Tuesday Tales: From the Word CHAOS

Welcome to this week’s Tuesday Tales, the blog that gives readers a peek at an author’s work in progress. This week’s post will be the last one from Atonement, my psychic romance/paranormal suspense novel. It’s been a long haul as those of you following the blog know, but it’s finished, and I’m happy with it. Follow my blog if you’d like to learn more about when the book will be available.

This week’s word is CHAOS, a fitting way to end this crazy roller-coaster ride. The scene is limited to 400 words.

Enjoy! Next week, I’ll be starting something new.

“I wasn’t expecting this.” Walt stopped in his tracks.

So lost in her thoughts was she that she slammed into his back.

“I can smell the sea,” he continued. “I can even feel a slight breeze, and hear the waves breaking in the distance, yet I’m looking at a solid wall.”

Anca frowned and looked around him. “It has to be an illusion.” She pushed against it, but the wall didn’t budge.

Walt examined the door. “Over here. There’s a depression like the one we saw just inside the tunnel.”

She stepped closer. “You’re right, but this time, the initials are at three o’clock, not at the top.”

She fished the fused coin out of her pocket, set it in the opening, so that what she considered the top of the coin now faced the letters. The wall vanished and the coin popped out of the depression and into her hand once more.

“Wow,” Walt said and whistled. “I wasn’t expecting this.”

Trunks, chests, barrels, boxes, and crates were stacked floor to ceiling inside the cavern. He walked over to the wooden chest closest to him and opened it, revealing silver coins in various sizes, all as shiny as the day they’d been minted. He picked one up. “It’s a Spanish seventeenth century silver dollar. There has to be hundreds of them in here, and who knows what else is in the other chests. This is worth a fortune. If this is what Ralph and the men were looking for … Losh could do a lot of damage with this wealth and whatever’s in all of those. It’ll take us a long time to go through all of this.” He indicated the chaos in the room. “If Hezekiah’s skin and the artifacts are in one or more of them, how will we ever find them?”

She smiled. “They aren’t. In fact, most of this stuff isn’t Hezekiah’s. It belonged to Fearless Red. We’ve found the treasure everyone, including the men staying in the cottage, have been trying to find for decades. I suppose that, since he was related to the Coles, it must be mine. I’m sure there are a lot of valuable items in that mess, stuff the museums would love, but Hezekiah’s skin isn’t one of them.”

That’s it. Stay safe, and don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales.