BREAKING LIMBO. By Kelly O Callan

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By Kelly O’Callan

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DEDICATION

I would like to dedicate this novel to my dear friend and editor, Nina Meditz, for without her encouragement and guidance, this book may not have come to be. And to my ever-patient and thoughtful children, Mason and Liam, thank you for giving Mom all the time she needed to make her dream a reality.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank all my friends and family members who supported me on this journey (you know who you are) with particular thanks to Nina Meditz, my wonderful editor, and to Lorna Everson and Brandi Shaw for being my beta readers. Special thanks also goes to the members of Fiction Writers Group, as I have learned invaluable lessons with regards to our craft and publication.

And last but not least, a big heartfelt thank you to Mom. So glad you are able to read this.

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PROLOGUE

S

he found herself, once again, running feverishly through the fields

of bright colored wheat; the warm sun burning sweetly upon her delicate face and bare upper chest. This time was it. She could see so much better now. She would find him. The joy in her expectations pulsed, creating a soft glow that illuminated around her. Her swift toes intertwined with fresh blades of grass as her denim blue eyes calculated everything within view. She wanted to call out for him, but her gasping breaths would not allow. She did not know how long she had been running or how vast these fields would be. She ceased her fervor and stilled her feet within a large clearing to catch her breath.

“Oskar! Oskar! Are you near?”

She paused and waited for Oskar to appear, telling herself he was most likely hiding close by waiting to jump out and scare her. He was a prankster like that. She tried desperately not to let her thoughts turn to the negativity of despair. To do so would risk sabotaging everything she worked hard for; replenishing the amount of her karmic debt.

“Oskar! I have returned here for you, my love. Please show me that you have returned to me, my sweet!”

Silence answered her call and she could not help but feel despair, once again, welling up in her heart. After all, her senses told her Oskar was not near. She fell to the ground -both angry and exhausted- and wept openly as she pounded her fists to the ground beneath her, crying out in confusion.

“Why, my Lord? Why, my Lord? Why have you abandoned me and my righteous desires?”A thunderous voice came to her. “Maree, my dearest Maree. Abandon you I shall never do. I am here with you.”

“What about Oskar, my beloved? You promised me we would be together again this time. I’ve paid my karmic debt in full. Why is he not here joining me in the fields?”

“You are not quite ready yet, my child. There is but one more quest you must do in order to receive your rewards in my kingdom.”

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Maree let out a mournful sigh. “Another? But, Lord, you promised me there would be no more lifetimes on that hellish Earth after I completed my last one. You told me that my karmic debt would be paid in full! Why then, my dearest Father, would you assign me another?”

The voice smoothed. “Maree, your debt is fully paid and I shall not be sending you back to Earth. My word to you shall be kept. In paying off all your debt, you acquired many spiritual treasures. So much so, they need to be shared with the spiritually poor.”

Maree wept. “I don’t understand, Lord. If I have done so well as to be spiritually rich, why not reward me with my beloved instead of punishing me with further separation? I would gladly give all those gifts away just to be with my beloved. All of them.”

Suddenly, a familiar darkness clouded over her left eye as she heard the response, “You must use them. Or, you will lose him....”

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CHAPTER ONE

Earth --- Chicago, Illinois Year 2012

H

e smiled. A rare occurrence, but he was excited today would be the

day. The tall, lanky, freckled teen did his fifth and final examination of the knot, crafted from rope confiscated from his father’s boat that was stored in the shed. The boy was proud of the solid knot he meticulously created and, in that moment, was grateful for the years of humiliation he put up with in the boy scouts in order to learn this needed skill. He relished the thought of not having to awaken and live through another day in a world where a boy was repeatedly teased for just having pale skin and red hair.

Standing naked before a full-length mirror, he took a final look at himself, staring carefully at the definition and markings of his body. He saw paste-colored skin covered with a countless number of orange dots, a scrawny build with no muscle tone, and a few red hairs that sprouted in the middle of his chest that matched the bright color on his head. He did not want this body, it disgusted him, and the only way to escape it would be to destroy it. He felt certain his mother would be distraught over his leaving, but reasoned to himself that she was partially to blame. After all, he had inherited her poor looks, and more than likely was also burdened with Asperger’s syndrome due to her below average intellect. For, it was nothing short of imbecilic to name her son Garrett, when the color of his hair matched that of a carrot.

