Antidote Trilogy: The Complete Box Set Read online

  Antidote Trilogy

  The Complete Box Set

  By Taylor Hondos

  First box set edition published by Taylor Hondos October 2017

  Copyright © 2017 Taylor Hondos

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to similarly named places or to persons living or deceased is unintentional.

  Antidote Trilogy Table of Contents

  Antidote (Book 1)

  Prospect (Book 2)

  Corruption (Book 3)

  ANTIDOTE

  TAYLOR HONDOS

  Copyright © 2014, 2015 Taylor Hondos

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

  Cover Design by Ashley Ruggirello

  Edited by Measha Stone

  Previously published as The Antidote, Booklocker.com, 2014

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to similarly named places or to persons living or deceased is unintentional.

  Print ISBN : 978-1-927940-54-9

  EPUB ISBN : 978-1-927940-55-6

  To my family, who taught me to never give up on my dreams.

  Part One: Lena

  Prologue

  I STEPPED INTO the full auditorium. The chatter of the audience was nerve racking, even though I was used to feeling anxious when it came to dancing. It was to be my very last recital; I was going to be done with for good. I knew I would graduate from high school, but I had my mother to thank for graduating from my favorite hobby. I was a dancer from the age of eight, and danced recreationally for half my life. It felt strange to tuck that part of me away for good. My mother always inspired me to continue when I felt I would fail. My dad was great, but he worked so much. He didn’t make it to a lot of my performances, which made it even more surprising when I spotted him walking toward me with my mother. He looked a little nervous, but my mother was beaming at me. She moved swiftly toward me, even though I knew it pained her to even stand on her leg.

  “Hi, sweetie,” she said as she kissed my cheek.

  I gave my best smile through the nerves. “Hi, Mom.”

  “We’re so excited. Aren’t we?” She nudged my father, and he gave a stiff nod. My mother winced as she switched the weight off her right foot to the left. My heart sank a little.

  My mother walked with a horrible limp, which she obtained from the rotting that began from her calf and ran all the way up her thigh.

  For exactly one year, the world had lived in fear of the deadly disease Dermadecatis, or by the name most called it “The Black Sickness.”

  It caused rotting to occur and would spread rapidly throughout the body in a matter of days. The disease was completely lethal, and there was no cure. It began as a small black dot, increasing to the size of a large bruise. Some even mentioned signs of lumpy skin, but most people only got a bruise. The bruise would last a few days, and for those who got the disease, rarely did they realize it before it was too late. Max and his mother lived next door, and his mother lived just six days after the bruise was sighted. He never even looked in anyone’s direction anymore. He was afraid that if he gazed too long at anyone, they would fall victim too.

  Nobody knew how the disease spread, but my mother was convinced it was airborne. My father was convinced otherwise. He was the lead research doctor of Dermadecatis. My father’s name is Dr. Alona or to his colleagues, Sebastian Alona, and he was the first doctor to realize that something odd was happening. Isaac was the first victim of the disease. My dad discovered it in him a month before the full outbreak. After three days of tests and failed treatments, Isaac died. My father worked with many patients since then, but none of them lasted more than two weeks, except for my mother. She was diagnosed with the disease six weeks ago, and if not for my father making remedies to keep the disease at bay, she would probably have died a month ago. The rotting wouldn’t leave her leg and it was slowly spreading. Sometimes I feared I would contract the disease from her, but I never did.

  My mother was beautiful, and her eyes glistened even now. She looked tired, but she was always glowing and radiating beauty. She had blonde hair and blue eyes, but I did not favor her like I did my father, and in a way, I preferred it that way. He had brown hair and hazel eyes, which I both possessed. He never smiled, except a smug, toothless smile whenever he felt as if it was appropriate.

  Sometimes I found myself wondering what day it would be that my mother was going to leave this earth. One day, she was healthy, and the next, she was rotting from the leg down. It spread more each day, and we were afraid of what would happen to her next. My father watched her with wistful eyes, as if he knew how to help her, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. I would only have my dad if this got any worse. He was always busy in his office, trying to find the cure for this, and I feared I would be on my own. He and his partner seemed to be having a “break through” as he called it, but I was not so sure.

  “Nervous?” Mom asked in her soft tone. She tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear and held her hand on my cheek as if to examine me.

  “You’d think I’d be used to this kind of thing, but I’m not prepared for the senior slideshow.” Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to sit among my friends and burst in to tears because we all knew it would never be the same again. After all, how many times do you graduate from dance and high school? My mother smiled and nudged my cheek with her hand in encouragement.

  My dad stood awkwardly beside her. His face tightened. He seemed to be anxiously deciding in his brain the appropriate thing to say, but he just stared off into space as he often did now when his thoughts became too much. Ever since my mother got sick, he never seemed to know what he should say or do to make things better. He worked diligently to find a cure. He loved her, and it was apparent. He had a troubled look in his eyes every time he gave her one of his new remedies.

