SPARKS: The Smoke & Fire Series (Prequel Book 1) Read online

  SPARKS

  The Smoke & Fire Series - Prequel #1

  Paranormal Thriller

  By

  Michele Wesley

  CONTENTS

  Intro

  Part 1 - Smoke

  Part 2 - Fire

  Available Now in the Smoke & Fire Series

  Smoke & Fire

  Body Box

  Coming soon in the Smoke & Fire Series

  Anger & Arrogance

  Syven

  Guardian Sixx

  Dreams Whisper

  ***Read the first six books and any prequel of this series in any order***

  Copyright © 2015 by Michele Wesley

  ISBN: eBook 9780996155496

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

  This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, events, and incidents are from the author’s imagination and used fictitiously. Any similarities to events or persons living or dead are coincidental.

  Warning: This book depicts scenes of violence that may not be suitable for individuals under 18. All books in the Smoke & Fire Series contains strong violence or strong sexual content and is intended for Adults 18+.

  Intro

  Much too often we find ourselves wondering how a character was born. What made them into the hero they have become? What made them such an excellent lover or such an expert at taking care of others? What made them such a nice guy or girl? How did they become such a villainous monster or mass murderer?

  This novelette gives off a few sparks of the flame that ignited two explosive characters from Smoke & Fire, Book #1 of the Smoke & Fire Series. Rage and untapped emotions are what seep the fumes that make these characters jump off the pages. The Smoke & Fire series is uniquely written, allowing readers to jump into the series at any of the first six books.

  Sori “Smoke” Knight and Mycale Thomas Phillips are deadly, sometimes lovable, and totally emotionally dysfunctional. Despite facing emotional obstacles, they somehow manage to keep fighting for the good guys. They are the pokers that stroke the flames that burn through this action packed, sexually charged, emotionally unstable series infused with murder and mayhem. This novelette sneaks a peek into Sori and Mycale’s younger years.

  Part 1

  Sori Knight - Smoke

  Being welcomed into the world with a foot-stomp versus a butt slap should have been her first clue. Sori came into this world at the bottom of a foot, or at least that’s what she remembered. Staring up at a foot as it came smashing down towards her face was her very first memory. The incessant kicking came from her foster parents as her small arms fought to block the forces of evil.

  Sori was showered with attention in its rawest form: abuse. Her endearments were verbal slashes and physical strikes that cut deep. She couldn’t remember anything before her fourth year, her mind still too mushy to form concise and clear patterns of thought.

  At four years old, it happened, Sori’s own Big Bang. All she knew was her brutal reality, awakening to a world that seemed like it didn’t want her and found every chance to reject her.

  Growing up without a sense of who she was kept Sori wondering about her lineage and who her parents were. Growing up in foster care was the whipped cream on the disaster pie of her life.

  She heard her foster parents say many times they were giving her back to the state. Due to her mistreatment and harsh abuse, it would have been a gift to be given back. Anywhere seemed better than living with two adults who substituted abuse for affection.

  Daily beatings and being yelled at had become Sori’s norm. At five, Sori’s six-year-old foster brother Brad was hospitalized with a broken collarbone and several cracked ribs. Since Brad’s injuries had been so severe, it caught the attention of the Department of Health and Human Services. Sori was taken and remained in a state facility for about six months before being placed with another family.

  By the time Sori turned ten, she had been tossed around to so many foster homes she lost count. The world of adulthood seemed like an angry, hateful place. They were all abusers, verbally and physically. She had yet to be placed in a home where the adults didn’t seek out ways to inflict abuse on her.

  She spent time with couples who weren’t opposed to admitting they only entered the foster care program for financial gain. Some entered the program seemingly to have someone to abuse. The system, as she lived it, wasn’t working. How many children had to suffer injuries or die before someone realized the system was severely broken?

  Sori’s most peaceful years were from age ten to twelve, placed with an older woman, Ms. Gurtie McNeal. Although the woman didn’t provide much in the line of affection, she wasn’t abusive. Sori learned at a very young age that not having someone abuse her was a big blessing.

  At the unlucky age of thirteen, Sori found that no matter how bad she thought things were, they could always be worse. She ended up in the clutches of a couple who were not only abusive, but easily the most disturbed people she had ever been placed with. The couple, Debra and Rodney Littlejohn, raised the bar on abuse by teaming it with belittling torment and emotional assault.

  Sori, along with her foster sister Sherri, were forced to star in a series of homemade kiddie porn films. At thirteen Sori looked no older than ten, so she appeared the prime age for the couple’s target audience. The couple’s studio was located inside their spare bedroom.

  Severe beatings were the result of disobeying her foster parent’s orders, and Sori disobeyed often. Living most of her young life as the recipient of abuse, the prospect of being beaten wasn’t a scare tactic that frightened her as much anymore. Sooner or later, Sori feared Debra and Rodney would make her favor a beating over the alternative; being forced to have sex.

