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    Childhood's End (William Bernhardt's Shine Series Book 1)
    Childhood's End (William Bernhardt's Shine Series Book 1)
    Childhood's End (William Bernhardt's Shine Series Book 1)
    Ebook130 pages1 hour

    Childhood's End (William Bernhardt's Shine Series Book 1)

    By William Bernhardt

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    About this ebook

    In the near future, a few young women manifest extraordinary abilities called "Shine." Each girl's ability is different. Some develop extraordinary mental abilities. Some become physically strong. Others have powers that defy description. But the world does not embrace these Shines. It fears them.
    Aura was only trying to use her healing powers to help a small child. But when she Shined, something went horribly wrong--and Seattle was destroyed. In the aftermath of this disaster, the government institutionalizes Shines in "rehabilitative treatment centers." Aura is sent to the Transforming Your Light island rehab--but to her it seems more like a prison. The other Shines hate her. The people running the place are out to get her. And she feels certain more is going on here than "group grope" and twelve-step programs. But when she tumbles onto the horrible secret beneath the rehab--she realizes just how great the danger to her and all the other Shines really is.
    Aura resolves to escape before it's too late. But she can only do that if she organizes the Shines, persuades them to work together, and overcomes the deadly opposition she only barely understands.

    Shine 1: Childhood's End is the first installment in a new series from nationally bestselling author William Bernhardt.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBabylon Books
    Release dateDec 15, 2017
    ISBN9781948263078
    Childhood's End (William Bernhardt's Shine Series Book 1)
    Author

    William Bernhardt

    William Bernhardt (b. 1960), a former attorney, is a bestselling thriller author. Born in Oklahoma, he began writing as a child, submitting a poem about the Oklahoma Land Run to Highlights—and receiving his first rejection letter—when he was eleven years old. Twenty years later, he had his first success, with the publication of Primary Justice (1991), the first novel in the long-running Ben Kincaid series. The success of Primary Justice marked Bernhardt as a promising young talent, and he followed the book with seventeen more mysteries starring the idealistic defense attorney, including Murder One (2001) and Hate Crime (2004). Bernhardt’s other novels include Double Jeopardy (1995) and The Midnight Before Christmas (1998), a holiday-themed thriller. In 1999, Bernhardt founded Bernhardt Books (formerly HAWK Publishing Group) as a way to help boost the careers of struggling young writers. In addition to writing and publishing, Bernhardt teaches writing workshops around the country. He currently lives with his family in Oklahoma. 

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      Book preview

      Childhood's End (William Bernhardt's Shine Series Book 1) - William Bernhardt

      CHILDHOOD’S END

      by William Bernhardt

      Copyright © 2015 William Bernhardt

      All rights reserved.

      Published by Babylon Books

      Distributed by Smashwords

      No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

      Ebook formatting by www.ebooklaunch.com

      Other Books by William Bernhardt

      The Ben Kincaid Novels:

      Primary Justice

      Blind Justice

      Deadly Justice

      Perfect Justice

      Cruel Justice

      Naked Justice

      Extreme Justice

      Dark Justice

      Silent Justice

      Murder One

      Criminal Intent

      Death Row

      Hate Crime

      Capitol Murder

      Capitol Threat

      Capitol Conspiracy

      Capitol Offense

      Capitol Betrayal

      Other novels:

      Challengers of the Dust

      The Game Master

      Nemesis: The Final Case of Eliot Ness

      Dark Eye

      Strip Search

      Double Jeopardy

      The Midnight Before Christmas

      The Code of Buddyhood

      Final Round

      Nonfiction:

      Story Structure: The Key to Successful Fiction

      Creating Character: Bringing Your Story to Life

      Perfecting Plot: Charting the Hero’s Journey

      Dynamic Dialogue: Letting Your Story Speak

      Sizzling Style: Every Word Matters

      Excellent Editing: The Writing Process

      Powerful Premise: Writing the Irresistible

      The Fundamentals of Fiction Video Series

      Poetry:

      The White Bird

      The Ocean’s Edge

      For young readers:

      Shine

      The Black Sentry

      Princess Alice and the Dreadful Dragon

      Equal Justice: The Courage of Ada Sipuel

      Edited by William Bernhardt

      Legal Briefs: Stories by Today’s Best Thriller Writers

      Natural Suspect: A Collaborative Novel of Suspense

      For Alice, Beth, Kadey, and Madeline

      You laugh at me because I'm different. I laugh at you because you're all the same.

      Jonathan Davis

      Contents

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

      Chapter 9

      Chapter 10

      Chapter 11

      Chapter 12

      Chapter 13

      Chapter 14

      Chapter 15

      Chapter 16

      Chapter 17

      Chapter 18

      Chapter 19

      Note from the Author

      Acknowledgements

      About the Author

      Chapter 1

      Seattle Center

      Seattle, Washington

      Eleven Years From Now

      Aura didn’t know why her heart went out to the young girl with the Asian eyes and the oversized flip-flops, why she cared so much so quickly. But she did. She couldn’t help herself.

