Summer's Desire Vol. 1 (Complete)

Part 1: Chapter 1

Dear Reader,

"Summer's Desire" is my first story and one I'm very invested in, emotionally. I hope you'll enjoy reading about Summer and Seth's journey, and please don't forget to comment and vote.

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Part I

Chapter 1

Yesterday, his Mom dropped him like useless baggage at his Grams' place and bolted for parts unknown. After that incredible stroke of luck, he should've known that something nasty would soon follow. Fortune was a bitch that way.

Proof positive: the whiny voice now filtering from downstairs to grate at his eardrums. Seth paused in the shadows at the top of the stairs until both the owner of the whiny voice and his Grams had passed into the living room. Then he crept soundlessly down the staircase, avoiding the creaky spots with consummate skill.

At seven years of age, Seth was a master of stealth, his instincts honed by a lifetime of tiptoeing around his Mom's rages—learning when to run, when to hide, when to be perfectly silent... and paying for each miscalculation in welts and cracked bones. These days, Seth never miscalculated.

He easily identified the lowest step that was still out of sight from the living room below—the ideal spot for eavesdropping—and there he crouched down. He didn't fear discovery as he was alert for any approaching footsteps and could disappear lightning fast. Besides, even if he were found out, he didn't risk all that much. Unlike when living with his crack whore Mom and her parade of asshole boyfriends, Seth didn't have to dodge anyone's fists or kicks in this house.

But as he well knew, no good thing ever lasted. Sooner or later Mommy dear would run out of money or get bored, then she'd return to town and he would have to go back to the hell of living with her. Or rather, it wasn't living as much as surviving, and for that, Seth needed to keep his skills sharp. Hence the spying exercise that he was currently engaged in.

"Mrs. Lewis, you have to reconsider! We really need your help," the social worker was saying just then.

The hell they needed his Grams!Seth tensed on a surge of hostility. He didn't like this nosy social worker—what was her name, again? Ms. Something-or-other Owens?—who seemed to have become a fixture in Grandma's life over the past year.

Most of all, he resented what her visit today likely meant: that very soon, he'd have yet another interloper to contend with. Why the hell did Grams have to go and be a foster parent anyway? This house was supposed to be his sanctuary. Even when he had to live with his Mom, he always escaped here as often as he could. Now suddenly, he was expected to just grin and bear while his safe place was being opened up to strangers?

Seth released a pent-up breath, trying to push down his aggravation. At least, all of Grandma's foster kids were short-term placements. They were always gone after a few weeks and they were easy for him to ignore. Beyond their status as unwanted intruders in his territory, those kids were of no interest to him.

He focused again on the conversation downstairs as Grandma was asking in a worried tone: "But Anna, why place this child with me? If she has no living kin left and she's only five years old, wouldn't it be better for her to be adopted by some nice family?"

The other woman sighed, sounding frustrated. "That's exactly the problem. Summer was orphaned just six months ago, and there've already been no less than three families wanting to adopt her. She's a very pretty girl. But once the families take her home on a trial basis... Well, they never want to keep her."

"Why wouldn't they?" asked Grandma. "What was amiss with those families?"

"The problem's with the girl, Mrs. Lewis, not the families. You know how I told you earlier"—here the social worker lowered her voice—"that Summer witnessed her parents' murder? She almost shared their fate too! Well, all that left her with some very deep mental scars. Every night in her sleep, she lets out these... bloodcurdling screams, waking up everyone nearby and frightening them half to death."