- Evil's Unseen: Preview Excerpt -
hello all! if you weren't aware I'm 4 years into working on my heavy Y/A fantasy novel Evil's Unseen, and I wanted to post a little bit of it here on my blog. The following scene was the first written for the book and still remains the most special to me. If you're not already hooked let me give you some buzzwords: magical girl transformation, body horror, psychological horror, dark fantasy.
thank you so much for reading if you choose to do so! feel free to buy me a coffee if you want to support my journey. :)
I am a broke college student
The day had reached dusk now – at least she assumed… the position of the sun wasn’t quite clear outside of the blanket of overgrown tree branches and weeds that made it feel almost like a secluded haven from the rest of the earth. Her muscles ached, and she felt a warm breeze caress her cheeks, the dried tears resting on her skin fading in the cold. She had semi-open cuts on her right arm held together just by dried blood. She closed her eyes, they burned, and she took in a slow, deep breath. It smelled like moss. She took another breath, exhaling out of her mouth and hung her neck back to face the sky. The breeze came back a little stronger, and it glided above her and into the trees. The wind sounded like a whisper through the layers of branches. “Oh,” it said.
“You’re here,” it said as if it were human.
Louann opened her eyes to actually take in the setting for the first time. She had never been here before, but it felt uncannily familiar. She felt the presence of an energy that had never been with her before – at least, anywhere else. She’d never had friends, but she somehow could recognize the vague feeling of meeting an old friend for the first time in ages.
The wind in the treetops picked up its speed. Its whisper subtly turned into a voice. A voice of solace, a voice more feminine than she’d ever been able to cough up herself.
“Dear,” the whispers became clear. “Oh, don’t think that way. Femininity is not above you.”
Logically, she assumed it was a hallucination, but the Louann in the moment was listening. However, she still doubted it was talking to her.
“I am, darling.”
She hesitated. She figured she was far enough from home though, that no one would hear her if she did respond.
She struggled to get any words out, but, meekly, she answered, “You’re talking to… me?”
“Yes,” it responded. But this time Louann didn’t just hear it, she felt it. She felt haven and comfort in its energy… intuitive trust.
“Do you know where you are, my dear?”
She thought about the question for longer than she should’ve. “No.”
The voice let out a very light laugh, as if she could hear it smiling.
“That’s okay,” it echoed. “You’re safe here.”
Beyond all logic and reason, Louann deeply trusted the sentiment.
“I appreciate your faith,” it thanked.
“Who- what… are you?”
“You can call me Dalya. Would it help to see who I am?”
That felt far too odd of a question for another human being to be asking, but this already felt like a form of communication far beyond human interaction.
“No, I- I… trust you. This feels right.”
It let out a soft giggle. “Do what feels right, Louann.”
The girl ignored any reasonable questions in her mind. Instead, she took a step towards the gleaming lavender prism that caught her eye on the other side of the small lake.
“Yes, that’s it!” The voice encouraged.
She made her way closer, squeezing between the vines and the stone circling at the edge of the lake, and she kept going without once taking her eyes off the crystal. No voice in her head objected as she ever so slowly reached out her arm.
The crystal was standing in the center of a small stone tower, six smooth edges climbing up to meet at the top at a thin point. Wind dusted her palm and she felt an incomprehensible energy radiating from the almost perfect crystal that was juxtaposed with the real world around it. She felt a little more life in her the second she wrapped her fingers around the crystal, and the magical feeling that made its way into her – or, out of her? – was otherworldly. She understood freedom. She understood consciousness. She’d barely even noticed the land around her had started warping, fading to all different shades of violet and spinning around her.
She felt the wind rushing near her feet for a brief moment but hadn’t noticed when it made its way underneath her slowly lifting her into the air on a cloud of wind gusts. Her chest had been lifted to the sun, and she laid her neck back seamlessly while her legs dangled comfortably below. The forest kept morphing, it wasn’t dizzying, it inexplicably felt normal. Airy lavender clouds that hung atop the trees surrounded started to become denser, flowing into a deeper purple. Louann inhaled deep, and just on the brink of serenity something pulsed in her skull. The peace had become pain. The thing pushed on her skull from the inside, trying to escape through the top of her head. She didn’t scream. She couldn’t scream. She was nauseous, heaving but still hanging in the air. She tried to find anything to focus her view on but nothing in the place made any sense, it was all so abstract of a view it was incomprehensible. She gagged, and a second time expecting to vomit, until it game out as a grueling scream. Two bone-like sprouts shot through her scalp. Before she could cry, her vision pulsed and brightened and burned in such a flash it felt the sun had fallen into her eyes. She dropped to the ground on her back and the mystic wind crawled away. The forest was clear again but purple, as it faded back to its nature. Louann felt the crystal still in her palm, and sat up with a heavy head, and threw it as hard as she could into the far trees. Hyperventilating, eyes wide, she turned to the lake and looked at her blurry reflection. She had horns. Her eyebrows couldn’t reach higher in the shock.
