C I N: Lynn, Lynn, the city of sin. You never come out the way you went in. (The C I N Series) Read online

  C I N

  “Lynn, Lynn, the City of Sin.”

  Christina Leigh Pritchard

  cinseries.com

  Copyright © 2010-2012 Christina Leigh Pritchard

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 1451539584

  ASIN: B003T0G84A

  Photography Credits:

  Copyright © 2012 Michelle Monique

  http://michellemonique.artworkfolio.com/

  Edited by:

  Valentina Cano

  Under Copyright Law: No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise (except for brief quotation in printed or digital review) without prior written permission of the copyright owner.

  NOTICE: This story is a work of fiction. All characters in this story are fictitious, unless otherwise stated in the ending credits. Any resemblance to an actual person is coincidental. Some minor characters, places, history, and dates mentioned in this novel are for historical purposes only and credited to http://www.lynnhistory.com/.

  About the Photographer

  Michelle Monique has remarkable talent and an impressive portfolio. She won first place in the Pix Digital Imaging Contest and has created book covers for various authors such as Darin Caulhoun, K.T. Tran, Andrea Cremer, and J.A. Redmarski. Her talent does not stop here! Michelle Monique has been commissioned for a diverse group of clients ranging from CD covers to tee shirt designs, perfume ads and even youtube backgrounds! She’s a self-taught photographer who now works with professional companies such as Random House and Penguin for Young Readers.

  Would you like to learn more about Michelle Monique? Please support her wonderful work by becoming her facebook fan and by checking out her blog where she has a long list of various press releases and awards!

  (See credits page at end of novel for links to the artist’s pages)

  The Doctor said I should be dead.

  My heart beat furiously. I looked up at the flashes of lightning in the sky. Yes, I should be dead.

  Why wasn’t I?

  BOOK ONE

  C I N

  (The C I N Series)

  Short Synopsis:

  Seventeen year old Lisa Brown’s life is falling apart. First, her mother and father divorce, then their house forecloses and now, her mother has decided to commit herself to a psychiatric hospital.

  If that weren’t enough, she must leave sunny south Florida to attend a boarding school full of geniuses in cold, Lynn, Massachusetts. The city where the locals chant “Lynn, Lynn, city of sin; you never come out the way you went in.”

  And, they aren’t kidding. Lisa must live in a tiny shack with two strange teenagers, a dog named Pig who growls when you look at him and a cat named Rat. “Mind the cat,” everyone says. What the heck is wrong with this place?

  Lisa thinks she’s landed in her own house of horrors with the anti-social Alex and his facetious sister Ally. But, the real drama begins the day she is struck by lightning…

  OTHER BOOKS IN THE c i n sERIES

  The C I N Series: Book 1

  C I N

  ALL 6 C I N Series Shorts are available in BUNDLED format for over 50% off!!

  Short Stories included in BUNDLED format:

  The C I N Series Shorts: Story 1 - Donna Denning

  The story behind Donna’s traitorous beginning…

  The C I N Series Shorts: Story 2 - Jimmy & Amber

  The story of Jimmy and Amber’s beginning…

  The C I N Series Shorts: Story 3 - Pete & Marie

  Millie loved Pete and Pete loved Millie… So, why’s he with Marie?

  The C I N Series Shorts: Story 4 – Regrets

  Are there second chances in life?

  The C I N Series Shorts: Story 5 – Lanie

  Millie’s cancer is now in 90% of her body and she needs Lanie to help her…

  The C I N Series Shorts: Story 6 – Rat

  Millie just wants to remember…

  Also available:

  The C I N Series: Book 2 - Traitor

  The Puritan Series: Bundled Stories 1-5 (Coming Soon!)

  What Shelfari Readers Are Saying

  "..Found it a very engaging story from the get-go... I will recommend that my older teen daughters read this book as well."

  Nicole N.

  "I loved how fast paced this story was and how original the plot came out to be." Maryam H.

  "Very good, can't put it down story! Can't wait for book 2!! KymPossible

  "A real page turner..." Susan S.

  "C I N is one of the best books I've read lately." Luiza N.

  "Excellent book! I can't wait for an addition to the series as the characters get you so involved and they are so complex! It is definitely a ‘can't put down’ book!" Kia

  "C I N is a totally new paranormal concept with intriguing surprises that will have you guessing to the end. Great young adult read!" Sailon

  Wow! This book really draws you in. Alex is so intriguing. Can't wait to read more of the city of Lynn!" Leigh

  "Eerily captivating. I can't wait to read others in the series, I am hooked!" Mrs. SillyA

  "Very inventive story line...Excellent debut to the series! The City of Lynn will keep you coming back for more!" JosieD

  "Wow. A great big fat 'wow'! Christina creates the most intricate, dynamic, and alluring characters and the most fantastic plots to match 'em! Every time you think you know what and/or where it’s all heading that’s when a twist springs into the scene. Every time you think you've nailed the villain, there's that twist springing up and changing your mind again. It all moves so fast! Leaving you in the dust, forget analyzing and making estimated guesses! I just sat back and tried to hang on for the ride, to absorb it all! It was so great! It is a must, must, must, read!" Chelsea S.

