Coalescence (Camden Investigations Book 1) Read Online Free

reality? If so,
she shouldn’t be too hard on it. She had already taken out way too much anguish
on her sister, Iris. Still, she couldn’t be sure whom the inner voice belonged
to. DJ even entertained the idea she might be psychically tethered to her
sister at the moment.
    DJ believed Iris prayed every minute of every day that
she could have interfered with the course of fate three months back. Often, the
sisters shared the same thoughts, possibly a form of telepathy. It meant Iris,
a psychic, might even be behind all of this. The possibility of having your
psychic sister in your mind wasn’t evil or even bad. It was just a cry in the
dark. DJ understood all too well the pang of guilt Iris lived with everyday.
Iris could have altered reality by simply sticking to plan. Iris had offered to
drive her and Mom to the mall. If Iris had been driving, maybe there would have
a minute or two lag in their time of departure. Iris was usually late.
Consequently, the small animal maneuvering across the road might have already
passed. The blue Chevy would not have veered to miss it, causing its driver to
lose control and allow the vehicle to steer itself into a tree.
    A different outcome sounded tempting. One that would
alleviate all the guilt, the physical suffering, the anguish of losing a
parent, and most of all, the post-mortem visitations. DJ never wished for one
conversation with her dead mother. It just happened because she was a medium.
She couldn’t pick and choose who would and wouldn’t visit her. But while less
gifted people might pine for such a visit from a loved one, DJ Camden abhorred
it. Because it brought back the fact, her mother was gone from this reality.
That fact hit home with each and every visitation.

 
    DJ listened to the wind whistle through the trees. Her
passenger window was all the way down. Her hair blew this way and that. Her
senses were so alive they distracted her from the rest of reality. Her phone
pinged. She ignored it. Distracted  . . .
    “Aren’t you going to get that?” Mom said, glancing away
from the roadway to observe her youngest daughter.
    “No. It’s probably just Iris. And I don’t think I should
answer it. If she doesn’t agree with our décor choices she should have come
with us.”
    “I’m sure Iris will favor whatever style of couch you
choose.”

 
    DJ’s eyes grew wide. She was living a previous moment.
This was how the accident happened. Whether she was living reality via dream
was debatable. But she was certain she was experiencing déjà vu. The brain fog
washed away in sun glare. This was the beginning of the end of her childhood.

 
    Mom returned her eyes to the road but squinted because
the sun was beaming directly at them. The momentary lapse in visibility
prevented her from seeing the animal crossing the roadway in time to stop.
Instead, aware she had insufficient time to brake, Mom steered the vehicle
away, a sharp left. It took the car across the oncoming lane and into a tree.

 
    Police estimated a speed of more than 30 mph. Fast enough
to make airbags deploy, hard enough to allow the car to bounce off the tree and
return to the roadway. They should have been all right if not for the driver
who also traveled in their eastbound direction. He had been blinded from sun
glare as well, he told the investigators. His car struck the driver’s side door
of the blue Chevy, its deployed airbag no match for a second impact. Mom died
instantly, a coroner had said. The left half of her face unrecognizable as it
lay on an autopsy table a day after the accident. Iris had begged DJ not to
visit the body until it could be reconstructed for viewing at a wake. She
should have listened. Maybe Mom wouldn’t have been so insistent on coming back
if she hadn’t appeared so devastated. Now things synched up, reality and dream
state were one.
    DJ tossed the covers off her, coming to grips with the
fact reality could not be altered. The past moments were a mere replay of a