Page 1 of Holiday Grief

Chapter One

May 12th

5:55 P.M.

There was something wrong with her head.

It felt like someone was stabbing at it with a red-hot fire poker.

Poke.

Poke.

Poke.

Jasmine Crane’s stomach revolted at the searing pain, and when bile burned up through her throat, she was powerless to do anything to stop it from erupting out of her mouth and all over herself.

She thought—thought—that she heard someone swear but the sound was so distant she wasn’t really sure.

Something was wrong with her hearing.

Her eyesight, too, because all she could see was black.

Was she blind?

Going deaf?

Why did her head hurt?

It was too hard to figure it out, the world wouldn’t stop spinning.

No, not spinning.

Moving.

It was moving somehow.

Or she was?

Jasmine was so confused.

Something clunked against the backs of her legs sending a jolt of pain through her. Then her wrist hit something and there was more pain.

Pain everywhere.

Reminding her of …

Something.

Only she couldn’t quite remember what.

All she knew was that pain was something she was well acquainted with. That knowledge was so deeply ingrained in her psyche that she would know it anywhere.

There were more clunks, more bumps, more pain, and then the next thing she knew it felt like she was flying.

Instinct had her bracing for pain even though she didn't know where she was or what was going on. But instead of the hard landing she had been expecting, her landing was soft and fluffy.

It almost felt like …

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