STRUCK
by Clarissa
Johal
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
The
shadows had been invited.
After
a painful breakup, Gwynneth Reese moves in with her best friend and takes a job
at a retirement home. She grows especially close to one resident, who dies
alone the night of a terrific storm. On the way home from paying her last
respects, Gwynneth is caught in another storm and is struck by lightning. She
wakes in the hospital with a vague memory of being rescued by a mysterious
stranger. Following her release from the hospital, the stranger visits her at
will and offers Gwynneth a gift--one that will stay the hands of death.
Gwynneth is uncertain whether Julian is a savior or something more sinister...
for as he shares more and more of this gift, his price becomes more and more
deadly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt
Two: Long Version
A bolt of blue-white lightning snaked from the sky and hit
the ground in front of her. The thunderclap that shattered the air was
deafening. Gwynneth slammed on her brakes and skidded. It was a slow skid, or
it seemed to be. Spinning around and around in a circle, she felt like she was
watching herself from afar. Time felt like it was slowing. Oddly enough, she
found herself wondering if there would be white or red flowers on Hannah’s
casket. Or maybe none at all.
Gwynneth’s face smacked against the steering wheel. Reality
hit her along with the pain. She had forgotten to wear her seatbelt. She
pressed her fingers lightly to her throbbing temple and winced. “Shit!”
Thankfully, she was in one piece. Gwynneth opened the car door. Lightning lit
the area and bathed her senses in a flash of blue-white. Icy rain hit her skin.
Stupid! You left your jacket back at the funeral home. She ran around the car
and checked all the tires. The back one was flat, and on top of that, her car
was quite obviously stuck in a ditch. “Great.” She had no spare tire, she knew
that for sure. She also had no idea which way led back to the retirement home.
Her headlights cast a weak glow through the rain. Soaked to the skin and
shivering, Gwynneth peered into the darkness. A muddy road meandered across
saturated fields and off into nothingness.
She sloshed back to her car and quickly turned the engine
off. She certainly didn’t need a dead battery on top of a flat tire. “Okay,
Gwen,” she said aloud, “you need to figure out what to do.” Rain ran in
rivulets down her face and her tie-dyed T-shirt stuck to her like a second
skin. I’m a soggy, shivering rainbow. She started to walk and cursed the fact
that her cell phone wasn’t charged. Seth was always bugging her about that.
“Suck it up, Gwen. It rains in Oregon too.” The inky blackness was
disconcerting. Lightning intermittently illuminated the area like the flash of
a camera. A snapshot of a road to nowhere. Gwynneth hoped that she was at least
walking in the right direction. Her teeth were chattering so hard she was in
danger of biting her own tongue. Thunder rolled up her spine and along her
scalp like probing fingers.
Her thoughts wandered back to Hannah. A diary. I wonder what
she wrote about? She wouldn’t read it, of course, it was private. I’m sure she
just wants me to throw it away so her children don’t either. A pang of loss
sliced through the cold and Gwynneth shook it off. They had spent countless
hours chatting and Hannah never mentioned a diary. She bit her lip. If she
could only turn back time, Gwynneth would have told her how much their time
together had meant. Hannah had always encouraged her to start painting again,
but also understood why Gwynneth couldn’t.
A loud ‘crack’ sounded and an iridescent white light
surrounded her. Two things registered: a searing pain that ripped down her back
and the ground which seemed to be pulled away from her at an alarming speed.
* * * *
Blackness.
Pain shot through the back of Gwynneth’s head as she opened
her eyes. Somebody was standing over her. She tried to focus on the face, but
it hurt too much. A cool hand slid across her forehead. She opened her eyes
again.
Pale, almost white eyes. High cheekbones, aquiline nose, and
a well-shaped mouth. Long, white hair. Ageless. Beautiful, like a Michelangelo.
All of those details registered with clarity before agony ripped through her
body. She arched her back and cried out. The man murmured something into her
ear which she couldn’t understand. She could feel the vibration of his voice
and his breath on her neck as he gathered her in his arms. She opened her eyes
and saw lightning fork to the ground silently behind him. She blacked out
again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Clarissa
Johal has worked as a veterinary assistant, zoo-keeper aide and vegetarian
chef. Writing has always been her passion. When she’s not listening to the
ghosts in her head, she’s dancing or taking photographs of gargoyles. She
shares her life with her husband, two daughters and every stray animal that
darkens the doorstep. One day, she expects that a wayward troll will wander
into her yard, but that hasn’t happened yet.
Website:
http://clarissajohal.com/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/clarissa.johal.9
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/ClarissaJohal
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4502113.Clarissa_Johal
Amazon
Author page: http://www.amazon.com/Clarissa-Johal/e/B003KVTMPK/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_2?qid=1389927184&sr=1-2
Buy
Links for STRUCK
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Struck-Clarissa-Johal-ebook/dp/B00HWFFNL2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1389913987&sr=8-3&keywords=clarissa+johal
Musa
Publishing: http://musapublishing.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11&products_id=731
Barnes
and Noble:
http://www.amazon.com/Struck-Clarissa-Johal-ebook/dp/B00HWFFNL2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1389913987&sr=8-3&keywords=clarissa+johal
Excerpt
link for STRUCK: http://clarissajohal.blogspot.com/2013/10/struck-excerpt.html
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