Almost Dead (Dead, #1) (4 page)

A
s I wake, I’m surprised that I’m not in any pain whatsoever. That’s really freaking weird. I did careen off the side of Death’s Cliff, didn’t I? Or was I just extremely shitfaced and my mind made it all up?

My door hangs open, and I slide out
, remembering I wasn’t alone in this accident. The horrific screams of another victim resurface, and I can’t help but wonder if they’re okay, or if they’re dead. God, I don’t think I can live with myself if someone dies as a result of my stupidity. I should’ve listened to Mia, even if her attempt at stopping me from driving home was pretty weak. I could’ve easily told her to shut up about Gabe, that I was tired of our conversations ending with his name, but the fact remains that I didn’t do a damn thing, except act irrationally.

I stumble through the thick brush at my feet. Either I have a concussion and my vision is hazy, or there really is no sunlight down here and everything is darkened, blurred.
The ground beneath my shoes molds to me; each step I take is like walking on memory foam.

“Hello?” I cry out, my voice croaky. “Are you okay?”

Silence welcomes me. This really does nothing for my nerves. Thoughts of death and homicide scroll through my head, like a ticker at the bottom of a news channel. I, Flora Mackey, might be a certified killer, a bona fide slayer of an innocent human being.

The longer I’m down here, the more my senses slowly fall into place.
There are no sounds, not even from the cars above. The rocky cliffside is a sheer drop, and there aren’t any pieces jutting out. But the weirdest part? The fog snaking around my ankles. It’s everywhere, and as far as my eyes can see. There are trees nearby, and last I remember, the sun was out and the air was freezing, yet I can’t see anything in the sky, and I’m not cold. No birds chirp in the trees, no breeze rustles plants. It’s just so…dead.

Something’s not right about this. I can’t be alive. Nobody can fall over Death’s Cliff and make it
. Nobody has ever made it. That’s how Death’s Cliff got its name.

Taking a quick glimpse at my surroundings, there is one important
factor I haven’t considered: I’m awake in a world without color.

My legs propel me forward without any idea of where I might be headed. I definitely can’t go up, as the drop off Death’s Cliff
isn’t climbable, but there has to be a way around, somewhere leading to the safety of the highway. So, I traipse in the opposite direction of where my car rests. Maybe there’s an easier way to reach the road, or maybe I’m already dead. I don’t really know what’s going on at the moment, but my gut is telling me to run like hell, to get help.

“Hello?” I call out again. “Can anyone hear me?” My words
fall into nothingness, as if this place has swallowed them whole. “Hello?” I yell a little louder this time. “Someone? I need help!”

T
here still aren’t any cars on the highway. No noises whatsoever, in fact. Am I deadn>

My legs feel like they’re pressing against an invisible force with each new step I take, like someone or something is attempting to stop me from
going any farther. The harder I push myself to press on, the harder it is for me to function. It’s like I’ve had one intense workout for several hours, and then I can’t walk. I can barely move.

But the second I turn and walk the other way,
my physical hindrance ends. Like a force was trying to thwart me from rambling that way. My legs and body no longer feel weighed down, and my mind doesn’t feel like a dark cloud hangs over it.

By the time I reach the scene of my wrecked car, I’m completely exhausted.

“Hello?” says a weak voice, shredding through the stillness. It sounds like this girl is at the back of a cave.

I jump. Is she the other person who was in the collision?
If she is, thank God she’s okay. Alive, at least.

“Where are you?” The mist, which was steadily
swirling around my ankles, has now risen to my knees. Every new step I take is like fighting against one hundred hands reaching up from below the surface.

“Over here!”
she shouts.

Beyond my vehicle. Is it possible she fell off the other side of Death’s Cliff? It’s a straight road, with two drop-offs on either side. Maybe I went one way
and she went the other.

Passing my
totaled car, I nearly faint. My body is slumped over, my head pinning the air bag to the steering wheel. It’s obvious I’m unconscious, and that I’m bleeding from a gash on my forehead. An invisible ball clogs my throat, and I reach for it, knowing I can’t shake it loose. The aching soreness in my windpipe makes swallowing difficult. There’s a sharp nip around my eyeballs. Everything hits me at once.

I’m staring at my corpse.

Whatever gray nether this other girl and I have entered, it’s not of our world. Or maybe it’s the stuff of myth and legend—purgatory. But if that’s true, then where are the lost souls? Where are the people attempting to claw their way back to the physical realm? Why haven’t I heard a single sound other than my voice and the voice of my collision partner? None of this makes any sense.

Worst of all, I can
see
my body. How is that possible? Are there vortexes on either side of Death’s Cliff, like something straight out of the
Twilight Zone
? I always thought there was a separation between our world and the realm of the dead. They can’t see us, and we can’t see them. Now I know that’s not true.

Ab
out the time the small, unseen ball dissolves in my tlawlves inhroat, Laney Tipps materializes beside me. Can this day get any worse? Seriously, forget purgatory. I’m in hell.

“
What
are you doing here, freak?” she asks.

