I had a lot of fun writing my second YA book DEMON WHISPERER. It’s plum full of interesting characters and crazy situations. One of my favourite characters is Uncle Eldon. He’s so evil and creepy, that he gets to do all kinds of bad things that heroes should never do, which was why it was so much fun to write. Soemtimes authors just want to be bad, and creating these kind of characters is our way of acting out without having to suffer the consequences. Here’s an excerpt of when Caden first meets Uncle Eldon….
Trying not to take in a deep breath, I stepped down into the hole in the floor. I inched down rung by rung until my feet hit hard packed earth. Happy that I managed to not fall, I glanced around checking out the situation.
A soft warm glow came from the far side of the room. I walked toward it, completely aware of the old saying—a moth to a flame. And we all knew what happened to the stupid moth. Engulfed in flames and burnt to a crisp. That happy thought kept my legs from moving too fast.
After a few more feet, everything came into view. And I nearly swallowed my tongue in surprise. This was nothing of what I was expecting. I couldn’t even have dreamt up this situation. And I’d been to hell.
Aspen was leaning against an old bookcase, crammed full of books of every size. Some books laid strewn across the dirt floor, their pages creased or ripped. In the middle of the room, if you could call it that, was an old worn easy chair.One of those that with a lift of a lever a person could be transported to paradise. In front of the chair, sitting on a wooden crate was an old TV in an oversized wooden frame like they used to make in the 70’s. Some sitcom was flickering on the screen.
And standing in front of the chair was an old man. Or at least I thought he was old. His back was bent a bit, with a slight hump behind the shoulders. And his hair was thin, wispy and gray, barely enough to cover his bald pate. He was grinning like a maniac at me and that’s how I was able to count how many teeth he had in his head. Four. All of them brown with rot.
“You brought me a visitor,” he said, his words slurred, his voice as brittle and rough as sandpaper. I shuddered. It was like nails on a chalkboard as he talked.
He shuffled a few steps toward me. That was when I noticed his right ankle had a wide metal cuff around it, and attached to that cuff was a thick chain, and that chain seemed to be connected to a hook in the floor.
I glanced in confusion at Aspen. She didn’t meet my gaze but instead ripped open the package of steak she’d been holding. She tossed it to the old man. “Here’s dinner.”
He caught it deftly then tore into it without fanfare. I wanted to look away as he ripped and shredded the meat with his four teeth but I was too mesmerized by the grotesque spectacle. I’d been to hell so I’d see worse, much worse. But on this plane, in his realm, shit like this just wasn’t supposed to occur. Humans were supposedly civilized. Weren’t we?
She held up the other steak and pointed to the legs of lamb I was still holding. “There’s a midnight snack, and breakfast and lunch for tomorrow.”
The old man shoved the last bloody morsel into his mouth, and then wiped his dirty fingers onto his filthy pants. “You want something from me. You never bring me this much at one time.”
She grabbed the lamb from me, and then took it and the package of steak toward a small white freezer I hadn’t seen on first inspection. She opened the lid and dropped the meat into it.
“We need information.”
He grinned again, licking his flaking lips. “Really?How interesting.” He turned toward m
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