Desert Rain Sneak Peek
- Jun 24, 2016
- 3 min read
The following is a sneak peek of my debut novel Desert Rain.
“When are you going to tell me how he died? Something is being held from me that I intend to find out!” I wasn’t letting Aunt V excuse herself from answering this time.
“There are jus’ some thangs ya don’ need t’ know abou’ this town, ‘specially concerning’ my husbands death.” Her stern voice brought me back to childhood when I crossed a line, but it didn’t have the same effect this time.
“Aunt Virginia, I live here now, too. I’m here to take care of you, and you repay me with lies!”
“I told ya not t’ come, don’t you pin this on me,” she said, slowly growing angry. “Now put away that nasty ol’ moonshine!”
No one in the group around us seemed to be aware of the spat taking place between my aunt and me, but knowing this town, an ear is always listening.
I looked to the door to find Eglantine with four of her… sisters? They were all dressed alike; not the old country rags the people in town wear, but long white cotton dresses. Each dress fell long against their bodies, grazing the brown sandals secured to the girls feet. The dresses had an intricate design of leaves stitched starting at the neckline and moving down, circling until it reached the bottom of the dress. Eglantine stood out with gold leaf designs while the other women displayed green. She also wore a wood crown that had leaves with multi-colored flowers.
All the women looked unusually nervous that night as they took the remaining seats at the end of the long, rustic table. Their faces were a mixture of many emotions, hard to read. Suddenly, one of the women began to cry and tried to stand. Eglantine grabbed her hand before the woman could run away, pulling her back and into a hug.
“Ethan?”
My eyes shot back to Aunt V, pushing the odd scene aside in my head.
“I’ll stop drinking when you start speaking, how’s that?” I said as I took another gulp of moonshine.
“Please, stop asking Eth-“
Suddenly, there was a loud thud against the cabin that shook the whole table, sending glasses shattering against the ground. Everyone instantly fell silent, looking down at their plates, yet no one stopped eating.
“What the hell is going on? What was that?!” I ask, sending my chair sliding back as I stood in alarm. I looked to my aunt for a response to the urgency in my voice.
“Ethan, sit down and be quiet, this is just what happens.”
“What? No, I won’t!”
“Boy, if you don’ want t’ die a bloody death as your uncle did, you best sit. Down!” She grabbed my arm with more force than I thought she had, pulling me back into my chair. Aunt V held my wrist so tight it caused a burning pain in my arm. My stomach dropped; I lost my appetite. My aunts words echoed throughout my throbbing head.
He died a bloody death?
For a second time, a loud THUD echoed in the room. It sent the old wooden door crashing to the ground, cracking as it fell. Everyone continued to eat, except Eglantine and the other women. Already pale, their faces now represented a complexion similar to that of the dead, and I knew that whatever is going on right now involved them.
A creature emerged through the door sending my mind into panic. It appeared to be half man, half beast. His blood stained, split hooves clanged as they hit the ground of the cabin. The lower half of the creature’s body was covered with coarse hair, sharp as needles. The upper half was of a muscular man, dried blood staining his bare chest. As if he could feel the fear in the room, a sickly smile ran across his face, revealing a set of pointed, sharp teeth. Blood red irises scanned the crowd. He continued to walk forward and the two, twisted spiked horns crowning the top of his head grazed the ceiling. And all remained silent.
Desert Rain coming fall 2016.
Comments