Children of Eternity #1: Forever Young
By P.T. Dilloway
Copyright 2012 P.T. Dilloway
Table of Contents
Children of Eternity #1: Forever Young
Chapter 1: Awakening
Chapter 2: Prudence
Chapter 3: The Way
Chapter 4: The Good Book
Chapter 5: The Woodshed
Chapter 6: Children At Play
Chapter 7: The Seamstresses
Chapter 8: The House on the Hill
Chapter 9: Exile
Chapter 10: Nightmares
Chapter 11: By the Sea
Chapter 12: The Woodsmen
Chapter 13: The Trapdoor
Chapter 14: The Cellar
Chapter 15: Secrets
Chapter 16: Bedtime Stories
Chapter 17: Acceptance
Chapter 18: Romantic Entanglement
Chapter 19: Prudence Iscariot
Chapter 20: The Sacrifice
Chapter 21: The Siege
Chapter 22: Chaos
Chapter 23: The Morning After
Chapter 24: Escape Plan
Chapter 25: The Chase
Chapter 26: In God’s House
Chapter 27: Prison Break
Chapter 28: The Chamber
Chapter 29: Dogs of War
Chapter 30: The Water
Chapter 31: The Fountain
Chapter 32: Final Reward
Chapter 33: An Uncertain Future
Children of Eternity #2: Young Family
Chapter 1: Sleepwalking
Chapter 2: Lessons
Chapter 3: Skirmishes
Chapter 4: Betrayal
Chapter 5: Runaway
Chapter 6: On the Road
Chapter 7: The Storm
Chapter 8: Secret Kiss
Chapter 9: Mementoes
Chapter 10: Stuck
Chapter 11: Safecracker
Chapter 12: Shipwreck
Chapter 13: The Stranger
Chapter 14: Campfire Tales
Chapter 15: Homeward Bound
Chapter 16: Search Party
Chapter 17: Everyday Miracle
Chapter 18: Dropping In
Chapter 19: Rescue
Chapter 20: Homecoming
Chapter 21: First Impressions
Chapter 22: Damage Control
Chapter 23: Betrayal
Chapter 24: Molly is Born
Chapter 25: Turning Back the Clock
Chapter 26: Clues
Chapter 27: Another Rescue
Chapter 28: Going Home
Epilogue: Moving Forward
Children of Eternity #3: Young Hearts
Chapter 1: Damage Report
Chapter 2: Council of War
Chapter 3: Early Withdrawal
Chapter 4: Bon Voyage
Chapter 5: Good Intentions Gone Bad
Chapter 6: The Ghost
Chapter 7: The Discovery
Chapter 8: Homecoming
Chapter 9: Open Doors
Chapter 10: Kiss and Tell
Chapter 11: Seabrooke
Chapter 12: New Beginnings
Chapter 13: Transformation
Chapter 14: Mama Veronica
Chapter 15: The Awful Truth
Chapter 16: Tea and Sympathy
Chapter 17: Second Impressions
Chapter 18: Blame Game
Chapter 19: Family Matters
Chapter 20: The Cure
Chapter 21: Alterations
Chapter 22: Hide and Seek
Chapter 23: On the Town
Chapter 24: Second First Kiss
Chapter 25: The Showdown
Chapter 26: Payback
Chapter 27: Emergency!
Chapter 28: The Fugitive
Chapter 29: Crimes and Misdemeanors
Chapter 30: Kidnapped
Chapter 31: Booby Traps
Chapter 32: Poison
Chapter 33: The Incredible Expanding Cheerleader!
Chapter 34: The Amazing Shrinking Professor!