  Sori had a clear understanding of sex and how it worked. Although her foster parents hadn’t yet forced sexual intercourse, she and Sherri were forced to pose and pretend like they were having sex with adults. They were also forced to touch and caress the private parts of men and women with their hands and mouths.

  Debra and Rodney did clever things with the film and angled the camera in ways that made their audience think they were watching adults having sex with children. The sick people who bought these types of film couldn’t seem to get enough.

  Pretending to have sex was bad enough, but Sori feared it was only a matter of time before she would be forced to start having full-on sex. Each time seemed worse than the last as she listened to Debra and Rodney yell demands for her to open her legs wider, kiss, smile, stick her butt out more, or bend her back.

  Sori endured the weight of desperate men sliding wildly between her legs. The strong and pungent odor they gave off while attempting to have sex with her was revolting. The men attempted to forcibly push their erect penises through the large maxi-pad Debra made her wear to block penetration. The constant huffing and puffing, their rancid breath, sweaty bodies, and the way they squeezed her body when getting themselves off was enough to make Sori cry every time.

  She’d seen and witnessed adults having sex her entire life, and it wasn’t an act she wanted to participate in. She was sickened by the sight of shaking flesh slapping against flesh, and the screams and yells of pleasure and pain she didn’t understand. The sight of it repulsed her, and the idea of participating in such an act made the nerves just below the surface of her skin tighten like taut cables about to snap.

  After only six months, Sori’s nightmare was thrust suddenly upon her like a fire storm. One of the main actors was tired of pretending. He demanded that
he be allowed to have sex. Crying buckets of tears, Sori and Sherri begged to be spared the agony.

  Only twelve, Sherri shared with Sori that she experienced the horror of sex with an uncle who would sneak into her room periodically. Sherri’s mother had caught the uncle in the act and had blown his brains out. Unfortunately, Sherri’s mother had been sentenced to prison, which resulted in Sherri’s stint in foster care. Now, the poor girl found herself placed back into the hands of people just like her uncle.

  Sori couldn’t stomach the thought of Sherri going through something so horrible again. Without being asked, Sori raised her hand, “Can I do it?” Volunteering, Sori hoped to spare Sherri from the horror awaiting, although she wasn’t sure the girl would be spared in the long run.

  ****

  Dressed in adult lingerie, Sori listened to her foster parents shout their orders. Reluctantly, she did as told and took her position on the bed trembling like a lamb being led to the slaughter. Disobeying the orders of her foster parents was never a good idea. Sori nursed sore ribs, a tender wrist, and countless scrapes and bruises for disobeying them a few days prior.

  At this point, hopelessness was Sori’s uncaring guide. She desperately wanted to kill herself, but even death seemed to elude her. After the last film and her beating, Sori snuck into her foster parent’s bathroom and stole a bottle of painkillers. Hoping it was enough to end her tortured life, her suicide attempt didn’t work. The pills only made her throw up.

  Still suffering the lingering effect of her overdose, Sori refused to look in the direction of the beast waiting to take her virginity. Her foster parents told her she had to fight the man. Confused by the request, she knew better than to ask questions. She wondered why she was being told to fight now when she’d just been beaten for putting up a fight days prior.

  They wanted to film a rape scene. Their customers were requesting to see kids being raped, and Rodney and Debra were willing to supply the demand. Hearing the word “Action,” Sori jumped. Her body had transformed into a thumping speaker, projecting the vibrating beat and rhythm of her fear.

  The man’s presence lingered over Sori like a cloak of fire. Although she knew it wouldn’t help, she pretended to be asleep as she tightly gripped the covers. The knowledge that no one was going to stop this vile act made her pray hard and out loud. “Please God, don’t let this happen.”

  About to be devoured by a monster, Sori cowered against the headboard; knees to chest, covers up to her chin. Since her mind was the only thing she believed she could control, she pretended she were standing outside her body. For a brief moment, she forgot about what was about to happen.

  Bringing her out of the moment, the covers were yanked from her hands. Sori didn’t have to act scared, she was terrified. Tears slithered down her face like small angry snakes as her trembling body scurried away from her attacker. Moving quickly to the other side of the bed, she lost her balance and fell hard to the floor. Not caring one bit about the fall, she slid under the bed in a mad dash to avoid her attacker. It didn’t take but a second to be dragged by her leg from under the bed. The carpet grabbed and tore at her skin, an active participant in her abuse.

  The man forcefully tossed her sixty-five-pound body back on the bed. He pounced on her fast, not giving her time to think of a next move. Fighting to keep her pants and panties from being pulled down, Sori fought her attacker as much as she could. Her hands had no effect on the man as his devious smile filled her view.

  Tall and muscular, his big body was unmoved by Sori’s useless fight. He ripped her top and pushed her hard, causing her head to collide into the headboard. On the cusp of blacking out, Sori fought through the pain threatening to take her under. If she let herself fall into unconsciousness, there was no telling how much worse her abuse would be.

