Blogversary Celebrations - Prequel to Obscura Burning

Obscura Burning by Susanne Van Rooyen

Synopsis

The world's going to end in fire...and it's all Kyle's fault.

Kyle Wolfe's world is about to crash and burn. Just weeks away from graduation, a fire kills Kyle's two best friends and leaves him permanently scarred. A fire that Kyle accidentally set the night he cheated on his boyfriend Danny with their female friend, Shira. That same day, a strange new planet, Obscura, appears in the sky. And suddenly Kyle's friends aren't all that dead anymore. Each time Kyle goes to sleep, he awakens to two different realities. In one, his boyfriend Danny is still alive, but Shira is dead. In the other, it's Shira who's alive...and now they're friends with benefits. Shifting between realities is slowly killing him, and he's not the only one dying. The world is dying with him. He's pretty sure Obscura has something to do with it, but with his parents' marriage imploding and realities shifting each time he closes his eyes, Kyle has problems enough without being the one in charge of saving the world...

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Prequel to Obscura Burning - specially written

Kyle and Danny’s First Kiss

Buying roses in February in Coyote’s Luck, even with the temperature hovering around 50, just isn’t an option. Closest thing we have to a flower shop is Shep’s hardware store where a
row of anorexic cactus sulks in the window. My options are limited to the pink and white bears in the dollar shop favored by twelve year old girls, chocolate that’ll probably just end up growing fur in the pantry, or one of those cards with a puppy in a dumb hat on the front.

“You should’ve made him a card.” Shira nudges me with her elbow as we kick up dust along the main street. “He loves your comic book stuff.”

“He’d’ve loved roses.”

“You gonna drive all the way to Farmington for them?”

“Maybe I should.”

“You’re an idiot, Kyle.” She sweeps a black waterfall of hair off her shoulder. “Danny couldn’t give a shit about Valentine’s Day.”

“Yeah, but I do.” Every year it’s the same: a miserable day spent watching girls shower Danny with chocolate he doesn’t eat and badly written poems in perfume drenched paper he burns out back with the trash.

“Then grow a pair and just ask him out already.” Shira shrugs when I don’t answer, turning to follow the trail up past the hogback to her trailer at the edge of the reservation. As she disappears, her words still ricochet inside my skull.

 

I head home but only get as far as the corner house before I hear Dad yelling. Mom’s working this evening so Dad must be yelling at his empty whisky bottle. No point in going home. Don’t feel like getting another bust lip or black eye.

My feet take me along the Indian trails as the sunset ignites the sky, reaching tendrils of indigo and vermillion out over the mesa like giant fingers trying to snatch up Shiprock. It’s dark by the time I find myself standing outside Danny’s adobe, the rust-crusted windmill creaking in the breeze.

“Hey, what’s up?” Danny jogs up his driveway, shirtless and sweaty despite the cold. Tall and graceful, with abs more chiselled than any Michelangelo could sculpt; my face burns hotter than a cigarette as I tear my eyes from his dusty chest.

“Your Dad at it again?” He tugs on his t-shirt as he ambles over to me in the shadow of a mesquite.

“When isn’t he?”

Danny lifts my chin and runs his thumb across the smudge of bruise on my right cheek. My legs turn to burrito mush as my stomach flips somersaults.

“Your eyes are crazy blue when they’re all bust up like that.” He gives me a lopsided smile. “Just like the summer sky. Cielo.” The word is a whisper and a promise as his cups my jaw. I stop breathing and close my eyes willing the world to end
right this minute. This is the perfect moment as I tilt my head in anticipation of soft lips meeting mine. If they do, my life will never be the same and if they don’t, I don’t want to go on living.

Dust and breath, Danny’s lips meet mine and nothing matters except the taste of his kiss and the slow dance of tongues as his fingers slip into my hair, as his body presses against mine.

He pulls away breathless as the porchlight flickers on.

“Happy Valetine’s Day, cielo.”

 

About the Author

 

Suzanne is a freelance writer and author from South Africa. She currently lives in Finland and finds the cold, dark forests nothing if not inspiring. Suzanne is the author of the cyberpunk novel Dragon’s Teeth (Divertir), the YA science fiction novel Obscura Burning (Etopia) and has had several short stories published by Golden Visions Magazine, Space and Time and Niteblade. Her non-fiction articles on travel, music and other topics can be found scattered throughout the Internet. Although she has a Master’s degree in music, Suzanne prefers conjuring strange worlds and creating quirky characters. When not writing you can find her teaching dance to ninth graders or playing in the snow with her shiba inu.

 

Suzanne is represented by Jordy Albert of the Booker Albert Agency.
Suzanne is also a publicist for Entranced Publishing.