Loss, a paranormal thriller Read Online Free PDF Page B

Paul's disembodied voice coming from inside, but this time taken from the moments before his proposal. 
    Then she felt a sudden understanding.  "This is my dream," she said.  Am I dreaming , she thought.  What happened? 
    She let go of Paul's hand, but he didn't seem to notice, rather, he remained motionless, his eyes glazed and fixed, gazing out over the endless acres of the surrounding forest.  She approached the French doors, but while she couldn't see inside, she felt something was inside, staring back at her.
    "Let me show you," the voice from inside called out.  Paul's voice.
    She glanced back at Paul.  He had stepped closer to the balcony's edge, placing a hand on the rail.Her stomach lurched
    as if sharing with him a sympathetic vertigo.
    "No peeking," the voice called, turning her back around.  "I'm going to tell you a story."
    She heard Paul move, looked over in time to see him swinging a leg over the rail.
    "Paul, stop!  What are you doing?"
    "Let me show you."  The voice from the house had become thicker, a sly thing, a trickster's voice.  She felt a violent tug of her shoulder, a force that whipped her head around and started dragging her back toward the darkened doors.
    "This is heaven," Paul said from the edge of the balcony, and then silence and a sudden sense of loss.  And emptiness so vast and final she nearly became sick.
    "Paul, baby, say something."  The force held her in its grip and she could no longer turn around.  But she knew he was gone.  Over the edge.
    The French doors opened, and a pall of darkness seeped from inside, greeting her.  It swept over her limbs, gripped her waist like the embrace of a desperate lover, pulling her inside.  She heard the doors close behind her, but could no longer see.
     
     
     
    Chapter 3
    A painful coldness pierced her flesh, but she was helpless to avoid the discomfort.  It followed her movements.  The unsettling feeling pulsed in her arm, and traced, like a corpse's finger, to her shoulder, and there it throbbed like a heartbeat.  This was her only sensation for a lengthy time--a stabbing iciness that somehow felt both distant and seeded deep into her soul.
    Her eyes fluttered opened to the glare of white light, and its purity and brightness brought tears to her eyes.  She could have closed them again to shut out the harshness, but she feared the darkness would return, and if it did, would never relent.  She let the tears form and fall down her cheeks.
    Someone scrambled nearby as if startled.  "Angie?"
    It was a familiar voice.  Paul? she thought, trying to remember.
    "Oh, God, Angie--someone get a doctor.  We need a doctor in here!" 
    A face pushed into the halo of her vision, too blurred to distinguish.  It came closer, and then dry lips brushed a kiss against her forehead. 
    "We thought you were, oh God..."
    She blinked until her eyes focused.  No, not Paul.  Nathan.  Paul is...
    (not now!)
    "Thirsty," she said, her voice a frail croak.
    "Sure, I'll get it."
    "Don't... leave," she whispered, but her brother-in-law had already gone.
    A door opened and people hurried into her room.  She saw glimpses of them shifting through her field of view, just glimpses, since they moved faster than her ability to refocus.  A man in a white coat.  A doctor.  Two women in pink scrubs.  Nurses.  They checked her pulse, her reflexes, pupil dilation, though she could now feel the machines attached to her to serve these functions.  Wires clipped to her dressing gown, an IV stabbing her vein (the source of the stabbing cold, she realized), medical tape strapped to her arm.  She felt a sudden pang of claustrophobia.
    A familiar face drifted by her vision.  She focused, could make out a smile, a tired, strained smile in such a welcomed face.
    "Linz," she said, trying to match her smile, but failing.
    Her sister-in-law squeezed between the doctor and one of the nurses still checking on her, and grabbed her hand.
    "Glad to have you back, Angie,"