Posts Tagged ‘Paranormal’

Origins
H.A.L.F. Series Book 3
by Natalie Wright
Genre: YA SciFi Fantasy
Alien predators attack Europe. A deadly virus spawns an epidemic. And a
clandestine organization conspires to profit from chaos and forge a
New World Order.
In this heart-pounding finale of the
award-winning H.A.L.F. series, Tex, Erika and the rest are in a race
against time. For months they‘ve fought for their lives. Now they
battle to save us all.
Tex and Erika are fugitives again, running for their lives. But when Tex
falls gravely ill, a Navajo healer is his only hope for survival. Tex
emerges from the ordeal changed in body and mind but with vital
information: how to stop the predatory M’Uktah from destroying
those he has come to love.
Erika Holt seeks a respite from the constant threats to her life but she’s
not about to give up. As she and Tex launch a mission to shut down
the galactic highway used by the predatory M’Uktah, she grows closer
to her troubled half-human companion. But what about her on-again,
off-again boyfriend, Jack?
Jack Wilson, with his new friend Anna Sturgis, is determined to put an end
to the Makers’ schemes for world domination. Complicating matters,
an anti-viral that could save millions from an alien virus has been
stolen.
As both alien and human forces line up against them, the destiny of all
mankind is hand the hands of these young warriors. And time is
running out.
What Others are Saying about H.A.L.F.: ORIGINS:
The latest satisfying addition to the H.A.L.F. series has something for
everyone: exciting action scenes; great, complex love stories;
fascinating new aliens; and relatable teen characters fighting to
save the world and find their places in it.” ~Alyssa H., Content
Editor, Red Adept Editing
The Makers
H.A.L.F. Series Book 2
“Conflicts with alien races are given enormous depth in this engrossingly
written science fiction novel.” ~
Forewords Clarion Reviews


Roswell. Area 51. The X-Files.
You’ve seen the aliens known as “the
Greys” in movies and on T.V. But what if everything you think
you know about them is wrong?
And what if the Greys are only the beginning?
On a nondescript planet on the far side of the galaxy, the M’Uktah have
evolved from a wolf-like predatory creature into a highly advanced
species that has mastered intergalactic travel. They are cultured.
Refined.
And hungry…
Wright’s epic and much anticipated follow up to her multiple award-winning
debut Sci Fi novel
H.A.L.F.: The Deep Beneath:
The Deep Beneath,
Runner Up in the Beach Book Festival
Finalist, Wishing Shelf Book Awards
Semi-Finalist, Kindle Review Book Awards and Library
Journal pick for curated Shelf-e library collection
The Deep Beneath
H.A.L.F. Series Book 1

Can a Human-Alien Hybrid, Created to be a Weapon, Save us from a Secret
War we Don’t Know is Coming?

Library Journal eBook Selection

H.A.L.F. (Human Alien Life Form) #9 is the product of genetic engineering, the
union of human and alien DNA. Created to be a weapon in a secret war
we don’t know is coming, he proved too powerful to control. He has
lived for seventeen years in an underground lab, sedated and trained
to be a cold-blooded killing machine.
But H.A.L.F. 9 has escaped the lab and the sedation has worn off. He has
never been more alive. More powerful. Or more deadly.
While H.A.L.F. 9 revels in his newfound freedom, Erika Holt relaxes in the
desert with friends. But a typical Saturday night soon erupts into
chaos when fate brings her together with H.A.L.F. 9. Erika is forced
to make a choice that will irretrievably change her life. If she
chooses to help H.A.L.F. 9 escape, her fate will become intertwined
with his in what will become an intergalactic adventure. Little do
any of them know that their actions trigger a vast New World Order
conspiracy which began after the UFO crash in Roswell in 1947. Will
H.A.L.F. 9 be reeled back in, once again forced to do the bidding of
the Makers? And will any of them survive the dangers of The Deep
Beneath them?

