Jinxed
Jinxed TrilogyBook One
Thommy Hutson
Genre: YA Horror/Thriller
Publisher: Vesuvian Books
Date of Publication: 3.13.2018
ISBN: 978-1944109127
ASIN: B076ZJX9G1
Number of pages: 243
Word Count: 66k
Cover Artist: Sam Shearon
Tagline: High school can be a real killer
Book Description:
Break a mirror
Walk under a ladder
Step on a crack
Innocent childhood superstitions…
But someone at the Trask Academy of Performing Arts is taking things one deadly step further when the campus is rocked with the deaths of some of its star students.
Layna Curtis, a talented, popular senior, soon realizes that the seemingly random, accidental deaths of her friends aren't random—or accidents—at all. Someone has taken the childhood games too far, using the idea of superstitions to dispose of their classmates. As Layna tries to convince people of her theory, she uncovers the terrifying notion that each escalating, gruesome murder leads closer to its final victim: her.
Will Layna's opening night also be her final bow?
Excerpt 3
Max sat on a
stone alumni bench that had a sight line through a group of trees to the front
gate. He had been irritable. With himself. With Layna. Or more specifically,
Layna and Dillon.
He watched
Daniel make his way along the gate. It looked to Max like he was mumbling. And
he looked on edge. Max supposed that was to be expected. Weren’t they all on
edge? Taking care of minor student issues was a far cry from a student killing
herself. And this wasn’t just any student, he reminded himself. This was Sydney
Miller. He fought back the urge to stand up and ask how much Daniel was making
for being a glorified babysitter, and then, whatever the number, to say it
wasn’t enough.
Instead Max sat
quietly. He wasn’t trying to hide from Daniel, but he didn’t do anything to
make himself known, either. He just watched as Daniel moved to the massive
front gates of the campus and handled the nightly ritual called Gate Lock. With
everything going on, Max felt, for maybe just the first time, that they were in
something more akin to a low-security prison than an elite prep school. The
food was certainly not much better, at least from what he saw on MSNBC’s Lock
Up. And he was stuck with people he didn’t always like.
Daniel opened
the electronic security box to the left of the entrance, and Max watched as the
wrought iron monstrosity closed, bringing together two letters that signified
the school’s name. T for Trask and A for Academy. When they clanked together
Max thought what all the young men thought, Trapped again in T and A.
As Daniel walked
away, still grumbling about whatever it he was grumbling about, Max eyed him
conspiratorially, wondering what those thoughts might be. Then his own mind
turned back to Layna. And tits and ass.
He and Layna
hadn’t gone too far. Max knew Layna was a good girl. He chided himself when he
wondered how good a girl she was when she was dating Dillon. He shook off the
thought. Not much seemed to happen between them and, in fact, Max remembered
hearing the swirling rumor Dillon might even be gay.
“Are you done
being mad at me?” Layna’s voice said.
The surprise
arrival made Max jump, even as she rested a hand on his shoulder. He didn’t
turn around. He was also glad Layna was not a mind reader.
“Watching Gate
Lock isn’t quite the sunset, but being closed off seems kind of fitting right
now, don’t you think?” He still wasn’t looking at her as he felt her arm drape
around his shoulder.
Layna sat down
next to him. “Listen, Dillon and I—”
“Dillon and you,
what?” Max asked, staring forward. He wanted to stay angry. Stoic. Something.
“I’m with you.
Only you,” she said.
Max felt a
tickle of loose threads on his hand from a bracelet Layna wore, something Nancy
had given her. She tried to interlock her fingers into his, but he didn’t
budge. Then he budged a little. “Why won’t he just go away?”
“Because we’re
still friends,” Layna answered sweetly, honestly. “And where exactly do you
want him to go?”
Max finally
turned to her, his head moving in a way that suggested she would not want him
to answer that question.
“There’s
friends, and then there’s you and Dillon. He finds a way to be near you. All
the time.”
“You’re
exaggerating.”
“Am I?” Max knew
he was right. He could see Layna thinking on that. He also knew that while she
didn’t put things into any kind of Dillon-Layna proximity coefficient formula
or anything, she had to see it.
“Layn, everyone
notices,” he continued. “That’s why they always get nervous when El Strange-o
turns up.”
Layna pulled her
hand back from his and crossed her arms. A small smile grew on her face as she
turned to him.
“Wait a minute.
They, or you?” she asked. “Um, are you jealous?”
Max grinned.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? But, sorry, I am so not jealous.”
“Then prove it
and hold my hand, would you?” she said more than asked.
Max obliged,
taking her hand into his. The touch instantly put him at ease. He pulled her
close to him and gave her a kiss.
They stood up
together and started toward the dorms in silence, their arms swinging in unison
with every step.
“And, by the
way, he’s quiet, not strange,” Layna said.
Max laughed.
“Wow, you made it a full, what, five seconds. Was that defense just bubbling up
inside you?”
“No. I don’t
know. Maybe a little,” Layna admitted. “But if it makes you feel better, I’ll
be staying the night with you. Not him.”
This stopped Max
dead. For the smallest of moments, his maleness hoped his good girl was about
to go bad. “Really?” he asked in a way that oozed romantic potential.
“Get your mind
out of the gutter. I just don’t wanna be alone,” Layna said. “We are stranded
together on an island, after all.”
“Oh, so now
you’re stranded with me?” Max wondered friskily.
Layna nuzzled
her head onto his shoulder. “Yes, definitely. But it’s good. And tonight I want
it to be just us.”
Max felt a
slight pressure building. Hormones pulsing. “Sounds dangerous.”
“Easy, cowboy.”
Max stopped and
turned her to him. Gently, he placed a hand under her chin. She smiled sweetly,
which gave way to the deep kiss that followed. Max felt her give in as she
wrapped her arms around him.
He looked down
at her, kissed her forehead, and then focused intently on Layna. On the moment.
He was completely unaware that somebody, far closer to them than he could even
imagine, was watching.
About the Author:
Thommy Hutson is an award-winning screenwriter, producer, and author who is considered the foremost authority on A Nightmare on Elm Street. A graduate of UCLA, Thommy also wrote and produced critically acclaimed genre projects such as Scream: The Inside Story, Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy, More Brains! A Return of the Living Dead, His Name was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th, and Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th.
Thommy was born and raised in New York but now resides in Southern California with his husband and their cat.
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