Reader Group: Beastly Books & Badass Readers: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1996067960679574/
Twitter: @Author_EliC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorEliConstant/
Books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/30Y0KJk
Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2LWSiGj
MORE FROM THE AUTHORS
Have you read…
Blood Claim
By
USA Today Bestselling Author
Claire C. Riley
‘When gold is the only thing man seeks, then the devil shall come to grant his wish.’
About the book
Blood Claim
What lies in the earth is not asleep…
Mike Cooper is looking to make his fortune. Having spent his life searching for gold in the great American West, he decides to pack up his team of fellow miners and head for the heart of Ghana, West Africa, where an opportunity that is too good to ignore arises.
They are sold a plot of land that appears to be just what they are looking for. Overrun by greed, Mike and his men ignore all of the warning signs that something isn’t quite right—that the land they’re mining holds secrets that are best left buried.
Nothing is as it seems in this forgotten world. Terror lurks in the hearts of men who have learned to fear myths that are impossible to believe, but are all too real.
And what starts as a new beginning quickly becomes a nightmare of horror and bloodshed.
They wanted to find gold; now they only want to keep their souls.
Because time is running out.
And the demon is hungry…
Read on for a sneak peek…
Prologue.
Case Number: 00692.1a
Transcript of interview recording found in records office.
Date: July 2, 1936
Case name: Ashanti Claim murders.
Case number: 00692.1a
Deaths reported: Six. Five males, one female. Three of these were members of nearby Ashanti tribe. Three were illegal miners.
Facts related to case: Gold was recently found on nearby land supposedly belonging to the Ashanti tribe, though there has been no paperwork provided to prove that this land belongs to the tribe. Therefore, the land, and all things pertaining to it, has now been seized by the governor of the Gold Coast.
On June 1st goldminers began mining. Gold was reportedly pulled from the ground, though no evidence has been found as to suggest how much. The bodies of three miners were found three weeks later (all male). The rest of the miners have not been found, [see separate missing person’s report]. Three bodies (two male, one female) have also been found. They belong to Ashanti tribe members.
Each death was unique and seemed to be individual to each person. Deaths seemed ritualistic.
The Archbishop Kwesi Maass has since gone to the land and spoken to the Ashanti tribe. He has also supposedly baptized the land. He has deemed the land inappropriate for goldmining due to a presence he feels living within the earth. He has spoken to some of the villagers and has agreed to discuss the case with us.
Interview time: 14:30p.m.
Transcripts of interview.
Unknown male voice (from here on in will be known as UMV): The date is July 2, 1936, time is 14:31p.m. I am here interviewing the Archbishop Kwesi Maass in regards to the Ashanti Claim murders. The Archbishop has recently spoken to the nearby Ashanti tribe and says he has invaluable information in regards to the case.
Sir, in your own words, can you tell me what happened?
Archbishop Kwesi Maass (from here on in will be referred to as AKM): Men were murdered, sir.
UMV: (clears throat) Yes, that part is apparent. Do you know who did it?
(silence)
UMV: It is illegal to not part with any pertinent information related to the case. For your own wellbeing, I suggest you tell us anything that you might know.
AKM: (Laughs) You think that I am worried about prison, sir?
UMV: You should be.
AKM: Well, I am not. Prison would be a far safer place to be than here.
(sound of shuffling paper)
UMV: And why is that?
AKM: Because the beast has been disturbed.
UMV: The “beast?”
(silence)
UMV: For the record, let it be known that the Archbishop Kwesi Maass nodded. Can you describe the beast to me?
AKM: (long pause) He is both everything and nothing. He is both your dreams and your nightmares. He is everything that you should fear.
UMV: So the beast is male?
AKM: (laughing) He is whatever it wants to be.
UMV: (sounding frustrated) Can you be more accurate in your description, please? Eye color, hair color, build? That sort of thing would be useful.
AKM: I cannot.
(sound of chair scraping)
UMV: So what can you tell me?
AKM: I can only tell you that the land is not for mining.
UMV: Sir, if I may, the government has found that particular plot of land to contain more gold deposits than have ever been recorded. Miners will be going in to retrieve it. That’s a fact.
AKM: Then prepare their graves.
UMV: Is that a threat?
AKM: Not from I. But from the beast. He feeds only once a year on six souls, but he will kill as many as needed to protect his ground.
(chair scraping again)
UMV: (deep breath) And how do you know so much about this beast—if it is a beast at all?
AKM: He spoke to me. It was both a warning and a promise of the deaths to come, now that he has been disturbed—
UMV: You mean now that we have tried to mine the land?
AKM: —he requires six sacrifices, each year, or he will kill any and all nearby. Since the land belongs to the Ashanti tribe—
UMV: Let it be known that there is no paperwork to corroborate that.
AKM: He does not require paperwork! The land is theirs and it is their lives he shall take if these sacrifices are not given.
UMV: Let it be known that no paperwork has been shown to prove who owns the land—
AKM: This beast, this demon, he requires feeding! Are you listening to me?