Chapter 35: The Fall
Chapter 36: Fat Woman and Little Girl
Chapter 37: Explosions
Chapter 38: The Final Nightmare
Chapter 39: Plans
Chapter 40: Undercover
Chapter 41: Life in an Island Town
Chapter 42: New Plans
Chapter 43: Breaking and Entering
Chapter 44: The Snare
Chapter 45: Reawakening
Chapter 46: Emerging Friendships
Chapter 47: Letting Go
Chapter 48: A Choice
Chapter 49: New Horizons
Children of Eternity #4: When You Were Young
Chapter 1: Westbound
Chapter 2: Night Moves
Chapter 3: Blackout
Chapter 4: Night Cries
Chapter 5: Baby Steps
Chapter 6: The Makeover
Chapter 7: Many Happy Returns
Chapter 8: High and Low
Chapter 9: On the Run
Chapter 10: Red Water
Chapter 11: Savannah
Chapter 12: Love & Marriage
Chapter 13: The Rage
Chapter 14: Junction
Chapter 15: Discoveries
Chapter 16: Reconciliation
Chapter 17: Chicago
Chapter 18: The Fountain
Chapter 19: Extermination
Chapter 20: St. John’s
Chapter 21: Divine Intervention
Chapter 22: New Plans
Chapter 23: Seabrooke
Chapter 24: Love Lost
Chapter 25: Memories
Chapter 26: The Final Piece
Chapter 27: Last Chance
Chapter 28: Guiding Star
Chapter 29: Lady in Gray
Chapter 30: The Killing Field
Chapter 31: Partners in Crime
Chapter 32: Eternity
Chapter 33: Legacy
Chapter 34: Escape
Chapter 35: Decisions
Chapter 36: Ghost Towns
Chapter 37: Revival
Chapter 38: Innocents Lost
Chapter 39: Alternate History
Chapter 40: Molly Strikes Back
Chapter 41: Reunion
Chapter 42: The Plea
Chapter 43: Friendly Ties
Chapter 44: Endgame
Chapter 45: The Miracle
Chapter 46: Ghosts
Chapter 47: Farewells
Chapter 48: The New Eternity
Chapter 49: Sunset
Epilogue: The Return
Also by P.T. Dilloway:
About the Author
Chapter 1: Awakening
A wave deposited the girl’s body onto the wet sand. She lifted her head enough to spew salty water into the sand. Long after the last drop came out, she continued coughing, the ache in her chest reminding her, “I’m alive.”
With this thought she rolled onto her back to stare at the moonless sky. The stars overhead whirled in her vision, smearing together into solid white lines of pain. She cried out, but then choked the whimper. She couldn’t let them find her. She had to escape.
But she could not move her numb limbs. In the distance, she heard a dog howl. She tried again to get up. Her body did not respond. The white lines crisscrossing her vision dimmed to gray and then black.
The howling became louder, closing in on her. They were going to catch her…
“No!” she shouted, bolting upright. A hand reached out to touch her shoulder, but she batted it away. She had to get out of here. She had to escape.
She tried to get to her feet, but something heavy fell onto her
chest, pressing her down into the straw pallet. She clawed at the air around her, trying to free herself. “Get away from me!” she said.
A pair of hands cupped her jaw. She tried to swat the hands away, but they kept hold of her. “Easy now, dear. You’re safe,” a woman said. “No one is going to hurt you. Prudence, dear, get off her.”
The weight lifted from her chest. The woman lit a candle to reveal a pale face with emerald eyes that seemed familiar somehow. The room around her was made of rough wooden planks. She sat on a straw pallet with a white sheet thrown over it. A stool rested next to the bed with a clay mug half-filled with clear liquid. She reached out for the mug; the water tasted warm and sour. The woman sat on another stool, the candlelight bringing out the red of her hair. She squinted, trying to remember where she had seen this woman before.
“Where am I?” she asked.
“You’re in Eternity, dear.”
“Eternity? Am I dead?”
“No, dear, I guarantee you are quite alive. Mr. Pryde found you on the beach three nights ago. Do you remember how you got here?”
“No.” She put a hand to her head, trying to remember. When she closed her eyes, she saw nothing but darkness. “I don’t remember anything,” she said.
“Nothing at all? Not even your name?”
“No.”
“Oh dear. We shall have to give you a name then until you can think of your own.” The woman thought for a moment. “We’ll call you Samantha. Samantha Young.”
“Samantha Young?”
“If you don’t like it, we can change it to something else.”
“No, it’s fine, I guess.”
