Anniversary Shenanigans: Author Visit + Giveaway - Jane Davitt

Friend of the Clubhouse Jane Davitt is here today with a gripping dystopian fic. There's also an ebook giveaway. See the details below & Good Luck! 

Before I Sleep

The mimic's waiting for me around the corner, floating, shifting from one remembered shape to the next, a roll call of victims as bait.

I eye it with disgust, but no fear. They can't hurt me. Anyone who survived First Wave—not many of us—learned to handle the fucking mimics. I blank my mind, project emptiness, and hold the thought until it quivers and dissipates.

It'll regroup, but by then I'll be gone.

The city reeks of regret, glitters with broken glass, shows me what we once had before the invaders came. We won, but if this is victory it's as insubstantial as a mimic's killing kiss.

I know where I'm going, but each time I make this trip, the journey's more difficult. More debris piled up, more buildings dusted. That goddamn acid spray of theirs. Turned humans to puddles, but it left brick ready to crumble at a touch. I take a left and discover Castle Street's gone, houses swept away as if they never existed. Which means I need to… No, wait, this isn't Castle, it's…

It hits me then. I'm lost in my own neighborhood. Darkness is coming and I can't be in the city and hope to survive until morning. I need to find our house and do what I came to do.

But what's the point? So it would've been Peter's birthday. So I promised we'd always spend it together even if it means risking my life to visit his grave.

He's dead. And if I stay here much longer, I'll join him. I break into a stumbling run, following tracks I made minutes before, the treacherous wind smoothing them out.

Then I see him. Peter. Tall, scruffy beard, kind eyes. He's leaning against a lamppost, whistling softly and when he sees me he smiles and waves.

I know who it is really, but I promised him, and I'm so tired of this journey, of being alone in this empty world—
The kiss is sweet for a moment and I savor it, take it with me into death as the mimic shreds my skin, and scours the flesh from my bones.

Then I'm part of it, like untold millions of others it's consumed, and it's time to start my search. Every mimic holds every victim's memories. The ones we captured, tortured, told us that.

Peter's in here somewhere. My sweet Peter, whose smile turned every Monday into a weekend, whose body welcomed me with generous eagerness, who taught me to see the world as beautiful before they came and made it the hell I'd known it was.

I'll find him.

But God, it's dark. He was my light. Can't find a light without a light and mine's dimmed to nothing but a flicker.

Guess it was enough for him to find me.

Eternity in here isn't long enough now I'm not alone.

Wow, right? Be sure to let Jane know what you thought in the comments below.

About the Author

I'm English by birth, but I moved to Canada twenty years ago, so I have two places I call home. I started writing in my thirties, hammering out millions of words of fanfic with a growing sense that yes, this was something I could do, wanted to do, needed to do.

A decade ago, I became a professional writer of m/m romance and I've never regretted my choice of career. Back then, telling people what I wrote got me raised eyebrows or puzzled looks. Times have changed. Now m/m romance is thriving and I'm happy to be one of the many writers contributing to this always evolving and expanding genre.

[Free reads and my fanfic are here:
Jane Davitt at AO3]

Find her:

Website: http://www.janedavitt.com
Twitter: @janedavitt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jane.davitt.1

Enter to win an ecopy of Accept My Surrender or any backlist book. Giveaway ends November 17th @ Midnight EST. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Unicorns thank Jane for helping us celebrate turning the big 4!

Don't miss entering in our month long unicorn giveaway HERE! It ends 12/1/17!

Trivia Question: Who wrote the surrealist romance titled after a flock of Starlings? 5 pts