Award-Winning Sci Fi Appropriate for the Entire Family

  • Silver Medalist, Wishing Shelf Book Awards
  • Semi-Finalist, Kindle Review Book Awards
  • Runner-Up, Beach Book Festival Awards
  • Library Journal choice for the curated Self-E Library Collection

˃˃˃
What Readers Say About The Deep Beneath:

“The action is great, and the scene with the alien spaceship was crazy
good. I found the ending to be quite surprising. It definitely made
me want to read the next one to see what happens both above ground
and below. I recommend this to all fans of sci-fi adventures.”
~C.J. Anaya, Best Selling Author of The Healer Series
“Once I began, I couldn’t put it down. It’s well-written, fast-paced, and
the characters are believable. I highly recommend this book and
anxiously await book 2!” ~M. Williams
“Extremely exciting and fast-paced story that sucked me in its sci-fi vortex and
wouldn’t let me go. H. A. L. F. 9 is probably my favorite alien
hybrid of all time. Can’t wait for the next book!” ~Ms. I Read
to Escape
Natalie is the author of the award-winning science fiction series H.A.L.F.,
and The Akasha Chronicles, a popular young adult fantasy
trilogy with over 2 Million reads on Wattpad. She lives
in Tucson, Arizona with her husband, teen daughter, and two cat
overlords.
Natalie spends her time writing, reading, geeking out over nerd culture and
cool science, and meeting readers and fans at book festivals and
comic cons throughout the western United States. Natalie appears
frequently on radio, podcasts and vlogs such as The Speculative
Fiction Cantina, Front Row Geeks and iHeart Radio.

The Four Seasons of H.A.L.F. by Natalie Wright

 

If you were a season, what season would you be? Are you a fiery, passionate summer? A cool, calm winter?

I had not considered this in terms of my characters while writing, but I recently wondered what seasons are my characters?

Erika Holt, the main character of the H.A.L.F. series, has a fiery nature. She’s passionate about causes but nothing brings out her fire more than someone messing with the people she cares about. She’d go to the ends of the Earth—and beyond!—for her friends. Erika represents the heat of summer.

Tex, aka H.A.L.F. 9, personifies the changeable nature of fall. One minute the weather is mild, the next blustery. In autumn it’s like the weather is trying to make up its mind. Tex can seem that way as well, but maybe it’s because he’s still trying to figure out how to be human. Fall may be unpredictable, but we love it anyway. That’s how Erika seems to feel about Tex too!

Of all the characters you’ll meet in the H.A.L.F. series, I think Anna Sturgis is like the cold breath of winter more than any of the others. With her icy blue eyes and golden curtain of hair, she looks like a “winter,” and her personality matches. It’s not that she’s a cold person. Jack gets to see her personable side. But Anna is cool and collected, reasoned and logical. In short, she is often everything that Erika isn’t. Can Jack fall for a winter girl after being so in love with a summer?

Speaking of Jack, he is a spring breeze. With his sun-kissed curly blonde locks, laid-back flip-flops and loose-fitting jeans, Jack is like a shoot of bright green new growth poking up through the soil. He’s a peace-loving, guitar-strumming lover not a fighter. Jack faces life and death situations throughout the H.A.L.F. series. After stepping over dead bodies on the battlefield, will his sweet spring nature endure?

Follow the tour HERE
for exclusive excerpts, guest posts and a giveaway!
In celebration of the release of ORIGINS, the third and final
book in the H.A.L.F. series, all pre-order customers have the
opportunity to receive the following exclusive goodies:
  • A full-color, digital book extra, Lost Chapter and Cut Scenes.
    This book contains the author’s commentary on cut scenes as well
    as photos illustrations. This book is only available to pre-order
    customers.
  • A video retrospective of the H.A.L.F. series, complete with
    “soundtrack” for the series, an author interview, and tons of
    photos and illustrations documenting the series.
INSTRUCTIONS:
It’s simple to obtain the goods. All a customer has to do is:
  1. Buy the book in any format. Digital, paperback, hardcover, or audiobook,
    and at any retailer.
  1. Email a copy of the receipt (again, in any format—photo, screenshot,
    email receipt, etc.). Email the receipt to:
    half.origins.book@gmail.com
That’s it. The author or her representative will follow-up and send the
customer the awesome goodness of free gifts!
Additionally, every pre-order customer that avails themselves of the pre-order
giveaway will automatically be entered into the ORIGINS
Launch Mega Giveaway and have the chance to win the following:
  • GRAND PRIZE: 1 Winner will receive the following: $100
    Amazon Giftcard + Signed, Hardcover copies of the entire 3-book
    H.A.L.F. series + branded book swag, including metal bookmarks,
    complete set of H.A.L.F. Character Trading Cards®, keychain, and
    buttons + non-branded, retail swag themed to the book. Retail value
    of this prize is $240+
  • FIRST PRIZE: 1 Winner will receive: $25 Amazon Giftcard +
    Signed, Paperback copies of the entire 3-book H.A.L.F. series +
    branded swag (as listed above) + non-branded swag. Retail value of
    this prize is $75+
  • 10 Runner-Up Prizes: 10 Winners will receive: A gifted
    copy of Amazon Kindle version of an eBook of the reader’s choice
    from among Natalie Wright’s published, single-book works (Emily’s
    House, Emily’s Trial, Emily’s Heart, The Deep Beneath, The
    Makers, or ORIGINS). Retail value of this prize if between 99¢ to
    $3.99 (depending on book chosen and price at the time gifted).

