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Thursday, February 6, 2020

Excerpt: Something Happened by Brandy Isaacs + giveaway

I didn’t realize that being a writer could lead to funny and embarrassing situations in real life…

I live outside of Chicago and commute into the city every day for my 9-5er. I’m constantly listening to, and reading, multiple things at once. I usually listen to a book while walking, I read a book while on the train, and read comics at night before going to bed.

A weird habit I’ve developed since starting my writing career is to “act out” facial expressions of my characters. I. e. if my character wrinkles her nose, I probably will too. It gives me a feel for the character’s emotions and helps me stay in sync with them. This has bled over into my reading (or listening) as well.

Just a couple of weeks ago I was queuing up to get off the train one morning listening to a book (an awesome novel called Protect the Prince, the second book in the Crown of Shards series by Jennifer Estep—I highly recommend it). Anyways…a character in the book winked. Without even thinking about it—I winked too. As my eye opened, I realized I had made eye contact with an older gentleman on the train. His eyes got wide and he looked really confused. The only thing I could think to do was to blink a lot as if I had something in my eye.

So—never thought being a writer (and highly engaged reader) would lead to me accidentally winking at a man on the train and embarrassing us both. I’ve been laughing about it since then.
Something Happened
by Brandy Isaacs
Sept. 1, 2019
302 pages
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Horror, New Adult Fiction
ASIN: B07X8KP63G
Number of pages: 302
Word Count: 98,082
Cover Artist: MuertoLopez, and Joe Pessanha
Rion Webster never knew she had a father, let alone a little sister. But, when social services calls informing her that her estranged father is dead, and her younger sister is now an orphan, she reluctantly opens her home. It doesn’t take long to realize Beckett is a troubled kid. Deeply troubled.

Unwilling to turn her back on the only family she knows, Rion struggles to help the child. Rion, more than anyone, knows the horrors of an abusive childhood, so she vows to stick it out for her sister. But, something is wrong with Beckett. Something more than just an abusive childhood.

If Rion and her friends can find out what happened, they just might save the child. But, who will save them from Beckett?


Excerpt:
From the moonlit window, she could tell the closet door was open. Rion’s heart slammed in her chest as she noted the empty bed. “Beckett,” she gasped. Hisses and grunts were coming from the dark closet but that was the only sound in the entire house. Every sound was blocked by the blood rushing in her ears and the struggle coming from the closet. She stepped into the doorway and the breath was stolen from her lungs. “Beckett!” she snapped.

The little girl was holding Link—the cat’s back to her chest—as she struggled to wrap long piece of cloth—a robe belt, Rion realized—around his neck. The other end was tied to the clothes rack. Link was struggling to claw or bite his way free. “Let go of him!” Rion snapped.

Beckett turned towards her and Rion froze again. The smile on the kid’s face was eerie enough, but something was wrong with her eyes. They were on fire with hate…and something else. Glee, Rion realized. The kid’s entire face was twisted into pure evil glee. It was as unnerving, as if a doll had come to life. Becket snarled and Rion could feel every hair on her body stand on end. Finding her voice, she dropped to her knees and growled. “I said, let him go.”

Finally, Beckett dropped the struggling cat and it bolted from the room. Fear and anger surged through Rion and seemed to push her out of her body. Everything was too much, too fast. She watched as she reached out and gripped Beckett by the shoulders. “What is wrong with you?” she roared through clenched teeth. She shook the girl’s shoulders, once, twice, three times. And on the third shake, reason returned. She needed to get the girl out of her hands or she would do something worse. Her arms felt like iron and her fingers claws, but she regained enough sense to push the girl away. Beckett stumbled backwards and landed in a pile of dirty clothes.

Rion stared at her in shock, the rage melting as she sucked in a heavy breath. What have I done? She waited for Beck to start crying. Screaming. Anything. Instead, the kid laughed. It was a guttural chuckle in a little girl’s voice. She struggled to right herself and Rion was reminded of the eighties horror movie about a killer doll. Beckett didn’t move like a kid. She moved with a horrific calm and purpose. Rion couldn’t move, or speak, she was stunned. By her own behavior and at Beckett’s. Once the kid was sitting up, she crossed her legs and stared at the floor. And didn’t make a sound.

As the seconds ticked by, everything grew still again. She let out a gush of air and flopped back onto her heels. She felt empty. Beckett had needed her and her response was to shake her. Beckett might not have even been awake. “Fuck,” she whispered. But what about her eyes? I’ve never seen someone look so cold and brutal before. Even the foster father who whipped her with a belt for forgetting to clean the bathroom didn’t look like he enjoyed it as much as Beckett did when trying to kill Link. Rion almost laughed at herself. Clearly, she had imagined it. She was in a panic and it is almost pitch black in here. A kid isn’t capable of that kind of villainy? Right? “Beckett?” The kid didn’t respond. “Beckett?” Rion tried again. “Let’s go back to bed.”

She reached out to lift the kid off the floor, but as soon as she touched her the stillness exploded. Beckett began screaming and flailing. It wasn’t a scream of fear. It was rage. The kid’s teeth were bared and her eyes were burning again. White fire scorched her neck as Beckett tried to claw her face. Rion jerked her head back in time and the tiny, razor-like nails missed their target but got her throat instead. She tried to restrain the kid, but, even though she was small, she was strong. And she had the advantage of surprise.

“Beckett!” Rion cried, wrestling with teeth, arms, fingernails, feet and legs all at once.  Stars burst in her eyes when Beckett’s head slammed into her nose. Her vision took a second to return and by the time it did, Beckett had scrambled away into the corner of the closet. Rion touched her nose, expecting her fingers to come away covered in blood. But, they were clean. Her eyes watered, but she didn’t think her nose was broken.

She watched Beckett for a moment. Can a night terror cause this? Wouldn’t she wake up by now? Rion had no idea—so she gave up. She knew fighting with the kid would only cause more damage. “Beckett…I’m…I’m just going to let you stay in here. I’m—I’m sorry. OK?”

Rion backed out of the closet. That was so fucked up. She sat on the edge of the bed and rested her head in her hands. When Chambers finds out about this I’ll be lucky not to be in jail. But, would Beckett even remember this? Rion’s skin crawled. She felt like a monster. She had physically attacked a kid she was supposed to be caring for. But, a reasonable voice in her head began, the kid attacked a cat. And she attacked you. Rion knew that was shitty semantics, but she found some comfort in it anyway.

About the Author:FB-Twitter
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Brandy was born and raised in Lexington, KY, but moved around a bit since then. Currently, she lives outside of Chicago and writes when she's not working to make the world a better place (her day job is at a nonprofit).

If one person enjoys the stories in her head, she's happy. And inspired to keep going. If you keep reading, she'll keep writing. Just kidding--she's gonna write even if no one is reading.
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2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the great excerpt. I would love to read so much more.

    ReplyDelete
  2. interesting cover and this sounds like a good one
    sherry @ fundinmental

    ReplyDelete