Chapter 8. Watch Out

“How are you feeling?” a prudish feminine voice inquired.

This wasn’t the hospital, and there was something strange about this place—the awful smell. It was the stench of death.

Lacey Williams opened her eyes to the bright sunlight in the sky. “Where in the hell am I?” she muttered under her breath, feeling her head ache.

“This isn’t heaven if that is what you are thinking,” another voice answered from behind. “Do you know where you are?”

Lacey couldn’t think of any place. What she remembered was encountering a shadowy figure in the hallway, and the next thing she knew, the darkness of terror rolled over her like a dark veil as her limbs went limp. All she could feel at the moment was a pain in her head, like a pressure that was throbbing with a constant pounding. Everything around her seemed blurry.

She raised her head, and her eyes made out the profile of a churning figure of smoke whose face was hard to see except for the pinpoints of the eyes, which