About Monster of the Dark:
None of the other children seemed able to read minds. None of the other children were able to manipulate their toys without touching them. On the morning of her sixth birthday, three men dressed in black arrive to remove her from the loving care of her parents.
She is taken to an underground facility meant for others like her, for Clairvoyants. Stripped of her name and identity, over the years she is fashioned into something scary—something lethal. Each day is an endless struggle and every night is plagued by nightmares. Yet, for Carmen, her ultimate battle isn’t to save her life, but to keep her soul.
Excerpt:
The four of them reached the aerocar, and the man in the suit gestured for her to get in. She did so without question, and then he sat next to her. The other two men sat up front. No one said anything, but Carmen didn’t mind that. She often thought people talked too much anyway. What was the point when, most of the time, you already knew what they were going to say?
The aerocar didn’t move right away as the soldiers still piled into the rest of the vehicles in the convoy. Carmen didn’t pay them much mind; her attention was firmly fixed on the man in the suit. Why couldn’t she figure him out? He was different from every person she’d ever met, that much was certain. He did nothing more than watch her casually out the corner of his eye, but she could swear he was fighting her. If he wasn’t, there was resistance of some sort, whether it was produced by him or not.
As he drew more of her attention, this wasn’t just a game anymore to her. Carmen thought she found a crack in his shell, but when she pushed through, the next barrier was even stronger. The frustration made her curl her hands into little fists, and it was then, and quite by surprise, that she heard a voice in her head.
“Impressive,” it said. “However, it’s more polite to ask permission first.”
Carmen’s mouth dropped open. Her parents always told her she was different from other people—that she was special. She wasn’t so sure about the second part, but she already knew the first. The other kids were just different around her, wary even when she sat quietly in a lonely corner of the playground. They could look at her and somehow know she was not one of them. Yet, for all that, she never thought she’d hear voices in her head. Crazy people heard voices, and she wasn’t crazy. She was just different, as she was constantly told.
The man in the suit looked at her and smiled. “Don’t be alarmed. You’re not imagining this,” he said telepathically.
Carmen now knew how those kids at the playground felt. She moved as far away from the man as possible while continuing to stare. Her breathing quickened. She didn’t even notice the car had started to move.
“How…how do you do that?” she asked quickly.
The man smiled again. “You are strong. Unusually strong. But it seems like you have yet to discover the full extent of your abilities. I shall correct that.”
She had no idea what he was talking about. “Who are you?” she asked.
The man paused for a moment. “You may call me Janus,” he said, using audible sound for the first time.
She considered her response for a few seconds. “My name is Carmen.” Her mother and father would want her to be polite—and her mother did tell her to stay good, whatever that meant.
“No, it is not,” Janus said sternly.
The change in his demeanor took Carmen aback. It was not that he was angry—at least, he didn’t seem angry. He was just so…forceful.
“You don’t have a name. Not yet. You don’t have a name until we give you a name.”Amazon | Kobo | Apple | Google Play | Thalia
About K.T. Belt:
Other than books, I’m a licensed pilot and certified jet nerd. I’m also interested in motorsports and a lover of the “sweet science.”
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