As I Fade (One Breath at a Time: Book 1) by Leilani Bennett Read Free Book Online

addressing me. I didn’t really need his crap right now.
    “ Yeah,” I replied, bluntly.
    When I turned toward him, my credit card was sandwiched between his outstretched index and middle fingers. “It was laying on your seat under you. I guess you owe Mary an apology.” He suggested rather snidely.
    Without a thought, I rolled my eyes and snatched the card and said, “Maybe, but really you have no idea what she did to me. She said things to me that were...” I shook my head in frustration at the hopelessness of explaining everything to a total stranger. Instead, I straightened my spine and said coolly, “Thanks for finding my card.”
    The man raised his voice above the crowd. “She’s a character that’s for sure. She knows things and will talk your ear off about them, too.” He laughed. I wasn’t amused. He continued, saying, “Everyone knows Mary. You can ask anyone, she wouldn’t harm a fly. She’s an angel.”
    I supposed I’d failed to see her wings.
    Defeated, I shrugged and smiled. Maybe I did need to lighten up. I definitely felt bad that I’d accused Mary of stealing my card. “Of course, she is,” I agreed, and then exited the train.
    As soon as my heels hit the platform, the solid floor of the subway suddenly erupted beneath my feet. I screamed. I had been afraid of this moment all day long. Little Mary, Mary quite contrary—the supposed angel had surely done a great job of distracting me from my pending fate.
     
     
     
    -3-
    Swept Away
     
    It was beginning...
     
    A dark cloud mixed with a fierce wind swarmed around my body. It seemed as if it was happening only to me. It was as if, I alone was being swept away. My eyes darted over the crowd of people behind me to see their reaction. They were going about their business, rushing away from the platform, jostling their way onto the train and hooking up with taxicabs. Apparently, my plight and I were invisible. Then, before my eyes they had seemed to vanish, fragmenting like digital pixels. One by one, they faded into the vapor. A dreadful rush of adrenaline roared through my body, and a deafening loud boom of thunder shook the ground surrounding the tunnel. My brain went numb with fear, unable to process the events around me.
    “What the hell was that?” I shrieked, as I ran through the winding corridors of the metro. With my instincts kicked into full survival mode, all I knew was I needed to exit the subway and fast.
    I was suddenly overcome by a tidal wave of disorientation. I didn’t know which way to go. I ran in circles for what seemed like forever. The sounds of car horns, voices and chaos traveled through the subway in battering waves, trying to drive me to my knees. Everything began to look the same as I searched for a way out of the train station.
    My gasping, burning lungs begged me to stop, yet my legs couldn’t stop racing toward my inevitable destiny.
    Instinctively, my fingers fumbled for and gripped my necklace. Begging for guidance, I cried, “Please, not yet, let me get home first.” As if in reply to my plea, another tremor shook the tiles beneath my feet. In theory I hoped this was a dream.
    Reaching the ground floor, seconds away from the exit, I ran as fast as my flimsy stupid high-heels would carry me, up the cement stairs. Slapped in the face by the powerful wind, I stopped to gulp in a breath of the cold evening air.
    The painful knot in my ribs throbbed. Out of breath and strength, I bent at the waist, panting rapidly to relieve the need for the oxygen my exhausted lungs craved.
    I stayed that way long enough to pacify—if not satisfy—my greedy lungs, then straightened my posture. I tossed my straggling hair out of my eyes and quickly assessed my surroundings. Unexpectedly, the sun had already set. The streets were desolate of people. There wasn’t a living soul in sight. Where did everyone go?
    “ I don’t have time to stand around wondering,” I thought as my mind kicked into gear again I inhaled a