Young Adult/Paranormal Romance/Mystery
Date Published: Feb 18, 2014
Publisher: Ingramspark
 photo add-to-goodreads-button_zpsc7b3c634.png
2015 Readers’ Favorite Gold Medal Winner for YA Mystery
2015 RONE Award Finalist for YA Paranormal
2015 New Apple Top Medalist for Young Adult Ebook
Chosen as one of 400 for the second round of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award for 2014!!!
Rising Tide will sink its fangs into you, keeping you awake into the wee hours of the night
Could Maura’s life get any worse? …turns out it most certainly can.
Isolated and sheltered by her lonely mother, Maura’s never been able to make friends. She seems to drive her classmates away—except for the odd times they pay enough attention to torture her—but she doesn’t understand why. Maura considers herself to be a freak of nature, with her unusually pale skin and an aversion to the sun that renders her violently nauseous. Her belief is only worsened by the fact that almost everyone around her keeps their distance.
Even her own father deserted her before she was born, leaving Maura alone with her emotionally distant mother, Caelyn. Even though Maura is desperate for answers about her unknown parent, Caelyn remains heartbroken and her daughter can’t bring herself to reopen her mother’s wounds. Or is there a more sinister reason Caelyn refuses to utter a word about her long-lost love?
When a cruel prank nearly claims Maura’s life, one of her classmates, Ron, rushes to her rescue. Darkly handsome & mysteriously accepting, Ron doesn’t seem to want to stay away, but Maura is reluctant to get too close, since her mother has announced she’s moving the two of them to Vancouver…nearly 3,000 miles away from their hometown of Indiana, Pennsylvania.
If life wasn’t already challenging enough, Maura begins to experience bizarre, physical changes her mother seems hell bent on ignoring, compelling Maura to fear for her own life. Vicious nightmares, blood cravings, failing health and the heart-shattering loss of Ron—as well as the discovery of a tangled web of her own mother’s lies—become obstacles in Maura’s desperate quest for the unfathomable truth she was never prepared to uncover.

About the Author

Claudette Melanson writes dark fantasy in Kitchener, Ontario with four bun babies: Tegan, Pepper, Butters & Beckett. She graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a BA in English, BS in English Education and an MA in Literature. Harboring a deep admiration of vampires since the age of five left her with the desire to eventually become one, and now fuels the creation of her favorite paranormal characters. She hopes to one day work full time as an author, since there are many, many stories playing out inside her head.

In her very scant spare time, she enjoys watching Japanese Anime and reading vampire stories…along with other genres of great fiction, as well as riding every roller coaster she encounters in both her hometown and away at signings. An advocate for good health and ketogenic eating, her favorite foods are bulletproof coffee, cashew-flour crust pizza and treats made with xylitol and almond, coconut or cashew flours.
Future dreams include a cabin boasting a roaring fire, isolated inside a snow-filled wood in the Yukon—the perfect writing spot—and the completion of dozens of future novels and stories. A Rabbit Rescue fanatic and loving bunmom, she also hopes to help rescues all over the world save many innocent lives.

Contact Links
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EXCERPT:

It was too late then… He was ringing the doorbell. He looked so much braver than I felt. I could see the anger that had crept back into him in the hard set of his lips, the flash in his dark eyes.

Caelyn had torn the door open immediately, anxiety all over her face. She looked at Ron, dumbfounded. She must have then caught sight of some part of me, because she instantly peered around his shoulder to find me standing meekly behind him, clad only in a boy’s shirt that just barely cleared my hips.

