Releasing Wednesday - On the Edge of Nowhere

 Cover Image: Erin Dameron-Hill Graphics

Gina comes face to face with Hungry House's terrible Mistress.

* * * * 

The terror had ended. Success was in sight. Gina’s heart beat with hopeful excitement. She ascended a white marble staircase set in the side of a mountain. The fog had become clouds, white and cottony, as soft as a cat rubbing her cheek when she brushed against them. Golden light passed through those over her head, a heavenly glow.

She emerged above them. The light was a blazing brightness that she blinked against. The mountaintop was less than a dozen steps more. She was going to make it. Her face ached from the joyful smile stretching it.

Up, up, up, she floated rather than climbed. She stood on the flattened peak, above the white billowy blanket. Before her stretched a walkway, a continuation of the stairs’ white marble, but pulled taut and smooth.

Gina’s eagerness faltered. The walkway ended at a throne made of more polished stone threaded with the finest black and silver veins. A woman sat upon it.

Gina had seen her before. In some dream, she’d encountered the terrible and beautiful entity, she of hooked nose, alabaster skin, and round, hairless head, a character of a strange and singular magnificence.

Gina knew who she was. She was the Mistress of Hungry House and its awful gauntlet of brutal landscapes.

Gina’s first impulse was to turn and race down the stairs, to re-enter the fog’s gloom filled with whispers, the fog that had swallowed Iz. Thoughts jumbled through her brain, chaotic and half-formed: She’ll destroy me. The terms are unfulfilled. Petals yet to gather…

“Come closer. Let’s examine what you’ve managed to accomplish after all this time.” The words drifted to her, leaves on the wind. The Mistress’ command was as clear as if she’d spoken inches away, rather than the length of a football field.

Gina’s foot lifted and stepped forward. Its twin followed suit.

Not yet. Not like this.

She stopped. The terror that filled her made no sense, but Gina couldn’t stop it from rising.

“I said, come here.”

Again, her feet obeyed the other, rather than her own desperate objections. Her teeth ground together in a silent, desperate snarl. Gina halted once more.

“You’ve improved since our last encounter. I applaud your determination.” The woman on the throne sounded anything but pleased. Her tone suggested she’d prefer to rip Gina’s throat out rather than cheer her accomplishments.

“You were in my dream of the flowers.” Gina squinted. She wanted a better look, though she had no intention of approaching her.

Funny how she could see every detail from such a distance. The Mistress’ chestnut eyes were rimmed with red. Her gown was red too. It shimmered, as if made of flames and lit the Mistress’ ivory skin with a warm hue. Gorgeous.

Monstrous. The taste in Gina’s mouth was metallic, the flavor of revulsion and betrayal.

She did know this creature. Yet when she tried to remember how, only the vision of attaching petals to flowers appeared.

Smugness radiated from the Mistress. It buffeted Gina despite the distance between them. “It’s hopeless, you know. It’s taken you millennia to get this far. The universes will end before you finish.”

“It hasn’t been millennia. Three months, four at the most.” Gina swallowed a sob and shoved aside the bitter knowledge of how much time she’d lost in the house. Her mother wouldn’t have given up hope yet, but her grief would be terrible. If Gina failed to make it out, if she remained trapped, forced to fight her way through the various worlds within the rooms over and over…

She steeled herself. She was in the Mistress’s presence, at the top room, however it had happened. Gina had a vow to keep.

“Why are you doing this? What sick pleasure do you get from making people suffer in this place? Why do you torture so many?”

“I?” The single word was couched in disbelief, as if she couldn’t believe her ears. “I did this? You blame me?”

“Then who, if it wasn’t you? Aren’t you in charge here?” Gina realized she walked toward the Mistress. She jerked to a halt, startled at their abrupt closeness.

“You set this in motion, darling child. This is on you.” The Mistress wore a smirk that failed to diminish her beauty. She was beautiful, uncanny but flawless. Yet her cruel expression destroyed whatever appeal she might have claimed.

She was, in fact, a most vile entity. Gina fought against the panicked urge to run, though her body trembled with loathing.

She tried to ignore a peculiar itching sensation in her mind, a tickle of untouchable familiarity. “I’m just a teenager. Before I came here, all I wanted was to win a scholarship and go to the homecoming dance with a cute guy.”

“Then why did you come?”

“I’m here because my friends are in danger. I want to save them, and the others trapped in here.”

“Why?”

Gina stared at her in disbelief. “Why do I want innocent people to not be snatched from their families and slaughtered over and over? Are you seriously asking me that question?”

“It’s the question that matters. What would you do to save them? Would you kill for them? Would you sacrifice yourself? Are they worth giving up all you have? All you are?”

Of all the scenarios Gina might have envisioned once she confronted the Mistress of Hungry House, a philosophical debate wasn’t among them. However, the sly smile her opponent wore told Gina this wasn’t a debate. If it were, she’d have a chance of winning. The Mistress goaded her. She was a cat playing with a mouse. Gina’s protests were pointless.

It should have left her feeling hopeless. Instead, she was angry. Furious to the point of recklessness. Mattie-angry. Gina bared her teeth at the woman.

“I’m getting out. I’m taking us all out. When I do, you’d better believe I’ll destroy this place, and you with it!”

The Mistress shot to her feet. Her features twisted in hatred. “Wretch! I regret none of it!” she shrieked. Her hand shot forward, as if she’d push Gina.

She did push Gina, despite being too far away to touch her. The girl flew backward through the air, thrust an impossible distance. She shot beyond the edge of the mountain’s precipice, beyond the stairs.

Gravity took hold, and Gina plunged. Down, down, through the clouds, she hurtled toward the ground and picked up speed. Her hair streamed overhead and crackled like fire.

* * * *

Those who step inside Hungry House never return. But when the abandoned house on the edge of town is ready to feed, it won’t be denied. 

Inquisitive Gina and her impulsive best friend Mattie know better than to enter the abandoned Victorian. The mansion on the edge of Nowhere, Georgia, has a reputation for ‘eating’ those who dare to step inside. Yet when another friend and her younger brother disappear after last being seen heading toward Hungry House, Gina and Mattie have no choice but to follow.

Inside, they find every door is a gateway to a new nightmare. Even death is no escape—it only sends the unlucky trespassers back to the start of Hungry House’s gauntlet. Their only hope is to survive long enough to confront the house’s mistress, an inhuman being whose lust for vengeance is as immortal as she.

Releasing in two days on October 25. Pre-order now: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, Smashwords.

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