Sleepsand Website Excerpt

© Matthew John Nelson, Jr. 2017 There were a thousand memories, big and small, to sift through, each one weighed down by almost a decade’s worth of emotion. He tried to examine them from afar, to turn them over in his hands and peer at them objectively, but it was impossible. They were the patches in his life he held together with fragile seams. And he was afraid, terrified to pick out the stitches and show them to someone else. He’d never be able to get them back. She’d have power over him forever.

But Beth wasn’t in it for power. Hers wasn’t the smooth, cold gaze of Jezebel. It was warm, and it was real.

So, he’d start with the facts; facts were easy. He spoke slowly.

“The two who attacked you are Agents Jezebel and Benedict, operatives of a secret wing of the Department of Domestic Security called Brutus.”

“Brutus is real?” Beth asked quietly, “I mean, I occasionally heard the name tossed around, but I always chalked it up to paranoia.”

“Very real. And of course you did. That’s why they’re so effective. No one believes that the President of the United States would ever employ assassins. It’s a conspiracy theory that the White House has worked hard to keep that way.” He took a breath. “They targeted you because of me.”

“Why?” “You ever see my eyes, when they change color?”

She nodded.