The Darkening Dream (52 page)

Had God set her on this dark road?

She could see the ferryman better now. Inside his dark hood, his face was that of a lifeless skull. Nothing felt right. She prayed for an answer.

“Come with me, sister, leave the kingdom of Hades to others.” Isabella tugged again. “We may live again.”

“I’d like to see Alex and my parents,” Sarah said. “I didn’t have a chance to say goodbye.”

“There’ll be time for that. With the dark gift, there’s always time.”

Was it a trick? The Last Temptation of Sarah Engelmann?

Isabella tugged again, and this time Sarah followed. If God intended her life to end this way then she was done with Him.

They turned from the boatman and walked up the bank into the mist. Dry leaves crackled under their feet. There was blood on the other girl’s mouth and chin. Sarah hadn’t noticed before. There was nothing wrong with wanting to live, was there?

Sarah woke. It was dark and very cold. There was no pain, but there was hunger and thirst.

One and the same now, hunger and thirst.

She could see nothing. Her entire body was wrapped in cloth. She strained against it, but an unyielding pressure kept her immobilized. She smelled wet earth. She tried to scream, but only a snarl came out, and all that got her was a mouth filled with grit. They had buried her alive, without a coffin, as was proper, naked in a linen shroud. How deep was she? Six feet?

She struggled, not in the least tired. Even straining, she couldn’t feel her heartbeat. The darkness blinded her, and the only noise was the sound of her struggle. The touch of the linen was vibrant, more intense than any caress she had ever known. Where was Isabella? She’d said everything would be fine.

Time passed. The hunger and thirst mounted, but her energy didn’t slack. In the end, soft cloth yielded to hard teeth. Once she worked a hole open, the dirt poured in. She contracted and relaxed her whole body in great spasms until she was able to shove her sharp-nailed hands past the soft material and into the soft soil beyond.

She must feed.

Find

T
HE
D
ARKENING
D
REAM

online at:

the-darkening-dream.com

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The Darkening Dream
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Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I’d like to thank my wife Sharon, my mother, and my “story consultant” Bryan Visintin for reading each chapter hot off the presses as I finished it. Then reading again. And again. Then discussing each and every possible alteration.

I owe a great debt to the thousands of Fantasy, Science Fiction, Paranormal, and Horror novels, movies, games, and television shows I’ve consumed over the years. The details in this book wouldn’t have been possible without several hundred writers of histories, occult books, and whatnot that I gobbled up over the course of my writing. Not to mention the ever handy Google and Wikipedia.

This novel was a big learning curve for me. A breadth of reading and a decent ear for prose do not alone make for a great first draft. Or second. Or sixth. So I’d like to thank my professional editors: the incomparable Renni Browne, Shannon Roberts, R.J. Cavender, and Jen Howard. Renni and Shannon in particular made me take a hard look at everything and not only illuminated the big changes that needed to be made, but for also pointed a flickering torch toward the exit.

Proof reading was by Dan Grubb, typesetting and book design by Chris Fisher, e-book layout by Morgana Gallaway, and jacket copy editing by Beth Jusino. Thanks also to
The Editorial Department
champs Karinya Funsett-Topping, Ross Browne, and last but not least, Jane Ryder.

The awesome cover illustration is by
Cliff Nielsen
with Dana Melanie serving as the model for Sarah. The cover and logo design are by
Pete Garceau
. The cool interior engravings are by Original Force with additional art direction by Erick Pangilinan. The print edition is formatted in Arno Pro, an Adobe font family designed by Robert Slimbach. Thanks also to my long time business partner Jason Rubin for help with my working cover and logo. I used Lulu.com to print private draft editions during development. I’m not sure this was their business model, but if they didn’t make a lot on the printing, they made up for it in shipping. Further thanks to Stephen Rubin for pro bono intellectual property advice.

This novel was written entirely on Apple products (thanks Steve!) and in
Scrivener
, a specialized word processor for writers. If you write long form prose and are still using a dinosaur like Word,
read this
. The paper version was typeset in Adobe InDesign and the e-book converted with Calibre.

I also very much appreciate my loyal beta readers, especially those who read many drafts or offered up comments: Scott Shumaker, Jane Mullaney, Keren Perlmutter, Ben Stragnell, Lara Shanis (my third grade teacher!), Owen Rescher, Brent Askari, Bill Guschwan, Andrew Reiner, Brian Roe, Danny Pickford, David Cotrell, Jason Kay, Don Gavin, Lauren Lewis, Tilly Reniers, Avram Hirschberg, Abbe Flitter, Greg Cooper, Valerie Flitter, Jerry Meadors, Joe Labbe, Dinorah Mayton, Lindsay Gerber, Michael Perlmutter, Sam G., Mitch Gavin, Lisa Pivo, Michael Flitter, and Grant Thompson. If I missed any of you who finished the book, I apologize, or you forgot to tell me!

Lastly, I’d like to thank you, the reader, whose eyes on this page hopefully mean you made it to the end.

All sorts of additional info can be found at my website:

andy-gavin-author.com

Andy Gavin — California, December 2011

About the Author

A
NDY
G
AVIN
is an unstoppable storyteller who studied for his Ph.D. at M.I.T. and founded video game developer Naughty Dog, Inc. at the age of fifteen, serving as co-president for two decades. There he created, produced, and directed over a dozen video games, including the award winning and best selling
Crash Bandicoot
and
Jak & Daxter
franchises, selling over 40 million units worldwide. He sleeps little, reads novels and histories, watches media obsessively, travels, and of course, writes.

Find more info at:
andy-gavin-author.com/bio