This is from a finished novel, The Shadow Effect. Its an Action/Thriller. This is the prologue.
Riverside County Courthouse
10:13 AM
August launched over the desk before the guard could stop him, his hands already around Sorren’s neck. A guttural growl escaped his throat as August squeezed with every fiber of his being, willing the man to die. Sorren clawed at August’s hands, spittle erupting from his silently working lips. August heard his fellow agents yelling his name, saw them leap towards him, but they faded into garbled background. All he could see, and smell, and hate, was Sorren; the man who murdered his sister. Sorren, her abusive husband, had finally killed Maddie, after years of abuse. He’d bludgeoned her to death with a lamp from their bedside table.
August heard himself shouting at Sorren but had no idea what he was saying. Sorren’s eyes bulged, and despite the men yanking at his arms, August wouldn’t let go. A vein bulged on Sorren’s forehead, beating in a whir under his skin, trying to keep him alive. August stared at it, and Maddie’s face blazed across his vision.
He remembered Maddie at six or seven. Remembered when they played as kids, her blond hair shining with the sun behind her, as they twirled together on the tire swing in their back yard. His chest tightened, and he cried out for her, hollow with despair, and let go. He let go and McKranski and Hollis tackled him from behind. August’s breath flew out of him under their weight, and he watched Sorren gasping for air from his skewed angle on the floor.
And then all the sound came back at once. The judge banged the gavel furiously yelling for order, and turning red in the face. A woman cried off to the left of him, or maybe it was a child, he couldn’t tell. All around him people yelled, and barked orders, and cried, but nobody said Maddie’s name that day. Nobody thought of her, but him.
I hope you enjoyed August's internal torture...to kill or not to kill. Please check out the other great entries at the Internal Conflict Blogfest.
Until next time...Go Write!
Photograph by victoriapeckham, Uploaded on September 28, 2006.