I also plan on posting excerpts from short stories as well, giving you all a taste of writing styles within different genres. Enjoy and keep an eye out for the posts!! =) Feel free to leave your comments below as well!
Below is a link to the Preface of the novel I am currently focusing on. It's a horror novel that I am partial to! Love the intro!
http://sleeplesscomposer.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2015-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2016-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=27
Preface
The thought of killing another person
never crossed my mind. The idea of harming another person made me cringe; it
was inconceivable to even imagine. All that is running through my head now is
how I could get out of this situation. Do I stop running for my life and just
forfeit it? Do I keep running until I hit safety? Or do I try to kill my
attacker?
I have never been so overwhelmed with emotion before. As I’m
running my mind is racing, I didn’t even notice that I was crying and shaking. No one is around. Where is everyone? Why is
this happening? Why me? The irony of this was I knew why.
As I’m running, harder than anyone has ever run before, I
realized that I wasn’t getting out of this predicament without a fight. One may
be enticed by the idea of a fight. One may even give up and try to hide. I on
the other hand had no idea as to what I was going to do.
I was so frazzled. I kept thinking about the things I was
about to lose. Those things kept me going, to save my life. I had to; I’m not a
quitter; why would I give up now? Others may become weakened by the problem or
feel helpless, but it only strengthened me.
If I gave up I would be leaving behind my
dad, my brother, my friends, Jeffrey and Clarisse even Tanya. These are the five
people I loved the most and I couldn’t and wouldn’t leave them, not yet. It’s
them I’m running towards. After this past year, I deserved a little happiness.
Quitting isn’t the answer. What do I do?
Breathlessly
running I came to a sudden halt. I saw an alley ahead of me, it was dark. I ran
into the alley and hid behind some trash cans. There was a slight opening. I
crouched down and peeped through the opening. There was certain serenity about
this moment. It was unbelievable and remarkable that in this particular moment-
I felt safe.
As I’m kneeling behind the trash cans
I observed my surroundings. I must have passed at least a dozen alleys and I
clearly picked the darkest one I could find. On the left of the brick building wall
was a dim lantern light. It barely gave off any sort of light, but it was
enough to see. There were big water puddles everywhere. Against the building on
the left were a couple of dumpsters, adjacent to them were empty cardboard
boxes and a very big pile of metal pipes. Some of the pipes were very long and
some short, others were thicker while some were thin.
The alley was long and dark; it
resembled something out of a scary movie. There was water dripping from the
fire escapes. It was dark and the wind seemed to echo. Along with the buildings
on the left and right of me were fire escapes; There wasn’t a trace of light emerging
from anywhere. Broken glass grounded my feet. The broken glass came from
several of the windows on the building. They were probably old apartment
buildings.
Someone’s footsteps came to an abrupt
halt for about a minute. Then they began again and grew louder with each step. Tip
tap, tip tap. The footsteps were slow and it was the most terrifying sound
anyone could hear in this moment. They stopped. He walked across the alley and
bent down. Some metal clinked and clanked. He picked up a very big metal pipe,
and then he slowly stood up straight and proceeded to walk slowly toward me.
Tip tap, tip tap.
I glanced down at the gun I was holding and started to think. Do I have it in me? This man was about
to beat me to death. It was an obvious decision, but I was shaking so badly my
heart felt like it was about to rip through my chest. It was so loud I thought
he heard it. I watched through the trashcans and saw him walking slowly towards
me. How does he know I came down this
alley? I passed at least a dozen of them. He was about a hundred feet away
from me.
His face was so visible to me; his piercing blue eyes were
wild. His stature looked increasingly larger than normal. He had the ugliest
grin on his face. His mouth was curled into an evil concocted smile. It was the
face of a killer and I knew my number was up. The feeling of safety quickly
dissipated. He walked about another fifty feet and stopped by the empty
cardboard boxes alongside the dumpster. He then began twirling and spinning the
metal pipe. His muscular arms did it quickly and violently.
He stopped and smiled like an animal about
to attack its prey. He tilted his head and looked in my direction. Oh no, he sees me. That’s all I could
think. He laughed a low giggle and stepped back. This gesture confused me. Why is he backing up? Does he think I’m
still running? What is he doing? He’s playing mind games I know it; he’s trying
to scare me. I was trying to rationalize with myself.
“Oh Annie, you’re quite the runner” my attacker said and he
continued to speak.
“Why don’t you save yourself the agonizing minutes of torture
of whether I’m going to find you or not, and just come out? I know that you
know I am going to find you.” He said very confidently.
What do I do? Should I
try to bolt? Do I stay here? Do I force myself to shoot him? Do I come out and
try to reason, if I do will he listen? Questioning myself wasn’t making me feel much better and it
certainly wasn’t helping. I have to kill him. It was the only way. I looked up
and he was at least ten feet closer. My heart stopped and I clenched the gun
harder. My hands were so sweaty and clammy. He shook his head disapprovingly
and took a few steps towards me.
Suddenly, I jumped up. It was a
reflex reaction. We were in visual range of one another. I looked at him and
saw the surprise in his face. Maybe he
didn’t know where I was and he was bluffing. He looks too surprised. His
smile returned. It occurred to me that I just handed myself to him on a silver
platter. He took a few more steps towards me. His pace was much quicker; it was
like a jogger about to jet off. Then I drew the gun and pointed it violently
and sternly towards him. He stopped for one moment and one moment only. He
looked at me with delighted surprise. I eased a little and then suddenly he
lunged at me.