Rising Above Read online

  Table Of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Epilogue

  Rising Above

  Copyright © 2019. All rights reserved.

  First Edition: 2019

  Cover and Formatting: Streetlight Graphics

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters and places are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real persons, either living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners

  This book is dedicated to the teachers who believed in me and helped me grow. Mrs. Lori Ringleberg, Mr. Brent Burton, Mrs. Linda Knox, Ms. Donna Ross, Mr. Ronald Case, Ms. Sharon Docherty, Ms. Sandra Hooper, Mr. John Daley and Dr. Linda Sears. Thank you for never giving up on me or any of the other students you have helped raise up.

  Prologue

  The doorbell rang. Three incessant rings. Janine called, “Coming!” She had just put her younger sister in the crib.

  Her little brother shouted, “I CAN get it Jay!”

  “No little man! Remember you are too young to answer the door by yourself.” Janine grabbed Nate’s hand and walked to the door with him. She looked out the door. No one was there. Janine sighed. She wished she could get a hold of her parents. They had been gone for a few months now. Janine’s parents constantly went on missions but they were never gone this long.

  As Janine went to close the door, Nate shouted, “Look Jay!” He pointed at the ground. There was a letter laying there.

  Ms. Lochead,

  We regret to inform you that your parents Danielle and Michael Lochead have died in a tragic accident. Therefore your siblings have been left in your care.

  The letter was unsigned. There was nothing on the envelope to show who might have sent it. Janine bit her lip and held back her tears. Could this be some sort of joke? But who would play such a sick joke on someone? She knew both her parents were involved in dangerous missions for the cause but she knew very little about it because they wanted to keep her and her siblings safe.

  Janine turned to Nate. “How about we put you to bed, huh?”

  “What’s wrong, Jay?”

  “Nothing, little man. Nothing.” She picked him up and carried him to his room. She knew if the letter was true she would have to tell him but she just wasn’t ready to tell him yet.

  After getting Nate tucked in, Janine pulled the note out again. She stared at it willing it to tell her what happened.

  “What we do is dangerous Janine. I know you believe in the good. I know you want to help fight for mystics. You just can’t. You are too young. You need to take care of Sammie and Nate,” Danielle told her headstrong daughter.

  “I can help!” Janine screamed at her parents.

  “Not this time, honey,” Michael said shaking his head. “Maybe when you are older.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “We can’t tell you that, Jay. Besides we aren’t even certain where this mission will take us,” Danielle responded putting her hand on her daughter’s shoulder.

  “Well, how long will you be gone?”

  Danielle gave her a sad smile, “I don’t know. A couple weeks. Maybe longer.”

  “Sammie JUST turned one! How are you going to just ditch us like this!?”

  Tears spilled down Danielle’s cheeks. “We have to do what is right.”

  That was the last time she saw her parents.

  Chapter One

  The room looked empty. It was hard to tell though, through the little crack in the door. Andrea took a deep breath and prayed the room really was empty. She couldn’t figure out how she could have forgotten her human suit today. She absolutely despised wearing it. It was too tight and made her feel uncomfortable but the risk of being caught without it on is not something Andrea ever wanted to deal with. Slowly, Andrea pushed the door open. She couldn’t hear anything from the other side so she decided to take a chance and run across the room to the trap door. She always kept a spare human suit in the basement.

  It wouldn’t be this hard if Andrea had made the decision to move underground when the rest of the mystics did but she couldn’t do it. She loved the surface. She loved the sun on her face. She loved grass and the flowers. She loved the snow in the winter. She loved nature. Andrea even loved the humans, though they didn’t care for her. She especially loved the babies and their chubby little cheeks. It wasn’t easy being an octopus person in a human world. Well at least not in this day and age. It used to be that the humans and mystical creatures, as they were all called, lived in harmony together. Somewhere along the way humans forced everyone who wasn’t like them underground. All the witches, octopus people, wizards, fairies, elves, dwarves and every other mystical being moved underground except the ones like Andrea who simply refused. The problem with this refusal was that they had to put on human suits if they wanted to survive on the surface.

  Andrea made it into the trap door just as someone was coming into the shop. The two women were pushing a baby stroller. Andrea peeked through the trap door. She just couldn’t resist babies. A young child was walking beside the stroller. “I just don’t understand what the big deal is,” the brunette woman was saying to her friend. Andrea took a chance and looked at the stunning brunette. Her hazel eyes seemed to be full of fire as she spoke passionately. The form fitting t-shirt she wore appeared to have a band name on it but Andrea wasn’t sure that she recognized the logo.

  “Don’t let just anyone hear you saying that Janine. They might think you are one of them!” The blonde said startled by her friend’s nonchalance. It appeared to Andrea that this woman was proper and did everything by the book. The way she was dressed indicated that much. She had her hair up in a tight bun, a dress shirt and black slacks. This contrasted her friends t-shirt and blue jeans.

