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
Book Description:
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
Are some secrets worth dying for?
Book Trailer
Excerpt
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 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
