Seconds Before Sunrise (The Timely Death Trilogy) by Shannon A. Thompson Page A

against the window as I searched my front yard for him. He was gone, nothing more than a nightmare, but I didn’t want to believe it. I could feel him. His presence remained.
    “Jessie?” My father burst in my bedroom with my mother following. His puffy eyes were red when they met mine.
    M y mother’s face was pale. “Are you okay?”
    My chest knotted, pushing against my breath, and I rubbed my forehead. I couldn’t speak. I didn’t like lying. I never had.
    “We heard you scream,” my mother continued as my fath er walked over to the window.
    H e looked out the window, and his eyes scanned the same yard I had looked at. I wanted him to see what I couldn’t, but he grabbed the blinds.
    “I wish you’d shut these,” he said, pulling the cord. The blinds slammed into the windowsill .
    I fought the urge to argue. If the blonde man was there, I wanted to see him coming.
    “I must have been sleepwalking,” I suggested, grabbing my jacket off of my desk chair. I draped it around my shoulders. The clothing felt like the embrace I needed.
    “Let’s get back to bed,” my dad said, moving past me as if he were the one sleep walking.
    M y mother hung behind. She teetered on the edge of speaking, but her lips pushed to one side. She grabbed my door as she walked out of my room. “Goodnight, Jessie,” she said, shutting it softly behind her.
    I was alone again, and I stood with shaking knees. I grabbed the cord and pulled my blinds up, half-expecting the blonde man to reappear. But he didn’t. Even his presence was gone now.
    I sighed, and my breath fogged over the window. When I touched the glass, it was cold, and goose bumps trailed over my arm. I wanted to let go, but I couldn’t. I wanted to feel the cold until it meant something − like it was supposed to mean something − and I curled my fingers against the condensation. I had to dream again.
    I was ready for t he insanity to consume me if it meant I could understand what was happening.

     
    Eric
     
    A Light was at her house, and it was a powerful one.
    I slammed on the breaks, and my car’s engine vibrated through my sudden panic. My hand slapped against the door as I shoved it open, and the electric air sizzled against my lips.
    “What are you doing here?”
    I whipped around with my fist in the air, but Pierce grabbed my wrist. I sucked in breath as he tossed my hand to the side. He was glaring, and I was too.
    “Do you feel that?” I asked, spreading my fing ertips out, but everything that had been there had dissipated.
    “No,” Pierce said.
    “You were here for a reason,” I argued, gesturing toward Jessica’s house. It was only a few yards away.
    “I bet you were, too.”
    “I was driving by,” I said, attempting to keep my voice down. He was keeping something from me, just like the elders. “A light was at her house.”
    “Near her house,” he corrected. “Not at it.”
    “Is that relevant?” I spat.
    Pierce eyed my car. “Are you going to turn that off?”
    “No.”
    His sigh came out rigid as he swiftly shut the driver’s door. “We shouldn’t be talking out here,” he said, remaining in his shade form.
    “Why aren’t you a human?” I asked, knowing he was prepared for something. The light was powerful, and it was near Jessica. That wasn’t something to ignore, yet Pierce wanted me to. “What’s going on?”
    “We’re handling it.”
    I surveyed the road. “Who else is out here?”
    “Eu and Bracke.”
    My hands shook. “My father?” This was a big deal.
    “It’s not a big deal,” Pierce spoke as if he could hear my thoughts.
    “Where is he?” I asked, searching my radar for my father.
    The neighbors were up, and a few kids were smoking cigarettes in the park. A dog walked around by itself, and Pierce touched my shoulder.
    “He’s busy—”
    As I prepared myself to disappear, a circle of smoke curled through the air, and my father appeared. His shoulders rose, and his eyes were in slits. I knew the look.