Hell School: Fresh Meat Sneak Peek Valentine's Day Ruined

I am participating in A. F. Stewart's Bloody Valentine Horror Hop with another sneak peek from my stalker series.

Talk about perfect timing!

So as I have mentioned previously, this is based on my real experiences with a stalker in high school and the way that experience has shaped my life. Here is an excerpt from the first book.


All the other girls were giddy about Valentine's day, but Sam didn't really care. Despite April's desperate attempts to pair her off with one of the guys, Sam was adamant that she wasn't allowed to date until she was 16. It was a great excuse and she wasn't giving it up just to get a silly card.

Mike joined her walking into school. "What's up, buttercup?"

Sam sighed at the silly nickname. "Not looking forward to today," She muttered, brushing a stray hair out of her face.

Mike laughed. "Aren't you supposed to be excited? It's Valentine's day!"

Sam rolled her eyes. "Seriously, do you not know me better by now?"

He grinned. "Fair enough. I'll give this to you now, so we don't have to make a big deal about it later." He fished something out of his coat pocket and handed it over.

"What is this?"

"Nothing special. I get Valentine's for all my friends." His ears turned pink and he coughed. "Don't make a big deal out of it. I gotta run," and he loped off leaving Sam with the odd-shaped envelope in her hand. She opened the envelope and pulled out a small stone. It was a tiger's eye. She slipped the stone into her pocket and pulled out the accompanying card. There were buttercups on the front with frilly writing "Happy Valentine's Day". She opened the card. In sprawling writing, Mike said. "This card reminds me of you, sweet and sunshiny like buttercups, and the tiger's eye reminds me that you are like a tiger when defending your friends. Happy Valentine's day!"

Sam couldn't help but smile. It was really sweet.

She slipped the card into her back pack and looked around for Mike, but he was long gone. Walking into school, Sam was overwhelmed by all the giggling giddy girls reminding her why she hated this holiday. Spotting Misty and Ben, she maneuvered her way over.

"Hi," Misty said a little breathlessly. "look what Ben got me for Valentine's day!" she blurted out, holding up a complete works of Shakespeare.

Sam smiled. "How sweet." She resisted the urge to point out that Ben had probably never read any of it. Clearly he had made an effort and she begrudgingly respected it.

"Yeah," he drawled. "I hear he's really romantic."  He nuzzled Misty's neck, and Sam turned away. His constant PDA really bugged her.

"Where is everyone?" Sam asked.

"Um, April and Clint got roped into helping hand out the Valentin'es day Grams during first period."

"Clint? Oh, because of Football?" Sam sighed. "But how did April get roped in?"

"I think she volunteered," Misty chuckled.

Great. Sam was not looking forward to first period. The bell rang and they headed toward class.  The giggling and chatter was more obnoxious than usual and Misty and Ben were a little absorbed in each other so Sam waved goodbye and moved along quickly.

Slipping into her desk, Sam pulled out her book and began reading. She figured that courtesy of the stupid grams, nothing productive was going to happen. There was so much chatter after the bell that Sam almost missed her name being called for attendance. Even after attendance the room didn't settle down. Ms. Smith tried to call the class down, but to no avail. Then there was a knock at the door.

In walked Wes and another football player with a cart full of candy grams. Sam groaned.  Wes spotted her and waved. Sam gave a half-hearted wave back.

"Alright, alright students!" Ms. Smith demanded. "We will not hand out any candy grams until you all settle down!" The room went from a loud roar to whispers and giggles. "Alright gentlemen," Ms. Smith nodded to Wes and the other football player. The other guy grinned and walked up to the front of the room.

"On behalf of the football team and cheerleaders, we thank all of you who participated, or who had a loved one participate, in this year's candy grams. Thanks to your generosity we have raised enough money to get new uniforms and to pay for bus trips all the way to Championships. Guess we have a lot to live up to!" The classroom cheered and he smiled. "Be sure to return the generosity!" He added as a last comment.

Ms. Smith shot him a dirty look and Wes stepped up with a basket full of candy grams. "Alright, let's get these handed out. Kendra Jackson?"

Kendra ran up eagerly and grabbed the basket.

"Kendra received four candy grams," the other guy announced.

Sam sighed. This was going to take forever! She pulled her book out and went back to reading, drowning out the hoots and hollers of her excited classmates. Sam was just getting into an intense battle sequence when the room went quiet.

"Sam..." Sam glanced up and saw Wes almost in front of her. She felt a blush of embarrassment. What was he doing? "Sam, these are for you." He had a couple candy grams and a rose in his hand. She stared up at him dumbfounded.

"Wha...." He set them on her desk and smiled. "Don't look so surprised," he whispered, giving her a thumbs up before moving back to the front of the room.

Jenna scooted over next to her. "Oh my God, you got a red rose!!" she whispered excitedly. Sam stared at her blankly. "Who is it from? That means he loves you!!"

Numbly Sam reached out for the rose and read the note attached. From your secret admirer. The world went to white noise as Sam stared at that horrible, horrible pidgeon scratch. She grabbed one of the candy grams, a handful of chocolate kisses. The note, "How I wish to sprinkle you with kisses." She recoiled in horror, dropping the candy on the desk.

He was back.

She felt hot and cold all at once. Jumping up she ran for the bathroom, sure she was going to be sick.

She barely registered the surprised look on Wes' face as she pushed past him into the hall and ran for the bathroom. The hall was spinning and she didn't think she would make it.

