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.
First Chapter First Paragraph Thursday Intros ~ The House on the Cover of a Horror Novel by EV Knight
The moon shone brightly above his home – far removed from all of this business – illuminating the dire situation at hand. There was only one match left in the pack. He should have been keeping track, but fuck if he knew how many were even in a book to start with. Well, that and why would he have been counting in the first place. The whole fucking house should be burning to the ground by now. Certainly, long before he got to the last match in the pack.
First Chapter First Paragraph Thursday Intros ~ A Girl Walks Into the Forest by Madeleine Roux
I am wrapped from head to foot in tassels and gray rabbit’s fur on the day I depart to meet my husband. Somehow, despite the care taken to protect me, my hands are still terribly cold.
Arylik -my village, my home- sits naked and wind-whipped between Lake Temtol and Lake Tarlii. The people of Arylik believe that long ago, at the sheared edge of memories and song, the giant siblings of myth, Temtol and Tarlii, chose this place to lie down and rest after a long journey across the steppe. But they never left, their sleep becoming death, their bodies shaping the lakes and the landscape.
First Chapter First Paragraph Thursday Intros ~ Overgrowth by Mira Grant
This is the story. It can’t hurt you anymore.
It’s still important that you listen, because I am going to tell you things you need to know, and it will be easier for you to understand what’s happening if you pay attention to me now. But if you get scared, or if you wonder why I’m making you listen to this, just remember that this is a story. There was a time when it could hurt you, but that time is over and done. You’re safe. I’ll protect you, I promise. I really, really do.
This is a story. You need to know how it starts.
It can’t hurt you anymore.
First Chapter First Paragraph Thursday Intros ~ Wish Upon a K-Star by Kat Chao
Growing up, I hated when people lied.
Whether it was my brother laying the blame for a broken glass on me, or Mom telling our halmeoni we couldn’t visit for the holidays because I had a non-existent school event, or even a total stranger claiming they were ahead of you in line for the register.
It always bothered me when others lied.
Which is why I probably shouldn’t have debuted as an idol.
All we’re taught is how to lie.
First Chapter First Paragraph Thursday Intros ~ We Were Warned by Chelsea Ichaso
The figure knelt over the body at the edge of the ruins. Nearby, a streetlamp crackled before succumbing to the night. Gray clouds tumbled closer. As the ocean waves crashed, the wind whipped against the figure’s black hoof and rattled the chain-link fence.
The figure glanced back to peer beyond the mist. A rock wall lined the front of what was left of Fairport Village, separating the clifftop property from the beach below. Among the other rocks, a long granite one stood out, smoot and flat as a tabletop, specks of mica gleaming beneath the moonlight. It formed a plank over the sandy beach below: the Founder’s Slab. Back in the 1800s, a horrible plague struck the first settlers, and it’s been said that in their desperation, the sick carved their prayers into that sacred rock.
Only those prayers went unanswered, as if the land had other ideas.