“Good. A child should have a name she likes.” The woman smiled at the newly-christened Samantha Young. “My name is Miss Brigham. I look after the children here. I’m going to take care of you.”
Miss Brigham ran a hand up the side of Samantha’s head to rest on her forehead. “You feel much cooler. When Mr. Pryde found you, I thought you would burn up. You’re very lucky he got you here in time for the reverend to cure you.”
“Cure me? But I’m not cured,” Samantha said. “Why can’t I remember? What’s wrong with me?”
“I’m not sure, dear. In time it will all come back to you. Until then you’re welcome to stay with us.” Miss Brigham sniffed the air and then put a hand on Samantha’s bed. “Oh my, you wet the bed. We’ll have to clean you up before the morning service. We can’t have you meeting the reverend smelling like that. And you’ll need clothes. When Mr. Pryde brought you in, you were naked as a plucked chicken. Prudence, be a dear and get Samantha some clothes. She looks about Helena’s size.”
Miss Brigham glanced over at the doorway, where a fat girl cowered, her hands kneading her white apron. She wore the same gray dress as Miss Brigham and had her auburn hair pulled back into a similar bun. “Go on, dear, don’t stand there gaping.”
Prudence left the room, leaving Samantha alone with Miss Brigham, who dried Samantha’s tears with the hem of her apron. “Thank you,” Samantha said. She sniffled and then wiped her nose with the back of an unfamiliar bronze-skinned hand. She flexed the long fingers of the hand, trying to remember where she might have seen them before. Nothing came to her. “I’m sorry to make a mess.”
“Don’t worry a hair on your pretty head about it. We’ll get everything cleaned up good as new. Prudence will take you down to the stream for a bath.” Prudence stood frozen in the doorway, clutching a stack of clothes in trembling fingers. “Prudence is a little shy. Come here, dear, she won’t bite.”
Prudence took one cautious step forward after another until she came to stand beside the bed. She helped Samantha stand up, supporting her when her legs buckled. “Put one foot in front of the other. Nice and easy now. There you go,” Miss Brigham encouraged Samantha as she took a step on her own.
Prudence kept an arm on Samantha as they went through a door into a room with fifteen pallets identical to her own. The girls sitting on the pallets all wore a nightgown identical to hers. Miss Brigham clapped her hands twice, every head turning to face her. “Children, I want you to meet someone. This is Samantha Young. She is staying with us for a while.”
“She smells like pee,” said a blonde girl sitting on a nearby bed. The other girls laughed; Samantha bit down on her lip to keep from crying.
“Helena, that’s a terrible thing to say. Samantha is our guest and you will all treat her with respect or else you’ll have to explain your sinful behavior to the reverend. Is that understood?”
“Yes Miss Brigham,” the girls said in unison.
“Very good. Now, I want you all to make your beds and get ready for morning service.”
The girls grumbled as they got off their beds and began tidying up. Meanwhile, Samantha followed Prudence down the line of beds, keeping her eyes on the floor out of embarrassment. She hoped she got her memory back soon; she didn’t want to stay in Eternity a moment longer than necessary.
Chapter 2: Prudence
Eternity wasn’t much of a town. The village consisted of ten low cottages with rough, wood-shingled roofs, each with the same whitewashed finish. Samantha peeked through the windows of a couple, but saw no one inside. “Doesn’t anyone else live here?” she asked.
“Just Reverend Crane, Mr. Pryde, and the boys,” Prudence said, her voice as low as a whisper.
“The boys?”
“You’ll see them later. They live in the other dormitory.”
“There are only three adults?”
“Yes.”
In the center of the cottages stood a square building made from blocks of granite. From the steeple with a cross on top, Samantha knew this must be a church. “Is that where the reverend lives?”
“No, Reverend Crane’s house is near the caves.” Prudence took Samantha’s arm to steer her away from the church. Samantha followed Prudence obediently down a dirt path leading into a forest of ancient pine trees so tall they blocked out the sun. The shadowy forest reminded Samantha of the dark beach and the dogs howling. When a breeze rattled the tree branches, Samantha dug her fingers into Prudence’s arm hard enough to make her yelp with pain.