Slamming into the first stall, she knelt in front of the toilet waiting for the nausea and spinning to pass. Tears sprung to her eyes and she squeezed them shut. Why, why, why wouldn't he leave her alone!

Leaning against the cold steel stall wall she took several deep breaths, trying to steady her stomach. The terror and dread left a cold lump in her stomach, but the rage was building and she fanned the flames. How dare this stupid freak send her such trash! How dare he think she was the kind of girl who would welcome a complete stranger sprinkling her in kisses!  How dare he imply that he loved her when he didn't have the guts to let her know who he was, let alone talk to her! What sick weirdo could consider such a shallow obsession love?!



Thanks for joining. What do you think of this sneak peek? Let me know in the comments below.
Then go check the rest of the bloggers participating  in The Bloody Valentine Hop

Until next time,

Keep Reading!

Sneak Peek, Hell School Fresh Meat

I am going to start offering sneak peeks into my current projects. As I mentioned earlier this week, my current focus is the first book of my four-part series Hell School: Fresh Meat.

Tentative Cover title. Thoughts?

This is one of the hardest books I have written to date. I actually started working on this book in 1999. The reason I have struggled over the years is that this series is based on a true story, MY true story.

It has a very personal note for me because most of the stalker stories are based on my own experience. Yes, the book is listed as fiction and the finale is fiction, but only based on my deepest fears. All through high school I was plagued by a stalker and no one was able to do anything for me. I approached teachers, the police, counselors and even the principal and vice principal. But since my stalker had not already done something, there was nothing they could do.

A lot of my friends made fun of me and some even suggested that I was paranoid and watched too much TV. Things like that didn’t happen in our little town. Fortunately my mom taught me to be smart and cautious. I never went anywhere by myself, trusted my gut, and did everything I could to stay off of his radar. Unfortunately, I missed out on a lot of what most high school kids do. I never went to a high school party, because I was afraid he might show up. I went to two football games, but then he found out that I was going and showed up at my third and last football game.

I did go to my proms, because I found dates who wouldn't be a problem. But I never had a boyfriend from high school. There were a few guys who were interested, but he would invariably threaten or scare them off. I wasn’t worth pursuing when they had to deal with a six foot four behemoth who had such pleasant nick names as Wolfman Jack or Lumber Jack from Hell. (No, I did not make those up.)

As soon as I graduated I booked it for the least likely college that he could get into and made sure that no one except my closest friends and family knew where I was. That Thanksgiving I got a call from one of my friends. She asked if I had gotten the newspaper. When I said no, she said she would be at my house in ten minutes.

There was an article about my stalker in the paper under arrests.  Apparently when I had disappeared from the scene he started stalking a beautician who had a boyfriend.  My stalker beat her boyfriend half to death!

Image from Customer Lobby Blog

The problem with our society is that “Stalker” is a term that has been thrown around so loosely that people do not know when to take it seriously. Unless a stalker actually physically does something there is nothing that the police can do about it. Women are attacked, raped, beaten and often killed because of what someone at some point labeled as “just a stalker.” Those of us who have had a stalker and survived are lucky, but I still feel so much guilt that if someone had just listened to me and paid attention that girl and her boyfriend would not have gone through that.

The way a stalker changes you is permanent. Even if they do not actually attack you, your perception of the world is very different. My husband now laughs at me because for the longest time I would not have a facebook/myspace/twitter account. He thinks it is because I am a technophobe, but the truth is: I am afraid. Sane people should not put their private information out there for the predator’s to see.

He laughs, because I always take my keys out before I leave a store: The truth, I am always hyper vigilant and have to have something (even just a key) that could be used as a weapon.
I don’t like to go out to clubs unless I’m in a group. I don’t like shopping at night and will avoid it like the plague. I hate big shopping days like Black Friday. I don’t go out much and I never just drive around. I am constantly checking in and I want him and my children to do the same. He says I am a control freak. I say I am a survivor.

My kids love to have What if: discussions such as “what if there was a zombie apocalypse, what could you do to survive?:
What if a burglar broke in what would you do?
What if you were in a slasher movie, how would you survive?

My answers awe, mystify and even sometimes scare them. I don’t have to think about what I would be willing to do, because I have already evaluated that a long time ago and I know what I would do. I took women’s self-defense. I won’t leave my children out of my sight in public for two minutes. They cannot hang out with kids I don’t know, or go to a friend’s house unless I know the parents. (And I’m not talking about a quick five minute conversation over the phone, I’m talking hung out with and talked with and even done research on "know".)

My husband thinks I am a paranoid control freak. I know I am a paranoid control freak. The world is a scary place and people don’t want to see it in their own little communities. Refusing to see it or thinking that would never happen here is exactly what allows these predators to continue to hunt and harm others.

I hope this book opens your eyes. I doubt you will think it is fun, but I do hope you will think it is a good read. I hope you will find it educational and I hope it will help you become a survivor, not another victim.

That is my introduction to the book. The Preface, if you will. 

I have struggled back and forth on how to tell the story. I have debated bringing it to current time, telling the whole story in one book, telling it in first person, versus writing in third person, but really the hardest part is telling the story. The first several times I started the story, I would have PTSD-like recurring nightmares, would feel like I was being watched, and be afraid of being alone. 

Time heals all wounds, and I am finally ready to focus on how to tell the story. I look forward to sharing more as I progress! 

What do you think of this story? Would you like to learn more? Share in the comments below!