"Beyond Dark" Excerpt of the Month (May 2025)
From the killer's perspective...
In April’s excerpt, Alyssa and Thayer got to the local hotel to have a few drinks after their long day, where Thayer plays some pool and gets some secrets, while Alyssa people watches and extracts more local talk from the bartender. This month, we shift gears. At certain points of the books, I like to switch to the killer’s POV without revealing their identity, to give readers a glimpse into their state of mind. It’s a short one this month, but this is the final killer POV before their identity is revealed and the climax occurs.
A vigilante. That’s what Agent Rawkesby had called her. Cleaning up the streets of this sex and alcohol-fueled filth. At least someone saw it for what it was: a purge.
But she couldn’t move onto the next whore until she finished up with the one that got away. The affair with the cop had been exposed, blowing up both of their lives, much to her glee. Watching his wife pack up their child and her life and leave, then having Ethan throw Kirsten out of the house had both been highlights to this little soap opera she’d crafted.
Glee faded when she’d followed Kirsten that night to Chris’ house though. His wife hadn’t even been gone for a day, and he already moved that insufferable woman into his marital home?
The audacity. The disgusting disregard for the woman who mothered his child, to think he could replace Maddie so easily with his drunken mistress. No better than his father, clearly.
She crept up the alley behind Chris’ house, then climbed the fence into the small backyard. She glanced at the tulips sadly left behind by the woman who tended them so lovingly. Upon spotting the kitchen light still on at almost midnight, she slid in beside the shed, blending into the shadows. The light flicked off. A few moments later, the bedroom light upstairs turned on. She watched two shadows merge into various sexual positions.
Her blood boiled. Yet, Kirsten hadn’t left the house since moving in. The doors were always locked. Chris must have convinced her to walk on the side of caution instead of the reckless abandon with which she ran amok around town. The change in Kirsten’s habits proved infuriating and beyond inconvenient. She hadn’t counted on Chris being caring or stupid enough to bring her into his home. Now, Kirsten was protected.
She’d have to get clever. She’d have to do better. Outsmart the cops. Get to the girl. Finish her off. Kirsten shouldn’t have still been on this side of the soil. Thankfully, resilience didn’t last forever. It would wear out with a deeper grave, a more isolated field, with her hands tied behind her back when she went into that hole. Take away any semblance of control Kirsten still believed she had over her life. Let the soil suffocate her.
And most importantly, this time, there would be no interruptions.
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