Trust me. I have tried, as did my father before me and his father before him. People cannot change. They will always be inherently evil. That’s why it’s best to remove the evil from the population by eliminating the ones who exhibit said behaviours.”

  I close my eyes, trying to think of my best chances here. Okay, so I will live to see another day. If I go along with White’s plan, I can still stop him somehow.

  Funny that a bitch like me will be the one to save the day in the end. I never realised I cared so much about people, but all the people I know have pretty much sinned. Beth herself has misused drugs, but she’s come a long way since rehab. She deserves praise, not hatred. Bryony’s really turning it all around too with the baby on the way. She was nearly as bad as Beth, and had suffered a fateful miscarriage as a result of her excessive drinking (she’s hasn’t touched alcohol in two years now).