Before the Madness: Candyman

By Jas T. Ward

This is the first in a series of novella's called: Stories from The Grid in the Shadow-Keepers Series by Jas T. Ward.

This is the backstory of the character Reno Sundown, who is the main character for the first book of the series: Madness.

This novella sets up the first book and series and gives readers some insight into the character before they read the book.

Madness has a release date of December 4th, 2013 from Dead Bound Publishing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dead Bound Publishing
• Release date: Nov 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781310345722

Jas T. Ward

After demands of thousands of fans in various social medias, author Jas T. Ward has taken his poems and stories to a book format.Know for twists and surprises, the author's style always leaves the fans wanting more and caring about the characters created.Jas T. Ward lives in Texas with his creative demon the fans have fondly called- Twiz.

Book preview

BEFORE THE MADNESS:

Candyman

The Story of Reno Sundown

By

Jas T. Ward

Dead Bound Publishing®

Ohio ∞ Texas

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2013 by Jas T. Ward

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted In any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written agreement of the publisher.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Dead Bound Publishing

P.O. Box 8134,

Lumberton, Texas 77657 – 0134

Visit our website at:

www.deadboundpublishing.com

First eBook Edition: December 2013

Cover design Jas T. Ward

This is a work of fiction. The people, events, circumstances, and institutions depicted are fictitious and the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance of any character to any actual person, whether living or dead, is purely coincidental.

A WORD ABOUT THE NOVELLA- BEFORE THE MADNESS.

What can I say about Reno? He is by far my most favorite of voices.

He was created as a voice, literally in a character’s head. But he made an impact from the first moment he spoke. The fans loved him, and it was that love for the Candyman that created him and the Shadow-Keepers series.

He was never supposed to be. Both literary wise and literally, as I had plans for killing him off and silencing that voice. But fans of my writing went insane to the point I got hate mail and angry comments on my social media sites if I dared to do it.

So, Twiz (my creative, writing muse/demon) and I got together, and created a life of Reno’s own. And it was inspiration hidden in an effort to please.

But through it all, so much had taken place with the character, I had to trim it all down, adapt it to stand on its own, and weave a whole new world. It would have been impossible to put into one book, so I decided, as a gift of gratitude to the readers that wanted this collection, I would place his back story here, in the form of a novella, and start his book with his new existence. So, the following is that back story. The backstory is told from Reno’s POV as only he could tell it. His book—Madness he let’s me tell the story.

I love Reno. He’s the side of me that I just wish I could be 24/7, but life has a way of making you be who you need to be, not who you want to be. So for those who haven’t met Reno? I invite you to dive right in and learn what never taking for granted is all about, standing up for what you believe is yours, and laughing and crying, all at the same time.

To those that do know and love Reno, here it is. Enjoy. And thank you for making sure his voice was heard.

JTW

(This novella is included in the fan-appreciation collection of Ward’s by the name of Bits and Pieces: Tales and Sonnets, published by Dead Bound Publishing and released in April of 2013.

Reno’s novella was a part of that and now is a standalone Story from the Grid as a part of the Shadow-Keepers Series)

PROLOGUE

Sundown aka Split aka Reno Sundown (if that isn’t complicated enough? Keep reading).

I guess if you had to ask me what I am? Well, it’s kinda complicated. But here we go.

I’m really old. But not really.

I’m really nice. But deadly.

I’m light. And I’m dark.

I love candy, good thing too, I need it.

I can control bad things and I can do good things.

And all of that is just my daily to do list.

So, maybe we should do this like the fairy tales. So here goes--

Once upon the time, there was boy. Just a little boy; nothing special and nothing really different about him. Or so people thought. What they didn’t know, and the little boy didn’t even know, is he had a destiny to fill. An ancient prophecy since the beginning of time which would be coming true in about 150 years.

But even though this kid didn’t know? Others knew, and they wanted to stop that prophecy from coming true. So they hunted down this little boy, even though he didn’t know why. His own family threw him out into the wilderness of the Old West and that was another thing he didn’t understand. He knew his mom couldn’t help it, she kinda died.

But his own father? Totally didn’t get that one.

So, here was this little boy, with this big destiny laid out in front of him and he wasn’t going to last the night.

That’s where I come in.

PART ONE

How I Came To Be

CHAPTER ONE

Hi! I’m in your head

The first thing that told me I was alive was grass. Weird, I know. But it was cool, wet grass coated with dew on that summer night. I had not a thought before, yet here it was, grass.

The next thing was a shot. Yep, a gun blast right between those same feet and one word screamed out in our head.

RUN!

But the kid didn’t listen and as much as I screamed it, the kid just stood there and stared down the barrel of that pistol, crying and sobbing, begging his father not to do it. Had to feel sorry for the kid; his mother had just died and his father wanted him dead. Not exactly a shining moment to come into the big picture.

But maybe it was the perfect time as the kid was paralyzed with fear, loss and pain.

Meet Jess William Bailey. Kid, scrawny and remember that whole destiny rushing toward a kid thing?

Yep, that kid.

Who… was about to be coyote food if I didn’t do something fast. Another shot rang out and the ranch hands, as drunk as Jess’ father, all laughed and Jess just stood there crying. Talk about harsh, man, the Old West was harsh.

But more about that later…

Where was I?

Oh Yeah.

So