It was like drowning. If there was oxygen in the atmosphere, she couldn’t find it. Dani wanted to quit but she didn’t know how. Didn’t know why she kept reaching for the next rock ledge. It was what she did. One hand, then the other. Feet to follow. Higher and higher, she inched her way up against the rising howl of the wind. She had to get to the top of Spook’s world. Fourteen thousand feet below was her world. She didn’t look up or down. She didn’t dare. Like the opening salvo in her personal war with Spook, she heard the first clap of thunder overhead.
As exhaustion began to edge past her will, her mind spun slowly off into disjointed fragments, pictures from the past mingling with those from the present.
The look on Matt’s face the last time she saw him in his mountain cabin—
Kelly
