Dust to Dust

by Karina Halle

  “Do you, Daniel Palomino, give your daughter Perry away to this man, Dex Foray?” the officiant asked.

  My father nodded, smiling at Dex for what seemed like the first time ever. “That I do.” Then he quickly pulled Dex into a tight embrace. I looked behind me at Rebecca and Ada and they both looked like they wanted to cry. My god, who knew weddings were such a tearjerker.

  There were a few claps and my father went and sat down in the front row next to my uncle Al and his sons, Matt and Tony, all of them looking content. Uncle Al winked at me before I turned back to Dex and the officiant.

  The man started speaking, a deep but jovial voice that immediately put Dex and I at ease. That said, I was holding onto Dex’s hands for dear life, as if I’d disappear if I let go. When I wasn’t listening to the officiant, I was staring at Dex, as deep as I could, and nothing else out there mattered.

  I wished it hadn’t all passed by in a blur, but it did. We said our vows. Dex looked teary-eyed. When I looked at my father, I got teary-eyed. When it came time to put the rings on each other’s fingers, Dex dropped mine and it rolled under the gazebo. Thank god for Matt and his skinny alien-like arms that managed to reach under and pull it out.

  He gave it back to Dex who blew on it and then, after a shrug to the crowd, proceeded to put the sparkling diamond band on my finger. It settled next to my vintage engagement perfectly.

  Then came the kiss. Dex put his hands behind my neck and head and pulled me in close and tight. The kiss was deep, sweet, and hot. And more than that, it meant something. It meant everything. This was just the start. After everything, this was just the start.

  I couldn’t wait to begin.

  After we signed all the right papers and were pronounced husband and wife, we joined hands and walked down the aisle. I made note to look at every single person that I passed, to take them in, to appreciate what they were in my life and to silently thank them for coming.

  To my surprise I found myself looking into the eye of Curtis O’Shea, his wife Margaret sitting beside him in the back row. I smiled at him, just in case Dex didn’t see him, to let him know it meant something for him to come.

  We were immediately whisked off to have photographs taken. Our photographer was a goof, which was great since we were too. After our sessions were done with ourselves, my dad and my uncle and cousins got involved, as did the bridal party. I briefly brought up to Dex that I had seen his father. It was his call if he wanted to involve him.

  Of course it was all too soon and too much for Dex to include him in something like this, but Dex at least seemed happy about his presence. Baby steps, it was all about the baby steps.

  The reception was an absolute blast. There were roast-like speeches done by Dean and Rebecca and my uncle told one that had people laughing until they were crying. Then, people actually were crying. My dad got up and said his speech. By the end, when he’d finished telling me how proud my mother would be of me, he broke down in tears. Everyone in the house followed.

  But it was okay, because the tears meant she was loved and wouldn’t be forgotten. I leaned into Dex while holding Ada’s hand under the table. We all felt her there, even if we couldn’t see her. We felt loved and we felt pride. It was beautiful.

  When that was over and we stuffed ourselves with food, it was time for the first dance. Only our first dance was a bit different.

  Dex led me out to the dance floor and whirled me around, no sound. Then he grinned at me and went over to the DJ, who handed him a wireless microphone. After a moment, the music, a slow but familiar piano melody, started playing.

  “What the hell?” I whispered to him. “I thought we were dancing to Led Zeppelin?”

  He kept on grinning. “Not a chance,” he said and then the music came in louder. It was none other than Herb Alpert’s “This Guy’s In Love With You” but covered by Faith No More. He removed his jacket and whirled it somewhere into the crowd of people, someone crying out as if they were smacked in the face with it. I hoped there wouldn’t be a potential lawsuit.

  He put his arm around me and he microphone up to his mouth.

  “They say this guy’s,” he sang deeply with a wide, cocky grin, “this guy’s in love with you.”

  I was instantly transported back to Seattle, when he and I weren’t even dating yet, at the Christmas party for Shownet. Rebecca had been there, Dean and Seb, too. Dex had delivered the most amazing karaoke rendition of this song, something that knocked me on my ass and made me realize just how much I had fallen for him and what I would go through to get him.

  Now it was pretty much doing the same thing. But this time, he was singing it to me, no mistake, and dancing at the same time. Our first dance and I was being serenaded.

  He leaned back, eyes closed in passion, and belted out, “I need your love. I want your love.” He looked at me, deep in the eyes and sang with perfection, the kind of powerful, confident voice that soared to the heavens, “Say you’re in love with this guy.”

  I could only grin right back him. My heart had melted somewhere inside me and I was just this pile of newly married goo. I’d never felt more swoony in my life and I was swooning all for him. My husband.

