Bridging the Eruption of Vesuvius and the Modern World - a Blog Tour and Book Excerpt for "What Remains"

BOOK EXCERPT

While she hovered, still in the doorway, bright white light illuminated mountain, cloud and town. Jagged sheets of lightning cast their glow through the doorway, through the high window, through even the gaps beneath eaves and between bricks, invading the furthest reaches of the space before her. Bringing each figure into startling clarity. The light drew both men’s gazes towards the doorway.

Her husband saw her first; his eyes widened. His lips formed words.

She wanted to go to him.

The second man shifted his body, his head turned to face her. His nose was twisted and splayed as though it had been badly broken but the face was horrifyingly familiar. A jolt of fear stole her breath and arched through her body as the man’s lips began to turn up at the ends. In doing so, they pressed the corpulent flesh of his cheeks, creasing his leonine eyes into narrow slits that gleamed with what could only be described as joyful recognition.

As the light in the sky faded, leaving its impression burned into her eyelids, her heart seemed to falter and then race. Every muscle tightened. Fear became horror.

The words formed by her husband’s lips became clear.

Run.