Nykara

  Copyright

  Nykara is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  NYKARA: A NOVEL

  Copyright © 2018 by Katie Holland

  All rights reserved.

  Editing by KP Editing

  Cover design by KP Designs

  Published by Kingston Publishing Company

  The uploading, scanning, and distribution of this book in any form or by any means—including but not limited to electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of the copyright holder is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized editions of this work, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Author’s Note

  Extras

  Dedication

  It has been a dream of mine for a very long time to become an author.

  I want to thank all my family and friends for the encouraging words

  on this long and winding journey. A special thanks to my mom and

  her everlasting support. This one is for you mom!

  Chapter 1

  Alix sighed as she looked in the mirror and stared at her reflection. Long brown hair, blue eyes, and skin tanned from the summer. I still look the same, she thought, but tomorrow was the start of her senior year. She’d never been a huge fan of high school. She got good grades and didn’t hate school itself, she just felt like she never really fit in with the kids in her class. Of course, her best friend would tell her she was crazy. Shay was always telling her that everyone loved her. Shay with her short, funky blonde hair, big brown eyes, and fashion-forward clothes was far more popular than Alix was. It’s not that Alix was unpopular, she just always felt a little out of place around most everyone she knew. Of course, it didn’t help that she grew up in a small town where everyone knew everyone, or at least that’s what it felt like. Sunset Creek was a small place in Montana near the Wyoming border. She’d known everyone in her class since the first grade. No one had come or gone in her grade for eleven years. In a nutshell, it was boring. Alix craved a little excitement every now and then, but there wasn’t much excitement in Sunset Creek. She knew she wanted to move away for college, and she was going to apply to some as soon as she figured out what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.

  The only thing she was looking forward to was her birthday. Next month she was going to be seventeen, in one month and one day to be exact. Alix didn’t know why but the thought of turning seventeen always brought a smile to her face. Maybe it was because she was that much closer to finishing high school and becoming an adult. Whatever the reason it made her happy. As her thoughts swirled in her head her phone rang. She smiled when she saw it was Shay.

  “Hi, Shay, what’s up? You bored too?” Alix asked her friend.

  “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God! I can’t believe it!” Shay yelled into the phone.

  “Whoa, bring it down a notch and tell me what’s got you so excited.” Alix waited a minute as she listened to Shay slow her breathing.

  “You’ll never believe it,” Shay said in a somewhat calmer voice. “I just found out that there is a new family that just moved into town!”

  “Wow, that is big news,” Alix commented back. “I can’t remember the last time someone moved here. How did you find out?”

  “That’s the best part, they live right close to me. I saw the moving van myself. You know that property at the end of my street, the one that’s been empty for years, that’s where they’re moving into.”

  Alix could hear the excitement in Shay’s voice and she knew why. This was a big deal. That property had sat empty for as long as she could remember. The place always gave Alix the creeps when she walked by. It had a huge iron gate and overgrown driveway that led to the mysterious house that you could barely see.

  “Hello, earth to Alix,” she heard Shay say.

  “Sorry, zoned out there for a minute. Just thinking about that place. You know how I feel about it. Did you get a look at the family moving in?” she asked.

  “Um … no.” Shay paused, “I only saw the moving van pull into the gate.”

  “So how do you know it’s a family?” Alix asked her. “Maybe it’s a creepy old man. Or a psycho killer, or a bunch of circus performers?”

  “Circus performers, really Alix?

  “Well, you never know.”

  “Wow. That active imagination of yours is going to get you in trouble one day,” Shay told her. “So anyway, why don’t you come over and we can spy on the newest Sunset Creek residents and see what we can find out.”

  “Sure, sounds good to me. You know how bored I can get here by myself. I’ll be there in five.”

  Alix left her bedroom and headed to Shay’s place. Shay only lived a couple of blocks from her, and of course, she was walking. She had her driver’s license, but her parents told her she had to buy her own car, so she was still saving for it. Her summertime job at her dad’s office didn’t pay her much, but since there wasn’t much to do in Sunset Creek she was able to save most of her money. She thought by the end of the school year she would have enough for her very own car.

  As she walked, she thought about the people that were moving to her town. Why would they move here? What would they do for work? There was no industry to speak of in Sunset Creek. Most of the people that worked had to go out of town to get a good paying job. Like her mom. She was a nurse at the hospital in Bozeman, which was about forty-five minutes from Sunset Creek. Luckily her dad had a job in town. He was the local dentist, something that she knew she definitely didn’t want to do with the rest of her life. For as long as she could remember she wanted to get out of town and becoming a dentist would result in her staying. That’s one of the reasons she was having trouble figuring out why someone would choose to move to Sunset Creek. She knew Shay and a good portion of her classmates also wanted to leave town as well.

