PIVOT

As a child, Jack Harper is raised by the leader of a mystical cult—a man whose name causes both fear and wonder in thousands of his followers—Cyrus Harper. Her indoctrination into the cult requires not only her near death, but the learning of a particular skill—how to kill. Cyrus teaches Jack about murder so that she may one day be an assassin he can use against his enemies. While teaching her, he ingrains in Jack the idea that death is simply lack of resurrection—something she has no control over—nothing more, nothing less.

For ten years, Jack dutifully obeys Cyrus's commands, killing his enemies, until she finally discovers one of the true sources behind her mentor's seemingly infinite power: a magical being held captive in his basement. When Jack and this creature meet, he forces upon her his own kind of supernatural power, providing her the ability to resurrect the dead. This new power wakens Jack to an entirely new way of being in the world. Cyrus's insanity, manipulations, and impending ascension to paranormal power become unbearable for her. She determines she will destroy Cyrus, free herself and the being who woke her, whether or not it will ultimately cause her own destruction.

PIVOT was originally self-published and sold over 60,000 copies on Amazon. It has since been revised substantially.

Lindsey Barlow's writing has been published in Oak Bend Review, Flash Fiction World, Linguistic Erosion, Flashes in the Dark, Separate Worlds, Every Day Fiction, and Pop Culture Review. Always a lover of things out of the norm, Lindsey once went to a talk by a supposed ex-Satanist and was so moved by the speaker's story that she immediately set out to write PIVOT.