Chapter Eight

“WAKE UP, SLÀNAIGHEAR. WAKE UP.”  I jumped up in terror, looking around.  “Easy.” Fraser’s mighty voice resounded inside my ears. I had fallen asleep in the car. “A decision is made. C’mon.” 

EVERYTHING CAME BACK to me in the morning. Daylight touched the horizon very slowly as I saw a big gathering from the window of the hut where I used to be a prisoner of the chain, now a prisoner of my own guilt. The funeral. 

Clouds of flames and smoke rose from afar. Shouts and gunshots echoed from the mountains. After hours of driving and thought, my worst nightmares seemed to have come true. My heart pushed against my lungs, and my body felt numb for a second ... 

I walked down the street in the pouring rain while my insides twisted.  Stop it now, Adama. Go back home, live your life. This is out of your control now.  I wanted to forget. Just pretend it never happened and be done with it.   Suddenly, Amira’s voice echoed in my ears: There will be many deaths. Was she talking about what was to come now? 

My heart began to beat faster. How could he know what I’d done in such detail? I had been alone. It was impossible. Unless ... Had Rahab been right?

“Will you have me killed?” The question burst out of me before I could stop it.  MacIan did not give an answer. His eyes just targeted mine for a while with a look that would not give away any intention, just sadness. Sadness about what? That I thought so low of him? Or that in the end, he would need to kill me anyway? That my destiny had been sealed from the moment I got into that trunk? 

Welcome to Chapter Three of Prometheus Rising! ------ AS THE SUN ROSE, I had lost track of time. I just lay in the bunk bed, the hard stone gnawing into my back. The first sunlight crept in, and I rose slowly to watch the sunrise, as it had been my habit since I can remember. I expected nothing more but dirt and slums to open before me. Maybe it was exactly because of this expectation that I was taken by such awe. 

Today, I'm reading Chapter Two of Prometheus Rising ...  THE TRUNK OPENED, but it was still dark. When I awoke to an absolute darkness hours before, I did not know whether I was alive or dead. In fact, I still felt caught up in a surreal nightmare. It took me a moment to play back the memories and determine that I was stuck in the back of my own car. It smelled of tire rubber. My whole body shook from the stress, the inability to stretch or to breathe properly. I implemented breathing exercises to calm my nerves and think. At least I was not dead. They needed me, but what for? The thoughts made me sick, the dehydration made me want to vomit. So when the trunk door was finally opened, I swallowed the air like a man dying from thirst.  

Welcome to the Live Reading of "Prometheus Rising" – Book One of the Prometheus Dystopian Trilogy.  Enjoy the ride with me – the author, as I'm reading live to you.