Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Submission for Can You Hook A Teen Contest

Title: I, Benandante
Genre: YA Dark Fantasy


The sound roused her slowly, like a drip in a faucet. Marisa heard the rhythm grow stronger, like someone tapping – no, like a drum. It sounded like someone was beating a drum.

“Come on!” A man’s voice shouted at her. “Get up! It’s time to go!”

She had heard that voice before; it was happening again.

Marisa didn’t want to open her eyes. She was terrified of what she would see. She could feel them swirling around her.

“Wake up! Will you come with me?”

The voice shouting at her had an authoritative tone that demanded obedience. Her eyes flew open and she stared at him standing over her bed. He carried a plant with a long stalk in his hand like it was a weapon.

Then Marisa realized she could see through him.

She wanted to scream, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t open her mouth or move any other part of her body. She felt frozen, like a stone. With the scream still caught in her throat, she glanced up at the man’s face again. One second it was a human face, then it changed shape into a cat, then a mouse, then a chicken. The only thing that didn’t change was his eyes as they bored into hers with an angry, terrifying gaze.

“The battle is approaching!” The chicken head changing into a bat head shouted to her.

Marisa knew the others were there. Rats, cats, rabbits, birds, deer with human eyes, more spirit people with cat and goat eyes; all of them moving together to the same destination.