SAMPLE THE FIRST TWO CHAPTERS of BETRAYED
ONE
A door slamming makes one jump, but it doesn’t make one afraid. What one fears is the serpent that crawls underneath it. ~ Collette, Cheri
CHICAGO, NOVEMBER, 1956.
Images raced through my mind like pictures in one of those flip books—the kind that look like animation when the pages are fanned. As those images swirled faster and faster, terror consumed me like a raging fire.
Flip. Flip. Flip.
Can’t breathe. Arms… hurt. Legs…hurt. Move. Can’t!
Panicked thoughts hammered at me non-stop. Mama? Where’s Mama? Breathe. Breathe. Mary Margaret. Where’s Mary Margaret?
I tried to cry out, but my tongue hit something wedged in my mouth. My eyes filled with hot tears that dripped onto the sheet already damp with my perspiration.
Concentrate!
Some bits of dust nestled in a leafy design pressed into the plaster ceiling above me commanded my attention. The more I concentrated on them, the more they looked like furry caterpillars, undulating as though they were ready to spin cocoons. The terrible realization hit me like a sledgehammer. This isn’t my ceiling! It’s not my room!
Flip. Flip. Flip.
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