The Return To Erda Box Set

  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-Six

  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

  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.