AN EXCERPT FROM MISS CHEYENNE MITCHELL'S SUPERNATURAL THRILLER "SYROIA"

I turned around and looked at him. I noticed right away that he resembled my brother, Kedron, a lot. He was a shade lighter in complexion, but the same height and size as my brother. He didn't say anything to me. "W-who are you?" I asked him shakily, as he stared into my eyes with another wicked, sinister grin on his lips. I  had never seen anything so ugly in my life. He never said a word as he continued to stare at me with that smirk on his lips. Then he moved closer to me. As he did I started seeing everything through that horrid haze again. 

  The next thing I knew I was in my car sitting behind the steering wheel, but I had no idea how I got there. Suddenly I didn't feel like myself anymore. When I looked in the rear view mirror there was a terrible expression on my face. It was mean and cruel, and didn't look like me at all. I was looking into the face of someone I didn't know.

  I could feel hatred and rage welling up inside me, but I didn't know why it was there. I heard soft laughter again coming from somewhere and someone I couldn't see. As I looked all around me nobody was there.  Then I saw Anella and Greg coming out of her house.  They got into his car, and when they pulled off I followed them in my car.  In fact, I followed them all that night. 

   They went to a nightclub in Lorraine that night which was twenty miles away from Syroia. I followed them into the club, and stayed there for as long as they did. When they left the club I continued to follow them.  They came back to Syroia and drove to Baron's Lane, which was a secluded area where lovers went to have some privacy. 

   I watched them as they had sex in the back seat of Greg's car and I could feel the rage inside me growing.  "You  stinking, little whore!"  I thought angrily.  "Kill them both!" I heard a strange, unknown voice say to me startling me. I continued to watch Anella and Greg, and the more I did the more enraged I got.  

  After about an hour or so they decided to leave, and I was still following them.  Greg dropped Anella off in front of her house, and waited until she was safely inside.  When he pulled off I pulled off behind him and followed him to his house.  "Kill  him!"  I heard a strange voice again.

   I watched as Greg parked his car in their driveway, then he got out of his car and went into his house. A light came on in one of the living room areas after that. Then it went out, and an upstairs light came on after that. When that light went out I knew he had gone to bed. So I got out of my car, and walked toward his house. My head began to hurt more and more, and the pain became excruciating.

    I wanted to get inside Greg's house but I didn't know why.  However, I could see no way to do that, so I continued to search for a way inside the house. Everybody on the Hill had an alarm system so I knew I had to be careful.

    "The  basement  window  is  open,"  said the strange, unknown voice.  So I walked around the house until I found the window to the basement that had been left slightly ajar. Someone  unseen    was guiding me in this terrible, wicked deed.

    I entered the house through that basement window as the voice had instructed me to do. It was very dark, but I could see as clearly as if all of the lights were turned on.  I climbed the basement stairs. When I reached the door that lead into the first floor of the house it wasn't locked when I turned the knob.

    I walked into the kitchen area and looked around the big room. Then I went into the den, the dining areas and the living room areas. I reached the staircase leading to the second floor, and knew Greg was up there. So I climbed the long staircase. 

    When I reached the second floor I turned the knob to each bedroom door that I came to, and peeked inside. Everyone was fast asleep. I continued searching until I found Greg, and when I did he was sound asleep, too.

   I walked into his bedroom and stood over him.  My head was really hurting me by then. As he laid there I stared at him studying his features. I wondered again what Anella saw in him that I didn't have.

   While I was standing there everything started getting dark around me again. I was looking at Greg through the haze that had become stronger by then. After that I went to the bedrooms where other members of his family were then on to the bedrooms where the house crew were. I was moving throughout the house inside the strange haze that had swallowed me up again as if I was nothing. 

   I found Greg's two sisters, his parents, the cooks, the maids and the Butler, and stood over each one of them that night as they slept. Strangely, I admired the interior of their mansion, too. It seemed like I was there for hours before I finally decided to leave.  I left the house by the same basement window.

