First Page Blog Fest

Today I’m participating in Elle Strauss’s First Page Blog Fest.

Here are the first 250-words from my YA Horror/Paranormal manuscript, FROM THE OTHER SIDE.

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When I woke, with a splitting headache and pain slashing through my body, things had changed. They had brought another victim.

I strained to see the girl through grainy eyes. My heart pounded, rocketing away in all directions in my too-tight chest. A drum solo emphasizing my frantic thoughts.

No. No. No.

The girl lay beside me, just out of reach. Battered. Bruised. Naked. Ragged patches of blood smeared parts of her body, shadowing the small of her back and defining the curve of her hip.

Wait…the shape of her body…it couldn’t be. Could it? My head felt like it was cemented to the ground, but I managed to lift it slightly. To see the girl better. I breathed a sigh of relief when my eyes came to rest on her matted dark hair. It was closer to mine in color than to Audrey’s bottle-blonde. I should’ve known better. My sister still lay in hospital, breathing through that awful tube shoved down her throat. There was no way this girl could be her.

She lay so still. I tried to reach toward her, tried to see if she was all right, but my own body refused my commands. My head collapsed back to the ground with a painful thud. I needed to rest.

My ragged breathing slowed. Softened. There was no other sound. The silence pressed down on me, growing louder and louder, echoing in my eardrums.

Time slithered away from me as I lay there. A giant hourglass poised in the air above my head. Waiting to fall and smash me to bits when the last grain of sand trickled through.

When will they return?

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Hope you all enjoyed reading, would love to hear what you think. I’m currently neck-deep in revisions for this manuscript, and plan to begin the submission process very soon.

To check out the other participants in this blog fest, click here.

Copyright Rachael Harrie 2012