The Devil's Nightmare Sneak Peak

I've decided to give you all a sneak peak of the first page of my next book, called The Devil's Nightmare, well in advance of its release. Keep in mind that the book is not finished (the rough draft is), so the text may very well change between here and publication.

And here is for the first time: the text for the first page of The Devil's Nightmare. Enjoy!
 

Chapter 1

It would have been a normal day for Christine Ellington, but everything took a turn for the worst when she stopped by home to check up on her husband. Samuel had been feeling not himself for several weeks and was home sick from work yet again. Christine’s youngest son, Michael, was in his crib taking a nap. Her oldest son, Peter, would be home from school at any moment.

Christine came in the house through the garage and dropped her keys on the granite kitchen countertop.

“I’m home!” Christine called out, pulling her Gucci sunglasses up off her eyes and onto her platinum hair. “Samuel? Michael?”

Everything was quiet in the house, so Christine climbed the stairs to the bedrooms. She heard a slight noise from the master bedroom, something that sounded almost like a muffled whimper 

“Samuel?” Christine whispered as she stepped through the master bedroom threshold. “What’s going on?” Christine began to ask as she saw the bed was empty and headed for the open bathroom door.

Christine stopped dead in her tracks when she saw red splatter on the carpet just outside the bathroom. The whimper she had heard was from her son, Peter. He was sitting on the bathroom floor with his father’s head--Christine’s husband’s head--in his lap. Fresh blood oozed from Samuel’s head, rolling onto Peter’s pant legs and staining the white bathroom tiles.

“What happened?” Christine shrieked, grabbing her head with both hands.

Peter looked up, his face streaked with tears. He clutched his father’s head closer, staining his shirt red. “He’s de…” the young boy’s voice cracked and gave out.

Christine’s eyes shot to the silver handgun on the floor. Her mind spun as she fell to her knees. He was dead. He was dead. Samuel was dead.

“You killed him!” Peter shrieked, his face contorted as he gnashed his teeth at his mother. “You did this!”