An unexpected knock came to his bedroom door, followed by a familiar, high-pitched female voice. “Garrett! Jacob is downstairs in the living room for you.”

“What??” Garrett yelped, while glancing at the watch on his dresser. “He’s over an hour early! I’m not even dressed yet, Mom.”

“Well, then get dressed and come downstairs. Or, would you rather I send him up to your room?”

Garrett gasped, looking at the thick rope and neatly lain out clothes upon his bed. “No! Tell him I’ll be down in a few minutes.”

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He walked over to his closet and pulled out his maroon and bright canary yellow band uniform. He told himself that it wouldn’t be all that bad to attend one more game. And tonight was a big match up, Lincoln Park Lions against the Bogan Bengals. After this game, he would be free of all distractions and interruptions.

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JT stumbled through endless piles of scattered trash trying his best not to arouse his father. The sloven man’s bedraggled body was lying facedown into the couch and he was snoring as loud as a rusty chain saw. The stench of urine was particularly pungent this evening in their broken-down mobile home, so JT knew that to awaken the old man would be guaranteeing another ridiculously violent fight.

JT reached his bedroom and combed through his middle dresser drawer where he kept his Parliaments hidden.

“Fuck!!” he grunted, when the cigarette box was nowhere to be found.

He showered and put on his football uniform.

“Got a game tonight?,” his father’s deep, gravelly voice slurred by his bedroom door.

JT looked up from tying his cleats, pushing aside a lock of dark hair that hung just below his eyes. “Yeah.”

The middle-aged man, wearing a tattered flannel shirt, leaned in closer, releasing a stench of body odor and alcohol into the room. “Who ya playin’?”

JT sighed, hesitant to answer. “Bogan.”

The pot-bellied man, covered in filth and a five o'clock shadow, laughed at his son, which sent him into a gruesome coughing fit. He shook his head.

“Bogan. Fuckin’ Bogan it is. And when the hell were you gonna tell me? Isn’t your Pop invited?”

JT could feel the blood rush to his head as he gathered the remainder of his gear. “I would have told you, but you were sleeping.”

“That’s bullshit,” his father snapped. “You didn’t have any goddamn intention of telling me anything, boy.”

The medium-built teen swallowed down his mounting anger. “Please, Dad, now is not a good time. It’s a big game for us tonight.

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Tonight’s a big deal.”

“Yeah and you don’t want your old man a part of it!” his father countered, eyelids heavy with whiskey. “If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have this game to play! If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have anything! I bust my ass to keep a roof over your head and pay for all your friggin’ sports equipment and you’re not even gonna tell me you have a game or thank me for all the hard work I do for you? What kind of piece of shit son are you??”

JT tossed a bulky backpack over his shoulder and headed to the doorway where his father’s repulsive sweat, booze, and urine-soaked body stood.

“Outta my way, Dad.”

A dark, smoldering look drew itself onto his father’s face with a pair of hooded eyes that shot daggers. He stood stone-like within the doorway. JT looked into his father’s unyielding eyes and spoke with a raised, firmer, voice. “I said outta my way, Old Man.”

His father’s lips curled to form a devious smile.

“Fuck you. You little prick, bastard,” he growled icily, spitting in JT’s face.

JT’s breath quickened and he reacted by shoving his father from the doorway. The drunkard tottered to his left and grasped onto his son’s arm in an effort to prevent falling, then furthered his response with a firm right hook to JT’s left temple. The boy crashed to the floor, but not before raising his arms to cushion his fall. He shook off the initial pain and dizziness of the blow ,quickly rose to his feet, and fled out of the house in an effort to avoid any further confrontations. The cops had already given him too many warnings. JT’s girl, Melody, was waiting alongside the yard fence for him to come out. He grabbed her hand and told her to run.

The drunkard flung open the frayed screen door.

