Excerpt from Logost, a Novel

My calves were sore from walking when I came across a stone, snow-covered bridge. It was icy, and I guessed that it would be unwise to cross it. But as I always went against my better judgment – trusting my own thoughts and opinions had never been easy for me – I trumped across it. It covered a small, man-made brook where water fell upon smoothed stones. An innate happiness flowed from the sound, and before I’d taken three steps to cross the stone bridge, I found myself retreating. I jumped down, and walked along the small ledge where the sound of the brook was heaviest.

The sound grew louder – a pulsating noise like the beat of a faltering heart. The act of blocking was becoming natural for me, and it took me only a moment before I realized that the sound was someone trying to break through my mental defenses. Someone stood behind me, attempting to cause me great suffering. I turned around to see Cassandra there, her friends Amy and Sasha flanked at her sides. Without hesitation, I froze several streams of water and shot the sharpened icicles at them. But Cassandra was clever and quick. She shattered each icicle in to tiny speckles of frost.

“That really is the best you can do.” She scoffed at me, and Sasha and Amy giggled. Cassandra’s eyes bore in to me, and I felt my access to oxygen cut off. She choked me with the strength of her mind, and I couldn’t scream out in pain – there was no air left in my lungs. The timing of my death beat closer and closer, but I refused to be killed by someone as trivial as Cassandra.

“I’ll be sure to tell Lucas how much you despise him,” she said. “And how peculiar it was that with your last dying breath, you told me that you wanted him to know you hate him,” she laughed, that piercing metallic sound. Happiness was unobtainable for Cassandra. She wasn’t happy even now that she would get her wish. To watch me die. Her eyes were dead, dark and emotionless. And even though she was killing me, I pitied her still. Poor girl, I thought as I waited for death.

The Earth quivered as it tried to save me from my untimely end. But I wasn’t the one controlling it. Cassandra fell to her knees and shrieked in torment. Her limbs flailed, and her body jolted upward towards the sky. Sasha and Amy made no move to help the girl, who they called a friend. They stared at me with horror-struck eyes, and jolted away from the scene. I got up from the brook and stood over Cassandra, watching as her eyes rolled to the back of her head. She would die soon, and I had no inclination to save her. But I also had no desire to watch her die, so I turned to leave.

It was then that I saw him there, out of the corner of my eye. He leaned against the bridge, wringing his hands and watching me. He came over to me and stood behind me to whisper in my ear.

“She’s not dead yet,” Drew breathed, his voice a low, creaking sound. “She made an attack on your life. It’s only fair to end hers. Look at her, Mina. Focus on her heart stopping.”

“No, I can’t.” I thought about leaving, but I couldn’t stop watching her die. She looked like she would ask me to save her if she could speak.

“You were meant for greatness, my love,” he whispered. “And this is what it takes to be great. She’s nearly there. It wouldn’t take much,” he said, persuading me. But I made no move to end Cassandra’s life. “Fine,” Drew said as if murdering her were inevitable. And I watched her body stop shaking.

Her eyes didn’t shut once she was unmoving. They stayed open, and I kneeled beside her lifeless body. It twitched again, and I felt her tormented spirit escape her chest. I waved my hand over her face and shut her eyes. Drew kneeled behind me, slowly placing his hands on my shoulders.

To read more purchase Logost.



Love,
Kris