      And the moment she reached out to the girl, the world shattered.

      The day started innocently enough. Bainbridge Island was her favorite place on earth. She often wished it didn’t take so long to travel from LA to Seattle. Bainbridge freed her from stress and oppression and everything she hated in LA. And everything that hated her. She could hike for hours on the island and never get lost or bored. A thermos full of Earl Grey, a few sandwiches in her backpack, and she was good for hours. Deep in the forest, she found peace. Calm. Contentment.

      Everything her so-called real life didn’t have.

      Of course Beverly would want chapter and verse on where she’d been all day. And she would provide as few details as possible and another drama-queen episode would follow. Beverly would say Don’t you disrespect your mother, little girl, you have a bad attitude and a smart mouth. She would prove Beverly was right. Taj would wonder why she left him behind.

      She didn’t like disappointing people or hurting their feelings. But sometimes she needed to be alone. Sometimes she got so mad at the world she had to escape. She didn’t like hiding or keeping secrets. She did that every day of high school. Would she have to do it the rest of her life?

      She thought Seattle Center would be just as soothing as the island, so after the ferry docked, she hopped onto the monorail express. She loved the Experience Music Project. Most museums were lame, full of pretentious people gaping at stuff they didn’t understand, but this one was completely razor. She barely knew who Jimi Hendrix was, but she loved playing with the instruments, recording the random sounds she heard in her head under the blanketing shadow of the Space Needle.

      And then, on the pavilion outside, she saw the girl.

      A tiny girl, maybe seven years old, ran down the sidewalk. She looked so happy, so carefree, with the brightest eyes on earth. Had she felt that kind of pure joy at that age, before her father disappeared and her mother changed? Before she realized she was different?

      As she watched, the girl tripped, probably because of those gargantuan flip-flops, and fell hard onto the pavement. Her face contorted with pain and fear.

      No! Aura cried but did not cry. Stop!

      All around her, everything seemed to freeze. The world went silent. Light suffused the plaza, whiting out the color. Nothing existed but that tiny girl. She couldn’t let that child lose her inner radiance. She didn’t want to see her scraped and cut and bloody.

      She ran forward, just seconds after the girl’s face hit the concrete. She was already crying. Blood pulsed from a cut on the left side of her face. Head wounds always bled the worst.

      I can’t find my daddy, the girl gasped. I want to go home. Her eyes narrowed and she tilted her head. You have funny hair.

      True enough. Strawberry blonde with blue-fringed bangs. Not so much funny as tragic. What does your daddy look like?

      He’s big. Tall. He was just here.

      Let me see if I can find him. Children usually trusted her, in part she thought because even though she was seventeen, her petite size caused them to guess she was younger. What’s your name?

      Lara.

      Okay, Lara, I don’t—

      That’s when she saw the other abrasions. Blood oozed from Lara’s hands and knees in at least three different places. The injuries were far more serious than she’d realized.

      Lara’s eyelids fluttered, then closed.

      She had to staunch the bleeding. Such a tiny child could not bleed for long before cranial asphyxiation set in or her heart slowed. She focused on the damaged arteries, the torn tissue. Concentrate. She tried to remember what she’d learned in high school physiology, the only class in which she’d actually paid attention. Sometimes it helped to create a visual image.

      She focused all her energy on repairing the damage. Accelerating Lara’s natural healing capacity. First one tissue layer, then the next. At the cellular level, the molecules began to stitch themselves together, one nucleus at a time, regenerating at a dramatically augmented rate.

      Only when the work was almost done did she realize the ground was shaking…

      She blocked that thought out of her brain and finished the task at hand. Arterial damage complicated the healing process. She didn’t know why, but repairing arteries took longer and required more effort. The girl was so tiny. It was like stitching doll clothes with a scythe.

      She concentrated all her mental energy on a single arterial wall, restoring normal aortic pressure till blood flowed as it should.

      The girl’s eyes opened.

      Thank Gandhi. Lara, you’re gonna be fine. Let’s find—

      Her words were buried beneath the sound of rubble crashing all around them.

      This was more than a minor tremor. Seattle Center was falling apart.

      Quakes were supposed to occur back home, not here. What gave? All around her cracks rippled up the sides of concrete walls. Huge chunks of rock and metal rained down around them. Pipelines and rebar thrust through the cement.

      This could not be a natural phenomenon. This could only be caused by something else, some unnatural force…

      And so far as she knew, there was only one unnatural force currently operating in the neighborhood.

      Someone slammed into her from behind, knocking her to the ground. Another explosion rocked the pavilion. Fire erupted from a crevice in the ground accompanied by a booming noise that blotted out every other possible sound. She felt an intense heat scorching her. More fires broke out. Walls of flame surrounded them.

      The plaza no longer resembled Seattle Center. This was a war zone.

      The pavement shuddered beneath them, the biggest quake yet. She took Lara’s hand.

      All at once, the girl’s eyes went wide. Look out!

      She whirled around. A huge piece of rubble soared toward them, barely a second away.

      There was no time to think. She closed her eyes, grabbed the girl, and dived to

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