Of Light and Shadows

Five years begins the nightmare. Along a peaceful stretch of coast, the balance for the world has already started, though none know of it. Only one, an enigmatic stranger who bears a power unlike any that mankind has ever known, will decide just how and who shall prove to be the saviors of the mortal realm known as Earth. Within her hands lies either salvation or damnation of the human race, though none save her will ever know the truth behind the decision that was made long before humanity ever took their first breath. The world is a simple enough place for Tyler Ferris and those he calls friends; it is a place where good things happen just as often as bad. For Tyler, however, the world is sometimes an unknown place, a plain that seems to offer far more than what is seen, heard, or felt. His home on the peninsula is known quite well to him. When he awakes in the middle of the night, his life soon changes in ways he could never have hoped to expect. A single noise alerts Tyler that something is wrong, though as he steps from his bedroom, he enters a world where nothing is as he remembers, and friends have become enemies. In this uncertain world, Tyler finds nothing short of chaos. Former classmates and friends turn upon the two as they are forced to fight for their lives, thrust into a hellish nightmare where nothing is as it seems and monsters lurk within the shadows. Into this madness, the two find their way throughout the northern end of the Long Beach Peninsula, their home and haven for so long, seeking out whoever might remain. Little more than madness and destruction await them as the bloody trails leading from so many homes attest to the unrelenting insanity that has suddenly gripped the land. Through blood and fire, the two soon learn of the greater threat, represented by a small group of friends who have turned enemies and seek goals much different than their own. I was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest and have been a student of the written word since I could put pencil to paper. The PNW has always fascinated me, and I've incorporated various aspects of it into much of my writing, using my hometown, the Long Beach Peninsula, as the staging ground for many stories that have yet to be read. I've been educated by a few notable institutions, such as Clark College in Vancouver, PCC in Portland, SHNU, and Regent Universities, and I have learned a lot. Mostly, I've learned that college is expensive, but I learned a few other things, too, such as that writing is necessary. The writer doesn't often stand aside to let the story tell itself, but I've found that this is quite rewarding when it happens. After all, the experience is the real treat of it all. Just write and let everything else come as it will.