The Promise Front

INTRODUCTION: The complete text of the True Believers sequel, The Promise. What can I say? This was meant to be the followup story to that unfinished novel, featuring, again, Anders and Puck and their troubles with aliens, as well as a newcomer named--no pun intended--Julie Newcomb, who would provide a love interest for Anders. (Puck, eh, he's too messed up for a love interest.) I had a lot of fun tying these three in together with lots of melodrama...it's probably all terribly cheesy by now. Fun fact!: The title of this story was taken from the song "The Promise" by When In Rome. Why? By now I'm not even sure. The MEANING of the title, however, was in reference to the agreement that Puck, Anders, and Julie make not to go blabbing about their secret to others...a promise which as it turns out doesn't last too long...

(Note: There is an adult scene which ties in directly to this story, and leads up to one of the most important scenes in the novel. Unfortunately, I didn't get that far in the story to where this scene would have been "excised." If you're interested, just browse around my sites, or ask me and I'll point it out to you. The followup novel, Ascension, likewise has such a scene.)

I'm retyping this up from a hardcopy printout I found in my room, a combination of two files--"promise.wri" and "promise.wps." It looks like the formatting was retained here so expect ITALICS! If any typos occur and are not marked with a [sic], this is due to mistakes committed in the retype and I ask that you please point these out so I can correct them. I believe this is from our first computer so it dates most likely to the late Nineties. When was that Hale-Bopp Comet thing? That was meant to be referred to in the sequel to THIS, so safe to say this occurs BEFORE that (though as for the writing itself, no real clue). I would tentatively date this between 1995-98, give or take a year.

Front, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4

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THEY'RE BACK...

About a year has passed since the strange occurrences in True Believers took place, when students Anders Carlsson and Puck Benteen discovered that they may be the victims of alien abduction.

But now, it seems to be happening all over again.

All of the symptoms are back--the nose- and earbleeds, the restless nights, and the dreams.

Especially the dreams.

This time, however, things are different--Anders realizes that the aliens themselves are not what they appear to be, and in fact aren't even the same ones as last year; these are the ones he remembers only vaguely, from his first abduction at age twelve...an experience he doesn't wish to remember...

And Puck himself starts remembering his first abduction, at age six, and all the subsequent experiences when the aliens told him something, something he needs to know but which is just beyond his grasp...

When a new student at the college introduces herself to Anders as someone he "comforted" during a recent abduction, Anders and Puck realize that there's more going on than meets the eye. The aliens have an agenda--an agenda that needs to be met, no matter what the cost. And the students seem to be nothing but pawns in this game.

THE PROMISE