Welcome to Snippet Sunday on Darkling Dreams!

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.

In honor of it being the first plunge of the year into NaNo months, I am going to keep sharing from the first novel in my series the Dark Heir Chronicles I am working towards finishing this year with Camp, Fated to Darkness. Come May I am going to switch to a different story, either a fantasy or an adventure. I haven’t decided just yet which I want to go from.

Previously on Sunday Snippets: Four year old Heather had been kidnapped from her home by a woman clad in black and whisked off to another realm where she found her kidnapper wanted her to be her Heir. But not just any Heir. After being locked up and put through a ritual that has changed her and her life forever — though she does not yet know it — she has found herself in a small bare essential room with a tiny bathroom, and her new mentor has instructed her to clean herself up and be ready in ten minutes. Having talked of what Ciara finally wants of her, she has now gone through three trying lessons under her mentor’s thumb, and has since passed out. Since then Ciara has finally begun to explain what it is she really wants of Heather.

I’m skipping ahead from last week’s snippet again to the beginning of Chapter 6. You all are in for a surprise with this one.

(Some sentences may have been creatively edited and punctuated to try to fit the ten sentence limit. I’m over, again. Can we just agree that my snippets will always be a little longer but not too long?)

~*~*~*~

The smell of pancakes and warm maple syrup wafted up through the hall and into Heather’s room. She stirred in her sleep, rolling over and thinking she was dreaming the welcoming smell that made her stomach rumble.

 “Heather!” The call of her mother’s voice came, pulling her from her slumber slightly. “Breakfast, sweetheart.”

She knew she was imagining it all.

This was another one of those wistful dreams she had been having of home. Her want to go home fueling memories and dreams of being happy with her family. Thinking it was nothing more than that, she remained laying where she was, longing deep in her heart for it to be real.

The soft, comfortable bed underneath her though was starting to make her wonder. The familiar smell of home and the fuzzy blankets that were much heavier and warmer than the thin one she had with Ciara. The room wasn’t so cold and she could have sworn she saw sunlight playing at her eyelids.

Slowly, the comforts of home brought her out of her sleep and she blinked her eyes open, gazing around tiredly at her surroundings. The same purple walls, the same dressers and trinkets upon them, the same four poster bed topped with warm fuzzy blankets of horses and puppies.

It was all there, just as it had been.

Disbelief dawned on her and she sat up in bed, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and running her hand over the blankets. Her eyes darted about, wide as saucers. “I…home?” she breathed, baffled.

Had… Had all that been a strange dream and she actually hadn’t been kidnapped? Had she fallen asleep after her birthday and just had a really bad nightmare? Was none of it real?

She looked down at herself quickly, looking for all the marks and bruises, the burns and cuts, only to find none. Her skin unmarred and unmarked in all forms. Even the black lines that had been those of the symbols on her wrists were gone. She was unharmed.

Most importantly, she was safe, and she was home.

It had all been a really bad nightmare.

Heather bounced out of bed, overjoyed and relieved that she was alright and it had been no more than a really, really scary dream. A slight giggle even passed her lips in the sheer relief she felt. She got ready to go down for breakfast, realizing she was actually starved and felt a little lightheaded from her sudden movements, though she was unsure why. She was never this hungry or weak feeling just from one night of sleep.

She turned towards the door to leave and go get breakfast when she stopped dead in her tracks, her breath hitching in her throat and stopping a startled scream from spilling forth. For there in front of the door, blocking her path to it, was the woman of her nightmare. The same black hair, the same clothes, the same piercing, dark forest green eyes that bore right through to Heather’s soul and ripped it along the way, arms crossed over her chest as she looked down at Heather coldly.

~*~*~*~

Okay, I gotta ask, how many of you had your hopes up at the start of this and then just watched them crash all around you at the last paragraph? I know, I’m a mean author. LOL.

This story is not yet on Wattpad because it is my baby that I hope to publish one day, and if no one will publish me, I am self publishing. But it’s also not on Wattpad because it’s in first draft phases yet. So there will be no “if you wish to read more…”

However! If you wish to read anything else that I do have finished, you can hop on over to  my profile on Wattpad and check out what I have to offer. 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 Snippet Sunday!