Sample Sunday

An excerpt from DayBreaker

Prologue

I knew I had my gifts and that I was unique. But to have it confirmed I am peculiar and so different from everyone else that I never expected.

I never gave much thought to where my life was going. I honestly thought I would follow in my mom’s footsteps, go to college one day, start a career, get married and start a family of my own. Some of that has changed now and I know I can’t go back to where I was or where I thought I was going, even if I wanted to.

My life has changed so much I have loved and lost, fought to save what was important to me, and while I have failed more times than I can count, I know that I have to move forward I can’t let what has been keep me from what will be.

If I die in this struggle, then I know my life will have some meaning. If I survive then I will have to face a new world that has been changed by what we do here and now. Each of us plays a dangerous game in our own way, from hiding who and what we are to what we are really doing. So many have put their lives on the line for what they believe.

I don’t know anyone who would come out of this untouched and be able to continue living the life they knew. What happens next, we do for what we believe…

Chapter One

The First Day at School

I have always hated the first day at a new school. There were the big things everyone thought about such as meeting new people, teachers, and learning the hallways. But there were also the small issues, like finding a new locker, the smell of a new place and surroundings. I was always stressed when I started new schools; I knew my peer’s were just fascinated with me. Why they would have so much curiosity over a five foot three, long black haired, and blue eyed girl is beyond me. Oh yeah did I mention the fact I was skinny well let me say slender that makes me sound more attractive, plus I just turned eighteen but that shouldn’t make me stand out.

Let me tell you a secret I know there is something odd about me. Sometimes I don’t feel like I’m human though I look like one, and no I’m not some alien from out of space. I just knew deep down I was different I just didn’t know how.

Anyway back to my moan. If there was anything worse than a first day, it was starting a new school at the start of senior year, when everyone around me had grown up together and already had their bonds. This first day of senior year, was going to be one of my worst, I could sense it. But never could I have ever imagined that it would be this bad. Nothing I’d ever seen – or had seen – prepared me for this day.

I stood outside my new school which was a vast Toronto public school, in the chilly September morning. As you properly guessed I wasn’t excited, and leaping for joy instead I wondered Why me? I was underdressed in nothing more than a simple sweater and leggings; not exactly fashionably I know! But I did not want to make a fashion statement. I did not want to be here full stop.

I was extremely unprepared for the noisy chaos I walked into. There were hundreds of kids around me, all clamoring, screaming, cursing and shoving each other. It was more like a prison yard; trust me you would not want to be here.

Everyone had too much energy or maybe it’s just me acting like a granny. Whatever the case I was exhausted and sleep-deprived as most of us teens are. I did wish the noise would die down and no this is not my granny act coming out I just needed that peace and quiet.

Reaching into my pocket I felt my iPod. Fantastic some nice calming Beethoven that I could listen to I inserted my earphones, cranked the volume up but no sound came out I peeked and saw the battery was dead, great!

So the iPod was not working I needed some distraction from all this chaos before class started, so what is the next best thing? The cell phone I grabbed mine out of my pockets hoping for some text messages but there were none. This makes me sound like a loner but I’m not honest. Because I had to move around so much I never got that close to anyone but I had made friends, I may not have been miss popularity but at least I made friends.

Chapter Five

The Disappearance

I ran. The bullies were back, this time with friends, just like Matthew had warned me; they were chasing me down the alleyway again. There was a dead end before me, a massive wall blocking my way, but I kept on running anyway, right towards it. As I ran I was picking up speed, it was a supernatural speed, the wind was rushing through my hair and I knew they couldn’t catch me.

The closer to the wall I got, the more I felt I had wings and I could fly. Suddenly my feet left the ground and I was standing on top of the wall. Looking down I could see the bullies and their friends stopped in their tracks as they tried to figure out how to get me.

For more information about Brita Skinner or to contact her, please try these links:
Web: http://britaskinner.wix.com/britaskinner#, Email: authorbritaskinner@gmail.com

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

Souls Around the World Blog Hop

Giovanni knows what goes “bump” in the nightmares of his mind; an excerpt from
Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel, by Toi Thomas

He looked down toward the ground and saw an attractive young woman carrying a large pail into a barn. Her skin was freckled and pale, and she had rosy cheeks. Her hair was long and straight, and it was black like the night. She seemed so familiar to him, but he didn’t know her. Giovanni watched as the young woman filled feeding troughs with water to be cleaned. As she reached for a scrubbing brush, Giovanni could see that someone or something was following her. He sensed that trouble was on the way. He tried to call out to her, but she could not hear him. His voice made no sound. Giovanni left the tree and swooped down to the ground to get a closer look.

There he saw a creeping perpetrator bouncing from beam to beam in the rafters of the barn. Drool slipped from the monster’s mouth while it hovered over the unknowing young woman. Giovanni tried to fly up to see this fiendish stalker, but he couldn’t get his feet off the ground, and his wings would not flap. Giovanni knew something bad would happen, he could feel it in his heart, but it seemed he could do nothing to stop it. He did not understand. Why was this happening? How could he appear to be so powerful, be so angelic, and not be able to help someone in need?

Giovanni refused to give up his pursuit. He pushed his body forward and went from door to door, and window to window, trying to get in to warn and protect the young woman. Looking through a window, Giovanni finally saw the villain’s full horror. He got a clear vision of the attacker as it was leaping down from the ceiling toward the woman. It was the most hideous monster he’d ever seen, much worse than his own reflection.

It was a twisted and mangled troll with charcoal for skin on its hairless body. It had empty holes carved out of its skull where eyes once were. There were two large dull spikes protruding from its hunched back, where it looked as though wings had been violently ripped from its body. Its hands were made of jagged bones held together with rotting ligaments, and its feet crackled as it moved along the floor.

In the troll’s hands were two long golden rods that whipped back and forth like lassos. Each rod was attached to the end of a large iron spike that punched through the shoulders of a young man’s dying body. They were holding up the young man’s body as though he were a puppet. To the young woman, the troll simply appeared as a shadowy figure lingering around the painfully disturbed and ailing young man.

The troll maneuvered the young man’s body around the girl, delivering blow after blow. The monster had taken this young man’s life; he was using his body as a weapon to attack this poor girl for what seemed to be the sheer enjoyment of it. It laughed a loud cackle as it threw the girl down to the ground, tearing her raggedy dress. Giovanni could see the girl’s anguish and could hear her screams, and he could even feel her pain, but Giovanni could do nothing to stop it.

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**Some sites contain Adult Only content** To each his own as they say, but since I know some of my viewers are underage and I was unaware of the mature nature of many of the blogs on this hop, I will try to update this post with the numbers of blogs not containing the “Adult Only” content. See the comments for updates.

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Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

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