“Maura?! What the…” Her eyes fairly popped with dismayed astonishment.

“Hi, Mom.” What an asinine thing to say. I should have at least started with “I’m okay.”

Caelyn just stood there with her mouth hanging open. I felt the fear turn over, like a living thing in my stomach. How was I going to survive our confrontation? How could I even begin to explain everything that had happened that night?

Luckily, I had Ron. “Hi, um, Ms. DeLuca.” He started out sounding very shy, but as my mother’s brows furrowed closer together, he put a stronger edge to his voice. “I came to bring Maura home.” She was still scowling.

“Um…I’m Ron by the way.” He put his hand out to her. She ignored that entirely.

My mother’s glare was venomous. “Maura! Get in the house this instant!”

Oh boy… She thought Ron was at fault for whatever imagined atrocities were going through her brain right at the moment.

“Mom!” I was desperate to put everything right, despite how much trouble I knew I’d be in. “You have it all wrong!”

“I said GET IN THE HOUSE!” she screamed at me, absolute fury flying from her eyes. I’d never seen her so angry before, and I was terrified. “Do I need to ask you again?”

“N-n-no ma’am,” I stuttered. I hurried past Ron, but not without looking up at him with apology in my eyes. I felt horrible for his being put in the middle, just because he’d happened to save my life.

Once inside, I steeled myself for another attempt at speaking to my mother. “Mom, will you please just let me…”

“Don’t say anything, Maura.” Her voice shook. “Do you have any idea what you’ve put me through tonight?”

I was confused then. Did she want me to stay quiet or answer her question?

Ron saved me again. “I think I can explain.” He took a tentative step onto the living room carpet.

I didn’t like the way Caelyn’s head snapped around when she looked at him. “What was your name again?” she asked viciously.

I saw him swallow hard as he answered, “Ron.”

She turned on him then. “Well, Ron!” It sounded like she’d chewed on his name before spitting the one syllable out. “Do you mind telling me why it is you’re out with my daughter when she’s supposed to be with Katie Parker?  And after you’ve answered that, I’d really love to know why you would bring her home wearing only that!!” She pointed the index finger of her shaking hand at me, standing on the plush blue carpet next to our couch, holding onto its arm for support, my knees knocking together.

Ron went a little pale… I couldn’t stand to see my hero wrongly accused.

“Mom! Listen to me! If-if it weren’t for him, for Ron…Mom, I’d be dead right now!” I shouted all the words out quickly before she had a chance to silence me again.


Reading Addiction Blog Tours

About the Book

Title: The Sanguinarian Id

Author: L.M. Labat

Artist: L.M. Labat

Genre: Horror, Historical Fiction, Paranormal, Occult, Gothic Horror

Publisher: Night to Dawn Magazine & Books

 

She’s been beaten, stabbed, poisoned, and shot, but Hael refuses to die. In her pursuit for vengeance and her origin, the Dhampir Hael hunts down the madman responsible for her fateful transformation. As this half-vampire juggernauts her way through a world at war, Hael battles hordes of Nazi soldiers as she struggles to maintain her sanity. However, while Hael gathers knowledge on how to trap and kill her target, her adversary’s network is expanding at an exponential rate, as his sick obsession with Hael grows deeper. Will she have her revenge? Will she find her origin? Or, will she crumble beneath her own insidious bloodlust?

Author Bio

Born in 1993, L. M. Labat stems from New Orleans, Louisiana. From the struggles of a broken family and surviving life-threatening events, Labat found refuge within the arts while delving into the fields of medicine, psychology, and the occult. While combining illustration and literature, L. M. Labat was able to cope with endless nightmares as well as hone in on artistic techniques. From confronting the past to facing new shadows, this author gladly invites audiences into the horror of The Sanguinarian Id.

