Here you go. Remember this is (c) material. All rights reserved. Here is the first chapter. The story is about two high school vampire slayers who get into the middle of a large vampire war that involves Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett. It is set in Roswell NM and the setting includes both present day and Circa 1870's 1880's NM. The opening chapter is a dream sequence by the star of the book Cassidy Brooks.

1. One
Cassidy’s body flailed around her bed like a rag doll submitting to the whims of an
angry child. Back and fourth it tossed violently fighting the blankets and sheets in a life and
death struggle. Images of the people she’d met at her former schools streamed one after the
other through her mind in rapid succession, each begging for help. Their voices screamed
incoherently, their hands extended toward her pleading for mercy. In her mind she bellowed
something equally incoherent and ran the other way in painful slow motion. Her body
continued its violent movements, this time kicking the sheets into the air. Her childhood
dog, now old and a veteran to these episodes, curled up in the far corner of her disastrously
messy room to wait out the storm. No matter which way she turned the images of the
students she’d met in the dozen or so schools she’d attended approached her, each with the
fear of death upon their face. In an effort to get away she ran out the doors of a nondescript yet familiar school. The images followed her, still screaming, but now the voices
came into focus, subtly at first. It was like whispers from across the room despite the fact
they were surely screamed. She thought she could make them out, but couldn’t. Eventually,
with each step she took, the slightly coherent words became audible in her mind and then
exploded between her ears. Her dog raised his head to watch her feet swoosh back and
forth as if she were running although she ventured nowhere. In the dream and in reality her
hands raised themselves to her ears and she cringed in pain.
“I can’t, I can’t,” she yelled.
“Save us. For God’s sake save us!” a multitude of voices screamed.
The sound of them once again exploded inside her head.

2. Her feet plodded in a tall grassy field that only existed in her mind. The darkness of
the night conflicted with the sunshine that bore in through the school windows moments
before. How could light become dark and dark become light in an instant? It confused her
and caused her to run as swiftly as she could. Terrified, as she could only keep but one step
ahead of the arms and the faces of those that grabbed at her, she let out another scream.
This one echoed inside her room causing her dog to curl himself together ever tighter. The
grass slightly illuminated from the dim light of the full moon tripped her, but she scrambled
to get up. She twisted her sheets in her feet and audibly groaned each time she tripped and
then got up, all of this in her mind, in her dreams.
“No! No!” she shouted.
Her dog mittens, named for his white paws when she was only six and still innocent,
buried his face between his back legs forming a fuzzy ball on the floor and groaned with her.
By now a dark shadow, one she couldn’t make out remained just behind the crowd
of screaming students. It too yelled at her, only what it said remained garbled amongst the
chorus of shouts.
Cassidy got up and tripped and got up again in an attempt to get away from the
school. In the distance a castle, rather small by the standards of most fairy tales, loomed.
This was no fairy tale and this was no ordinary castle. With what little light the moon
allowed to cascade down upon it, Cassidy could see vines clinging to every inch of its
exterior. Slowly, a once hidden and barely perceptible drawbridge ominously lowered itself
with each step she frantically took. Her insides turned in every direction and formed every
kind of knot imaginable as she approached against her will. The students, some she knew
and most she didn’t, still shouted, “Save me! Save me!” The dark shadow behind them kept
up pace just beyond the besieging mob, its voice still garbled.

3. Cassidy had no choice; she trudged forward moving closer and closer to the
drawbridge and the rift of space separating earth and the vine-covered walls. Once to the
edge of the castle’s eerie mote she glanced downward at the dark dense fog that obscured
what lay below, afraid but wishing she could simply disappear into it. Suddenly, the wooden
walkway completed its plunge hitting the ground with a moist thump inches in front of her.
Quickly she scurried inside hoping the voices would stop, praying the students would simply
disappear along with their outstretched hands.
Inside the small dank castle her silent prayers proved unanswered. The voices and
images of students persisted. The ominous image behind them ventured closer and now
started to come into focus. Plodding up the wide web strewn stairs a wooden stake now
appeared in her hands. Cassidy’s face crinkled at the sight of the object at the end of her
outstretched arm.
“Why?” she shouted in her sleep.
Mittens whimpered in the corner and tucked his tail even tighter between his legs.
“Why?” she said again, this time crying.
The stairs went on with no end in sight. In her dream her legs cramped and her
body shivered at the breeze that blew in through the windows gracing the turret through
which she traveled upward, forever upward. The screams and pleads for help eventually
turned to wails of pain as a doorway finally appeared mercifully to end the journey.
Listening to the voices behind her, Cassidy’s subconscious knew all to well there would be
no mercy here. Feeling wetness on her side and on her bare feet, Cassidy looked in horror at
the wooden stake now saturated with blood. Her toes became sticky from the dark red
gooey substance as tears streamed down her face?
“Why me?” Cassidy’s shouted.

4. Her body at times remained still and at others resumed its flailing about her bed.
Mittens briefly uncoiled to watch as she suffered through her sleep.
The door opened in front of her, slowly at first giving off the customary low creek
guaranteed to send shivers down the spine of even the most hardened soul. Halfway open it
picked up speed and crashed against that dusty stonewall behind it. Small sooty clouds
billowed up around her and when they finally settled, a solitary dilapidated casket made of
dark cherry stood upon a podium like structure in the center of the room. Darkness
shrouded her except for the area around the casket. A dim beam of light cascaded down
from nowhere to keep the mystery of the moment alive. Seeing nothing but the casket
beckoning her from across the room Cassidy fought against her body to stop. Her mind
screamed in vain at her legs to stop their movement. Despite her protests they kept slowly
plodding their way mechanically toward the rectangular box. In her sleep she dug her feet
into the mattress of her bed propelling her head against the wall. The crash compelled
Mittens to stand up to check upon her despite the fact she didn’t wake up.
Closer and closer her feet forced her forward. The hands of the students who
haunted her dream now seemingly all at once grabbed her hand with the bloody stake and
forced it upwards.
“Save us! Save us!” the voices shouted.
Closer and closer her feet moved her against her will to the casket. Once again she
dug her feet in only to have her head once again crash against the backboard. Still, she
remained asleep and yet again Mittens moaned, wanting to do something.
Like the drawbridge, the closer she got to the casket, the more the lid opened.
Slowly at first exposing nothing, then a few feet before she reached its edge, it violently
swung open exposing the vile corpse of an undead vampire. Tears tumbled down Cassidy’s

5. face. She turned to run, but was stopped by the hands of the students who now thrust the
stake in her right hand downward with a vengeance. Milliseconds before hitting its mark,
the vampire opened its bloodshot burgundy eyes and grabbed her hand before she was able
to complete the task forced upon her. Slowly the faces of the students deteriorated behind
her except for the shrouded one who rushed to her side a moment after the blood-encrusted
fangs of the coffin’s occupant found their mark.
Before the lid of the casket was able to close, perhaps forever, Cassidy let out a
blood-curdling scream and sat bolt up right in her bed, her body covered in sweat. Mittens
sat in the corner of the room, whimpering and shaking his body uncontrollably.