Shadow of the Past

High School Can Be Hell...

Mark Watson's strategy for survival has always been to keep his head down and try to go unnoticed. That's hard when everyone knows him as "that weirdo quiet kid whose parents died."or worse "that kid Jack and his friends mess with and beat up all the time." When he literally runs into the cute new girl in school he finds himself happy to be noticed, especially since she sees him as "the kind of cute and shy boy that helped her adjust to another new school."

Despite things looking up for once Mark finds himself plagued by nightmares of children in the 1950's being held captive by an unhinged man trying to make them see the figure of flame and smoke that's compelling him to kill. Mark tries to brush it off as the product of an overactive imagination and traumatic childhood until someone close to him is murdered and his dreams show it to him in grisly detail. Now Mark must figure out the connection to the visions of the past he's experiencing and the supernatural force in the present that's targeting anyone close to him.

Something out there wants him broken, helpless, and alone as everything in his life is set aflame. Then, and only then, will it turn its burning eyes to him and drag him down into smoke and darkness.

Thacher E. Cleveland grew up in Montclair, NJ and upstate New York. He moved to Yellow Springs, Ohio after school and stayed for about 15 years, selling books and comics for most of that time, even becoming a co-founder his own shop, Super-Fly Comics & Games. In 2010 he left the retail side of life and relocated first to Chicago and then to Tennessee, where he writes novels (SHADOW OF THE PAST), short stories (The Winston and Churchill supernatural private investigator series) and comics. He can be found online at his website, www.demonweasel.com or Twitter (@demonweasel) or on Tumblr and his writing can be found wherever eBooks are sold.