Nest Pitch DM 5: THE WINTER KING

Nest Pitch DM 5: WINTER KING

Category/Genre: NA/Urban Fantasy

Word Count: 100,000

Pitch: Nineteen-year-old Lydia was told the monsters from her Celtic nightmares were part of her Asperger's diagnosis.  When she discovers the truth she must fight for her life and still prove she is capable of living independently.

Egg: Chocolate with mint chocolate inside, because she’s still trying to figure out who she is.

Excerpt:

Frozen air slapped against my bare face as I hurried out of the gym.  I should have been warm after three hours of Kendo but I was cold and trembling as hot sweat glued my t-shirt to my skin.  Ten years of therapy and the nightmares were getting worse.  Tonight I almost killed a boy. 

An unfamiliar instinct had slid its cold hands into my mind, images of men with shining eyes and bloodstained armor blended with my sparring opponent until I couldn’t tell reality from dream.  He was the enemy, coming at me with a real killing sword and death in his eyes and I knew how to kill him with a flick of my wooden sword to the side of his skull.  For a horrible moment I forgot where I was.  Who I was.

I wasn’t a killer.  I saved earthworms from drowning when it rained and cried over soup commercials.  I was just a girl with Aspergers trying to survive college and terrified of small talk.

I walked fast down Monroe Street, avoiding gold and orange leaves slowly melting on the sidewalks.  A sharp burst of icy rain glittered against the street lights and October’s cold made the world a dimly lit frozen candy-cane land from hell.  Rusting street lamps gave off a dull sulfur glow and slick black ice shimmered on the empty pavement.  A gust of wind swept up my coat, setting fire to my joints as sweat from Kendo tried to freeze my t-shirt to my skin.  

I wanted to be safe but there was no way to hide from a monster in my own mind.  However for at least a few hours, I could rest.  So I went to Callahan’s Place, my favorite coffee shop and refuge from insanity.   I was always there between ten and one in the morning and I was not going to let fear for my sanity scare me out of my routine.