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  AUGUR OF SHADOWS

  The Destined Series

  _________________________

  Book 1

  JACOB JOHN RUNDLE

  AUGUR OF SHADOWS

  Copyright © 2018 by Jacob J. Rundle

  ISBN 978-0-578-42569-6

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover Design by JD Cover Designs

  Formatted by THE BOOK KHALEESI

  TABLE OF 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

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  EPILOGUE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  To my friends and my family, especially John.

  CHAPTER 1

  NEW YORK CITY

  New York City had fostered some of the most architecturally exquisite infrastructures in the world. The buildings that once reached to the skies, now barely stood a few feet tall. The remaining enacted structures had pieces falling towards the ground, leaving massive indentations in the war-ridden roads. Sheets of darkness covered the skies in every direction. There was no sign of life except for a woman, Trish, her daughter, Abby, and a few other survivors.

  The winds echoed with the screams of the thousands of departed souls. Numerous abandoned cars filled the inner-city streets and interstates. The once vibrant city had become a snapshot of an apocalyptic scene. The aroma of engine fluid and gasoline filled the surrounding areas, making the lonely warriors’ trek extremely difficult. Trish’s group made their way through one of the world’s biggest graveyards in order to seek out any remaining signs of life, and, she hoped, to find a safe place to rest. Trish found staying alert was difficult when the city possessed a disorientating essence.

  “Abby, keep going, baby. You have to keep going. And you will not stop!” Trish tried to urge Abby to continue, but her little one couldn’t move anymore.

  “Momma, where are we supposed to go?” Abby fought to hold back her tears, yet she was unsuccessful. The whispers of the others in the group drowned out her mother’s reply. Abby panicked, and her breathing became erratic and uncontrollable.

  “Abby is right. Where are we supposed to go, Trish?” She turned around and saw that Tim Stevenson had asked the question laden with sarcasm.

  “Tim, anywhere that is safe,” Trisha answered. He rolled his eyes in disapproval of her answer. Trish could tell that he didn’t agree with her plan, yet she didn’t care because the only person that she worried about was Abby. She couldn’t believe how far Tim had fallen since the attack. She remembered him as the most energetic spokesperson, and she loved how he delivered messages of hope on Sundays.

  “I don’t know. We just have to get away from the city. I do know that we can’t stay here anymore, and we can’t let them find us.” Trish attended Abby, who started having a panic attack, as she spoke. She was determined to comfort Abby, but she found it difficult because Abby’s attack worsened as time passed.

  “Breathe, baby. Slow your heartbeat and breathe.” Trish rubbed her daughter’s back, and prayed Abby’s nerves calmed.

  “Why, Momma? Do they want to hurt us?” Abby forced her way deeper into her mother’s arms due to the fear of the mysterious predator.

  “Baby, I have no idea. I do know, though, that if they find us, baby, they will try to separate us. You need to know that I won’t let that happen.” Trish firmly hugged Abby, not letting her daughter move an inch.

  “Momma, I am really scared.” Abby locked eyes with her mother, and she channeled her mother’s strength.

  “My Abby.” Trish kissed Abby’s forehead.

  “Momma, I will protect you. I am strong. See!” Abby stood tall for her mother to see.

  “Baby girl, you are powerful because you are my daughter.” Trish gathered Abby and her belongings, and she motioned to the others to continue moving.

  They continued their pursuit to locate a safe area. None of them had seen any other survivors. They had been running in between the debris of fallen buildings, catching sight of the hundreds of abandoned vehicles on the streets, and avoiding what appeared to be falling brush fires from the sky. The ash from the tree fires filled the air, making it difficult to breathe.

  “Momma, why did people leave their cars?” Abby pointed to the abandoned vehicles.

  “Well, baby, they had to leave them. They left them the day the light appeared in the sky, remember?” Trish explained. Her inner monologue started to rush through her head. How are we going to get through this? Oh, my God, I don’t know what to do. Who were those things? I can’t let my baby hear the fear in my voice. Who are the ones in the cloaks? I don’t think that we are going to survive.’

  All the emotions and thoughts washed over Trish, leaving her feeling disorientated as a wave of fear paralyzed everyone, hearing the impact of burning debris hitting the ground. The shockwaves spread throughout all of the remaining areas. The survivors stood still, reminiscing of what once was. An entire flaming tree crashed down in front of their eyes which forced them to scramble. The impact of the tree threw Trish into the side of an abandoned vehicle.

  “Momma! You’ve been hit! You have burns on your arms! Momma! We need to get you some help!” Abby tried to examine her mother’s injuries, but Trish shielded the horror from Abby’s innocent eyes.

  “Honey, listen to me. You have to stay calm and be quiet. They will hear you. Do not worry about me.” Trish hushed Abby.

