Nightshade

by Saul, John

• ISBN13: 9780345433299
• ISBN10: 0345433297
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780345442383
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-06-01
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• More Book Details
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Summary

A master of horror and psychological suspense, John Saul taps into our darkest, most deeply guarded fears. Now the New York Times bestselling author of The Blackstone Chronicles and The Right Hand of Evil has created his most gripping novel yet, the terrifying story of an innocent teenager who must confront the sins of the past and a corrupting evil that threatens to consume his entire world. . . . Fifteen-year-old Matthew Moore seems to have it all: a loving mother, Joan; a caring stepfather, Bill, who treats Matt like his own son; residence at a sprawling estate in Connecticut; and a growing relationship with the most beautiful girl at school. All signs point to a bright future. Until fate intervenes. A sudden fire leaves Matt's ailing grandmother homeless. After moving in with the family, the caustic Emily insists on recreating the bedroom of her deceased daughter, the favored child who died tragically more than a decade ago. Joan and her older sister had always shared an uneasy bond and a shameful secret that would forever join them . . . even from beyond the grave. Then Matt's life insidiously begins to change. He starts to smell his aunt?s pungent perfume, so strong and immediate that it is as if she has returned from the dead. At night, he finds himself haunted by nightmares of unimaginable terror. While his grandmother drives a wedge between his once devoted parents, Matt transforms from a gregarious teenager to a hostile loner, tortured by chilling memories and prone to fits of rage. Then a shocking tragedy shatters the family beyond repair, propelling Joan and Emily into a final, explosive confrontation . . . a showdown in which old wounds will be viciously torn open?and a horrific shadow from the past will spring an implacable life of its own, clawing toward Matt with the ferocious inevitability of death itself.

Author Biography

JOHN SAUL's first novel, Suffer the Children, published in 1977, was an immediate million-copy bestseller. He has since written nineteen successive bestselling novels of suspense, including The Right Hand of Evil, The Presence, Black Lightning, Guardian, and The Homing. He is also the author of the New York Times bestselling serial thriller The Blackstone Chronicles, initially published in six installments, but now available in one complete volume. Mr. Saul divides his time between Seattle, Washington, and Maui, Hawaii.

Excerpts

THE CHILD LAY STILL; ANYONE OBSERVING IT WOULD HAVE BEEN CERTAIN
it was sound asleep. But it was not, for long ago--so long ago that there was no memory of how it began--the child's mind had learned to defend itself from the agony that the body it inhabited was forced to bear. Someday--in a future so far away that the barely formed mind could not even begin to comprehend it--it might be able to defend the body too.

But not yet.

For now, all the mind could do was retreat from the enemy, hiding deep inside the body, leaving the body to bear the pain as best it could.

Now the child's mind hovered on the fringe of consciousness, neither fully awake nor fully asleep, but lurking furtively in some shadowy nether region, ready to drop back into unconsciousness if it sensed that the enemy was near.

Beyond the eyelids--which the mind had learned very early to keep carefully closed--a growing brightness hinted that the terrors of the night would soon succumb to the onset of dawn.

But what about the terrors of the day?

The mind shifted its attention to the ears, sifting through the sounds, sorting them, searching for signals of danger.

Nothing threatened: only a voice, laughing; a bird, singing.

The mind ventured slightly closer to full consciousness.

It allowed the eyes to open--just the tiniest crack.

Brilliant yellow light flowed through the single small window.

The mind edged further into wakefulness.

Then a new sound--the creaking of an unoiled hinge on a sagging door--rasped in the child's ears, and the mind darted back, shying instinctively away from the noise that so often signaled approaching danger.

It closed the eyes again, lest they betray the mind's presence.

The creaking sound stopped, but the mind cowered where it was, ready to retreat into the black safety of unconsciousness at any moment.

Another sound came.

--click-click-click--The mind hesitated, still waiting, warily listening.

The sound came again.

--click-click-click--

The sound drew closer and closer, and the mind, uncertain, waited.

The click-click-click stopped, and a familiar scent filled the child's nostrils, a scent that instantly eased some of the fear in the child's mind.

"Doggie," the mind let the child whisper as the animal's tongue lapped at its face.

The furry mass of one of the animal's forepaws left the cracked cement floor upon which its claws had been clicking and gently prodded the child.

The child's eyes opened, and its arms wrapped around the animal's neck.

"Nice doggie," the child whispered as it peered into the dog's great brown eyes.

The dog whimpered, its tongue slurping across the child's face again.

The child giggled as its fingers stroked the animal's fur, but a second later the happy sound died on its lips and its fingers jerked away as if they'd been burned as the door at the top of the stairs was suddenly slammed open, crashing against the wall behind it.

"Out?" a voice commanded, the single word lashing down the steep flight of stairs like a snaking whip.

The child's body reflexively recoiled from the lash of the voice, and as the dog darted up the stairs, the child's mind began to retreat.

"How dare you?" the voice demanded, but even as the words rained down on the child, its mind began rejecting the signals that were funneling in through the ears and turning away form the bright sunlight the eyes perceived, retreating into the dark quiet safety of unconsciousness.

Too late. Despite the mind's effort to reject them, the furious words filtered through. "How many times have I told you not to touch that animal? Do you want me to make it go away forever? I can do that, you know! I made your father go away!" The mind felt the child trying to curl up, trying to make itself small.

Don't, the mind commanded. Lie still. Be asleep.

But it was far too late, for the mistake had already been made and for the child's body there was no longer any way to escape from the fury that hovered above.

"I'll teach you!" the voice rasped.

As the mind raced toward the safety of darkness, the first blow struck. Though the mind struggled once more to keep the child from reacting, a howl of pain and fear escaped its throat, and once more the voice spoke.

"Evil child! Nasty, vile, evil child! Well, I won't have it! Do you understand? I won't stand for it!"

As the raging voice ranted on, the child tried to pull its body away from the blows, but there was no escape.

The mind, reacting in an instant to the agony of the blows, retreated into the blackness, closing out what was happening. It closed off the ears and the voice began to fade away until the individual words could no longer be distinguished and the only sound that filtered through was an indistinct hum.

Next came the nerves. It doesn't hurt, the mind told itself. It won't hurt. It can't hurt. Nothing can hurt. Nothing--nothing--nothing--

The sting of the slashing blows began to fade, and the mind turned further away, retreating into the safety, darkness and silence of unconsciousness, sheltered from all the terrors the world held.

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Excerpted from Nightshade by John Saul
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