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Chapter 1
Blood was everywhere and the screams; the screams filled the mountain with a freezing chill. The smell drew a tight, bitter taste to his mouth. The howls that came from the dogs were vicious and haunting. Blood on old Chalk’s mouth and the look in his eyes as he struck the dog dead was drawn in Matt's memory like indelible ink. Sarah Jean’s cries tore through his dream. Matt’s eyes flashed opened. He was sure his head would burst. The dim light from the rain filled clouds silhouetted Matt Hawkins, as he awkwardly struggled to sit up on the mattress. He leaned back on the wall and shook. Cold sweat soaked his back.
Picking his smoking pouch up off the floor, Matt removed the cigarette paper, folded it in the middle and poured the tobacco into it's small crease. Some of it fell onto Matt’s bare leg and onto the mattress ticking. He closed the can and licked the paper shut. Striking the match on the bleached plank floor; the light flickered as he took in his first breath of smoke. Lizzie stirred.
“Matt did you have that bad dream again?”
“Ya, Go back to sleep. I’m alright.”
He held the smoke in and slowly exhaled. “How did I let this happen? What in the world is ever going to become of us now? How in God’s name did things go so wrong? I should have killed that mealy mouthed Lowe Beckett, sorry bastard years ago.” Matt lay back down on the mattress and hoped for a few more minutes of sleep. “Maybe when I wake up all this, will be a bad dream, and everything will be back to the way it was.”
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Here it is August 1st and I have been diligently writing on my second novel, " I Want to Kill My Wife," I have just finished chapter 15. I think I will set my goal to be published by January 2019. Didn't make the January goal but shooting for March 30th to be complete.