The Dark Materials

  -The Twisted Trilogy-

  Amanda Churi

  Book I: A Lapse in Time

  Book II: The Dark Materials

  Book III: In Eden’s Shadow

  The Twisted Trilogy - Book II:

  -The Dark Materials-

  - Amanda Churi-

  Copyright © 2016 by Amanda Churi Menichello

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted without the express consent of the author.

  Cover design by Kevin Filanowski

  Printed and bound in the United States of America

  First edition

  10 digit ISBN: 1539542866

  13 digit ISBN: 978-1539542865

  Dedicated to Mama, Daddy, and Nana

  For always standing with me, even when I felt I could not stand myself.

  Notice:

  This book does not reflect the author’s religious views and is not trying to impose religious scenarios on the reader in any way, nor is it a representation and/or explanation of what is left unknown; it was solely created for entertainment purposes.

  The Twisted Trilogy is not intended to offend any spiritual beliefs; the religious aspect of this story is molded to fit the trilogy, not the life we live to this day.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, 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, is purely coincidental.

  Thank you.

  “Be careful who you trust, the devil was once an angel.”

  Zaid K. Abdelnour

  Timeline

  Prologue

  1 ~ Decimation

  2 ~ Stepping Stones

  3 ~ A Dark Paradise

  4 ~ Immoral

  5 ~ Falling Down

  6 ~ Breaching Time

  7 ~ Built for Sin

  8 ~ Hide and Seek

  9 ~ Rise

  10 ~ Night’s Core

  11 ~ Pieces

  12 ~ Transcendence

  13 ~ The Dawn of Frost

  14 ~ The Ring of Rebellion

  15 ~ Call to Honor

  16 ~ Escalation

  17 ~ Blood Right

  18 ~ Fire and Fury

  19 ~ Masters of Fate

  20 ~ Hidden Solace

  21 ~ Destiny Bond

  22 ~ War of Sunder

  23 ~ Awakening

  24 ~ Wolf and Sheep

  25 ~ The Hollows

  26 ~ In Cold Blood

  27 ~ Left Behind

  28 ~ Between the Lies

  29 ~ The Transparent

  30 ~ The Blue Roulette

  31 ~ Crimes of the Mind

  32 ~ Muted

  33 ~ Accelerate

  34 ~ Haunted Hearts

  35 ~ Save Yourself

  36 ~ And Down Will Come All

  37 ~ Eternal

  38 ~ One Last Step

  39 ~ Crossroads

  Prologue

  “There once was a time when colors filled the world; it was not a place of darkness nor a place of misery. Creatures were neither evil nor savage. Trees were not encrusted in ice. Rivers were not thick with oil. There was a sun—a ball of light that shined all day in the sky before its sister, the moon, would come out to give life to the night. Stars filled the sky—a million lanterns strung in the atmosphere… Beings so beautiful that one could sit up for hours staring at their radiance. There were delectable smells so amazing that they tickled the nose with joy. People weren’t hungry; most had full stomachs every night they went to sleep. There were places to play, days to rest, and Heaven to reach those who lived a worthy life—“

  “I wish that we could live in that world…”

  I came to a stop in my reading, prying my attention away from the book and turning my eyes to the little boy who sat on my lap. He was eight years old, but he surely did not look it; he was nothing but skin and bones, so thin that I could see the outline of his spine even through the loose shirt draped over his chest. His face was hollow with famine, his gray eyes staring off into the distance blankly.

  “I do too…” I conceded with a sigh, closing the book carefully with one hand. Even if this was just a small textbook, it still filled me with fascination. This world that was described in countless stories… I wondered if such a place could have ever really existed. What was it like to have a never-ending source of light? To live? To be free?

  …What was it like to have something called hope?

  Carefully, I grabbed the boy under his thin arms, lifting him off of my lap and gently placing him down on the metal chair I had been sitting on. He was like a statue, not even recognizing that I moved him. My brother never spoke much; he would always sit there and dwell on what he didn’t have and think. About what, I didn’t know, but his mind never seemed to stop moving, even if his body did the exact opposite.

  Smiling weakly, I placed the weathered book on his bony legs. Like a trigger, his hands immediately locked around the cover while his fingers fumbled weakly at the pages. I knew that would calm him down; books always seemed to do the trick.

  “How about I get you some tea?” I asked, trying to seem upbeat.

  “I don’t want tea,” he complained quietly. “I want food—real food.”

  I groaned. He knew we didn’t have any… But there was nothing I could do. I was hungry too! The last time either of us had a real bite of food was three days ago; the span of time between mouthfuls only got longer and longer, while people got weaker and weaker.

  Pushing my hunger away, I walked over to the old stove in the back of our small stone shack, reaching over the burner and grabbing a small blade. I sighed, shakily holding out my finger as I ran the blade across my skin, sharply inhaling as it sliced my flesh.

  “You know, I sometimes forget what colors are,” the boy continued, his eyes not moving from their fixed location. “I-I try my hardest, but I have a hard time remembering.”

