The darkness was filled with pain. Heated razor blades tore at her insides, sliced at her guts even as they scraped the inside of her ribs. Agony lanced her veins, like each cell was a shard of glass. Thousands of shards, all driven around her body on their destructive journey by her faltering heart. It sped up, slammed against her ribs as though it couldn’t bear to be in her chest a moment longer. She gasped, but her lungs were in on the conspiracy against her. Every breath felt like antifreeze and bleach had been poured down her throat.
Coughing, her body tried to get rid of the offending substance, in this case her entire lung, and she slowly became aware that she was being carried. A hard band was clamped around her waist, so tight it felt like it was cutting her in half. When she ope
