Mercurial Dreams

by Hadena James

  The Rocko-Plane, now unbalanced by the loss of two cages, and suffering damage from the impact, tottered forward. Again, the frantic passengers’ frenzied movements sent the ride past the tipping point and it fell forward, slamming into the ground. Dust, metal and blood sprayed up from the decimated ride. Chunks of metal flew through the fairgrounds, taking out whatever it hit.

  The top cage hit the carousel. It crashed through the top and into the carousel animals. The carousel bucked and jerked as its motor caught fire and smoke began to pour into the air. A piece of fiberglass animal flew off and slammed into the bumper cars. A metal pole from the carousel sheared off and was driven into a group of people running from the disaster.

  The pole hit one man in the head, sending him sprawling. He fell on a gate and toppled over onto the side nearest a ride. The pole changed trajectory and hit the small roller coaster meant for children. The ride had already been stopped by the emergency button, but the pole hit a supporting beam of the track. The track collapsed and the cars rolled off onto the ground, collapsing the fence that barricaded it from onlookers.

  The Ferris wheel took a direct hit from the swing-set ride. A chain wrapped over one of the spokes as the seat and rider crashed into the spoke below. The gondola style seat swung viciously from side to side. The passengers holding on for dear life as the ride operator tried desperately to get the ride emptied.

  The passengers were at the mercy of the swinging gondola. They screamed and cried. The operator moved the ride, trying to get to that gondola. As it came down, the violent swinging didn’t cease. The car rammed the operator and the operator’s controls. The ferris wheel began spinning again, faster, turning in its circular route with more speed than it had ever experienced before. Several of the gondolas began to swing wildly. Another operator rushed over to stop the ride. He shouted for the passengers to stop moving. They couldn’t hear him over their own terrified screams. The gondolas whizzed past him as he hit the emergency stop. Nothing happened. The other emergency stop was on the backside of the ride. He dashed from the platform, dodging flying debris and was hit by the fence as the roller coaster cars slid from their tracks. The fence and cars pinned his legs.

  Helplessly he watched as the weakened arm of the Ferris wheel buckled under the wild swing of the gondola and increased speed of the ride. As it neared the top, it broke. The gondola flipped sideways, throwing its passengers into the path of the other gondolas. They smashed into them seconds before the broken gondola smashed into it. The entire Ferris wheel collapsed in on itself. The motor shut off as the last car fell onto the emergency stop button on the rear of the ride.

  It took forty-five minutes for the carnage to stop. When it was over, almost every ride had been damaged and the larger thrill rides were ruined wrecks that had wreaked havoc all across the fairgrounds. Not a single one of them stood.

  Inhuman screams had replaced the grinding, whirring, screeching machine noises. Spots on the ground had become saturated with blood and other fluids and squelched beneath the feet of the emergency personnel. The searched for survivors, both on the fairgrounds and in the grandstand.

  Most of the uninjured were in such a state of shock, they only made small noises or sobbed. Their eyes looked hollow and their skin had lost most of its color. The moved like cattle, allowing themselves to be herded away from the devastation.

  The emergency personnel and a few bystanders that were not shell-shocked, searched the rubble for survivors. They followed the sound of screams and tried to decide how best to release each one without causing further damage. Some of them had pieces of metal jutting out of them. Others had limbs at odd angles or were missing limbs altogether. Some had been burned by the fires that had erupted.

  The dead were even worse. Their bodies were broke and lifeless among the carnage. Most of them were unrecognizable as being human.

  A fireman grabbed an arm and it broke off the man he was trying to rescue. He held the arm for a moment before turning his head and vomiting. Several other rescuers were having similar problems.

  In the back of all their minds was the question of how a small, county fair in Illinois had ended up a killing field, soaked with blood and covered with death.

  About the Dreams & Reality Series

  Sixteen years ago, I sat down and started writing one day. I had never considered writing a novel before and my intention was to bang out a short story.

  However, the story didn’t seem to want to end. I wrote on it for weeks, then months and eventually, my first Aislinn Cain novel was completed.

  As I read what I had written, I decided that Aislinn needed more oomph or something akin to it. Halfway through the read, I wondered what would happen if Aislinn was just as off-kilter and deranged as the serial killers she was chasing.

  And the research began in earnest. I had always been a fan of thrillers and mysteries as well as reading tons of true crime books and was familiar with the concept of both sociopaths and psychopaths.

  Originally, I thought of making her a full-fledged psychopath and as I sat down to do the re-write, I realized that it just didn’t work for me. So I changed sides and made her a sociopath, which did work for me. Long story short, Aislinn the Sociopath was born.

  After completely re-writing the entire first novel with Aislinn a sociopath, I realized that I needed something to contrast her… prove that she could be somewhat normal despite her inability to connect. Malachi had always been a character, but I realized that he could be so much more. He could be the yen to her yang, to parrot a cliché.

  During the years that followed, many Aislinn Cain novels were written. In some of them, Malachi is a full-blown psychopath incapable of any emotion, even rage. In a few, he was a serial killer of serial killers (these pre-date the Dexter TV show).

  These novels also included very normal versions of Lucas and Xavier. Depressing as it sounds now, they were completely normal. I like the tortured, damaged versions of them better and I’m glad they have evolved into what they are.