  "Honestly, I had a hard time putting it down." Melinda Dawn C.

  "This book puts a whole new spin on paranormal! Fast paced and exciting, I couldn't stop reading." Starry

  "...This book makes you never want to put it down and makes you want more." Christian

  Editorial

  “A tough, yet rewarding read, CIN is strongly recommended for teenagers seeking to make sense of a world where logic and reason often seem like foreign, unattainable concepts.”

  Apex Review by Chelsea Perry

  C I N has been featured on USA Book News! The website dedicated to “What’s New and Noteworthy”.

  An honorable mention in the Teenage Category for the 2010 Hollywood Book Festival “books that should be movies”!

  “C I N was an amazing read. From the first page to the very last, the tone and writing style captured me as the plot thickened with each turn of the page. The characters were rich and strange, the setting was perfect, and the plot was original. Christina Leigh Pritchard has obvious talent and deserves to go far.”

  Flamingnet Book Reviews

  Dedication

  A great big special thanks to Tony Lazzara. Without him, this story would never have been written. Before he intervened, I had only one paragraph and no direction. He introduced me to Lynn, to the old saying “Lynn, Lynn the city of sin,” and told me all about the economy and geography…

  Thank you Tony for everything!

  With all my Love,

  Christina Leigh Pritchard

  __________________

  More Thanks…

  There are some amazing readers out there who h
ave been terrific to me! Thanks to the shelfari readers who took a chance on an author they did not know (and gave real, honest advice), thanks to my family and friends who suffer through my rough drafts (and I mean rough!!) and also I want to thank my mom—my most pickiest reader ever… ;o) I love you.

  The Doctor Said I should Be Dead.

  My heart beat furiously. I looked up at the flashes of lightning in the sky. Yes, I should be dead.

  Why wasn’t I?

  One

  Amber Checks In

  “Lisa, if you don’t finish packing your things, I swear you’ll go with nothing,” my mother, Amber, threatened. She wrapped duct tape around a medium sized box and carried it out to the car.

  Our home foreclosed and it was eviction day. My mother couldn’t keep a job; no matter how simple or easy it was. She was beautiful with long blond hair and bright green eyes that sparkled when she spoke. She landed every job she applied for but several weeks later, her new employer realized all Amber really was: a pretty face.

  I looked nothing like my mom. I was seventeen but still didn’t fit into my body. My hips were too big, my boobs too small and I had Dumbo ears which, of course, meant that I had to wear my hair down—always. I had long bangs that helped cover up my oddly round, black eyes and I could never find shoes that fit my big feet.

  “Lisa, I’m not going to tell you again; we leave in twenty minutes. I can’t afford to miss your train.”

  “Yeah, well, you could try to hide your enthusiasm.” I rolled my eyes and grabbed an empty box. I surveyed my room. What could I possibly take? I lived in Florida, the Sunshine State. I was going to Lynn, Massachusetts. The old saying, “Lynn, Lynn, the city of sin” played over and over inside my mind. How could my mother just drop me off in such a place? Lynn was filled with high crime rates, lack of good paying jobs and supported virtually on nothing more than fish markets and the GE factories. At least it was by the water. I couldn’t imagine life without sand between my toes. I could do without the sun tans, I guess, and the hot skaters who practiced on the benches but not the salty water.

  “LISA! Get in the car!”

  I evaluated the few things I had. I grabbed two pairs of jeans and anything with sleeves. I picked up my sneakers and my Adidas jacket from off the floor and I tossed my book bag over my shoulder. Inside the box, I put the only family heirloom I had: a picture of my mother and father from before I was born. …When they still loved each other, still laughed, still hoped. That must’ve been something to see. The only time my mother smiled or laughed was during an interview. It was never real and when her eyes set on me, she only frowned.

  I placed the few articles of clothing on top of my picture and carried the box out to the trunk. My mom had an old 1993 Mitsubishi Mirage with hardly any paint left. The worst part—the air didn’t work; complete suicide in a place where the temperature stayed around 90 degrees.

  “Just take your sweet, precious time there, Lisa,” She tapped her fingers on the steering wheel. “I hope you don’t act up with your Aunt Millie. She would be just devastated and when she falls over with a stroke or heart attack from your disrespectful behavior you will have to carry her twenty miles to the nearest town.”

