Pitch Madness Slush Team Save B-16: GIDEON AND THE NIGHTMARE DEMON

Genre: MG contemporary fantasy
Word Count: 37,000

Pitch:

Gideon is eleven years old and going blind. After befriending Baku, a nightmare eater, he is tempted to abandon his parents and real life for a dream world where he can still “see”.

 

Excerpt:

Gideon Hardy stood on the stage of a large opera house with rows of empty wooden benches gawking back at him. Thick velvet curtains hung from the fly loft, the hems nailed to the floor by rusted railroad ties, closing off any possible retreat.

Gideon scanned the house, looking for where the evil sorcerer hid. The hint of movement, the brim of a pointed hat. A wisp of black cape. Anything.

Lightning shot across the domed ceiling, nearly hitting the enormous chandelier. Thunder boomed with no delay between sight and sound. Impossible from inside a building, but then this was a dream. Gideon knew that much.

“You need me, Gideon. Become a friend of the shadows and they will gladly embrace you.” From somewhere in the second balcony, the evil sorcerer laughed. “I will embrace you as a friend.”

“No thank you,” said Gideon, his voice barely leaving the stage. Gold and grand, the opera house made Gideon feel undersized. Beneath him, the orchestra pit glowed with amber light, as if a thousand fireflies hid below the lip.

The sorcerer cackled again, still out of sight.

“Perhaps you need more demonstration of my power?”

Gideon widened his stance, squaring his shoulders. Warrior pose, like his mother taught him. In his right hand, he held an oak wand. He’d never used a magical wand before, but it somehow felt natural in his grasp. Familiar.

Again, he saw a flash of lightning and heard the boom of thunder. This time the chandelier shattered.