Twinfinity:
Nethermore
Volume
1
Chris
Podhola
Genre:
Young Adult, Paranormal,Urban Fantasy
Date
of Publication: May 26, 2014
ISBN:
978-1499625035
ASIN:
B00KGZ41CM
Number
of pages: 411
Word
Count: 107,000
Cover
Artist: Llpix.com
Book
Description:
Whitney
Leighton has a secret. She is both blind and deaf but that’s not
what she’s trying to keep hidden. Her secret is that she can both
see and hear through her twin brother Tommy. They call it
piggybacking because she can shift her consciousness into her
brother’s mind.
Whitney’s
not the only one with a secret; Tommy has one too and it’s Whitney
that he’s keeping it from. His secret is that Whitney isn’t who
she’s supposed to be. He has dreams of her, but in his dreams she
has tattoos, battle-scars on her face, and a formidable look of
determination. If Tommy’s dreams come true then Whitney is in
serious trouble and so is everyone else. The simple Whitney that is,
doesn’t stand a chance against the evil that exists in his sleep,
and the world will be thrust into chaos.
The
teen twins end up at Camp Tumbling Waters and Lake Amicolola where
something is waiting for them. Something as dark as Whitney’s
vision and as insane as Tommy’s dreams and IT needs Whitney to
escape the prison that IT calls … Nethermore.
Excerpt:
This
excerpt is from Chapter 10 of Twinfinity: Nethermore. In it the main
character, the blind and deaf Whitney Leighton, is preparing to make
a physical statement to her summer camp peers. They are all gathered
at the obstacle course located in Camp Tumbling Waters and the group
is divided. Half of the campers blame her for the recent troubles in
the camp, and the other half believe that she is the solution to
those problems. Whitney knows that she needs to prove a point to all
of them in order to unite them.
Whitney
had been a little surprised by how clearly her course could be
directed through her imagination and memory. Every step, and every
move had been based on what she remembered from when she was
piggy-backed with Kat, but she had been able to lay everything out in
her mind with near perfect clarity.
She
had been sitting on the bench brooding over her conversation with
Kat. She was mad all right, but little Mike had changed her mood.
She couldn’t see the fear in his face, and she couldn’t hear if
he had said anything, but she had seen his shadow approach the wall
and she had waited with anticipation for his shadow to ascend into
the air. She might not be able to see it with her eyes, but she
would have still felt pride for him as he succeeded. She could see
that climbing it was important to him, and Kat had insinuated that it
was so important that he had spent a year trying to get himself ready
for it. His body appeared to be weak and frail and Whitney had
searched Kat’s mind for an explanation for that.
He
had an accident when he was younger--a tragic accident that had
broken many bones and left him in a wheel chair for years. He was
just getting to the point that he could walk again. And, according
to Kat’s memories on the subject, climbing that wall was his
motivation—his driving force. It was the thing that he talked
about last year that inspired him to work so hard in his recovery.
He wanted to do it, but he was afraid.
Like
she was afraid.
He
backed off and someone else was approaching the wall in his place.
She didn’t want to sense someone else climbing the wall. She
wanted to sense him doing it, and she didn’t think it was right for
everyone else to just shrug it off.
When
she first got up from the bench and started walking toward the group
her intention was to find a way to convince Mike to make his climb.
She was only vaguely aware of the clarity with which she could
visualize her course. She could see every clump of dirt, every stone
that could make her stumble, and she could even remember seeing a
Twix candy bar wrapper as she walked by it.
Her
mind was more focused on how to convince Mike to make his climb. By
the time she got there she had figured it out. She would lead by
example.
It
was after Kam had put the safety harness onto her and attached the
safety line onto the clip on the back when she knew she had to take
it off. It was doing its job. It was making her feel safe. There
was no danger. The spotters were trained to make sure that she
wouldn’t be injured if she slipped. It was crazy, but she didn’t
want to feel safe. She wanted every handhold and every foothold to
be risky and she wanted to feel the danger of it.
Most
of all she wanted to rely on others to catch her if she did fall.
She
had been playing it safe all of her life and for once she wanted to
leave safety behind her. She had never let herself rely on anyone
but Tommy—who she depended on vigorously for help in almost
everything and she was done with that too.
She
had chosen the members of her net the way she did because she wanted
to show everyone that she trusted them even if they didn’t really
trust her. She didn’t just want to convince Mike to make the
climb. She also wanted to find a way to bring the group back
together again. She had divided everyone, and so she’d have to be
the one to link them back together again.
She
was a couple of levels off of the ground when the idea of the
teambuilding element began to form in her mind. The concept was
simple enough. You had to trust in the members of the team to catch
you if you fell backward into them. That teambuilding element was
about a three foot drop into the arms of your team. What if someone
did it from the top of the climbing wall? It was a scary idea, but
if that didn’t make an impact on the crowd than nothing would.
Whitney
ascended the wall. Despite her nearly perfect memory of every hand
and foothold her fear was a very tangible and real thing. Slipping
off and falling was still extremely dangerous even with the group
below her because she might not be able to control how she landed and
a broken leg or arm or even both was a probability.
She
reached up and grabbed the next handhold, brought her leg up, and
hauled herself up another level. She had made it halfway up and she
could feel her nervousness increase with her height. She was about
fifteen feet off of the ground, and her limbs began to betray her.
She was getting tired and her muscles were beginning to tremble
despite her desire to remain steady and calm. She was no athlete and
it was beginning to show.
This
was stupid she thought to herself.
If
she fell from that distance and they didn’t catch her she may or
may not break a limb.
Just
do it now her mind begged.
And
she knew she could. She could steady herself, lean back, and fall
into the arms of her safety net. She could do that safely and no
harm would come to her. Her point would even be made pretty clearly.
But
wasn’t Erik’s speech, as corny and predictable as it was, about
just that? Wasn’t it about pushing past your fears even though
they sometimes seemed like an impenetrable wall?
She
could make her leap from that point but if she did wasn’t she still
relatively safe? If so then was she really making her point? Wasn’t
her point to go beyond safety and to leap when the outcome wasn’t
predictable?
She
reached up for the next grip-hold and brought herself up to it. Her
nerves began to betray her even more. She had never been this tired
before in her life. She had already exerted herself beyond
exhaustion and she knew, from that very moment, that she needed to
start training her body for more endurance. She was never again
going to let herself tire out this easily. So much for being lazy,
because she knew that those days had to be over.
She
was three quarters of the way up but her muscles were aching and she
was losing her breath. On top of that she wasn’t sure if making it
to the top was even going to be possible. No matter how bad she
wanted to get there.
She
sucked in a deep breath, gathered her determination, and made two
more handholds in quick succession. Her fingers began to throb and
go numb. Her leg muscles were screaming at her to stop and her arms
felt like rubber bands stretched out to their maximum.
The
only good thing was that she only had three levels to go.
About
the Author:
The
author is a 43 year-old United States Air Force veteran of the first
Iraq War. This is his debut novel in the Twinfinity urban fantasy
series. He was born and raised in south-eastern Michigan and served
his country in California, Germany, and Turkey.
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Thank you for the write up it sounds intruiging
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