Avoidables S1 Complete Read online

  Avoidables

  Hope’s Awakening

  Serial One

  By

  Rachel Medhurst

  Copyright © Rachel Medhurst 2014

  This serial is dedicated to all those that feel discriminated against because of the way they look.

  You are beautiful!

  CONTENTS

  Episode One

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Episode Two

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Episode Three

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Episode Four

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Episode Five

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Serial Two

  Author

  Episode One

  Chapter One

  ‘She’s only got one arm,’ the man cried and backed away, bumping fast into the dancing crowd.

  Everything had been going so well. I was lost in the music, swaying and thumping my good hand in the air. The man had looked over at me as I’d glanced up from the floor. He was handsome. As our gazes clashed, a grin spread over his clean shaven face. I let the corners of my lips sink into my cheeks as I circled my hips in a mating dance. He swayed over to me, but as I turned in a circle, his eyes locked onto my shoulder and that’s when he’d started shouting.

  Everyone around me turned to stare. I laughed loudly as the others started to back away from me as if I was a freak. Shaking my head, I noticed the guards coming from the direction that the gorgeous man had just gone.

  Why had I been so careless? All I wanted to do was dance. The loud music ran up and down my nerves, making me want to move with it.

  ‘Come with me,’ a deep throated voice shouted as a strong hand gripped my forearm and pulled. I turned to see the familiar purple eyes and grinned.

  It was my best friend, Purple.

  Although, I wasn’t sure if it was better to be caught by him or the guards. I allowed him to pull me through the crowd and out the back entrance. We ran towards the river and started over the bridge. Mid way over, we stopped and looked back. The guards stood by the end of the bridge. They wouldn’t come any further. They wouldn’t risk it. I did a little dance and stuck my middle fingers up at them.

  I heard a thud and pain sliced through me as a dart lodged into my good shoulder. I gasped and spun towards Purple, wincing when I saw that they’d hit him too. I was going to be in so much trouble for this.

  *

  ‘Why were you on the Upper Side?’ The guard asked as I sat against the concrete wall.

  ‘I wanted to dance,’ I replied, bringing my knees up and resting my arm on them.

  ‘You know Avoidables are not permitted to enter Upper Side.’ The tall good looking guard was sitting in a plush chair, brought in just for him.

  ‘I just wanted to dance,’ I sighed.

  ‘You will be escorted back to the Lower Side and you will be confined to a cell for three days punishment.’

  The guard got up and came over to me. Bending down, he ran his hand over mine. I tried to struggle, but he pulled and yanked my t-shirt up over the end of my stubbed shoulder. He looked in fascination and I had to bite my lip. Perfects were so often surrounded by good looking people. I cringed away from him, trying to grab at my shirt.

  ‘Let her go,’ came a quiet, but deadly voice from behind us. Purple was a master at escaping. I was glad that he’d forgiven me enough to come and get me before he left. The guard started to laugh as he fisted his hand and sent it flying into my stub. I cried out before Purple grabbed the man by his throat and threw him across the room.

  ‘We need to get out of here,’ he said.

  Holding onto my throbbing shoulder, I stood up and went towards the door.

  ‘No time,’ Purple said, grabbing me and jumping us up through the ceiling. The smash of plaster deafened me as we landed on the outside of the building. A siren went off inside. It was illegal for Avoidables to use their powers on the Upper Side.

  ‘Oh man, I can do without this right now,’ I said, tucking my t-shirt back over my stub.

  ‘Why couldn’t you just stay over on the Lower Side?’

  I grinned at Purple. He was crazy. Why would I want to stay where there were so many misfits? The men over here…

  ‘You’re mad,’ he said, reading my thoughts…literally.

  ‘Get out my brain, Purple.’ I punched him in the arm.

  ‘Are we just going to stand around here all night?’ He took my arm, but I shook free. I had unfinished business. I’d been enjoying myself until that handsome weasel had ruined it for me. I turned and as I started to run, I heard Purple curse behind me. He could never catch me when we ran and he was too well behaved to use his powers on the Upper Side, unless he had to of course. Me, on the other hand, I didn’t care.

  I was back at the club within a few minutes. Just in time. It was almost closing time, but I could hear the music still pumping. Climbing in through the toilet window, I sneaked back inside. There was one guard left on the door, but he was talking to the gorgeous girls dancing in front of him. There he was, the good looking creep…it was payback time. He was sitting at the bar. I walked up to the man and sat next to him on a stool. He turned to me. He was all smiles, expecting to see a perfectly formed face I bet. Only beautiful people lived on the Upper Side.

  ‘What the…?’ he started when he saw me there. His mouth stilled as I looked him directly in the eyes. I showed him my soul. See, these people believed that the Perfects were beautiful, but their souls were dark and cold. Outer beauty didn’t last a life time. The soul however…did.

  He gasped and reached a hand out to me. I batted it away and stood up, gesturing for him to follow me. He was in a daze as the pure love that radiated through me penetrated his cold chest. Like a puppet, he followed me into the toilets, through the window and into the alley outside. I had to be quick. Purple was nearby. I could feel him.