  Needless to say, it was hard to keep my hands off of him for the rest of the reception. Somewhere between The Chicken Dance and the Deftones, we fucked off to the bathroom for a little fun. Unfortunately, the bathrooms were occupied and when we finally found a corner of the hotel where I could ride him up against the wall, we were interrupted by Ada, who was a bit drunk and looking for some guy called Jay.

  The sex had to wait. I suppose it made it more special that way, though in my mind it was hard to get more special than being fucked in a wedding gown. I mean, there are only so many times you can have that happen.

  So we went back to reception and watched as the guests grew tired and retreated to their rooms or the very long drive back to Seattle. Dex even managed to talk to his dad and stepmother for about a half hour while I was doing makeshift beer pong with Tony and Matt. It was nice, just knowing that despite everything and everyone we had lost, we still had our families and were about to start a new one.

  When there was just ten drunks milling around on the dance floor to all the bad songs, Dex and I quickly left, like we were fleeing the scene of a crime. It was late and we were unbelievably tired and if we were going to consummate this marriage, we had to do it now.

  We went up to our suite – gorgeous and spacious – and he carried me through the door in his arms before depositing me on the bed

  “Well, well, well,” he said, grabbing under my dress and pulling me towards the edge of the frame. “This is the first time I get to sleep with Mrs. Dex Foray. She’s sexier than I had imagined.”

  “You better believe it,” I told him, spreading my legs wider. I was wearing sky blue lace panties. My borrowed was the sparkle pins in my hair, the old was my engagement ring and the new was my dress. I had at least made some kind of an effort.

  I’d also gotten a full-on bikini wax. There was that too.

  Dex pulled off my underwear with his teeth and then moaned with admiration.

  “I think I’m going to like married life a lot,” he murmured before his tongue snaked up the inside of my thighs.

  “Me too,” I said, my hips automatically arching for his tongue.

  He didn’t disappoint. He never did.

  We fucked, made love, had sex as husband and wife. It felt better than I could have ever thought. Our relationship was consummated. Things were reborn. They were given life and new beginnings. We were given hope for the future.

  And afterward, while I lay there in his arms, me his wife and he my husband, I realized I didn’t know what the future held. But I knew it held Dex.

  And that was more than good enough for me.

  That was everything.

  Acknowledgements

  I can’t even…

  Ah, but wouldn’t that be the cop-out – to say it’s too difficult to thank everyone
who has helped and inspired me on this journey so I won’t.

  But I will.

  The idea for Experiment in Terror came during a drive through the rural landscape of Ontario. Kind of an odd place for it since I had never been to Ontario before that (LIVE AND DIE ON THE WEST COAST!) but while I was staring outside the window of my ex-boyfriend’s family’s car I started dreaming about Perry Palomino.

  Yes, that’s right. My girl Perry, she came first. Ada came second. Dex…he eventually came around. Anyway, I started thinking about the books I used to love reading…Baby-Sitters Club, Nancy Drew, Fear Street. I wanted to take that emotional connection that you feel to certain characters as you follow them through a series but I wanted to put it in a dark and scary setting. Something modern and new that I could keep going for a while, with the same romantic and sexual tension as The X-Files.

  I’m not really sure when Dex came into the picture as “Dex” but at some point I stopped thinking about EIT as a series (or let’s face it, a book – Darkhouse) I would one day write and I decided to write it. I needed an enigmatic young man (back then, Dex was totally inspired by my love of musician Mike Patton) as the love interest as so Dex was born. And then I put it all together by committing to writing every single day for a month. Six weeks later, the first draft of Darkhouse was born. See, I was always able to write fast

  Of course the first draft totally sucked balls and barely resembles the book you read today (and even that book needs a lot of work but whatever, it was my first book ever and I’m still proud of it). Thankfully, after that learning curve of a book, I really became efficient at the writing process and I never had to do that first draft overhaul ever again.

  Red Fox took me about a year to write because I was doing music journalism stuff and only wrote on occasion. I remember at the time voicing my thoughts to someone I knew “what if they call the show Experiment in Terror, after the Fantomas song Experiment in Terror?” and he said, “No, that sucks, don’t bring down Fantomas by doing that” and I did it anyway. Ha! Whatever. The drummer for Fantomas, Dave Lombardo (also was in Slayer, obviously) has read both Darkhouse and Red Fox and he loves the name (and the books!), so fuck you. Also Dave Lombardo is awesome. I have a very distinct memory of giving him a paperback copy of Red Fox and he and his son started singing the damn Tomahawk song that I named the book after. One of the coolest moments ever! I’ll never forget it, it was like the art that I created and the art I admired all came together.

