The Twisted Veil: A Twisted Sisters Anthology (The Twisted Sisters Anthologies Book 1) Read online

The

  Twisted

  Veil

  A Twisted Sisters Anthology

  The Twisted Veil

  Dovey Mayali Cralk, Riley Ross, Sally Slayer, Kaydence Rayne

  All stories contained in this volume are works of fiction. Any resemblance to a real person (living or deceased) or real situations are purely coincidental. They are results of each author’s imagination.

  The Twisted Veil Anthology © 2014 by Dovey Mayali Cralk

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this work may be reproduced or used in any way, shape, or form without express written permission by the authors.

  Cover artwork and cover image © 2014 Valari Roberts and Amanda Smeltzer.

  All rights reserved.

  Special thanks to Jaidis Shaw, for her patience, understanding, and MASSIVE amounts of assistance. You are AWESOME!

  This collection is dedicated to you, the reader. Your support means everything to us.

  Table of Contents

  The Memory Remains

  An Almost Ghost Story

  The Summer of Alyssa - Bonus Material: Two Chapter Teaser

  Deviate 2 - Bonus Material: Three Chapter Sneak Peek

  About the Sisters

  The Memory Remains

  © 2014 Riley Ross

  This story is dedicated to my loved ones.

  You all know who you are.

  I love you all.

  Prologue

  “It’s all because of you that my dearest husband left me. I hate you and I curse the day you were born!” My momma vehemently screamed at me. Her breath reeked of stale booze and cigarettes. She resembled a demented clown with her makeup streaked down her face. Her cheaply dyed blonde hair was knotted as she hadn’t brushed it in days. “I will get my revenge on you and then you will know what hell feels like. When you find your one true love I will take it away from you in the worst way possible. You hear me?”

  Before I could respond to her hateful question, she slapped me so hard that it knocked me out of the chair. She was getting ready to strike at me again but Grandma Ginny stepped in between us. The rage on Grandma’s face scared me more than my mother’s outbursts.

  “Irina, get the hell out of my house and never come around here again! Blaming a sweet child for your failures is unacceptable! Leave now before I unleash the gods and goddesses against you! Be gone now or I will tear you apart and feed you to the dogs!” With each word, she jabbed her finger in my mother’s direction.

  “Hush baby girl, I am gonna keep you safe from her,” my grandma said softly as she touched my face. “She will never harm you. Delia and I will take care of you. My sweet baby girl, you are bonded to us.”

  “Momma is right. We will teach you everything you need to know.” My Aunt Delia’s soft and sweet tone soothed me. While she held me to her, the gentle lullaby they crooned lulled me to sleep. Drowsily, I realized that I finally felt safe and secure with them before giving in to the sleep.

  Chapter One

  Fifteen years later

  Finding his battered and bloody body on her makeshift stone altar, I felt as if I had died a thousand deaths. His hazel eyes were open but they seemed lifeless. Giving into my instincts, I let out a primal roar that startled the nearby creatures in the woods. Jake’s beautiful blue eyes opened and I could see the pain and confusion in them. My aunt and grandmother didn’t react to my outburst. They were too focused on staring my mother down. Looking into my mother’s eyes, I vowed vengeance after seeing her hatred and anger towards me.

  “I told you, I would take away your happiness. How does it feel to know that he is dying because of you? Go ahead and hold your precious Jake as he takes his last breath.” Irina stared at me with malice in her eyes as she stabbed him with her silver dagger one last time. She laughed hysterically before disappearing with the snap of her fingers.

  Oh how I wanted to rip her head from her body. I wanted to eviscerate her and watch her take her dying breath. The rage that was building up inside me was about to boil over. I was getting ready to follow her so I could kill her but my grandma quickly brought me back to reality with her sharp words.

  “Samantha Jane, I need you to focus. We need to heal Jake,” Grandma Ginny snapped at me.

  “I need to protect him from her. Delia, do you have that memory erasing spell?” I asked my aunt and she nodded. “Once he is protected from her, I am going to end this war she wants with me.”

  We stood in a circle over Jake’s prone and nearly lifeless body and casted the healing spell. Watching his wounds close up and the blood disappear from his body gave me the focus I desperately needed. After he was healed, Delia recited her spell and dripped a clear liquid onto his chest. Since her hand was shaking at the confrontation with my mother, she poured more than what was required onto Jake.

  “Shit,” she exclaimed as the winds howled around us. I was frozen in place as I watched images of my relationship with Jake poured out of his eyes. Even though I was immobilized, I could feel a rumble of the earth underneath my feet.

  Thunder rolled and an icy rain poured down on the four of us. With a flash of lightening, my beloved Jake was gone. I tried to call out for him but I was paralyzed. The snippets of our memories were gone and I felt this emptiness in my heart. Suddenly, the storm was over, and the feelings in my hands and legs returned. Delia and Grandma rushed over to me to check on me.

  “Jake!!!!!! Where are you?” I screamed frantically as I tried to call for my lover. He wasn’t supposed to vanish. That isn’t what happened when Delia casted the spell before. The silence was almost deafening in the dark woods in the bayou near my house. This was our regular meeting place since it was between both of our families houses. Kneeling down to the ground beside the altar where I last saw him, I saw the amulet that I had given him for protection against the dark forces which would be my mother and her little minions. The coldness of the evil eye necklace stunned me; it was like Jake had never existed. Our love was forbidden because of my mother; she hated anyone or anything I felt close to. She vowed to ruin my life because my father walked out on her. The cruel promise she made years ago still haunts me to this day.

  Before I lost consciousness, I thought I heard Irina’s familiar evil laugh. That sound echoed through the tense air of the bayou and sent chills up my spine. Trying to speak to my aunt, I felt a warmth envelop my body but I could not open my eyes or my mouth. Before I lost the battle against sleep, I felt as if my body was floating through the air.

  I woke up in my own bed with my Aunt Delia and Grandma Ginny standing guard over me. When I tried to sit up, Grandma gently pushed me back down against my soft pillows. She handed me a glass that held an amber liquid. Sniffing it cautiously, it smelled like her favorite Johnnie Walker Black whiskey.

  “Drink up, Baby, this will help you sleep peacefully tonight.” Grandma said soothingly. Once I had knocked it back in one huge gulp, she grinned at me. “That’s my girl. Oh how you remind me of your grandpa.”

  “Sammie, I am so sorry. I messed the measurements up. Can you forgive me?” Delia asked with tears in her icy blue eyes.

  “Delia, as you once told me, ‘shit happens’. Is Jake safe?”

  “Yes, but,” she was getting ready to say more but I stopped her.

  “That’s all that matters.”

  “I erased his memory and I rewound time. We went back in time by five months. His protection is now on you. Sammie, you have to stay away from him.”

  My grandmothe
r poured me another generous portion of her whiskey and I knocked this one back just as quickly as its predecessor. I tried to understand what she said but the alcohol and whatever Grandma added to the scotch whiskey was making me loopy. The last thing I saw before I went under was them looking sad. I wanted to console them but I was too far gone to say anything.