Read Online Immortal Storm by Heather Bserani - Free Book Online Page B

shuffle along, never losing contact with the hard soil. Blinded by her surroundings and irritated by her new limitations, she was incapable of fleeing with any sort of haste.
    She let the sobs come, giving in to them in her helplessness. She slumped to the ground and cried for many things. She cried for her situation, for her frustration, for herself. The tears fell until there were none left. Even then, dry sobs wracked her crumpled body.
    It was impossible to grasp the passage of time in the void. She wasn’t sure how long she lay there, eventually running out of strength to even sob. Every now and then her whimpering would echo around her, magnifying her loneliness. The side of her face pressed against the frozen soil and she wanted to disappear in this eternal night. She wanted to lose herself in it, to cover herself in the icy dirt, to shield herself from the infinite emptiness. As the energy to fight drained away, the cold crept in.
    She decided that she must have died after all, and she was stuck somewhere in limbo because the place she was in now didn’t resemble any Heaven or Hell she had ever heard of. There was nothing for her senses to focus on save the unbearable cold. If it were light enough, she was sure she would be able to see her breath.
    She shivered in the blackness, her muscles aching from the temperature around her. Her fingertips had long since passed the painful pins and needles and the throbbing in her toes had also passed. Her teeth chattered and her lungs hurt from the cold air; each breath was a knife in her chest. Her shivering rocked her more like convulsions as her body struggled in a last-ditch effort to create heat. She rubbed her hands together, trying to use friction to warm them, only to discover that her fingertips were completely numb, deadened from the cold. Every movement burned like razors cutting into her amidst Sto hat the frigid temperature. She knew that when she stopped moving, when she gave in, the cold would claim her.
    Dori shook her hands, trying to make the blood flow again, but it was too late. The sting from moving forced the air out of her lungs, slicing another hole in her chest. The icy feeling in her hands slowly climbed through her body; in fact, her forearms were prickling as the cold claimed them as well. Her feet and ankles felt thick as they succumbed to the frigid temperatures. There was no way to escape the torturous polar air. Out of options, she conceded and gave in to death. She thought it ironic that although she had been crushed already today, her last memories of life would consist of her freezing to death.
    She gathered herself into a ball, instinctively trying to get warm; every movement was a challenge with her frozen, clumsy muscles. She had cheated death once today, now her fight was over and it had finally come to collect. She wanted to be comforted. Her mind wandered and memories played like old movies in her head. The vibrant memories were a stark contrast to the cold blackness that was slowly invading her. The images paused momentarily when she saw her daughters being born. These images both intoxicated her with their warmth and cut to her core. The final memory, although fuzzy, was a magical voice and green summer leaves dancing in the wind.
    As the images faded away, Dori became aware of the nothingness around her once again. She lay still. An onlooker might mistake her for dead if they were to happen upon her like this. In this dark place, the only palpable thing was her heartbeat. She listened to it, clung to it, knowing that it was all that tied her to the world she once knew. And then it began to slow.
    Eventually the rhythmic beating was so slow that she could count to more than thirty between beats. She closed her eyes and told herself it would soon be over. After another very long moment, her heart finally missed a beat. She waited. Nothing. She was not in pain, but her heart was still and frozen. She lay there, wondering if this was