By Any Means
James Morris
Publication date: January 2nd 2019
Genres: Adult, Thriller
How Far Would You Go To Save Your Son?
Lucas Turner is an ordinary teenager with an extraordinary genetic mutation: the cure for cancer rests in his body. When his father discovers that the only way to harvest the cure will result in the death of his son, he kidnaps him from the hospital, setting off a calamity of events from which there is no turning back.
Meanwhile, the doctor, intent on a cure at any cost, hires a female bounty hunter to bring the boy back by any means. She’s never failed before and doesn’t intend to fail now.
While on the run, the estranged father and son build a relationship on the road that brings them closer to the mistakes of the past and the consequences of the future. By Any Means is a literary thriller, and at its core is about a relationship between a father and son against all odds. The remedy, after all, may be less about science and more the human heart.
—
EXCERPT:
He heard Lucas calling out in the distance and his reedy cry, infused with terror, made the hair on Keith’s arms stand on end. Keith ran down a hospital hallway that seemed to stretch on forever, pulling like warm taffy into a horizon he would never reach.“Daddy!” Lucas screamed, a word he hadn’t used since he was a toddler.
“I’m coming!” The walls shrunk, squeezing against him; impossibly, the cold hardness of the wall rubbed against his elbows, the air heavy in his lungs, the sour smell of worms and shit, the incline steeper, impossibly slow. He couldn’t move his legs fast enough.
Something followed him. Not a person; a presence. A darkness that swallowed even the dark, making it more than just the absence of light. Something malevolent, something he couldn’t even name. He dared not look back lest he give it form. He knew if he saw it, it would consume him whole.
His son wailed once more.
The hallway door was closer, and he grabbed onto the knob, fearing it would slip from his hands, and turned—
Inside, he looked up, the air leaving his lungs and thought from his mind—a monster. Under the green tint of lights, strapped to a vertical gurney, arms outstretched, standing on display, the monster was his son. Skin desiccated, wrinkled, tubes running along his limbs, pumping him like a human cow, viscous fluid siphoning from him, withering him to nothing, his life force draining into machines. His son’s eyes rolled back, and the top of his head—his head, what’s wrong with his head—a red seam ran along the skull and the rest, where his hair should be, was gone, removed like the top of a teapot. Lucas lifted his hand and reached toward his father, his lips parched, his voice like wet gravel, “Help me…”
Keith woke, his body wet with perspiration, the nightmare fading, his heart slowing to its regular rhythm, how silly, how stupid, I haven’t had a nightmare in ages, and he looked over to check on his son in the bed next to him.
Lucas was having a seizure.
For a moment he was tangled in his blanket, then he rushed to Lucas’s side. Not knowing what else to do, he held him. “I’m here, son, I’m here.” Keith hadn’t witnessed a seizure before, and it scared him, the uncontrollable movements, hands flailing, teeth grinding; the sound of sandpaper against metal, the body contorted, turbulent and twitching.
His son was stronger than Keith imagined; he could barely hang onto him. Lucas’s feet swiveled and inadvertently hit Keith in the shin. He held onto his son, feeling Lucas’s waves of muscle tension, releasing and tightening and repeating. Not since Lucas was a swaddled baby had Keith held him so long and so tight, body to body, embraced.
“I won’t let you go. I won’t let you go.”
The convulsions didn’t stop. They continued for over a minute, an eternity, and kept going. Keith didn’t know what to do. Instead, he whispered, “It’s gonna be all right, Lucas. You’re safe. You’re safe.”
Author Bio:
James Morris is a former television writer who now works in digital media. When not writing, you can find him scoping out the latest sushi spot, watching 'House Hunters Renovation', or trying new recipes in the kitchen. He lives with his wife and dog in Los Angeles.
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