Harper Kingsley

Title: Scumbag Billionaire

Author: Harper Kingsley

Story Landing Page: https://kimichee.com/novel-scumbag-billionaire

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He was sunburnt and thirsty. He was worried he was going to die from sun sickness and was waiting for the fever to set in.

In the meanwhile he had to figure out how he was going to boil water. The last thing he needed on top of everything else was a parasitic infection. Even if he wanted nothing more than to shove his face in the mud and slurp up any bit of moisture he could reach.

Using his stick, he levered himself to his feet and ignored the momentary blackness that crossed his vision. He just took a deep breath and held still for a moment, then went to gather wood.

Once he had something to boil water in, he was going to need fire to heat it. Which meant figuring out how to get a fire started.

He had a vague idea of how rubbing sticks together could strike a spark but he had no practical knowledge. When he’d gone camping with friends in the past, they’d had lighters and prepared wood that only needed contact with a single flame to burn for half an hour.

It had been so easy and he’d never thought he’d need to know how to make a fire without a fire starter, but here he was: Naked on a deserted island.

Regrets about shoulda-coulda-wouldas had pretty much become the background music of his life, and he was hearing that old familiar tune playing once again. But how could he know he would end up in a place like this? He’d never even been on a cruise before!

The closest thing he’d come to an “ocean voyage” was occasionally riding on a ferryboat. He’d never been out of sight of the … Read the rest “NOVEL: Scumbag Billionaire 006”

Title: Scumbag Billionaire

Author: Harper Kingsley

Story Landing Page: https://kimichee.com/novel-scumbag-billionaire

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CHAPTER TWO

He was still alive a day later. He didn’t know how he had managed such a miracle, but his sheer determination and refusal to die had seen him through the night.

Parched and miserable. Sunburnt and feverish. He’d crawled for what felt like years to reach the shade. Then he’d begun to dig with his aching hands and feet, writhing against the sand until he created a groove for his body to rest.

In his mind, he had imagined that if he didn’t survive he would have dug his own grave. If anyone ever came and found him, they’d have a neatly arranged skeleton to deal with.

He wondered if museums existed in this world he’d found himself in. Imagined his remains pinned to a frame and displayed in a glass case. Idly wondered what the information plaque would say.

Ames fell into a delusion-rich state. Not quite unconsciousness, but nothing that could be described as consciousness either. He drifted in his own mind and he let it happen, relieved to escape from the screaming pain of his own skin.

The sun went down, bringing cool relief. He’d shivered through the dawn to lick the underside of nearby leaves. Ignored the pain of his tongue as he desperately consumed as much dew as he could find, dragging his body from broad-leaved plant to broad-leaved plant.

He survived the night.

Then he fought to survive his second day. Naked and without supplies. Possessing only minimal survival skills. But refusing to give up, not when he’d been given a miraculous second chance at life.

His skin was hot and tight. his lips were dry and crusty, feeling as though they would split and bleed at any moment.

Every bit … Read the rest “NOVEL: Scumbag Billionaire 005”

Title: Scumbag Billionaire
Author: Harper Kingsley
Story Landing Page: https://kimichee.com/novel-scumbag-billionaire

The agony was proof positive that he was alive. It was a good thing. That’s what he tried to get himself to believe in his lucid moments. In the brief seconds and minutes when he formed actual thoughts and didn’t simply do.

There were stretches of time when he didn’t know why he even bothered. Heartbeat upon heartbeat of time when he had no idea where or when he was, the very concepts of beach and sand and sun made meaningless and unknown by a brain that was frying inside a skull covered by hair and sunburnt scalp.

This was death and dying. A complete transcendence of being.

He was on an impossible endless journey of unmaking, and if he reached the other side he would be reforged into something new.

Or he would unravel completely. And all the bits that made him him would catch fire and melt away, leaving only carbon residue. Unrecognizable and unrecognized, lamented by no one.

He would be like a smear on a water glass: wiped away.

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Time had no meaning. There was only the distance between him and the shade.

He didn’t even know what he would do when he got there. How he would deal with his raw, burnt flesh. How he would alleviate the terrible and deadly thirst.

All he knew to do was crawl. It was endless forward momentum.

His eyes had gone dim and his ears were filled with a rushing sound that drowned out the sighs of the ocean. His heartbeat was a pendulum. A drumbeat. A vibration through his blood.

He was dying, but he was still alive. For now.

TBC…

… Read the rest “NOVEL: Scumbag Billionaire 004”

Title: Scumbag Billionaire
Author: Harper Kingsley
Story Landing Page: https://kimichee.com/novel-scumbag-billionaire

He could tell he was naked by the pain of sunburn covering his entire body. His legs screamed when he tried to move them

His entire body felt as if it were covered by a tight leather suit that was shrinking with every minute that passed. It felt as if too deep of a breath would cause his skin to split.

He couldn’t even groan. His throat was so dry it felt torn in places. He could taste the metallic flavor of blood.

Ames didn’t want to move, with how much it hurt, but he knew he had to. If he didn’t save himself, he would die here.

He didn’t have much strength and he could feel it becoming less as he lay on the sand. The energy was being sucked out of him as the sun baked him alive.

It was agony. Every move he made was like a scalpel peeling off his skin. And below the flesh was screaming nerves.

If he didn’t have the memories of the hospital, of the sickness, of the dying… he might have given up. Might have laid back down in the hopes of passing out and dying in his sleep.

But he’d died once.

And however he’d gotten to this place, he would see what happened next. He was no stranger to pain. He could take this much and more.

He just wished he didn’t have to.

It was the dream–the delusion–of a body that didn’t hurt that kept him moving. Crawling up the beach, away from the water to the tree-line and the desperate hope for shade to bring him some relief.

He crawled. And crawled. And crawled.

And he would have cried if he had tears. But he was so … Read the rest “NOVEL: Scumbag Billionaire 003”

Things I like: bacon. Bob's Burgers. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. cats. cheese. chocolate. crossword puzzles. Dredd. eggrolls. fried chicken. gochujang. Hannigram. HEAs. HFNs. jigsaw puzzles. kimchi. lo mein noodles. mushrooms. nectarines. Nintendo Switch. paperback books. pineapple. pizza. potstickers. raspberry jam. Rick and Morty. sleeping in. snickerdoodles. spaghetti. strawberries. sudoku. tacos. tomatoes. vacations. vaccinations.