Sneak Peek From My Latest Novel!

​Prologue
1851
Arkansas Territory
 
   Dear Diary,
   We changed the world tonight.
   I can still see Blaine, my husband in name only, standing in the shadow of the cliff wall, lightning illuminating him like a performer on a stage as he outstretched his arms towards the machine my fortune had gone towards funding.
   “This is it: the moment we’ve been waiting for. If my calculations are right, the electrical power in this storm will be enough to blow open the gateway.” His voice had been high pitched, laced with obsession and fanaticism.
   Lightning ripped a jagged streak across the inky black sky, highlighting the five figures gathered around the machine. My husband’s minions watched him hungrily, anticipating his next words, their eyes alight with the same fanaticism that was driving Blaine. They were oblivious to the power of the lightning dancing around them; uncaring of the rain that pelted them from above like so many pebbles cast from the very seat of the Almighty.
   I clung to the slick, wet surface of a nearby boulder, peering at my husband and his friends covertly, an unwelcome participant in this unholy quest to pierce the veil of reality and to uncover the existence of … what? Another realm? A shadow of our own world? I knew not, for in that moment, I didn’t believe such a place existed. Indeed, to even question reality was blasphemous to me. Still, it was my quest just as much as it was theirs, for MY money funded what I assumed to be a vain venture.
   The storm unleashed its fury upon us. The lightning grew ever closer and the lightning rod on Blaine’s machine swayed precariously in the wind. Suddenly, the hair on the back of my neck and arms stood at attention, causing me to fall to the ground in search of shelter. I knew what was coming next.
   A loud explosion sounded as a tree nearby was split in two by an angry bolt of lightning, raining bits of ash and burning wood upon my back and singeing my wet hair. I feared that we all would be reduced to piles of ash before this night was over.
   Blaine laughed manically. “The elements favor our endeavor! The next bolt will…” He couldn’t finish his sentence.
   Another blinding flash of lighting interrupted him, followed by an explosion that temporarily stole my hearing and washed over me with a wave of heat so intense I felt as if I couldn’t breathe for a torturous moment. I begged God to make my ending swift and painless, even as my skin burned in a fiery heat.
   I don’t know how long I quivered upon the ground, awaiting my swift demise, but gradually, my hearing returned and with it, a new sound greeted my ringing ears: the sound of buzzing, for I know no other word to describe what I heard. Hesitantly, I glanced around the boulder once more and saw that the machine had indeed harnessed the power of lightning. Wisps of smoke clung to the swaying, charred lightning rod as stark white energy swirled within the tube of the machine. The cylinder was roaring to life, its metal coils spinning as the captured lightning surged within.
   Blaine hovered over his creation proudly, much like a father would his newborn offspring, and raised his hand to the lever that would funnel every ounce of that power into a beam that was supposed to blow a hole in the very fabric of our world.
   “There are places around this world where the veil that separates our world from the Shadow Realm is thin. All it would take to rip a hole in the veil is the harnessed power of nature.” I don’t know how many times in our four short months of marriage I’d heard Blaine utter those words as he worked tirelessly upon his machine. They were foolish notions placed in his head; first, by his Choctaw nursemaid as a child, and later, by various individuals he had met during his travels in Asia and the Middle East. It would seem that each culture had a myth about this alternate realm, which was enough for Blaine to believe in its existence wholeheartedly.
   Blaine grasped the lever, jerking it down with every ounce of his strength. A thick beam of electricity shot out of the machine, blasting the cliff wall mercilessly. At first, it appeared as if nothing would happen. No gateway opened in the cliff wall; rather, the stone turned an angry shade of red, resisting the beam’s fury.
   Thirty seconds passed and still nothing happened. Sixty seconds, nothing. In that moment, I assured myself that Blaine’s notion was untrue; there was no other realm. But then the stone began to crumble under the machine’s intense beam, exposing a gray layer of stone underneath. In seconds, the gray layer was falling away in a cloud of dust under the beam’s wrath, revealing a tiny black hole that continued to grow.
   “It’s nothing, just a cave. There’s caves all over the place out here.” I muttered aloud even as apprehension wound its tentacles around my rapidly beating heart.
   Like a mouth with jagged teeth slowly opening, the hole grew wider and taller until the machine’s beam spent up its remaining energy and stopped. As if someone had flipped a switch, the machine’s purring and buzzing ceased instantly, plunging us into an uncomfortable silence. No one moved or spoke. The group held their collective breath as the rain fell softly around us and thunder rumbled in the distance. The storm’s fury had passed us by as swiftly as it had arrived.
   “It looks like we just discovered a cave.” The musical voice of Lucia, my husband’s Italian friend, broke the silence. I hoped she was right and that it was merely a cave.
   “At first glance, it appears to be a cave,” Blaine agreed, taking a step towards the opening. “But I implore you to look closer. Caves don’t emit that kind of light.”
   My heart sank at those words. Sure enough, the opening seemed to glow faintly with a bluish light, despite the black void beyond. An unnatural grey fog spilled from its open mouth, creeping across the forest floor towards my husband and his colleagues. In that moment, I was thankful for my hiding spot behind the boulder.
   “Should one us go through? See what’s on the other side?” Magnus, the physicist from Germany, asked.
   No one had a chance to answer the question for in that very moment, the sound of a thousand screams joining together in unimaginable torment pierced the night and caused a searing pain to blossom in the center of my head. I fell to my knees, hands pressed against my ears, and still I could not drown out the sound.
   It’s a sound I will never forget for as long as I live. It was a sound I could feel to the very core of my being. It stole hope from my heart, joy from my soul, and reasoning from my brain. When it finally ceased after what seemed an eternity, I crawled on my knees away from the clearing and that dreadful machine my husband built, not daring to look back. Once I was in the confines of the forest beyond, I clambered to my feet and ran all the way back to the house, feeling as if my heart would explode from my chest.
   At this very moment, I huddle beside my bed, unsure of what has happened outside the walls of Ravenscrest Manor. Are my husband and his friends still alive? Has some unimaginable abomination of a monster been released upon this peaceful mountain country? What price will be paid for dallying with the secrets of the universe that were never meant to be discovered?
   In case I don’t live to see the sunrise tomorrow, let it be known that I, Vivian Alice Stonehall of Ravenswood (formerly Vivian Weatherford of Philadelphia), warned my erring husband and his rebellious friends that no good would come of this venture. Furthermore, had I known what I was getting myself into when I agreed to this business arrangement of a marriage, I would not have been the dutiful daughter my father has always praised me for being and married a man who only cared for my fortune and not a whit for me. I fear that my dutifulness has also become my undoing. Perhaps following ones’ heart, no matter the consequences, is always the best line of action. It’s a lesson I have learned far too late.
~ Vivian Alice

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