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    The Center
    The Center
    The Center
    Ebook63 pages1 hour

    The Center

    By Harper Kingsley

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    About this ebook

    Orphaned violently at 12 years old, Julian has lived at the Center as favored test subject and future breeding stock. He has tried to escape several times, but has always been brought back to the scientists that torment him. There is nowhere else that he can go and no other life that he can live...

    Then he receives a horrific vision of his future and he has no choice but to try once again for his dream of freedom.

    Before Julian appeared in "Visions of Blood & Shadow," before he worked with the police, before he was Julian Duncan... He was Julian DeVries, a boy with a dream.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarper Kingsley
    Release dateJun 14, 2011
    ISBN9781458138064
    The Center
    Author

    Harper Kingsley

    Harper Kingsley is a science fiction and fantasy author living in Washington State.

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      Book preview

      The Center - Harper Kingsley

      THE CENTER

      A Julian Duncan Story

      By Harper Kingsley

      Copyright 2011 Harper Kingsley

      Smashwords Edition

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      2003

      JULIAN DeVRIES

      There was something about a smoky bar that made him think of his childhood. The only thing missing was his father and the thick, black leather belt he wore. The boy still bore the scars from those years, back when he was young. When he didn't feel this empty and alone inside.

      He looked around incuriously, wondering how he had ended up here in this dark and musty place that smelled so strongly of cheap booze and cigarettes. He wondered dimly how he had gotten in. He definitely didn't look like he was twenty-one. Not even close.

      At seventeen, he was thin to the point of pain, his face hollowed by hunger and past misery. His eyes were shadowed by secrets and a fear that blazed from him like a light.

      With a little meat on his bones, he might have been handsome. As it was, he only looked thin and frightened, as though he were on the run. He looked younger than his years. In a good light he might have passed for thirteen, maybe fourteen if he stood up straight and tall. As it was, patrons began to look up from their drinks and their melancholy thoughts and saw him.

      There was something about him that called to them, that promised them the answers to all the secrets that had gone unanswered. There was a kind of wisdom about this boy, a knowledge that they all wanted to touch and stroke, to wrap around themselves and warm themselves against that fire of the soul.

      As he looked at them, the boy began to shiver as though he were cold. Visions flashed through his mind like lightning. He Saw them all, Saw their need to know, Saw how much they wanted to be soothed and loved, to be cared for, to know that everything would be all right and that the monsters that rode the night wouldn't be able to get them. He could not comfort them though. All he could offer was death and pain.

      He saw in the shadows of one man's face the death that was about to take him. The pain that would flow through the man as he coughed up his lungs all alone in a dank, dark room, no hope of a future in sight.

      Julian felt tears prick his eyes and turned away, there was no escaping the visions. No matter how far or fast he ran, they would always be there, fighting their way out to fill him up. To take away everything he had, to take him away from himself, to hollow him out, then wear his skin like a suit of clothes.

      He shuddered away from the image of being zipped out of his skin, to be left shivering and afraid, a naked skeleton watching sadly as the monsters walked away wearing his flesh.

      He hurried back to the door and out into the night; at least there he could be on the move until he could tire himself out. Maybe if he exhausted himself enough he would be able to sleep without the terrible fear of the dreams.

      He felt another vision floating to the surface of his mind like a bubble and began to run, fast, fast, faster. He pushed past people hurrying down the street, not hearing their angry cries in his urgency to escape from himself. All he knew was that he didn't belong here, couldn't relate to these normal, everyday people.

      JULIAN

      Hunger gnawed at his belly and he was forced to admit that he needed to eat.

      He kept a careful eye over his shoulder as he passed through the doors of the 7-Eleven. His nostrils quivered as he breathed in the scent of cooking hotdogs, the slightly salty smell of cheese melting, and the dull odor of old burritos.

      It had been a day since he had eaten, and he had been on the run the entire time. He was starving, and he knew he was broke. He was going to have to do something he had promised himself that he wouldn't.

      He tugged his cap low, trying to put as much of his face in shadow as possible. He knew that these places had video cameras and he didn't want his face to be recorded. That was how criminals were usually caught.

      Julian grabbed a basket and quickly filled it with a bag

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