by Michael J Bowler
YA Horror/Paranormal
Published on August 5th, 2015
Fifteen-year-old Alex is a “spinner.” His friends are “dummies.” Two
clandestine groups of humans want his power. And an ancient evil is stalking
him. If people weren’t being murdered, Alex might laugh at how his life turned
into a horror movie overnight.
In a wheelchair since birth, his freakish ability has gotten him kicked
out of ten foster homes since the age of four. Now saddled with a sadistic
housemother who uses his spinning to heal the kids she physically abuses, Alex
and his misfit group of learning disabled classmates are the only ones who can
solve the mystery of his birth before more people meet a gruesome end.
They need to find out who murdered their beloved teacher, and why the
hot young substitute acts like she’s flirting with them. Then there’s the
mysterious medallion that seems to have unleashed something malevolent, and an
ancient prophecy suggesting Alex has the power to destroy humanity.
The boys break into homes, dig up graves, elude kidnappers, fight for
their lives against feral cats, and ultimately confront an evil as old as
humankind. Friendships are tested, secrets uncovered, love spoken, and destiny
revealed.
The kid who’s always been a loner will finally learn the value of
friends, family, and loyalty.
If he survives…
EXCERPT:
They were in.
Now to find the
grave.
They had a map,
of sorts. With the graveyard paperwork Alex’s mother had sent was a map that
had numbers on it. Roy knew from his own mother’s funeral that those numbers
meant the different graves. One area was circled on the map, and Roy had told
them that must be where Alex’s folks were buried. All they had to do was follow
the map.
Yeah, he thought, as they
stood in a darkened graveyard looking at a paper map with a tiny flashlight
beam, trying to figure out just where in the hell on that map they were, sounded easy at the time. Since he was
the only one who drove, the others let him plot their way. But shit, he hadn’t
been here since last year on his mom’s anniversary to put flowers and, well,
that had been during the day!
Israel stood
quietly keening with fear, his eyes darting everywhere at once, while Java and
Alex waited patiently for Roy to figure things out. Their best landmark was a
lake near to where Alex’s parents were buried. They’d have to wander around
till they found it.
“They’re near
some lake, and there’s a fountain, I think, so we should, like hear water
splashing, right?”
Java shrugged,
but Alex nodded excitedly. “Yeah, we will. Let’s look around till we hear it.”
They moved out
into the tree scattered, grave-filled cemetery with nervous anticipation. Java
carried the shovels because he didn’t trust Israel not to drop them if a gopher
ran past in the dark.
The grass slowed
Alex’s wheels so he let Roy push the chair from behind to conserve his arm
strength.
Most of the
graves were the small ones like his mom had, just a flat metal plate with names
and dates on them. The wind gusted and blew leaves from the fading trees onto
the grass, swirling them around their feet as they walked. No one spoke. The
silence crushed them. Dark, ominous clouds only added to the horror-film
atmosphere, and Roy wished he hadn’t watched so many of those movies at Izzy’s
house.
The grass rose up
into hills and mounds, all scattered with graves that they passed nervously
between. Roy felt weird, walking on top of dead people like this, and he could
hear Israel panting with fear. He was about to approach and calm the boy when
Java stepped up and flanked Izzy, offering his own muscular body as protection.
The gesture surprised Roy, just like the one atop his truck, given Java’s daily
frustration with Izzy’s ADHD. But the move clearly helped Izzy, who looked at
Java and smiled with gratitude.
The flat graves
gave way to the kind with tall headstones by the time the splashing of water
came from ahead in the darkness. Roy increased his speed. The tall headstones
looked really old, and for some reason they creeped him out more than the newer
ones, like somehow older dead bodies would be more likely to haunt them or
something.
The splashing
grew louder, and the wind stronger. It also got colder, and Roy shivered. Must
be the lake water making him cold, he told himself, hoping that was the only
reason. The image of that huge, evil cat crept ceaselessly into his mind as he
pushed Alex toward his parents’ graves. To find out what? That Alex was a
bigger freak than he thought? That he might destroy the world some day? Roy
knew these things could never happen, not from Alex. But Alex feared himself
even more than he feared the cat. And that broke Roy’s heart every time he
thought about it.
The lake loomed
ahead, not too big, but bigger than Roy could calculate using his body-height
method. A jet of water shot into the air at its center and fell back, hitting
the surface with the kind of splashing sounds he used to make in the bathtub as
a child.
Java and Israel
stopped by the shore of the lake and turned to face him. Roy let go of Alex’s
chair and slipped out the map. He squatted down so Alex could see and turned on
the tiny penlight. Together, they squinted at the circled spot and tried to
figure out which direction it was from the fountain of water.
