Bouncer Round 6 #7

Title: The Wake of Madness

Genre: NA Psychological Suspense

Word Count: 117,000

Query:

Unbeknownst to Olivia Winslow, she is the product of a satanic cult rape. Throughout her childhood she is demoralized, neglected, and abused by her mother and father, who - for reasons she cannot understand - believe she is the demon offspring of Satan. Molded by bitterness and resentment toward her parents, Olivia grows from a meek and fearful twelve-year-old, into a hardened teenager, consumed by her desperate need for revenge.

Her cousin Peter and her boyfriend Travis are her only allies in her struggle to survive the cruelty and madness of home. As the years pass, a lifetime of cousinly love and allegiance with Peter begins to morph into something shameful, and jealous animosity sparks a rivalry between her two heroes. Torn between a forbidden love and the boy of her dreams, Olivia begins to wonder if her parents weren’t right about her evil nature all along.

In her sixteenth year, when Olivia learns the truth behind her conception she realizes her entire life of betrayal and revenge has become a self-fulfilling prophesy. For even though she’s a mere mortal, only demon child as wicked as she would unwittingly destroy so many lives to finally have her retribution.

First 250:

“You were born at the stroke of midnight. You came out feet first with your demon-red hair on a snowy night while the moon was eclipsed. My mom always says my dimple was where an angel kissed my cheek when I was born, but you were born evil so angels wouldn’t touch you. Your dimple came from me, from when I kissed you when they brought you home from the hospital. So there. There’s your favorite story for the gazillionth time. Can we please go swimming now?”

“No, not yet!” I grabbed Cousin Peter’s arm to keep him sitting beside me by the fire when he tried to stand. “Tell me the one about Janie Mae Strothburn again, too.”

“You’ve heard that one a gazillion times, too.”

“I’ve heard it ten gazillion times, thank you, and I want to hear it again.”

Before he could protest, I speared another marshmallow to the end of my stick and then did the same for him.

“Olivia, no! I wanna go swimming.”

“We have all summer to swim and goof off. It’ll be daylight in a few hours and then telling creepy stories won’t be fun anymore.” I unwrapped another chocolate bar to make yet another s’more, and added, “And besides, we still have half a pack of smokes and there’s still a little moonshine left. We can’t go back to the house until it’s all gone. That’s the rule and you know it.”