I grind
my teeth. Like I
want
to be stuck here with her. Like I asked for this. “I’m assuming we were just in the same accident.”

Laney narrows her eyes. “
You’re
the person who crashed into me?” Her laugh is more like a short burst of air. “I think I speak for everyone on this planet when I say, if you had died, I would’ve done the world a favor.”

My fingers curl tightly into the palms of my hands. Everything in me wants to punch the shit out of
her, but the other part of me deems that as too easy. Laney’s never liked me.
Ever
. She and Mia don’t even get along, and they’re siblings. It’s my personal opinion that if Mia died today, Laney would see her funeral as a task rather than a necessity. She’s a complete bitch. That’s all there is to it.

“You know, for a second there, I actually feared
killing someone, but since it’s you—and you don’t count as a human being—it’s not a big deal,” I tell her, throwing in a minor shrug.

She steps forward. “You make it sound like I
’m dead.”

I can’t help the laugh that bubbles up and out of my throat. “
Oh, that’s because you are.”

Laney’s face slackens, and she stares at me, blankly. I motion toward my car
, where my physical body rests, currently slumped over, with my head against the steering wheel. A streak of red runs from my forehead, down the side of my cheek and to my neck, where it disappears into the fabric of my black hoodie. The windshield is nonexistent, only a few shards of glass remain. The engine cover is as crumpled as my legs, and a tree has pierced through the passenger floorboard and exited through the roof. Good thing Mia wasn’t riding with me.

“Wait,” Laney says, utilizing her index finger
. “So, what you’re telling me is we’re, like, really and truly dead?”

“Honestly, I don’t know what the hell we are. I do know we’re stuck in this strange place, and the farther we go
to explore, the tougher it is to move whatever”—I wave my hands over my present shape—“form we’re in at the moment.”

Laney actually takes a few seconds to check herself out, like she
just
noticed my body in the car isn’t in any way connected to me, the person who’s speaking to her. “We’re
ghosts
? Are you freaking kidding me? I’m supposed to be cozying up to Chase right now, working on our relationship.” Glancing up toward the hi aloward tghway, she asks, “Think we can find a way back up there? I mean, maybe someone will see us and help.”

T
he longer I stand here and listen to her ramble, the more I realize she might be in shock. Nobody should see their lifeless bodies after they’re departed; it’s too disturbing. And quite frankly, I’m pissed that I’ve passed on to the realm of the dead, or whatever this place is.

“Hel
lo
. Are you even listening?” Laney props a hand on her hip bone and stares at me like I’m one of her minions she can order around.

Deadpan, I state, “Uh, no. I tuned you out years ago.”

She huffs. “Screw this. You’re wasting my time, freak.” Turning toward the direction her vehicle landed, Laney disappears into the thick brush and knee-high fog.

“Peace out,” I mutter under my breath as I head down the opposite path.

The trees, the bushes, the grass, the mist—it’s all a never-ending maze. Everything is grayed out. There is no finish line in sight. No light at the end of the tunnel. It’s just me versus whatever this place is.

The Barbie wannabe’s
scream pierces the air, and I contemplate whether or not I should turn around. The poor girl might’ve broken a nail, or maybe reality—whatever kind of reality this is—set in and she found her body. My curiosity gets the best of me, and I circle back, traipsing through the thick shrubbery.

As I approach, Laney frantically peers into the windows of her car, then glances all around her. What the hell is she looking for?

“It has to be here,” she mumbles. Her voice rising an octave, she blurts, “Where is it?”

I’m skeptical at first—like, maybe this is one of her stupid pranks and she’ll get a good laugh afterward—but she doesn’t let up.
Bit by bit, Laney Tipps slides into hysterics, and I have a front-row seat. Too bad there isn’t any popcorn or candy.

“But if it was here, it’d have to be right there,”
she murmurs, pointing toward the driver’s seat and then to the ground beside her car. She bends down and swats the fog, whispering, “Where are you?”

What do I say to a person who’s lost their mind? “Laney, I—”

“Sssh. It’s here. I know it.”

There’s really no use in trying to continue a conversation with her, so I attempt to figure out what has her frazzled.
Studying the driver’s seat and the area around her vehicle, I notice one important thing is missing: Laney’s body.

M
y body’s not in the car. Where is it? Where the hell stiG
is it
? I madly claw at the ground around me. It has to be somewhere close. “Just has to be,” I mumble. “Help me!” I yell. Flora just stands aside, looking stupid, like someone who doesn’t have a brain. She probably doesn’t.

“What am
I
supposed to do?” she asks.

“Help me find my body!”

“Laney…”

“We’re in some serious shit, aren’t we?” I glance her way. She doesn’t say anything, so I
press on. “Why are we ghosts? Why can’t we travel away from our bodies, like you said? It’s not
right
.”

Flora opens her mouth to speak
, then takes a long, dramatic pause. It’s something my sister might do, for theatrical purposes. Like they’re in a damn movie. For the record, I know what she’s going to tell me. I know I sound crazy. But guess what? It’s my body, and I’m not going anywhere until I locate it.