The Sibyl

by James Hold

*******PREVIEW OF THE FANATIC*******

  Prologue

  Allison Thomason

 

  We are all looking for someone to save us. Fairy tales promised us white knights on gleaming horses who would ride in, slay the monsters, and sweep us away to our happily ever after. But nobody ever told me what would happen if the white knight didn't show up. There were no fairy tales that talked about what happened to the princess once her demons took over.

  But I know. My demons attacked months ago. They stole my life from me. My passion. They had fought along side my enemy, so I learned real quick to rely on the one hero who had been here all along. The one person I'd always been afraid to believe in.

  Myself.

  I was going to create my own happily ever after. Knights and demons be damned.

  I lit the final candle before I stepped back to inspect my deathbed. I had set everything up in the center of my living room. Three red candles flickered on the headboard. Two black ones gleamed at the foot. The sheets had been soaked with as much kerosene as I could legally buy here in Los Angeles. Perhaps it was the fumes affecting me. Or maybe the whispers about me had been correct. Maybe I really had gone over the proverbial edge, but I smiled.

  Within the hour, all of my problems would disappear. If my work here was successful, the one person responsible for my life falling apart would be damned along with me.

  I wanted to die. I wasn’t afraid. I knew too much about the afterlife to be afraid. When I was little, my momma tried to replace my obsession with the grandeur of heaven. If only I would give my soul to Jesus, then I would be alright. Instead, I shunned her religion. I had spent my life trying to discover all I could about what lay on the other side of the Veil. Death became my business. Spirits were my passion. I’d been obsessed with the grave for as long as I could remember.

  Besides, Heaven wasn’t meant for the likes of me. I was going to hell.

  And I was going to make damn sure my enemy joined me there.

  No, I wasn’t alright. I never would be again. My work - my very purpose here on Earth - had been stolen from me. No longer would the world learn about the afterlife in a sensible way. No longer would science and reason be used as a weapon against our ignorance towards death. There was nothing else I could do. I had fought to keep my work in the limelight. I begged for them not to take my audience away from me. They said my time had run out. My work had faltered. And the world I tried to teach had rejected me.

  Yes, tonight was my night. I had been preparing for this moment since I had been fired three months earlier. See, I had been one of the lucky ones. I was once a presenter on the highest rated show on television. I traveled the world, studying the paranormal with a passion unmatched by anyone else. I had money. Fame. Fans.

  Until the ratings started to fall. I glared at the photographs scattered among past due notices and the eviction letter received just this afternoon on the floor around my bed. Once again, I muttered curses at the face staring back up at me. I had been replaced by a stupid girl who claimed to have abilities no one could actually possess. Eva McRayne's Grave Messages hit the airwaves and shoved me out of the job which had been my calling. Now my show was nothing more than a DVD box set. All of my hard work forgotten thanks to a blonde idiot who would prance around, call out to Apollo, and then pretend to pass on the last words of the dead.

  I hated her. I hated everything about her.

  It was true that Grave Messages hadn't been her idea. In the interviews I had seen, she would laugh at the idea of being on television. McRayne would give the credit to her co-host, Elliot Lancaster, but he was nothing. He was worthless.

  Nothing more than a stand in. A male presence to protect his girlfriend from the boogiemen they searched for.

  I had studied the tabloids which carried the pictures of them together. There were headlines boasting the two of them were still in love despite breaking up within a month of filming their show. It was unprofessional and sickening. The knowledge I had gained from those articles amounted to nothing. They were fluff pieces. Empty words meant to connect the common man to the celebrities he adored.

  Eva McRayne should never have been a star. She should have stayed in Georgia where she belonged. Hidden away in somebody's attic like the circus freak she was. Instead, she was out in the limelight, dancing to appease her adoring public.

  No, my adoring public. The one she stole from me.

  See, McRayne and Lancaster had met at the University of Georgia some five years before. When Lancaster had graduated, his daddy gave him a television show and of course, the blonde tagged along after him. The facts got hazy from there. McRayne's bio online said she had been forced into her role as the Sibyl during a conference. It was a good story, but I had once been a headliner for those events. Her lies didn't fool me.

  No one in their right mind with any sort of power would give it all up to a stranger. Not when there was money to be made. Why give up your livelihood to a stranger who didn't appreciate it? No, her story didn't make any sense. She was the lie. She was the fraud.

  But I wasn't. And I would make damned sure she knew it.

  I watched as the shadows cast across the floor by the street lamps outside shift and knew it was time. I suppose I should have been more sentimental. Someone with more sense than me would have taken one last look at the world they were leaving behind. I tried to think of my mother. I wanted to shed a tear or two over what might have been if Eva McRayne had never surfaced. It was far too late for such thoughts.

  I was ready. More than ready. I picked up one of the photographs and clutched it to my chest as I laid down.

  The kerosene fumes were overwhelming. I coughed, relishing in the lightheadedness I felt.

  "Erinyes of old, Blessed Judges of Fate," I called out to my empty apartment between gasps of breath. "Athena's own mistresses of justice, come to me. Take my spirit as your own. Take my soul as payment for the deed you will do for me."

  I felt the air growing colder despite the flames I had surrounded myself with. I wiped away the tears from my eyes as I continued.

  "I seek justice. I crave vengeance against the one who stole my life away from me."

  The flames above me flared. I wondered if I would be able to finish the spell before I was consumed by the fires I had set. So I closed my eyes to the fumes and focused on the darkness in my heart. I held up the picture as I hurried to continue.

  "Eva McRayne, Sibyl to Apollo will fall. She, and she alone, is responsible for stealing my audience. Before she came along, I was cherished. Now, I am forgotten just as you have been. Unknown to her and a world that craves knowledge of the afterlife. No longer. After tonight, Eva McRayne will know who I am. She will suffer for the crimes she committed against me. Great Erinyes, aid me. Give me the vengeance I seek."

  The bed began to shake as I touched a single corner of the photograph to the tip of the candle flame. It ignited with a flash. I screamed as the flames traveled downward to the sheets I had prepared. I had only a moment left; a single breath to curse the bitch who caused my downfall.

  "Eva McRayne will suffer."

  ** End Of Preview **

  Vol. 3: The Seer

 

  Eva McRayne has seen a lot during her time as the Sibyl. She has talked to the dead. She has fought mythological creatures. But when she is faced with an entity that no one dares to speak of at the Kentauros Equestrian Estates, will she find the strength to do what she must? Or will she allow her past fears to dictate her future?

  Vol. 4: The Thief

  The best friends make the worst enemies. 

  Eva McRayne thought she’d be close to Elliot Lancaster forever. But one twisted mind and a vengeful goddess changed all that. Now, she will have to fight for her sanity as Elliot pushes her to the ultimate limit. 

  When Eva is forced to return to her hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, she learns that the past can be used against her in the worst way possible. The binds of love she th
ought served to make her stronger can be her downfall. 

  And memories can serve as the strongest of chains.

  Vol. 5: The Guardian

  Knowledge is power. Everyone knows that. But as Eva McRayne continues to recover from her last encounter with Elliot Lancaster, she discovers that knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

  About the Author

  Cynthia D. Witherspoon is an award winning writer of Southern Gothic, Paranormal Romance, and Urban Fantasy. She currently resides in South Carolina, but spent three years in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Always an avid reader, she began writing short stories in college. She graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in History from Converse College, and earned a Masters in Forensic Science at Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences.