The
Haunting of Secrets
Secrets
Series Book One
Shelley R.
Pickens
Genre: YA paranormal
Publisher: Fire
and Ice
Date of Publication: July 24th, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61235-929-8
ASIN: B00M2E3IVK
Number of pages:171 pages
Word Count: 60,643
Cover Artist: Caroline Andrus
Synopsis
Are some secrets worth dying for?
Sixteen-year-old Aimee doesn't like to
touch people. One touch and she sees their past. One graze over her skin and
she can see all the good and bad deeds a person has ever done. It isn't until a
bomb explodes during lunch that she realizes exactly how many dirty secrets the
students in her school harbor-or exactly how far one of them would go to keep
his secrets safe.
In the aftermath of that fateful day of
the bombing Aimee is brushed by a fellow student as they are caught in the mob
running for their lives. Images of tortured and murdered young girls rise up to
choke her. The problem is, Aimee doesn't know who touched her. Somewhere in
this school a fellow student is a killer, and Aimee is the only one that can
find him before he murders again.
With the help of her friends Aimee must
sift through her stolen memories to determine clues. The quest to find a killer
unravels the very fabric of her carefully woven life. He won't stop until he
silences her- for only she knows all his secrets.
She will have to summon all of her inner
strength to decide what she must do: hunt or be hunted.
Are some secrets worth dying for?
Book Trailer: http://youtu.be/cQvKX0rb-Zg
Chapter One
~ A Killer Among Us ~
Everyone in this school is his minion,
his puppet to do with as he pleases. None of them are as intelligent or cunning
as he is. They pass through these halls in this school every day, completely
oblivious to everything important around them. All they care about is that the
football team wins the championship. Or who is dating whom this week. Soon, he
will be the most revered and respected student at school. Everyone will want to
be near him; or at least claim they have some relationship with him, even if it
is as noncommittal as sitting next to him in Spanish class. None can see past
his façade. No one knows who he really is. But what does he care? Their
oblivion serves him well. Without it, he couldn’t do what he really wanted. He
couldn’t pursue his darkest fantasy. This was the perfect life. The life that
he always longed to live and he would do anything to keep it that way.
Chapter Two
~ Everyone That Says School is Hell Isn’t Kidding ~
It’s a normal Wednesday in October when
the world around me is thrown into chaos. Homecoming posters litter the halls
of the school. Outside, leaves scatter and fly about the campus, blanketing
everything in a sheet of crispy brown. There is nothing unusual in the air.
Inside, students fill the halls, chatting with friends and making their way to
their classes. As usual, I am off by myself, sitting in the corner of a hall
studying for a chemistry exam, invisible to everyone else. Well, almost
everyone else.
“Can you please explain
to me why I need to learn what a mole is, when I know it has absolutely nothing
to do with my dream of becoming Zac Efron’s wife?” asked a tall, dark haired,
brown eyed girl from above me, her figure blocking the light.
Looking up at her, I
sigh. I want to feel annoyed by the intrusion, but I just don’t have it in me
to get mad at the only friend I have in my life; the friend who not only knows
my secret but, for some unfathomable reason, doesn’t seem to care. “Well,
Dejana, if you actually understood how a mole works, then you would be able to
see how the molecules interact to make Zac Efron so incredibly hot that it
renders him unattainable for the normal teenage girl. Conversely, that same
molecular reasoning would not allow good old Zac to give you the time of day.”
“Posh,” spit out Dejana,
ignoring every word I just said. “That is simply a piece of science I am more
than willing to overcome.”
I shake my head at her,
yet say nothing, since I truly do wish her dreams would come true for her.
Everyone should have a dream, no matter how unattainable it may be. Dreams are
what keep us moving forward; what gives us hope for the future, no matter how
silly or impractical those dreams may be. I envy Dejana. At least she has
dreams. I have never been able to afford that luxury. I spend way too much time
in the past.
Shaking off the
impending melancholy, I turn my blue eyes to Dejana and say, “Isn’t he dating
someone right now?”
Dejana’s silence tells
me everything I need to know.
“Well, if anyone can
turn him on, it would be you Dejana. And if you need help, I can take care of
Zac for ya, kidnap him even and keep him busy so that he doesn’t go anywhere. I
can tie him up, if that’s what it takes. I would do that for you, my friend. It
would be a hardship, but I’d do it. ”
“That’s my girl,” says
Dejana with a smile. “Now quit sulking and let’s go to math. If we’re late, Mr.
Herring will have our heads.” As usual, Dejana is right.
After enduring a very
long morning of math and chemistry, I am extremely grateful that it’s finally
time for lunch. After grabbing my lunch bag out of my locker, I make my way
down to the cafeteria. I’m late as usual, but I do this on purpose and for a
very good reason. Slowly, I make my way to the doubly long rectangular table by
the attendance office in the corner of the large common area. The cafeteria is
filled with the usual lunch crowd doing their usual things, which involves more
talking and texting rather than eating. No one had any inkling that their lives
were about to change. Or even worse, about to end. There were no signs of
impending doom, no masked man walking around with a detonator. It is just a
normal day with kids eating their lunch. And just like in the movies, it
happens in an instant.
One minute I am quietly
eating my pizza and breadsticks, when suddenly a loud roar fills my ears and an
invisible hand lifts me up out of my seat and flings me into the air. It is
disorienting, but not really scary at first. It feels like I am floating,
looking down upon the wreckage as if experiencing it second hand. I am confused
at first, thinking maybe this was some kind of joke; that some mean kid had
picked up my seat and hurled me across the cafeteria. They tended to do that to
me, since I never fight back; never dare to get within ten feet of them. They
think it is out of cowardice. I know better.
The whole world around
me is moving in slow motion. It isn’t until I am hit in the face with a bloody
hand wrenched completely off at the wrist that I realize the roar I had heard
was a bomb. I begin my descent to the hard floor; my body constantly hitting
pieces of table, metal mixed with plastic from chairs, and chunks of things
stained red that I don’t even want to know where they came from. I hit the
ground on my right side and the contact sends a painful jolt through my
shoulder that travels the length of my body. My gloved hands cover my face to
ward off the feet trampling all around me. The images of body parts flying
through the air and blood spattering on the walls and floor are seared into my
brain. In another life, it could have been art, a pretty mosaic depicting the
tragedies of life. My first instinct is to avoid, at all possible costs, the
touches of the hordes of people that come my way in a desperate attempt to flee
the carnage. I have no idea where I am in the cafeteria anymore. All I know is
that I have to get out, get away from all those people and from all of their
secrets.
About the
Author:
Shelley Pickens is a Spanish teacher by
day and a novelist by night. She’s been in love with everything paranormal
since she can remember. After
years of teaching high school students, she decided to take her firsthand
knowledge of young adults and apply it to her passion for creative writing and
fantasy.
When not teaching or writing, Shelley
likes to spend time with her husband and two beautiful children in Atlanta,
Ga.
Her escape from reality is her love of
complex thriller and science fiction TV series like Supernatural and Sleepy
Hollow. In her spare time she is
an avid watcher of little league baseball.
THE HAUNTING OF SECRETS is her debut
novel.
Publisher: http://www.fireandiceya.com/
Website: www.shelleypickens.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/shelleypickens
~*Tour Giveaway*~
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3 ebook copies of The Haunting of Secrets
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