  “I think it is just pure prejudice. How can you discriminate against them just because they are different!? It is illogical and downright wrong,” Janine lectured as she stared at her friend. She wasn’t raised to believe prejudice was ever okay in any situation. She wasn’t going to stand by and watch it happen either.

  “I’m not discriminating Jay. You know I’m not like that. I just don’t see the point in getting ourselves arrested!” the blonde exclaimed with fright in her brown eyes. She always followed the law to the letter. She didn’t believe in discriminating but she wouldn’t get on the wrong side of the law either. How would her parents react if she were to get arrested? No. It was best to just do as she was supposed to do. That, however, tended to be hard when her best friend never left well enough alone.

  “Oh how about for what is right!? I can’t believe you’d act like it doesn’t matter, Nancy! The mystics are people too! They deserve rights!” Janine was getting into her rant mode. Nancy never liked when that happened because she still hadn’t found a way to shut down Janine’s rant mode.

  “Jay! JAY! JAY!!!” the young child bellowed grabbing Janine’s pant leg. He looked up at her exp
ectantly.

  “Yea, dude?” Janine asked leaning down to the brunette little boy and straightening his overalls.

  “I think I saw someone coming through the floor,” the boy whispered smiling. “I bet it is one of those mystical peoples.”

  Janine smiled. “You are right to whisper about that little dude. Don’t want anyone getting in trouble. If it is a mystic, we want to keep them safe right bro?”

  The boy nodded at his sister. “Of course! I’m gonna be a hero and fight for rights just like you!”

  “I’m no hero, Nate.”

  The store clerk came around the corner. “Hello ladies, how are you today? Could I help you find something?”

  “Oh no, just looking,” Nancy said. “You have a lovely shop here.”

  “It would be better if we’d stop getting raided,” the store clerk replied brushing her hair behind her ear. She faintly wondered where Andrea was. The job was always boring without someone to hang out with.

  “You get raided? That is awful!”

  The clerk chewed her gum and smirked. “You didn’t see the sign when you came in? With a sign like that of course we’d be raided.”

  Janine smiled full on. “We were totally discussing that. FIGHT FOR RIGHTS! MYSTICS UNITE! Humans For Mystic Rights! That is hella awesome! Total respect dude.” Janine put out her fist.

  The clerk smiled and fist bumped Janine. “I like you. You have style. My name is Meeka.”

  “Janine but you can call me Jay,” Janine introduced herself and shook Meeka’s hand.

  “Meeks,” Andrea called after sneaking up through the trap door in her human suit. “Yo, Meeks you wouldn’t believe…” she stopped dead in her tracks and stared at Janine. There was something mesmerizing about the young woman. “Uh, hello,” she said extending her hand. “My name is Andrea.”

  Janine smiled at her. “I’m Janine, but please call me Jay. This is my friend Nancy. My little bro Nate and the cutie in the stroller is my sister Sammie.”

  Meeka turned to Andrea. “What?”

  “Huh?” Andrea responded clearly confused.

  Meeka rolled her eyes. “What wouldn’t I believe?”

  “Probably a lot of things. I don’t know. What are you talking about?”

  “Oh my God, Andrea. How am I supposed to deal with you? You came up here all ‘you wouldn’t believe…’ and now you can’t even tell me what I wouldn’t believe.”

  Janine laughed and Andrea smiled at her then turned to Meeka. “I did. I told you that you wouldn’t believe a lot of things. I am beginning to think you don’t listen.”

  “Fine,” Meeka pouted. “I don’t care.” She stomped off towards the counter.

  “Sorry about that,” Andrea said smiling at Janine. “She can be a bit drama.” She looked out the door and suddenly her eyes widened. “You have to go. Get out of here now.”

  “What? Why?” Janine asked.

  Before Andrea could answer four armed police officers burst in the doors. “Go,” Andrea whispered. “Out the back.” She tilted her head towards the back door.

  Janine turned to Nancy. “Take the kids and run.”

  “I want to stay too, Jay,” Nate whined.

  “Bro, I need you to take care of Sammie. Go with Nancy, please,” Janine pleaded.

  He nodded. “Okay.”

  Nancy snuck the kids out the back before the police could spot them. She just got the door shut before the officers got to where Janine and Andrea were standing.

  “Do you work here?” the officer asked pointing his gun at Janine. She wondered if it was common practice for the officers to just point a gun at a person without a reason.

  “She doesn’t. I do,” Andrea replied.

  The officer turned his gun on Andrea. “Are you harbouring mystics?”

  “Are you serious? We go over this every week! There are no mystics here!” Andrea’s annoyance with the officers became more pronounced than it had in the past. Being constantly raided tended to do that to a person.

  “What is your problem anyway?” Janine asked defiantly. “How are mystics hurting anyone?”

  The officer glared at her. “Their existence is an affront to God!” He looked like he wanted to shoot her for her insubordination.