  Before she knew it, she was at Shay’s house. Shay was waiting for her on the front step. Alix could see the excitement bubbling up from her. She had to admit she was excited too. It’s too bad that it was the creepy house they were going to have to spy on, but her need to know who was moving in outweighed the fact the place bothered her.

  “Okay Alix let’s go and see what we can find out,” Shay said, as she jumped off the step.

  It was a very sunny day, so Alix was a little less creeped out about going over there. And being a weekday there weren’t many pe
ople around to see what they were doing which made Alix feel better. She didn’t want to answer nosy neighbor’s questions. “The House”, Alix always saw quotation marks in her head when she said it, was at the end of Shay’s street. The entire cul-de-sac was taken up by the property that the house sat on. Usually the closer they got to the property the more Alix was creeped out but this time it wasn’t is as strong as normal. Today was the first time that the girls had ever seen the gate open. Alix thought it would be rusty and unusable but the closer they got the more she could tell it looked almost brand new. And the overgrown driveway appeared to have been trimmed back, at least around the gate. The rest of the property that they could see at the front was still very overgrown. That’s kind of strange she thought to herself, I don’t remember seeing anyone fixing the gate or trimming trees, and I’m over at Shay’s a lot.

  Shay had been usually quiet on the short walk over.

  “What’s on your mind, Shay? You’re awfully quiet for being so excited.”

  “Well, you got me thinking,” Shay replied, “what if it is a creepy old man? I was really hoping that there might be someone around our age or even my sister’s age. It would be really nice to have some new kids around here.”

  “I guess there’s only one way to find out, we go and introduce ourselves.”

  Shay stopped dead in her tracks. “Okay, who are you and what have you done with Alix?” She was looking at Alix like she had lost her mind.

  “What?” Alix said innocently.

  “You want to go through that gate, down that driveway and up to the house that freaks you out every time you pass it?”

  “Yes.”

  Shay waited for more, but Alix said nothing else. “Yes. All you have to say is yes? I think I’m going to need a bit of an explanation.”

  “Well,” she started, “I figure it’s like this. They left the gate open so that means it’s okay to go in. If they wanted to keep people out they would have shut the gate. Plus, if it turns out that it’s a creepy old man at least we’ll know. You know how I’m always wanting to get more excitement in my life, well this is all we’ve got for excitement around here. And now that the gate is open it doesn’t seem quite so bad. Besides, maybe the owner is a hot male model.”

  Shay laughed, she couldn’t help it. “Okay, okay, I see your point. Let’s go then.”

  As the girls walked through the gate Alix had a strange feeling and felt a shiver run down her spine. Not good and not bad, just strange. Like when you have something on the tip of your tongue but can’t quite place it. She figured it was a result of her excitement at doing something kind of scary.

  Although they didn’t know what to expect once they were through the gate, the driveway was longer than they thought. The other houses in the area were your standard cookie cutter houses. Average size, two car garage and short concrete driveway that still took too long to shovel in the winter. This driveway seemed to be about a quarter mile long. Trees lined each side of the driveway, but it was wider than Alix thought it was going to be. It could easily fit two trucks side by side. As they continued down the driveway Alix wondered why it looked as if someone had lived here for years and why it wasn’t all overgrown like it was by the street.

  As they rounded a corner both girls stopped. The house was huge.

  “Wow,” Shay whispered. “I think I’m speechless.”

  Alix just stood and stared at the gigantic house. I was the biggest house she had ever seen. It was an old style, but it looked new, at least on the outside. She thought for sure that it was going to be run down after not being lived in for years.

  “I bet it has 20 bedrooms,” Shay stated. “And maybe even a ballroom and one of those dining rooms that can seat 80 people.”

  Neither of them moved. They stood rooted to the spot, just looking at the house. Alix wasn’t sure how long they stayed standing there but the next thing she knew a voice was saying, “How can I help you, girls?”

  Shay screamed, and Alix jumped. They both spun around. The voice had come from behind them.

  “Hi, how can I help you?” the voice said again, this time with a laugh to it.

  Shay got her wits about her first. “Um, hi. We saw someone moving in and thought we’d come and introduce ourselves. Isn’t that right Alix?” Shay said as she elbowed Alix to get her attention. Alix snapped out of the trance she was in after seeing the owner of the voice.

  “Yeah right,” she stumbled, “We’d thought we’d come and say hi to our newest neighbor.”

  “I see,” he smirked. “Well, in that case, let me introduce myself. My name is Ben and I live here.”

  “Hi, Ben and welcome to Sunset Creek. I’m Shay and this is Alix. Alix with an ‘i’, not an ‘e’, she’s kind of sensitive about that,” Shay laughed.

