Read Ghosts of Rosewood Asylum Online
Authors: Stephen Prosapio
Ghosts of Rosewood Asylum (42 page)
He reached the top stair, listened intently,
and then headed down the hall towards the far end where he assumed the sounds
were coming from. Through the room’s open doorway, a picture window let in the
moon’s blue light. Glenn heard nothing. No talking. No movement. Not even any
breathing. He inched closer—a few feet from the door.
“When she’d seen what she had done…”
Tap.
Recognition didn’t click right away. Glenn
peered into the room. Sitting cross legged on the floor, a girl no older than
nine-years old wore pigtails and a white nightgown that glowed in the
moonlight. In her hands was a large kitchen knife. Was this one of the
daughters from the photo on the stairs?
“She gave her father forty one.”
She drove the blade into the wood floor
where a wide deep hole had been carved.
What in the love of hell,
Glenn thought.
Her unlikely appearance. Her vacant
expression. She seemed more an apparition than real.
Glenn slowly backed away. Through the
cracked door, he caught a glimpse into the next room. An arm extended at an
unnatural angle from a lump on the bed. Even in the half light, he could tell
that the sheets were stained with dried blood. There was no doubt that at least
one murdered body lay in there.
“Lizzy Bordon took an axe…”
Tap.
Glenn almost puked. He rushed to the
staircase.
Before he took his first step down, a
floorboard creaked. Not underfoot, but behind him.
He whirled and heard the “Pfffft” before he
felt the stabbing pain in his thigh.
“She gave her mother forty whacks.”
Her eyes. Wildly insane—inhuman.
Glenn pulled the knife from his groin. Some
blood spewed out the hole in his jeans, but most gushed down his inseam.
He staggered down the stairs and clawed at
the front door. He clutched his leg remembering to press on the wound. The
blood was slippery, warm and wet.
Christ, don’t let it end this way!
He fumbled with the locks. He flung open the
door and glanced over his shoulder.
She stood atop the staircase. “And when
she’d seen what she had done!”
Glenn stumbled outside, across the porch and
down the first two steps before tumbling into the cold dusty snow. He
frantically gathered a handful of it and pressed it to his wound. He was
already lightheaded. Too much blood lost.
Or was this shock?
He tried to stand and couldn’t manage. His
trail of blood extended from where he was laying, up the front steps through
the doorway—the warm red liquid melting the white powder.
He just wanted to live.
He cried for help. But it came out more like
a gasping croak. Even to him, it didn’t sound very loud. So he inhaled deeply.
And then, as forcefully as he could, Glenn
Razzovich screamed.
Acknowledgements
Those who either know me or appreciate the
novel writing process, understand that this book is my baby. We’ve all heard it
said that it takes a village to raise a child, and practically the population
of a small town deserves credit for helping my work breathe life.
Thanks go to Beta Readers of this novel:
Maria Crisman, Susan Prosapio, Judy Popp, Trevor Myers, and Zach’s first
fan: Rachel Love. The ever intrusive Tammy Szkolny deserves credit to my
presale line edits. And to Lynn Calvert for believing in the story.
I owe a huge debt to many writing friends
and colleagues: the North County Speculative Fiction Writer’s Group, whose
suggestions and camaraderie helped make Ghosts of Rosewood Asylum the book it
is today...at least the good parts. Special thanks to Nickolas Furr, Meghan
Muriel, and of course Irina Ivanova for both help with the writing as well as
her amazing cover design. Much gratitude goes to Lisa Brackmann for sharing the
journey.
Thank you to everyone at National Search
Associates—my second family. Special thanks to Robert Rossi for his photo and
logo work.
Those to whom a mere “thanks” is woefully
inadequate: Dave Knopp and Joe Prosapio were nothing short of lifelines during
the writing of this novel.
No amount of accolades could express enough
gratitude to my incredible agent Taryn Fagerness who, for all her ideas and
suggestions, might well deserve a writing credit for this novel.
Many people have helped me grow the XPI
group on Facebook thanks to all of you, with special gratitude for Liz Nichols,
Gayle Bedwell, and Sonya Alarcon, Joe Evans, Lorna Collins, Robert White,
Angela Morrell Arnold, and everyone else!
As XPI expands to the world at large, I hope
all of you share in my joy.
Other Works by this Author
Dream
War
-- a novel, available now as an eBook
Decades ago, the CIA developed the
technology to enter our dreams and extract information. It was just a matter of
time before they took things a little too far...
About the Author
Stephen Prosapio received his Bachelors of
Arts degree in Political Science from DePaul University in Chicago. After
reporting for one of the nation’s largest fantasy football websites,
footballguys.com, Stephen wrote his first novel,
Dream War
. Competing
against 2,676 other novels, it won a Top Five Finalist award in Gather.com’s
2007 First Chapters contest.
Dream War
was released as an eBook in July
of 2010. Articles about him and his writing have been featured in the San Diego
Union Tribune, The North County Times, Today’s Local News, San Diego Magazine
and the DePaul University Alumni magazine.
Stephen resides in Oceanside, California. He
is currently crafting a sequel to
Ghosts of Rosewood Asylum
that
chronicles the Xavier Paranormal Investigators next case—
The Atchison
Haunting.
Contact the Author:
Contact the Author:
email:
[email protected]