  “Dad, are you okay? You look really worried. Did you miss work for me? You can go back. Really, it’s okay,” I told him. He continued to stare blankly until he finally registered what I had said. I felt embarrassed for disturbing his thoughts, but I didn’t want him to be there if he was uncomfortable.

  “Everything is fine, Lena.” He kissed the top of my head. “I’ve been saving this for the right time, and this seems like the perfect time for your graduation gift. It’s not much, and your real gifts are coming, I promise,” he added gingerly with a smile. He held out a white box, and I took it in my hands. I opened it, and inside held a beautiful necklace that held a large, golden key. On top of the key, there were circles enclosing a diamond heart. I looked at him in surprise and felt the grin spreading across my face. “I know it isn’t much, but I want you to wear it. One day you might see the true beauty within it. Just like you’ll find in yourself one day. You hold the key to your happiness, and this is just a reminder.” He held his breath as if he wanted to cry, and I felt my breath catch as well. He cleared his throat and continued. “But enough with this. I miss this stuff a lot, and I want to be here for this. Go get ready and we’ll be watching you. We love you.” He put the necklace on me in one
swift movement, and my heart fluttered. I looked down at it and smiled. He kissed my head again. I stretched around and held him in a tight embrace as my mother clasped her hands together, smiling brightly. We pulled apart, and my father smiled. He held my gaze longer than normal.

  “Go, get ready, darling. We love you,” my mom said softly. She looked into my eyes. “You mean the world to me, Lena, and always remember that.”

  My mom blew a kiss to me, and I was oddly panicked as they walked away. My dad didn’t seem right. I caught sight of my mom ducking her head as my dad shielded her from my view. But I could still see, and her face was full of terror.

  Before I had time to think, I was being rushed to the dressing room. My opening number was first up, and we all had to be ready in five minutes. Thank God I was already dressed and ready for the dance. My hands shook, and it wasn’t from nerves anymore. What if this was what my father had warned us about?

  My dance team and I walked onto stage and we faced the back wall with our backs to the curtains. My best friend, Kaley, looked over to me. She mouthed quickly, Are you okay? and I stiffly nodded. The curtains rolled up, and I put on the fakest smile I could muster as the lights beamed on my back. The music began, and suddenly everything went silent and the auditorium went black as night. There was a wave of movement and panicked shouts. A piercing scream came from the center of the auditorium.

  There was uproar, but through the screams, I heard my name being called over and over again. I jumped from the stairs uneasily, and broke into a run toward the voice. It was being carried from the auditorium and into the lobby.

  In the lobby, there was nothing but eerie silence. I felt around on the walls with my hands and felt dampness on my feet. Before I could panic, the lights flickered on, and I looked down to see the floor coated in blood. On it, my father stared sightlessly at the ceiling. He was already gone. I felt my heart shatter. I found my mother moving toward me on the floor. I began to sob because I knew she was going to die.

  I screamed for help, but no one seemed to hear; they just stared obliquely into the distance, as if to give me time to say goodbye. I didn’t want that so I shouted louder at them until I felt a hand on my leg. I kneeled next to my mother. She reached for me, and I took her hand. She shook her head as if to say no, it is too late. She waved me closer and began choking. I was sobbing so hard I could barely hear her.

  “Be safe, my Lena.” And then she was gone.

  I sat there, holding my mom’s hand. I didn’t know what was going on around me; I didn’t care. Finally, someone grabbed me and dragged me from the lobby, leaving my family and soul behind.

  Chapter One: The Cure

  THE SUN BEAMED in on my bed as I stiffly moved my arm over my forehead. I squinted up and saw blurry dots as I slowly opened my eyes wider. I gasped for air and felt hot tears rushing down my face as I remembered the dream. The day of my mother and father’s deaths always haunted my dreams. I sat up slowly as I reached for my necklace and grasped it tightly. My last gift from my father, and I wore it every day. It was a comfort to hold it in my hands.

  I had no one to count on; my parents hadn’t kept in touch with any family members after they married. It was just me, with the memories of my family, alone in a big house. I was an only child, but at times like this, I always wished that I had someone to mourn with. As time moved on, you heal. Not always fast, but you heal. I healed alone and without the help of others. That made things harder.

  As the months went on, people changed. It was no longer foreign when students went missing from school. Parents built safe houses for themselves and their children, so they would not get the disease. I knew if my family was still whole, I would be hidden away too. My parents had decided to move away to a safe house two weeks before they died. I didn’t know where they had planned to take me, so there I was. Some students were taken out of school, but for me, I didn’t see the point of college when my parents were dead and the world was soon to follow. The world was pure madness, but I was inside my own personal hell to notice the damage outside.

  I sat staring at the wall, as I often did after the reoccurring dream of their death. I stiffly got up and walked through the empty house. I was old enough to live alone, and I didn’t want anyone’s company. This way, I didn’t have to be close to anyone, because when they died, I knew I would feel this pain again.