After a few moments
of bobbing his head up and down from the map to their surroundings, Roy thought
he’d figured it out. He pointed to their right, to an older part of the
graveyard that was a mix of flat plates and stone markers. “Over there.”
The others nodded
and they set off. They passed nervously through the rows of graves. Even though
Alex hadn’t said anything, Roy felt eyes on them.
Lots of eyes.
But every time he
looked around there was nothing but the wind and rustling leaves and their own
cushioned footfalls against the grass.
I’m crazy, he thought, imagining dead people watching.
Or maybe it was
those creepy-ass stone angels bending toward a grave, hands clasped before them
in prayer. Maybe they were watching. Whatever it was, Roy’s skin crawled.
This was the
section. He stopped pushing Alex, and the others stopped, too. Now was the part
they all hated – reading. They had to look at each grave and try to figure out
which one belonged to Alex’s parents. Alex looked at him and Roy whispered,
“The last name starts with “O,” right?”
Alex nodded. Roy
squinted at the paper and found the name. He could tell because there were two
names in front of it and that meant the “O” word was the last name. He pointed
to it for Java and Israel. “That’s the name we gotta find.”
“Are dead people,
like, you know, laid out by ABCs?” Israel asked.
Java looked at
him in annoyance. “Fool, do you even know your ABCs?”
Israel shrugged.
“Some of ’em. I always get stuck around, like, ‘G’ or ‘P’ or something like
that. I never could–”
Before Israel
could start rambling, Roy whispered, “Just look for a last name starting with
‘O.’ Then we’ll check it with the paper.”
Java nodded, but
Israel’s mouth fell open. “You mean we gotta split up?”
“Just around
here, fool,” Java snapped, keeping his deep voice low and controlled.
“But there’s dead
people here!” Israel hissed, his eyes wide with fear.
“That’s why it be
called a graveyard,” Java spat, his temper obviously rising.
“Look guys,” Alex
said, “you two stick together and me and Roy’ll stick together. ’Kay?”
Java grunted, but
Israel nodded rapidly. “Yeah, that’s better.”
The two groups
wandered off in opposite directions, each with a penlight.
Roy aimed his
light while Alex slowly pushed himself between the graves. The beam struck each
headstone or metal plaque long enough for both of them to squint at the last
name, and then Roy moved it along to the next. He still felt that sensation of
being watched, and it sent chills up and down his spine. The cold, biting wind
didn’t help, and he kept his hood up and over his head to keep his hair from
blowing into his eyes.
He spotted the
other flashlight beam a short distance away, but there seemed to be no one else
anywhere around. So who was watching them? Finally, he stepped closer to Alex
and leaned down to his face. “Someone’s watching us.”
Alex peered out
from his hood, brushed hair from in front of his eyes, and looked at him
soberly. “Not someone. Some thing.”
Roy froze. “What
thing?”
Alex shrugged.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Michael J. Bowler is an
award-winning author of eight novels–A
Boy and His Dragon, A Matter of Time (Silver Medalist from Reader’s
Favorite), and The Knight Cycle,
comprised of five books: Children of the
Knight (Gold Award Winner in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards), Running Through A Dark Place, There Is No Fear, And The Children Shall Lead, Once
Upon A Time In America, and Spinner.
His horror screenplay, “Healer,” was a Semi-Finalist, and his urban fantasy
script, “Like A Hero,” was a Finalist in the Shriekfest Film Festival and
Screenplay Competition. He grew up in San Rafael, California, and majored in
English and Theatre at Santa Clara University. He went on to earn a master’s in
film production from Loyola Marymount University, a teaching credential in
English from LMU, and another master’s in Special Education from Cal State
University Dominguez Hills. He partnered with two friends as producer, writer,
and/or director on several ultra-low-budget horror films, including “Fatal
Images,” “Club Dead,” and “Things II,” the reviews of which are much more fun
than the actual movies. He taught high school in Hawthorne, California for twenty-five
years, both in general education and to students with learning disabilities, in
subjects ranging from English and Strength Training to Algebra, Biology, and
Yearbook. He has also been a volunteer Big Brother to eight different boys with
the Catholic Big Brothers Big Sisters program and a thirty-year volunteer
within the juvenile justice system in Los Angeles. He has been honored as
Probation Volunteer of the Year, YMCA Volunteer of the Year, California Big
Brother of the Year, and 2000 National Big Brother of the Year. The “National”
honor allowed him and three of his Little Brothers to visit the White House and
meet the president in the Oval Office. He is currently working on a sequel to Spinner. His goal as a YA author is for
teens to experience empowerment and hope; to see themselves in his diverse
characters; to read about kids who face real-life challenges; and to see how
kids like them can remain decent people in an indecent world.
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