riven by maggie morris (best summer reads of all time TXT) 📖

cooed. The dog settled in my arms. It was so light! “We’ll get you fixed up.”

The puppy closed it’s eyes and gave a tiny sigh. I cradled it in my arms.

“I think I’ll call you Shadow.” Shadow’s tiny ears perked up at the sound of his new name. “Let’s go show you to Adam and Gramps.” I rubbed his back and left the bathroom, still clutching him in my arms.

As I entered the hall, Adam raised his hand to shield his eyes from the faint light coming through the windows.

“Is that a...dog?”

“Yup!” I exclaimed proudly. “His name’s Shadow, and he’s mine.”

“Who told ya’ that, now, huh? His owner?” Adam asked rudely.

“No, if his old owner told me that, I would probably punch them in the face. Abandoning a puppy like that,” I muttered, “shame on them.”

“Well, think about it from both sides, Alice. The world is about to end, your city is in chaos, and you barely have enough money to pay for your own family, let alone a dog. Would you keep it?” Grandpa interfered, always the peacemaker.

“Yes,” I said stubbornly, snuggling Shadow to my chest.

“I see,” Grandpa responded, slowly nodding his head. I started to worry. Was he going to find some way to teach me a lesson?

I hope not. The last time Gramps taught me a lesson was when I was fourteen. I will say that I learned from it, but I don’t like to think about it.

As I said, I was fourteen. I was dating a guy named Christopher Walker, and we had been going steady for nearly two months. He had been my first boyfriend.

Grandpa had been giving me warnings about Chris, stating that ‘he didn’t trust him’ and ‘Chris seemed very weasel-like’.

Well, being the intransigent brat that I was, I told Grandpa to shut up and stay out of my life. He was acting like my dad, even though he wasn’t.

Anyways, one day, Chris and I were hanging out, and he received a phone call and stepped out of the room. When he came back in, he told me that he had to go home. I was a little suspicious, but I let him go.

Christopher never came back. For the next few weeks, I texted him, left messages on his phone, emailed him, tried to Skype him, went to his house, etc.

At first, I was hurt, but I eventually forgot about him. A year later, I was reading the newspaper, (my smarts had to come from somewhere) and I saw a headline that caught my attention:

 

MURDER

 

I had started reading further.

 

Yesterday, May 7, 2031, a boy the age of twelve was killed. After exploring

the crime scene, a body was found with knife incisions on the stomach.

Detectives swabbed the wounds and found DNA from the knife. The

DNA was then traced back to a fifteen-year-old of the name Chris-

topher Walker. When the teenager was located, he claimed he knew

Nothing of the subject, and then jumped off the roof of his house. His

neck broke, and he passed away shortly. An autopsy was performed

on Christopher’s body, and traces of alcohol were found in his blood-

stream. Officers have concluded that he was drunk and then killed

the young boy. Further research is being done.

 

I connected the dots and it all made sense. That day that Chris received the call, it was to go to the police station. He had been caught with alcohol in his possession, and a year later it had taken over his life.

Since that day, I had always taken Grandpa’s advice. Always.

I yawned.

“Somebody’s sleepy, yeah?” Adam observed.

“I haven’t slept in almost twenty-four hours. I’m tired,” I said pointedly. My arms were getting tired, so I let Shadow out of my arms. Grandpa smiled warmly, took off his jacket, and laid it on the floor.

“There. Now you have a makeshift bed.”

“Thanks, Gramps. You’re the best.” I gave him a hug and curled up on the jacket.

“We’ll get your dog some help while you sleep. ‘Night, Ali’.” With that, Adam and Grandpa left the White House. The calmness of the room lulled me to sleep.

 

* * * * *

 

I turned the shower on, expecting a blast of freezing water. But, instead, only a few slow drops trickled out. Drip, drip, drip. They splashed on my face in sticky, warm globs.

A dog barked. Just then, my chest grew heavy, like something was pressing me down. I couldn’t breathe!

My eyes flashed open. Shadow was licking my face and standing on my chest. I gently pushed him off and gave him a quick rub-down with my hands.

As I pet him, I noticed that his fur no longer had a greasy feel to it, and it shown in the morning sun. His hind leg-or where it used to be-was bandaged. Shadow’s bald spots had been shaved around more, revealing healing scars and cuts.

But the most important change was that his eyes now had a new sort of brightness to them, proving that he really was a young puppy.

His tail wagged as I wove my hand through his fur. Suddenly, I spun around, feeling eyes boring into me.

“Hey, sis’,” Adam greeted me.

“Adam! You nearly gave me a heart attack!” I slugged him in the shoulder, and he cried out.

“Grampy Wampy found a non-ransacked store, and managed to score us some donuts,” Adam told me, using the name he used to call Grandpa when he was a kid. He handed me a donut, fresh and wrapped up in a Dunkin’ Donuts napkin.

“Wow! Is somebody still running the store, or something?” The food looked delicious, and not the slightest bit stale.

“No. But they had fresh ingredients, and apparently, Grandpa knows how to make donuts. True story,” he grunted.

