here is a small town on the coast of a large lake. Far from the shackles of big business, greed, and crime, all is silent within its borders. Sleepy, unfamiliar with national politics, and just a hint of a southern accent, the residents of this haven live out their lives in relative security and safety. A quaint town, a few decades behind the rest of the world, perhaps, but some find it a comfortable place to settle down. To live, to die; To breed, to kill.
Everyone has their place in the town, like a tightly knitted quilt. The Morgan’s, Wether’s, and Larry’s supply the population with fish, meat, and fruit from their various family operated markets. Steven’s just opened a drug store on Main Street and Father Marshal runs the only church within fifty miles. The local school has a few teachers and Miss Johnson seems to be liked well among the young ones.
Families? Yes, but there is only one family you need to be concerned with. The Dale bloodline. In particular, the only child, who is named Jaycen. Jaycen Todd Dale. All you need to know at the moment is that he exists. There will be a time to talk of this young boy’s fate and death, but we have more pressing issues to address...
In every perfectly sane being there is something rotting. Something you try desperately to forget, and to protect, but fail. Like an itch screaming to scratched; an itch laid deep in the unconscious mind. Its ignored, and what’s annoying you becomes what’s killing you. Itches slither into the small cracks in the human frame of glass, and the pressure builds. Once was a headache is now the untreatable cancer. And it spreads. The definition of insanity blooms into the definition of survival as the skull collapses. You become what you hate, you deny what you loved. Everything decays but you feel its the same. The ground falls apart, and all you can do is stare as the world slips beneath your feet. And when you take your final breath, as the gravedigger lowers you down, you wonder… where did this all begin?
While eventual insanity is universal, the only difference is how it begins. For some, its a matter of losing. Continually losing control, losing friends, losing money, losing your mind. For others, it might be a sudden turn of events; a quick stab of the dagger. For a few, the virus is injected by an infected by peers, family members, expectations. The possibilities are endless. The horrors are infinite.
For Jaycen Todd Dale, the ‘hero’ of this story, his is a curious case. The disease wasn’t contracted by a person or series of events. No, it was a place.
Everyone knew about it. There was no avoiding it. It was the object in every campfire story and every big brother would take great pleasure in teasing the siblings, claiming he’d feed the young ones to the front door. The history varies, but all the records are false. There’s nothing supernatural about it.
Built in the late 1800’s, the building’s occupants were short-lived. A dose of the flu killed the family off, the parents and a newborn.
(New novel, I gave up the other one because I always get bored or find another 'great' idea... But, personally, I like this better than the other novel. Maybe this time I'll give more updates. :P)
