The return To Erda
Complete Box set
Beca Lewis
Shatterskin
Beca Lewis
Copyright © 2019 Beca Lewis
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
Published by:
Perception Publishing
https://perceptionpublishing.com
This book is a work of fiction. All characters in this book are fictional. However, as a writer, I have, of course, made some of the book’s characters composites of people I have met or known.
All rights reserved.
Table of Contents
Shatterskin One
Shatterskin Two
Shatterskin Three
Shatterskin Four
Shatterskin Five
Shatterskin Six
Shatterskin Seven
Shatterskin Eight
Shatterskin Nine
Shatterskin Ten
Shatterskin Eleven
Shatterskin Twelve
Shatterskin Thirteen
Shatterskin Fourteen
Shatterskin Fifteen
Shatterskin Sixteen
Shatterskin Seventeen
Shatterskin Eighteen
Shatterskin Nineteen
Shatterskin Twenty
Shatterskin Twenty-One
Shatterskin Twenty-Two
Shatterskin Twenty-Three
Shatterskin Twenty-Four
Shatterskin Twenty-Five
Shatterskin Twenty-Six
Shatterskin Twenty-Seven
Shatterskin Twenty-Eight
Shatterskin Twenty-Nine
Shatterskin Thirty
Shatterskin Thirty-One
Shatterskin Thirty-Two
Shatterskin Thirty-Three
Shatterskin Thirty-Four
Shatterskin Thirty-Five
Shatterskin Thirty-Six
Shatterskin Thirty-Seven
Shatterskin Thirty-Eight
Shatterskin Thirty-Nine
Shatterskin Forty
Shatterskin Forty-One
Shatterskin Forty-Two
Shatterskin Forty-Three
Shatterskin Forty-Four
Shatterskin Forty-Five
Shatterskin Forty-Seven
Shatterskin Forty-Eight
Shatterskin Forty-Nine
Shatterskin Fifty
Shatterskin Fifty-One
Shatterskin Fifty-Two
Shatterskin Fifty-Three
Shatterskin Fifty-Four
Shatterskin Fifty-Five
Shatterskin Fifty-Six
Shatterskin Fifty-Seven
Shatterskin Fifty-Eight
Shatterskin Fifty-Nine
Shatterskin Sixty
Shatterskin Epilogue
Author’s Note
Deadsweep One
Deadsweep Two
Deadsweep Three
Deadsweep Four
Deadsweep Five
Deadsweep Six
Deadsweep Seven
Deadsweep Eight
Deadsweep Nine
Deadsweep Ten
Deadsweep Eleven
Deadsweep Twelve
Deadsweep Thirteen
Deadsweep Fourteen
Deadsweep Fifteen
Deadsweep Sixteen
Deadsweep Seventeen
Deadsweep Eighteen
Deadsweep Nineteen
Deadsweep Twenty
Deadsweep Twenty-One
Deadsweep Twenty-Two
Deadsweep Twenty-Three
Deadsweep Twenty-Four
Deadsweep Twenty-Five
Deadsweep Twenty-Six
Deadsweep Twenty-Seven
Deadsweep Twenty-Eight
Deadsweep Twenty-Nine
Deadsweep Thirty
Deadsweep Thirty-One
Deadsweep Thirty-Two
Deadsweep Thirty-Three
Deadsweep Thirty-Four
Deadsweep Thirty-Five
Deadsweep Thirty-Six
Deadsweep Thirty-Seven
Deadsweep Thirty-Eight
Deadsweep Thirty-Nine
Deadsweep Forty
Deadsweep Forty-One
Deadsweep Forty-Two
Deadsweep Forty-Three
Deadsweep Forty-Four
Deadsweep Forty-Five
Deadsweep Forty-Six
Deadsweep Forty-Seven
Deadsweep Forty-Eight
Deadsweep Forty-Nine
Deadsweep Fifty
Deadsweep Fifty-One
Deadsweep Fifty-Two
Deadsweep Fifty-Three
Deadsweep Fifty-Four
Deadsweep Fifty-Five
Deadsweep Fifty-Six
Deadsweep Fifty-Seven
Deadsweep Fifty-Eight
Deadsweep Fifty-Nine
Deadsweep Sixty
Author’s Note
Abbadon One
Abbadon Two
Abbadon Three
Abbadon Four
Abbadon Five
Abbadon Six
Abbadon Seven
Abbadon Eight
Abbadon Nine
Abbadon Ten
Abbadon Eleven
Abbadon Twelve
Abbadon Thirteen
Abbadon Fourteen
Abbadon Fifteen
Abbadon Sixteen
Abbadon Seventeen
Abbadon Eighteen
Abbadon Nineteen
Abbadon Twenty
Abbadon Twenty-One
Abbadon Twenty-Two
Abbadon Twenty-Three
Abbadon Twenty-Four
Abbadon Twenty-Five
Abbadon Twenty-Six
Abbadon Twenty-Seven
Abbadon Twenty-Eight
Abbadon Twenty-Nine
Abbadon Thirty
Abbadon Thirty-One
Abbadon Thirty-Two
Abbadon Thirty-Three
Abbadon Thirty-Four
Abbadon Thirty-Five
Abbadon Thirty-Six
