by James Sperl
“You could say that.” Andrew glanced at the cash register. A phantom facsimile of Clarissa reached for a to-go bag from the pass-through. She vanished as she turned to ring it up. Andrew looked up at the man. “How long have you been here?”
“About a month or so. Came down from Tacoma. This place seemed pretty tame in comparison to where we'd been, so we stuck around. And I'd go so far as to say it's gotten even better in the past three days. Ever since that big boom in the sky. Did you hear it?”
Andrew offered a tight-lipped grin. “I did.”
“People everywhere are talking about how things feel different now. Some are even saying that they think the Sound is gone for good.”
“Wouldn't that be something.”
“Indeed it would.” The man smiled instead of saying anything further. “So can I bring you something? Dawn makes a mean eggs Benedict.”
“Would it be okay...” Andrew started. He had to take a breath to finish the second half of his sentence. “...if I just started with some water?”
“Not a problem. Take your time.”
The man peeled away, stopping to check on a nearby table before he headed to the kitchen. He wasn't back there five seconds before his wife peeked over the bar to look at Andrew. Andrew turned away and looked out the window.
So much destruction. Pastora was a small town, but the damage it had sustained was severe. Andrew couldn't begin to imagine how population centers pushing a million or more people must look. The task of rebuilding seemed insurmountable.
He spied a mother and her daughter, who was perhaps four-years-old, walking on the sidewalk toward the restaurant. The mother stopped to pick up a toppled garbage can and set it away from the road then proceeded to collect the trash that swirled around her in a gentle breeze. She clawed for the papers and wrappers until she contained every last scrap then stuffed it all into the can. Taking her daughter by the hand, she continued down the walk. More drifts of garbage roiled at the woman's feet, but she was unconcerned with those. Her daughter shot at the refuse with a toy gun that spat bubbles.
Crossing the street, the mother and daughter proceeded along the sidewalk adjacent to Andrew's window. The daughter turned her pistol to the trees and shot bubbles at complacent birds and excitable squirrels, her tiny mouth contorted into a knot that made explosive sounds. She saw Andrew looking at her as she passed by. She pointed her weapon at him and fired.
Andrew brought his hand weakly to his chest and pretended to recoil as if struck. He slumped onto the glass and let his eyes fall shut, the girl erupting with satisfied glee before she and her mother continued along.
It felt good not to move. So that's what Andrew did.
He was so very, very tired.
* * *
Thank you for purchasing the Kindle version of The Sound. If you know anyone who might also enjoy reading it, I would really appreciate it if you put in a good word. And, if it's not too much trouble, I'd like to ask a favor: If you enjoyed The Sound even just a little, would you be so kind as to review it? It could be as little as entering a simple star rating or writing a single sentence. Anything that can provide others with some perspective. Your voice does matter.
If the The Sound was your jam, I invite you to check out some of my other books, Beneath, The Sleep of the Gods, The Ring, and The Mosquito Syndrome, as well as books one and two of my young adult trilogy, entitled Sideland and Centrinis, respectively. Keep scrolling to learn more about each one.
As always, your support is more than appreciated. For more information about me and my books, visit www.jamessperl.com. Thanks for reading!
Sincerest Thanks,
James Sperl
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For Colin Falsted, moving into his uncle's dilapidated old house was supposed to mark a new beginning.
Sure, the decision was rash, and, yes, the home's remote location was less than ideal, what with it being situated in the vast flatlands of Eastern Colorado's Great Plains, but the drastic switch was just what the doctor ordered to wipe the slate clean and put his troubled past behind him.
At least that was the plan.
No sooner does Colin arrive than strange noises and upsetting images begin to plague his transition. Then there's the mystery surrounding his Uncle Bernard, whom Colin has not seen since he was a boy. Driven to learn the reason behind his uncle's inexplicable disappearance from his childhood, Colin digs into the house's many secrets. In so doing, he uncovers horrors he couldn't have begun to imagine, the disturbing revelations proving the old adage that beneath the surface, nothing and no one is as they seem.
It has been a traumatic eleven months for sixteen-year-old Cam Jeffries.
