Beautiful Atrocity By Mallory R. Evans (PayPal only at this time) $22.00 Official signed copy. Expected shipping date is 7/10/06. AuthorHouse Paperback - 240 pages Published May 24, 2006 Unsigned copies can be purchased at Amazon.com      Shouting coming from the street broke Adam’s concentration on the newspaper. Several of the fairies that Adam had seen the previous month before were now attacking the people of Cherry Tree viciously. Adam watched from the safety of the comic book store as a swarm of fairies attacked a well-dressed businessman. The tiny creatures were chewing each of his fingertips. He howled in pain and began shaking his hands fiercely. This only angered the fairies and several more flew to his neck and began chewing. Blood pouring from the man seemed to make the angry fairies completely ravenous. The man tried slapping his neck, but the fairies just wouldn’t stop. He shrieked a final time as his blue eyes rolled back into his head. His headless body toppled to the ground in a heap and his blood soaked the ground around him. Adam stared as his head hit the ground and seemed to shatter like a crystal ball in celebration of a new year. Fairies then attacked the broken head and feasted on the inside.      Adam watched with her mouth gaping as similar events were taking place up and down the street. More bodies were falling and hundreds of fairies were devouring the lifeless heads of the townspeople. The street was a river of blood, death, and horrified people. A tsunami of terror had consumed all of Cherry Tree, and it seemed no one knew for sure what was happening.      Police cars and an ambulance screeched onto the scene and quickly grabbed for survivors. Adam rushed out of the comic book store and into the crossfire.      "Fairies!” she shouted. “Kill the fairies!”      An officer grabbed Adam’s arm and forced her into the back of a car containing other unharmed people.      “Leave the bodies! Get the ones who’re still alive and put them in the ambulance!” shouted the officer as he shut the door.      “You have to fight back!” Adam screamed at the officer in the front seat. “You have to kill the fairies! It’s the only way to make it stop!”      “Do you think this is a joke?” the officer shouted. “Shut your mouth! Our men are dying out there!”      “It’s the fairies!” Adam shrieked.      The people beside Adam in the seat were obviously terrified.      “Listen, little girl,” said the officer. “We’re going to take you home and you can be with your family. The government is sending in the Canadian National Guard and they’re gonna quarantine Cherry Tree until the virus is taken care of. Just keep quiet. Everything’s gonna be okay.”      “What virus?! They’re fairies!”      The officer turned and put his finger up to Adam’s nose.      “Shut your God damn mouth! This isn’t a joke!”      Adam slammed back in the seat as the car began moving. She wasn’t sure if she was the only person in all of Cherry Tree capable of seeing the fairies or if the others just refused to admit what was happening.       When the car screeched to a halt, the policeman pulled Adam from the car and rushed her to the door of the Haggard residence. The car pulled away when Adam was safely inside.       “You guys! The fairies are here! They’re killing everyone!” Adam shouted as she ran into the kitchen to talk to her foster parents.       Ethan and Sophia were sitting at the kitchen table and listening to the radio. Ethan flipped the switch on the radio to turn it off and then glared icily at Adam.       "Adam… This isn’t funny,” he scolded. “People are out there dying! Some of my colleagues are dead and you’re in here telling us bullshit stories about fairies that eat people?”       “Ethan!” Sophia shouted. “Adam, I know that I’m the one who suggested journalism, but journalism isn’t about making up stories. It’s writing about real events. I didn’t think you’d confuse them so badly, but I’m starting to question more mental stability.”       “Whether you believe I saw vampire-fairies or not, there are several people dead in front of the comic book shop and probably in more places now!”       “Vampire-fairies now?” asked Ethan. “Really, Adam… It’s no wonder Yanick and Renee never called back.”       “How dare you!” Adam yelled. “You have to know this is real!”       “It’s a virus Adam,” said Sophia. “Not fairies! I wonder if maybe you’ve contracted the virus and it infected your mind.”       Adam was prepared to defend her mentality when Sophia let out a chilling scream. Adam squinted and wiped the welling tears from her eyes to get a better view of what was causing Sophia such pain.       "No!" cried Adam.       Adam reached out and grabbed one of the fairies fluttering near Sophia’s neck. With a firm grasp on the tiny beast, Adam looked it in the face. The fairy glared deviously back at Adam and smiled widely. This infuriated Adam and she took the cruel fairy with both hands and snapped it in half. As the bloody body of the dead fairy fell to the floor, other fairies began to attack Sophia more forcefully. Adam grabbed another fairy, ripping it in two. She wanted them to feel the same amount of pain that their victims had felt when they were being brutally chewed and beheaded. Finally, the few fairies that had managed to get into the house were dead.       “Oh my God!” Sophia cried. “I have the virus!”       “Why am I the only one that can see them?” Adam asked.       “See… what?” Sophia asked, rubbing her neck and sobbing.       “The fairies are real,” Adam again insisted. “It doesn’t matter if you believe me.”       Ethan and Sophia looked at each other.       “Why are you the only one that can see them?” Ethan asked.       “I don’t know!” Adam shouted. “We’ve been over this!”       Ethan turned the radio back on and an announcer nervously informed listeners of the strange events taking place in Cherry Tree.       "The military has been summoned and the city is being quarantined. Still, no one is sure of what’s happening. Could this be a government experiment gone wrong? Stay indoors and keep your blinds shut. It’s going to be a long night."       The lights began to flicker and the radio went dead. The lights finally faded completely, but the eerie illumination the fairies brought to the streets seeped through the windows and provided the Haggards with enough light to see each other. Sophia buried her face in her hands and began to cry.       "I have to stop this," Adam said. “I don’t know how, but I can’t just let people die."       Adam stood from the table and walked slowly to her room. She dug through the clothes hanging in the darkness of her closet and found her old raincoat. She put it on over her clothes and buttoned it carefully, making sure it fit well and allowed her plenty of movement. When she was finished buttoning the coat, she went to Ethan and Sophia’s closet and retrieved a metal baseball bat.       She walked into the living room slowly as if a date to prom would be waiting for her. She took a deep breath and ran from the house, slamming the door behind her. Adam had left the house so quickly that Ethan and Sophia never had the chance to argue.