Ceremonies – Josh Webster

Aurelia sat uncomfortably at her desk, watching the others try to act as if nothing had happened. Joey’s warnings were no longer foolish misconceptions to her. There was no doubt the punishments meted out here were severe. She wondered if everything else he had said about the Blessed Mother and the cave were more true than she had thought. Then she remembered how scared and how hurt she had been yesterday when Joey had lifted his desk top. Richard had deserved to be punished; after all.

Maybe _ his punishment was unusually severe. Aurelia inhaled slowly and looked at Joey. His head was bowed as he played with a pencil in his lap. Then she looked at Richard. He was slumped face-down on his desk. His body twitched suddenly. His head shot up off his desk. She could see the agony in his face. No, she thought, even Richard didn’t deserve to be beaten that badly. No one did. Finally, class was over. _ Sam had been having a hard time as he lectured about _ medieval superstitions, the inquisition and the Salem witch trials.

He had thought those subjects, if any, ~ would grab the students’ attention today; but nothing _ seemed to interest them. , They were all in a state of shock. And yet Sam could tell it wasn’t the first time such a thing had happened. The kids were scared, but they seemed to accept the fear, as terrible as it was, as part of their lives.

After the class filtered out the door, Sam walked over to Richard’s desk. ‘*Richard?”’ Sam shook his shoulder lightly. ‘“What happened in the woodshed?’’ _ Richard slowly looked up; his eyes were glassed over. His sweaty hair clung to his forehead. Suddenly the boy = ee Josh Webster winced and grabbed his wrist. Sam gently lifted Richard’s forearm and pulled up his sleeve. Sam stifled a gasp. The skin on Richard’s wrist was torn; blood was caked around it in a three-inch ring.

Sam was reminded of an incident he had observed as a child living in Georgia.

Aurelia came to Paradise Falls to find herself the object of veneration she could not ‘un- derstand—and the target of vicious attacks that left her bewildered and afraid. What was the hidden truth about this place that her mother had been able to escape only in death? What was the truth about the strange powers that Aurelia felt stirring within herself? The answer lay deep in the darkness of the cave where the nightmare children sang their song of welcome—and of horror -.

. CEREMONIES ) Noo ~( ay ‘ OS BERKLEY BOOKS, NEW YORK CEREMONIES A Berkley Book / published by arrangement with the author PRINTING HISTORY Berkley edition / August 1982 All rights reserved. Copyright © 1982 by Josh Webster. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by mimeograph or any other means, without permission. For information address: Berkley Publishing Corporation, 200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016.

ISBN: 0-425-05466-7 A BERKLEY BOOK® TM 757,375 The name “BERKLEY” and the stylized ‘‘B”’ with design are trademarks belonging to Berkley Publishing Corporation. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

2) ee PROLOGUE PLEASE LORD, the young woman thought, don’t let it be me. She looked at the woman marching in front of her—her friend and neighbor, the woman who had been her midwife, who had helped her through the time of great pain when she gave birth to her son. Choose her, she thought. Please choose her. Choose anyone but me. As the hundred people marched two by two along the bottom of the high cliff to the cave, the same thought, the same fear was in all their minds.

Tonight there was no friendship, no love, no humanity. Only fear. _A gnawing, aching, blistering fear, that clawed at their hearts like some terrible, hungry beast. The young woman, Sarah, glanced, with her eyes only, at her husband. In the darkness she reached out and touched his hand. His flesh was cold.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: a6ad6f9553444197
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 11,576,486 bytes (11.04 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 0425054667
• Pages: 309
• Language: English (en)

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• Estimated Reading Time: 418.38 minutes
• Total Words: 83,677
• Total Characters: 467,226
• Average Words per Page: 270.8
• Average Characters per Page: 1512.06

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