They were murdered. They were clothed with blood. They are now Less Than Seven.

The snow on the mountains of the Jefferson National Park has settled. With her ankles buried deep in slush, Lily leaves her cozy cabin, bow in hand and arrows sticking out of her backpack, for the trees. There is nothing unusual about this hunt. Not until she spots something dark and mysterious underneath an old willow oak. Lily doesn't so much as flinch when her prey arrives. With her sharp eye, she strikes at the right moment, taking down her dinner. As she goes to collect her meat, a shadow catches her attention by the old oak tree-something that will change everything. ------------- Entry for the Open Novella Contest 2019 Suspense Fiction #1 - Winter Sun - 2/8/19: Title Change from HUNTED to WHEN BLOOD SPEAKS - © 2019 Sarah Lampkin Published to Wattpad 01.18.19 Initial Draft - Ongoing - Last Update 03.26.19

Evoking the paranoid tension of Rosemary's Baby and the unnerving atmosphere of the cult horror film Jacob's Ladder, The Cracks in the Labyrinth is a disturbing psychological thriller set in present-day Caracas, where the government has devolved into a "democratic dictatorship"-a creepy suspense novel meant to challenge your deeper, subconscious fears of losing control. It consumed the sanity of an entire country... And it was not from this world. It couldn't have been. Whatever caused the incident known as "The Red Christmas" drove Venezuela into madness. Even ten years since it happened, none of the survivors of that night dare to attempt to make sense of it all, including Adam. Living ostracized to hide from the brutal way of life in Caracas, he's working tirelessly as an online writer to help his brother and sister flee the country. Now, as he's about to have enough money to take them to safety, he receives an email from his old girlfriend ... which is remarkable, considering she's been presumed dead for years. Adam tries to think nothing of the email or the broken video file attached to it. He convinces himself that it has to be a computer virus of some kind until he discovers something terrifying: the video might link his sister to the worst night of his life, the night his girlfriend went missing, the night of "The Red Christmas". Then he realizes this could be a threat; his sister's life could be in danger. As he starts to investigate who sent the video, Adam begins to uncover dark truths about his neighbors and finds evidence that there might be a larger conspiracy at play. The problem is that he's starting to suffer from hellish hallucinations that make him question what is real. Soon, the only clear thing to him is that someone doesn't want him to dig up the past. Will Adam be able to stay sane long enough to find out what really happened the night of "The Red Christmas"? Will he succeed in helping his family escape the country?