I think sometimes people get an incorrect impression of my book merely from the name, Dance of the Butterfly. Sounds romantic, doesn’t it? It has ‘dance’ and ‘butterfly’ in it. It must be a romance. Well, it does have romantic elements. There is a relationship that buds and blooms as a core plot point, but it is not just about that, and it is not all nice and flowery. There is some splatter. Quite a bit of it, actually. I am not one to often pull punches. I got myself in a bit of hot water during a poetry contest many years upon years ago, because I don’t feel the need to overly censor. I have since learned more of a balance between raw and refined.
In that vein, I have been posting snippets of the final climax of my book, and things do get bloody. Allow me to share another …
One of the guests lies on the ground, in a growing pool of the red liquid, another guest atop him. The larger man above is savagely stabbing into the prone body of the other, holding a torn piece of metal, having been drafted as an improvised weapon. Each stab into the left side of the victim’s torso produces more spurts of fresh fluid, the attacker painted with it, giving him even more of a horrific, demented look than his own expressions and actions already convey.
“He’s killing my husband!” a nearby woman screams, her own shrieks part of those making up the cacophony, though if the lack of resistance on the part of her spouse indicates anything, he may already be dead.
The guards point their weapons, nearing the terrible happening.
“Get out of the way!” Duilio commands, and the other party-goers and workers do just that, clearing more area around the attack.
“Do something! Do something!” the woman, rushes over to Duilio, her heels clicking on the pavement.
The guards look to the inspector, and Duilio spares a short moment of assessment, then, “Stop him.”
Gunshots blast out, causing more screams and dispersal of the crowd. The attacker is quickly removed from atop his victim, crumbling away and to the ground, flopping to his back as the firing ceases, his breath coming out ragged and wet.
So, there you go. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope it whet your appetite for more. If so, please visit my Amazon Author Page to buy any of my publications. Thank you.
Dance of the Butterfly 