  “How? Besides how do you know God didn’t create them? I mean He created ALL didn’t He?” Janine glared back at the officer with fire in her eyes and her voice laced with venom.

  “You are going on the list!”

  “NO!” Andrea cut in. “Don’t! She doesn’t know what she is talking about.”

  “She dares question the decisions of our great country and dares to suggest the Lord allows the abominations!” the officer shouted. “You are on the dangerous association with mystics list!”

  One of the other officers called out. “No proof of mystic harbouring or mystic relations of any kind here. We have to move on.”

  “We WILL be back,” the officer said as he stomped off.

  “Oh dear God,” Andrea hung her head. “You shouldn’t have goaded him on like that. He will be out for you. We need to get you out of here.”

  Meeka came around the corner. “Andi, you can’t be thinking…” She glanced at Janine.

  “It’s the only way Meeks.” She turned to Janine. “We need to get your siblings, parents… and we need to get you to the City.”

  “We don’t have any parents… Wait… the city? What are you talking about? What city?”

  “It isn’t a city,” Meeka started. “It is THE City. With a capital C. You will see. Let’s hurry. They will be back now that you made the list.”

  “The list? What list? How did I make the list?” Janine was clearly confused.

  “You really have no idea how things work do you?” Andrea said nudging Janine out the back door. “We have to go now. They will come for you. Since you aren’t a mystic you will be thrown in jail for being a mystic sympathizer.”

  “How do you know I’m not a mystic?”

  Andrea laughed. “Because you’d know better than mouthing off.”Janine looked like she was going to reply but Andrea cut her off. “Don’t take it as a bad thing. I think it is admirable. I’ve never actually heard a human stand up for us before. Though people have said it has been known to happen.”

  “You’re a mystic?” Janine stopped dead in her tracks.

  “Yes. Now get moving!” Andrea pushed Janine until she started moving again.

  “What kind of mystic?” She asked curiously.

  “I’ll show you when we get to the City.” Andrea was walking beside Janine wondering where her parents were and why she had her siblings but she didn’t know the right way to ask.

  “You keep staring at me like you are deep in thought,” Janine said trying to walk as fast as she could to her home. “What are you thinking?”

  “Oh. I’m sorry. It’s just… You said you don’t have parents…” She paused. “Oh God, I am so sorry. That was completely insensitive.”

  “No worries, Drea. Everyone wonders.”

  Andrea smiled. No one called her Drea before it was always Andi or Andrea. “I like that nickname.”

  “Good,” Janine said with a soft smile. “My folks died. No one will tell me exactly how it went down. I know they fought for Mystic rights. I think they must have got in trouble with the authorities. They always kept us far from their fight for rights. I guess I can see why.”

  “Yea, it is dangerous. So you regret it?” Andrea would completely understand if Janine regretted it.

  “Not at all. Fight for what is right. Always believe in the good. My mom said that to me every night before bed. I would never dishonour her memory by doing anything but fight for what is right. Besides it hurts my heart to think of not doing what is good.”

  “Your parents sound amazing.”

  “They wer
e. This is my home,” she said stopping in front of a building. It was fairly small but it looked very quaint and definitely like a happy home. They walked inside. “Nancy? Are you here?”

  “Jay! Thank God! I was so worried about leaving you there,” Nancy replied coming into the front hall.

  “We need to get out of here. I kind of pissed off the police officer.”

  “Dammit Jay! I knew I shouldn’t have left you there!”

  “Come on Nance, we have to go.”

  “I’m staying, Jay. Take the kids. Go. I can’t be a part of this fight.”

  Janine shrugged. She always knew Nancy didn’t have it in her. She was no fighter. “Goodbye Nance. I’ll see you later. When I can, you know?” She turned to see her little brother with a bag.

  “Okay, Jay! I got some clothes for all of us! Let’s go! FIGHT FOR RIGHT!”

  Janine smiled. “Okay, let’s go little man,” She said as she picked up Sammie and carried her on her hip.

  Chapter Two

  They entered the City slowly. Nate held Andrea’s hand which made her smile. Janine stared amazed. The City was all kinds of underground tunnels. It was like an underground mall except it had homes as well as stores. She saw fairies flying around, dwarves, elves. She could even swear she saw a unicorn. Andrea smiled at Janine. “This is the City. It is where most mystics live and work. I’ll take you to my home. You guys will need to chill here for a while. It isn’t safe above.”

  “I’m so sorry for imposing on you Drea. I should have kept my mouth shut. I’ve just never been good at that.” Janine looked like she was truly sorry for putting Andrea in a tight spot.

  “You aren’t imposing,” Andrea smiled. “And it is something I like about you. Hearing a human speak her mind… I mean when it is for good and not evil… that is amazing.”

  “So you said you’d show me what kind of mystic you are,” Janine smiled.

  Andrea laughed. “How about I get you to my place, then I will take off my human suit.”

  “WHOA!” Nate said, “That’s a suit?” He stared up at her in awe.