UMV: Since it seems no individual owns the land—
AKM: Six souls he requires! Six sacrifices!
UMV: The land will fall to the country of Ghana, who deem the gold and anything therein—
AKM: Do not mine that land, sir!
(loud bang and then silence)
UMV: Anything to do with this here land will now belong to the country of Ghana. Unless paperwork can be found to back up the claim of ownership.
(soft sobbing)
AKM: You are making a big mistake, sir! There will be many deaths before you will listen. But make no mistake, you will listen.
UMV: Thank you for coming in today, Archbishop. Unfortunately, your statement has not provided us with any new information. Therefore it will be struck from the records.
(soft sobbing)
(chair scraping)
(footsteps)
(whispered voices)
—This is a mistake, sir. He requires payment in blood and death. In souls. Six souls, once a year. And you must not mine that land. That is his land. You have awoken him, and he is angry.
—I thought it was the Ashanti tribe’s land.
—It belongs to anyone who is willing to pay the price for it.
—None of this can be proven.
—It is proven by the blood that runs through the land’s veins. And it will be proven until he sleeps again.
—And when will that be?
—This I do not know.
(laughter)
—You do not know a lot.
—I know that there will be much death if you do not listen to me.
(whispers)
(door shutting)
(footsteps)
UMV: Interview terminated at 2:43p.m.
[End transcript]
Grab your cop
y of Blood Claim here:
UK: http://bit.ly/2q9kOM4BloodClaimUK
US: http://bit.ly/36ggtaGBloodClaimUS
Or read free in Kindle Unlimited
Have you read…
INVASION
The Dead Trees Series, Book One
By
Victoria Cage Author
Eli Constant
In an instant, an ordinary suburban life shatters. A devoted father is gone. And one mother’s desperate journey to save her daughters unfolds.
Nothing will ever be the same... now that the beasts have left the underground.
***
Elise was living her version of a perfect life. She loved her husband, loved being a mother, even loved the soccer mom minivan she once swore was never going to be ‘her style’.
Then the undergrounders crawled their way out from the primordial soil that had reared them to sentient life. A species as native to this Earth as human beings…
Fearful of the sunlight, undergrounders originally kept to the night. Humans had the advantage of day.
But that’s quickly changing, because the undergrounders adapt supernaturally-fast. Light becomes less of a savior every minute.
The boundaries between ground and sky have blurred into hell.
And all Elise can do is keep running. Keep praying. Keep her children alive.
***
INVASION is 120,000 words of pulse-pounding apocalypse survival story.
D E A D T R E E S
Invasion – OUT NOW
Lifelines – COMING SOON
Hybrids – COMING 2020
Futurity – COMING 2020
**read on for a sneak peek**
Prologue
I was already forgetting the nuances of my life before. The tenuous threads of memory were quickly, violently breaking. My family was no longer whole.
The once welcoming house was dark in the wake of our erratic movement. I did not look back. In streams of sickness, my insides physically released that which was left behind. I listened to the splatter of the vomit across the paved driveway as I ran towards our vehicle with Kara held tightly in my arms. A few orange-hued flecks hit my daughter’s princess pajamas. Megan kept pace beside us, her small face ashy white.
I wanted to stay here, where I’d felt safe for so many years.
Yet I knew staying was impossible. Not running from the haunting inevitable wasn’t an option. And… And David was gone. I knew he was. I would have heard from him by now if he were still alive.
From this point forward, it was my sole responsibility to keep our beautiful children alive. Every fiber of my being doubted that I would be strong enough for the task.
I heard a bestial shriek as I quickly strapped in my youngest. Megan was already in her booster seat and buckled. She looked at me with wide, fearful eyes. “It’s going to be okay, baby. It’s going to be okay.” I tried to soothe her, but my voice shook.
“I want daddy.” She whispered, almost inaudibly.
“Me too.” My own whisper nearly melted into tears. My daughters didn’t need to see how scared I was, how helpless I felt. I had to be their rock. I couldn’t be sand, shifting and inconstant.
Closing Kara’s sliding door, I glanced at the rear of the van. I knew I shouldn’t dawdle. Keep moving. Don’t think. Just get on the road. Yet, I couldn’t stop myself from freezing and staring a moment. The back window was fully obscured by things. Some of our belongings, everything that was important enough to pack, was shoved into the rear compartment.
It seemed so measly—that small space serving as the accumulation of our lives to this point. I wanted to run inside and grab more—like my grandmother’s antique brooch or David’s collection of Civil War knives or maybe that family photo hanging over the mantel. It was taken last Christmas; we’d been all smiles in our holiday-themed outfits.
I’d only brought one small photo album, although I’d debated several others. Especially the one full of our wedding pictures. Me in my white lace and David in his charcoal tux. I needed to save room though. So we only had a few of our technicolor photographic memories protected by glossy plastic sleeves.