  For a while, I didn’t speak to anyone. I never opened the door when people brought me things as I grieved. I always believed the disease was contracted from human contact, but I knew better now. I didn’t know how people had gotten the disease, but I did know that it started here in my town with Isaac. My father told me many things about the disease, but I tried not to think back to them too much because each memory was clouded with sadness. Eventually I spoke to Kaley. Kaley let me take my time, and I was grateful for that. She was there the day my parents died six months ago, hugging me until the paramedics took them away. She’d been there for me ever since. Thankfully, she stayed in town and went to the beauty school down the street. She understood me and knew that it wasn’t easy to get over death. Her father had died when she was nine, and she didn’t look at me sad and miserable like most people did.

  People were afraid of me. Many people turned their heads whenever they saw me at the grocery store, which was the only time I ever went outside. Many of my friends lost all communications with me as soon as my parents died. Maybe they thought they could catch the disease through the phone or by holding their stare too long with me.

  Masks were mandatory out in public; I saw this in the newspaper, and wore one when I went shopping. Since we didn’t know how the disease was spread, another unspoken rule was no human contact involving touch. We were all so paranoid, it seemed as if we never wanted to come with in two feet of each other.

  Once while I was shopping, a man fell to his knees, screaming when he discovered his daughter had a bruise forming on her leg. He knew it wasn’t just any old scrape of the knee, because the lump underneath it told its own story. I watched as a sound blared through the store. Red lights flicked on and off as officials took the little girl from her father. Screaming all the way out of the store as she was taken to the hospital.

  I stopped watching the news, so I didn’t know what the death toll was anymore, but fear was spreading.

  Ding-dong, I didn’t even have to wonder who it was. Sometimes I didn’t answer when it rang, but that never bothered Kaley. She would just climb through the window. I spent most of my time in my room, or in my father’s office. At first, I stayed away from his office, but eventually I saw no reason in hiding from it. He called it a lab, but to me, it was nothing more than a lounge area.

  I opened the door and my best friend walked in freely. Her red flaming hair was pulled back into a ponytail. Her freckles made her appear younger than her eighteen years. She was tall and slender with blue eyes that I had always envied next to my hazel ones.

  “Well, someone decided to actually move today.” She smiled sharply at me. “Get ready.” She threw a leather jacket onto the couch. “You’re in for a party. The whole town will be there, and you need a boy.” She looked me up and down judgmentally. “Definitely.”

  I groaned. “I don’t need a boy, nor do I need to go to a party. I’m not feeling up to it. I don’t want to be around them, anyway. Nobody is cautious and it’s ridiculous.” I flopped down onto the couch, sounding like my mother once did. That stung.

  “Honey, you need a pick me up. Plus, it’s a big, big day. You won’t believe what‘s going on!” She hesitated and was annoyed when I didn’t ask her to clarify, so she continued. “Just go for me then, you can help me find a guy.”

  “What happened to Riley, or Greg, or Joseph?” I muttered without expecting an answer. She answered anyway. “Oh, they were just boy toys. You know how that goes.” She hesitated, “Well, don’t you want to know what today is all about?” She tried again.

  I was not up for her tricks, so I decided to ask, only to plea
se her.

  “I’m so glad you asked,” she smirked rudely, “the whole town will be in the square because they’ve found a cure!” She squealed.

  “A cure, or the cure?” I asked sarcastically. “Don’t look at me that way,” I remarked at her look of disappointment. “You don’t honestly believe they’ve found a cure.” How could they? My father wasn’t alive to have found the cure.

  “Lena, maybe I’m wrong. Come out and let me prove it,” she said nonchalantly, but I knew her motive. I began shaking my head feverishly. “It’ll be a party, a town party. It will be so much fun, just give it a chance. What if the cure is real and solves everything. People are dying to see you.” I stared in astonishment.

  “Uh, Kaley, who would be dying to see me?” I didn’t wait for an answer. “No one. If they wanted to see me, they could come here,” I told her in defiance. I was a little curious as to how someone even found the cure, but I didn’t want to show her that I cared at all.

  “No one wants to come because you’re so grouchy,” she said as I scowled. “Come on, cheer up,” she nagged.

  I glanced at her. I didn’t want to go out, but I needed to try to keep the only friend I had. Plus, I needed to know what was going on. Had someone stolen my dad’s findings for the cure? She could tell that I was contemplating it because her face broke into a large grin. I couldn’t help but feel a little excited.

  “Fine. I think this cure thing is nonsense, but work your magic on me, Kaley. I haven’t put makeup on in about a year.” She squealed in exhilaration, and I rolled my eyes.

  ***

  We walked the two blocks to the town square, with Kaley chattering away as we walked. All of our town meetings were located there, and I hadn’t attended one in so long, I had forgotten how huge the square was. I was startled to see that the entire town was in attendance. At town meetings, not everyone was always there, like me, but for the cure everyone came out, including me.