Title: The Unburned Island: The Other Investigator Series #1
Author: Auden Johnson
Genre: Adult Paranormal Fantasy
Publisher: Aubey LLC
Publish Date: April 2017
Format: ebook
Word count: 30,000
Tagline: The entire island was on fire yet only one schoolhouse burned.
Description
The entire island was on fire yet only one schoolhouse burned. Everyone disappeared. Several tried taking it over but were never successful. Now, people no longer talk about the Unburned Island. It was left to rot.
Years later, Kiran, En and a team of magical investigators travel to the island to banish whatever haunts the old building. It takes them no time to realize the building isn’t the problem. The island is.
With En acting strange, they knew this wouldn’t be a simple job. Kiran develops a second ability, making their investigation both easier and harder. They never anticipated the terrible secrets hidden within the school’s campus. Maybe some of the residents deserved their fate.
The Unburned Island is a great paranormal book to read if you’re looking for supernatural horror, diverse characters and a little romance.
Praise
The pacing of the story rolls right along and I actually read this book in a day. If I had the option, I probably would have devoured it in one sitting. The spooky factor, the ghosts, and ghouls were properly disturbing and the in-fighting between the main characters was hilarious. (Horror Made)
Excerpt
Kiran was a puppet. Her will didn’t matter. The puppeteer wanted her in this room. She pushed open the door. No one was objecting. It couldn’t be too dangerous.
Her flashlight beam shone on stone steps.
She couldn’t breathe. Hot and cold took turns assaulting her body. Kiran’s bones became twigs. She couldn’t stop trembling. She didn’t want to go forward.
They climbed the steps.
The room was wide with a low ceiling. Protection circles covered the floor, walls and ceiling. They were all wrong, drawn by a novice. Kiran used to make circles like these when she was in school. They worked, but they didn’t do what you wanted.
A prickly hot feeling settled in her chest. It built like water behind a blocked drain. It screamed for release. A hand touched her. If she destroyed that hand, she’d feel better.
She lunged at the person only to grab air. She needed to see blood. They needed to feel her pain.
“Kiran stop,” the voice said.
Her body stopped moving even though her mind demanded blood.
A coldness replaced the hot feeling. Moving was pointless. Thinking was pointless. Each breath was a painful chore. Death would end her torment. The window would save her.
Fingers brushed her wet face. When did she start crying?
“Please explore this place quickly,” En said beside her. “You can move now,” he whispered in Kiran’s ear.
She sank to the ground. En brushed his finger across her cheek. His touch eased the warring emotions. She leaned into him. En always smelled like honey. Was it cologne? He wouldn’t wear something so useless on a job. Maybe it was his soap. He smelled like he’d taste delicious.
Where did that thought come from? A spirit must’ve put that in her head.
“Something terrible happened here.” Kiran hadn’t meant to say that out loud.
Only negative emotions lived in this room.
A soothing yet prickly sensation brushed her hand. Kiran didn’t see anyone touching her hand but it felt like it. She didn’t sense any spirits nearby. The sensation stopped. Was that Jason? Why couldn’t she see or sense him?
“I think we found why this building wasn’t burned down.” Sona clicked his tongue. “The one place that deserved to be destroyed was unharmed.”
“I’ve seen pictures of rooms like these,” En said. “Around the time humans realized Others existed, they learned even their children could be born hosting a demonic spirit. Children suspected of housing a demon were sent away to be cured. They were tortured in places like these all in the name of purification.”
En rarely got emotional over his research findings. What kind of pictures did he see?
Demons were born into this world through babies. They could influence adults but never possessed them. You could tell a child housed a demonic spirit because of the red eyes. In rare cases, some looked like ordinary humans. The spirit couldn’t be taken out of the child. It would be like pulling out their soul. Kiran didn’t know how she felt about demons. Did they take over the child’s soul or was the child born to be a demon? Most people acted like the child was possessed. Kiran doubted it was that simple. Demons didn’t do anything special while alive. They didn’t reveal any abilities. If it wasn’t for the red eyes, you’d think they were human. They didn’t cause problems until the body died.
When that happened, demons were forced to return home, getting in line to be born again. They rarely talked about their home world but Kiran gathered it was a place of nightmares. Demons in human bodies died in anger because they knew they had to return to that terrible place. Those who died in rage often returned as spirits. Angry demonic spirits were powerful and nasty. If the body wasn’t burned, the demon remained in this world. Blinded by anger, it only wanted to cause misery.
After years of studying, no one knew how to keep demons away or stop their bodies from dying once they arrived. People tried counseling them on their deathbeds, help them make peace with what was about to happen. It rarely worked.
“These children weren’t just outcasts, they were demons,” Leta said.
Kiran didn’t enjoy how excited Leta sounded about this new discovery. Leta looked younger than them but he was older. Dragons aged slower. Since they lived away from people, dragons often lacked empathy for anyone outside of their own family. To Leta, this was entertainment.
Kiran sat up. En dropped his arm around her waist. The room looked like the old chambers used for sacrifices. The walls were a plain off-white, not nearly as pretty as the rest of the building. This place wasn’t meant to be attractive. Just functional. Cages of different sizes lined the back wall. Several doors led deeper into the building. How big was the area?
A burning hand grabbed her ankle. A teenage boy dug his long fingernails into her skin. His neck and back legs kept jerking like something was fighting to get out of him. His other hand grabbed her calf. His face was anger but his lone eye screamed pain and loneliness. The brown sack he wore barely covered his skin. Long scars ran down both arms and legs. Another went through his missing eye. Kiran’s chest hurt. Why would you need to cut up someone to remove the demon? Why had they thought it would work?
Even worse, this wasn’t a demon. A normal angry spirit. Not everyone who was subjected to this torture had a demon inside of them.
