Small Scene

While I'm working on Chapter 10 of Falling for Cody, I decided to share a scene from Slay the Demon. Happy Friday!

Breathing harder, Kimberly pushed herself in the last mile. Since today was her late day, she laced up her tennis shoes and headed out. She was pushing herself to run ten miles today instead of her normal five.

Nightmares kept her awake for most of the night. Running was one of the few activities that took her mind off those images that wouldn’t leave her alone.

Thirteen years was a long time for nightmares, but at least she didn’t freak out over the least bit of noise anymore. There was a time when she couldn’t leave her house for fear of someone pulling out a gun and shooting her. Thankfully, she was now able to live a semi-normal life in her hometown.

Briar Wall was a small town in West Tennessee. There were a few businesses in town along with several places to eat, but it was still smaller than nearby cities. There was no major highway, let alone interstate within a thirty-minute drive. The town was surrounded by farmland, but it was perfect for her. Everyone knew everyone and everyone knew everyone’s business for the most part. There were still secrets as with any town. One of those lingering secrets was why Dallas felt the need to bring the gun to school. She knew what he told her, but what she didn’t know was the decision made him bring the gun on March 14. Was the date significant? On the other hand, was Dallas’ decision an impulse? Did he plan anything or did he grab the gun on his way out the door?

It was only in the darkest hours that she couldn’t shake the image of Dallas busting into the classroom with his gun and pulling the trigger. Her feet pounded the pavement until she reached her ten-mile marker. Once she reached the marker, she slowed to a brisk walk. Ten minutes later, she unlocked her front door and stepped inside. Toeing off her shoes, she turned the TV on, before tugging her shirt up and over her head. She then used her shirt to wipe off the sweat from her face, neck, and chest.

“It’s too early to say, but we have reports the shooter killed the security guard before starting his rampage of terror.”

Kim paused and stared at the TV. The images were a trip to the past. The red banner at the bottom made her heart stop. An active shooter in a local school. The phrase had the power to bring her to her knees. She didn’t even feel the pain of her knees hitting the wood floor in her living room. She broke out in a cold sweat as she watched the footage of the police setting up a perimeter.

The female reporter was listing all the school shootings in the past two decades. She was comparing them to this latest one. Every school shooting was listed, including her own. There was one marked difference between all of those and this one. It was an elementary school involved this time.

She’d been seventeen at the time of her school shooting. It had been life changing at seventeen. She couldn’t imagine being a child experiencing those horrors. Why would someone pick an elementary school?

They were babies.

In fact, why would someone pick a school at all? It didn’t make any sense. If you were angry or bullied by someone, deal with that person, not an entire school of innocent children.

#slaythedemon #publishingsoon #march1 #2017