  They also included a much less damaged Alejandro and in a couple, I toyed with the idea of Aislinn and Alejandro being lovers. However, the idea was abandoned after I realized that my Aislinn, the sociopath who tortures herself trying to appear normal, could never sustain a sexual relationship, especially one that involved a co-worker. From that, the angry, mean, condescending Alejandro emerged. It worked to my advantage.

  Gabriel had always been a character that I wanted to include. I just like him. In previous novels, he’s had many roles, but I think his role now suits him best.

  However, poor Michael has officially lived longer now than he ever did any other novels. As a matter of fact, he died in the very first Aislinn Cain novel I wrote. So, when I started writing Elysium Dreams and he was still alive, I found myself struggling to find out where he fit into the group. He doesn’t. Not because he’s going to die soon, but because he isn’t like the others. Everyone is aware of it, but he does help provide some comic relief as well as a character onto which I can thrust misfortunes that strike my funny bone.

  Luckily, we do not live in Aislinn Cain’s world. It is not pretty or nice or pleasant. It is violent and bloody and gory. It is a world where the serial killer is king and those that chase the serial killer are expected to die very slowly and very painfully. For this reason, there is somewhat of a “police state” mentality to the Serial Crimes Tracking Unit. In this world, the need to suspend personal liberty is definitely a necessity because any day, any person, could become a victim of the over 10,000 serial killers that roam the streets of Aislinn’s world.

  Also, I need the reader to be aware that the series is a “best of” collection. Not every case is explored, they exist only in my head, only the ones that are weird, bizarre, or overwrought with extraneous difficulties make it into novels. However, Aislinn does refer to the more mundane cases she works that you, the reader, will never read in full detail.

  Each novel is meant to work as a stand-alone as well
as another piece of the series. Aislinn will never get crazier than she already is… there is no de-evolution of character into madness and eventual serial killerhood for her. This might not be true for all the characters, but it certainly is for her.

  So, as you read each novel remember that things will be darker at times and lighter at other times. Some cases will be more gruesome and gory, some more absurd (like this one), and some will just go down in the annuals of Aislinn history as bizarre.

  About Me

  At some point, we all get tired of reading the standard author bio. I’ve gotten tired of writing it or rather, cutting and pasting it. So, expect this to be a non-standard bio.

  I’ve been writing for over two decades and before that, I was creating my own bedtime stories to tell myself. I penned my first short story at the ripe old age of 8. It was a fable about how the raccoon got its eye-mask and was roughly three pages of handwritten, 8 year old scrawl. My mother still has it and occasionally, I still dig it out and admire it.

  When I got my first computer, I took all my handwritten stories and typed them in. Afterwards, I tossed the originals. In my early twenties, I had a bit of a writer’s meltdown and deleted everything. So, with the exception of the story about the raccoon, I actually have none of my writings from before I was 23. Which is sad, because I had seven Aislinn Cain novels written along with a half dozen other novels and well over two hundred short stories. It has all been offered up to the computer and writing gods as a sacrifice and show of humility or some such nonsense that makes me feel less like an idiot about it.

  I have been offered contracts with publishing houses in the past and always turned them down. Now that I have experimented with being an Indie Author, I really like it and I’m really glad I turned them down. However, if you had asked me this in the early years of 2000, I would have told you that I was an idiot (and it was a huge contributing factor to my deleting all my work).

  Personally, I really do suffer from a severe anxiety disorder and migraines. I find both to be huge impediments to the life I would like to lead. I find solace in the fact that I have found a significant other that tries to understand my obsession with writing, wonderful family members who support my writing obsession and a best friend who understands and accepts me regardless of my quirks and idiosyncrasies (for the record, she is more like Alex from The Dysfunctional Chronicles than Nyleena).

  When I’m not writing, I play in a steel-tip dart league and enjoy going to dart tournaments. I enjoy renaissance festivals and sanitized pirates who sing sea shanties. My appetite for reading is ferocious and I consume two to three books a week as well as writing my own. Aside from introducing me to darts, my SO has introduced me to camping, which I, surprisingly, enjoy. We can often be found in the summer at Mark Twain Lake in Missouri, where his parents own a campground.

  I am a native of Columbia, Missouri, which I will probably call home for the rest of my life, but I love to travel. Day trips, week trips, vacations on other continents, wherever the path takes me is where I want to be and I’m hoping to be able to travel more in the future.

  And no, I don’t always write in complete sentences… I refuse to… It sounds stiff and formal when I do.

  www.facebook.com/hadenajames

  @hadenajames

  http://hadenajames.wordpress.com

  Also by Hadena James

  The Dreams & Reality Series

  Tortured Dreams (Book 1)

  Elysium Dreams (Book 2)

  Mercurial Dreams (Book 3)

  Explosive Dreams (Book 4)

  The Complete Strachan Series

  Dark Cotillion (Book 1)

  Dark Illumination (Book 2)

  Dark Resurrections (Book 3)

  Dark Legacies (Book 4)

  The Dysfunctional Chronicles

  The Dysfunctional Affair (Book 1)

  The Dysfunctional Valentine (Book 2)

  The Dysfunctional Honeymoon (Book 3)

  The Dysfunctional Proposal (Book 4)

  Short Story Collection

  Tales to Read Before the End of the World