by Darcia Helle

Created on: March 24, 2009

An excerpt from my novel, Hit List.

Corinne didn't know he'd come in through the back and was now standing in the kitchen doorway watching her. Ian rubbed his hands over his eyes. In the house less than two minutes and already his head throbbed. He didn't think they could go on like this much longer. Guilt, anger, sadness, frustration. He experienced the entire realm of emotions, all at once, every minute of the day. Sort of like living out a jumbled combination of the movie Groundhog Day and a Freudian textbook.

Ian forced himself into the living room. Her perfume assaulted him. His cough caused her to turn in his direction.

Her red painted lips started to curve into a smile but straightened quickly. She'd been mad at him when he left and was

evidently reminding herself to stay that way.

"Hello ma," he said.

Corinne turned away, pulling her robe tighter around herself. She stared off at the television as if the blank screen held some mystical secret. He wanted to scream out every obscenity he could think of. Instead he ran his hand over the stubble on his chin and conjured up an image of a deserted island. The psychiatrist's idea.

Dr. Endicott had suggested that he create his own "happy place" in his mind. A place he could escape to when he felt on edge. What better escape than a deserted island? Of course, the trick never worked. As if he could possibly trick himself into relaxing on some deserted island in his mind, while standing in the midst of chaos with his crazy mother.

Ian perched on the edge of the sofa and stifled a sigh. "Why didn't you get dressed today, ma?"

Corinne stood in a flurry of motion that somehow managed to make him dizzy. She fussed over the knickknacks on the mantel as she spoke. "They were outside today. I saw them. I saw them. I saw them outside today."

He tried to interrupt her singsong chatter but she continued fidgeting with the knickknacks, talking to the room as much as to him. "They saw me watching them. Watching them watching me." An odd sort of tormented giggle escaped her lips. She said, "They have her. They have her. They know I can't. I can't. They have her."

"Ma, stop." His voice came out sharper than he'd intended. He swallowed the dry lump and tried again. "Please, ma. Sit down.

She spun around. Her haunted eyes danced around the room, landing briefly on his but not lingering. "I saw them," she said defiantly. "You don't believe me. But I saw them."

"No one was watching you today, ma."

"How do you know that? Were you here?"

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