  Where was I? Oh yeah. Have you noticed the musical them in the EIT series? Darkhouse’s original name was From Out of Nowhere, a Faith No More song, but I later changed it to a non-song title. But Red Fox is the aforementioned Tomahawk song, Dead Sky Morning was inspired by a Team Sleep song (Kool-Aid Party). Lying Season is a B-side Alice in Chains song. On Demon Wings is from Bohren and Der Club of Gore. Into the Hollow is a Queen of the Stone Age song (and obviously, Josh Homme was the inspiration for our favorite ginger), Come Alive is Foo Fighters and Ashes to Ashes is, finally, Faith No More. Dust to Dust is not named after anything – just like Darkhouse. Full circle and all that.

  But enough music talk. I can’t properly explain the publishing journey, from when I first released Darkhouse on May 13th, 2011, to now, releasing Dust to Dust on July 29th, 2014. Hell, it’s not even being released by me in the UK, it’s being done by Piaktus, an imprint of Little Brown. It’s got a freakin’ publisher! It’s been three years of pain and sorrow and happiness and joy. EIT was life-changing to me, it truly was. It still isn’t the most popular series – most readers don’t know who Dex Foray is and I think that should be rectified – but it was the series that put me on the “map” as an author, getting people to appreciate me and my work and gave me the skill that I later translated into other books. To put simply, EIT made me better in every way.

  And for that, I have to thank a lot of people. Some were only there in the beginning, some were only there in the end. But they all matter.

  In no freaking particular order, each of these people either read and loved the books or helped with the books – Scott MacKenzie, Kelly St-Laurent, my parents Tuuli and Sven, Kara Malinczak, Najla Qamber, Kass Healy, Mollie Caselli, Talar K, Nadia, Alex St-Laurent, Tami McColgan, Megan Caffery, Wendy Kennedy, Amanda Sanderson, Stephanie Brown, Megan Simpson, Jamie Sager Hall, Tressa Sager, Marj, Jen Hall, Amy Harmon, RL Griffin, Megan Ward O’Connell, Brenna Weidner, Rebecca Espinoza, Andrea Thompson, Rhiannon Frater, Dave Lombardo, Marc Paschke, Odette Gauthier, Wendy MacKenzie, Autumn, Laura Helseth, Michelle Duncan, Nina Decker, Sandra Cortez, Bret Taylor, Lindsay Bayne, Robin Stranahan, Maryse Courtier Black, Sundae Colletti, Paula Novack, Kirsten Papi, Sherry Overhost Durst, Joanna Wylde, Carey Heywood, Lori Parker, Carmen Jenner, Brandon Lemmons, Kelli Brown, Andrew Barber, Laura MacKenzie, Ali Hymer, Nadine Colling, all the people on Goodreads with “Dex” in their name, Sarah Chauncy, Mike Shearer, Kayla Veres, Bill Gould, Lucia, Amy Bartol, Scott Waxman, Latoya Smith, Amanda Polito, Rachel Sharp, Kimberly Cheeseman, Janice Pia, Emily Franke, LH Cosway, Taylor Haggerty, Farley Chase, Conner Galway, all them Twitter peeps who embraced me from the start, Jenny Bragdon, Sarah and Scott Trudeau, Robyn Summers, Lea Marika, Paula Roper, Chelcie Holguin, Rachel Hartman, Niki Jefford, Jill McIntosh, Dale De Ruiter, Matt Sardof, Crystal Chapman, Candice Roach, Kira Knappet, Linda Knappet, Tara Sivec, Barbie Fucking Messler, Lisa Chamberlain, Lise, Liis, Barbara Lopez, Madeline Sheehan’s sister, Bonnie, Heidi, Tray Davis, Krystle Zion, Bob Hele, Chelsea M. Cameron

  Finally…is this the end of Experiment in Terror? For reals?

  Yes. Sorry. The show is done. The series is over.

  Does that mean we’ll never see Dex and Perry again?

  I have no plans to continue their story – though I will be continuing Ada’s in a shorter series and you will see them there from time to time – but I also “never say never.” If I do choose to revisit Dex and Perry one day, it will probably be a single book, set further in the future for this duo, and for you and I, I’m talking about 2016 and beyond. So nothing to get too excited about because my mind is a fickle beast and who knows if God allows me to still be writing that far ahead. But, just so as you know, the world is full of possibilities.

  But for now, this is where you and I and Dex and Perry say goodbye.

  May they haunt you in your dreams and everyday life as they do in mine.

  If you’ve enjoyed this book, please send me an email, I’d love to hear from you and maybe answer any unanswered questions (please note that I can’t always get back to everyone because I am a scatterbrain, but I do read every email): authorkarinahalle@gmail.com