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Laugh At Horror
Laugh At Horror
Category:
Action/Thriller
Publisher: All Things That Matter Press
Type: Fiction
Pages: 232
Copyright: May, 2011
ISBN-13: 9780984639229
Young Ken Arthur must stop a deadly plague but while he searches for the spawn of Hell he must run from a world after his magical blood
Eighteen-year-old Kenny Arthur wishes he was just a typical kid from the small town of Friendship, New York, but a near death experience and a message from the other side made that impossible. Now Kenny knows there’s a plague coming and it’s not natural. He knows it can crush the life out of this world, and reach up into heaven itself. And he knows he’s the only one who can stop it. What he doesn’t know is how.
Kenny sets out to do what he must, but the world outside Friendship is more than he bargained for. Before long he’s exhausted, dirty, broke, and not one step closer to accomplishing his goal. Then a pint of blood he sells for food money heals an ailing heart patient, and the media feeding frenzy is on. Suddenly, Kenny knows how he’ll cure the plague. But if he wants to find the devil, he’ll have to hide while he does it. The government, the sick, the desperate, the greedy – they all want a piece of what the press is calling “the Miracle Boy.”
Now Kenny is on the hunt and on the run. His only friend is a thieving street kid named Rooster who might help him get to where he’s going, or sell him for a million dollars. Kenny can’t trust, he can’t stop, he can’t rest – until those who hunt him drain him dry, or the devil is dead, whichever comes first
Excerpt
Ken sat on the edge of the building and wondered, almost prayed, and then he remembered how he had escaped the pond. If he ran and lunged off the edge, he might be able to make it. And so what if he didn’t? He didn’t want to be captured again. How long would they hold him? How long until he died from lack of blood? Already he felt weak; it would only get worse.
He squatted and felt his legs tighten. He pushed off as hard as he could, leaping a few feet into the air. It wasn’t much. He wished he could practice, but he knew his strength was waning. He’d only have one shot. One slip, one missed step, and he would see the street below race up to meet him. He carefully paced off the path he would take and then walked it to the edge. He saw it all clearly in his mind as he imagined the whole thing: the run, the jump to the short ledge, the take off, flying through the air eighty feet above the ground, landing on the roof of the adjacent building. He turned and walked back toward the center of the roof, pacing off the distance. He only wanted to back up far enough to gain maximum speed. He turned back around and looked at his destination. He swallowed the fear building up inside, forced himself to remember that they wouldn’t stop until he they had it all. Plague or not, beast or not, they were going to end up killing him if he didn’t get away. Nothing noble about this, he told himself. It’s live or die.
He took off slowly, measuring his steps, and then quickly picked up speed, his feet gaining traction in the stones that covered the roof. He gave a little hop to reach the edge as the wind blew through his hair. He let his knee collapse as his foot contacted the ledge, his muscles loosening just before he pushed off. Suddenly, he heard the door to the roof behind him bang open, breaking his concentration just a tiny bit. He felt just the slightest slip of his foot on the ledge’s flashing and knew, even before he was airborne, that he would fall short.
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