  Alix continued to stare at Ben. He was good looking Alix thought. Well better than good-looking, he’s hot. Alix knew she blushed and hated it. Ben looked at her with a look that said he knew what she was thinking. It made her blush harder. She thought that her ears might even be red. She was so lost in thoughts of Ben that she didn’t realize the other two were talking and she hadn’t heard anything they said.

  “Sure, isn’t that right Alix?” Shay said to her with a huge smile on her face.

  “Um, sure, sounds good,” she mumbled.

  “Okay then, let’s go,” Ben announced and started walking toward the house.

  Alix made sure that Ben was several yards in front of them before she turned to Shay and furiously whispered to her, “What did I just agree to? You know I wasn’t paying attention.”

  “Alix, chill a bit. He asked if we wanted to take a tour of the house. Of course, I said yes, look at that thing,” Shay whispered back. “What’s got you so uptight all of a sudden? You don’t normally act like this.”

  Before Alix had a chance to answer her Ben stopped at the front door.

  “Here we are ladies, shall we?

  “Hang on a minute,” Alix blurted out. “I don’t think we should go in until we know a little more about you. How do we know you actually live here? Where are your parents? Why did you move here?”

  Shay’s mouth dropped open and she elbowed Alix in the ribs and gave her the what-do-you-think-you’re-doing look. Ben just smiled at her.

  “Seems fair, as long as I can find out about you too. How do you know I live here? I have a key to the front door,” he said as he pulled a set of keys out of his pocket. “My parents are inside, we’ll meet them on the tour. And finally, we moved here because we just inherited this house from my grandparents and mom and dad love this part of the country. I’m seventeen, have no brothers or sisters and I like pizza. So, does that answer your questions?” Ben couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he looked at Alix.

  She frowned at him. “Yes, thanks,” Alix wasn’t sure what else to say. She didn’t know what to think of Ben or this situation for that matter. Alix prided herself on having a good head on her shoulders and being a calm person but being around Ben was throwing her off her game.

  “Now it’s your turn,” he said. “Tell me about yourself.”

  Alix waited a moment before answering, getting her thoughts together. “Not much to tell. I’ve lived here all my life. I’m an only child. My mom is a nurse and my dad is a dentist. I’m almost seventeen and I plan on leaving here after graduation.” Alix slapped a hand over her mouth. Oh, my God, she thought to herself, did I really just say that? She hadn’t even told Shay that she wanted to leave. Everyone thought she was just going to go work at her dad’s office. She was starting to get frustrated with her behavior around Ben, and she’d only just met him.

  Shay gave her a funny look and Ben just continued to smile at her.

  “Okay,” he said, “now that we know a little about each other would you like to come in and see the house?”

  “We’d love to.” Shay piped up. “Lead the way, Ben.”

  Ben started into the house. Shay held Alix back for a second. “I can’t bel
ieve you haven’t said anything to me about leaving after graduation. We’ll talk about this later.”

  She knew Shay might be a little mad at her and she would understand. They didn’t keep secrets from each other. She hadn’t said anything because she still didn’t know what she was going to do. All she knew was that her life after graduation was going to be something she wanted, not what was expected.

  As the girls stepped into the house they stopped. The inside was even more spectacular than the outside. Marble floors, beautiful woodwork, a huge crystal chandelier and a staircase that looked like the one from the Titanic.

  “Wow, this place is something else,” Alix whispered. “I thought there would be layers of dust and sheets on the furniture. And it doesn’t even look haunted.”

  Ben burst out laughing. Alix jumped. She didn’t realize that he was standing so close to her.

  “Haunted? Really? You thought this was a haunted house?” Ben said to her through his laughter. “No wonder you’ve seemed so jumpy.”

  Alix turned beet red. She hadn’t wanted him to hear her say that. “Stop laughing at me!”

  That just made him laugh harder. Shay had her hand over her mouth trying not to laugh. She didn’t want to make Alix feel bad, but it was pretty funny.

  “It’s not that funny,” Alix protested. “Look at it from my point of view. No one has lived here forever. There’s a huge rusty gate out front and the trees are so overgrown that you can’t even hardly see the house! And on top of all that every time, I even come near this place it gives me the creeps. It’s like I’m being watched. So yeah, I’d say it could have been haunted.”

  “You really feel like you’re being watched?” Shay asked her. “I knew this place gave you the creeps, but I didn’t know you felt like that. Sorry I made you walk by here so often. Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

  “Because I thought it sounded crazy. We live in Sunset Creek, who would be watching me?”

  Ben cleared his throat, but he still had a hint of a smile on his face. “Sorry to interrupt but would you still like to see the rest of the house? I can assure you that it’s not haunted. I’d really like to show you around,” he paused, “And the truth is that even I haven’t seen all of the house yet. We can explore it together. You’re the first people I’ve met here, and I’d like to get to know you better.”