Abbadon Thirty-Seven
Abbadon Thirty-Eight
Abbadon Thirty-Nine
Abbadon Forty-One
Abbadon Forty-Two
Abbadon Forty-Three
Abbadon Forty-Four
Abbadon Forty-Five
Abbadon Forty-Six
Abbadon Forty-Seven
Abbadon Forty-Eight
Abbadon Forty-Nine
Abbadon Fifty
Abbadon Fifty-One
Abbadon Fifty-Two
Abbadon Fifty-Three
Abbadon Fifty-Four
Abbadon Fifty-Five
Abbadon Fifty-Six
Abbadon Fifty-Seven
Abbadon Fifty-Eight
Abbadon Fifty-Nine
Abbadon Sixty
Abbadon Epilogue
Author’s Note
Shatterskin One
It was as terrifying as standing at the open door of an airplane getting ready to jump. Or at least I imagined it would feel the same w
ay even though I had never experienced that myself. Leaning forward and seeing the ground thousands of feet away, not knowing where the wind would blow you. Not knowing what you will find when you land.
At least people jumping out of planes got to practice, and they could see the ground. Besides they have parachutes for heaven’s sake.
What I was doing was completely different. No practice. No parachute. Can’t see where I’m going. Just step into a void. Leaping into the unknown. No visual clues. Nothing to stop me from smashing myself to bits somewhere.
Suzanne’s voice was whispering in my ear telling me to go, go, go. She was getting annoyed. She hissed at me which she had never done before. She said I was being melodramatic and it didn’t suit me at all. Just go!
I understood that she was rushing me for a reason. The portal was designed to stay open only for a few brief moments. The short time frame was necessary. It was to keep the monsters that lived in each dimension from leaping into another one.
Yes, there are monsters. Aren’t there always monsters? Sometimes they look like people, and sometimes they don’t. But letting a monster travel to a new dimension would introduce a danger to the inhabitants of that dimension, and there was a strong chance that they wouldn’t be able to defend themselves against it. It could mean the end of that world somehow.
It was like all the trees that were dying in my world. Dying because a bug, or parasite, traveled from one country to the next where there were no natural predators to stop them. One species after another of our beloved trees were leaving our earth. It was heartbreaking, but at the moment I couldn’t do anything about that problem. There were too many present ones to deal with, like leaping into a portal to someplace else.
Maybe when I came back, I could help. Suzanne told me that there might be something they would find where we were going that could stop the killing of our trees. After all, her people lived in what she described as a magnificent old growth forest.
I couldn’t wait to see it. I wanted it more than anything else in the world. Still, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t bring myself to step into the destiny that was waiting for me. Once the portal closed, it would not open again for me for a long time, if at all. Or at least that was what they told me. Sometimes I wasn’t sure if anyone was telling me the whole truth about anything.
The only thing I really knew was that I was more afraid than I had ever been. All my powers were useless. They couldn’t help me now. I was just an ordinary girl going on an adventure like no other, and if I didn’t leap soon, I might never get to go.
I had been dreaming about doing this very thing from the moment I learned about dimension traveling. I knew it was for me. I had to go. Had to. Had to. It called me. It was in my genes. It was mine to do.
And yet, I was paralyzed.
