✨️❗️NEW NOVEL EXCERPT❗️✨️

Hi everyone! Welcome to novel sneak peak night! I've posted a lot about Dog Down, but I figured tonight, I'd post a little bit about my second novel WIP, (working title) ASTRO. Please enjoy this excerpt from chapter 2 <3

CW: blood, mentions of guns

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The walk along the riverbank was dreadful. Susana had her moist coat wrapped around her like it would do any good and had followed the creature about a block down. It would be another half a block or so before she found where she’d parked, though Susana did begin to wonder if maybe the creature knew that. How? She wasn’t sure, but most of her disbelief had gone out the window when she’d decided to follow this thing down the river and away from Colt.

As she stared at it, she realized that the creature was limping. Actually, now that Susana really looked, the farther they walked down the riverbank, the more the creature seemed to falter in its step. It was still dark, though the rain had subsided for a bit, but she could also see something shiny running down the creature’s leg.

Colt had shot it.

“Uhm… ” Susana started, pausing in her step.

The creature stopped too, turning to look at her with those wide, dark eyes that were far too intelligent for just any dog.

“Are you hurt?” she asked, as if it could understand, as she gently reached forward towards it.

But the creature was still, and blinked at her, and did not indicate that it was feeling aggressive or would run away. So, Susana bent down next to the creature, feeling its skin-that-wasn’t-quite-skin next to the large gash that was actively bleeding.

“Shit… ” she hissed, realizing this situation was more dire than she’d originally thought. She looked around, as if a solution would appear, and when it didn’t, she sighed and turned back to the creature. “Can I… would you be okay with me picking you up? My car is close by,” she tried to reason with it.

It did nothing. The creature continued to stare, but at least that meant it wouldn’t try anything funny, right?

Susana ran a hand through her dirty, wet hair then, looked around again, and shrugged. She leaned over close to the animal, struggling to heft it up, but managing all the same as she awkwardly wrapped the creature in her coat. It hopped into her arms with some effort, trying to get comfortable against her chest. But then again, Susana was only about five three, and this creature was bigger than her torso. She was doing her best to simply hold it up.

They made it to Jamaica Street where Susana had parked, and she thanked the God she didn’t believe in that she remembered how to get there from all the times she’d walked along the riverbank with her friends as children. Unfortunately, getting up the riverbank was another problem, and Susana struggled and struggled to try and drag the creature with her without dropping it.

Eventually, she succeeded and pretended that she and the coat and the creature weren’t covered in a thick layer of sticky mud. But her car was just around the corner, and she hurried to fumble for her keys as they made their way there. Finally, mud brushed off her hands, Susana opened the doors, thrust the creature and her coat into the backseat as gently as possible, and climbed in the driver’s seat. Then she thought, long and hard, about where to go.

The emergency vet was always an option, but… now that she could see the creature fully in the yellow glow of her car’s overhead light, she knew they’d freak out. This was no dog, after all. And Susana was still a little afraid of the creature if she was being honest.

There was really only one option—go to her mother’s.

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If you enjoyed this excerpt, let me know! If you'd like to read more about ASTRO, let me know!!

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