Mark McWaters

"What am I?" He stayed in his mother's womb three extra months, and came out with extraordinary abilities. There are others like him, but he's never seen one, never met one. That all changed on one bloody night in Atlanta when she walked up. Before her, he read peoples' minds for laughs and spun basketballs in mid-air. After her, he knew more, he could do more, even heal people with his hands, but he still had no idea why. Now, thanks to him, overcooked everywhere are being outed and their secret lives exposed. They need him silenced before their world becomes unlivable. Thousands of the sick and infirm see him as their only hope and are desperate for his touch. Religious fanatics see him as a demon or devil and want him sent back to hell where he belongs. The Media see him as a miracle worker and can't wait for his next performance. It's going to be epic and it'll change the world forever. Will it be for better or, for worse? Don't ask him. In his heart, he's still the same messed up guy who doesn't have a clue.

NO FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD LIKES BEING SMOTHERED BY HIS MOTHER- ESPECIALLY IF SHE'S DEAD. So, yeah. Benji has issues. He's a fifteen-year-old computer geek... His mom just died from cancer... His dad is loony with grief... Everyone at school expects him to snap any second. And Rhianna-the school witch who never talks to anyone-stops him at lunch with condolences and a business card that reads: ThruTheLight.com-Re-connect with loved ones who've passed on. You can't really click on a website and talk to the dead-can you? "Hello, honey. How's my little Benji today?" "Mom?" Maybe everyone's right and he is cracking up. But then her sweater appears like magic on his desk all folded and smelling of her perfume... Someone lays out his school clothes like she used to... His best friend Tractor gets possessed and something shoves Rhianna down the stairs... Then it gets worse. Much, much worse. Because on the other side an evil much older than the time of witches is getting impatient and wants to come ThruTheLight. To stay.

THE LOCAL LEGEND REFUSES TO DIE Twenty years ago, bodies showed up in Everglades City skinned and posed in unlikely places. Locals blamed the murders on a recluse circus freak called Gatorman. Everyone breathed easier when, for some reason, the murders ceased. Two decades passed in the blink of a gator's eye and now a skinned body has shown up tied to the hood of a Toyota in the parking lot of Glades Grocery. No one's happy. Not Patience Little Moon, Gatorman's granddaughter and part of a local Indian family many blamed for Gatorman's earlier spree. Not Logan Rivers, a Marine veteran and local Fish and Wildlife officer with a visceral fear of alligators. Not Sheriff's Deputy Whaley, a rookie on the Gatorman case twenty years ago with a few secrets from that time no one must ever learn. When a second body shows up, skinned and stinking up the inside of the Deputy Sheriff's locked cruiser, tensions rise. A young deputy disappears without a trace. Someone vandalizes Gator Safari-the local tourist park. Then Patience Little Moon disappears and her grandmother begs Logan Rivers to find her. What he finds instead is a bloody local legend that refuses to die.