The longer I hesitated, the harder it became. It was embarrassing. For years I had been begging to be the one that went with Suzanne to her dimension. Now she was giving me a chance, and I couldn’t move.
Seconds ticked by. I felt as if I was shaking so hard that both dimensions would be experiencing an earthquake. What I was finding out was that when you are thinking about the unknown, it isn’t nearly as scary as when you are actually living it. The unknown is a mysterious, and probably a dangerous, place.
Besides, what if the portal didn’t work? I had heard whispered rumors that sometimes the gateway closes midstream, or diverts the traveler to somewhere they didn’t mean to go. Sometimes people disappear forever. Perhaps they vanished into one of the hundreds of unexplored dimensions. Or maybe they disappeared altogether because what if there were empty places? No dimensions at all? The point is, no one knows. Or at least no one was telling me.
Those whispers happened at night when everyone thought that I was asleep. Instead, I was listening at the crack of the door to every conversation.
I never slept when there were people other than my parents and brother in the house. Sometimes I listened because I had an idea that it was my job to keep guard, even though no one had ever asked me to. Besides, guard against what? It was that unknown thing again. I wasn’t afraid of monsters under the bed, or in the closet, as much as I was of what I knew to be there. I couldn’t see them. I felt them.
Sometimes I wondered if I was crazy. After all, didn’t crazy people see and feel things that others couldn’t? Or was it what Suzanne had told me, that knowing that there are things most people are not aware of did not make one crazy. It was a matter of who believes you and what you do with the knowledge.
When she uses the word knowledge, I get all goose pimply. I love knowing things, Things people already know and things most people don’t know.
That’s the other reason I listen at the crack of doors. I can’t stand people knowing things that I don’t know. It’s arrogant of me to be this way I realize. Who am I to have to know? But the fact is, I have to know.
How do things happen? How do they work? Why are they built that way? Perhaps my mom should have named me Curiosity because there is nothing I don’t want to know. Even bad stuff. I have to find out. Which is why I have to be a dimension traveler. I have to find out what is on the other side.
“You only have seconds left, Hannah, it’s now or maybe never,” whispered Suzanne in my ear. It dawned on me that perhaps I was afraid because I didn’t know how they put the portal together.
But I would never know unless I went there and found out for myself. Anyway, Suzanne is an experienced dimension traveler, and she was going with me. Wherever we went, we would be going together. There was a kind of safety in that. Or at least I pretended that there was. Sometimes pretending is the only way through a problem.
I took a deep breath and stepped in, and then I was gone.
Shatterskin Two
“Zonk it,” I heard myself say as I tripped over something and fell flat on my face.
“Whoa, already swearing like a native. I bet that entrance will go down into the history of Erda. Kids will read about it and wonder how it was possible that the great, fantastic, Hannah from Earth fell on her face and started swearing,” the voice said.
“Who the ziffer are you,” I said sitting up holding my head. Perhaps I had gone crazy after all. There was no one there. No Suzanne. No one.
Besides I don’t swear, those words coming out of my mouth couldn’t be happening, if they were swear words. They sounded pretty weird for swearing. It was all a dream. I probably hadn’t even left yet.
On the other hand, it was a pretty vivid dream. My head hurt. Zounds, it hurt. There I go again, swearing weird words, even in a dream. Mom will not be happy with me. Mom. That’s it. I’ll wake up, find her, and see what she is doing. I’ll hug dad. I’ll find my little brother Ben and tell him about my dream. Maybe I’ll delay the dimension traveling until I get older. Suzanne will understand, won’t she?
I pulled myself to a standing position thinking that would wake me up, but within moments I was knocked down again by something flying right at me. A flash of red was all I saw as I fell backward. Whatever it was landed directly on top of me.
So far this was one of the weirdest dreams I had ever had. Sitting on my stomach was a miniature dinosaur, or maybe a dragon of sorts. Its huge beak was positioned directly in front of my nose. Its head looked every which way, scanning the sky, the trees. Wait, sky and trees.
Until that moment I hadn’t noticed that the sky was the same, but for all my love of trees, I had never seen trees that looked like these. Or at least trees that could do what these trees were doing. They were leaning towards me. Some were almost touching the ground as if they were listening.