Almost Dead (Dead, #1) Read Online Free PDF

pissed off as I am about being stuck in a place that doesn’t exist to sane people.” I stand up, about to wipe off grass and dirt from my knees when I realize there isn’t any.
    “Look, I don’t know where we are. I just know it’s not normal,” Flora says, glancing around. “Not only do I not want to be here right now, but I don’t want to listen to your nonstop whining.”
    “Oh, yeah? Like I want to be stuck with the future leader of alcoholics across the globe.” I swivel toward my car, still hoping to catch a glimpse of my body, even though I know it’s not there. It’s close by; I can feel it. I just don’t know how far it soared out of my vehicle when we crashed.
    My legs move, taking tiny, shuffling steps around the BMW. I don’t want to, you know, trip over my self . That wouldn’t be weird at all.
    “Damn it.t kze="+0" Where are you?” I mumble, then drop to my hands and knees yet again. I’m not leaving until I know it’s here, in one piece.
    “Seriously, Laney, what are you doing?”
    If Flora thinks I’m going to just step aside, hoping and praying that my body is fine, then she’s got another thing coming.
    Never mind about the hoping and praying, because I feel a hand. My hand.
    “It’s here!” I cry out, lifting my body off the ground.
    Oh, God. I’m going to vomit. There’s no way. No freaking way.
    M y legs are broken, bending at odd angles. My face is marred from flying through the windshield, glass jutting out of my flawless skin. Blood is everywhere. Like, I can’t even describe how much there is; it soaks my clothes and my limbs and my face. I gulp down excess saliva.
    Falling back on my ass, I stare in disbelief. In a wobbly voice, I ask, “So, what do we do now?”
    Flora’s noisy sigh cuts through the air before she responds, “I don’t know.”
    “Do you know anything?” I retort.
    She glares at me from behind cold eyes. “Not according to you.”
    “Well, that’s great. Just fantastic.” My voice is too high-pitched, not at all sounding like me. Is this what shock feels like? Being stunned beyond certainty, feeling so numb that all you want to do is curl into a ball and stay that way forever? Because I want to do that right now.
    “If you want to know the truth, ” Flora says, “I think we’re in purgatory. The in-between. The place all souls go to chill out.”
    “That’s not funny ! I don’t want to be stuck here, and I can’t just leave my body all crooked and busted.”
    Flora takes a cavernous breath through her nose, and then exhales it all out , frustrated. Like I’m the one who doesn’t know what’s going on, or what she’s talking about. I’m sure she loves this place, all doom and gloom. It’s her personal heaven.
    She’s pissed me off for the last time—just like this place, this stupid shithole of a place. I’m screwed for the rest of my life. No more Chase. No more parties. Pageants are long gone, a soon-to-be vague memory of my old self. My living self.
    Damn it. If Flora’s right, then we’re ghosts. We’re only able to communicate with each other because the universe is unfair like that.
    “They can’t see us, can they? If we find a way back up there, nobody would know we’re present, even if we stood right in front of them,” I say. This is the craziest thing that’s ever happened to me. Stuff like this isn’t real. I’ve heard of out-of-body experiences, but that’s always in the operating room or ICU, not in car accidents, right?
    And definitely not with the person I crashed into.
    “Look, I’m not going to stand here and listen to you complain about how you’ re dead. I’m in the same fucked-up position as you, and I’m not bitching. So, cool it, all right?”
    I cross my arms . “If we ever make it back to our world, you’d probably kill yourself just to come back here, freak.” I’m surprised she hasn’t hit me. It’s on its way, though.
    “ Okay, that’s it. I’m not gonna wait around for you.