Snippet Sunday: September 13, 2015

Welcome to Snippet Sunday!

Where writers come together to share a few sentences (8-10) of their current project — whether it’s a recently released novel, a WIP (work in progress), or an older manuscript that’s being revived. Intended to hook readers, gather feedback and build an author’s fan base, Snippet Sunday is the FB group that does all three.

For this month, I am going to continue on with my short paranormal story, Rivers of Black. A story which I am now in the process of editing again after I talked myself into it. Come October I am going to be switching to something different. (I think.)

I am skipping ahead a bit from last week’s snippet onto the next chapter. My main character had been thinking about wanting to take her own life, but her fear of being found had stopped her. Now, she is out in the woods and has come across a sudden dark circle of wood that was not there before. Upon entering this eerie dark circle, she has stumbled onto a girl sitting on a rotten stump in the middle. A girl that was not there before.

A bit of background on this story as well: This story is rather dark and depressing. It deals with a topic some people would be hesitant to read; which is self harm and suicide. I don’t sugarcoat this either, I write it raw on how someone in my character’s state feels. Just be forewarned with that. I hope it doesn’t deter you from reading, but I know others cannot deal reading these kinds of things. (There is really nothing bad to this snippet though, but it’s getting good.)

(The following has been creatively punctuated to fit the ten sentence limit.)

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She was sitting there crying on the ground, staring at the photograph in her palms; every few seconds she would shift the photograph from hand to hand, carefully holding it so as not to cover the person in it as she hastily wiped away at the tears streaming down her face.

But no matter how many times she wiped the tears away they just kept flowing, smudged with black eyeliner. Her tears left rivers down her face, like a black stream of decay in some far off dark forest; a place in total solitude from the rest of the world, where no light shone and nothing but death survived in the hollowness of trees and the silence of darkness.

A lot like the circle of darkness around me.

It was a dark and depressing scene I saw before me as I watched her cry black rivers down her cheeks; it felt even more depressing than my life at the moment.

I longed to reach out and give her a hug — a small reassuring gesture that could mean the difference between sadness and love, life and death — in hopes that I could dry up those dark rivers. But I didn’t for I wasn’t sure of myself…of her. Instead, I crossed the last few steps between us and knelt down beside her. Her tears and sorrow were tempting me to put a hand on her shoulder; but something told me that I shouldn’t, so I restrained from doing so.

In fact, I didn’t even know her, so why was I feeling this need to comfort her?

Cover made by @_teenagers on Wattpad

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If you want to read the whole story, it is available to read on Wattpad! (Though I am in the slow process of editing it once more.) I love to hear any and all feedback on my work as well. Comments are greatly appreciated, as are the reads.

And if you’re looking for some other great snippets of fellow authors,

hop on over to Facebook and check out Sunday Snippets!