Excerpt from THE STARS IN THEIR EYES. Copyright © 2022 by Kristy Gardner with permission from City Owl Press
As books piled off shelves, and the meager amount of dishes they owned smashed onto the kitchen floor, sending shards of razor-sharp glass throughout the apartment, Calay had grasped for Tess. The bed rolled on its side, sending the two lovers onto the floor, clinging to each other with their eyes sealed tight. Furniture tumbled around them. They screamed, but beneath the noise of bursting pipes, breaking gas lines, and layers upon layers of crumbling drywall, their cries went unheard.
“Tess?” Calay choked out, her hands feeling their way through the chaos, “Tess!”
No reply. Panic rose in her throat once again. “TESS!” She slid from beneath fragments of their splintered dresser and pulled herself up on the plasterboard that used to be their bedroom wall.
“What the fuck is happening?”
Surveying the apartment that was no longer an apartment, she coughed and choked back a sob. Beams of morning light fought through the wreckage, casting shadows over what was left of their home and deep within her mind. If anything has happened to Tess–she pushed the thoughts out of her mind and blinked back tears. Tess had to be there somewhere. She didn’t know much, but she knew at least the room had stopped moving.
“Tess!” she tried again. Silence. A whimper crawled up her throat.
“Cay…Cal…Calay,” Tess stuttered from somewhere in the dust, “I…I’m stuck.”
“Tess, where are you?” Calay’s hands flew over the debris, desperate for any sign of movement.
“Tess! Say something!”
“I’m over here.” The sound of Tess’s labored breathing filled Calay’s ears, but she saw nothing.
“Where? I can’t tell where you are. Keep talking!”
“I think…there’s something on top of me. I think I’m under the mattress.”
Her head dizzy from the fall, Calay spied the mattress across the room. She gripped what she could to keep herself upright—jagged pieces of the snapped bedframe, the edge of her sanity—and stumbled toward it.
“Tess! Tess, I’m here.” Calay bent to find Tess pinned beneath what was left of their bed.
“You’ll have to lift it, Cay. I can’t.”
“It won’t budge!” Calay looked around, confused. “Why is it so fucking heavy?”
Then she realized the television and the rest of the dresser were on top of it.
“Um, hang on Tess, I gotta move this shit off to get ya out.” Calay hesitated, swallowed hard. She was desperate to know but terrified to find out the answer, still, she asked, “Are you okay?”
“I think so. My arm hurts. I think I banged it.” “Is it broken?” “No, I don’t think it’s broken.”
“Are you bleeding?”
“No, no I don’t think so. Are you okay?” Tess’s voice raised several octaves. She reached for Calay’s face, her fingers marred and covered with dirt. Calay grasped her fingers and held them to her cheek.
“Yeah. I hit my head, but I think I’m fine. It’s a good thing the mattress is on you.” She stopped short of what she was about to say as she peered at the sharp, splintered wood. She didn’t want to think what would have happened to Tess if the mattress hadn’t landed on her first.
Slowly, Calay pried enough of the weight off the mattress and Tess wiggled free.
They fell into each other’s arms.
“My darling, are you alright?” Tess cooed.
“I’m fine. I’m fine. Are you?” Tess’s hands shot to Calay’s face again, brushing her hair out of her eyes, examining her head.
“Seriously, I’m fine. Just a little concussed. I’m sure the hospital will fix me right up.”
Tess’s eyes pleaded with Calay, but Calay shook her head and forced a smile.
“What the hell just happened?” Calay asked, redirecting Tess’s attention to the disaster in front of them.
“I don’t know. I think…I think the building collapsed.”
“We have to get out of here.” Calay reached into the dresser, pulled out a couple t-shirts, and handed them to Tess.
“Here?”
Calay shrugged. “Where else?”
Tess nodded; her blue eyes sunken behind a curtain of shock. Calay knew the look well—she was feeling the same way herself.
“Right,” she replied.
“Right,” Calay agreed.
There, in the ruins of what had been their home, Calay and Tess got dressed together in their bedroom for the last time.
“You ready?”
Tess nodded, still shaking as she tried to tie the laces on her sneakers.
“Let me help you.” Calay bent, finishing the loops for her. “There. Like new.”
She looked up from Tess’s feet, their gazes meeting. Calay tried to hide the fear behind her eyes but failed. They both did. Seeing Tess this way made Calay’s heart ache. But there wasn’t much she could do about it now. All she could do was try to get them to safety.
“Which way?” Tess asked.
Calay looked around, her lips pressed firmly together. She took Tess’s trembling hand. They both swallowed hard. And began to make their way toward the light.
THE STARS IN THEIR EYES by Kristy Gardner
The stakes were clear after the Change – survive together, or die. Calay and Tess’s love has kept them alive four years after the aliens decimated Earth. But when Calay finds herself fighting for her life and Tess missing, she hears death knocking. She only has one choice: she must find Tess. Reluctantly, Calay braves the new nightmares of a ravaged Pacific Northwest, alone. Thrust into the darkness, she is haunted by horrors beyond her imagination — alien executioners, a mysterious man whom she can’t quite put her finger on, the rise of a sinister cult, and a shocking family secret that challenges everything she thinks she knows. As the lines between good and evil blur, Calay’s desperation threatens to spill what’s left of her humanity. As she’s pulled deeper into the madness of a world that has become kill or be killed, Calay realizes she must deny her feral instincts and resist becoming a monster herself. That means confronting her demons as she stares down the barrel of a terrifying truth: she may actually be forever alone. Time is running out and she knows it. Her only hope is to become who she is truly meant to be and unify with the love of her life once and for all. But, at what cost? To survive, Calay must choose between the unthinkable: give up, or give ‘em hell.
Romance Science Fiction | Romance LGBTQ [City Owl Press, On Sale: October 18, 2022, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781648981944 / eISBN: 2940166435828]
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About Kristy Gardner
Kristy Gardner is a writer, photographer, and designer. She regularly creates cocktail recipes for Edible Vancouver and is active in the blogosphere, presenting at The Food Blogger’s Online Summit. You can check out her blog, website, and catch her on social media. Gardner lives and works in Vancouver, Canada.
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