The Color of Jade (Jade Series Book 1) Read Online Free

saw.
    “Em,” I said, she didn’t respond. “Emery,” I said again, using her full name to get her attention, “what is it?”
    She startled slightly, woken from her trance, as if I pulled her from a dark place back to the safety of the here and now. “Nothing…” Then as if nothing happened she returned to her usual chatty self. Emery’s episode left me concerned but I kept it to myself and my worry waned as the rest of the afternoon passed with nothing more out of the ordinary.
     
    I glanced at Emery, curled up to me under the blanket on the couch. Thankfully, lost in a calming sleep, her face looked relaxed without a worry. The memory of that day left me empty, lost. Her brief vacancy left me confused, and as crazy as it may seem, I wondered if she somehow felt some kind of warning.
    I let my eyes drift closed as pulled her closer to me, struggling to get past the tug of war in my heart. Torn between the guilt and a selfish wish, I hoped our day could have continued. I wished that I had detained the day, slowed its progression. I wanted somehow to make it last longer, forever. I felt torn, during those ten hours we had a calm and carefree day together. Free from worry, free from fear, free from the pain, while those same ten hours for my parents and so many others were most likely filled with anguish and suffering, the very opposite from ours.
     
    I expected to see our mom as we returned from the lake but she wasn’t home yet. Kane sat pinned to the television but stood as I walked through the kitchen.
    “Why are the sirens at the firehouse going off, Kane?” I asked, as I stumbled through the back door. They started as we rode home. I found it odd and their eerie screech annoyed me.
    Kane met me at the stairs as I headed for my room. He let Emery go upstairs but stopped me.
    “Go to bed, Em.”
    “Okay,” she replied, as her worn out body found her room. I knew she made it to her bed when I heard the old bedsprings squeak as she dropped onto it.
    “Where have you been? Where‘s Trey?”
    “We’ve been at the lake, and Trey is outside still,” I said, perplexed by his impatience.
    “Did you talk to anyone?”
    “No.”
    “Did you go in to town?” He prodded.
    “No... Kane… Why are you acting weird?”
    The already worn rug softened Kane’s steps as he paced the floor and ran his hands through his dark hair. His eyes darted with impatience around the room as his silence told me something was wrong. He walked to the back door.
    “Trey! Get in here!”
    He sounded strained and a twinge of panic set in my stomach.
    “What?” Trey asked. He gave Kane a puzzled look as he walked in with a string of twelve gutted fish ready for the freezer.
    “Come here… Watch this!”
    At first glance, the newscaster looked the same as usual, stiffly upright in his grey suit. His face caked with powder and his silver toupee slicked far to the left side, but as I watched him, I saw an underlying panic in his eyes. An unease that his staunch advertising image couldn’t mask.
    “…Four hundred and fifty dead and thousands more sick from the virus in the United States,” he said, as beads of sweat glimmered on his forehead. He pressed them with a handkerchief. The three of us sat with our eyes glued to the television. My heart sank. I became numb and only heard random bits of his voice. “Deadly outbreak… attacked quickly…hospitals…on disaster alert… mid-morning, bombarded with deathly ill people.”
    My attention turned to the clock on the kitchen wall, ten past eight. Two hours had passed.
    “Is this really happening?” I asked Kane, shocked and in disbelief. “Here?”
    “Yeah here!” Kane’s anxiety present in his sharp tone, still glued to the television. “Everywhere… Shh… Jade quiet!”
    “Kane! Mom isn’t home yet!” My mom, a nurse at the city hospital. Suddenly I worried for her to the point I felt sick. I felt my breaths quicken. Panic surged in my chest.
    Kane glanced at me