The
Haunting of Secrets
Secrets
Series
Book
One
Shelley
R. Pickens
Genre:
YA paranormal
Date
of Publication: July 24th, 2014
ISBN:
978-1-61235-929-8
ASIN:
B00M2E3IVK
Number
of pages:171 pages
Word
Count: 60,643
Cover
Artist: Caroline Andrus
Book
Description:
Are
some secrets worth dying for?
Sixteen-year-old
Aimee doesn't like to touch people. One touch and she sees their
past. One graze over her skin and she can see all the good and bad
deeds a person has ever done. It isn't until a bomb explodes during
lunch that she realizes exactly how many dirty secrets the students
in her school harbor-or exactly how far one of them would go to keep
his secrets safe.
In
the aftermath of that fateful day of the bombing Aimee is brushed by
a fellow student as they are caught in the mob running for their
lives. Images of tortured and murdered young girls rise up to choke
her. The problem is, Aimee doesn't know who touched her. Somewhere in
this school a fellow student is a killer, and Aimee is the only one
that can find him before he murders again.
With
the help of her friends Aimee must sift through her stolen memories
to determine clues. The quest to find a killer unravels the very
fabric of her carefully woven life. He won't stop until he silences
her- for only she knows all his secrets.
She
will have to summon all of her inner strength to decide what she must
do: hunt or be hunted.
Are
some secrets worth dying for?
Chapter
One
~
A Killer Among Us ~
Everyone in this
school is his minion, his puppet to do with as he pleases. None of
them are as intelligent or cunning as he is. They pass through these
halls in this school every day, completely oblivious to everything
important around them. All they care about is that the football team
wins the championship. Or who is dating whom this week. Soon, he will
be the most revered and respected student at school. Everyone will
want to be near him; or at least claim they have some relationship
with him, even if it is as noncommittal as sitting next to him in
Spanish class. None can see past his façade. No one knows who he
really is. But what does he care? Their oblivion serves him well.
Without it, he couldn’t do what he really wanted. He couldn’t
pursue his darkest fantasy. This was the perfect life. The life that
he always longed to live and he would do anything to keep it that
way.
Chapter
Two
~
Everyone That Says School is Hell Isn’t Kidding ~
It’s a normal
Wednesday in October when the world around me is thrown into chaos.
Homecoming posters litter the halls of the school. Outside, leaves
scatter and fly about the campus, blanketing everything in a sheet of
crispy brown. There is nothing unusual in the air. Inside, students
fill the halls, chatting with friends and making their way to their
classes. As usual, I am off by myself, sitting in the corner of a
hall studying for a chemistry exam, invisible to everyone else. Well,
almost everyone else.
“Can
you please explain to me why I need to learn what a mole is, when I
know it has absolutely nothing to do with my dream of becoming Zac
Efron’s wife?” asked a tall, dark haired, brown eyed girl from
above me, her figure blocking the light.
Looking
up at her, I sigh. I want to feel annoyed by the intrusion, but I
just don’t have it in me to get mad at the only friend I have in my
life; the friend who not only knows my secret but, for some
unfathomable reason, doesn’t seem to care. “Well, Dejana, if you
actually understood how a mole works, then you would be able to see
how the molecules interact to make Zac Efron so incredibly hot that
it renders him unattainable for the normal teenage girl. Conversely,
that same molecular reasoning would not allow good old Zac to give
you the time of day.”
“Posh,”
spit out Dejana, ignoring every word I just said. “That is simply a
piece of science I am more than willing to overcome.”
I
shake my head at her, yet say nothing, since I truly do wish her
dreams would come true for her. Everyone should have a dream, no
matter how unattainable it may be. Dreams are what keep us moving
forward; what gives us hope for the future, no matter how silly or
impractical those dreams may be. I envy Dejana. At least she has
dreams. I have never been able to afford that luxury. I spend way too
much time in the past.
Shaking
off the impending melancholy, I turn my blue eyes to Dejana and say,
“Isn’t he dating someone right now?”
Dejana’s
silence tells me everything I need to know.
“Well,
if anyone can turn him on, it would be you Dejana. And if you need
help, I can take care of Zac for ya, kidnap him even and keep him
busy so that he doesn’t go anywhere. I can tie him up, if that’s
what it takes. I would do that for you, my friend. It would be a
hardship, but I’d do it. ”
“That’s
my girl,” says Dejana with a smile. “Now quit sulking and let’s
go to math. If we’re late, Mr. Herring will have our heads.” As
usual, Dejana is right.
After
enduring a very long morning of math and chemistry, I am extremely
grateful that it’s finally time for lunch. After grabbing my lunch
bag out of my locker, I make my way down to the cafeteria. I’m late
as usual, but I do this on purpose and for a very good reason.
Slowly, I make my way to the doubly long rectangular table by the
attendance office in the corner of the large common area. The
cafeteria is filled with the usual lunch crowd doing their usual
things, which involves more talking and texting rather than eating.
No one had any inkling that their lives were about to change. Or even
worse, about to end. There were no signs of impending doom, no masked
man walking around with a detonator. It is just a normal day with
kids eating their lunch. And just like in the movies, it happens in
an instant.
One
minute I am quietly eating my pizza and breadsticks, when suddenly a
loud roar fills my ears and an invisible hand lifts me up out of my
seat and flings me into the air. It is disorienting, but not really
scary at first. It feels like I am floating, looking down upon the
wreckage as if experiencing it second hand. I am confused at first,
thinking maybe this was some kind of joke; that some mean kid had
picked up my seat and hurled me across the cafeteria. They tended to
do that to me, since I never fight back; never dare to get within ten
feet of them. They think it is out of cowardice. I know better.
The
whole world around me is moving in slow motion. It isn’t until I am
hit in the face with a bloody hand wrenched completely off at the
wrist that I realize the roar I had heard was a bomb. I begin my
descent to the hard floor; my body constantly hitting pieces of
table, metal mixed with plastic from chairs, and chunks of things
stained red that I don’t even want to know where they came from. I
hit the ground on my right side and the contact sends a painful jolt
through my shoulder that travels the length of my body. My gloved
hands cover my face to ward off the feet trampling all around me. The
images of body parts flying through the air and blood spattering on
the walls and floor are seared into my brain. In another life, it
could have been art, a pretty mosaic depicting the tragedies of life.
My first instinct is to avoid, at all possible costs, the touches of
the hordes of people that come my way in a desperate attempt to flee
the carnage. I have no idea where I am in the cafeteria anymore. All
I know is that I have to get out, get away from all those people and
from all of their secrets.
About
the Author:
Shelley
Pickens is a Spanish teacher by day and a novelist by night. She’s
been in love with everything paranormal since she can remember.
After years of teaching high school students, she decided to take her
firsthand knowledge of young adults and apply it to her passion for
creative writing and fantasy.
When
not teaching or writing, Shelley likes to spend time with her husband
and two beautiful children in Atlanta, Ga.
Her
escape from reality is her love of complex thriller and science
fiction TV series like Supernatural and Sleepy Hollow. In her spare
time she is an avid watcher of little league baseball.
THE
HAUNTING OF SECRETS is her debut novel.
Website:
www.shelleypickens.com
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/shelleypickens
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