Coming Soon to a Device Near You!
I will be posting a new series soon- a sci-fi thriller featuring a mad scientist, a hapless inventor, and an existential nightmare delving deep into what it means to be human, and what sets us apart from the machines.
"But why don't you upload The Candyman's second segment first?"
Well, for all three or four of you reading it and eagerly waiting for the next part, as the first segment (out of an eventual three) of The Candyman draws to an end, the pressure will be on for me to actually write the second part, because, if you haven't seen my previous blog posts, up till now, all parts I have uploaded have been written close to a year ago now and never published or continued.
Since I'm busy doing buttloads of audio commissions and posting opinions nobody cares about on here and Twitter, I will not quite be able to start writing the next part just yet. There are a few story elements I need to hammer out, as well, and besides- I'm sure if you like something I wrote a year ago now, you'll like something I wrote rather recently, especially considering it is actually finished.
Just to give you a solid taste of what you can expect from this story and the difference in style from The Candyman, here's a part I've selected from the manuscript that I think you all will enjoy:
Daniel woke up, cold and confused, with a splitting headache.
Where am I? He thought, looking around. He tried to turn his head, but found he couldn’t move it more than an inch under the strap secured over his forehead. He tried moving his arms and legs, but they, too, were tightly strapped in. He strained his eyes as far as they could move in their sockets, but all he could see was a perfectly white ceiling and a set of intense fluorescent lights.
“Ah, so you’re awake,” a voice came from behind him. A familiar face loomed over him, smiling a black-toothed smile.
“Y-you...” he croaked. Anger and hatred filled him to his core, but his mouth and throat were too dry to get out more than a word at a time. The man laughed, and Daniel wanted to throw up at the smell of his stale, rotten breath.
“It’s funny, isn’t it? How hope can make someone so blind,” he stated, his face tilting to the side as he examined Daniel.
“You hate me, don’t you?” he asked, his face tinged with mild curiosity.
“What do you think?” Daniel retorted, his mouth contorting into a scowl.
“I think we have more in common than you might expect,” he winked, a smile rising to his lips again as he slowly walked around the gurney, “Although to you, I may seem evil...”
Daniel struggled again, trying to loosen his bonds, uncomfortable at the prospect of listening to this madman give some half-baked speech.
“...I’m somewhat in the same position you are.”
Daniel stopped squirming, suddenly intrigued. The man noticed this, and he could hear the smirk in his voice as he said, “Got your attention now, have I?” Then his demeanor changed, and his voice grew harsh as he continued.
“The human emotion, hope, is a horrible thing, Daniel. It is meant to get us through awful times and give us something to look forward to, but it is intoxicating, and too much of it will blind even the most forward of thinkers.” Daniel scoffed, and the man stopped, smugness dripping from his voice as he said, “Just look at you. You let hope blind you, and now you trusted a total stranger.” Then he leaned in again, the man’s face obscuring his vision as he grinned with such an expression of utter glee that Daniel couldn’t help but let out a whimper. “A stranger who plans to do awful things to you. A stranger who will enjoy it very, very much.” Then he straightened back up, and continued to pace, his speech now picking up in intensity.
“I have hopes and dreams too, Daniel. Ones much grander than your silly notion of living a ‘normal’ life. I have dreams of creating a utopia out of rubble, a paradise out of ashes. On others’ bones, I will build the perfect society, one where humans can forever live in peace.”
“Do you know.”
The man stopped pacing.
“How many bones it takes to build a staircase to heaven?”
Daniel stopped squirming and went silent, and the man in white stopped, too, waiting for an answer. Then he looked over, and smiled warmly, before pulling out a cattle prod and jabbing it into Daniel’s side.
“One can only hope it won’t take too many.”
If you enjoyed this bit, then you will enjoy the story I have planned for you. I'm excited to share it with you all, and even more excited to hear what you think of it. This is just the first draft, but you will be the first eyes (other than my colleagues) to have laid eyes on it. Depending on how well it does here, I might even publish it on Amazon, fully polished, edited, and maybe even illustrated.
Who knows? But whatever the future holds, I'm excited. Excelsior!
I like the excerpt! Very immediate, with appropriately menacing dialogue. Haven't read The Candyman, but I'm interested in what this will turn out to be.
Also, wow, they really need to make line breaks more visible.
Yeah, they do. I think there's a way to mess with that- I'll have to see if I can do some sorcery with markdown and make that easier to see. For now, it's basically an extra half-line of spacing.
I am glad you liked the excerpt, by the way! In the meantime, I'd be really happy if you gave The Candyman a read, if you could. It's a bit rough, so any pair of fresh eyes is greatly appreciated.