No matter what I saved, I knew it wouldn’t be enough in the end. To help us remember the way we were.
Sitting in the driver’s seat, I tried to steel myself. David had used the van last. Taking my time, savoring the movements, I adjusted the position of the seat, the mirrors, the steering wheel. I moved them knowing that I’d never again feel them adjusted exactly to my husband’s height and preference.
I was saying goodbye, one adjustment at a time. My eyes were watery pools now. This time, I could not stay the tears. One by one, they ran down my face. Their saltiness touched my mouth and I found it comforting rather than unpleasant.
“Mom?” Megan’s voice wavered, raw fear threading through the utterance.
“Yes?”
“I saw a big dog by the house. It was really big.” She knew it wasn’t a dog, but Kara was staring at her. She didn’t want to say monster in front of her baby sister. I loved her for that. My big girl, so brave.
“Doggy!” Kara clapped her hands. “Mimi’s doggy!” She didn’t speak much. This was actually the first time she’d said ‘doggy’ and we had no time to congratulate her, to revel in her new found vocabulary.
“Yes, sweetheart, Mimi has a doggy.” I was happy that my youngest did not understand, because I understood all too well.
In the distance, I heard a chorus of screeching. My eyes caught a flash of a large form lurking along the left side of the house. We could delay no longer. Mentally, I said a final goodbye to our home and the happiness my family had experienced within its walls.
Easing the van out of the driveway so I did not startle Kara, I tried not to look in the rearview mirror. My heart couldn’t take a last sight of our beloved Victorian. But I looked. Of course I did.
And there, ruining the vision of our perfect life lost, was a hulking form. Pale and charging after the van on all fours.
Six Months Forward
We'd been on the road for a while now. Forever, it seemed. The house we'd left, the memories there, resided so far in the background of our minds that we rarely discussed our old life anymore. But even Kara, with her few words, sometimes still asked for 'home'.
Our rations, inside the large plastic paint cylinders you could buy for six dollars or so when Wally Worlds were still around, rattled in the rear of the vehicle. They tipped and rolled whenever I took a curve. I knew I had to do something about that. Scavenge for bungee cords and perhaps secure them to the back of the middle row seats. Anything to save me from the madness of their constant movement and irritating noise-making.
Rubbing a hand across the back of my neck, I tried to work out a kink. It felt like I'd been driving for a year. In reality, we'd only been on the road an hour since my last pull over and nap. My eyes drooped slightly, threatening to close.
"Mom." A pause. "Mom." A longer pause. "Mom!"
I jolted into reality. My body awake, my mind only barely so. I'd been on auto-pilot, driving into the misty, early morning.
"What, Megan?" I knew what she wanted though. It was always the same. The child had a bladder the size of a damn thimble. She gets it honestly though. David was the same way.
"I need to pee."
"Sorry, sweetie. Unbuckle and use the bucket."
Megan groaned. "Mom! That's so gross."
I shrugged my shoulders. There wasn't another option.
Still very early morning, the sun only starting to crest; it was too dim outside to risk a pullover. Even in full daylight, I was still fearful of shadows and all they held within their darkness.
I watched Megan release her seatbelt and get up. She was just tall enough now that she had to stoop over the tiniest bit to walk around. I remember when I could hold her in the palm of my hands. So tiny and fragile. As her willowy frame maneuvered between the second row seats, I looked forward again and focused on the road ahead.
/> Megan groaned a little after the pop of the top releasing from the bucket sounded. Urinating in a pail was the least of our survival woes. She was a kid though. She didn't understand the full scope of what we had to do to make it. God, I didn't even really understand it. I just muddled along, doing whatever the hell I could, to keep us breathing.
Often times, I'd feel depression sneak in, little tendrils of doubt that ate away at my resolve. If only David were still around, then I wouldn't have to be the only strong one. It was my fault we were still only a trio though. I'd turned down companionship more than once. I trusted people even less than the monsters.
And those other survivors we'd met along the way just didn't feel... right. I knew the adage "safety in numbers," but I needed all my energy focused on our survival. I couldn't add a stranger, a possible incompetent, and have another hand to hold and mouth to feed.Or, even worse, a stranger could turn into an enemy. That enemy could take the small ray of hope we still had. I couldn't allow that. I wouldn't allow that. Yet, it felt like there were so few of us now... maybe I was being selfish, refusing to band together with the last of my extended human family.
I glanced in the rearview again. My girls. The most important things to me in this world. No, I was not selfish. I was a mother. Eyes back on the road. Peering into the dawning day.
That was my new life in a nutshell. Check on girls. Watch the road. Stop to nap. Stop to piss. Pray we have enough food until the next time we get lucky.
All because of the monsters.
The beasties that had been hiding right beneath us this whole time.
No one suspected that the real danger, the true end of our world, was boiling and forming beneath. A scary prospect that humans could have lived so long without knowledge of them teeming below our collective footsteps.
Red Eye | Season 1 | Episode 4 Page 9