Wednesday, October 7, 2015

The Whispering of Trees



Here's an excerpt from Chapter 1:

  Aggie, deeply asleep, snuggled into her pillow, arms wrapped around her well-loved Mr. Maple Tree stuffed toy.  As the bright galaxy spiraled in, her lips curved into a smile in anticipation of another of her lively interactions with The Sister Whale.  The sparkling lights of the galaxy suddenly went dark.  Aggie flinched, her fist opened and closed.  The middle of the spiral went oily black, and her smile morphed into an open-mouthed grimace.  
  Her eyeballs moved rapidly from side to side under fluttering lids.
  A huge black sperm whale, his tail and fins tattered and bloody, flew at her.
  She moaned.
  He opened his mouth wide.  Something dark and viscous boiled out of his gaping black maw along with words she couldn’t comprehend, but carried a clear threat. 
  She tossed. 
  His breath assaulted her.  It smelled of death.  Then he smashed bloody teeth together, and red mist sprayed over her. 
  She threw her hands up to ward it away. 
  Blood ran in rivulets and dripped from his ragged tongue. 
  She thrashed. 
  Flames danced and flickered from his flared blowhole.   
  She whimpered.  “Please.  No.” 
  He turned his demon head to stare at her with blistering red eyes.  He opened his mouth again to scream at her with the fury of a thousand demons, filling her room with the sounds of hell.