Here is an excerpt from "Unshattered," My current work-in-progress horror novel.
=======================================================================================================================Sheila sat in silence on the bathroom floor, chewing her fingernail, rocking back and forth, trying to ignore the moaning coming from the next room. It had been several hours now, so surely they must almost be done with the ceremony by now, it wouldn’t do for her to get impatient now, no, now was just the time for her to sit patiently and wait. Suddenly she heard a shriek, followed by louder chanting, louder groanings. Things would certainly be ending soon. She ran her fingers through the cold water that filled the bathtub, stirring it around, making ripples that she couldn't see in the dark. Yes. It wouldn’t be long now. She heard one voice groaning louder than the others now, drowning out the other voices, reaching a crescendo, then she heard another shriek, Then nothing but the sucking, slurping sounds. She hated this part. She plugged her ears, humming quietly while she rocked back and forth even faster. She felt it before she heard it, the stomping of bodies climbing to their feet, swaying, moving in unison out of the room, into the hallway, pressing through the bathroom doorway, into the room, someone switched on the light, Sheila rose to her feet, pressing herself up against the bathroom wall, way in the back of the room, recoiling from the bodies as they crowded into the room, still chanting together but not, each seemed to be repeating a different verse, the words blending together into gobbledygook as each spoke, one man leading the way, holding another body, hanging limply, dragging its feet, barely walking, arms akimbo, shirt hanging open, chest stained with blood, still dripping from a wound at the neck. The leader dragged this young man, still a boy really, toward the bathtub, gripping him tightly around the shoulders, pressing him forward, thrusting him down toward the water, splashing him under as his arms flailed, fighting back, slipping and sliding against the walls of the tub, never gaining purchase, sinking beneath the weight of the man who pushed him down, down, down farther, the body sluicing through the water until the young man was submerged, legs now flailing, splashing water, soaking the bodies that leaned in too close, splashing Sheila even as she recoiled, turning her face away, squeezing her eyes closed so she wouldn’t have to see the boy struggling. The fatigue began to set in, the lack of air getting to him, the legs kicked more weakly now, the arms ceased to move under the water as the body began to stop convulsing, then just when the struggling slowed down to nothing, the man jerked the boy out of the water, splashing even more water over the edge of the tub, the boy gasping for breath, coughing, choking, spewing water from his mouth and nose. The man lifted the boy, clutching him into an awkward embrace, and all the while the voices were chanting, chanting. She could hear pieces of what they were saying,
“Both of them have done what is detestable,”. said one.
“Their blood shall be on their own heads,” intoned another.
The boy stopped choking, still drawing in ragged breaths as the man continued to hold him fast. Finally, the man began to speak, louder than the others, with authority.
“New family,” he said, “New family! New family!” The others stopped chanting their random verses and they began to chant along with the man. “New family! New family!” Soon they were all chanting “New Family! New family!” while the boy’s breathing slowly returned to normal. He chimed in weakly, “New family,” he croaked out. The man pulled him up and out of the water, turning to face the crowd, other hands grasping, taking the boy’s hands in theirs, pulling him forward as the man carried him out of the room, dragging his feet behind him.
=======================================================================================================================What's going on? Who is Sheila? Who is this boy? What in the sam hell is happening? Tune in to find out when my novel is published early next year!
