Blogger Book Fair Guest: Beck Sherman
Posted: 7.25.2013 by Cole Knightly Labels: blogger book fair, guest post
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Goodbye Nothing Pre-Release Excerpt:
The baby
was dead. Just like he was.
The mother was distraught. Cain wasn't sure she'd be able to work
through the anguish.
His pain had dissipated. The pull that had started up again quit after
the baby was freed and the afterbirth had splattered onto the floor. Cain was
left teeter-tottering over the woman's torn vagina.
Cain was breathing heavy. The room was silent except for the mother's
sobbing. A few seconds passed before the baby's mouth opened and a wail
escaped. The room stirred back into motion. Frowns turned upside down. The dad,
invited to cut the birth cord, stepped through Cain.
And it was back.
The pain, the puncturing, the PULL.
Cain struggled. He flailed. He tried to grab a hold of the doctor's
shoulders, but his hands went right through the white coat. He turned around
and tried swimming back toward the door, but he couldn't get any momentum.
The pull was too strong.
"Where are you taking me?" he yelled.
He was fine before. Before the pain, he felt at peace. His skin
stretched back now. Back to where the pull wanted him to go. Back toward the
doctor and the woman and the baby.
The writhing red fetus let out another wail. The hospital room blurred,
and Cain's life began to stutter in front of his eyes, like an old movie reel
discovered in a box in a basement and fingerprints and dust and other wear have
made it barely viewable. Lacey blows out six candles on her Smurf cake. She is
wearing a red polka-dot dress. Cain's father's funeral. Brie throws a rose onto
his father's coffin as it descends into the damp earth. His first promotion at
Kline, Wendell, and Starsky. He and Brie are having amazing sex. Brie's
pregnant with Lacey. She's dancing to Van Morrison in the living room of their
old apartment. Things are going faster now. He's at prom with the prettiest
girl in school. He's just a boy with a bike. A nurse wearing horn-rimmed
glasses hands his clean, pink body to Nancy Emmerick. His mother screams. The
picture fades. Cain can hear a flapping noise like his reel has just ended.
He was back in the hospital room. Not much time, or no time at all, had
passed. The doctor still held the baby. The baby was still attached to the
mother by way of the umbilical cord.
Cain was starting to break apart. The more he resisted the pull, the
more pieces of his body split away. A light enveloped him; it felt like he was
on fire. Small bits of glowing flesh and hair and muscle tore off and shimmied
into the baby's open mouth. Soon, bits weren't even distinguishable, collected
in a stream of free-flowing light entering the baby.
Going, Cain thought, as he
looked down and saw that his legs were gone. Going, Cain thought, as he looked down and saw he had no
midsection. Going, Cain thought, as
he looked down and saw no chest.
Gone.
●
Beck
Sherman was born and raised in Massachusetts. Beck attended Syracuse University
undergrad, has a master’s degree in photojournalism from the University of
Westminster, London, and when not writing, enjoys exploring abandoned insane
asylums and photo-documenting the things that go bump in the night, when
they’re kind enough to pose. Beck’s first novel Revamp is available now on Amazon.
●
Goodbye Nothing is out on September 3rd!
Go on over and check out the BBF cover reveal happening now at DyingToWrite.
