Blurb:
A desire to be reunited with her dead twin is about to become very real….
Gwen's had a tough year. With the anniversary of her sister's murder approaching, she finds she isn't ready for the real world. Her friends have another plan in mind. A visit to the mountains, and a weekend of fun, is what they promise. None of them expect it to be the trip to somewhere they didn't plan and one that may cost them more than they could have imagined.
On a deserted road, they collide head on with another vehicle. Certain she is about to die, Gwen never expected to wake up in a strange hotel. With the presence of hotel’s caretaker, and a vague request to follow the rules, she begins to wonder just where they ended up. As her friends begin to vanish, Gwen knows her time is running out.
With danger around every corner Gwen searches for a way to escape---
before one wrong choice is made and she loses her soul forever.
Excerpt:
You've got nowhere to run
Screams, cries and a loud crash of doors slamming shut echoed behind her. Death was on her heels and she wasn't about to stop and ask questions. Everything around Lisa kept changing. Rooms were gone, friends had vanished and hallways were longer than before. No matter where she turned, she couldn’t get out. She had been dropped into a labyrinth that didn’t end.
“There’s got to be a way out!” she cried.
Not stopping to listen, she kept going, running further and further down the hall. Her feet were going as fast as possible, but it didn’t feel like enough. She was moving in slow motion or so it felt, stuck in a movie that was drawing to a close. Lisa slammed her fist against the nearest wall. She wanted out.
A sharp turn to the left, and she found another long hallway sprawled out ahead of her. This wasn’t right. She had been running for hours but hadn’t made any progress. She had been careful to not run in circles, but the place had morphed into a maze that didn’t end. Every turn she made led into another, none of them leading anywhere useful. Stopping to catch her breath, she tried to calm her mind.
“Where did we end up?” Thunder cracked from outside, the walls shuddering in response. The place had turned into a warped version of a fun house. “House of horrors is more like it,” she muttered.
You won’t get out.
The voice continued to haunt her, its bone-chilling monotone ripping straight through to her soul. The voice wasn’t coming from around her; of that much she was sure. No, it was sent directly into her mind. People would say she was going crazy. Right now, she would prefer that than the hell she now found herself in. If this thing hunting her wanted to drive her over the edge, it was doing one hell of a good job.
Stop and accept your fate.
"Go away!" Lisa shouted, her breath coming in gasps. "Leave me alone! I’ve done nothing wrong."
Her cries fell on deaf ears. Over and over the voice kept hounding her. She wanted to scream, to give in and make it go away, but she couldn’t. Deep down she knew she had to find a way home. Stubbornness ran thick in her blood, and she wasn't about to stop now. Adrenaline pushed through her body in response. She had survived this long; she would find a way out.
Biting the inside of her lip, Lisa drew a deep breath. "No, I won't let you win," she cried out. "You can't have me."
Her eyes raked left and right, looking for her tormentor, searching for something she might have missed. The hallway was vacant, except for her. At least, that's what it wanted her to think. She had learned quickly that nothing was as it seemed in this place. In the distance she heard a growl, the same sound that had hunted her for the last twenty-four hours. Every time she looked for the source she found nothing. Now, in the distance, she sensed movement that hadn’t been there before. Shadows began to crouch closer but never more than that.
"Go away," she whispered. “Let me go home.”
Silence was her only reply. She was beginning to hate the quiet creek of the old place. She had come with her traveling companions, now they were missing. The screams she had heard over the last few hours had been more than enough to make her want to get out. Getting out had proved to be much more difficult than she had first expected. This place was determined to keep her put.
Another growl made her turn. She felt a cold wind rush across her and shuddered at the touch.
"It's not real," Lisa called out. "It can’t be."
Many doors led from the hall but none had helped her. Her body pressed against one after another. None budged.
"Come on, please," she begged, every part of her body feeling weak. "You can't all be locked." One of them had to be unlocked. Still each one held fast, the thick wood rebuffing her. As she came to the end of the hall, a window faced her with one door on either side. It was like a mirror image of the rest of place. She peered through the dusty glass only to find the same view as all the rest. As with the other windows, shutters were secured against the window pane. From the small slits, she caught sight of faint grey fog outside. It was all she could see through the tiny cracks.
"Dammit." It was the same thing she had seen since coming to this place. "I swear I never want to see fog again."
Another stomp and she turned to find something approaching from the far end of the hallway. Darkness and shadows cowered in the corners. She tried to focus on what was approaching but found she couldn’t. Her stomach knotted at the small glimpses she caught. It wasn't possible, it couldn't be real.
Deep growls filled the air, louder than before. If she screamed she wasn't certain. Her heart pounded in time with the knocking of the wind outside. She had to find somewhere to hide and quickly. The thing that faced her wasn’t something she could fight and win. Given the chance, it would rip the flesh from her skin if she remained; that was a death she didn't want.
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