Even
when the lights are out, he can still see you…
Paul Holten’s profession doesn’t leave
much room for doubt or conscience but he’s reaching his breaking point. The
nightmares are getting worse, the jobs are getting harder to finish and the
volatile relationship with his boss, Aaron, is falling apart. Now faced with
the possibility of an impending death sentence, Paul makes the fatal decision
to run. Drawn into one hellish situation after another, he’s forced to confront
his dark past---and wonder if perhaps dying isn’t the better option.
Excerpt
They had to get out of there—and fast—but he couldn’t see a
thing…
Jesus,
it was dark.
It
was disorienting in its completeness, in its total lack of light. In his
lifetime, Paul had had his sight temporarily taken from him many times. Mostly
by people who didn’t want to be looked at or identified if—God forbid—something
went wrong. But there had always been some degree of light leaking through the
blindfold or a shift in someone’s hand that was clamped tightly over his eyes,
or the loose weaves in a rut-sack that was tied around his head. He’d always
been able to see something.
This,
however, was like the deepest part of the ocean. This was like having his eyes
glued shut. This was what it meant to be blind.
The
air grew colder and with that came the struggle to breathe. He didn’t know if
it was claustrophobia but it came pretty damn close. His chest hurt and his
throat felt like someone was cramming cotton into his mouth. He tried to
breathe more slowly, to at least calm the thundering in his rib cage, but the darkness
around him fed the panic that was skating through his bones. The stones beneath
his fingers were wet in some places and icy in others and, under his feet,
things crunched and squeaked like he was stepping through snow and ice.
He
hoped it was snow and ice.
Echoes
came from all sides of him. It was impossible to decipher one sound from the
next. He wondered if people who heard voices were anything like this. Just one
gigantic ball of murmuring sounds and words that didn’t make any sense.
There
was a scraping sound behind him.
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Melissa
Groeling graduated from Bloomsburg University with a degree in English. She
lives, reads and writes in the Philadelphia region and wherever else life
happens to send her. She is a hardcore New York Giants fan and loves chocolate.
Lights Out is her second novel to
date.
Find her at:
Twitter:
@stringbean10
Congrats Melissa! To celebrate, Melissa is giving away an e copy of her novel, LIGHTS OUT, along with some awesome swag for the commenter that shares a scary moment from their past!!!! Good luck!
