Stay by Emily Goodwin
Publication date: May 19th 2014
Genres: Adult, Romance,
“I felt like I was walking to the end of a plank precariously hanging over shark-infested water. When I jumped, sharp teeth would rip into me and the cold water would steal my breath away. The monsters would take everything from me, leaving me shivering and naked in the water. The only difference was that tonight I would be pulled from the icy darkness and forced to do it again. There would be no release from death, only pain.”
Home after her first year of college, Adeline Miller is looking forward to a stress free summer filled with reading, working on her blog, and spending time with friends. But all that changes in an instant when she is witness to something terrible, something she wasn’t supposed to see.
Beaten, drugged, kidnapped.
Adeline Miller is ripped from her innocent and carefree life and thrust into darkness, into a world full of pain and horror. As a sex slave, she is forced to do horrible things, and have horrible things done to her. One of her captors has a past as dark as the world she is now living in. Will getting close to him mean freedom? Or will he pull her deeper into the shadows?
Emily Goodwin is the author of the award winning Contagium Series published by Permuted Press as well as many independently published novels, including the internationally bestselling novel, STAY. Emily writes in a wide variety of genres, from horror to romance. She holds multiple degrees in psychology and nursing and has worked in mental health and general healthcare. Emily resides in Indiana with her husband, daughter, and German Shepherd named Vader. Along with writing, Emily enjoys riding her horse, designing and making costumes, and Cosplay.
Author links:www.emilygoodwinbooks.com
facebook.com/emilygoodwinbooks
Home after her first year of college, Adeline Miller is looking forward to a stress free summer filled with reading, working on her blog, and spending time with friends. But all that changes in an instant when she is witness to something terrible, something she wasn’t supposed to see.
Beaten, drugged, kidnapped.
Adeline Miller is ripped from her innocent and carefree life and thrust into darkness, into a world full of pain and horror. As a sex slave, she is forced to do horrible things, and have horrible things done to her. One of her captors has a past as dark as the world she is now living in. Will getting close to him mean freedom? Or will he pull her deeper into the shadows?
Excerpt
I slowly
blinked and shook myself. I turned the water off and pulled back the curtain
just far enough to grab the towel. I wrapped it around my goosebump-covered
torso and walked back to my cot, water dripping on the floor. Dirt and grit
stuck to my wet feet. Normally, that would have grossed me out, but what was a
little dirt compared to what was going to happen to me?
Phoebe and Lily exchanged sorrowful looks.
Phoebe came up behind me and gently towel dried my hair. I just sat there, completely still except for
the shivering.
“Here,” Lily offered and held out a robe.
Holding the
towel up with one hand, I snaked my arms through the crushed velvet robe and
tied it around myself.
"I
don't get your tattoos," she said and tipped her head.
"Theban," I simplified and looked
at the squiggly characters that surrounded a triple moon symbol my left
shoulder blade. "It's an old alphabet. It’s from a book."
"Oh." Lily nodded. "What about
that one? It's a circle inside a triangle with a line through it?"
"From another book," I summed up,
looking at the tattoo on my wrist. I had one more tattoo on my left side. I
parted the robe to show her. "Get this one?"
"Nope. 'To infinity'," she read.
"Don't get it."
"'And beyond'," Phoebe finished.
"I like Toy Story. Who has other
half?"
"My
best friend, Lynn," I told her, my voice hollow.
"You
must miss her," Lily said quietly. I bit my lip and nodded. Lily looked at
me for a few seconds, her blue eyes flashing with emotions. She closed them,
shook her head, and put on a small smile. “Rochelle will do your makeup,” she
said. I nodded and rose from the cot and made my way over to the makeshift
vanity. Rochelle was leaning on the counter, keeping the weight off of her
injured ankle. I sat on a rickety stool and faced the mirror.
It was the first time I had allowed myself to
look at my face since I’d been taken. I had bruises on my face from being hit
by Nate and Zane. My right eye was swollen a little on the outside. I knew I
had bruises on my body, both from being beaten and from the trunk ride to
wherever the hell we were.
“You have nice skin,” Rochelle told me.
“It’ll be easy to work with.” She said it in such a way that it wasn’t a
compliment. Before she started on my makeup, she brushed and blow dried my hair
and set it in curlers. Then she spun me around so that I couldn’t see in the
mirror anymore.
I flinched from the cold liquid foundation
she smeared over my cheeks. If I had such nice skin, why did she feel the need
to cover it all up? I rarely wore makeup at home. If I did, I focused mainly on
my eyes, having fun playing with different colors of eye shadow and liners. I
hated the way foundation felt caked onto my face.