Ever since his mother, Naomi, vanished without a trace nearly a year ago, he and his father have been trying to reassemble the pieces of their shattered lives. But just as they achieve as close to a normal existence as humanly possible, Cam's chance encounter with a sadistic, vile murderer—known as the Bull's-Eye Killer—throws their already fragile household on its ear.
Narrowly escaping with his life, and unable to quell the nagging questions that plague him as a result of the killer's inconceivable escape, Cam conducts his own investigation. With a keen eye, he unveils a secret world hidden in plain sight of the one in which he lives—a world that exists in parallel with his own. With its discovery he learns there's more to the Bull's-Eye Killer than meets the eye. Much more. But most important of all, Cam stumbles upon the sobering truth that his mother may, in fact, still be alive. Just in the last place he could have possibly imagined.
Narrowly escaping from the Darklands, Cam and Trin have found their way home.
But they have not returned empty-handed. In their possession is a patchwork of crude drawings left to them by the mysterious boy, the assembled images detailing a route to the evasive, and long sought after, Centrinis.
Now they must go back into the Darklands to find it.
Teamed with four of the Authority's premiere Sidelanders, Cam and Trin prepare to revisit the Darklands, a place from which they barely survived the first time. Facing a seemingly never-ending string of perilous worlds amid the constant threat of death, the team must reach Centrinis before Vane launches his interdimensional invasion. Anything less will mean the certain destruction of their home—and their world.
It was viewed by over 12,700 people and captured on more than 8,200 cameras, cell phones and video recorders
The event over Viking Stadion in Stavanger, Norway, would go down as one of the largest mass sightings in recorded history, but a sighting of what no one could be sure. There was no UFO. Not really. In fact, there was no actual object, nor was it flying. For most, the event would simply register as a remarkable atmospheric anomaly, the incident fading from memory as quickly as the mysterious and inexplicable skyborne artifact that had created it.
Then it happened again.
For 15-year-old Eva Morris of Phoenix, Arizona, the "ring" provided a welcome diversion from the recent and tragic abduction of 10-year-old Rory Bastione, a close friend from Eva's Copper Creek Estates community. But as reports of casualties from the site of the Norway ring hit the news cycle days later, Eva can't help but feel that time is of the essence to locate the missing girl in a way she can't yet comprehend. Driven by a secret motivation to find Rory at all costs, Eva's quest leads her into a nightmare from which there is no waking. A place where fear and survival converge, the horror made all the more sinister by the presence of the ring.
It has been six long years since Catherine Hayesly's last vacation.
In another few weeks she and her family will finally commence their dream trip of a lifetime. But then came the call. The one her high-ranking military husband, Warren, had warned might someday arrive. With a fateful string of cryptic words, and violating every security protocol, Warren informs Catherine of an impending world-altering event.
With the clock ticking and her mind reeling, Catherine find
s herself suddenly thrust into a nightmare of global, apocalyptic proportions. Left to fend for herself and her three children in the wake of Warren's information, Catherine must abandon any semblance of her former life and commit to the only thing that now matters: survival. But confronting her at every turn is the event itself and the enigmatic origins surrounding it and all that it has wrought.
Samuel Horvath is as relentless as they come.
A tenacious paparazzo with an insatiable appetite for the hunt, he prides himself on always being able to get "the shot"—no matter the subject, no matter the situation. But after a botched job nearly kills him, Sam is forced to convalesce, relegated to count down the days until his return to the sordid streets of Los Angeles.
But something happened that night.
With a second chance at a life that by all accounts shouldn't be, Sam begins to experience a string of odd, inexplicable and, some might claim, downright mystical occurrences. As word of his miraculous exploits spread, he's forced to grapple with life on the other side of the lens, discovering firsthand the intrusive pitfalls of celebrity. More than the inconvenience of fame, however, will be Sam's struggle to comprehend the purpose for his ever increasing abilities, their origin inextricably linked to a destiny preordained from his youth.
Acknowledgments
The author wishes to thank the most awesome group of red-pen assassins the world has ever seen. Special thanks go out to Sarita Spradlin, Elizabeth Fogt, Noelle van der Straaten, Kim Sperl, and James & Barbara Sperl for their time and selfless commitment to reviewing this book.
Copyright © 2017 James Sperl
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental—and positively horrifying.
Book & Cover Design: James Sperl
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