They called her Sleeping Beauty back at the
lab.
Nina has been asleep for a long time. Two
hundred and fifty years, to be exact. She doesn't change, and she doesn't die.
She's always fifteen. All she wants to do is to wake up, but she can't.
Something - or someone - is keeping her in a perpetual dream state.
Leon is a programmer working for a security
systems company in the Metro Palisade. His life is fairly ordinary and
uneventful. But one day, things change. He begins to see a strange girl in his
dreams. He knows she needs his help, but he doesn't know who she is - or if
she's even real. Leon is willing to risk a lot to find out, and his curiosity
finally gets the best of him. The mystery that surrounds Nina is greater than
Leon had imagined, however: soon he's on the run from the company he worked for,
the police, the secret service and the criminal underworld.
All Leon wants is to save Nina from her
endless sleep, but the price of that rescue could be a terrible one. Somehow,
Nina is connected with the fabric of reality itself, and there are many dubious
people chasing after the legendary Sleeping Beauty in the hopes of wielding
ultimate power. When the world begins to fall apart with the sudden,
inexplicable outbreak of war, only Leon holds the key to saving everything from
complete annihilation - but, unless he can rescue Nina, it may already be too
late.
Excerpt:
She dreamed of a great city. It was a
city she had never seen before, a city from the future. Nina would walk its
streets, which were full of the strangest people she had ever seen. Some of
them were not really people, even. There were things with extra arms, and eyes,
and legs, insect-like things and bird-like things, but they all wore clothes
and could talk intelligently. A Birdman called her over softly on one street
corner and took her by the arm. He had bright red eyes, like those of an albino
rat, and in his beak was an unlit cigarette. Nina was scared of him.
"Please come with me," the Birdman said, and they began to walk away
down the street, hand in hand.
As they passed under a tall arc, which
read, "Metro - Entrance," the Birdman turned to Nina, and said:
"Take the train to Stella Maris, Nina. He will be waiting for you. He will
help you." Nina was about to ask who "he" was, but she was
already walking down the concrete steps. Just ahead, the multiple horseshoe
arcs lit up the subterranean entrance to the Metro. An old-fashioned train
whistle sounded. The high-pitched scream of the whistle echoed through the dark
halls of the subway, announcing the approaching train as it pulled into the
station: a fantastic, antique looking thing. Nina only had enough time to read
the destination placard on its side. It spelled, in glowing letters, "Port
Stella Maris." Then she woke up. It was the same old room. Nothing had
changed here. Nina looked up and saw the familiar pattern of the ceiling. One
of her hands was lying freely now across the pillow. She followed the thin
glistening tube with her eyes until they stopped at a small, translucent square
bag suspended from a hat rack that stood in the corner. It functioned as a
makeshift IV stand.
She was no longer dreaming. On the
contrary, she felt more fully awake now than she had ever before in her life.
The walls had gained solidity and color and suddenly came into focus, as it
were. The ceiling began to pull away. It rose higher and higher, until it
disappeared entirely from Nina's view into a shrinking rectangle of black,
revealing a crystal blue sky with white clouds drifting across it.
Nina shook her head. She wanted to get
up, to take out the useless IV, but she couldn't move. She kept looking at the
sky. Several times, a Dutch Delta crossed it; a kind of passenger ship Nina had
seen many times flying above the city. The aircraft cast its gigantic cold
shadow into the room. When it finally passed, drifting very slowly,
importantly, the room was once again full of sunlight.
"Hurry now, Nina," she heard
someone say; it was the Birdman. He had descended into the room through the
ceiling. He had small, iridescent wings, like those of a hummingbird; they beat
at an amazing speed, fanning the air. The Birdman approached her and pulled out
the IV. He smelled of nectar. He picked her up in his arms and they flew out
through the open ceiling.
The Birdman carried Nina to a beautiful
bright building shaped somewhat like a horseshoe. It was a very tall building,
and its exterior was paneled with black sheets of glass that reflected
everything around it. As they approached, Nina could see the blue sky and the
white clouds drifting mirrored across its surface. This Round House, as Nina
called it, also lacked a roof, and they descended right through and landed on
its upper floor, which was also a ceiling.
About the author:
Helen Alexander is a writer and digital
artist living in San Francisco, California. After graduating from the Academy
of Art University, Helen worked as a video game artist in San Diego and Los
Angeles. Currently she is back in San Francisco, at work on several new
projects, including a comic book, a children's book and a dark fantasy/horror
novel. You can visit Helen at helenalexander.weebly.com
for the latest news on upcoming releases, author interviews and previews of new
stories and works-in-progress.
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Author Bio: Danielle Belwater adores the concept of true love and thoroughly believes everyone has their Prince Charming or Snow White out there somewhere, even if they have to fight demons, ghosts, and wizards to find it.
Danielle has been having a love affair with words since she was young and in primary school, writing some rather imaginative tales. This love has followed her into adulthood.
She lives in rural South Australia with her husband, young daughters and way too many animals to mention. She spends most of her time dreaming up characters, stories, ghostly tales, and watching Firefly re-runs. She also cooks the odd meal for her family to avoid them looking like skeletons at official author functions!
Danielle is passionate about reading and her interests include pretty much anything with words from rolling four volume epics to the daily newspaper.