There was a corpse in Lila Clement’s bathroom.
Not human, mind you.
No, this was much worse. This was a spider corpse. Eight disjointed legs stretched toward the ceiling, like they were reaching for Lila herself as she stood there, brushing her teeth, minding her own business.
She’d just squeezed a dollop of paste onto her brush when she saw it from the corner of her eye.
She hated seeing things out of the corner of her eye. There was always that moment between curiosity and terror.
First Chapter First Paragraph Thursday Intros ~ Twin Tides by Hien Nguyen
I lie in the bottom of the riverbed. My eyes are shut as I pretend to sleep, but my skin, punctured and tattered, feels everything. The wake of fish zipping above. Tiny, microscopic beings. In the bowels of the river, the bed load layer is full of heavy grit and gravel too coarse to float. The sharpness grates along my skin. Here, the velocity of the water is slow, so whatever makes its way to the bed load is in for a lifetime of languid rotting.
I know this water well. It’s my home.
First Chapter First Paragraph Thursday Intros ~ Dreaming of a Cowboy Christmas by Ann Einerson
“Is there a reason you have two ten-inch dildos in your carry-on?” the TSA agent asks, holding one up with his gloved hand as if it’s evidence of a crime.
My cheeks flush as several travellers whip their heads in my direction, judgement screaming from their expressions. It doesn’t help that the agent dumped the bag of toys I meticulously packed into a pile next to my suitcase, adding to my public humiliation.
Two nuns who’ve just passed the security checkpoint look at me as if they want to douse me in holy water, and a mother shields her toddler from view while she waits for her bag to be checked.
I don’t blame them.
First Chapter First Paragraph Thursday Intros ~ Boys with Sharp Teeth by Jenni Howell
Haunting take more than mist and mountains. More than dark corridors and twisting paths, more than shuttered windows and creaking floors. Haunting take greed. Pride. And brokenness. Crouched at the top of its mountain, its gate guarded on either side by a snarling hound crushing a thistle beneath its crooked paw, Huntsworth Preparatory Academy would never admit to any flaws – but it is, most certainly, haunted.
First Chapter First Paragraph Thursday Intros ~ Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree
“Fuck!” cried Fern, ducking back inside the carriage a whisker before a clawed and scaled hand sailed past. A noxious ribbon of blood trailed in its wake, the owner no longer properly attached.
Fishy gurgles and bubbling roars arose on all sides, and the carriage rocked from another impact as the rattkin tipped back onto the bench, leather satchel clutched to her chest. No sooner had she bruised her own tail than she lunged forward again, flinging the bag aside to wrap furry arms around the gryphet scrabbling at the inside of the door.
Her pet’s bedraggled feathers fluffed around his head, his graying hair bristling along his back. He hooted and huffed hoarsely at the commotion outside, and Fern hugged him against her belly. “Hush, Potroast,”she sooth in a fierce whisper. “Somebody out there is on our side. I know you’re brave, but you’re far too old for this.”
His wing tufts fanned her face indignantly.
First Chapter First Paragraph Thursday Intros ~ Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
Carcass. Cut in half. Stunner. Slaughter line. Spray wash. These words appear in his head and strike him. Destroy him. But they’re not just words. They’re the blood, the dense smell, the automation, the absence of thought. They burst in on the night, catch him off guard. When he wakes, his body is covered in a film of sweat because he knows that what awaits is another day of slaughtering humans.
First Chapter First Paragraph Thursday Intros ~ Night at the Vampire Castle by Hari Conner
It’s only after an hour of trundling through the darkening forest – in a truly terrible borrowed car – that you realize you’re on the forbidden road.
Your tough-as-nails old gran had gone deadly serious when she’d pointed it out on her old map of Romania, getting you to memorize the location. “For-bidden,” she’d clearly said in her thick, familiar accent. When you asked why, she’d just looked at you knowingly. “You take this road only if you don’t want to come back.”
But when you think about what’s waiting for you at home, you’re not in a hurry to get back at all.
First Chapter First Paragraph Thursday Intros ~ Grin by D.W. Gillespie
“I want to tell you a story. A story about death, about danger, and about an item so cursed that most people think it’s not even real. Time and again it appears unexpectedly, and whne it pops up, mayhem is sure to follow. You might be asking yourself, what could be so dangerous, so deadly? Maybe it’s a creepy doll containing the souls of the dead… or a forgotten relic from ancient times. But no, this cursed object is something that no one would ever suspect… an arcade game.”
First Chapter First Paragraph Thursday Intros ~ The Haunting of Bellington Cottage by Laura Parnum
Bellington Cottage was the perfect place to create a haunted house. Dark. Secluded. Mossy. Its outside walls were made up of rough, aged stone that probably housed all kinds of critters for the winter, like spiders and mice. Maybe even bats. The chimney of the towering three-story house poked through the snow-covered roof like a gravestone, and the starkly painted red door was the only shock of color among the skeletal trees and white landscape. it was like something straight out of an hold horror movie but with a freshly plowed driveway, thanks to the rental management company.
First Chapter First Paragraph Thursday Intros ~ America’s Not-So-Sweetheart by Blair Hanson
Joaquin’s told me he doesn’t want to be my boyfriend anymore, but it’s kind of hard to tell based on the way he’s kissing me. We’re sprawled out on the baseball field behind Raccoon Hill Elementary, quietly thankful that the mosquitoes have disappeared like the hot nights of midsummer. Passion on his lips, his hands down near my hips, his body somehow finds mine in the dark. We are two boys, kissing out in open space for the world to see, and it’s just -God, I feel so fluffy and powerful and weak. So not me.
