Preview/Back Cover Teaser

This is a passage from a section of the book that gives a glimpse at the vivid picture of haunting violence and the mental process of the story's protagonist illustrated by words.

I awoke disoriented in a sweat. My room was pitch black and it didn’t take me long to realize that it had to have been over one hundred degrees in there. My television was still on displaying only static. For whatever reason, my TV wasn’t giving off any light, there was static, but it didn’t help to illuminate the room. I stood to go and switch it off and almost let loose a scream as my bare feet touched the white-hot floor. After a quick sizzle I fell backwards back onto my bed. I used the remote from my bed stand to switch off the TV and cautiously reached under my bed for my shoes, making sure not to touch the floor and also cursing at myself for not using the remote in the first place. I stood and went to try the light switch: no luck. I thought maybe the power had gone out again, but that wouldn’t explain why my television still worked, and why my alarm clock was still on. It struck me as strange that my alarm clock seemed to be stuck on 11:53, but I had bigger problems. The situation was becoming unbearable; the heat in my room was making me sick to my stomach and making it difficult to breathe. I cracked open my door and instantly felt refreshed as cool air rushed in to greet me. I stepped into the hallway to adjust the A.C. unit towards the far end of the hall. A few steps towards it, I began hearing loud footsteps above my head on the third floor again. My heart sank. My arm hair stood on end and I had horrible goose bumps. I quickly sunk back into my room and closed the door behind me. I went to lock it but soon realized that I had forgotten to install the lock I had purchased earlier. It was then that I noticed the footsteps were beginning to make their way down the staircase onto my floor. I thought quickly, I knew I had to; I grabbed my baseball bat from my closet and went to hide underneath my bed. I had to cover my mouth to keep from screaming as my bare knees sizzled when they touched the floor. I leapt up in anguish and motioned to hide in the corner behind my door. I could feel my blood pumping throughout my body and could hear my every heartbeat. My head was a mess, my vision was going blurry, and the rush of adrenaline was making it hard to stand still and keep my guard up.

As the footsteps crept closer and closer to my door, I knew that I was prepared this time, I was ready to act. My knees cried out in pain from touching the floor as did the bottoms of my feet, but that wasn’t going to stop me. The moment had come. The footsteps had just stopped directly outside my door. I heard loud breathing, with a slight wheeze, as if this person had been a heavy chain-smoker. Bat in hand, I was ready for anyth-

SLAM! The door flew open and hit me straight in the face. I felt my face already swelling as I lost my grip on the bat and fell to the floor. I cried out in agony as my bare skin made contact with the still-sizzling floor. Dazed, I scrambled for the baseball bat. As I managed to grab it, I felt a heavy boot stomp on my hand and kick the bat out of reach. I couldn’t help but to let out another yell in pain and looked up to see my attacker. Through blurry eyes I was able to make out the figure of a large man against the nearly pitch black backdrop of my room. Before I could catch any details, I received a steel-toed boot to the face. I fell backwards, my head colliding with the floor, and blacked out.