Strange images filled her mind. Rachel was not producing them.
They were simply appearing there, placed there by something else. Delivered
from outer space.
Faces. Flames. A
centipede ripping apart. She saw it writhing, as it spontaneously split down
its center. It was filled with eggs. Millions of centipede eggs. And then
Rachel felt sure that she was filled
with centipede eggs, and her belly burned and a crazed itching feeling danced
over her, and with that, Rachel was finally able to rip her eyelids apart.
The sight of the darkened
room met her. And in that darkness, a
creature.
Somehow her eye was able
to widen, as she realized the sight before her, but she could not close it. She
also could not move. She could not scream. She willed her mouth to open and
couldn't. Her vocal cords did respond weakly, and with a mouth shut tight, she
heard the broken squeaks creaking from her throat.
Her body frozen in place,
imprisoned in a cage of her own muscles and bone, she stared up at him
helplessly. The man on fire at the foot
of her bed.
She had to scream and
wake her sleeping friend. She had to cry out for her grandmother to come. But
no matter how she thrashed about internally, her body remained paralyzed. All she could do was look up at the man
engulfed in flames.
His mouth opened. A slit
appeared in the smoke and crisping redness of burning flesh. And his mouth
froze in a wide circle of suffering.
Fear rippled through her
body. Rachel fought to move and felt the same resistance that she felt whenever
she tried to run in a nightmare where she was being chased. She felt the same
tugging on her body, the same alteration of physics.
It opened its mouth then,
as if it were going to speak.
Her
brain burned. It melted. It scorched. Terror seized her, and it was so strong
she was unsure how her body could contain it. It felt too large, too strong to
be held within her. She knew that the man on fire was going to speak and she
had no idea what she’d do when he did.
But it was then that the
episode ended, and finally, miraculously, her fingers twitched and her body
jerked upright. The moment her body moved, the man vanished, taking all of his
flames and fright with him.
She was left staring at
the shadowy scene of an empty room.
Rachel ripped the covers
over her head and lay on her side with a thumping heart, pressing her body
frantically into the body of her sleeping friend.
She tried to tell herself
that it had only been a dream. She repeated it in her mind again and again.
It wasn’t real. I’m not going to spontaneously combust. I am NOT going
to spontaneously combust.
But she couldn’t believe it. Because the man on fire had opened
his mouth to speak, and she could sense the words he’d been about to say. He’d
been about to tell her that her time was limited, that if she didn’t figure out
how she spontaneously combusted the first time, it was sure to happen again.
She moaned into her
pillow, imagining what his awful voice would sound like.
You burned once. You’ll burn again.
Sounds like an edge of your seat read!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good book.
ReplyDeleteAn intriguing cover, synopsis and excerpt, this sounds like an exciting read. Thank you for sharing the book and author details
ReplyDelete