Sunday Snippet: Nature vs. Nurture by Glyn Williams

Today’s Sunday Snippet is from the 291-page long Supernatural drama (horror, fantasy adventure) Nature vs. Nurture by Glyn Williams. The paperback copy (ISBN – 9781720220589) was published 20th September 2018 and the ebook copy (Amazon ASIN – B07H7Y4QZN) was published 10th September 2018, both by Ravenswood Publishing.

Synopsis of Nature vs. Nurture by Glyn Williams

Alex Kane is a young, handsome & successful man living happily in Chicago Illinois. At this point in his life Alex has everything going for him, a loving family, great friends and a good job at his dad’s plumbing store. He was raised to be a good moral man and his charming personality has always drawn people towards him, especially women. Despite his blessed life Alex has always felt different to everyone else and for good reason, from out of nowhere Alex’s life is turned upside down when a dark secret hidden by the people he loves most is revealed to him. Questioning everything he believes about the world and his place in it, Alex goes down a dark path and it’s up to his friends and family to stop him before it’s too late both for him and for the world.

The (long) snippet

On a cold and gloomy day, in her home in Chicago, Emily Kane sat on
her couch with her head in her hands, crying her eyes out. The last
year of her life had been a living nightmare; both she and her
husband, Robert, had lost their jobs. They used their savings to pay
the bills for a while, but they soon ran out and then took out loans
they both knew they couldn’t afford. They hoped at least one of
them would find a new job to pay off the loans but, despite their
best efforts, that didn’t happen. Both Emily and Robert feared losing
their home any day, and to make things even worse Emily’s mother
Stella had been diagnosed with late-stage colon cancer. The doctor
had told them there was basically nothing they could do for her
except give her treatment to make her comfortable. Of course, they
couldn’t afford it.

So not only were her financial troubles weighing her down, but every
time Emily went to visit her parents she was reminded that her
mother was dying a slow, painful death and there was nothing she
could do to help her. Stella tried to hide her pain from Emily and
Emily’s father, David, told her everything was fine. But Emily could
see right through their act. As she sat there alone with her whole life
falling apart, Emily heard the familiar sound of the doorbell ringing.
Fearing it might be a debt collector she approached the door slowly,
and only opened it a crack to peek through. She saw a handsome
man standing there; she guessed he was in his early to mid-fifties,
with black hair greying at the sides. He was wearing a smart black
suit with a red tie and a rose in the jacket pocket. He had a big smile
on his face that had a slightly sinister look to it, and despite his good
looks and smart clothing Emily just felt like there was something
wrong about him.

“Mrs. Kane?”

“Yes?” Emily said nervously.
“Oh, good. My name is Mr. Smith and I’m here to talk to you about
some of your problems.”
Assuming he was a debt collector, Emily opened the door to let him
in.
“Okay, well, you better come in then,” she said sadly.
“Thank you very much,” he said, still with that strange smile on his
face.

The man walked into the living room with Emily following, looking
quite defeated.
“Please take a seat,” Emily said.
“Thank you.”

Emily sat down after he did, preparing for him to start with all the
legal jargon she’d heard more times than she could remember.
“Look, sir, about the late payments—my husband and I are trying to
get the money together.”
“Oh no, Mrs. Kane. May I call you Emily? I’m not here to collect
money from you,” he said, raising his hand to stop Emily’s speech.
“Well then, why are you here?” she said, confused.
“I’m here to help you, Emily dear. I know all about your money
problems and, of course, your poor mother’s tragic illness. I’m here
to offer you a way out.”
“How do you know all this? Who are you?” she demanded, confused
and uneasy.

“I know a lot of things, almost everything in fact, and as to who I
am—well let’s just call me your guardian angel,” he said with a very
disturbing chuckle.

At this point Emily was thoroughly unnerved by this man and wanted
him out of her house as soon as possible.
“I think maybe you should leave,” Emily said.
“I don’t think so, Emily. Besides you haven’t heard my offer yet.” His
tone sounding quite threatening.
“What is it then?” she asked, now quite scared.
“Well, my dear, it’s basically a ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours’
situation. You see, there’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long
time now but wasn’t able to until recently. But I need your help to do
it, and in exchange I will fix all your little problems,” he said
sarcastically.
“I don’t understand.”
“Yes, I wasn’t expecting you to. All you need to know is that I am an
extremely powerful man. The most powerful, well, except for my
father and little brother, but I don’t want to talk about them. What
I’m saying is I can make all your worries blow away like they were
never there and all you have to do is agree to do a favor for me.”
“Why me?” Emily asked, both nervous and intrigued.
“Oh, just chance; you just happen to have been born at the right
time and place. It’s an ancient and complicated issue that your tiny
mind couldn’t possibly begin to understand,” he said in a
condescending way.

“Well, what is it you want me to do?” Emily asked, trying not to show
her disdain toward his tone.
The man’s attitude suddenly shifted from insulting to positive and
charming.
“I’m glad you asked.”
He then dropped a large stack of paper in front of her which
surprised and confused her, since when he walked into the house he
didn’t have a briefcase with him or anything else to carry this large
stack of paper in.
“This is a contract stating all the details of our deal; I like to have
things in writing. Please feel free to browse through it,” he said with
that sinister smile.

Emily looked at the contract; it was so thick and heavy she could
barely lift it, and the writing on it was so small she couldn’t read it.
She tried her best but could only make out a few words of the tiny
writing.

He then leaned in closer to Emily looking directly into her eyes. She
wanted to look away from him but found she couldn’t. Despite what
her head and heart were telling her, she couldn’t help but be drawn
into his eyes like she was in a trance.

“Don’t you want to be free, Emily; free from all the stress and fear?
Don’t you want it all too just disappear? Don’t you want your mother
to be healthy and happy again? You want all that Emily, don’t you?”
Emily couldn’t move; it was like she was frozen solid. The only things
she could focus on were his eyes and voice. Suddenly everything
around her seemed to fade away and was replaced with the hallway

of a large, beautiful house. She then heard laughter coming from the
next room. Walking in, she was stunned to see a vision of herself
with her family. They all sat there laughing and enjoying each other’s
company; she and her husband both had big smiles on their faces
and were holding each other affectionately. Emily’s mother and
father sat there smiling and holding hands. Her mother looked so
well, completely pain free and happier than she had been in so long.
Emily was so overwhelmed by what she was seeing she couldn’t help
but cry. She then heard the man’s voice echoing inside her head.
“It’s a beautiful sight, isn’t it, Emily? It can be real, you know. You
and Robert could be more than just debt-free; you could be rich and
live in this beautiful house. Both your mother and father could be
healthy and happy again. All that pain, fear, and anguish could be
gone. I can make it all go away, Emily; all you have to do is agree to
the deal.”
Just as quickly as it appeared the vision around her disappeared and
Emily found herself back in her house with the man.

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If you enjoyed reading this snippet from Nature vs. Nurture by Glyn Williams and would like to know what happened in the rest of the book, please buy a copy via your favourite book retailer or via either of the Amazon tabs below. The author, Glyn Williams, would truly appreciate your support.

 

Author bio

My name is Glyn Williams, I’m 25 years old and from South Wales. I began writing when I was diagnosed with Optic Nerve Atrophy leaving me visually impaired to a degree. I also suffer with self confidence issues, so I never thought anyone would enjoy my writing but my family encouraged me to get it published and to my surprise a publisher had faith in me and my story.

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