Mel's Shelves: Excerpt Tour: Dead Dreams by Emma Right

Dead Dreams

by Emma Right

250 Pages

Eighteen-year-old Brie O’Mara has so much going for her: a loving family in the sidelines, an heiress for a roommate, and dreams that might just come true. Big dreams--of going to acting school, finishing college and making a name for herself. She is about to be the envy of everyone she knew. What more could she hope for? Except her dreams are about to lead her down the road to nightmares. Nightmares that could turn into a deadly reality.

Dead Dreams, Book 1, a young adult psychological thriller and mystery

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Excerpt #3:

Chapter Two

Having deceased parents at such a young age could have explained Sarah’s odd behavior. I sat up straight, and the hair at the back of my neck prickled, without my knowing exactly why. “I’m sorry.” I felt the blood draining from my face. Perhaps it was the thought of losing one’s parents that shocked me.

“Oh, don’t be,” she said, almost flippantly. “They’ve been dead awhile. They had me in their forties, and Dad died of cancer. Lung cancer. Too much smoking. Ironic, isn’t it? Mom just wilted after that and followed suit six months back.”

She didn’t seem in the least bit affected. “So, who is it you’re running from?”

“I just don’t want my brother to know where I live.”

I could already see the problems that could arise. My mom would, at this point, have waved a red flag and shouted, “There, Brie. Bad brother. Bad blood. Do you want to be dragged into this? Who knows what crimes the brother might have been involved in?”

Of course, Mom would have been right, but I am my own person and I would like to think I could make sound decisions. Besides, something about Sarah intrigued me. It wasn’t just her transparency with me, or her globs of money, although I could see how it’d be fun to hang out with someone with her bounty and who didn’t seem caught up.

“So what’s with your brother? He’s jealous of your inheritance?” And what about troublesome cousins?

“Not inheritance.” She rolled her eyes as if I’d made a ridiculous mistake and had said two plus two was five. “Trust fund. The inheritance kicks in only when I turn twenty-one, which is in a few weeks, and I keep a clean record—no arrests, no misdemeanors.

“Todd, my brother, receives his own funds. Same deal as me. Grandpa was fair that way. Anyway, my dad was Grandpa Luke’s only child from his first marriage. Both Todd and I get the inheritance from my dad’s estate at the same time, after my twenty-first birthday. Provided…”

She looked at me quizzically, almost sizing me up.

I found myself gripping the edge of the coffee table and leaned forward. “Provided?”

“Like I said, provided we never get into trouble or make a nuisance of ourselves with the law. Grandpa was particular that way. He saw too many rich kids become a pain to society. So, my brother and I must show a clean slate. Prove we’re worthy of the inheritance.”

“I see.” I didn’t, really. Who did she have to prove this to? How many others had rejected Sarah’s apartment-sharing application based on her secrecy conditions and far-from-common background? But still, she had the dough and I was desperate to seal the deal, especially since two others who’d inquired about the apartment had sounded high, speaking with a melodic tone indicative of their “happy” state, and a third had never called back even after profusely promising to. I couldn’t afford a flaky roommate.

Running to my parents to bail me out each time a housemate wriggled out of a deal wasn’t an option and I didn’t make enough to bear the rent alone. Just as long as Sarah paid her share, and didn’t try to murder me in my sleep, that was all I expected out of this arrangement.

“What happens to the inheritance if one of you goofs up and breaks the law?” I asked.

“The one left standing will gain the other’s share. And, I can tell you, the sum would make Captain Cook rouse from his grave.” She made a spooky gesture with her arms, as if she were a ghost.

“And you’re staying away from your brother, because…?”

She drained the last of the cocoa and smacked her lips. “Because Todd’s waiting for me to slip up. Did I also mention that if one of us perishes, the other gains the inheritance, too?”

“I would’ve recalled that detail.” And what an incentive to do away with the other.

“So?” Her brown eyes widened, and she jerked her chin at me. “Am I acceptable? You won’t be sorry. You can keep the deposit now.”

At this point, I should have asked why I made the cut. Sarah could surely rent a place five times the size of this dump. Okay, the place wasn’t a dump, and the apartment was in a safe neighborhood in the woodsy town of Atherton, mostly mansions with large parcels in the most affluent part of the San Francisco Bay Area. Like most cities in the Northern California suburbs, Atherton deemed it good manners to apportion a corner of its ritzy acreage to middle-income dwellers—or as in my case, subterranean-income-level dwellers.

My parents had insisted on a respectable neighborhood if their darling daughter had to succumb to apartment living. When the Sky Atherton Apartments came on the market, they’d insisted I apply. Never mind it was about a thousand dollars more than my budget allowed. But, I was on an agenda to prove something to myself, and to them, and I didn’t have a choice.

I studied Sarah as she raised her eyebrows. Maybe I was trying to find excuses to take her on. She looked sober. She had money. She seemed like a clean-cut, girl- next-door type, and except for her relations who she shouldn’t be blamed for, I couldn’t see a reason to refuse.

To be continued...

Emma Right is a happy wife and homeschool mother of five living in the Pacific West Coast. Besides running a busy home, and looking after too many pets, she also enjoys reading aloud to her children and often has her nose in a book. Right was a copywriter for a major advertising agency during her B.C. years. B.C.meaning “Before Children,” which may as well have been in the B.C.era, as she always says. Please feel free to contact Emma. She’s always happy to hear from her readers.

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October 29 - December 3

Paperback Copy of Dead Dreams (US Only)

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