Here’s an excerpt of The Dark Hero, a sequel to my book Accursed Red. Check it out if you like dark fantasy and science fiction, and enjoy!

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Rêve

Cotton pillows resting heavy mounds of golden hair; pale skin and the dryness night had on a child’s throat; a window slightly ajar thus permitting the night air to penetrate blanket-less bodies; dreams of dreams one would never remember.

That was what made them live. What made the child more afraid than ever before.

A quiet and sleepy life she had lived, not a single moment of it any more terrifying then almost falling down a stair step, or dropping her doll into the stream. The Landes forest sheltered her small home from the world, the home that housed herself and her baby brother and doting parents, and wrapped them all up like peaceful gifts in a basket.

How could she dream of such a horrifying place? A place so dark that only the falling snow could light it. A place so in ruins that monsters from below rose like flames to the surface. A place so evil that no matter how far (or even how real) it was, it presented a real sense of imminent danger.

Maybe a world like this did exist, the child reasoned once she finished crying. But even if it did, she would not tell a soul. Not the baby, not her parents, not her school teacher and playmates. What would they know? How would they be able to comfort her? She decided she would keep this world to herself, or change it up into a nice story to read in front of the class. This world was hers to fear and ponder.

Long lashes fluttering against her pillow, the child fell fast asleep, continuing her life of serenity and slumber, and never again dreaming of her Dark Earth.

A place very real and very dead.