Bouncer Post #94

Title: JUDGMENT

Genre: YA Thriller

Word Count: 110,000

Query:

After blacking out during a shooting at his high school, Trad Jenisis finds himself holding the shooter at gunpoint. If only he could remember how he got the gun in the first place...

Between taunts and isolation from most of his peers for his social ineptitude and dealing with his witchy stepmother, Trad just wishes everyone would go to hell. He thought ending the shooting would earn him major cool points, but he is faced with bigger problems when the killers return later that night. This time, they kidnap Trad’s classmate and unrequited crush. Chasing her captors back to their headquarters, he uncovers a secret organization to which everyone in Trad’s life – even his own family – is mysteriously connected.


The leader of the organization, Cade Vanity, is a self-proclaimed demi-god who covets Trad’s life force. By harnessing this power, Vanity plans to wipe all civilization from the earth and begin anew as God of the earth. Trad has the power to stop Vanity, but is tempted to allow the destruction of everyone who made his life a living hell.

JUDGMENT is a 110,000 word YA/Thriller that challenges the conventional meaning of “divine intervention”.

First 250:

“When you wake up, it will all be over.”

A deep, almost inhuman, voice inside Trad Jenisis’ head faded away as the colors and textures of Rapid City High School swam back into focus. He faced a wall where red trails of blood contrasted with the white metal lockers near chemistry class. The blood led Trad's eyes down to a man's dead body at his feet. A large hole where his intestines once were revealed the blood-stained white and green vinyl floor.

Feeling a weight in his arms, Trad looked down and saw a gun dotted with blood splotches clutched in his hands. Almost in response to his stare, the gun jerked as he began to shake. His only knowledge of guns came from video games and horror movies, but looking at the grisly sight in front of him, something didn’t quite make sense. There’s no way this pistol blew that massive hole in this guy, he thought.

How this guy lost his stomach plug was one question, how Trad got the gun was quite another. The last thing he remembered was the living version of the guy on the floor pressing the barrel of a gun – the same gun Trad now lowered to his side – to Trad’s forehead. Then he’d blacked out. He tried retracing his steps in his mind but drew a blank. How the hell did I get this gun? Why the fuck can’t I remember what happened?