DUST SETTLED OVER Kaylan like a shroud. The ringing in her ears pulsed with the beat of her heart, and her face stung as though needles pricked her skin. She swiped at the stinging. Blood. She glanced around the small space. Chunks of cement cocooned her underneath the twin bed. She squinted, trying to remember.
A sliver of blue sky, the only thing not cracked or bleeding, peeked through a hole in the wall, discolored in the chalky air. Within seconds, dust enveloped the beacon. Rolling in a space no bigger than a sleeping bag, she winced as her shoulder scraped the bottom of her bed. She sucked in a breath and coughing seized her, cement dust choking the air more with each passing moment.
Where was Sarah Beth? A shriek rent the air outside the broken house, and Kaylan jerked, her head banging on her bed with a crack. Blood pulsed and her head throbbed as she massaged the spot where a knot bloomed.
Through the cracked walls of her makeshift cell, she searched for any sign of life beneath the chaos. A body lay twisted in the street, bloody, tattered green shorts and flip-flops still in place. A woman bent over the tiny frame, clutching it to herself and crying. Kaylan’s stomach convulsed, and panic built in her gut.
“Sarah Beth? Oh, God, she needs to answer me.”
The floor beneath her began to buckle.
“Sarah Beth!”
It was happening again.