Prologue and first chapter of my newest book Queeny, The Monster Maker

Prologue

The room was hazy.  Blue smoke drifted in the air.

The air felt moist.  It coated your skin.  It suffocated your pores.  

A single light bulb hung from a frayed electrical cord.  The bulb was tinged yellow from cigarette tar and nicotine.  A fly stuck to it.  It had flown too close. 

It desperately tried to free itself.  It could not.

A raspy, sinister whistling of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” swallowed the room’s silence.

Delicate hands sewed two thick, fleshy pieces of material together.  The needle was large.  The thread, a heavy fishing line.

The material was tough to sew.  It looked like skin.

The stitches were crude. 

When the sewing needle struggled to get free, the whistling stopped.

As the needle released, the hands began to sew again.

The whistling continued where it left off.

The next piece sewn onto the patchwork had hair on it, long human hair.

 Red

Decomposing bodies littered the ground in different stages of rot, and putrefaction.  Bodies propped here and there, some partially buried.  It looked like mannequin pieces littering a park.  The strong smell of death wound its way through the trees and brush.  Swarms of flies filled the air.  It was not a place of violence, nor a place of worship, but a place of study.  The study of body decomposition provided by volunteers who freely gave their bodies after death, for others to learn.  It was called the Body Farm.  

Red, a young man, poured over the information on his iPad.  He was studying the Body Farm at the University of Tennessee.  He had always wanted to study Forensic Science, but had changed careers when his father died.  It had been ten years since his father’s murder, and he had decided that it was time to move on.  It was time to start living for himself, instead of living to catch whoever killed his father.  He had joined the police force like his father, but for that purpose alone.  Now, it was time to let go.  He wanted to find a love, a sweet love, and start a family.  He wanted to be a dad, just like his own.

He lived in a small town, so it was hard to start over there for him.  He had applied to the University of Tennessee Forensic Program, and gotten accepted to start school in the fall.  He had been preparing his mind for the new adventure.  Learning to let go.  He had never lived away from his hometown. 

Being a kind soul, a gentle soul, sometimes hurt him.  He could be too trusting when it came to people.  His family used to joke that it was written all over him, and that he was a mark for women with hidden agendas.  Red had been seeing counselors since his father’s death, and had also been working on boundaries, especially when it came to females.

Red walked over to his closet, and opened the door.  Hanging on the wall before him, in a place of honor, was a small deep blue velvet cape.  His name was written across the back in big gold glitter letters.  It was a hero’s cape.  His mom made it for him on his fifth birthday.  He wore it, to fight monsters.  Red touched the glittery letters and smiled. 

He was ready for his new life.

You can find it here:

http://www.amazon.com/Linda-Scarlett/e/B009WU9DPM/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0