The following is a teaser from one of the chapters of the book I’m currently writing.
Sitting in the lecture hall for art history, Danielle was ruminating on how lucky she was to have found such good friends in her life as her class wrapped up. – in truth, they all felt like the family she’d always wished for herself. Art history was one of the two classes Annabelle took with her. However, Annabelle was unexpectedly absent today. She’d woken with a nasty stomach bug. Shrugging on her cornflower-blue short trench-coat, Danielle determined she would just have to brave the walk across campus on her own this time. Slinging her backpack across her shoulder, the belt of her coat left undone, Danielle hurried to keep up with the crowd of students filing out of the lecture hall. As she neared the short corridor leading out of the lecture hall, someone bumped her backpack and it went tumbling off her shoulder, spilling half the contents down the steps. The flow of students widened around her and the mess, but continued out of the hall, with no one pausing to help.
She picked up and reorganized the mess of papers and supplies, fitting them back into her backpack. Looking around, Danielle saw her earbuds case a few steps below where most of the pack had tumbled out. She picked up the backpack and started down the steps for the case. Before she reached it, the lights in the hall went out, leaving only the safety lighting along the floor of the aisles. She was mildly unnerved and tried to steady herself with controlled breathing. Then she heard it… IT was the sound of villainous degradation… it was the sound of indecency. It felt like every nerve in her body was set on fire hearing that wheezing cackle that she would never forget.
The earbud case abandoned, Danielle whipped around in time to see the door leading out of the hall closing, with an echoing, thunderous finality, cutting off the light from the exit corridor. She could just make out the scramble and thump of someone moving in the darkened rows of seating above where she stood. A darker shadow was just discernible climbing over the back row of seating. That savagely perverse laugh raked across her nerves again and she knew Jorge was toying with her. She turned, dropping her backpack, and raced down the steps, heedless of her scarf fluttering off her neck and into one of rows of seats. She was also unaware of the earring that fell off her earlobe at the bottom of the stairs. She stumbled down into the lecture gallery below, but held to her feet, hoping to reach the door the she knew led to a hallway of teacher’s offices. She could hear Jorge’s barely hurried steps gaining on her. The merciless malevolence of his laugh was very near. Danielle felt something snatch at the belt of her coat and it pulled free as she barreled through the door into the office corridor.
Sitting in the lecture hall for art history, Danielle was ruminating on how lucky she was to have found such good friends in her life as her class wrapped up. – in truth, they all felt like the family she’d always wished for herself. Art history was one of the two classes Annabelle took with her. However, Annabelle was unexpectedly absent today. She’d woken with a nasty stomach bug. Shrugging on her cornflower-blue short trench-coat, Danielle determined she would just have to brave the walk across campus on her own this time. Slinging her backpack across her shoulder, the belt of her coat left undone, Danielle hurried to keep up with the crowd of students filing out of the lecture hall. As she neared the short corridor leading out of the lecture hall, someone bumped her backpack and it went tumbling off her shoulder, spilling half the contents down the steps. The flow of students widened around her and the mess, but continued out of the hall, with no one pausing to help.
She picked up and reorganized the mess of papers and supplies, fitting them back into her backpack. Looking around, Danielle saw her earbuds case a few steps below where most of the pack had tumbled out. She picked up the backpack and started down the steps for the case. Before she reached it, the lights in the hall went out, leaving only the safety lighting along the floor of the aisles. She was mildly unnerved and tried to steady herself with controlled breathing. Then she heard it… IT was the sound of villainous degradation… it was the sound of indecency. It felt like every nerve in her body was set on fire hearing that wheezing cackle that she would never forget.
The earbud case abandoned, Danielle whipped around in time to see the door leading out of the hall closing, with an echoing, thunderous finality, cutting off the light from the exit corridor. She could just make out the scramble and thump of someone moving in the darkened rows of seating above where she stood. A darker shadow was just discernible climbing over the back row of seating. That savagely perverse laugh raked across her nerves again and she knew Jorge was toying with her. She turned, dropping her backpack, and raced down the steps, heedless of her scarf fluttering off her neck and into one of rows of seats. She was also unaware of the earring that fell off her earlobe at the bottom of the stairs. She stumbled down into the lecture gallery below, but held to her feet, hoping to reach the door the she knew led to a hallway of teacher’s offices. She could hear Jorge’s barely hurried steps gaining on her. The merciless malevolence of his laugh was very near. Danielle felt something snatch at the belt of her coat and it pulled free as she barreled through the door into the office corridor.
Danielle ran into the first open office door and gave in to the overwhelming urge to scream bloody murder, much to the shock of the middle-aged, balding professor who had been lightly snoozing at his desk.
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