Transcend Read Online Free PDF Page A

pictures floated through Ien’s thoughts. He wrestled against them, desperate to regain consciousness, intuitively knowing that he had little time. Death. The word cradled him. Crushed him. The onslaught of pictures slowed, replaced by a barren nothingness that could only be the end of existence.
    But how? Why?
    Truth hovered around him as he tried to reconstruct what had happened. He reached for the fragments of his memories, unable to grasp anything except the raw feelings rising up through his body.
    Pain.
           Anguish.
                   Fear.
    They buffeted against his skin, his soul. Ien rolled with each feeling, moving from his side to his stomach. The rocking motion repeated over and over, intertwined with the agony caused by injuries he knew must be there. The feelings collected into a wave that washed over him. Nothing made sense. His thoughts refused to gel. The only thing he could be certain of was the life still flowing through him.
    Only the living could feel this much pain.
    His body continued to rock, forcing the oxygen into his lungs. Greedily, he gulped for air, desperate for more. Ignoring the feelings wracking his body, he moved his focus to his eyes.
    Why won’t they open?
    He pulled at the lids, willing his body to comply. The strain became too much and he again faded back into the torrent of feral emotion that gripped his body.
    Noises converged on his mind. The clanking of metal on wood. The thud water made as it hit the hard dirt. And voices.
    Too many voices.
    Some of them were soft and sobbed. Others gasped and screamed.
    He reached through the cacophony of sounds, determined to grab a hold of something that could bring him back from the depths. Three of the voices rose up from the din.
    One sounded like the shrill of a woman’s scream, familiar in its intensity. She yelled, at him perhaps. The words, too muddled by the shrieking tone of her voice, were unintelligible. Only a few syllables cut through the noise. “You! . . . stay away from him . . . warning . . . promise . . . your family, ruined.”
    The piercing noise of her voice wove together with a different voice. Male, comforting, familiar. He spoke in muted tones. Ien clung to the words, trying to understand what the voice was saying. It was pointless. Nothing made sense. Still, something in the voice calmed Ien almost instantly. His body quieted as the voice continued. Ien reached for each sound, willing them to pull him from the blackness that trapped him.  
    A third voice seeped into his thoughts, drawing his attention. There was something important about the voice, necessary. Soft and gentle, it seemed out of place amongst the chaos. She spoke only one word. “Ien.” Over and over she repeated the name. The inflections of her voice reached deep within him, resonating through the empty spaces. It reoriented him away from his pain and gave him something tangible to live for—a promise held within his name coming from what could only be an angel.
    Ien bathed in the sounds on her lips and allowed them to heal him. But the voice faded too soon, and the pain pulsing through his body overwhelmed him once again, tossing him back into agony.
    “He’s fading. Quick! Get a doctor.”
    The male voice resonated through Ien’s body as he began to convulse.
    “Stay with me Ien.” The soft, gentle voice again spoke.
    He wanted to comply with her request. He wanted to do anything just to hear that voice again.
    “Please, Ien. For me.”
    “Step away, Ms. McDougal. I begged you to stay away, warned you that this would happen. You are to blame for this. You!”
    No , Ien thought. No. Don’t listen, angel. Stay.
    “But–”
    “Leave. Now.”
    Ien tried to stop his angel from leaving, but his body wouldn’t work. The tenor of the voices grew more frantic, moving in rhythm with the torrent of agony that rolled through Ien. It waxed and waned like waves pounding against a rugged shoreline. He fought against it, desperate