Read The Keepers Book Two of the Holding Kate Series for Free Online Page B

asked
    “He’s the caretaker of the village. He’s worked here for years, but has been out for a few weeks because of a knee surgery.”
    “Not important!” Trip growled.
    “Right.” Donnie reached for a towel and tussled it through his hair while he continued. “So we were over by the tractor barn, not the stables, but the one behind the softball fields.” He draped the towel over his shoulders and continued.
    “Trip worked to hang the barn doors. Somehow they’d come off their hinges. Pops and I stood about 20 feet away calling instructions to him. I’d say ‘a little to the left’, but Pops would say go right. If I said up, Pops would say move it down.”
    Trip snorted.
    “We went on and on like this trying to get the door hung right, getting frustrated with each other.”
    Trip interrupted. “I got so mad at them.”
    “Finally, he got the door on nice and straight and these black clouds rolled in, and lightning flashed through the darkening sky, freaky as heck.”
    Trip nodded. “Yeah, it was. We watched the dark clouds for a few seconds and when I turned around the barn doors were gone. Just vanished.”
    “Then a flash of lightning and we were back in time a few hours and the whole scene started over again. Pops and I called instructions, Trip hung the barn doors, the storm rolled in, a flash and rewind. It happened six times. The exact same thing. Then the last time…”
    “I got ticked, completely exhausted.” Trip took over. “I threw the screwdriver down and yelled. ‘Donnie Dudgeon! I’m not hanging any more of your barn doors!’”
    “Pops disappeared, the clouds descended and engulfed us in black fog and we came back to the Scriptorium.”
    Silence claimed the Keepers as the images Donnie described flashed through their imaginations.
    Crickets chirruped in the night and a bat fluttered high above.
     
    QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): MELANIE MARCUS DUDGEON
     
    Finally, Dirk broke the silence. “Tara? Mel? Who wants to start?” His features softened.
    Mel searched Tara’s face and gnawed on her thumbnail. Mel didn’t want to be the one to rip out Corey’s heart, but Tara pressed her lips together and jutted her chin defiantly. Corey’s expression, full of dread, lingered on Mel. He already expected the report to be bad. Kate must have been thinking along the same lines, because she made a squeaking sound in the back of her throat and pressed closer into him.
    Tara buried her face in her hands and massaged her forehead. Mel moved to Donnie and hung from his feet into the pool. She needed him near if she planned to get through this.
    “I’ll go,” she sighed.
    Tara nodded, but kept her head down. Corey watched her with trepidation. Mel knew he wondered what could possibly happen to turn the bravest woman he’d ever known into a coward. Trip returned to his dark mood and stared into the dark night, oblivious to her needs.
    Kate climbed out of the pool and walked around to the diving board and slid over to put her arms around Tara. Tara smiled shakily, and then turned to Corey. Deep forlorn sadness emanated from her. Trip suddenly jerked out of his dark mood when Kate sat next to Tara. His attention fastened on them.
    “I think we went to the future.” Mel reached for Donnie’s hand as she started the story. “Or a tentative future, possibly.” She crinkled her brow. “I don’t know, almost as if we entered a future jump.”
    “You mean a jump that we have yet to take?” Dirk waved his hand around the circle.
    She nodded. “The beings who ruled that world were not human, but alien, beastlike in appearance and mannerism. They had enslaved a population of humans and forced them into service. They wouldn’t let them wear clothes, but tattooed every inch of their bodies. They were treated worse than animals, kept in cages, chained and dragged around like pets, forced to do things I can’t begin to speak aloud.”
    Tara shuddered. Corey climbed out of the pool and grabbed