Tower of Light (Under The Cowl Book #2)

CHAPTER 1

     She ran pass the cluster of low hanging brush, broken leaves, and flakes of dirt kicked up by her trampling feet.

Jessica desperately chased the light at the end of woodland forest ahead of her. The path felt endless. No matter how hard she ran, no matter how fast, the light ahead continued to pull further and further from reach.

Her muscles ached as her breathing grew heavy. You can't stop here, her mind raced. Freedom is just over the hill, what stands to become her great escape.

Sweat drenched her forehead and slid down the sides of her face. Its salty sting seeped into her eyes and forced her tears to emerge. On the inner rims of her lips Jessica tasted its sour and sultry blend on the tip of her tongue before she wiped what stuck on the corner of her nostrils.

Jessica slipped belly first onto the muddy dirt without anything to catch her on her way down. She slapped the cold grass and unforgiving dirt with her open hands flailing to climb her way back up.

She refused to stop.

The balls of her feet down to the rim of her heels sat caked in mud, loose grass, and dead bugs as she rise to stand back up.

Solid ground never felt as free as she continued to run with no one behind her.

Or she thought.

Pop, pop, pop, the echoed sound of metal and lead escaping the barrel of a gun and straight into her spine.

Jessica felt her body stiffen awkwardly against the sudden shock, the electric singe of the nerves forcing her to freeze unattractively in place. She felt her body descend. Her face aimed towards the grass, the dirt, the chipped pieces of broken leaves and snapped twigs waiting to greet her. She fell into darkness.

Jessica woke violently under her thinly layered bed sheets, ushered into the silence of the night while inside her tiny apartment bedroom.

Once again the past returned to haunt her dreams.

She placed her hand on her chest, feeling the violent and rapid beating of her heart.

Relieved that it was only a dream, felt betrayed by another prescription drug sitting on her nightstand and failing to give her the good night's rest she waited so long for.

Rising up off her back, Jessica found her forehead down to her legs drenched in sweat. Just like in her dream. Her sheets are cold and wet, leaving a silhouette of her discomfort and fear of the past underneath her.

Hard to escape what's pouring from the skin, Jessica swung her legs off the edge bed and turned to face the window. Her blinds blocked the light from the billboard across the street. She pulled her blinds up slightly and reached for the window to let in the crisp winter air. Heart racing, muscles trembling, all too real of a dream she still smelled the gun power and the scent of iron soaked in her chewed collar. Not even the cold is enough of a distraction.

The disappointing bottle of ambien sat empty under her lamp. It was the last option she was willing to accept help from. What she did not want she could see it in the corner of her eye; the unopened bottle of Jack Daniels lying on its side next to the headboard. Addicts in her group talked about their urge to reach for the bottle in order to make the horrifying memories of their past go away. Even though it was short lived, it helped them go to sleep. A method Jessica thought of trying despite the consequences of its assistance given the emerald ring on her finger. And she did not need the trouble.