Monday, October 8, 2012

Dark Dreams ... Excerpt #4

Another brief excerpt from our entry into the Harlequin 2012 So You Think You Can Write contest, Children of Sheol: Dark Dreams, by Dawn Treadway and Aaron Speca.  If you enjoy this, then go to the link at the end of the excerpt, read the entire first chapter, and give us a vote!  Every day from today through October 11th!  There are still 3 days of voting left!

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 Then a high, whiny voice spoke in English.  “How is it you know Nias, what business does he have with you human?”
 Fuck, fuck, fuck, did it just say human like it wasn’t one?  She just wanted to go back home.  She wanted to wake up from this whole nightmare.  She began crying again, she couldn’t breathe right.  The chains were too tight and she couldn’t catch her breath.
 She was screaming again!
 “Stop!”  It slapped her again, hard. “What is your business with Nias, answer me or I will not continue to be so kind,” it whined in a macabre singsong manner.
 For some inexplicable reason, she felt compelled to lie.  “I don’t know who that is!  I have no idea who…what do you want from me?” she managed to choke out through the blood running from her mouth, in her breathless state. 
 It tore through her shirt with razor sharp claws, drawing down her chest, diagonally over her breast, across the chains, ripping across her stomach.  She cried out then bit her bleeding lip.  The claws made a scratching noise as they pulled over the last of her bindings.  Sharp pains were now emanating from her torso in concert with the continued pulsing in the back of her skull.
“Do not lie to me, I saw you transcend in with him!  You were in his home; I saw you converse, what did you discuss?”
Her vision was hazy and she wasn’t sure what she should say.  She really didn’t want to make it angrier, but she had the feeling that giving it too much information was definitely a bad idea.  Actually, she couldn’t think of a good idea at all.  For the second time in a day, she was sure she was going to die.
 “Speak!”  It ran one of its razors slowly down her arm.  
 It was horrifying, but the feeling of being trapped and powerless over the situation was starting to make her angry despite her terror.  She clenched her teeth, and began to struggle again but this time with fury.  She shoved aside the pain and pushed back at it with her mind, grabbing its emotions within its head and twisting them.  She attached herself to the darkness within it and it consumed her; she knew it would, she also knew somehow it would only last until she gained control. 
 When changing, or altering really, someone’s emotional state she used the opposite emotion to push it out.  It was something she rarely had attempted, and her success varied.  It depended a lot on how in touch with the emotion she could get, and how strong the emotion in the target was.  Although the utter darkness and pure hatred was heavy and difficult to move, she found its self-doubt and the thing allowed her manipulate it; at least, she thought, enough to get it to stop injuring her.  She tried her best to channel pleasure until she could feel its hate dissipate, if only slightly.  At the moment, she was finding it quite hard to find any pleasant images to pull from.  She only wished that hate could move hate.  She was feeling plenty of that and channeling it could have knocked the fucking thing on its putrid ass.  
Jade thought she would try to manipulate it into letting her go.  She tried to speak evenly.  “I was taken by the man you’re referring to, but I’m not sure how.”  The best lies are always the ones that contain at least minimal truth.  “I have no idea what he wanted from me.  What is it you want from me?”  Her anger and pain were starting to make her breathless. 
 “I need to know what the Djinn are planning.  They are a bad lot.  They hurt people, did you know this?”  It continued in its high-pitched unholy melody.  She could sense immediately it was lying to her but decided to play along.  Her headache was starting to subside and she was beginning to gain even more mental control.
 “I didn’t, but I knew when he abducted me that he had bad intentions, I was afraid for my life.”  Yeah, does this stupid thing not get that I am afraid for my life now? 
 “Yesss,” it hissed, “you were right to fear for your safety, you are much safer now.” 
 Really?  Did it really just rip its claws through my body and tell me I was safe?  If she had any small measure of doubt about it, it was certainly gone now.  She had to get out of here.  The pain in her head was abating rapidly, but it was starting to swim now, probably from blood loss.

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If you like what you are reading, then please go check out Chapter 1 here!  If you still like it, then give us a vote!  Thanks!


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