  “Will you tell your daughter to shut up?”

  She immediately came to Abby’s defense as a lioness readied to pounce on her prey.

  “No one will speak to my daughter. If you have a problem then you can leave.” Trish stood ahead of the group and waited for a response.

  Trish heard a faint whisper, “Abby…” She turned to see which one had whispered her daughter’s name, yet she found nothing. She examined the area for any indication of a new survivor joining the group, but Trish only saw the same individuals that she had been with the entire time.

  What the hell? Was she going crazy? She was worried that she was becoming paranoid. She took another step, and she heard the same faint whisper, “Abby…”

  Trish braced herself for a fight, yet she was left standing against herself.

  “Momma, what’s wrong?” Abby stared at her mother.

  “Oh, nothing, baby. Keep moving.” Trish felt horrible for lying to her, but she knew that she would make the situation worse had she mentioned hearing a ghostly voice.

  “Abby…” The voice materialized within the somber mists. Trish about-faced to
catch the culprit, and what she found left her speechless. She squinted her eyes to see if what she saw was real; she couldn’t believe her eyes.

  Her gaze bored into the eyes of a mysterious boy. She was in disbelief. The boy didn’t look over the age of seventeen.

  “Hello?” Trish tried to gain the boy’s attention as she approached him, yet he didn’t respond. The boy’s face appeared frozen. Trish couldn’t work out how she could find out the boy’s identity.

  “Abby…” The boy mourned for Trish’s ears, which forced her to cease her approach. She stood face-to-face with the boy, and all she noticed was the pajamas he was wearing. She also saw glimmers of blue markings on the boy’s face, hands and arms.

  “What are you?” She asked. A piece of debris caught her eye.

  “Watch out!” Trish screamed as she lunged to rescue the boy. However, she passed through his corporeal-like body and crashed to the ground. She whipped around to see if the boy had survived, but there was no evidence of anyone being there. Trish became a firm believer that her mental instability and delusions had won, and she had officially lost her mind.

  CHAPTER 2

  HENRI’S ROOM

  Henri suddenly woke from a deep slumber and jolted himself clean out of bed. Henri fought his disorientation from his dream by trying to focus his sight on a stationary object so that he could regain his focus. His senses were on high alert. He continued to hear the screeching sounds of falling debris and the whimpering screams of survivors from his dream.

  Henri felt droplets of sweat coursing down his face and back, and the aroma of burnt tar was lingering in his nostrils. He knew that his equilibrium was off balance which left him feeling as though he had split himself in two. One name continued to mull over in his mind, and he couldn’t take encouraging a throbbing migraine with the recycling of the name, so he tried to relinquish her from his thoughts. “Abby!”

  His mother ran into the room, “Honey, what’s wrong? Why are you screaming?”

  “Where is she? Abby!” Henri locked eyes with his mother, and for a second, she didn’t recognize who was looking back at her.

  “Henri, calm down. Please, stop screaming.” His mother stared at him while she held back tears. Henri freed himself from the trance when he became aware that he was sitting on the edge of his bed. His mother stared at him, alarmed and confused.

  “Honey, you’re all wet, and your heart is racing. What is wrong, son? And, who is Abby?” She examined Henri from head to toe to find anything that explained why he had screamed bloody murder.

  “I…. have…. no idea.” His disorientation forcedly pulled his attention from the present. He realized that Abby was the little girl from his dream. For a second, Henri contemplated whether or not he knew her, but then he snapped out of his bewilderment and scanned his entire room to regain a sense of where he was. He noticed that he was looking at the poster his parents gave him for his tenth birthday. It was his favorite comic book character - Phoenix. For as long as he could remember, Henri wished that he could be just like her. He didn’t want the responsibility of having a cosmic influence because he could barely handle doing his morning chores, but he loved the idea of escaping from reality. His mother did love to remind him constantly. He did, however, wish that he could go somewhere new. He wished that he could just fly away.

  Henri wondered if it was a dream or something more. He thought that maybe he was watching a movie. He truly believed that he was the one who lost a daughter. The little girl had been ripped away from his fingers as well as her mom’s. He heard the voices of the people running around, searching for sanctuary. All of the panic and fear came over him as if he was the one experiencing this terrible event. Henri could still feel the heat on his skin. The scent of burnt concrete was nauseating, and the heightened-levels of adrenaline were rushing through his body. He hadn’t watched any scary movies the previous night.

  “Are you okay, Henri? Your screaming terrified me. I have never heard you scream like that before.” His mother pulled him into her arms as if it was her first time holding her child.

  “Mom, would you stop it. I don’t need a hug right now. I’ll be okay. It was just a nightmare…. that’s all.” Composed once more, he readied himself for bed. He was not in the mood to discuss what he had just experienced, and he didn’t want to hear how a church could make him feel better.

