Have You Seen Me?
Alexandrea Weis
Published by: Vesuvian Books
Publication date: August 17th, 2021
Genres: Horror, Thriller, Young Adult
“An intriguing and atmospheric tale of murder and mayhem” ~Booklist
Lindsey Gillett is missing.
And she’s not the first girl at Waverly Prep to vanish without a trace.
To help cope with the tragedy, new history teacher Aubrey LaRoux organizes a small student investigation team. But when the members start turning up dead across campus, Aubrey suspects there’s more going on than anyone is willing to admit.
The murdered students all had something in common with Lindsey. They shared a secret. And what they uncovered could threaten the future of the historic school.
At Waverly Prep, someone wants to keep the past buried—along with anyone who gets in their way.
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EXCERPT:
Tall stalks whipped against Lindsey’s legs as she ran. Her ragged breath broke through the silence of the dark, isolated field. She put everything she had into maneuvering through the deep weeds. Her chest burned, but an icy dread kept her desperate to outrun the beam of light following her.Exhausted, Lindsey paused and kneeled by a thicket of grass, hoping to remain out of sight. But then a flashlight locked on her position. She startled and stumbled backward, tripping over something.
Falling to the boggy ground, weeds slapped her face, and her leg scraped against a sharp object.
Son of a …
Lindsey grabbed her leg but kept silent as a sting flared above her ankle. When she reached down, the spot was wet to the touch.
Blood. Crap. That will leave a trail.
She discovered the cause of her fall—a marker built of stone.
Lindsey had heard stories about the famous battlefield and the single marker left to remember the fallen soldiers.
“Where are you going to run, Lindsey?”
The nondescript, guttural voice seemed to surround her.
Lindsey hurried to get up while scouring the trees. She judged the distance it would take her to get lost in their shadows.
She surveyed the endless acres of grass. There was nowhere else to go.
A tickle raced across her neck, awakening an intense dread. The locket she kept close—the one containing pictures of her and Marjorie—had slipped off.
Not my locket!
She wanted to search the grass for the prized memento, but there was no time. The rays of the flashlight found her.
Lindsey summoned her courage, determined to lose her tormentor.
The hurried whoosh of trampled weeds drew closer.
Lindsey cursed. She took off, dashing for the trees, not looking back. She ran into pockets of thick mud and her legs tired as she struggled.
A ray of moonlight broke through the clouds. Lindsey examined the outline of the land. The grass thinned before the line of trees.
She kept going, and when she broached the trees, relief rolled through her.
Branches scratched her face. The sting they left brought tears to her eyes, but she pushed on.
Almost there.
The pine needles crunched beneath her feet, alerting her pursuer to where she was.
Then another sound rose in the air—churning water. The bend in the fast-moving Bayou Teche was ahead. She lunged for the end of the tree line.
Around her was more tall grass, and then ahead, piers poked out of the swirling waterway.
A structure appeared on her left. Rising against the dark sky, its craggy outline hinted at crumbled walls and a collapsed roof. A smokestack rose like a column into the night.
Lindsey ran, glimpsing trash piles and abandoned machinery around the site of the old sugar mill.
A darting orb of light swept past her.
She charged toward the river’s edge.
The piers got closer, and she spotted the remains of the old dock, its rotting planks poking out along the shoreline.
Lindsey closed in on the water, knowing she had no place else to go.
A light behind her danced along the water’s surface, heightening her fear.
The riverbank came up quickly. Lindsey paused on the edge, staring into the churning current at the river’s bend.
She looked back over her shoulder. “I’ll see you in hell.”
Lindsey dove into the swirling currents. The cold shocked her just as an undertow pulled her down. She fought to get to the surface. Panic ate up her oxygen as she kicked hard, but she wasn’t gaining any ground.
Darkness closed around her, engulfing Lindsey in blinding terror.
Author Bio:
Alexandrea Weis, RN-CS, PhD, is a multi-award-winning author, screenwriter, advanced practice registered nurse, and historian who was born and raised in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Having grown up in the motion picture industry as the daughter of a director, she learned to tell stories from a different perspective. Infusing the rich tapestry of her hometown into her novels, she believes that creating vivid characters makes a story moving and memorable. A member of the Horror Writers Association and International Thriller Writers Association, Weis writes supernatural, horror, mystery, and thrillers. She lives with her husband and pets in New Orleans where she is a permitted/certified wildlife rehabber with the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries and rescues orphaned and injured animals.
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