  “A little dramatic, don’t you think?” I snapped, tossing my book bag into the back. The seat belt automatically locked me in when I closed the door. (The air conditioning didn’t work, there was hardly any paint left on the vehicle but, hey, at least the automatic seatbelts still worked!) “Roll the windows down, mom; it’s hot in here.” I leaned my head out the window to catch the last, hot Florida breeze I’d probably ever feel.

  “Aunt Millie said you could help her out with her chickens, and she’d pay you so that you could buy some warmer clothes while you’re there. I’m sorry I am such a bad mother.”

  “Why are you leaving me with some woman I don’t know? That’s bad parenting. Mom, you’ve never met this lady. What if she’s a serial killer or a chicken thief or some kind of lunatic?”

  “I have to do this.” Her eyes stayed glued to the road. “I need to figure out what is wrong with me. I ran off your father with my emotional problems and I don’t want to drag you down with me, too.”

  “Mom, I don’t want to go stay with some stranger.”

  She couldn’t hear me. She blasted the radio and sang loudly, bouncing her head from left to right. She slapped me in the shoulder. “Stah—op!”

  “Sing with me, Lisa; it may be a long time before we get to do this again. I may be in that loony bin for a while.”

  I didn’t think it was funny at all. Who wanted a mother that was crazy? What would I tell people when school started? So, Lisa, where is your mother? Oh, new potential friend, she’s probably in her padded cell wearing a strait jacket. How about your mom? I’ll be Miss Popularity for sure.

  Amber turned into the train station, and with a deep breath, she took my hands gently in hers. “I’m sorry for being such a screwy mother but I promise I am going to change and we will look back on the past five years and laugh about it all. You believe me, don’t you? That, I am going to change and be a better person?”

  “Of course, mom, acknowledgment is half the cure.”

  She was doomed. But who was I to be the one to tell her that? At least she was signing herself over to them. They’d keep her there until they could fix whatever was wrong inside her brain. “I better go before I miss my train.” I reached into the backseat and grabbed my backpack. “Pop the trunk, mom. I have a box in the back.”

  “Please be careful. There are some real crazies on the train.” Now she cared?

  “I’ll be fine, I promise. I have taken public transportation before. Get better soon. I love you.”

  “Okay,” Amber wiped tears from her eyes. She never said she loved me back. It was a little disturbing. “Don’t talk to strangers.”

  “Aunt Millie is a stranger,” I said. My mom started her car and sped out of the parking lot like she was escaping a burning building.

  “Goodbye, mother.”

  I carried my things across to the other side of the tracks. I had to take an elevator up to a ramp, cross above the tracks and then take another elevator down so that I could wait for the north train. This was going to be the longest ride. It didn’t seem fair really that I was the one who had to travel from the southeast coast all the way northeast just so my mother could “stabilize” herself or as I called it, get more legal drugs that kept her in fairy tale world. She was just a pill popper and I couldn’t stand it.

  What did I know about Aunt Millie? She’d lived her entire life in Lynn, Massachusetts out in the woods—what was left of it anyway—and worked as a dean at a boarding school for gifted boys and girls. She lived right behind the old school and had her own personal pond, a chicken coop and two pets. One dog named Pig and a Himalayan cat that she called Rat. During the one conversation I’d had with her, she’d admitted that her pets didn’t really care for her but showed up for dinner and that I was not to pet the cat. Who had pets that did not want to be touched? Since she was a dean at the boarding school, she pulled some strings and was able to enroll me, even though I wasn’t a genius. She made sure to repeat the part about my not being a genius at least three times before moving on to dorm room arrangements. I’d have to dorm with some girl named Donna Denning. Aunt Millie had promised to introduce us ahead of time. She said she was a sweet girl.

  To be completely honest, I was kind of happy to be moving to Lynn. I hated leaving my friends behind but a little change of pace didn’t sound so bad. I just wished my mother would come too. Maybe that was all she needed: new surroundings. No, that had never helped before. I had a gut feeling that I’d seen my mother for the last time. I didn’t want to accept such a horrific reality so I shoved the idea into the very back of my mind; a place I refused to visit.

  “Ticket?” I looked up at the train conductor. He held out his hand. “Do you have a ticket?” He asked. I nodded, reaching inside my bag.

  “Sorr
y, I was daydreaming.” I handed him my crinkled confirmation page. “I ordered over the phone and they told me to write down this number for you.”

  “You will have to pay with cash once the train starts moving. Did you bring your ID?” I nodded and showed him my learner’s permit. Thanks to Amber, I couldn’t drive yet. I’d never had the chance to practice driving. Maybe Aunt Millie would teach me. “Your assigned seat is 38A.”

  “Thanks,” I carried my box up the three steps and carefully placed it up above my assigned seat. I should’ve packed more clothes. Oh, well, too late for regrets.

  The train gradually moved forward and I stared out the window. I placed my hand on the glass and sighed.

  “Goodbye, Florida; Goodbye, Mom.”

  Two