Read The Aurora (Aurora Saga, Book 1) for Free Online

she’s a friend of my mother’s, how come I’ve never seen her before? His heart quickened when he opened the bedroom door.
    Carol was in bed, propped upright by a number of pillows, exactly as he had left her. A table lamp was the only source of light on a chest of drawers next to the bed.
    James moved over to the bed where he noticed a framed picture of Lex on the carpet just below his mother’s open hand. He picked it up and put it back gently on the bedside cabinet beside a face mask.
    Carol’s eyes half opened. Her head turned towards him.
    ‘Sit—’
    ‘Are you all right? I was worried. I saw that woman. I was—’
    ‘James! Please sit, I don’t have… I don’t have much time. I have something I need, I mean, you must know,’ she said in a weakened and confused voice.
    James uncomfortably perched himself on the side of the bed and took his mother’s hand.
    ‘I… She loves you, James,’ Carol whispered.
    She dragged out a small metallic box from beneath the bed sheets.
    ‘Now’s the time…You don’t belong here. You must return home. Much danger!’ and she handed him the box.
    ‘I don’t understand. What do you mean?’
    She gripped James’ hand tightly and took a deep breath. She was trying to pull together her remaining strength but was finding difficult to put a sentence together. Her brain was blanking more and more; her mind was fading in and out.
    ‘You…You can stop it. Change all this! James you must not start it again. Kalrea must read the diary.’
    He was evidently confused by his mother’s words, but he was sure she was trying to say something important.
    ‘What are you trying to tell me? Who’s Kalrea? What diary?’
    ‘You will understand,’ Carol said, gripping his hand even more tightly and tried to raise her head from the pillow towards him. She looked very frightened. ‘James, Kalrea must read the diary....’ Carol mumbled and then stopped, her eyes closing. Her head dropped gently back onto the pillow before she exhaled for the last time.
    ‘Mum! Wait! Don’t die!’ James said. Tears formed in his eyes. ‘Don’t go… Don’t leave me?’ he said sadly. ‘Please! Don’t leave me.’ A tear dropped from his face onto his mother’s limp hand.
    Realizing that his mother was gone, he felt a painful emptiness inside. His life seemed now to have lost its meaning. He was all alone with no one else close to comfort him.
    While James was placing her hand gently onto the bed, he heard the Mustang’s engine starting and the sound of gravel beneath its wheels.
    The old woman.
    He rushed over to the window to see the car moving slowly out from the shade. The car stopped. The old woman looked up at him, and he caught a glimpse of her wiping a tear from her face.
    Just when he was about to call out, the car sped away. James tried to catch sight of the number plate, but the dust thrown up by the wheels of the car made it impossible to see.
    *****
    The following three weeks seemed like an eternity to James. He had the long wait for the autopsy and the worst part for him, being all alone at the cremation. That same day, upon returning home, he set about the sad, solemn task of sprinkling Carol’s ashes over an area of ground where her husband Lex laid. It was at the rear of the cottage in an area Carol had prepared all those years ago when Lex died, on the side of a gentle hill overlooking the cottage with trees and bushes all around.
    Sprinkling Carol’s ashes kept James occupied for a while, allowing him to suppress his feelings. Nothing could distract him from this task. It was not until he had finally placed some freshly cut flowers from the garden on top that he suddenly felt devoid of energy. He sat down on the hillside and stared across the valley where dark clouds were gathering.
    He had sometimes hated Carol for living in isolation miles away from the nearest town. It was something he could never fully understand, because Carol had never seemed the kind of person who