Beck Valley Books

Book Excerpt - Dream Killer by Mike Baldwin

http://beckvalleybooks.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/book-excerpt-dream-killer-by-mike.html

All but one of their thirty guests had departed the Stilson twins’ house other than a passed-out woman on a bed in the back bedroom.
Ava and Emma wouldn’t spend much time fretting over the mess. Emma gazed at trampled-on beer cans, pizza boxes and empty bags of potato chips. The kitchen also looked like a dump site. “Look at this place.”
“One of our best parties ever!” Ava boasted, giving her sister a high-five.
They soaked in the scene and smiled as if a trashed house was a badge of honor. Vomit on the bathroom floor smelled putrid. Someone used the shower as a second toilet, no surprise considering the bathroom was Grand Central Station.
“It’s never been quite this bad before,” Emma said. “How much do you think Marsha will charge us this time?”
Ava mulled over the question. She surveyed the mess in the living room before she announced a dollar figure for a maid who used the Stilson twins as a side income, the only maid in Burlington willing to clean a house that looked like a tornado had swept through New Strawn every time they threw a party.
“My guess is five-hundred, maybe six.”
“I feel sad for Marsha. She works hard. We’re so lucky.” “What a night! The fridge is empty. I’m going to the cellar.”
Ava hummed a song while she walked down the hallway. To assure her sister could hear, Ava raised her voice. “How much beer do we have left? Between tonight and the Fourth of July shindig we might have to order twenty cases from the Budweiser guy.” Emma was in the bathroom. She was attempting to clean up the vomit without actually touching the nauseating mess when she heard her sister scream.
“Emma, get down here right away!”
Barefoot, Emma’s blue-painted toes scurried down the hallway. Small, baby steps resembled a bunny hopping alongside a fence. As Emma neared the cellar door, Ava’s next statement sent chills up her spine.
“I think he’s dead!”