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

deep breath of endurance and leapt into action, taking a shortcut through the back-alley and down through the city. Every so often, I flashed a glance over my shoulder, praying I would find nothing but the woeful darkness.
    There was an unnatural force approaching me from behind. Although I couldn’t yet see it, I felt it fiercely moving forward; its power tugged at me, pulling me backwards. Like treading in quicksand, and getting nowhere. A dense fog crept up on the back of my heels, changing the look of the world that I once knew right before my eyes. My cheeks stung against the sharp wind, hot tears turning cold, streaming down my face. Intermittently, I continued to glance behind me.
    In the path behind me, the lights of Paris powered off one by one. I couldn’t believe what my eyes were reporting to my brain. Inexplicably, the buildings were changing shape. This sent my heart rolling down into the pit of my stomach, which was telling me to run, run— run faster!
    A burst of fear-fueled speed put more distance between my invisible foe and me. Still, I was losing precious time, and couldn’t succumb to the temptation to look back. I hastened my movements, cautiously forging into the grayness. Fear ran through me. Encroaching darkness drew my gaze upward. The roiling gray skies looked like a paint bucket was being emptied from high above. Black liquid dripped over the city like an oil painting gone wrong.
    I careened around the last corner, just short of my destination and paused for one more glimpse of the city that I’d grown to love. The Eiffel Tower lights flickered to black. My heart nearly stopped. There was no time to delay. Just a stride away from the old brownstone, even in my treacherous (not to mention, torturous!) high heels, I was reluctant to slow down.
    I flew up the weathered steps and keyed in my entry code with no regard, 4-4-4. A simple pass-code that I wouldn’t have to give any thought to remembering. I pushed through the front doors, heartbeats slamming out the scary moment that passed and raced towards the dark stairwell. My heart pounded with anticipation. I was certain he would have been long gone by the time I had returned.
    Panting and out of breath, I yelled up into the vacant stairwell, “Hello! Are you here?”
    Glancing down at my watch it read the stroke of midnight. How was that possible? When I’d disembarked the train, it was rush hour. Where had the time gone? The tiny hairs on my arms rose. There was no beginning or end to the goose bumps that covered my body. I flipped the light switch at the end of the staircase. No surge of electricity powered the lights on.
    In the dark, I paused for a fraction of a moment, listening for a response. I stood there wondering if I should risk venturing upstairs. At this point, having received no reply to my call, I really had no other option. Why wasn’t he answering?
    I called out for the second time, “Please if you’re still here, let me know. I’m scared and I don’t know what to do. The city—everything is fading away. Or maybe it’s just me, ” I muttered under my breath.
    Feeling as if my heart was giving out on me, I sat down on the first step of the staircase, thinking that, like the old song says, “what will be, will be.” In the meanwhile, I needed to calm down and allow my racing heart time to relax a bit.
    Upon the inside of my closed eyelids ran a slide show of scenes from just a few days ago: he, and me.
    His flawless features were engraved onto every cell of my memory. He wore his jet-black hair styled long and carelessly swept off his face, exposing his chiseled jawline. His bone structure would have been a sculptor’s dream to recreate into a fine work of art. Those strong muscles that traced along his jawbone would tighten automatically, an autonomic response whenever a negative energy was looming nearby. He had a prominent nose, perfectly positioned and straight as a blade. When he laughed out loud, I could swear