HEDOSCHISM: WATTY AWARD WINNER

AMAZON PRIME VIDEO // PANIC // BONUS CHAPTER - THE JUMP

In celebration of Amazon Prime Video's newest series Panic, I am thrilled to be teaming up with Amazon Prime Video and Wattpad to write this exclusive chapter that puts my characters from this story into the world of Panic!

I hope this chapter intrigues and inspires you to learn more about Panic. Visit the #PanicWritingContest on Wattpad for the chance to put your creative writing chops to the test and learn more about the show!

To find out more about the contest, prizes, and how to enter, check out the #PanicWritingContest here: wattpad.com/AmazonPrimeVideo

Don't forget to watch the series premiere on May 28th, only on Amazon Prime Video, here: http://primevideo.com/

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My mother, the infamous Maggie Brogan, once said, that a dip in the ocean was the best baptism you could find. Forget the church fonts. Forget the baptismal pools and the Hail Mary's. Maggie said a full-on plunge into the sea, when it's so cold that it takes your breath from your body, was the best cleansing your soul could get.

Of course, my mother's soul had been lost years before her death, and no amount of plunging herself into oceans would ever have rid her of the black stain that shrouded her heart.

Looking at the ocean now, with the moon glinting on the surface and lit up by the vibrant scarlet flares that lined the coast, I found it hard to believe a dip into its inky depths would be cleansing. From here, it looked like the blackest of oil, thick and viscous. Quicksand ready to pull you under.

'The first Panic challenge awaits, graduates of Carp!' A voice rasped through a loudspeaker behind me, where the crowds had gathered, eager and hungry, like sharks awaiting the sweet tang of fresh meat. 'Will you dare to risk The Jump? Announce your entrance to the competition by leaping off the cliff into the waters below. One hundred points will be awarded to everyone who makes the jump. An extra twenty-five points to anyone who takes it up a level to the High Jump. Crank it up to Suicide Leap and you'll get an extra one hundred points or immunity from any challenge of your choice!'

I turned to face them, confusion fogging my brain. The voice was American. Southern. A Texan twang, maybe?

'I shouldn't be here,' I said, more to myself than to anyone who might be within earshot. 'I should be...'

The thing was, I wasn't sure where I should be. Not anymore.

I'd been cruising like driftwood, bobbing the shallows, floating along wherever the flow took me. Only it didn't seem like I'd been getting anywhere.

I'd had it all planned out at the beginning. Concentrate on staying clean. Become everything Maggie Brogan hadn't been. And then find him.

Find Ethan.

And it had all been going just fine, until recently. The closer I'd got to D-Day, as Berith liked to jokingly call it, the more I began to feel adrift with it all. I'd been treading water. Getting nowhere. Lost.

That was it. I was lost.

And now, apparently, I was lost in a town called Carp and I had no idea where Carp was or what the Hell I was doing here.

'Step forward, graduates!' the disembodied voice called out again. 'It's time to climb!'

I was jostled to my left as a group of people began to walk in line past where I was standing. My hand went instinctively to my distended stomach, finding nothing but air. It had been a while since I'd been able to see my own feet underneath my belly full of Lily, and I don't know why, but seeing them now scared me. I wasn't ready. Not yet. Not without Ethan.