New Year's Dark

       Authorities ignore the insistence of a few experts that small comet hits across the globe are evidence of a dark matter asteroid that will likely hit the United States in late December.  Sure enough on New Year’s Eve, as the ball is about to drop, a massive hunk of space matter levels New York and kicks up a cloud of dust that casts an endless night over the north-eastern US.  Our scientist heroes suspect they know how to neutralize the dark matter particles but first, with no cell service or visibility, they must escape from a path of deadly dust, and from the darkness of the new year.

A Cajun Christmas

            It’s early December when high-school junior, Cathy Romero flees her emotionally abusive step-father and runs away into the swamp that borders their small white-collar Louisiana suburb.  In the swamp, she debates her options with a friend on the phone until the battery dies and she finds that she is lost.  As night falls and the gators come out, Cathy is sure that hope is lost until she is rescued by Monty Callais, a Cajun teenager who’s family home-school him from their community in the swamp.

            Monty brings Cathy home with him and she meets a community of swamp people who are hesitant to accept her because of the way her city and its government act towards the natives.  Cathy quickly acclimates and finds that she can learn a lot from these seemingly primitive people.  She even begins to have a relationship with Monty.  One of the biggest problems facing the Cajun group is the horrible erosion that is slowly washing away more and more of their community, and Cathy thinks that maybe she can help.

            She re-enters ‘civilized’ society, though she continues to avoid her step-father.  She makes an impassioned plea before a prejudiced city council, and after overcoming many obstacles, she convinces the townspeople to sacrifice their Christmas trees to help prevent coastal erosion.  The people rally behind Cathy, and a massive joint effort is undertaken to save the swamp community.  All seems to be going well until a Christmas Eve storm traps the city-folk in the swamp.  This gives the Cajuns an opportunity to show their hospitality as they have a massive joint community Christmas.  Cathy’s dad shows up to ruin the festivities, but the Cajun townsfolk oversee their reunion and promise to keep a close eye in the future.

Unforgiving Day

            Christina begins to investigate when she realizes that a member of her family has gone missing every five years on Thanksgiving day, especially when evidence points to her as the next victim.  Her friends try to protect her, but sure enough, on Turkey day an Illuminati-like secret society takes her away.  Her friends band together to hunt her down as the Organization does a blood test and then subjects her to a series of weird rituals.

            The friends catch up with Christina in a massive underground temple and manage to interrupt what is about to be a human sacrifice, probably involving some sort of Cornucopia-esque soul vacuuming device.  The Organization isn’t just angry; they’re terrified, and as zombie Native Americans rise from the ground, armed with their animal spirit familiars, it becomes very clear why.  The sacrifice of a Pilgrim descendant to the spirits of the long betrayed Indian tribe has finally gone unfulfilled.

            So Christina finds herself the desired victim of two warring groups, the high tech but cult-ish Pilgrims and the undead Indians, in a battle that leaks out of the temple, and into the streets where it disrupts the small town equivalent of a Macy’s day parade.  And in order to escape and end the war, Christina must either sacrifice herself or find some way to make peace between the two parties, and this time the chiefs won’t be duped by a few strings of glass beads.