Warmth rose from a soft,comfortable surface beneath me. Lying on my back I stretched just a bit, pointed my toes and inhaled deeply. The air smelled odd. In fact, it didn’t smell like anything. No gasoline fumes, pizza ovens or trash.
Where the hell was I?
I opened my eyes.
Shit. I was in a coffin. A glass coffin like freaking Snow White in the woods. Except no handsome prince was coming to kiss me and make everything better.
Was I dead? Was this a dream?
I looked down at my body and discovered I was naked. Totally. Completely. Bare-ass naked.
I had to be dead. What happened to me? Recent events struggled through the fog in my head. Andreas. He’d given me his jacket with the strange, glowing thing. I’d gone to the youth center, put it in my fire-proof safe and grabbed Lilah’s leash to take a walk. I’d found the drug dealers who---
“Oh, shit.” Aliens. Where were those two huge aliens that shot me?
And the guys in that black SUV? They’d shot me first, with a very human bullet. Then the space laser. They were going to kill my dog. And me. And ‘dump the bodies’.
“Lilah.” Had she escaped? Run away? Had that jerk with freakingfangskilled her after I lost consciousness? I hoped she had run back to the youth center. There was almost always someone around, and they all knew my great big snuggle-bug of a dog. Lilah was probably with the kids right now, head resting in one of their laps, basking in all the attention.
I ran my hand over my abdomen and hip, searching for the wounds I knew were there. Nothing but smooth skin. No blood. No pain.
Well fine. Definitely dead then.
Highly disappointing; I wasn’t done living yet.
I wiped the tears from my eyes and studied the translucent shell covering me from head to toe. Dead or not, I wasn’t staying inside a glass coffin. And I was going to find some clothes.
Palms out, I pushed up. Tried to lift the damn thing.
“Good God.” The heavy lid didn’t budge. Didn’t vibrate. Nothing.
Good thing I liked leg press on the rare occasion I went to the gym. I didn’t have little nothing, skinny girl thighs. Not me. They were big and round. Might be soft on the outside, but inside? Pure power. I pulled my knees up toward my chest until I could get the bottoms of my feet flat against the glass and pushed. Hard.
“Giiirl poweeeer.” Inhale. Pause. Exhale, push harder.
A distinct pop encouraged me to continue. It was breaking.
A crack appeared under my heel.
“Yes!” Two cracks. Splinters of shattering glass appeared and spread down the sides. I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around my head to protect my face. This coffin was going to blow and I didn’t need a thousand cuts or glass in my eyes. The rest of me? I’d deal with that once I was out of this freakingcoffin.
“Stop! What are you doing?” A deep male voice shouted the words but he sounded like he was yelling at me underwater in a swimming pool. Muffled. Distant.
My right foot thrust forward as the glass gave way under my heel. Searing pain burned through me as the jagged edges of the cover shredded my ankle and lower leg.
Wincing, I pulled my foot back inside and chose a new placement right next to the hole I had created.
I didn’t care how many times I had to shove my leg through, how many cuts I would have. I was going to make a hole big enough to crawl out no matter what it cost me.
Being buried alive in a glass coffin was not okay. Nowhere near okay. I had mild claustrophobia. Most of the time it didn’t bother me.
Right now? Right now, I was willing to do whatever I had to do to get the hell out of this tiny box.
Crossing my arms over my face once more, I pushed with my legs again.
Splinters. Cracks. The distinct popping and crackling noises encouraged me to—
The glass was gone and my feet were sticking up, free in mid-air. What the--?
