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| In darkness lies seduction. And in secrecy and secret rituals performed in dark and hidden gardens........... |
| at www.extasybooks.com |
| cover art by Martine Jardin |
| Reaching out, I grasped the white and rounded object and tugged. First gently, expecting it to move easily at my touch, then harder and harder as I realized it had buried itself deep in the eroded soil I knew, almost from the instant my palm came into contact with its smooth and even surface, what it was. But it took one more tug, one more hard and furious pull with fingers biting into the sandy soil surrounding the buried thing, to set it free. So suddenly that I sprawled gracelessly across the fading grass, spread-eagled in a position of which Gardner would have whole-heartedly approved, staring straight up at the cloudless and sun-shot October sky. And my hand, the one that clutched as if it would never let go the thing I'd unearthed, flew up and back so that I found myself face to face with... I screamed. As I'd not known I was capable of screaming. The sound tore from my throat, emptying my lungs of all air without difficulty, leaving no breath behind. And even when the last of my breath had gone, even when I knew further screaming was impossible, I continued to try. Scrabbling to my feet, slipping awkwardly in my frenzy, I flung the object away...thought I flung it. And ran, blind-eyed and unthinking, in the first direction that presented itself. I found the break in the hedge as easily and effortlessly as if I'd known exactly where it was. Mindless with horror, I ran through it...ran headlong into the narrow side street beyond. Regaining my breath, I found myself screaming again. In an utter frenzy of screaming, flying across the sidewalk and onward. Straight into the path of an oncoming car I never saw until I collided with it. A jolting but glancing blow with the side of it that flung me backward to the ground, still screaming like the world had come to an end. Brakes squealed. I heard a door open, then slam, and through my fog of ever-escalating terror, the sound of a man's voice filled with alarm and concern. "Jesus, Lady, are you all...what the hell?" Dazed, unable to form a rational answer, I stopped screaming. But was able only to shake my head. Weakly. "Put the skull down, Lady." The man's voice took on a new authority. An inarguable one. And that was right, because squinting up at him as my vision began to clear and reality to return, I saw that he was a police officer. "S...skull?" My voice came out thick. Ragged. Stupid with confusion. The officer had been joined by a second. "That's right," the second man said. "The skull. The one you have in your hand. Just put it down, and tell us where it came from." Still barely able to think, I looked at my hand. The object I'd been so certain I'd thrown away seconds before was still there. And it was without doubt a skull. Grinning. Eyeless. A human skull. |
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