  I looked at him over my shoulder, trying to quell my breaking heart. “It might come back…” I said quietly, trying to convince myself more than him.

  His eyes remained fixed on nothing, yet he gave me a single, doubtful shake of the head. “You know it won’t, Flye,” he moaned. “I’m going to be useless forever.”

  “Don’t say that!” I exclaimed, grabbing the rusted kettle with my pinkie as I moved it over to the burner. I pressed my sliced index finger into a small indent on the face of the oven door; the pressure plate emitted a radiant blue hue along with a high-pitched beep. Like a suction, there was the quick pull of air as my blood was taken from my veins, the gas burner immediately turning on with a small hiss, granting me the smallest forged flames to warm my kettle with. All of the fuel would be used before the water even reached boiling point; of course, it wasn’t real fire—just a hologram with heat coming from beneath. It was like they thought that we would believe what we saw was actual fire… Psh. Maybe others were that dumb, but I was not. We were not.

  “You could let me do it,” my brother suggested.

  “I told you, no,” I griped, wrapping a small fragment of cloth around my finger to stop the bleeding. I turned to him, leaning on the stove with my hip and staring his way. He still had yet to move, his hands continuing to twitch around the book.

  “I’m strong,” he protested dryly.

  “No, you’re not; you’re eight, you’re emaciated, and you’re blind. I’m not about to let you start wasting your precious blood on those horrible people.”

  “But you waste yours!” he exclaimed angrily as his feeble voice spiked. Immediately, he turned his blind eyes in my direction, and, for a moment, I almost thought he could see me. Reality came crashing back down in a ma
tter of seconds when I realized I was staring at the dense film that covered his eyes; his bright blue pupils, burned and buried under layers of damage, could not see me.

  “Derek,” I said gently, turning back to the burner in defeat just as the flames were extinguished, “if I didn’t use mine, we would be dead. They’ve got to get their power from somewhere.” I grabbed a single, shriveled mint leaf lying next to the burner, placing it in a stone cup. I lifted the kettle, pouring the lukewarm water into the cup that was so cold that the heated liquid caused the microscopic pores to pop. I sighed pleasantly upon feeling the weak heat seep through the rock, smiling. I didn’t see how heat was bad, nor fire, like we had always been told. It was a necessity for life according to everything I read, but I had been raised to think the opposite my entire life—the whole world was.

  I turned around, carefully walking across the cold dirt floor and tapping my brother’s shoulder as I handed the cup to him. Weakly, he released the book with one hand, his thin arm trembling as he tried to find the source of heat. As soon as the cup was in his hand, a small smile betook him, and he raised the warm liquid to his dry lips, his eyes shining through the toxins held within them, thankful for a drink.

  “So, when are Mommy and Daddy coming back?” he asked through a quick swallow.

  “I don’t know,” I responded sheepishly, watching my brother intently as he consumed the tea. My stomach screamed and churned, its withered muscles shaking, demanding I steal the cup from him. I was starved, yes, but I wouldn’t take food from my brother; when my parents suddenly disappeared like many others, I knew that it was my duty to look after Derek. It didn’t matter that I was only thirteen; a number these days was nothing to underestimate. I would do anything to protect Derek and me, even if it meant resorting to murder.

  He finished his last sip, sighing gratefully and holding out the cup. I took it from him, walking over to the cold burner and placing the cup on the plastic table next to it. His hands immediately went back to the book, a glum smile on his face as he felt the corners of the pages again to calm his anxiety. I couldn’t imagine what it must have been like to see only blackness; the absence of sight was something I dreaded more than death itself. The world was filled to the brim with dangers, and it was quite frankly a miracle whenever you woke up, knowing that you survived yet another day. I couldn’t imagine facing a world of darkness for all eternity; if it weren’t for me, no doubt the threats would have gotten to him long ago.

  “Tell me the story of King de Vaux again,” Derek persisted.

  I groaned with frustration, looking back towards him. “Why?” I hissed. “It’s his fault we’re in this mess. Why do you want to hear about such a screw-up?”

  His blind eyes bore blankly into mine before he gave a single shrug and turned his pupils to the floor. “Well, the Encryption seem to like him—”

  “The Encryption isn’t helping the situation at all, Derek!” I fumed, walking over to him heftily and dropping down to my knees, furious. I roughly grabbed his hand that he clutched the book with, Derek jolting in place. “They keep pushing the Proxez’s buttons, and that’s why they have gotten so rough these past years! Stop obsessing about them!”

  “But they’re good people,” Derek argued weakly. “They just want to get rid of them—”

  “And then take power for themselves!” I finished. “You’re too young to see the whole picture.”

  “I’m not too young!” he growled, snapping his neck towards me. “You don’t think that I can do anything, do you? I hate this! I hate being blind, sitting back and hearing about how terrible everything is, while you keep me from doing anything about it!”

  “They would kill you!” I pressed, pulling on his hand so hard that his fingers released their hold on the book. He lurched forward, gasping when his forehead touched mine. “Listen to me, Derek,” I growled, dangerously calm. “You need to learn to stay out of the bigger man’s way. If I leave you, they will kill you for sure. In their eyes, you’re nothing but a creature that takes up space, but to me, you’re all I have left. Please, can’t you see I just want to keep you safe?”

