A Sliver of Hope by Karla J. Nellenbach

Author:Karla J. Nellenbach
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781620151228
Publisher: Booktrope
Published: 2013-03-21T22:00:00+00:00

MAY 2 (AGAIN)

MY TWIN SISTER was the only person in the world I thought I'd known inside and out.

Apparently, I was wrong. She and I had been little more than strangers sharing the same space, two ships passing in the night but never really seeing each other. So close, yet so far away.

It was all going to end now. I shoved myself to my feet. The desk chair toppled over with a loud clang. Quick purposeful strides carried me across my bedroom and through the bathroom where I stopped at the door to her bedroom, her world.

I hadn't been able to set foot inside there since that morning. The farthest I'd gotten had simply been to sit on the floor of the bathroom and look in. Even now — filled with stubborn determination to find the answers I so desperately craved — I halted at that spot. My hand rested hesitantly on the knob.

I could do this. I really could.

Deep breaths, Hannah. It's just a room. She isn't here anymore. You're really not invading her space. It's No Man's Land. Just do it. I shook my head. If all that was really true, why did I feel so shitty about invading her privacy? Why couldn't I bring myself to stomp in and search high and low for the clues I needed?

None of that mattered now. Not this weird guilt that I felt. Not the anger that simmered just below the surface all the time. The important thing now was the truth, and the only place I would get that was beyond this door. Another deep breath. I closed my eyes, turned the knob, and pushed the door open.

Take that first step. You can do it, the little voice in the back of my head whispered. I could do it, and I would. In fact, I had just lifted my foot, prepared to take that first monumental step into what had become foreign land when—

“June Bug? Are you in there?” Dad called out.

A long and loud sigh of relief escaped me at the interruption. I quickly stepped back and slid the door closed. “Yeah, just a minute.” I moved over to the sink, turned on the faucet, and splashed the cold water over my face. After patting myself dry, I turned away from the mirror, unwilling to face my own cowardice. “What's up?” I asked Dad when I reentered my bedroom a moment later.

He sat perched on the edge of my bed, his face sallow, his eyes full of misery. How had I not noticed this before now? He looked like he'd aged twenty years in the last month.

What was happening to everyone?

But, I already knew the answer to that: Hope. In life, she'd captured our hearts; in death, she'd stolen our souls. I wasn't the only frozen, empty one here. The thought cut through my cold body, left only more ice in its wake.

“I thought you might like to take a ride with me,” he said quietly. His lips lifted into a small half-smile, but the pained expression on his face told me it took some effort.

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