“There,” she said, sounding satisfied. She
had been working on me for what had to be at least half an hour. She took the
curlers out of my hair, and after a while of fluffing and spraying enough hair
spray to eat away a layer of the O-zone, she leaned back and pressed a smile,
nodding as she admired her work.
I turned and looked in the mirror. My eyes
were heavily outlined in silver and black. The bruises were gone, though my
right eye still looked tender. Red blush on my cheeks made it look like I was
permanently embarrassed, and the dark red lipstick was just … trashy. My hair
was teased and was inches away from my head. It was coated in so much hair
spray that it barely moved with me. Big, wavy curls cascaded around my face.
Suddenly, a smile cracked my face, and a
snort of laughter escaped my lips.
“What?” Rochelle demanded.
I shook my head, the humor in my grossly
stereotyped appearance quickly fading. Rochelle glared at me for a moment
longer before waving me away. She hobbled to the rack of clothing and skimmed
through the section of lingerie. She pulled a short, silky nightgown from its
hanger. It was dark purple, with black lace outlining the top and bottom. My
stomach churned when my fingers touched the shiny material.
“You’ll need this,” she mumbled and tossed me
a push-up bra. “Your boobs are on the small side.” She shook her head and
sighed. “Whatever. I’ll make it work. You should gain some weight.”
I held my arms close to my body, feeling very
self-conscious. I was thin due to an over-active thyroid. Over the years, I had
tried different medications but was unable to find something with a good
balance so I just stopped taking the pills. I always had eaten more than
enough, but I just couldn’t keep the weight on. It had been one of my number
one pet peeves to be told I was lucky I was thin. I had a medical condition
that took a toll on my body and my health. How lucky is that?
“Tonight you have Travis,” Rochelle began
explaining. “Give him a good show. He likes to watch.”
My stomach clenched and the sting of sour
vomit bubbled in my throat. I felt like my head was being shoved into a bucket
of dirty water, and no matter how hard I struggled, I couldn’t get out,
couldn’t take a breath.
“I don’t
know any good shows,” I mumbled.
“What?” Rochelle asked and wrinkled her nose.
“Well, you do now,” she went on, widening her eyes and giving me the
girl-you’re-crazy stare. She shook her head and sighed. “Just follow his lead,
do what he wants, and you’ll be fine.”
Nerves audibly grumbled through my
intestines. I feared something was going to come out one end or the other. Yet
I just stood there, my mind wanting to shut down and refuse to process what was
going to happen. There was no way around it.
I was going to go upstairs. I was going to go
into a room with a sick and twisted man who would force me to have sex with
him.
Or I could refuse.
And that would get me severely beaten, if not
killed. For a few seconds, dying seemed better than getting raped. I shook my
head at the thought. I wasn’t going to give up. Today might not be my day for escaping,
but it would come. It had to.
Stay Playlist
Since I typically write paranormal/horror, my
usual writing playlists are filled with epic songs from soundtracks with lots
of NIN and Marilyn Manson thrown in. With STAY, I needed something different.
While this novel is just as dark—if not darker—than the books I usually write,
it’s a different kind of dark.
STAY is the first book I’ve written with a
contemporary setting and no elements of fantasy. And yet it was one of the
scariest books I’ve ever written. After all, the truth is often worse than
fiction. Unlike ghosts, demons, and zombies, being kidnapped and forced into
human trafficking is something that really could happen.
I needed music that set the mood for not only
fear, but a sense of hopelessness and utter despair the characters felt. I am
not a fan of slow, sad music, so this is as close at it comes for me. Here is
the playlist I listened to on repeat while writing STAY
1.) Imagine Dragons- Demons
2.)
Of Monster and Men- Little Talks
3.)
Imagine Dragons- Bleeding Out
4.)
One Republic- Counting Stars
5.)
One Republic- Come Home
6.)
Animals- House of the Rising Sun
7.)
Tom Petty- Free Fallin’
8.)
Tom Petty- Mary Jane’s Last Dance
9.)
One Republic- Secrets
10.) Coldplay-
Fix You
11.) Goo
Goo Dolls- Iris
12.) Tom
Petty- I Won’t Back Down
13.) Jason
Mraz- I Won’t Give Up
14.) Katy
Perry- Unconditionally
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Emily Goodwin is the author of the award winning Contagium Series published by Permuted Press as well as many independently published novels, including the internationally bestselling novel, STAY. Emily writes in a wide variety of genres, from horror to romance. She holds multiple degrees in psychology and nursing and has worked in mental health and general healthcare. Emily resides in Indiana with her husband, daughter, and German Shepherd named Vader. Along with writing, Emily enjoys riding her horse, designing and making costumes, and Cosplay.Author links:www.emilygoodwinbooks.com
facebook.com/emilygoodwinbooks
No comments:
Post a Comment