It’s my turn to host the YA Spooktacular today and I’m more than a little excited. I’m hosting Part 9 of Story 2, A Soul Laid Bare and today’s author is Kelsey Dickson.

Two stories, thirteen parts and thirteen different authors. Lots of fun and two amazing stories being told. You won’t want to miss out on this, seriously!
To read the story in order: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7 and Part 8. So without further adieu, let’s continue the story..shall we?

Sami jolted forward, throwing herself off balance. With an audible snap, her concentration was broken, and she knew without even testing it that any connection to magic she’d previously invoked was now gone.

Before she could think to do anything else, Sami was running. She had no idea where she was running to, all she knew was that there would be no stopping until either they were dead, or she was dead. The ultimatum made her blood run cold.

The night was dark—black—almost as though there wasn’t a moon. Sweat was dripping into her eyes, but Sami pushed forward. She could slightly make out the edge of the trees as they materializing in front of her when she tripped over something, and landed, hard, face down in the dirt. The sheer force of it made her dizzy. Sami raised her hand to her face, and felt something warm and slick–her nose was definitely broken. She tried to stand, only to find that her left ankle was completely mangled. Unable to support her own weight, Sami collapsed back to the ground just as an orb of fiery purple light shot past her head, sending the huge juniper in front of her up in flames.

She heard shouts behind her, and furiously began half crawling, half limping towards the woods. Once she finally reached them, she started running again, gritting her teeth against the pain as it set her body on fire.

As she ran, Sami looked for any possible hiding spot. She started to think about what would happen if she didn’t find one when she hit something—someone.

Sami looked up, and gasped in horror. It’s him, she thought.

“It’s you,” she whispered, never once breaking contact with his black eyes.

“I’m Jareth, but I assure you we’ve never met,” the man said.

Sami hadn’t realized she’d been slowly retreating away from him until she found herself backed up against a tree as far as she could go. “You killed m–her. You killed Tonya.”

He stepped forward and placed both hands on Sami’s shoulders.

“Don’t touch me,” she cried.

Jareth raised his hands up, palms facing outwards to show her he wasn’t a threat. “Look, I don’t know how you know about Tonya, but I didn’t kill anyone.”

“I was there! I saw you do it,” Sami spat. Jareth’s brow furrowed in what seemed to be genuine confusion.

“Listen to me. I need your help.”

“That’s what you told Tonya…right before you choked her!”

“I didn’t kill her!” He was losing control, fast. “I just needed to get that,” he pointed towards her neck.

Sami looked down. “What? My necklace?” Jareth nodded.

Sami protectively wrapped her hand around the stone, and the air around her began to tremble, distorting everything she looked at. She felt herself being jerked backwards by some invisible force; it was pulling and pulling on her until she couldn’t breathe, and then there was an explosion of light.

***

Tonya found herself staring up at the man with the blazing obsidian eyes. “You have something I need.” His voice echoed through her head.

Tonya blinked, and caught movement out of the corner of her left eye. A short man in glasses with graying hair was walking in their direction, his fingertips mindlessly brushing the rows of books. She turned back to the man, his hand reaching out to her. “I need your help,” he whispered.

She was reaching her hand out to meet his when she felt a sharp blow connect with the back of her head. Everything went black.

***

“Mr. Cooper killed Tonya,” Sami gasped. “I don’t understand. Why?”

“Cooper needed her body,” Jareth explained with a pained expression.

“What? Why? Why did he need her?”

“She was—”

“Why is he after me?” A feeling of dread settled into the pit of her stomach.

“Because now he needs yours.”

Holy crap! This story is shaping up to be pretty darn awesome! Thanks to Kelsey Dickson for keeping the party going with this fantastic addition to the story. If you want more from Kelsey then make sure you follow her on Twitter at @kelseydickson and follow her blog at: Reading or Breathing.

Wait! We’re not done yet because there are two amazing grand prizes being given away as part of this YA Spooktacular and it’s open internationally. For the full scoop on all of that, visit Frenzy of Noise. The jist to enter the contest for the grand prizes is this:

The rules are pretty simple:

• You must comment on EVERY post in a story to be eligible to win the grand prize pack.
• You MAY enter for both stories.
• The forms are a must to be entered.
• Winners will be selected at random.

Good luck!

For the next part of A Soul Laid Bare (Part 10), visit Overflowing Shelf tomorrow. It promises to be fabulous!

With all of this Story 2 awesomeness, you’ll definitely want to check out Story 1 as well. I’ve been following along and it’s just as great as Story 2 (I promise!), check it out!

..and that’s your scoop!