  All of a sudden, something unseen and powerful shot through her body. Flooded with an untapped spark of power, she shivered and went still. The force of what traveled through her seemed to make her attacker pause. Did he feel that too?

  During his brief pause, Sori backed her body completely against the headboard, folding into herself as she tried to hide the body part the man desperately wanted. She had no description for the energy still flowing through her body. The currents frightened her just as much as her attacker. Momentarily, she glanced at her foster parents. One operated the camera as the other stood nearby, directing and shouting orders. Only the movement of their lips registered as Sori sat petrified.

  Pulling her forward by the foot, as soon as the man had a good grip on Sori, he spun and pinned her against the wall. Having no trouble holding her weight, the man was determined to get what he wanted. Holding her by the throat, he yanked her lingerie bottoms down.

  Hopeless and helpless were minor emotions in comparison to ache of despair Sori harbored as she struggled for air. Her strangled plea was hardly audible, “Please don’t.” When the man reached for her panties, something within her snapped. She screamed, “Noooo.” She fought him as if he were about to take her life, as to her, he was. “No! No! No!” She continued to scream. She swung her arms and legs wildly, kicking and scratching whatever she came in contact with. The man dropped her, letting her body hit the floor with a hard thud.

  Hearing her foster parents laughing in the background sparked anger. There was nothing funny about her situation. The man was about to take the only part of her innocence that hadn’t been contaminated by the world.

  Her attacker came at her again, but Sori had the presence of mind to scamper away from him. When he stood over her and reached for her with both hands, Sori kicked one of his legs with both of her feet. She put every ounce of her strength into the kick and to her surprise, the man squealed in pain and fell to the floor as if truly hurt.

  Rodney and Debra’s laughing came to an abrupt stop. Sori crawled to the nearest corner. Holding her torn top to her flat chest, she glanced towards Rodney and Debra as they stood frozen, their wide eyes on the downed man.

  Sori’s eyes nearly popped out her head when she saw what her foster parents were staring at. A bone stuck out of the back of her attacker’s leg, which was bent at an unnatural angle. Blood gushed out of the wound like a pressure valve had been released. The man’s wails were that of a wounded dog as he grabbed desperately at his broken leg.

  Questioning herself, Sori’s voice was too low for her foster parents to hear. “I didn’t do that, did I? I am not strong enough to do that, am I?”

  As if released from a time freeze, Rodney and Debra ran over to the screaming man. Standing over the man, the couple’s eyes traveled accusingly towards Sori. Certain she was about to be severely beaten for what she’d done, Sori awaited her punishment, but Rodney and Debra didn’t approach. Instead, they quickly dragged the injured man toward their living room.

  Sori was left in the corner terrified of what she’d done and afraid of what would happen as a result. She wondered if she were going to go to jail for what she’d done to the man. Were her foster parents going to beat her worse than before?

  In her room hours later, Sori heard her foster parents return from taking the man to the hospital. Using her covers for protection, she remained hidden. Amazingly, her foster parents didn’t bother her, but her ravaged nerves kept her awake all night.

  Rodney and Debra’s Movie Empire was put on hold. For how long, Sori had no idea. She wanted badly to tell someone about what was being done to her and Sherri, but based on the negative results of telling, she was stuck with the hard truth. A prisoner of a harsh life, Sori remained a silent inmate.

  After a few months with no mention of future movies, Sori still couldn’t relax. Her foster parents looked at her differently now. They were more cautious about their actions toward her. Instead of beating her about the head and body for disobeying, they yelled more, threatened bodily harm, or sent her to her room. They never mentioned anything further about the incident or the injured man. Were they acting differently because she had fought back? Were they afraid she wo
uld hurt them?

  The dynamic in the house shifted, but only a little. Although Rodney and Debra had put away the camera, it didn’t mean they weren’t still horrible people. Sherri overheard the couple negotiating with a case worker. They were proposing to trade Sherri and Sori for two other foster girls, but their request had been denied.

  The prospect of her foster parents restarting the movies kept Sori on edge. She believed the couple had filmed girls in the past and planned to use future foster daughters in their films. Sori made a solemn vow to herself; she was going to find a way to stop Rodney and Debra.

  ****

  Two years later. Sori smiled as she continued to enjoy her dream. Suddenly, a piercing hot pain shot through her head, but slivered away just as quickly as it had come.

  Instinctively, she reached for her head. The amount of effort it took to raise her hand confused her. Unable to process what was happening, she flipped the covers back so she could get out of bed.

  Her bedside digital clock flashed 11:09 brightly as she struggled to sit up. Getting out of bed shouldn’t have been this difficult. Her legs dropped over the edge of the bed as she sat up. She said, “Finally. What’s wrong with me?” Slumped and moving sluggishly, she pushed forward but failed at her attempt to stand.