Malicious
by
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Breathe…Breathe…Breathe… She paced. Halo could barely identify the voice of her own conscience over the deafening high pitched ringing in her inner ear. The sound of the gunshots seemed to pierce through her head and stagger the thoughts attempting to register sense inside her mind- making it difficult to comprehend what was happening. Why can’t I get up? Why can’t I move? Halo, growing weaker by the second from the yawning wound tunneled deep in her chest, managed to lift her limp right arm and clutch her left shoulder. Beneath her callused palm, leaking from what felt like a stinging heap of jumping nerves, was warm wet saturation. It was blood, obviously. There’s a hole straight through my body. I have been shot. In fact, I think I might be dying. Breathe…Breathe…Breathe… Don’t freak out,” thought Halo- encouraging herself to ease the progressively growing panic. Staring up at the ceiling tile, the room seemed to have an active heartbeat and a swift pulse of its own living deep in the weather- stained walls that made them move in and out like a giant pair of lungs- a hallucination generated by tremendous blood loss no doubt. Get up. Move now. Spin chilling screams echoed from the back dressing room. Multiple shots quickly followed ceasing the terrified cries. Halo was suddenly aware of the horror that would later be one of the most scandalous massacres of all time. To Halo’s left, coughing massive clots of blood and saliva, lay Whisper- her petite ribcage faintly heaving. Halo managed to roll over on her belly and crawl slowly, maneuvering her body right beside Whisper’s. “Whisper, it’s me. It’s Halo. You’re not alone. I am here with you.” Whisper’s eyes widened at the sound of a familiar voice and her body convulsed as she struggled to hold on and speak. “You have to be quiet, Whisper,” muttered Halo- fearing they’d be overheard and found. “Listen, we gotta get outta here. I need you to roll over onto your stomach and crawl with me as best you can. I see the door from here. It’s not that far; we can make it, but we have to move right now. You’ve got to get really strong, really fast if we’re going to make it out of here alive. Can you do that for me? Whisper…Whisper…?” With one final trembling exhale, Whisper was gone. Before Halo could cry, she heard the sound of glass crushing beneath the assailant’s feet. The sound grew nearer. “Would it make you happy to see me beg? Would that please you? If I pleaded, Don’t kill me. Please spare me?” asked Halo- delirium growing hastily. “You think you’re special? You ain’t nothing but another tragedy under this club’s belt, a weakling from the very beginning. Another lost soul in the trophy case to be counted and ruminated! My hurt don’t give me the right to murder. What makes your pain more privileged than mine? Will death make everything okay again? Taking all these fairly innocent lives? No, you’ll still be damaged goods. In fact, you’ll be in worse shape than ever before because you will have traded your soul for a little bit of revenge. Yeah, you let the devil rip you off. You made a bad deal. Murders ain’t fit for heaven, and you know it. How do you feel now? Bet you it still hurts.” Said Halo laughing feverishly- eyelids heavier now. “Well, I won’t beg. So…don’t count on it. Never begged anyone for anything in my whole life. There’s a difference between being proud of what you do and not being ashamed of what you do. Proud? No! Never were we so dumb. Ashamed? No! Never were we ever so naïve; to think that things in life are free, so how could we be? I’ll die knowing that I did my best for my daughter here on earth and when the dust finally settles she’ll remember her mother’s strength and not her bad decisions- though there were many. Who keeps count? So kill me! I’ll go up first and save the nearest cloud for my child right beside me. I would say see you later but you won’t be welcome there now…for all this blood you selfishly spilled. Send me to heaven, go ahead! I’m waiting! Even beasts like me are welcome there! Do it if you have any valor left at all!
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About the Book
“Why do you think people are drawn to the darkness?” “Well, I’m not sure,” answered Diana, looking around first as if the question had been addressed to someone else in the room instead. “I’ll tell you why. It’s because the devil has tricked them into seeing no future for themselves in the light. The darkness . . . it just makes more sense when you’re lost and tired of wandering aimlessly with no purpose. It’s . . . knowing you’re different in a bad way, like maybe you’ve seen too much to be pure or have done too many misdeeds to deserve peace. If you feel like the light doesn’t want you, you turn the other way completely instead of being an orphan. You find a place to . . . belong.” “Everything has a dawn and a dusk. True to the sun’s nature, the beginning was bright—dare I say promising. Toward the end of it all, the darkness consumed, and all the goodness weakened like the dusk’s devouring. I felt the thunder long before I saw the lightning but it was too late—too late to run and hide and too late to take shelter. All that was left to do was brace yourself and hope for the best. It was the twenty-third year of my life. It was the longest year I’d ever lived—365 days, just the same as all the others but far longer in terms of growth. I learned so much about the world and its strange people. I think back to when I was just a little girl. I’d lie in bed and scream for my mother all because I was too afraid to swing my feet over the side of my bed. I feared a monster would grab ankles and pull me under. And if I was lucky enough to outrun that monster, then surely the one in the closet hiding behind the coat hangers would get me. Back then, those were my worst fears. Simple, irrational, but easy to understand if you consider the mind of a child. But that was a very long time ago. When you grow up, you get scared of other things, and those things are far more difficult to make sense of but twice as hard to overcome.” It’s the place where deceptive beauties gather to profit and enthrall. Enter Malicious, a wicked game unfit for the weak and immature. “If they just wanted to get drunk, they would have gone to a bar. They came here to see beautiful women, and since you are beautiful, you possess all the power. You’re not here to make friends. Your only objective is to make money. Now get on stage and dance, they’re waiting.”
About the Author
Brilliant, versatile Louisiana author Remona G. Tanner strikes another powerful blow with her third unique contribution to the immortal arts. Get lost in a world of mischief and peril with a plot so viciously unpredictable that you’ll crave the next chapter. Enter Remona G. Tanner’s Malicious, the most malignant story never told…until now. Tanner has already successfully published two novels: Diamond Infatuated (2014) and The Aching (2015). “This is a brave new world,” says Tanner. “We are no longer persecuted for being different or creative. Finally, being an exceptional individual is not just acceptable and tolerated. It’s a rite of passage that I am blessed to have ceased while I’m still young enough to not only see my destiny unfold- I can lead others if God says the same. I have no intentions of stopping. I will continue to release novels and hopefully dabble in performing arts. I’ve always wanted to produce my very own stage play.”