  “A nightmare? About a girl named Abby?” She continued to examine him to see if he had hit his head on anything. Maybe that would explain what her son was talking about.

  “Henri, you are really worrying me. You have become so distant, and we don’t talk anymore. What is going on with you?” His mother instantly started crying at the thought of her son pulling away from her. She stood up from his bed and started to walk towards the door. When she reached the threshold, Henri stopped her.

  “You know me, Mom. I just love those Indie horror flicks. I can’t get enough of them,” Henri mumbled under his breath so she didn’t fully hear him.

  “Um… Mom…” Henri stopped himself from telling her his secret. The internal struggle began again, and the idea of telling his mom terrified him. There had been so many times that he wanted to just say the words, but every time, Henri found an excuse not to tell her. He looked at his alarm clock and noticed that many minutes had passed, and he needed to get his mother to leave.

  “There is something that I want to say, but I don’t know how you will take it.” He slowly glanced at her to gauge her expression. For a moment, Henri told himself that he had decided to tell his mother. He didn’t want his fear to get in his way anymore. He went to say three simple words, yet his fear popped its ugly head in, and Henri shut his mouth before he said anything more to his mother. He hated the idea of not telling her the truth because he knew how much pain she was feeling because his dad was gone. He knew that she had a problem with blaming herself for his withdrawal. Henri knew that his secret was the reason for the dissolution of their relationship.

  “You need to get some sleep. Your first day of school is tomorrow, and I don’t want you to be exhausted. If you need me, come and get me.” She walked over and kissed him on the forehead.

  To re-assure his mom, Henri smiled and uttered, “Night, Mom. I’ll see you in the morning.” He hated how things were now, and he knew that things would change when he told his mother the truth. He just wasn’t ready for the possibility of losing his mother.

  “Good night, Henri.” She left the room and returned to her own. Henri sat on his bed, replaying the dream in his mind. He wondered what was happening. Everything about the dream felt unbelievably real. For what seemed like hours, his thoughts of Trish and Abby raced in and out of his mind.

  Henri wished that his dad could be with him. He knew that he would listen to him. His thoughts returned to his dream. Henri wondered about the light Trish had mentioned. He didn’t know why the city was abandoned, and there were almost no other people around. He couldn’t stop asking himself what had happened. He was intrigued with the light, but a part of him didn’t entirely want to know the identity of the light either. He remembered the smells, the sounds, and the eerie chills that filled the city’s rubble; Henri felt an enormous presence in the city.

  CHAPTER 3

  “Henri! It’s time to get up. You’re going to be late for school.” His mother’s alarming voice trilled all throughout the house.

  His mother’s raised voice abruptly woke Henri from a deep slumber and forced him of bed. He noticed a sharp pain that ran up and down his entire arm. He looked down at his arm and saw a burn mark. “What…. the…. hell?” He frantically searched for a smudge mark somewhere else in his bed.

  “How?” He replayed his dream the best he could, but his dream amnesia stripped the memory of every important detail of the dream.

  “Henri! Get a move on! The bus will be here any moment.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Henri took a moment to muster up his pseudo-excitement for his first day. “I’m g
etting ready right now, Mom!”

  He scrambled throughout his room for a pair of jeans and a hoodie. Henri secretly slapped a bandana over his burn, and he decided to wear a jacket over his hoodie.

  He felt his attention wandering in another direction, and it became immensely difficult to maintain his focus. He remembered Trish’s cry, and it raised goosebumps down his arms. Once he remembered her cry, it was as though Henri had never left the dream.

  “Abby! Get down! Hide! Now!” Trish directed Abby to get down.

  “Momma, they are coming!” Abby couldn’t hide her tears any longer. Trish knew that her daughter’s worst fear of being separated was becoming more of a possibility.

  “They know where we are! Abby, no… Leave her alone! Stop!” Trish’s voice trailed off in Henri’s mind, and he noticed that his attention had returned from his apparent daydream. He was going to have a difficult time forgetting that dream.

  Henri rushed to gather all the things that he would need for his first day of school. He hoped that his mother didn’t catch wind of his arm, and he knew that if she saw the burn mark she would start asking questions. They would be questions that Henri couldn’t answer. He knew that his mother was worried about him, and he agreed with her that he had pulled away from her recently.

  “I have enough to worry about without my mother getting on my case about this.” Henri released a sigh, trying to gather himself before the day started.

  He made his way down the stairs to see his mother giving him the “’you are going to be late’ look. Henri was used to seeing this look, and he responded in his usual way by giving her an eye roll.

  “Henri Jacobson!” His mother saw the look that he gave her, and she didn’t approve of his attitude.

  “What?” Henri tried to play off his gesture. He didn’t know how she always knew when he rolled his eyes.