I'm hosting an excerpt from fantasy horror novel "the Key to Everything" today.
Book Excerpt
She quietly closed the door to the bedroom and checked on
the girls in their pink princess room, breathing in perfect synchronicity.
Watching for a few more moments, the tall woman shook her head in disbelief.
Where did they come from? How did she get so lucky? Dismissing the twinge of
regret scratching at the back of her mind she walked to the top of the stairs.
Their black-and-orange tabby cat, Taffy, brushed against her
leg and turned down the step, ready to follow to her food bowl the way she did
every morning. There was movement in the
shadows below. What was down there? The doors and windows all looked closed
from up here. She must have imagined it. She lowered her foot to the first step
and the cat abruptly froze in place. Her fur was not raised in warning,
however, and she did not hiss. Her front paw simply held still in its position
a few inches above the burgundy carpet.
The air in the great room was still. No sound of the wind outside
came through the walls. Branches ceased their constant scratching on the roof.
It was as if someone or something had pressed a pause button.
A light at the bottom of the stairs radiated from an unknown
source. White outlines in the shape of people softly formed in the air glowing
brighter. Indistinct faces remained
still at first. A man, yes, definitely a man’s shape mounted the first two
steps. Behind him a slender woman with long flowing hair followed. Below them
on the ground floor, more shapes came into focus. Two small children stood next
to each other holding hands. By their postures they both looked like little
boys.
The four moved like shadows in reverse. White cloudy outlined
images, hazily sliding over the edges of framed photographs hanging on the
wall. Melting over the angles of the stairs up toward her. The bright
un-shadows burned her eyes. Dedra’s eyelids seemed glued open. Her muscles strained unsuccessfully to raise
her arms and protect her from the searing pain.
Dedra stifled the scream in her throat, keeping herself from
falling by leaning on the wall. The inverted shadow mouths were stretched
inhumanly wide. Gaping holes with no teeth or tongues were instead filled with
white and grey hissing static screeching up at her. Each of the four heads
slammed to the right in perfect sync, snapping their necks at an absurd angle.
Then Dedra did scream. Eyes slammed closed, entire body tensed
and bracing for the inevitable pain she anticipated. She almost tumbled down
the stairs when Abram touched her shoulder. Of course there was nothing there
when she opened her eyes. Of course there wasn’t. This was the real world.
Order was Queen. She was only dreaming.
She allowed Abram to lead her down the stairs after he checked
the house. Discovering nothing out of the Queen’s order, he made her a cup of hot
chamomile tea with two spoonfuls of honey. He sat with her in silence for a
time. He was a good man, really. She told him everything was okay, that he
should go back to bed and kissed him on the lips gently.
Two hours later Dedra was still sitting at the table
absentmindedly stirring her cold cup of tea as the sky turned from black into
purple, then into a momentary flash of dark blood red. In that short span of
seconds a squirrel hopped onto the fence top. The animal stood on its hind legs
and appeared to stare directly into her wide-open eyes. The sun coming up
behind it made it difficult to see its face.
Dedra walked to the edge of the sink and leaned closer to
the window. The squirrel pointed straight at her with an outstretched hand,
snapped its head violently to the right and leaped into the air. Instinctively
she ducked and heard a loud crack from the glass. She opened the silverware
drawer with shaking hands and drew out a spatula. Fumbling with the oversized
wooden utensil in her clumsy fingers, she dropped it and reached back into the
drawer, struggling to grab hold of a knife.
The lights came on and her chest lurched in shock. Maria,
her youngest girl stood with one hand on the light switch. With the other she
rubbed her eyes and pointed curiously to the book and key sitting in the center
of the kitchen table.
Title:
The Key to Everything
Author: Alex M.
Kimmell
Genre: Fantasy
Horror
Cracked and weathered binding, hiding mysteries on pages tied
closed by a bloodstained string. A happy young family enchanted by dreams and
possibilities. A barren, empty room. A boy with no friends obsessively drawing
angles, edges and diagrams. In his debut novel, Alex Kimmell captures a vivid
and startling tale of fear. Auden's journey begins when he discovers a curious
leather-bound book whose contents will soon endanger his entire family. The
pages of this book draw him into a prison that cannot be breached, a place that
can only be unlocked with a very special key. In The Key to Everything, fear is
explored and heightened through jarring imagery and a terrifying, unique
menace, ratcheting up the tension until the novel's gripping climax.
Author Bio
Alex kimmell (the squirrel whisperer/twodoggarage/daddy
not-so-much-bucks) is an accidental novelist, anti-rhyme-ologist, oxygen
inhaler, carbon dioxide exhaler who often generates harmonious sounds with
various instruments of different historical importance. his work has appeared
on cool places around the 1’s and 0’s like Black Lantern Press, Front Row Lit,
Dumb White Husband and The Wordcount Podcast. His novel “the Key to everything”
and collection of short, horrific tales “A Chorus of Wolves” were released by
Booktrope Publishing. come and join the neurosis at alexkimmell.com.
Links
Website: http://alexkimmell.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alex.kimmell
Twitter: https://twitter.com/alexkimmellauth
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