Teaser Tuesday

As a part of my frantic dash to edit Hidden Souls so that I have some idea how it ends before I begin the sequel, I've decided to share a bit of my edits for today. Chances are, especially with my strong negative feelings about editing, that I won't be anywhere near finishing, but so long as I got general motivations and can work from there, I think it will be okay.

~*~

Light filled the room with a faint yellow glow. Silver shapes danced across the wall, reflections from the passersby below. Sophia brushed her hair out of her face and rolled over in bed, blinking to bring her clock into focus. Twelve-thirty. At least Kate had listened and left her alone. Sitting up slowly, she stretched and rubbed the remaining sleep from her eyes. She still didn't feel rested, but she did feel much calmer. Guilt over the way she had treated both Michael and Kate pressed against her chest, but she shook those thoughts away. She would apologize to them later, but for now, she had work to do. Grace was still in trouble, and the police were no closer to finding her than they were a week ago.

She stood and walked to the window, scanning the few people crossing the courtyard on the way to class. She could try to contact Grace, but how much good would that do? She needed more information—clues that would lead her to where Grace was being kept. Once she figured that out, getting Grace home should be relatively easy. Filled with new resolve, she laid on her bed and closed her eyes. She imagined the dark room forming around her, feeling her body grow more weightless with each breath. She opened her eyes, only to find herself staring at the ceiling in her room. She huffed in irritation, then took a deep breath and closed her eyes again. She imagined Grace in her dank room. The large warehouse, oil drums stacked against the walls. The faint light coming from the lights far above her head. She focused on every detail she could remember, even the way she felt when she had encountered Michael. Once again, when she opened her eyes, she was staring at her own white ceiling.

~*~

Looks like our heroine is having some issues. I know it's short, but I'm working on it, I swear! I'm reaching the point where I really do need to figure out why the characters are doing what they're doing, why Grace was kidnapped in the first place, and what the final conflict is going to be. Cause what I wrote the first time makes no sense.

Once NaNo starts (10 days!), I'll introduce you to at least one new character from the second book. Should be interesting ;)

Oh, and fun fact: I originally wrote this scene on NaNo day 14, two years ago. I was reading over some of the excerpts I posted on my blog back then, and I have no idea where some of these ideas came from. I apparently have a character named Zach coming up at some point. Don't remember a thing about him. Yup... editing will be fun.