Sneak Preview

This is my first book. Approximately going to be 300 pages in length

Genre: Sci-fi/Romance

Dyrition Mates

Book 1 Anaria and Ay’don

“Shit!”

I’m violently shaken out of a dead sleep. It’s pitch black, and everything is moving, falling and crashing around me. I jerk to a sit in bed, but the house is shaking so hard that sitting up just makes things worse. I flop back down and try to get grip on the bed. As I’m deciding if I should run to the door frame or to roll under the bed, the lights in the house turn on. They brighten to a binding white, and a high frequency buzz begins to sound over the noise of the earthquake. I flinch as the light bulbs in my room pop and shatter. I scream just as everything comes to a sudden stop, my voice echoing through the empty house. Panting from fear, my heart is racing and blood is pounding in my ears, but like some ridiculous cliché scary movie: it’s dark, and quiet…too quiet. I sigh and shake my head at myself.

Get ahold of yourself Anaria. It was just an earthquake.

I sit up again and swing my feet off the bed. I pause, trying to get my breathing under control and waiting for aftershocks, when a bright green light suddenly flashes through my window.

What the hell was that? 

I’m not curious enough to go look out the window, so I stick my feet into my slipper that I wedged in my bed frame and slide off. I shuffle slowly toward the bedroom door, trying to navigate in the dark. I glance around to look for my alarm clock and see it halfway across the room, blinking bright red numbers: 3:04 am.

My dresser has miraculously stayed almost in place. I crouch down and grab my flashlight from the bottom drawer. I shuffle my way into to the hallway, glass crunches under my feet, making me extremely glad that I just put on my slippers

I head towards the living room, feeling along the walls. I’m hoping there isn’t too much damage to the house, but I’m sure it’s a pipe dream. Lord knows I can’t afford to replace anything right now but it would be just my luck that I would have to replace everything. The floorboards creak as I continue to shuffle forward. I shine the light up to look at the busted light sockets. I stop once I clear the living room doorway and move the light over the room.

“Shit”

The living room is destroyed. Of course it is. I sigh deeply as I reach the middle of the room, turning in a circle to assess the damage. The couch has shifted a few feet from its original spot and its ottoman is nowhere to be seen. The lamps are busted and the tiny box TV is shattered. All of my paintings are on the floor with cracked frames. I move to the fireplace and look around for my old family photo. I find it broken and wedged beneath a side table. I pull the picture from the frame and sigh.

At least the picture isn’t damaged.

I hold the picture to my chest and think of the old faded words on the back, “EMBRACE ADVENTURE!”. My mother wrote it ages ago it seems. I smile at the fond memories of my parents. We traveled everywhere together and I lost them on the one trip I wasn’t able to go on. This is the last picture I have of the three of us in Greece. I tuck the picture into the pocket of my sleep shorts.

 I begin to move again towards the kitchen but freeze in my steps as I hear a creaking in the hallway. I shine my flash light down the hall but I’m at a weird angle so I can’t see all the way down. My body begins to tingle with adrenaline.

“The house is settling Ria, calm down”.

I try to calm myself down, but then I hear it again.

Now, I’m not stupid. I’ve seen enough scary movies to know exactly what not to do.  I’m not going to scream. I’m not going to ask “who’s there?’ like they’ll tell me they’re in the kitchen making sandwiches. What I am going to do is continue to quietly move toward the front door and run like hell. I flip off my flashlight so I don’t give away my location and immediately realize how idiotic that is. Now I cant see.  I move faster toward the front door and I hear the noise again, a hell of a lot closer than it was before.

“Don’t turn around. Don’t turn around. They’re always right behind you when you turn around. Stop thinking and run stupid!”.

I try to take my own advice and turn but as soon as I make it a few feet, I stumble and nearly fall. I throw my hands out to brace myself but I slide off the smooth surface and onto my knees.

Oh goodie, I found the fucking ottoman.

My knees are killing me but I need to keep moving. I push off of my hands and begin to stand back up. The creaking picks up again and I begin to get frantic but freeze when I hear a deep, growling voice:

“Mine”