 


Links

The Sanguinarian Id Website

Website Creator: L. M. Labat

https://thesanguinarianid.com/

Night to Dawn Magazine & Books Website:

http://bloodredshadow.com/night-to-dawn-magazine-and-books/l-m-labat/

The Sanguinarian Id on Amazon.com:  

https://www.amazon.com/Sanguinarian-Id-L-M-Labat/dp/1937769445

The Sanguinarian Id on Barnes & Noble:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-sanguinarian-id-l-m-labat/1123257469


Artwork by the Author:


Book Excerpts

Book Excerpt 1:

Within Europe’s late nineteenth century, marvelous medical miracles came into existence that augmented the intellectual to new horizons. Doctors of all fields were admired for their dedication to health and humanity. However, as their accolades increased, these professionals grew fat with entitlement while their patients starved for love. With speedy developments, the human brain, in its entire splendor, spiraled dangerously into the new era of indulgences that forked the path between masterpiece and monstrosity. **** A group of young women sat on the cold floor. In dirty hospital gowns, they picked and ingested lead paint chips from the wall. Persistently, they crammed more debris into their hungry mouths. Drool covered their cracked fingernails. With muted expressions, the nurses smoked like locomotives at their corridor stations. They watched the self-poisoning, but did nothing to help. The nurses reacted solely when the clock struck seven. The chimes notified them to administer the medication. In the joining corridor, more patients wandered aimlessly. Whimpering like beaten dogs, most patients wore restraints over their mouths and arms. Others fiddled with their gowns as they stumbled from side to side. No matter what they were doing, the inhabitants complemented each other with the same dead-eyed stare against the barred windows. The doctors were devils. They prodded, scraped, and teased the flesh with their instruments. Like foxes, the doctors lured people into their examination rooms with wide-toothed grins and false promises. None of them were in harmony with their patients. These mechanized madmen were fluent with their hands and calculations. Their utensils were never bare. These men constantly wrapped their fingers around their equipment’s silvery curves. They comforted the metal exteriors like newborn children. The wives of these doctors had sullen lives, wishing their husbands would caress their thighs the way they did their clipboards. The patients knew no humanity. The kind gazes they saw reflected off foggy spectacles before the serum blacked out their minds. That was if they were lucky enough to have the straps off their foreheads. This was Halcyon Asylum.

 

Book Excerpt 2:

The leader of the group yelled and charged at Hael with a dagger. He stabbed her in the back. She fell to the ground. Over and over again, he stabbed his blade deep into her torso. Hael roared in fury. She grabbed the severed limb and brained the leader. When the severed arm gave way, Hael buried her claws into his skull, and gouged his head wide open. Brain matter and blood splattered across her face. Her entire body became a walking nightmare of black and red.  She heard the horses go wild in the distance. The coach-man desperately tried to mount one of the horses, but the beast was too frightened to stand still. Hael walked over to the coachman. The front horse saw Hael from the corner of its eye, and reared its back legs frantically. The horse’s hoof clocked the coachman in the chest and sent him plummeting to the ground. His flask flew out of his pocket. The coachman held his beaten torso and coughed violently. A twig snapped in front of him. He looked up. Hael looked down upon him. Her body was still, but the red of her iris swirled like hellfire. The coachman sobbed and pleaded for his life. Hael looked at the carriage. “Where were you going to bring me?” she asked him.  “Please, don’t kill me,” he cried.

Hael rammed her heel down onto his hand. His bones broke through his skin upon impact. She repeated herself. “Where were you going to bring me?” Her voice was calm and authoritative.  “To the docks,” he answered.  “Why the docks?” she asked. “We were supposed to bring you and some others to the docks, and place you all on a boat bound for France.”  “Why France?”  “I don’t know,” he answered. “That’s all Mendelson wrote to us. I swear it!”  “Do you have the instructions?” she asked. The coach-man nodded. He reached into his back pocket and handed her an envelope. She read postage marks. The letter came from Germany. “What others?” she asked. The coachman said that there were other women that they collected during the week to bring to the docks. Hael was a surprise adjustment to the original list. He stated that after the delivery was made, they were instructed to burn the letter. She gave the letter back to him. “Thank you.” She walked over to the flask and unscrewed the top.  The coachman shuddered. “What are you doing?” “Following instructions.” She poured the liquor over his body. “Stop! I told you what you wanted to know.”  “Yes, you did.” Hael picked up a stone from the grass. She held it firmly in her hand. “And, I said, ‘Thank you.’” She struck her nails against the stone. Sparks flew off her claws and ignited the liquor. The coachman screamed as his body writhed within the flames.

