Unpinned
A Paranormal Sequel
Release Date: February 11, 2014
Cover Artist: Mila A. Ballentine
BLURB
Her
life was filled with constant loss and upheaval, but Marie Tousant was eager to
put it all behind her. She leaves Hapville, Louisiana, hoping to find inner
peace on a tropical isle. With Louisiana in her rear view mirror, Marie
attempts to create a path to a normal life, but she soon realizes how
inconsistent a sense of normalcy can be. Haunted by her past in every
conceivable way, Marie recognizes that she can’t run from herself.
Marie’s only ally, Libby Townsend, is thousands of miles away when unsettling
emotions surface and a sense of dread takes hold. A welcome surprise eases her
worries, but it doesn’t last and her world begins to unravel. Evil forces take
hold and tighten their grip; Marie and a sinister being summoned by
practitioners of the Dark Arts clash. In the face of a heroic battle, Marie
Tousant can’t help but wonder if there’s anyone left willing to protect her,
even in the face of death.
PROLOGUE
Marie took one last look around her home. White
sheets covered all of the furniture and the walls were bare. The taxi driver
honked the horn and it echoed inside. She looked at her suitcase and sighed. The
memories of her parents and Granma Tilde tiptoed into her subconscious. They
were all gone. She was all that was left of them and she had to go out into the
world alone. Hopefully the world would be kind and not devour her. Marie opened
the front door, put her suitcases outside, and closed the door behind her.
The night sky illuminated with
a constellation of stars. Marie rolled her suitcases down to the curb; the cab driver
stepped out and put her suitcases in the trunk. They entered the cab and drove
away. Marie lost everything that was dear to her; Libby Townsend was the
closest thing to family that she had left. She said her goodbyes earlier in the
day. Marie didn’t want any erratic emotions to hinder her departure when the
time came.
Libby looked out of her living
room window. Marie made her promise that she wouldn’t come over when she was
about to leave for the airport, but she never said she couldn’t watch. Libby
tried to hold back her tears, but it was inevitable. She looked at the cab
drive away until the rear lights faded. Libby slouched to the floor and cried
silently.
^^^
The bayou was abuzz with lights. The reflection
of a fire reflected on their masked faces. They knelt in a large circle around
the fire, with their heads bowed to the ground. A man huddled against a red oak
tree with a Congo drum clenched between his thighs. His fist struck the drum
and rhythmic sounds flowed through the air.
“Rah!” They responded,
repeating the word every time the drummer hit a specific beat. Their bodies
waved in a serpentine motion, sending their spines into a bell curve.
“Rah!”
The beat changed and they rose
to their feet, pranced, bucked and stomped. Clouds of dust rose to their
waistline and the drummer changed the beat yet again. A figure with a horned
white mask broke through the circle. The fluidity of their movements trickled out
to the bog people who began thrusting their right foot backward, as if they
were about to charge.
The figure was stacked in
hundreds of layers of tree roots that stopped below where a knee should be and
another layer that ended just above the feet came to the forefront. It stomped
and gyrated its body to the Congo beat. The more it moved, the wider the circle
became. Suddenly the figure jumped into the fire and sent flames ten feet into
the air. A face animated within the flames.
The circle closed and the bog
people knelt, and bowed, resting their foreheads to the ground. The drummer’s
beat lowered. A young woman in the group stood up and walked over to where two
cages sat, one with a crow and the other with a dove. She removed them from the
cage, pressed their breasts together, and bound them with barbwire. Their blood
flowed until it became one.
She removed a vial from a
satchel, and drank its contents. The bonded crow and dove fell to the floor. It
didn’t take long for the black mamba’s venom
to send her body into violent twitches as the venom coursed through her veins. She
collapsed. A man in the circle emerged with an ivory handled knife. He knelt
beside her, made an incision just below her navel, and inserted the crow and
dove inside her womb.
Death loomed above her and the
full moon faded when her eyes went black. She had offered herself as a
sacrifice to summon a creature more powerful than the Soucouna. Once the
creature was summoned, it would be nearly impossible to kill it and it possessed
the ability to smell a Silken thousands of miles away.
The drummer’s beat became
erratic and the bog people stomped, jumped, and spun their bodies, until the
last beat hit the drum.
“Rah!”
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THE PREQUEL
BLURB
Marie Tousant was an adventurous child, living a happy life until she had an untimely encounter with an entity in her back yard. From then on, she was no longer the same child, but even so, her parents were determined to maintain some sense of normalcy in her life. Although, they soon realized that, that notion did not apply.
Years later, hunting season begins, but Marie is the prey, pursued by practitioners of the dark arts, and they do not intend to let her slip away this time. However, a conflicting power emerges and shares secrets that may save Marie from the grasp of evil. Regardless of the dangers they face, Marie’s allies are willing to protect her; it becomes clear that Marie is in for the fight of her life, and there is no telling if she will come out of this ordeal alive.
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