Lance Harper and Lucy Burns have avoided one another all through high school. He’s the son of the town psychic; she’s the daughter of a fundamentalist preacher. But the wall between them crumbles when Lance has a mind-splitting vision of Lucy’s bathtub suicide.
She resists his help, desperate to take a dark secret to an early grave.
Fate has other plans.
Lance and Lucy share chilling flashes of a different kind of blood bath. A dark figure. A gun. A high school massacre. A hallway full of bodies.
Can Lucy overcome tensions at home that threaten to crush her? Can Lance convince her that there are no bat wings and cauldrons in his living room?
As they attempt to put their polar differences aside to save their classmates—and manage to fall in love along the way—a deranged killer loads a gun and plots a horrific Columbine-style homecoming that no one will forget.
Melissa Abrehamsen is the author of the young adult novel, FORETOLD. She's also a proud Army/Navy mom, licensed minister and certified life coach. Which means she's a magnet for people who want to transform from the inside out. When she's not helping people renew their mind, will and emotions, she's dating her husband in their freshly empty nest in Central Florida, where they live with their two Fruitloops-for-crazy-town dachshunds.
Melissa Abrehamsen is the author of the young adult novel, FORETOLD. She's also a proud Army/Navy mom, licensed minister and certified life coach. Which means she's a magnet for people who want to transform from the inside out. When she's not helping people renew their mind, will and emotions, she's dating her husband in their freshly empty nest in Central Florida, where they live with their two Fruitloops-for-crazy-town dachshunds.
In this scene, Lucy believes the only way to escape her shattered life is to flee from the monster she created. Herself. I wanted to delve into her mind and emotions and pour everything out. Show that she's struggling with this death wish despite her arduous list of reasons why she's worthless. She still cares about the people she'd be leaving behind. This was integral to her story, and I loved writing every bit of her journey.
Book Excerpt
Foretold
Her wrist, slick with water, suddenly looked different. The veins stood out like rivers on a roadmap. How long before she could drain those rivers? How long before her parents found her? She tensed, the razor wedged into her skin. She was their only child. The blade eased up. They wouldn’t want her if they knew. Her mouth trembled. They couldn’t. Just like her friends wouldn’t want her.
No one would.
She cut sideways. No pain. Then a sharp sting. She pulled air through her teeth. A thin slip of blood glided into the water.
Not deep enough.
If she wasn’t a monster, she would care about how Mazy would deal with her death. Care that Mazy had suffered so much already, and might not be okay without Lucy serving as buffer between her and Kendra. If she wasn’t a monster, she’d worry about Ez, and how her death could possibly tarnish his heart. He always forgave her. Forgave everyone. Her death could change his noble character. She would care about those things. If she wasn’t a monster.
A fresh cut. A perfect pink-red plume in the water.
What would her funeral be like? Would her dad perform the ceremony? Would he condemn her inside her own grave? A grave her friends would gather around with shame filled looks?
Because the autopsy would expose her. They would all know.
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