“That’s right, you piece of shit! You better run!!! And don’t you ever come back here 'cause I don’t want to ever see your face again! Your own mother didn’t want you and I sure as hell don’t want you either!! You’re no son of mine. You’re dead to me, boy! You hear me?? DEAD!!!”

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Tyler? He’ll need some veggies in him if he wants to do a good job tonight.”

“Oh, the heck with the veggies,” teased the handsome, middle-aged man to his wife. “Tyler is the star quarterback on his team. It’s steak this young man should be eating. Emma, pass your brother some more meat.”

The athletic, dirty blond boy with Hollywood good looks and a soft cleft chin shook his head. “If you want to see me play well tonight, I’ll need to go easy on the eating and increase my drinking.”

He flashed his younger sister a teasing smile. “So, Emma, please pass me down the iced-tea.”

The fourteen year-old blond giggled with reserve as she reached for the pitcher of home-brewed tea. “Make up your minds, please!”

Tyler’s father dipped his fork into his gravy-smothered potatoes. “Speaking of making up your mind, election day is only a few days away. Have you decided who you are voting for, Tyler?”

Tyler sighed as he sank back into his chair. “Don’t know yet, Dad. This is the first presidential election I get to cast my vote in and I am not feeling strongly for either candidate. I’ll have to do some more research on them because come election day, I want to be sure I make the right choice.”

Mr. Johnston wiped the droplets of gravy from the corner of his mouth. “Well, I have no doubt on my end that my vote will be cast for Romney. Your mother, on the other hand, is going for Obama....”

“That’s right!” the woman of the house interjected.

Tyler ran his fingers through his thick, sandy-colored hair and snickered. “I don’t know what it is with me. I’m not seeing what either of you are seeing. I’m not swaying to either side. I’m totally lost on this one.”

Tyler’s mother gently placed her hand on his arm. “Tyler, you’re wrong. You aren’t lost. I’m sure you can see both sides very well and that is why you are confused. You were always good at being analytical and have been careful about the choices you make. This is why I know you’ll be great at Criminal Law and make an excellent judge one day. I’m sure, in the end, you’ll choose the right one.”

Tyler’s father smirked. “With politicians, there never is a

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right one. Just a better one. And the better one this time around is Romney.”

The family chuckled in unison.

“But don’t boggle your mind with that election stuff now, Son,” Mr. Johnston continued. “You got bigger decisions to make tonight. Quarterback decisions to make.”

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CHAPTER TWO

DESTARIS

S

he awoke in her new being, immediately sensing less ambiguity

than with her previous selves. Her role as an intermediary between Heaven and Hell was understood. She would be unbiased to either side, as she was equally and pristinely created from both good and evil.

Maree marveled the surroundings of her new realm. Colors and forces much greater than the Earth, yet devoid of the total ecstasies of Heaven or horrors of Hell. The terrain which she now occupied looked very similar to a rainforest, abundant with lush greenery and small creatures scrambling about. Her eyes locked upon a robust, multi-tonal grey set of mountains, until the sound of a whispering stream crept into her ears. She stepped towards the mirrored pool of water as curiosity burned within her to catch that first glimpse of her reincarnated self. She rested small feet upon the smooth, moss-covered stone along the brook’s edge and gazed upon

her reflection. Maree

noticed her face and body were much like her former selves, a petite frame with porcelain skin and delicate hands. Her face was angelic, heart-shaped, and sweetly expressive with a gap-toothed grin. Her eyes, which were previously a deep speckled denim blue, now were antipodean; the right eye a brilliantly bright sky blue that is able to see the good in others, and the left an ominous black that detected the evil. She pressed her hands into her small,

thin lipped mouth, then ran her sinewy fingers over her chiseled nose that turned up at the tip. She ended her hands' journey atop her head. Her hair was pixie short with a pure white snow color on the right half and a black as tar color on the left. Maree continued to stare, her eyes shining with pleasure, as she immersed herself in getting to know her new body and the powers it held from within. She noticed soft wrinkling at the corners of her eyes and cackled haughtily at the mature image her face possessed.

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“Hmmmm... matronly. How clever," she thought.

