Excerpt #2
“I’m going to help you feel,” he said, and I didn’t understand what he meant, but I could hear him speak quietly in some other language, and slowly I became… aware. I had been sitting in this beautiful field, surrounded by grass and flowers and trees, the creek flowing by, the sound of birdsong and yet I had not been really aware of it. I gasped as that awareness increased, and I could sense the others react the same way, and even Jo-Bri’s quiet voice became part of the beauty, mixing in with the sound of the breeze, the occasional insect, the birds… it was stunning. It filled me up and seemed almost to lift me up off the ground and make me… bigger somehow, as if my consciousness were expanding and taking my physical body with it, and I was amazed that I had never seen the world this way before.
Then, in the background, I heard something… music… slowly it became louder, and I realized it was hip hop – no, rock and roll… it was both and neither, a pounding beat that seemed to eat away at the feeling I’d had, the joy, the peace, and it got louder and louder and now I could hear lyrics being screamed more and more loudly, the beat getting louder as well, and it felt as if the music was beating me, pounding me down into the earth, smashing me… I began to feel afraid though I wasn’t sure why… it was if I were being attacked, assaulted, but I knew this music, it was my music, and just as I had never felt the world quite like this, I had never felt this music like this either, the anger of it, the contempt, the… hatred.
I shook my head and actually heard someone moan as if in pain or fear.
Then an image of half-naked women dancing to the wild, pounding beat, and sneering, angry looking men, moving violently in time to the music which made me realize that the music too was violent, and the fear built in me, and the feeling of violation increased.
Slowly the music and images faded. I realized I was panting. The awareness of the beauty around me was gone now, and instead I felt numb.
Now that the screaming music was gone, I could hear Jo-Bri’s voice again, quietly speaking in that strange language, the language of magic and spells. As his voice went on, I felt something growing in me.
Fear. At first it was like the fear I’d felt while listening to the pounding music and watching the images of the violent men and frightened women, but then it grew well beyond that and deepened, reaching into me instead of just wrapping itself around me the way the music had.
I opened my eyes and stood up, feeling a rising sense of panic, and I saw that my friends had stood as well, glancing around.
“What’s going on?” I asked, trying to control the fear and the volume of my voice.
My parents were on their feet now too, looking as if they wanted to flee.
Jo-Bri’s voice rose even louder now and it sounded as if he were shouting.
“Stop it!” Debbie yelled.
“Stop it!” Mike yelled as well.
“Please,” Maria said, crying.
Suddenly Linda dropped to her knees, covering her ears as if against some loud noise. “Please,” she said, sobbing, “stop it.”
It felt as if my legs were going to buckle and then suddenly they did. I fell to my knees and immediately placed my head on the grass, and heard myself start to scream in terror.
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Jo-Bri And the Two Worlds
By Rob Tobin
Blurb:
A teen wizard from a sword-and-sorcery world is chased by an evil sorcerer into modern day Montana. There he learns about sex, love, rock and roll, and the stress of trying to save two worlds from total destruction during summer break.
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"Jo-Bri" follows in the tradition of entertaining social statement SFF novels like "Stranger in a Strange Land" and "Left Hand of Darkness," but with the modern, fast-paced feel of urban fantasies like "Twilight" and "Jumper."
Author Bio:
Feel free to visit Rob at his website: Robtobinwriting.com
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