by Wendy Altshuler
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: YA Fantasy Horror
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When
an amnesiac girl who thinks she has been born without a heart utters a prayer,
she is met by a mysterious angelic stranger from her forgotten past. Together
they embark on a journey to recover her removed heart, but enter into battle
with an Evil Voice on a rampage to remove the hearts of an entire generation of
children - and replace them with stones.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPTS:
There was nothing in sight.
No sleds, no dogs, no weeping mothers, nor the woman who had clawed
hysterically at her neck as her child was whisked away. Not even the horse that Georgeonus had left
at the mound entrance to the underground.
There was only a soft, peaceful accumulating snow.
She had been through the strange doorways before, but had
never opened them. Nor had she been
given a key and instructions on how they opened. She only knew that they were not of this
world, the world she had known on the farm where venturing over a hill led only
to the village, or to the goats she tended, or to the well that held their
water. The forest in the distance had
always been a mystery, but she could only assume that beyond the trees were
more hills much like the ones she knew.
How could she have imagined these other worlds, places whose lands
housed properties, elements, seasons and peoples so foreign, so alien to
hers, that she came to wonder how she
could have been taught that all the wider world was like her own.
Georgeonus had
instructed her to
travel through two worlds to an island. Nadia was to fly straight out from the
portal, and not to stop until she found the island. He had ordered her to take the suit, the
key, and to go, and not to travel alone.
Their destination was a land named Utsiket Sorghåven,
Georgeonus had called it, ‘Place of Sorrowful Harbors,’ a land almost
completely covered in water. How could
such a thing be? The most collected
water she had seen was after the rains, or in the small pond by the
blacksmith’s shop. Where would so much
water come from?
She had watched Georgeonus take out the silver key from a
compartment in his suit. Like the
miniature closet in the chariot, the key hung on a hook inside of it. It had a formal Roman ‘L’ engraved on it,
perhaps for the Land of Silence. But
there remained another key on the hook inside the compartment: a gold one with
an ‘E’ engraved on it surrounded by ornate leaves. She needed one key for the first door, to get
from the ice pond into the Land of Silence.
And two keys for double doors for the Trees Above the road. She would not be returning to her village—she
was going somewhere else.
There, in the middle of the ice was the Door: the two birch trees they had passed through
less than twenty-four hours before. The
doorway opening was a phenomenon she could not get used to, and she was
convinced that the people in the village had never witnessed such a doorway. Sometimes it was akin to a black hole that
ate at the air amidst a fury of wind, increasing until the space between the
trees formed a square as a temporary entranceway.
Turning Georgeonus’ silver key in the invisible keyhole,
white wisps gently formed in the cold, building into a thick, dry, and
mist-less cloud that engulfed them.
They walked through into the bright quiet, a glare that sourced no sun,
and all sound disappeared.
Wendy Altshuler
is a writer-producer who explores myth in new media. She writes fantasy novels
and creates works in stop motion animation.
Her credits include award-winning screenwriting and WGA-accredited
representation. With a degree in psychology and a Master of Arts from Columbia
University, Altshuler documented the work of international choreographers and
wrote and produced regional programming. Her short plays have been performed at
Boston Playwrights' Theatre, at regional schools and most recently, Puppet
Showplace Theatre. Altshuler's young adult book series has been hailed as
"emotionally moving, uplifting and wholesome," and "spirited and
haunting. . .with much symbolism and beauty."
Website:
http://arborgate.net
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/waltshuler/
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/sirtwosays
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