Excerpt #1
“He-e-e Ha-a-a.”
Max cackled like a wild man as the boat veered off, rooster-tailing water spray
and slamming turbulent waves into the raft.
Trembles shook
my hands and body. What the hell is wrong with him?
I closed my eyes
and took a few deep breaths to relax. Warm tingles thrummed against my sternum
from the quartz on my necklace, giving me a heads-up that my ghost friends were
near.
“He’s gone,
little missy,” Martin said. “Off to the other side of the lake.”
Gloria’s fingers
clasped the stone through her blouse. “Is your stone vibrating like mine? I
touched it, thought of you, and here we are.” She stared at me.
I climbed the
ladder and sat across from them, stretching my legs in front of me for the warm
sunshine. “I’ll have to try touching my stone and thinking of you. See if I can
call you to me.”
She nodded then
turned to Martin. “When’s the last time we sat by water?” Gloria slid her body
closer to him.
“Now, girl,
don’t you be gettin’ any crazy ideas.” He chuckled and wrapped his arm around
Gloria’s shoulder then turned his attention to me. “We want answers about what
happened. Neither of us remembers it, nothing other than a truck rammed into
the back of the Olds. It scared the heck out of us, so we turned off the main
road and drove down a dirt path into the woods, hoping to hide. Then we saw
lights coming fast behind us.”
“It’s a constant
loop we live over and over, ending with the truck following us and crashing
into the back of the car. The sound is like a grand clap of thunder.” Gloria
sniffled, but there were no tears. Ghosts didn’t cry real tears. Martin rubbed
her back.
“We blackout or
something.” Martin looked across the water but seemed unfocused. “I wake up
outside the car, and a few minutes after, Gloria is beside me. We got stuck
next to the Olds, doing the same thing over and over.”
Apparitions
didn’t usually possess recall of being stuck in a loop. They simply lived it
over and over as if for the first time, every time. What was different for
these two? Maybe our crystal connection brought the change in their loop and
opened their acknowledgment to it?
“I’ve got a
friend coming to stay with me. He’s got mad internet skills. I think he can
help research, figure out a few things. Maybe find out who followed you and
why.”
A boat motor
revved behind me, I folded my legs to my chest, preparing for impact.
“Kyle, wanna
ski?” Max hollered. He zipped past and stopped next to Kyle’s dock.
Kyle stared in
my direction and waved, and I waved back. Max sneered.
How long was
Kyle out there? All he saw was my backside while I chatted with Martin and
Gloria. When I turned around to pick up where we left off, Martin and Gloria
had disappeared.
Another Excerpt
Shifter Shakedown
By S. Peters-Davis
I stood fifteen feet away from where the oversized wolf and bear fought, slashing and biting. The steady wind through the trees hid my scent. With any luck, they would kill each other. I readied my crossbow for just in case and adjusted my stance for a shot, until the wolf flew into the air, knocking me flat on my backside. My vision blurred, and my brain buzzed into dizzy-mode. My eyes closed on automatic as I concentrated on not losing consciousness.
“Are you all right, Miss?” asked a deep, rugged voice. Warm fingers grasped my hands in an electrifying grip. “Let me help you.”
I opened my eyes to his shocking browns.