The voice seemed to sigh.
“What…. Happened to me?” She asked Dalya, terrified.
“You transformed.” It sounded as if it smiled. “You must be one of them.”
“One of who?”
“Of the ones with enough goodness to welcome magic into their hearts. The stone doesn’t enter just anybody.”
She was flattered, but not more than she was horrified. What purpose did this hold? How could this possibly be a good thing? Could she ever go back to normal?
“You can,” Dalya replied, appearing to read her thoughts, “but you are a new person now. Magic is a part of you- Goodness is a part of you.”
“A-And what do I do with it?” She stuttered.
“That is up to you. To return to your initial form, close your eyes and breathe deeply, meditate and envision the physical form you usually take. Once you are calm enough, you will return to normal, painlessly. But – don’t leave quite yet. I have one thing to do first.”
While Louann tried her best to breathe without shaking, she heard vague clinking noises and felt a magical force of some sort in front of her. Breathe in, envision her blonde hair, plain skin – breathe out, stay still. Breathe in, breathe out, eyes closed, chest flowing. Sooner than she knew it she felt a light ‘poof’ and felt around the top of her head to find the horns gone, hair shorter and colorless once again. She also noticed a strange amulet floating in front of her – Dahlya had taken some of the crystal and somehow manifested it into a small necklace. Hesitantly, Louann reached out towards the amulet, and looked around the forest before putting it on.
“Yes, Darling,” Dalya said.
She clasped it on and felt the cold metal press against the top of her chest. She took another breath. She intended to ask Dalya what keeping the amulet would do, but was unknowingly sent into a sudden whiplash, a dizzying spell that blocked her vision until she landed rough on a familiar splintered wooden floor. Her throat went dry. She’d been sent back home. After… what was it? An escape? Louann questioned, with no remote memory of what happened before the forest clearing. Blood rose to her face. Anger, probably. Louann had expected someone - something - so kind to take her away from this life. Why had she been sent back home? Did Dayla do it? Why would Dalya do that?
Louann stood up and shakily stepped outside into the sun. She saw her father, brother, and Aunt Cass, who immediately caught her gaze. Louann felt the light drain from her eyes as Cassidy locked hers. Cass took a deep, menacing breath, and Louann knew to come over. As she did, Cass gripped her arm tight.
“Where have you been?” Cass stared, straight-faced.
“I- I don’t know-” Louann responded truthfully. Cass’s gaze darkened and she tilted her head downwards to meet Louann’s.
“Yes, you do.” She spoke from her gut.
“I-”
Before she could repeat herself, Louann found her body being dragged into the nearby woods. Cassidy’s grip tightened and her nails dug into Louann’s skin, leaving blood where there… wasn’t any? Sounds and colors began to form images that helped Louann remember. This happened before, Cass hurt her just the same earlier today….
“No, I,” Louann started to sob, “I don’t know-”
“Bullshit,” Cass shouted - just loud enough to damage the girl, but not loud enough for the rest of the family to hear.
Louann stifled another sob and pulled on her arm. It only deepened the cuts, but she continued to pull, now with both arms, until she ripped away, cringing at the skin that ripped down her arm. She cried and ran without a thought, running, burning, not stopping for a breath until she knew she was gone. She came to a clearing in the forest, mystical, with a small lake in the middle under a purple glow. She… she’d just been here, hadn’t she? She started to cry again. There was no voice this time, but she walked over to the crystal on a pedestal anyway, angry and desperate. She cinched her eyes shut, grabbed the crystal, and immediately fell into a dizzy blur until she once again landed hard on her kitchen floor.
No.
She clutched her chest, feeling a cold chain hang down from her neck, tracing her fingers down to a small purple stone. She didn’t remember any of it clearly, but she knew from the vague dreamlike memories that something was wrong with time. This had all happened before, for… for who knows how long? Was this… fate? Would she never be able to escape?
…
