A Saturday at the Mall
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Crashing through the swinging doors, Lou skidded across a puddle of viscous fluid and almost toppled over. He steadied himself against a wall, feeling and hearing the rubber soles of his boots sucking and squeaking in the cold and sticky red-black blood. At its center, its source, lay the young girl. Beaten. Slashed. Barely conscious. Left for dead.
He pictured his own precious Tia in that same situation. A situation that promised to become reality if he wasn’t able to substantially pay down his balance to Tony Breeze. Anger flooded through him with the speed and force of a tidal wave as he envisioned those thick-fingered hands, greasy from chicken fat, pawing and groping her young body. Hiding their intentions of pain beneath a thin veil of inappropriate passion. He clenched his jaw and balled his fists while the image of those thick red, wet lips tracing foul-smelling saliva across her smooth ebony skin before ultimately suckling the young life from her body, momentarily blinded him. Blood rushed to inflate the powerful muscles in his shoulders and arms while he reminded himself that "Tia’s daddy had to be strong."
Strong enough to protect her from the evils in the world.
Strong enough to provide her with a lifestyle devoid of pimps, whores, loansharks, crooks, and enforcers.
Strong enough to swallow back his anger and his guilt and his shame long enough to take the pictures Tony Breeze craved and had promised to reward him for.
Lou circled the young girl, searching for her head. He found it, and squatted down to search for her face.
It had been just as young and sweet and innocent as Tia’s was, but all that remained was an abused shell. He leaned closer and peered into her once-sapphire eyes and saw nothing, but a distorted view of his own image. Lou’s heart fell apart..
Even more disturbing was the nagging discomfort of recognition. This young girl looked oddly familiar to him. Vexed, he paused for a moment to search his memory. He found it difficult to place her face since both her eyes were blackened and swollen and her hair was a tangled mass of dark clumps. Her clothing lay in tatters all about her. No definable attributes remained.
He was forced to shrug it off. Since time was a fleeting commodity, he began to snap pictures of the girl using the tiny 35mm Nikon he kept in a pouch around his waist.
Pictures of a battered and bloody face.
Pictures of a bruised and naked body.
Pictures of a young life prematurely thrust from a childish world of glee and wonderment into an adult world of suffering and heartache. When, he wasn’t sure; why, he could guess; but, who was a question easily answered. He was positive Roland had done this to her.
She looked up at him, moving only her eyes. They grew wide and pleaded with him. Begged him to save her, to make the pain go away.
He took a picture of that while the remaining pieces of his heart crumbled into dust.
A stream of fresh, hot tears cut a clean path through the dirt caked on and dried to her face.
He took a picture of that as well.
And another, staring at her through the camera’s eye, trying to remember why he recognized this girl. His own tears blurring the viewfinder.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
A classic struggle between Good and Evil.
To be decided upon within a single day.
By ordinary people.
In an ordinary setting.
Twenty strangers linked solely by the coincidence of their location. A quiet suburban shopping mall in a quaint little city.
It is here that a struggle develops between the forces of Right and Wrong with simple human nature choosing a side for all of those involved.
Twenty very different people, who will profoundly affect the lives of one another because of those forces that drive them to succeed. Their lust for sex. Their quest for power. Their passion for wealth. And, their reliance on greed.
Twenty very different, and very unique people, divided into two opposing groups by nature’s desire for order and based upon the age-old rule that "only the strong survive."
The Predators:
Tony Breeze—the loan shark and drug dealer
Stanley—the rapist
Roland—the enforcer
Robby—the opportunist
Their Victims:
Amanda—the teenage store clerk
Choon-Yi—the restaurant cook
Terry—the good father
Rebecca—the prostitute by choice
Cindy—the prostitute by circumstance
Squiggly Bob—the vagrant
One Saturday at the Mall will be enough to change their lives forever.
About the Author
This is Brian DuBois’ second novel. His first, The Gory Details, was warmly received by a fast-growing fan base, and is still widely popular.
As a writer, he creates original, vivid, realistic characters whom he then "strands" in fresh and innovative situations. DuBois’ goal is to allow these characters to drive his plot forward while he insures that his readers are constantly kept on the edges of their seats. In a world that is violent, sexual, predatory, and ultimately just.
Born and partially raised in Kingston, New York, DuBois now resides in southern New Jersey with his wife and three children, Hannah, Rachel, and Spenser, where he teaches English and Creative Writing at Delsea Regional High School.
He is currently hard at work on his third novel. A sequel to The Gory Details which promises more of the off-beat mayhem that DuBois’ readers have come to expect from him.
Brian DuBois can be contacted at:
briandubois2000@yahoo.com