  ‘What…?’ he started. I was going to kill him with beauty. I started to smile, but he reached out a hand and gently lifted the sleeve of my t-shirt. I froze. Never had one of the Perfects looked at me with such wonder. He may have freaked out earlier, but now, he gently brushed his fingers over my puckered skin.

  ‘What are you?’ he whispered. Our gazes met and I couldn’t speak. A Perfect was speaking to me. A handsome, good looking, perfect person actually wanted me to speak to me.

  ‘You really want to know?’

  The fingers that were caressing me sent shivers over my sensitive skin. No one had ever touched me there before. I could feel a strange sensation shifting in my shoulder. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him and it seemed that he was just as stuck as I was.

  ‘Yes, I want to know. I’ve never met an Avoidable before,’ he whispered, his face coming closer to mine. I realised that my soul was still showing in my gaze and I shut it off. He blinked a few times, but didn’t back away.

  The sensation in my shoulder came from the bone and I gasped. The man took his hand away as a slight movement started to shift. I stepped back and started to breathe heavy. I had no idea what was happening.

  I’d never experienced this before. I’d been born with just one arm, but my powers had not fully developed yet. Suddenly a tearing sensation had me on my knees. I grasped my hand over my shoulder stump and gritted my teeth. If the guards found me here, they would probably execute me. Something started to co
me out of my shoulder. It was quick and painful. That’s all I was aware of. And him.

  He was still there, standing in front of me. I felt a splitting sensation in my good arm. I closed my eyes and bent forward almost rocking, while he stroked my back. The pain grew. I tried to focus so that I could call Purple to me, but before I managed it, the pain eased and I sprung up into a stand. The gorgeous man was knocked to the ground. When I looked down at him, his eyes were wide open. The look on his face was pure lust, or was it love? I looked down and noticed that I had an arm where there hadn’t been one before. I could feel something heavy on my back too. The splitting feeling hadn’t come from my other arm; it had come from my shoulder blades. I felt tears prickle my eyes as I reached behind me to feel the massive wings. I heard a gasp as Purple finally came upon us. The young man came to me.

  ‘You’re beautiful,’ he said, stroking my wing.

  ‘Don’t touch her,’ Purple growled, coming down the alley towards us.

  ‘What’s your name?’ the man said, looking from Purple to me and taking my hand in his. I was torn. This Perfect had not only had me locked up, he’d unlocked me too.

  ‘I’m Jason. Please tell me what your name is?’

  He stepped back as Purple approached. The Avoidable’s size was big enough to make anybody take a step back, but the purple eyes and ridges down his arms made them want to run.

  ‘I’m…’

  ‘Going,’ Purple interrupted, grabbing my arm and flying us upwards.

  ‘Wait!’ I called, struggling against his grip. But it was no use. I was too weak and my new wings were getting in the way. Purple was dangling me in the air by my new arm and I could hardly breathe. The scene below us changed from dark nightlife, to water, and then to even darker grimy alleyways.

  We were back in Lower Side.

  *

  ‘What the hell were you thinking?’ Purple was pacing in front of me. We were in our flat. Avoidables lived in groups. We tried to pick people with different abilities that would serve us all. Avoidables were survivors. Lower Side was a cruel and dangerous place made up of all the people that the rulers deemed not perfect enough for their side of the city.

  ‘I wasn’t,’ I replied, hugging myself with my good arm. I was trying not to cry. My wings and new arm had retracted as soon as we’d landed outside our building. Purple sighed and sat on the sofa. I was in an armchair, allowing its softness to cradle my vulnerable body.

  ‘Did you know?’ He pushed his hand through his long dark hair. It was the softest hair I’d ever seen on any woman or man. It fell to his shoulders and he mostly wore it up when out. He was a handsome man, but he was still from the dark side. The ridges on his arms told of a dragon ancestry as did the purple eyes and flying abilities. He was yet to come into his fire powers. I shook my head, blinking away the tears that started to fall from my eyes.

  ‘You were stunning,’ he whispered, his eyes going to the spot where my new arm had been. My gaze snapped to him and I saw awe reflected back at me. He wasn’t hitting on me, he was being genuine.

  ‘My father must have been an angel,’ I said the words quietly. It was rare to have an angel ancestor because most of them had abandoned the planet. They hadn’t had a choice. The darkness had become too much for their light and they’d left. The history books said that it was with regret. They had tried one last attempt to revive the human race, whom they’d loved dearly, but it had backfired.

  ‘Did your mother never tell you that she’d mated with an angel?’ Purple replied, standing up and pacing the room.

  I shook my head. My mother had died when I was young but I always pretended that she’d died only a short while ago. Somehow the lie made me feel closer to her.

  ‘No one must know about this for now, Hope,’ he said, nodding his head and turning to leave.

  ‘Where are you going?’ I didn’t want to be left alone with my thoughts.

  ‘To do some research. Try to get some rest.’ He left without another word.

