A Scene from Mainely Mayhem by Matt Cost

In honor of Halloween, an excerpt from my upcoming novel, Mainely Mayhem, in which Chabal relives her ordeal at the hands of the Wendigo from book five, Mainely Wicked.

Langdon might’ve just poured his third glass of brown liquor when things went to hell.

“How can you know how I feel?”

Langdon looked across the fire where Chabal had suddenly screamed. Her face was flushed and her eyes glowed hot in anger. Jewell put her hand on Chabal’s arm. “I’m sorry. I just worry—”

Chabal knocked her hand from her shoulder. “You want to know how I feel?”

Even dog looked concerned. Not a sound could be heard except the crackle of the fire.

“Everybody tells me how to deal with it. My husband. My shrink. Strangers in the grocery store. You. Everybody. But nobody knows.” Chabal stood up and threw her glass into the fire, the residue of wine flaring briefly in the dark night.

Langdon stood up. “Hey, babe, let’s—”

“Sit the fuck down.” Langdon sat. “Everybody wants to know why I drink all day. How I feel. What my thoughts are. Okay, I’m going to tell you.” Chabal looked up in the sky. “First of all, the moon was full, bigger than I’ve ever seen it. Not like that puny ball up there now. I woke up groggy from being drugged as they stripped me naked. Naked.” Chabal pulled her shirt over her head. Langdon went to stand. “Sit the fuck down. I’m doing this my way.” He sat.

Chabal kicked her shoes off. Pulled her shorts off. Reached behind and undid her bra. Slid her panties to the ground. She stood stark naked in front of them all, the fire creasing shadows into her bare skin, crevices and cracks across her stomach—creating an opacity of her body that matched her tortured soul.

“Then they strapped me to a cross like Jesus Christ and cut me, sliced into my body, to use my own fucking blood to tattoo me with strange symbols—hieroglyphs to draw Satan to the task at hand. His bitches with breath so vile and odious it made me wish they’d just stick the knife in my heart and end the whole thing.”

Langdon was glad to see she didn’t have a knife. He saw Jewell looking at him, imploring him to stop this insanity. He raised a hand to her, lowered it, gave a slight nod to the negative. The message was clear. Let it play out. As far as he knew, this was the first time Chabal had spoken openly about that night. Sure, she often woke up screaming in the night. But this was no nightmare. Maybe the real- life when awake kind.

“Then they carried me out of this cottage and hung me, cross and all, from some rope by a bonfire. Not some little dinky thing like this fire, but a blazing inferno, a conflagration that was meant to welcome the Devil, old Beelzebub himself.”

Chabal raised her hands over her head, the flickering flames of the fire dancing across her body and began to chant nonsense.

Langdon caught Susie staring at him. He shrugged. Pursed his lips.

“Then the king fucking bastard, the Wendigo himself, came and told me what he was going to do to me. How he was going to gut me and bleed me out, my life leaking from my still breathing body, and how he was going to make a fucking stew of me. And then he was going to eat me, and we would be one and the same and together for all of time.”

Chabal looked around the circle, her eyes feverish, pausing on each one of them. “And I’m not sure that he didn’t eat me and that we are the Wendigo.”

 

Author Bio for Matt Cost

Over the years, Cost has owned a video store, a mystery bookstore, and a gym. He has also taught history and coached just about every sport imaginable.

During those years, since age eight actually, the true passion has been writing. ‘I Am Cuba: Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution” (Encircle Publications, March, 2020) was his first traditionally published novel.

Cost has now written five books in the Mainely Mystery series starting with “Mainely Power” and five books in the Clay Wolfe Trap series starting with “Wolfe Trap”. A few historical fiction pieces fill out the shelves. Mainely Mayhem is due out November 13th.

Cost now lives in Brunswick, Maine, with his wife, Harper. There are four grown children: Brittany, Pearson, Miranda, and Ryan. A chocolate Lab and a basset hound round out the mix. He now spends his days at the computer, writing.