This week’s Sunday Snippet is from my upcoming series about a female exorcist. This particular bit has actually been cut from the current version of the manuscript. I’ve reworked the core storyline so Davis and his memories are no longer part of the book. I always keep my early drafts, though, so this may get resurrected at some point in the future.
In the meantime, he’s a section where Tessa has entered the mindscape of a young boy, Davis. As always, this hasn’t been edited.
Tessa stood in front of a child’s drawing of a large, square house. Its uneven features were drawn in brown and orange crayon and a red roof that leaned slightly to the left. There were four crooked windows in the front of the building and two dormer windows in the roof with black rectangles where the glass would be. The front door was bright green with black splotch for a door-handle and a V-shaped door knocker.
The sky beyond the house was pale blue and dotted with bulbous white clouds. The sun was a scribbled quarter-circle as though it had been drawn at the corner of a page. Yellow rays exploded out of it, raining down on the house below.
Grass made from thousands of tiny green ticks surrounded the house. Green mounds created the illusion of hills at the horizon. A clump of trees stood off to the right—thick brown trunks topped with thick green swirls. A triangle sat in the middle of the trees like a bright yellow tent.
There was no breeze and the air was devoid of any kind of smell. A complete absence of sound seemed to press in against Tessa’s ears.
Davis’s memories were everywhere. Tea parties, birthdays, reading, watching movies. They all seemed to revolve around the house. Every positive experience he’d ever had seemed tethered to this place.
Tessa reached out with her thoughts, searching the house and the landscape around it for signs of possession. There was nothing. Davis’s memories seemed intact and there was no evidence of any connection with the demonrealms.
The grass crunched under Tessa’s feet as she approached the house. The door was a thick layer of green wax and the marks where the artist had pressed against the paper were clearly visible. The door handle was a black lump that looked like it had been gouged out of a crayon and pressed into place.
Tessa gripped the door handle. It was warm to the touch and slightly soft—exactly how she’d imagined it. She turned the handle and walked through the door.
[Sunday Snippet – 10th March 2024 by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 10th March 2024]