“Speaking of which, where is Gramps?” I asked.

“He’s straightening up the bedrooms upstairs. We’ll be able to sleep there tonight.” I realized that I could hear a faint hum coming from the ceiling.

“Is he...vacuuming?” Grandpa never vacuumed, and he rarely cleaned.

“I know, right? Crazy,” Adam muttered.

“I’m going to take Shadow for a walk, if he feels up to it. ‘Kay?”

“Sure, whatevs.” I called Shadow to me, and surprisingly, he came. He trailed after me as I walked out the doors. The sun was turning grey, and it was foggy.

Oh, well. I walked down the abandoned streets with Shadow following me. When I saw a Walmart, I headed inside to see if there was anything I could savage.

The store was like the one the president had been in, only much worse. If this was what the world was like before it ended, what would it be like when it actually ended?

Just then, my watch lit up. Strange. It only lit up when my alarm was going off.

“Alice.” The voice came from my watch. But that wasn’t the weirdest thing. The weirdest thing was that it was Bryce’s voice.

VIII

 

A glowing apparition of Bryce stood in front of me. Judging by Shadow’s yip, he could see Bryce, too. Well, it meant I wasn't hallucinating. That was reassuring.

Bryce’s hair was now shoulder-length and he had a slight stubble on his chin. Other than that, he looked no different-if you didn’t count his ghostly appearance.

“Alice,” he repeated. “I have come from the other world to give you a message. The world will end. There is nothing you can do to stop it. However, you can find me and start it again. I’m with Claire. We are in a good place. You must, must, believe me, Alice. I miss you.” Though the voice sounded computer generated, it filled my heart with warmth, and my eyes with tears.

“I miss you, too, Bryce,” I said, even though he couldn’t hear me. I plopped down on the steps. It was official. Bryce was dead. Somehow, though, he had managed to contact me from Heaven. He wanted me to join him.

But I couldn’t throw my life away like that. I needed to save the world first. Then I could join him and we could live together with Claire in peace.

Feeling determined, I beckoned Shadow and ran back to the White House, my jumpsuit squeezing my skin.

“It’s time to start the-” I began to call out, stopping short when I noticed Adam pulling at his hair. “What?”

“It’s the secretary!”

“What now?” I did not understand.

“The secretary! Grandpa was stupid enough to give her our actual contact info, so now she’s blowing up my phone and leaving voicemails ordering me to return you and Claire. She said something about parents suing.”

“Oh, god. My parents have no idea where I am. Let me call, them please?”

He pondered the idea. “I should say no, but okay. Just don’t give our location. And after that, I’m changing my number.” Adam handed over his phone. “Make it snappy.”

I smiled gratefully, then entered my mom’s number. Adam walked out of the room just as the phone picked up.

“I am going to SUE! Give me my daughter-”

“Mom. It’s me.” Silence.

I heard a strangled croak. “Alice? I’ve been worried sick. Don’t worry, baby, we’ll get you out of there.”
“You don’t understand, Mom. I want to be here. I’m saving the world. And I’m with my real family.”

“What? You’re right, I don’t understand. Alice, are they forcing you to say these things? I bet they’re holding a gun to your head right now. Oh, I’m so sorry, sweetie.” I felt bad for my mom, but I couldn’t tell her the whole truth. She wouldn’t believe me.

“Mom, I have to go.”

“They’re making you hang up? Just hang on, Alicia. We’ll find you.”

“They aren’t making me do anything. I love you.” With that, I hung up. Angry tears stung my eyes. Why couldn’t Mom just believe me?

I slammed Adam’s phone down on the table. Shadow whimpered quietly, and I jumped. I had forgotten he was there.

“AD-AM! GRAND-PA!” I called out. “WHEN ARE WE GOING TO START?” Adam came skidding into the room, giving me a glare.

“Will you shut up? You probably just let the whole city know where we are!”

“Sorry,” I shrugged. At that second, Grandpa came thundering down the stairs.

“Be quiet, Alice! Bad people will come in and hurt us if they know we’re here,” he warned.

“That’s exactly what I said.” I stuck my tongue out at Adam.

“So when are we going to put the plan into action?” I asked. “We don’t really have anytime to waste.”

“You’re right. We should get started right now,” Grandpa says. My jaw drops.

“As in, ‘Right. Now.’?”

“Yes, I believe that’s what I said.” He started giving out orders. “Adam, you find what heavy tools you can, and make sure they are durable enough to break the cars. Alice, you need to wire the intercom system in the White House to all of the electronic billboards in D.C., so that way you can broadcast your announcement all over the city. And I will be scaring off all the people in the road so that they can’t see who broke their cars. Let’s go!” Grandpa clapped his hands together, Shadow barked and sat down, and off I headed to the control room.

Of course, I had to stop by one of the many maps on the walls before I found my way there, but it was on the fifth floor, and had stairs leading directly to the roof.

How convenient. I plopped down in a rolly chair and spun towards the computers. All desktop,