Secrets
of the Home Wood: The Sacrifice
By Julie Whitley
For
Jonathon, the Home Wood that border his grandfather’s farm has always been a
source of mystery and dread. Strange half-heard rumours passed among aunts,
uncles and cousins never quite add up.
More
than twenty years ago, his father—when he was Jonathon’s age—was swallowed up
by the Home Wood for more than a day and came back badly injured. That was when
his grandfather forbade any family member from venturing back there.
And so
when from his bedroom window one morning, Jonathon sees his father once again
cross into the Home Wood, he knows something is very wrong. Deceiving his
grandfather, Jonathon sets out after his father and makes his way, for the
first time in his life, into the woods.
What he
finds there is beyond even his wildest imagination.
Excerpt
Do I want to be dinner? Cripes,
what kind of question is that?
Jonathon passed an assessing glance
over what held Pugg fast. The world, at that moment, consisted of Pugg’s
alarmed face and an intricate trap the size of a bus woven between the branches
of the tree. Jonathon’s heart thudded against his breast bone. He drew in a
breath and began to slash at the sticky web. He struggled to maintain a
determined focus as he sawed with all his strength on the hater-sized strand of
the web that kept the warrior captive. Jonathon blocked out Pugg’s tension and
the hissing, clicking sound from the higher branches. Clicking? it
sounded like giant castanets. he cut harder. With a grunt he was through.
Another down. he moved to the next while trying to stay clear of the sticky
strands himself.
The
clicking grew closer. Jonathon avoided looking at Pugg’s face and
continued to hack until he had made a hole large enough for Pugg to drop
through. the boy grabbed one of the warrior’s legs to guide him. He pulled hard but Pugg didn’t move.
Jon
looked up. The web had stuck under one of Pugg’s arms. The
warrior’s eyes were hug and black, pupils fulled dilated, as he cast a quick
glance down at Jonathon. Jon followed the direction of Pugg’s stare. Two
enormous hairy legs pushed aside the leafy branches above him and revealed the
clicking’s source.
The
razor fangs and mandibles of a black spider smacking together in ravenous
anticipation, red eyes aglow.
The
beast was the size of a bull elephant.
Pick
up your copy of
Secrets
of the Home Wood: The Sacrifice
Julie Whitley
Julie Whitley is a retired nurse
who lives with her husband and mother in what was a small village, now
incorporated into a city. She is the mother of a beautiful daughter and
grandmother of two grandsons, with whom she loves to spend all her spare time.
As well as writing, Julie is an artist, painting in oils and watercolour.
Secrets of the Home Wood: the Sacrifice is her first novel and represents a
labour of love over twenty years in the making.
The sequel, The Stalker, will be
ready for launch soon.
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See you on your next coffee break!
Take Care,
Mary Anne xxx