The Survivors: Body and Blood

Today we have a excerpt from Amanda Harvard's Body and Blood! It's out now, so stop by Amazon and pick up your copy!!

 

Exclusive Excerpt

 

John got back to his feet and in unsettling, invasive move put his hands on Hannah’s shoulders. “You see, children. Sadie’s dark power is so strong that even your eldest Survivors have succumbed. We know the ways in which Satan works. Sadie is doing his work.”

“He’s lying!” I cried.

“You and I both know that you have brought nothing but tragedy and desecration to this family. If we are in peril, it is because of you,” he said. Then turning to the crowd, he screamed, “It is because of Sadie!”

Half the crowd hailed his words, but the other half looked unconvinced, and he could tell. Suddenly, he put his hands to his head and dropped to his knees in the dirt.

“Wait! Family! I am hearing something from the Lord! He says that Satan has possessed our daughter Sadie, and there is no hope for her. He says that if you don’t believe, then we must search her body, for it is covered in the Devil’s Marks.”

It was straight out of the Salem history books.

“You’ve got to be joking,” I huffed. But no one thought he was joking. The thoughts of every living Survivor swelled in my mind and consumed me, their doubt and fear and outrage spinning around my brain, choking down my throat.

“You can’t listen to him! He’s manipulating you. He’s not telling the truth!”

“Am I? And if I were, why would our dear Sadie have her body so covered even on this summer day?” he asked. The scars. That bastard. They’d see my scars, and they’d believe they were the Devil’s Marks because not a one of them had ever seen a scar.

I wanted to keep it together, to keep some kind of cool in the face of this insanity, but hearing what they thought of me, and feeling the hatred they felt for me was too much.

I flung my jacket and shirt off until I was standing in front of everyone I’d known in my life in only a bra and jeans. My arms and neck mangled from suicide attempts and Fateor collections, even the imprint of Sam’s teeth in my stomach and back were there for the world to see. Exposed.

“Is that what you wanted to see?” I screamed, the slight grip I had on sanity slipping. “Is this what makes you think I’m of the devil? These scars I have inflicted upon myself, these wounds caused from my own pain? Yes, these are what I’ve been hiding. They are not of the devil but only by my own, pained hand. I’m not afraid to show you what I really am, even if it is something you’re afraid of, because I am nothing to fear. I have given this family everything, have given away my life and my freedom to protect you, and for what? So you can think I am damned? There is only one evil being inside these walls, and it is John!” I charged him then, grabbing the wand from Adelaide’s hand and stabbing it at John’s throat, not that I knew how to use it or what it could do. “He is evil, and if you can’t see that, then I can’t help any of you!”

But John’s calculated malevolence outpaced me, and he could turn any moment into an opportunity. So instead of cowering or further shaming me, he swallowed hard and then spoke loudly and clearly. “Now is the time to make your choice. Either go with your family and God, or go with Sadie, the Winters, and their evil,” John said.

“I’m with Sadie!” Hannah cried out. “And if you have any loyalty to this family, you will be too. I have seen the future, and Sadie is good.”

“I’m with Sadie,” Sarah said. That was as much as I could hope to get out of the elders, I was sure.

Ben stumbled to his feet. “I’m with Sadie,” he said.

And then there was silence. 132 Survivors said nothing.