Haunting Wilderness: An Excerpt

I am posting this for Singledust because she wished to see what a song could bring to life for me. Many of my novels come from songs and music. Music adds spice to my life and I appreciate all different kinds. This one came from Lindsey Sterling’s Beyond the Veil.

To give some context, this girl is running from an almost obsessive life she had back in Hollywood as one of the best in training up live performances. And now she has been pushed back into that world by a stubborn brother and some visitors on her quiet land. Here we get to see her awaken:

Layah grabbed her bow and quiver from by the door and slid her long cloth fingerless gloves up her arms under her flannel. She put on her black down vest in case it was just warm enough for her to sweat. Stepping into the wet feeling air, it was a matter of time before the snow came in. With slow, steady, calming steps she wandered into the forest toward where she last recalled the clearing that Alex ripped up in his angst. It wasn’t hard as the sounds coming from the area were disturbing to the peace around her. It echoed off the large trees that towered above her. When the foliage came out full force, it would be muffled and maybe she would have some peace and quiet.

Carefully she walked up into the clearing and stood by Alex as he once more tried to get something from the shot. In front of her was the wrong atmosphere and emotion. Layah couldn’t describe it but all she felt was nerves, frustration, and a smothering constraint. She placed one hand on Alex’s shoulder letting him know she was there, but was otherwise intent on what was surrounding her. It needed a calm, firm, peaceful presence.

The student with the violin was out of his element and overwhelmed. It appeared he had gone far quickly and wasn’t prepared. Layah stepped right in front of everyone and everything to stand between him and the camera. His eyes pinned on her and she saw his relief. Ignoring everything around her she walked forward and pointed at herself and motioned to his violin. He didn’t need words, and Layah wasn’t going to give him any. “Alex film around me.” She said quietly and the chaos seemed to stall, picking up on her energy shift. “Just keep playing it over and over and keep running it taking shots that you need. Film whatever.”

“Right.” He said behind her, not questioning her unorthodox way of filming.

Dropping her vest and bow in the leaves where she stood, she zeroed in on the student and as the music played, surrounding them, she had to admit she liked the sound. It stirred her as his playing had earlier in the month. Taking the emotion of what came from the speakers in stride, Layah came at him and he began to play with the music. She pushed his one shoulder and he relaxed more at her touch. He was starting to give in to whatever drove his music. She tapped the back of his knee and he released the tension there as well. Then she moved in front of him and dared him to convince her with only a look that he was playing exactly what he meant to play.

As he advanced at her she danced away from him and he backed off only a moment before she gave him a quiet “No.” and dared him forward again. Something inside her was rising, the raw emotions of her past were resurfacing fast and Layah knew it would be a matter of time before that calm world she built shattered and she was completely her dark self. The darkness she controlled and forgot about most of the time, was brewing. There was no stopping it when she tugged the student with her and moved behind him and around the others who needed to step it up. Like a hunter she went after them pulling all of them into what she felt. No one was going to escape what she felt any more than she would escape what the player felt.

She stuck with single quiet words like ‘now’, ‘here’, ‘no’ and ‘better’. Just out of reach from all of them, she demanded their best even as they tried to touch or reach as she passed. It was part of the emotions she needed to build, dared them to feel. Yet it wasn’t enough and she came behind a male dancer and pushed him forward more erotically than she normally dared while in her normal state of mind. He picked up on it and moved with the music adding his emotion to her symphony.

White flakes began to fall, but she pointed and signaled to the other side of the clearing where Alex clued in and placed a mobile cameraman. She came behind him and nearly tugged him to where she wanted him, but again it was a gentle guiding and sexually tense. She signaled and the camera moved under her command to another place and felt satisfaction when he too fell under the spell she was weaving. Layah knew she was lost to her demon, and snow, wind, cold, none of it mattered as she challenged the student in front of her relentlessly. Possessed she pursued the emotion she couldn’t contain and used it like a drug to drive them all higher. Her awareness of anything around her became nothing and she pulled everything from them like a vampire who absorbed souls. It was about what was inside them, the best of them and she would hunt it down.

This is a small taste of the fourth chapter. I hope you enjoy it friends! As I get more brave I hope to publish all these characters with voices and breathe life into them for everyone, not just me.