When she tired of examining herself, Maree decided to seek the other life forces she felt present in the realm; a realm she knew was named Destaris. She would be queen of this kingdom, but also knew she would need to put her own desires on hold and keep them a secret if they ever were to be fulfilled. She was here for the others, the powerful life forces who pulled her deep into the forest in which she had awakened. They have been waiting for her to aide them through their journey in this domain and help them crossover into the next.

She came upon a clearing. The glow of several cocooned beings appeared through a dark haze; their flow of living energy had been frozen during their captivity. Now that Maree had arrived, the life forces would be released from their paralyzed state. The combined energy fields of both shemaa, the good energy, and navarrha , the evil energy, began to emanate from the cocoons. The process of awakening had begun.

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CHAPTER THREE

Chicago, Illinois --- Earth

B

efore its wheels rolled out of the parking lot, the bus carrying members of Lincoln High School’s band, football team, and cheerleading squad was abuzz with excitement. Garrett sat towards the back, squatting as low into his seat as his towering body would allow, and peered insipidly out the window to avoid any eye contact. Occasionally, he would hear someone from the front yell, “Hey, it’s Garret the walking carrot!” instantly followed by several merciless guffaws. The teasing continued, with the same boy yelling out, “Hey, Carrot Halthwaite! You sure you’re on the right bus? Since you are a vegetable, shouldn’t you be riding on the produce truck??”

An enraged voice roared from behind, “Yo up there!! Shut the fuck up with those carrot cracks before I shove a bunch of them back down your throat!!!”

Garrett blinked with surprise and shifted his body ever so slightly so as to subtly peek behind him, and discovered the owner of the growling voice. It was JT Robbins.

“Thanks,” Garrett mumbled with trepidation.

JT’s eyes narrowed with disgust and he flashed a cocky smile. “No need to thank me, dude. I didn’t speak up outta respect for you. His big mouth was annoying my girl,” he remarked as he nodded his head towards the petite blonde sitting beside him. “And I can’t stand loud-mouthed assholes.”

Garrett’s body stiffened in apprehension and his lips formed to let out a mute “Oh.” The small hairs on his back began to stir and he slowly turned forward and sank back deeper into his seat.

The doors to the bus closed and the gear shifted into drive when a young girl’s voice shrieked “Wait!!! You can’t leave without Tyler! He is running towards the bus now!”

The driver applied the brakes to the barely moving vehicle and re-opened the doors.

“Sorry,” said the team’s star quarterback as he hopped on, “Forgot my helmet.”

He wobbled his way through the aisle and sat in the seat in

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front of Garrett, next to Claudia, the prettiest girl on the cheerleader’s squad. Garrett had often wondered what it was like to look into the eyes of someone as beautiful as Claudia. He swallowed dryly at the thought of what gazing into her grey eyes would be like and did his best to ignore the annoying humming from his bandmate, Jacob, who sat beside him.

The bus pulled out of the parking lot and made its way onto the highway. A slight mist of rain formed the tiniest droplets onto the windows and several moans of disappointment flowed from the vehicle’s passengers.

“C’mon, guys! It's just a little rain,” Tyler announced. “We won’t let it interfere with how awesome we’re going to play ball tonight, will we?”

“No!!!” the teens roared back with good cheer.

“I’m freezing,” Garrett overheard Claudia tell Tyler. Tyler leaned in close and put his arm around her in comfort.

Garrett then imagined what it would be like to be Tyler. Handsome, well-liked, articulate, and the boyfriend of an amazing girl. He then began to wonder what it would be like to lean in and kiss her candy jeweled lips... but his thoughts were interrupted by the screech of the bus' brakes and dozens of alarming screams. In a flash, the bus flipped over onto its side, followed by a loud crashing sound, and then everything went black.

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Flashes. Lucid flashes. Vivid images. A pulling sensation. A feeling of being vacuumed in a tunnel. Tyler was confused, yet felt oddly at peace as he zoomed weightlessly through the channel of his life experiences. He saw everything... from the moment of his birth until now... through the flashes of lucid images. His first steps, past Christmas’s, playing poker with Uncle Earl, Grandma Johnston’s funeral... and everything in between. He relived it all, through this emotional journey of the soul, until a bright light flashed before him.