Endless

Amanda Gray

ENDLESS is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2013 by Amanda Gray. All rights reserved. Published in the United States of America by Month9Books, LLC. Month9Books is a registered trademark, and its related logo is a registered trademark of Month9Books, LLC. www.month9books.com

Summary: An ominous organization races to stop Jenny from uncovering a past life and the man who has traveled through time to ensure her future.

ISBN 978-0-9883409-5-4 (Paperback) 978-1-939765-76-5 (E-Book)

1. Children’s 2. Fiction. 3. Fantasy. 4. Teens. 5. Amanda Gray.

6. Young adult. 7. Paranormal. 8. Time travel. 9. Reincarnation. 10. Love and Romance.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

For information, address Month9Books, LLC, 4208 Six Forks Road Suite 1000 Raleigh, NC 27609.

www.month9books.com

Cover design: Victoria Faye

Cover art copyright©: Month9Books, LLC. 2013

“A fast-paced and timeless romance you won’t want to end.” – Alyson Noel, NY Times Bestselling Author “Readers will quickly come to love this book. Protagonist Jenny is brave, loyal and quick on her feet … and soon you’ll be completely drawn into Jenny’s world. The plot is new and exciting, forcing readers to stay up late into the night to reach the ending. And once they do, they’ll be left anxiously awaiting the sequel.” **** RT Book Reviews “I can’t think of a debut I liked more this year.” – Melissa B.

“Wow. I really hope this is a series. I loved this book!” – Kayla N.

Amanda Gray

The Ouija board was a bad idea. Jenny watched Amber Rodriguez set it up, the air in the room thick with tension. Everyone tried to pretend it wasn’t there, but Jenny heard it in their high-pitched laughter, their voices too loud for Amber’s small basement.

“Turn out the lights,” Amber commanded to no one in particular, lifting the board out of the box.

Someone did, and the room fell into darkness just before Amber struck a match, holding it to the wick of a candle on the coffee table. Light flickered across the board.

“I don’t think this is a good idea,” Tiffany warned.

Jenny wished she’d been the one to say it. Wished she had the guts to blow them all off without worrying that they’d think she was even more of a freak than they already did.

“Don’t be stupid,” Gary Collins sneered, tossing back the last of his beer, his face distorted by the wavering light of the candle.

The comment was directed at Tiffany, but it still made Jenny nervous. The whole group made her nervous. She wasn’t exactly a social butterfly.

Besides, they were Tiffany’s friends, and Tiffany had only come because she didn’t want to spend the first night of summer watching TV with her mom. The problem was, she didn’t want to spend the night alone with her so-called friends, either.

Jenny had wanted to stay home and put the finishing touches on her pieces for the art show, but Tiffany had begged her to come to Amber’s instead. It had taken a little coaxing, but Jenny had finally agreed. She didn’t have a lot of experience with the necessary sacrifices of friendship, but going to a party with your best and only friend when you wanted to stay home probably qualified.

“It’s not stupid to be cautious,” Tiffany said, glaring at Gary. She moved closer to the table, her black braid flipped over her shoulder. “Ouija boards are really powerful. You have to open your mind for them to work, but opening your mind to the spirit world can be dangerous.”

“Oooooooh!” Alvin Ling made a spooky ghost sound. “Scaaaary! Is that what your hippy-dippy mom told you?”

The guys erupted into laughter. They were jerks, but Tiffany’s mom, Maura,
was
a little New Agey, especially for a town like Stony Creek. The older woman had known about Jenny from the second they shook hands at the tiny natural foods store in town.

“Oh, honey … ” Maura had met Jenny’s eyes with sadness in her own. “What a burden for you.”

Jenny had pulled her hand away, double-checking that her palms were covered by her fingerless gloves. They were, but Tiffany’s mom had felt it anyway.

Just because she was hippy-dippy didn’t mean she was a fake.

“Okay.” Amber surveyed them with excitement. “Who wants to go first?”

Jenny looked around the room. It wasn’t going to be Gary and his girlfriend, Heather. They had lost interest and were making out hot and heavy on the couch right in front of everyone.

“Tiffany?” Amber prompted when no one answered.

“No way.”

“Come on, you guys. Don’t be lame.” Amber said. “Alvin?”

“Nah,” he said. “Not my thing.”

“God! You guys suck!” Amber sighed. She looked around again, her eyes locking on Jenny’s. “I guess it’s just you and me then.”

“I don’t think so.” The foreboding in Jenny’s stomach was making her nauseous.

Amber grabbed Jenny’s hands and pulled her toward the coffee table.

“Well, I’m not doing it
alone
,” Amber said, dropping to the floor and tugging Jenny down with her. “Okay, I think we just have to … I don’t know, touch it or something and then ask it questions.”

