Never-ending Scene Blogfest (or cliffhanger---whatever) October 25-26

I'm participating in Brenda Drake's Never-ending Scene Blogfest (or cliffhanger---whatever) October 25-26. Check out the other entrants here.

The challenge in this blogfest is to write a new scene or post a scene from your current project that is no more than 500 words, which has a rocking cliffhanger (pun intended). The aim is to leave you hanging, craving more, and cursing my name for making you want to turn a page that isn't there. Easy peasy! Hmm.

Well, here it is, with a total of 455-words. A scene from the end of Chapter 1 of my current YA Horror work in progress, FROM THE OTHER SIDE. Those who participated in Elle Strauss's First Page Blog Fest may recognize the situation my main character, Verity, is currently in. Check out my first page here if you're interested. 

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I still couldn’t remember what had happened to me. I needed to jump to my feet and run. Run away from whatever---whoever---had caused my injuries.

I tried to command my muscles yet again, tried to force them into action. I didn’t even have the strength to move. It was all I could do just to keep sitting there, to stop myself from flopping over onto my side and...

Somebody snickered nearby. I jumped, shocked by the unexpected noise. From the silence in the cave I had thought the girl and I were alone. That they had left us lying here after doing…whatever. That I had plenty of time to force my body to move again.

I jerked around, using all my strength to do so. A boy of eighteen years or so watched the girl and me. He had a smile on his face and a look of excitement in his eyes.

I stared at him, as I struggled to accept he wasn’t going to help me. That he was one of my torturers.

The boy didn’t seem bothered that I was sitting up. He would know there was nowhere for me to go, nothing I could do. I was isolated, unable even to rely on the unconscious girl beside me for help. And the entrance to the cave was a long way away. I could see it over the boy’s shoulder now. I doubted I could even walk there, let alone run.

The boy’s eyes glittered in the candlelight. His expression---his smirk, his look of pride, his piercing gaze---reminded me of a serial killer I had seen on television. My skin crawled. A trick of the light, perhaps. I stared into his face, searching for a single shred of humanity.

“Help me,” I croaked. My mouth felt dry.

The boy didn’t respond.

“Please. Help.” Louder this time.

He was good-looking, even with the nasty-looking scratches on one cheek. I wondered who he was. I guessed the marks on his face came from the girl beside me. She had probably tried to fight him off; they looked freshly-made. I could picture that. I cheered the girl in my mind, even as I wondered whether I had fought as well. Why couldn’t I remember?

“Let us go. Please.”

It was no good. The boy turned away. Contempt and disdain were written clearly on every line of his body.

The boy looked familiar. There was something about him…

The tickle in my memory became a scratch.

Draven.

I finally remembered. The boy was called Draven.

He has another name as well. A normal, everyday name. That’s right, it was Erik. Erik Stabler.

I’d been in love with him for the last five years.

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Hope it's left you wanting more. I'd tell you what happens next, but where's the fun in that ;)

Although, while it's not actually part of my manuscript, I did write a little "alternate scene" for Erica and Christy's Take Your Main Character On A Date Blog Fest (check it out here if you're wanting to sneak in a peek and find out a little about what happens to Verity).