Chapter #1

More about Chapter #1

The first lines of my new book:

She woke with a start, as if falling from a dream that wasn't quite over. Her heart pounded irregularly in her chest, the rhythm of someone unsure if she was still in danger. For a moment, she thought she was blind. The darkness was so dense, so tangible, that she felt it covered her
like a blanket. She held her breath, listening. Only the soft hum of her own blood in her ears. Slowly, her eyes began to adjust. The emptiness took shape. The darkness wasn't absolute, she realized now, but filled with shadows and contours that hesitantly separated from one another. Rough shapes, jagged, like stone or rotten wood. She reached out, felt the ground. Cold, damp, uneven. The air smelled of earth and something irony, as if rainwater had run down rust. She tried to sit up. Her muscles protested, weak and numb as if she had lain for centuries. Her head was spinning, her mouth was dry. She didn't know if it was fear or simply the realization of not knowing, but it made her sick. She wrapped her arms around herself, more out of instinct than any hope of warmth. Her fingers slid over her skin, feeling, searching. Was she naked? She wasn't sure, until her fingertips touched frayed fabric. Patches here and there, torn, stuck to her skin. A dress, perhaps, once. The seams were gone, the fabric stiff with dried dirt, as if she'd crawled through it, fallen, perhaps.