Mental Break
Summary:
On the surface, the city of Trenton is a thriving metropolis of light and progress. But beneath the polished facade lies a history of "false truths" and a darkness that refuses to stay buried.
Samantha Winely is a woman living in a waking nightmare. Haunted by a recurring vision of a cloaked figure and the phantom scent of gunpowder, her reality is beginning to flake away like cheap porcelain. She is a prisoner of her own mind, struggling to distinguish between her traumatic memories and the chilling secrets her family has fought for generations to hide.
When the cracks in Samantha's life become too wide to ignore, Detective Rigby is pulled into the fray. A man who has seen the worst of the city’s shadows, Rigby soon discovers that Samantha isn't just a victim of a mental break—she is the key to a legacy of loss and madness that stretches back to the very foundations of Trenton.
As the wails of the past grow louder, Samantha and Rigby must navigate a labyrinth of psychological horror to uncover the truth. But in a world where identity is fragile, and every truth is a lie, some things are better left shattered.
Excerpt:
Screams echoed around the girl from all directions. Soon, the cries of a woman joined the cacophony of wails. The girl sat hunched over with her arms wrapped around her, and her fingers tangled within her fiery red hair. With each new cry, her grip got tighter. “What’s going on?” she thought, uncertain of where she was.
Then, her thoughts were scrambled once more, this time by the deafening shrieks of a young boy.
“Help me!” cried the boy.
The girl freed her hands from her hair to cover her ears from the disarray of everyone around her, but before she could do so, there was a loud bang. The boy’s screaming sobs disappeared. Then one by one, each crying soul around her met the same fate. She froze in fear, unable to move and cover her ears from the horror that now surrounded her. The smell of gunpowder was overwhelming. With eyes widened in fear, she didn’t see anything happening near her, yet the lights in the room began to slowly flash as each loud sound, some booming like fireworks, grew closer...