  Chapter Two

  The word Half-form kept coming into my head as I crouched on the roof of the building in the Upper Side. We weren’t sure how we had come to be. The Avoidables were ruled by the Perfects. Perfects were good looking normal humans with no inter or cross breeding. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I believed in cross breeding. The Perfects did a test that was a government invented cruel joke. If a Perfect had a child that was less than Perfect looking by the age of fifteen, they would have to take them to be examined to see whether or not they could stay on the Upper Side. Not many people made it through the test. My mother must have failed.

  The wings though, they were something else. The story of the angels trying to bring light to the Earth by mating with the humans suggested that the humans could not conceive from light. Maybe they were mistaken.

  A noise below cleared my mind. I got low and looked over the side. There he was. Jason. I’d been thinking about him for the last three days. What was it inside him that had brought out my angel side? I flexed my good arm as I thought about the few moments that I’d had a matching one. I’d never known why I didn’t have two arms, but it was something I was used to.

  ‘Are you here?’ Jason said, trying to keep quiet. Guards often patrolled the roads, but rarely came down the alleyways. Things were good on the Upper Side. The Perfect’s were well behaved and never caused trouble. The Avoidables liked to come and stir up the peace sometimes though, so the guards were needed. I jumped down behind him. He spun when he heard my feet thump on the ground. I held my head low, not meeting his gaze. I didn’t know how to feel around this man.

  ‘I knew you would come,’ he said, reaching a hand towards me. I lifted my head as I stepped back, out of his reach. There it was again. It was like a lightning bolt hitting me in the chest as our gaze clashed. What was it about him? I hated Perfects.

  ‘Please tell me your name?’

  ‘Hope,’ I replied, shocked that the word had jumped from my mouth. I had planned to stay disconnected. I didn’t want to have to kill him.

  ‘Makes sense,’ he tried to smile at me, but when I scowled back, a burst of laughter escaped him. I went to spin away from him, but he caught my hand and held tight. I looked down at our joined hands and felt myself return the pressure.

  ‘You have no idea, do you?’ I said, shaking my head at him. This was impossible. This was stupid. Why the hell was I here?

  ‘I can’t think straight when I’m not around you, so no, I have no idea. Tell me.’

  I closed my eyes for a brief second. When I opened them, he’d come closer. I saw the reflection of myself in his eyes and blinked. I looked again and saw what he saw. There was a thin girl, with shoulder length straggly brunette hair, dark eyes and pale skin. She was an ordinary looking girl, except for the light that now radiated around her. I could see a whole glowing bubble around me and as I carried on gazing, I felt a feeling grow inside me. I’d only felt it when I was young. I’d felt it when my mother had held me tight and sung me to sleep. Love. I didn’t look like an Avoidable to him. I looked like love.

  ‘I have to go,’ I gasped, pulling my hand free and turning.

  ‘Oi, oi, what do we have here then?’ A Perfect came down the alley towards us. His brilliantly even features were amused at the scene in front of him. Jason stepped in front of me and I had to bite my lip to stop myself smiling. Perfects were petrified of us. We were dangerous and powerful. That’s why they left us in Lower Side to fend for ourselves. Without thinking, I grabbed Jason. As soon as my arm circled around his chest, my new arm grew and my wings burst out from my back. I started to flap them. An instinct inside me knew how to fly so I took us up and away from the alley. I could see the guards below as the Perfect called for them. I didn’t think too much before heading towards home.

  ‘Hope, you can’t take me there.’

  As his words echoed around us, I heard a shot below. They were shooting at us and there was no way I was going to get caught. I spread my wings
wide and flapped harder. The glide was long enough to get us over the river. I headed for my building. As we neared, I suddenly noticed Jason was struggling in my grip. Oh dear. I’d brought a Perfect to the Lower Side. He would be killed instantly if he was seen. I landed on the roof and climbed down to my window. Punching my fist through it, I climbed in, dragging Jason with me. Purple burst through the door two seconds later with a gun in his hand.

  ‘What the…?’ His dark eyes fell on Jason, who was now collapsed on the floor where I’d dropped him. My wings folded away and I sat on the bed. Purple growled before taking a step towards me.

  ‘Don’t!’ Jason yelled, jumping up.

  Purple stopped and raised his eyebrows.

  ‘I don’t need to ask. Have your fun, Hope, and then get rid of him.’ He spun and left the room, slamming the door shut behind him. I couldn’t get rid of him. In our language, that meant killing him. Some Avoidables kidnapped Perfects to abuse. The ones that did were usually the people that had been slaves for the rulers of the Upper Side. They had been through some of the harshest things known to man, just for being different.

  ‘This has to change,’ I whispered.

  ‘What?’ Jason sat next to me and looked around my room. It was bare and dimly lit. Not a place you would proudly call home.

  ‘This disgusting divide between Avoidables and Perfects. Things have to change, or we’ll all end up killing each other.’ I felt my bottom lip start to wobble and jumped up. What was wrong with me? I’d never been the emotional type. I looked in the mirror and started. My eyes were white. A glow was emanating from them. I’d never seen that in myself before.

  ‘You’ve awoken your light,’ Jason said, smiling at me.

  ‘How do you know?’ It felt strange to talk to him.

  ‘I’ve been studying the Avoidables my whole life. I agree with you. This is no way for our world to be.’