Jenny’s mouth was suddenly dry. She licked her lips. At least she had her gloves on. Maybe they’d offer some kind of protection from the spirit world. Or whatever.

She nodded. “Okay.”

Tiffany came up beside her. “Jen, are you sure you want to do this? Because if you don’t—”

“I’m fine,” Jenny interrupted. It was too late. Everyone was already watching. Even Gary and Heather. Backing out now would make a scene. It was better to just play along.

Amber lifted a hand to the pointer, waiting until Jenny did the same.

“Just a minute.” Amber removed her hand from the board. “Take those off.”

Jenny followed Amber’s eyes. The gloves. Amber wanted her to take off the gloves.

Jenny swallowed hard, shaking her head. “I don’t think it matters. They’re fingerless anyway.”

“It matters to me,” Amber said tightly. “Besides, you wear them all the time. It’s weird.”

“Yeah, what’s with the gloves?” Gary snickered. “Do you have OCD about germs or some shit?”

Jenny didn’t bother answering. The tension in the room was building. Everyone was waiting. She could refuse. Get up. Walk out. No one would stop her. They might call her a freak, but it was summer. She wouldn’t have to see them if she didn’t want to.

Except she couldn’t make herself stand up.

It wasn’t that she wanted to use the Ouija board. God, no. She knew firsthand that there were unexplainable things out there. Things that could keep you up at night, wondering just how honest your reality was and how much of it you couldn’t see.

The truth was, she didn’t know why she couldn’t leave. It was like she’d lost some essential power over her own body.

She finally gave in, peeling back the black gloves from her hands, tucking them into her pocket. She placed her fingers on the pointer.

“There.” She looked at Amber. “Happy?”

Amber put her hands back on the pointer without answering. They passed a couple of awkward minutes while the guys made jokes, but Amber threatened to make them leave and the room finally got quiet.

“Okay, now just take a deep breath and … I don’t know,” Amber said. “Clear your mind. Or open it. Or whatever.”

Right
, Jenny thought.
I think I’ll go with Option A.

All things considered, clearing her mind was a lot less scary than opening it. She inhaled and took a few deep breaths. Feeling the blood racing through her veins, she willed it to slow just before Amber spoke, her voice authoritative.

“Hello. I’m Amber. Is there anyone here?”

Ten seconds ticked silently by without response. After another ten, Amber tried again.

“If there’s someone here, please give us a sign.”

Nothing happened.

Amber looked at Jenny. “Let’s close our eyes for a minute. Maybe it will help.”

Jenny didn’t see how it would, but if it meant getting through the whole ordeal faster, she was in. She closed her eyes. Darkness didn’t scare her. It was the things she could see that did. The things she saw and felt when her hands came into contact with certain people. Sometimes, she could touch someone and feel nothing. Other times she would be transported to places that were oddly familiar or ones she didn’t recognize at all.

The problem was, she never knew who was going to kick-start the process. Not touching anyone was her safest bet, and she managed to do just that most of the time through the use of her gloves and careful movements engineered to keep her at a distance from everyone else.

She’d almost forgotten about the room around her when she heard Amber’s voice again, distant this time, as if coming to her down a very long tunnel.

“Are you trying to tell us something?”

It was hard to focus on Amber’s voice. Jenny was floating in peaceful darkness. She thought of her mother and wondered if she was in a place like this. A place of utter serenity. Not heaven the way people described it with angels and streets of gold, but just this simple quiet.

And then, something shifted. A subtle change, like the click of a key in a lock.

Someone was there, in the darkness. She couldn’t see who it was, but she felt the presence the way she sometimes did when someone entered a room behind her. There was the same awareness, the same prickle along the back of her neck.

The presence reached out to her, not with physical hands but with thoughts and feelings Jenny couldn’t quite grasp. It was like having déjà vu, some kind of secret knowledge just beyond her reach.

There was a sudden tug at her consciousness, something pulling her out of the darkness. She fought to stay. To listen. To
understand.
But it was no use. She was falling. Falling and falling as she tried to hold on.

For a few seconds she was in a void. No sound. No sense of anyone with her. Then everything opened up again, and she heard voices coming to her from a great distance. Someone shouting. Calling her name.

Jenny opened her eyes. It took a minute for the room came back into focus. Someone had turned the lights on, and everyone was staring down at her. Jenny couldn’t name the expression in their eyes. She thought they looked scared, but that didn’t make any sense.

“Jenny?” Tiffany was kneeling at her side. “Are you okay?”

Jenny pushed herself up onto her elbows, wondering how she’d gotten flat on her back. A headache slammed into her brain with the force of a freight train.