Early Synopsis : After Dark

I said on 12/3 that I’d post my synopsis — the complete work that came to me in a drive-thru line while waiting for my milkshake (one which was delicious, by the way). Keep in mind that my early synopses don’t always finish out as shown and I don’t usually edit them except in the super early days (like now). That’s why I call it an early synopsis. Once the story is written, I’ll create a full version.

So, as promised, here you go:

After Dark

What would you do if you could turn into any supernatural being — vampire, werewolf, fairy, witch, time traveller — any of them? Mackenzie Maya Thorne, known to her friends as ‘Mac’ can do just that … when it’s dark outside. Mac though, has to be human during those pesky daylight hours. At midnight on her 19th birthday, she’ll have to choose her one and only one — final ‘race’. She’s known about the deadline forever, but with just one year left, she’s got to choose, along with what colleges to apply to.

When she’s partnered with Winford Richmond Thomas (aka ‘Winn’) for her senior research project, she figures to let him do all the work and grab the easy ‘A’. Winn though has his own research going… into the paranormal. He learns, through a series of event, about ‘The Carriage’ — the home which brought Mac to her vampire father and fairy mother. Mac decides to see just how much Winn knows about the paranormal, or rather believes, only to confirm many of Winn’s own suspicions about Mac.

Winn’s not the only one who knows about Mac, though. All the races know about her… they’ve been waiting for her … for her to reach 19 and to choose one, and only one of them to join as their leader — to keep the balance of power in alignment. Like a political election, each race has a leader and each leader is replaced with a new one one of Mac’s kind upon that 19th birthday. The difference comes in that Mac will chooses which people to lead.

Without her choice, she’ll leave each ‘race’ to fight for an ‘open’ spot … which if claimed, would give one more power over the others.

Mac though, is as undecided as a freshman liberal arts major in college and has no intention of choosing what to become until her last possible moment … Even then, she’s thinking about going rogue: human. That all happens because of Winn.

No matter what Mac does, her life will change, but she’s got one more year, from the moment she turns 18 until the second she turns 19 before she has to decide.

For the time being, Mac’s going to have a little fun with Winn while she learns the politics of paranormal life and pits it against his human one — of the two, one might be more fun than the other.

For Mac, life altering decisions should never be put in the hands of a teenager. For Winn, paranormal always wins … it’s a true ‘the grass is always greener’ philosophy for both of them. Coming together could make them all the more powerful… for reasons Mac doesn’t even want to think about.

Mac will let the ‘races’ wine and dine her to win them her favor… until she realizes the races have one more option they can impose to deal with her lack of decision making… they can kill her.