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    After These Messages
    After These Messages
    After These Messages
    Ebook84 pages1 hour

    After These Messages

    By Holly Hook

    ()

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    About this ebook

    What would happen if the world suddenly turned into a giant commercial break? Unfortunately, Jade is about to find out, thanks to her little brother's stupid wish.

    Now, not only must she face stupid ads coming to life around her every minute of the day. She's also being stalked by the most terrifying one of all: the creepy, ever-smiling Burger Planet mascot!

    If Jade is unable to face him, she risks losing everyone she cares about to thirty-second slots forever.

    *This is a novella at about 23,000 words long. It's not too serious.*

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHolly Hook
    Release dateAug 28, 2012
    ISBN9781476154060
    After These Messages
    Author

    Holly Hook

    Holly Hook is the author of the five-book Destroyers Series, which is the prequel to the Deathwind Trilogy. She began writing at a very young age and published her first book for Kindle, Tempest, in September of 2011. Since then, Tempest (#1 Destroyers Series) has seen thousands of downloads and four sequels. The Deathwind Trilogy is a spin-off of the Destroyers Series, with three books planned.The author is currently working on the Timeless Trilogy, another YA fantasy series with a hint of science fiction, and has written a few short stories. She grew up with a fascination with natural disasters and weather, especially storms. She enjoys writing stories with a strong female lead and exploring concepts that have never been done before. Reading teen fiction and young adult books is another one of her biggest interests. She lives in Michigan with her two cats and an assortment of other pets.If you would like to subscribe to her mailing list for a free book, be sure to check out her blog at www.hollyannehook.wordpress.com and hit the big "subscribe" button or just go to the sign up page here: http://wordpress.us6.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=8696a40cb388cfc9f1421d292&id=2e2b7ac94dOther Titles By Holly Hook Include:Tempest (#1 Destroyers Series)Inferno (#2 Destroyers Series)Outbreak (#3 Destroyers Series)Frostbite (#4 Destroyers Series)Ancient (#5 Destroyers Series)The Destroyers Omnibus (All Five Books in One Bundle)Torn (#2 Deathwind Trilogy) Available Now2:20 (#1 Timeless Trilogy) Coming Soon in April of 201511:39 (#2 Timeless Trilogy) Coming Soon in April of 2015After These Messages (A Young Adult Comedy)Walls (A Teen Paranormal Short Story)Going Home (A Science Fiction Short Story)The Youngest Prince (A Short Story in the anthology Out of the Green)

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      Book preview

      After These Messages - Holly Hook

      After These Messages

      By

      Holly A. Hook

      SMASHWORDS EDITION

      PUBLISHED BY:

      Holly A. Hook

      After These Messages

      Copyright 2012 Holly A. Hook

      This book is also available in print at Amazon.com

      All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

      * * * * *

      AFTER THESE MESSAGES

      * * * * *

      Chapter One

      Ew, he’s creepy.

      I couldn’t resist shuddering as I stepped over the threshold of Burger Planet. For one thing, I have a little phobia of unhealthy food ever since an incident I had a few years ago, but I’ll get to that later.

      I think I’ll focus on the mascots for the time being.

      Every fast food place seems to have one. MacDenny’s has that clown—enough said. And Crazy’s Subs has those talking rats trying to sell you food. Yuck. The mascot for Heaven Burger always got me, too. An angel cow licking its chops. I mean, come on. The place serves burgers, as in beef. Did that cow die from eating itself?

      But none of them compare to the Burger Planet mascot, Al the Astronaut.

      His statue stood there in the middle of the restaurant like he had every day since someone lost their mind in the Burger Planet ad department and made him the poster boy. The six-foot-tall astronaut towered over the surrounding tables and stared ahead with that blank stare, as if his eyes were focused on nothing at all. And a creepy, blank smile took up half his face. As if that wasn’t bad enough, his head was way oversize for his body, which made it all ten times worse. He looked like a giant bobble head crossed with every clown nightmare conceived by mankind.

      Come on, Jade, my ten-year-old brother, Brian said. He refused to lift his nose away from his tablet, which was playing one of his ten thousand favorite TV shows on its touch screen. Get over it.

      Well, if you’d ever look away from that thing, maybe you’d see how creepy he is, I said. A shudder raced over my body as I imagined those lifeless eyes staring at me from behind the glass of that astronaut’s face mask. Let’s just get our food, eat, and get out of here as fast as we can.

      Wuss.

      I reached down and slugged him on the arm. Let’s just hurry up. I have to get to soccer at five. And I had better not have to drag you with me. It wasn’t my fault my parents made me watch him all the time.

      A tall, skinny manager in a gray shirt tapped his fingers behind the cash register. He looked like he was the only one that was working, too. Fries sizzled somewhere in a deep fryer and a timer beeped somewhere, but no workers ran around in purple shirts and Burger Planet hats like they usually did. The place was deserted except for us, so they probably all got laid off. I had a feeling Al the Astronaut had something to do with that. I'd heard that sales for Burger Planet had dropped over the past few months.

      The guy—his name tag read Craig, Manager in block letters—stared down at my brother’s tablet for a bit, tapped his fingers again, and said, May I take your order?

      I stared at the menu board as my brother kept staring at that screen. Al the Astronaut smiled out of the glowing boards at me, raising sandwiches in his silver-gloved hand. The toothy grin on his face made me think he really wanted to raise a big, scary knife instead. Shudder. I diverted my gaze to the list of food. Greasy burgers. Greasy fries. And an order of grease on the side. Um, no thanks. I’ll take the Galactic Salad. With tea.

      Craig typed in the order. Exciting job.

      And Brian stood there, transfixed by a rerun of Spongehead Simpleton. Craig seemed to have noticed it, too, because his thin little mustache twitched with impatience.

      I swatted him on the arm. Hey, back to reality. Are you going to order?

      He jumped as if I’d dumped a bucket of ice over his head. Oh. He stared up at the menu board as if realizing it was there for the first time. Um…I’ll take the Jupiter Burger combo.

      Above Craig, Al the Astronaut stared at me from the board, holding up the monstrous sandwich. The new, monstrous five-dollar sandwich that he was hypnotizing everyone in those commercials to buy. And he seemed to have hit my little brother with that brainwashing ray gun.

      Before I could protest, Craig typed in the order and sealed my allowance’s fate. Fourteen twenty, please.

      Sigh.

      You owe me the dishes tonight, I said to Brian as I balanced the silver tray and sat down at the booth farthest from Al the Astronaut’s statue. I don’t get paid for another week. And it wasn’t my idea to come here.

      He kept staring down at his screen as the Jupiter Burger sat untouched on its wrapper. How could a short little kid like him ever eat it? Meanwhile, Craig yakked away on his cell phone in a low voice. That was probably due to the fact that there was no one else in here right now, and he probably had nothing better to do.

      I took a bite of the salad and a sip of the tea. I’d need the fuel for practice later. I didn’t need to collapse from dehydration in this heat.

      Craig kept staring over here out of the corner of his eye as he talked on the phone. I glanced down at my V-neck to make sure it wasn’t hanging too low. It wasn’t. Craig had to be pushing thirty, so the whole thing didn’t look right to me, mainly because I was only pushing sixteen. Even though I was pretty tall for my age, it didn’t make the situation any less creepy.

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