 

Book Excerpt 3:

The majority of the women held captive by Mendelson were between the ages of eighteen to thirty-nine years old, and labeled missing to the general public. The victims’ bodies were found during scattered times of the year. The bodies were either discreetly hidden, or placed directly in the center of the stadt from where they came. All of the women were reported to be sexually assaulted, battered, or starved. The numbers of men who were taken from their families by Mendelson were never seen or heard from again.  Hael turned the page. “Abducted children and infants were brought back at separate times, unharmed, to either their families or the nearest local officials. As a whole, the children neither recall where they were held captive, nor can they give details about Mendelson’s appearance. None of the children were sexually assaulted in any matter or form. However, all of the returned children experienced seizures and night terrors at random.” Mendelson’s family once held a highly decorated position in the German military during the early 1800s. After the fire of their family mansion in Frankfurt, the residence was converted to the orphanage Das Männlein Waisenhaus in 1823. Das Männlein Waisenhaus was currently shut down. No photographs or sketches of Mendelson were documented. A few traces of fingerprints, semen, saliva, and skin particles were found on the corpses of eighteen-year-old women and older. The total numbers of people kidnapped by Mendel-son over a seventeen year period were: one hundred and seven women between the ages of eighteen to thirty-nine years old, fifty-eight men above the age of eighteen, twenty-nine female children, and twelve male children.

Hael dropped her lighter. The flame extinguished on the rocky floor. The horrendous sights Hael witnessed were inexhaustible, but the photographs and descriptions of Mendelson’s victims made her vomit. Their bodies were bruised and broken. The women found in the woods had their pelvic bones crushed, and their legs permanently bent. Their necks and wrists were badly discolored from rope burn, and their breasts were purpled with bruises. Their backs were either concaved or arched with their stomachs split open.  Hael turned her face to the ground, and retched every-where. From the pictures, she heard the groaning victims. Their bloodshot eyes, broken bones, and gray skin were nothing com-pared to the way their bodies lay open like stockpots holding their mangled organs.

 

Book Excerpt 4:

The area was a deluge. Hael watched the pond swell as the water engulfed more and more of the bank. “If you keep stalling, you’re going to drown!” she shouted. “Let me pull you up!” Air bubbles popped alongside the boulder’s surface. The man shuddered at the sound. He looked behind him. “Did you hear that?” he asked. She shrugged her shoulders. “An air pocket must’ve ruptured below the mud.” She looked at the surface of the water. The mud continued to bubble. The water level rose rapidly. “Please, let me pull you up!” His eyes bulged like soup plates at the sight of the bub-bling mud. The mud stopped moving. He turned towards her. “Leave.” “What about your legs?” “Forget about my legs!” he shouted. “Just get the fuck out of here!” She ignored his statement and waded towards him. He unsheathed his Bowie knife and swung it wildly in the air. “Go away! Damn it. Go away!” he threatened.  “Are you crazy?” she shouted.  He began to cry. “Please! Just leave!” A gurgling sound erupted from beneath the water. It was deep and loud. The man gaped in fear. With his face paled to a paper white, his mouth opened and closed in horror like a dying guppy. The noise increased in volume, morphing into a horrid watery groan. He tossed his knife at her feet. She grabbed onto his arms to pull him out. The man made no effort to move. She sank her feet into the mud and pulled.  “Please! Help me help you!” He lifted his head up to her. His eyes were drenched in tears and wide with anguish. His mouth quivered sorely. “If you want to help me, heed the words of this old fool. Leave this place. Forget about me. Forget you ever came here. Forget your reason why, and get to the closest source of concrete.” He grabbed her hand. “Take the knife! Stay away from the water banks!” Those were his last words. His body was yanked underneath the boulder. The pull’s tension and the sharpness of her claws severed the man’s hand from his body. She flew backward. The severed hand fell into her lap. The air thickened with danger. She flung the hand back into the water. Something swallowed it from beneath the sur-face. Screaming, she grabbed the knife and ran from the boulders.  The hard rain loosened the soil around the trees. Roots were exposed over the ground. She bounded over them to avoid getting caught. A lightning bolt crashed in the distance. She tripped and plummeted to the banks. An exposed tree root slammed against her head when she

hit the ground. Half her face sank into mud. She nearly stumbled back into the water as she hoisted herself out of the sludge. She searched for the knife. It was lodged underneath a tree root. The mud bubbled around her feet. The ground swallowed the knife. She jumped back and ran.