All Hallows Eve: Krewe of Hunters <— Heather Graham has a bunch of great news today!! Not only does she have a new book out as we speak, but we’re also celebrating the re-release of all of her amazing 1,001 Dark Nights stories. They are LIVE & available now!!
And to celebrate, she’s sent over an excerpt AND she and her publisher (The Blue Box Press) are sponsoring today’s newsletter!
Ready for that excerpt? This one comes from: All Hallows Eve: A Krewe of Hunters Novella
Come to me. Please, come to me.
The words seemed real to Elyssa Adair, like a whisper in her mind, as she looked up at the old mansion.
The Mayberry Mortuary was decked out in a fantastic Halloween décor, customary each year starting October 1. It sat high on a jagged bluff near the waterfront in Salem, Massachusetts. Just driving toward it, at night, was like being in a horror movie. Dense trees lined the paved drive and it was surrounded by a graveyard. The old Colonial building, when captured beneath the moonlight, seemed to rise from the earth in true Gothic splendor.
She shivered and looked around at her friends, wondering if the words had been spoken by one of them. Vickie Thornton and Barry Tyler sat in the backseat, laughing with one another and making scary faces. Nate Fox was driving, his dark eyes intent on the road.
No one in the car had spoken to her.
She gave herself a silent mental shake. She could have sworn she’d actually heard a whisper. Clear as day. Come to me. Strangely, she wasn’t afraid. She loved the artistry of Halloween—the fun of it—and few places in the world embraced the day like Salem.
This was home and she loved Salem, despite the sad history of witch trials and executions. A lot of that was steeped in lure and myth, but the local Peabody Essex museum and other historic venues seemed to go out of their way to remind visitors of the horror that came from petty jealousy and irrational fear.
“Boo,” Nate said, leaning toward her.
She jumped with a start.
She’d been deeply involved in her thoughts and the view of the old mansion. Nate, Vickie, and Barry all giggled at her surprise.
“Do you have to do that,” she murmured.
He frowned, his eyes back on the road. “Elyssa, we’ve done this every year since we were kids. So are you really scared now?”
“Of course not,” she said, and tried to smile.
She loved Nate. They were both just eighteen, but they’d been seeing one another since their freshman year. She was young, as everyone kept reminding her, but she knew that she would love him all of her life. Despite them being opposites. She was a bookworm, born and raised in the East, red hair and green eyes. He was from South Dakota, a Western boy, whose mom had been from nearby Marblehead but whose dad had been a half Lakota Sioux. He was tall and dark with fabulous cheekbones and a keen sense of ethics and justice. He was their high school’s quarterback, and she was debate team captain.
“Don’t be silly,” she said. “Last year, I played a zombie, remember?”
And what a role. She’d arose from the embalming table and attacked one of her classmates who’d played the mortician, terrifying the audience.
Nate grinned. “That you did. And what a lovely zombie you were.”
Please.
She heard the single word and realized no one in the car had spoken it.
[lasso rel=”all-hallows-eve-krewe-of-hunters” id=”118987″]
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