  He didn’t answer, exhaling in defeat and closing his eyes. I hated to be so harsh on him, but I couldn’t let him think he was like everyone else. If he wanted to join the Encryption a year ago, that was one thing, and I would accept his decision, but losing his sight changed everything; he was the ultimate prey in a world of predators.

  “I just want things to change,” he sobbed weakly, throwing his arms around my neck and squeezing my thin body as hard as he could.

  “We all do,” I replied, carefully returning his hug.

  A sudden, large bang came from nowhere, and I immediately pulled away from my brother, looking towards the metal door in fear as my heart spiraled out of control. The clang of metal echoed through the small stone house, causing me to shiver as the ominous noise bounced from wall to wall.

  “Flye, what was that?” Derek wondered, his voice cracking with worry.

  “Haxors!” a rough voice came, another vicious bang following as the door bulged on its hinges. “Open up!”

  I looked back at my brother, not even bothering to think before I acted. I stood up, hurriedly scooping Derek into my arms as he squealed, my hand immediately covering his mouth. “Don’t make a sound. Do you understand me?” I whispered harshly, Derek nodding as his blind eyes shot around in panic, trying to comprehend the situation.

  I ran to the corner of the room, knocking aside several crates and objects before I set him down with haste, giving him a final hush with my finger against his mouth. I promptly threw a tarp over him, proceeding to create a messy wall of nearby objects to fortify and conceal his presence. If they saw that my brother was blind, he’d be done for.

  “I SAID OPEN UP!”

  The pounding on the door became louder. My body trembled as I stood up, looking back at the door, which now had a dent in the surface resembling that of a fist. I took a decrepit breath, making my way to the door and pulling it open before they could bust it down altogether.

  I hardly saw what happened next. A large weight slammed into me, causing me to spin around as I was pinned to the ground on my stomach, a painful squeal breaking me as my chin smashed against the dirt floor. I looked up in fright through the black hair that draped my face, seeing a swarm of men engulf my house. Their armor was thick and solid, mimicking shatter-proof glass; a strong black glaze coated the outside so that one could not see the terrible person protected beneath the cast. Strings of harsh, white electricity raced through their armor. Their hands, which were covered in a mold of silver, excreted small electrical currents at the tips of their fingers. A white rapier was hooked around their waist on a chain-like belt, and a machine gun was strapped to their back, all while a plate of dark, black glass acted as their visor, hiding their faces.

  There was a pull on my right arm, my limb yanked behind my head viciously. I screamed, thrashing my free arm and legs against the floor, trying to escape their hold. Upon resisting, I was flipped on my back, my head held to the floor with a hand so that I was forced to look at my attacker’s concealed eyes. I felt the static on my body from the electrical currents that flowed through his armor like water, the instrument in his hand frightening me beyond words.

  What looked like a black, rectangular, metal bar was held in his silver fist, a light burst of static cracking against the entity he possessed. The bottom plate glew a mysterious white, buzzing with a high-pitched ring as it hovered above me. The man grabbed my right arm once more, slamming it down into the dirt and pressing the bar against the tattoo branded into the palm of my hand. A wave of scorching heat raced across my skin, and I screamed, never knowing that a temperature this high could exist. I couldn’t help but cry in misery, desperately trying to throw the Haxor off of me.

  There was a soft beep after the man held the item to my skin for several seconds, the white light vanishing and being replaced by an eerie blue as the pain died away. I gasp
ed in relief. The Haxor raised the bar to his visor, the dark glass reflecting a screen bustling with so many strange letters and numbers in such a weird sequence that I could not even begin to understand what it was.

  “Flye Woodard!” the Haxor announced as he got off of me, staring at the screen intently. “Female! Thirteen years!”

  I did not even try to get up; I was in such a stupor state of mind that I physically couldn’t. I looked over my shoulder, seeing the other Haxors turn back towards my assailant as they finished searching my home.

  “Siblings?” one asked harshly.

  “One,” the man answered as he continued to look at the ever-changing screen. “Derek Woodard—male. Eight years.”

  “I don’t see a boy,” one growled, looking sharply around the room.

  “Are you sure you checked everywhere?” another asked, also glancing around the small, one-room home I lived in.

  “Well, where could someone possibly hide in a dump like this?”

  My attacker looked back down at me, and I pressed my body closer to the ground, feeling my heart convulse uncontrollably. Immediately, he lowered his silver hand so that it was aimed at my face, the electricity on the ends of his fingers hissing eagerly as I became his target.

  “Where’s your brother?” the man demanded.

  “I-I don’t know!” I stammered, tears filling my eyes. “He went out to look for scraps earlier!”

  “Impossible!” he snapped furiously as more currents began to encase his fingers, his armor glowing brighter as the electricity gained strength in response to his anger. “This is one of the last places we have left to visit in all of Aphrite; had he been anywhere else, we would have found him.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you!” I squealed. “He’s not here!”