   When I got outside I noticed that I was splattered with blood again.  "Oh, my God!" I cried stunned.  I had blood all over me just like before.  "Where  did  all  of  this  blood  come  from?!" I wondered and I got scared.  As quickly as I could I got back into my car and drove home.

    I pulled into our driveway, and stripped off all of my clothing right there, still in shock that I was covered with blood.  I heard something fall to the ground, and it was the same knife I had seen before so I picked it up.  I got the garden hose, and washed my clothing down then I washed my body, too.  After that I folded the clothes, and carried them into the house with me.  I left them in the laundry room and put on a clean, dry tee shirt and shorts that were there.

   I had seen that knife inside my car before, and it was stained with blood. It looked like the same one I saw on the kitchen counter top on the morning of my birthday.  "Where did that come from?" I asked myself. Hurriedly I put it into the trunk of my car.  I noticed there was a trash bag in there, but I didn't know what was inside it and I didn't look.

    I washed my car inside and out, and there was no trace of blood anywhere when I was finished.   "I wonder  where all of  that  blood  came  from?"   I thought. I checked my body for any cuts but there were none.  I turned around to go back inside the house. There, directly in front  of me, stood the strange man with that terrible smirk on his lips.  "W-who are you?"  I asked him frightened.

    Suddenly he burst into soft, evil laughter. It was an eerie, unearthly laughter that caused me to shudder.  I could barely see the faint image of a woman standing behind him that I had never seen before.  After that everything went black.

    "Quito!   Quito, wake up!"  I heard someone calling my name.  When I opened my eyes it was dawn, and my niece, Kerma, was crouched over me. "Quito," she said, "What are you doing out here? You don't have anything on but your underwear."  I looked down at my body.  She was right! I was laying on our front lawn in nothing but my underwear, and I was stunned!

    "How did I get out here like this?"  I asked my niece as if she would know.  "That's what I was going to ask you," she replied. "You better hurry up and get into the house before someone sees you." I got up and ran into the house.

   I remained in my bedroom for the rest of that day trying my best to figure out how I got outside on our front lawn in  nothing but my underwear. I couldn't remember anything, except looking at myself in the mirror behind the bar in our den on the night before.  Beyond that everything was a blank. I knew Kerma wouldn't mention my being outside on the lawn half naked to anybody.

    Two days passed by before the Newsome family, and their house crew were all found dead inside their mansion.  And I was as shocked about it as everybody else was in Syroia. I couldn't believe it.

  "I don't understand what is happening around here,"  said my Dad. "I wish they would hurry up and catch this maniac!"  "Me, too, dear," said my mother patting his hand gently. Both of my parents were extremely upset about the Newsome family as was everybody else about the gruesome killings.

   "It all started so suddenly.  Don't you think?" asked Aunt Bella.  "You're right," said Lucie. "I'm wondering if I should take my children and leave here for a while."  "You'll do no such thing," said my Dad adamantly. "It's getting pretty dangerous around here, Dad!" cried Lucie. "And, frankly I'm scared!"

   "We have a good alarm system in here," said my Dad. "I'll bet the Newsomes had a pretty good one, too," replied Barrio. "Okay," said Kedron. "Let's not get all bent out of shape yet. Because I'm sure Theron and his Deputies will get this creep before long."  My nephews, Larry and Darnell, were scared, too, like everybody else was.

   "Dad told us that something like this happened around here about twenty years or so ago," said Darnell a little worried. "They never did catch the killer either, and the Sheriff had an idea who it was."  Obviously, Kedron had not mentioned Ross's name to them.

     "Yeah," added Larry nervously. "S-suppose this is a repeat of that?  S-suppose they   never catch the killer like before?  We're all in danger around here."  My parents and Aunt Bella said nothing because there was really nothing anybody could say.  We were all very frightened, especially me. 

THIS IS  A SMALL EXCERPT FROM MISS CHEYENNE MITCHELL'S  SUPERNATURAL THRILLER  "SYROIA"    ON SALE NOW AT ONLINE RETAILERS AND BOOK STORES IN ALL FORMATS