Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Detox Factor
    The Detox Factor
    The Detox Factor
    Ebook84 pages1 hour

    The Detox Factor

    By Traci Harding

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Enter a world of mystery and hauntings fair and foul ...
    A fabulously spooky ghost story from one of Voyager's bestselling authors, traci Harding.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers Australia
    Release dateJan 23, 2012
    ISBN9781743096246
    The Detox Factor
    Author

    Traci Harding

    Traci Harding is one of Australia's best loved and most prolific authors. Her stories blend fantasy, fact, esoteric belief, time travel and quantum physics, into adventurous romps through history, alternative dimensions, universes and states of consciousness. She has published more than 20 bestselling books and been translated into several languages. 

    Read more from Traci Harding

    Related to The Detox Factor

    Related ebooks

    Fantasy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Detox Factor

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      The Detox Factor - Traci Harding

      The Detox Factor

      WARNING: Those strongly opposed to coarse language should probably skip to the next story.

      1. The Resolution Binge

      ‘SO WE’RE AGREED then, we’ll do it.’ Shannon pushed for a commitment.

      ‘I gotta do something.’ Billie blew her nose ‘I’m dying here.’ She sniffled as she stuffed her tissue back into her pocket. Then, clinking her near-empty glass of bourbon against Shannon’s vodka, lime and lemonade, they downed their drinks to seal their pact.

      ‘We’ll get off it all … smokes, booze, coffee, junk food,’ Shannon vowed with great enthusiasm, which was easy to do whilst drunk and smoked out in a tiny pub.

      ‘Pills, trips, dope,’ Billie shot in.

      ‘All that, too,’ Shannon granted, considering Billie had a lot more vices than she did. ‘Meat, chocolate —’

      ‘Hey,’ Billie drew the line, ‘let’s not get too excited.’

      The shocked expression on her friend’s face made Shannon laugh. ‘Perhaps giving up chocolate is a bit extreme.’

      The thought of getting out of the city for a while had Shannon excited, and now they’d made a pact to get healthy that would double the benefit of this much needed break.

      Shannon always felt guilty taking holidays. In the film industry, as soon as you took your finger off the pulse you risked missing out on work. But to hell with it, she’d decided. Her resume was looking fairly healthy, and having cut a couple of feature films of late, her bank account was in good shape too.

      The mountains would not have been Shannon’s first pick for a holiday destination, but a friend-client of Billie’s was going overseas and leaving his secluded country retreat vacant for months. Why pay for a trip OS when there was great accommodation, free of charge, here at home. Personally, Shannon was going to miss the beach; she surfed every morning, religiously. Billie had consoled her with the news that their getaway had an indoor, heated pool, and Shannon had agreed that this would provide satisfactory compensation.

      ‘Can I buy either of you lovely ladies a drink?’ A cute but tipsy, wax-head leaned between them and yelled to be heard over the music.

      Billie and Shannon, blonde, blue-eyed and fairly fit, always attracted male attention when they went out together. Even though they were of the same colouring and neither of them was very tall, they appeared to be a regular odd couple. Shannon was a little hippie-surfer chick, with crystal earrings, ankle chains, bracelets and bare feet — whenever she could get away with it. Billie, on the other hand, was more your baggy jeans, steel-cap boots, midriff singlet and leather jacket kind of girl.

      Billie eyed the arm the surfer dude had placed over her shoulder and then looked back at him in disgust. ‘Did I give you permission to hang your pissed carcass over my person? No, I don’t think so.’ This was the polite version of what Billie said. In reality she managed to work the ‘f’ word into the sentence about four times.

      ‘I’m sorry,’ the guy smiled broadly and backed off, holding his hands up in truce.

      ‘You will be, if you touch me again.’ She managed the ‘f’ word only twice that time. Billie shrugged off his touch to remove her leather jacket and expose the rippling muscles of her upper body.

      Billie was a body sculptor; she’d owned a gym in the inner city. She sculpted other people’s bodies for a living and made a pretty penny doing it.

      ‘Shit! She’s a guy.’ The wax-head aimed his joke at Shannon, as she seemed more obliging.

      Billie served the surfer her evil eye. ‘You know, you’re really fuckin’ asking for it.’

      In final appeal, he looked to Shannon, who smiled. ‘You’d better leave … she’s on steroids,’ she whispered from behind her hand. As he took the hint and departed, Shannon looked at Billie and slowly shook her head. ‘Such hostility!’

      ‘Well, he asked for it.’ Billie clicked her fingers to get the bartender’s attention.

      ‘No, he didn’t,’ Shannon stated determinedly. ‘He was just being nice.’

      ‘The nicest thing he did was fuck off.’ Billie tried whistling for the bartender, and scoring his attention she ordered another round.

      ‘Look, if you’re going to help me build up my bod,’ Shannon bargained, ‘then I’m going to teach you how to meditate.’

      ‘What the fuck for?’ Billie shoved Shannon’s glass down in front of her on the bar and receiving naught but a huge grin as a reply, Billie nodded to concede. ‘So you think I need a little softening up, eh? What the hell, I’ll give anything a whirl.’ She paid the barman for the drinks.

      ‘To our very good health,’ Shannon proposed.

      ‘Happy holidays, babe.’ Billie hit her glass against Shannon’s and they savoured their last taste of alcohol for the next six weeks.

      2. Hungover

      There had been much drunken debate about what foods they were or weren’t giving up, and in the end the girls decided to go their own way in that department.

      The next morning they visited the huge supermarket near Shannon’s place and headed out of town with a carload of food, and a roof rack of luggage.

      The sunglasses had been in constant employment. Shannon marvelled at Billie’s capacity to drive when she could barely manage to prise her eyelids open for more than seconds at a time. God knows what items of food she’d brought by mistake; it was hard to read labels with your eyes watering like taps.

      ‘You look like shit, babe,’ Billie commented over the top of her sunglasses, as she lit a smoke. ‘I’m the one with the flu. What’s your excuse?’

      ‘You did this to me,’ Shannon defended with a pout — a useless attempt to hide her guilty smile.

      ‘Take responsibility for your actions, miss,’ Billie lectured. ‘Isn’t that what you’re always telling me?’

      Shannon waved the smoke away and gave a couple of token coughs to change the subject — the smell was making her feel sick, as she hadn’t ventured to eat anything yet. ‘I thought we were giving those things up?’

      ‘We haven’t got there yet,’ Billie justified. ‘Here, you want one?’ She held out her soft pack of cigarettes and a single smoke slid out ready for the taking.

      Shannon merely shook her head and groaned. Something told her that Billie wasn’t too serious about their pledge,

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1