Jose Ferreras presents: Brayleigh O’Conner, the Key…

About the Author: A member of SVC’s Shires Press Series for publishing his first book, Jose Ferreras (Creative Writing, Class of 2017) started writing this six-part series of “character teasers” to give sneak peeks into the supernatural personalities of his novel, tentatively titled Decoded. Jose feels happiest when immersing himself in fantasy and supernatural writing. He hopes that this character teaser series will encourage readers to pick up a copy of his book at Northshire Bookstore when it is officially released in April, 2017.

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Brayleigh O’Conner

by Jose Ferreras

Everything settled in Brayleigh’s mind as she looked around, terrified by what she was seeing before her eyes. One second, she was resting in bed after the mess that occurred at Mount Rushmore, and the next she was in a candlelit space, surrounded by the dying bodies of her friends. Somehow she knew that this was all her fault.

Before she could even move, the four horsemen descended upon the room, directly in front of her. The beings stepped forth and reached out to her, their faces masked by darkness. Brayleigh stepped back, breathing hard as she tried to figure out what to do. Before the horsemen could get to her, one of the beasts was tossed off its feet. Brayleigh looked up and slowly noticed Alistair and Arlyn picking themselves up from the ground — even close to death, they would do anything to protect Brayleigh.

The horsemen rounded on the boys, making their way to them instead. Together, the horsemen raised their hands towards her friends. A dark, misty beam shot out from their palms, and hit the men straight on. Brayleigh watched as they screamed out in pain, their bodies convulsing. Brayleigh hesitated, unsure of what she could do to help her friends.

Brayleigh watched as her friends began to burn by the power the horsemen held. She kicked her feet off the ground and levitated in the air, quickly moving towards her friends. She knew that she could get them out of here if she moved fast enough.

She landed behind Alistair, his body shielding her from the misty beams. She quickly grabbed onto him, her healing powers immediately beginning to take effect, working against the powerful beams as she reached over to heal Arlyn as well. Before she could grab hold of the hydrokinetic, the horsemen turned on him, focusing every ounce of their magic on the dark haired man. Arlyn began to disintegrate before her eyes. Unable to watch, she rested both hands on Alistair, looking apologetically at Arlyn. She turned away from her friend and let her eyes flutter close, before she teleported herself and Alistair away from the area.

When Brayleigh opened her eyes, she was back in the dormitories, laying in her bed, the covers a mess around her. She was startled by the sound of Alistair’s soft, smoky voice as he asked her if she was okay. She brushed her hair back, taking in a deep breath as she sat up and looked over to the doorway — there stood her friends. She passed over each of their faces until resting on Alistair and Arlyn, alive and well. Brayleigh smiled softly and nodded her head as they watched her curiously.

“I-I’m fine… just a bad dream, that’s all,” she muttered as she slowly stood to her feet and offered them another soft smile. She made her way over to them, sliding on by them as she added, “So, what’s next? Let’s go stop the end of the world, yeah?”

She had to stop that Hell from coming true…

Want to read more Brayleigh O’Conner? Check out Jose’s full novel, Decoded, when it is available for purchase at Northshire Bookstore in April, 2017.

Copyright © Jose Ferreras (2016) All Rights Reserved.