Grey (The Spectrum Series: #1) (PUBLISHED)

Chapter One

The trailer is above in the media section

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Blood seizes my lungs before I could suck in oxygen. I can feel them crumbling under my skin with each shaky breath I take. My arms shoot out from under me, and I take hold of a jagged pebble that scrapes my palm. A shriek of pain escapes my lips, and I toss the pebble away. Trying again, I shoot my hands out and grasp onto the cool and hard gravel. I use it as a leverage and claw using both hands, clamping my bare thighs on the coal ground as I move.

I try to stand but the moment I try, a ripping sensation halts me, and another ghastly howl of pain escapes my pruning lungs. I've broken my ribs, I can feel it. Can feel the shards of bone swimming in my chest. And I've punctured my lungs. I didn't pay much attention in Health class, but I know I'm dying. My vision is blinking in and out. I can faintly hear an ambulance, but my ears, too, join my vision and shut off, descending and collapsing against my eardrums.

"Liv," a strangled and small voice leaps through the air, bouncing in the air before smacking into my ears.

I try to speak, try to yell, scream - anything. But I cannot say anything. My tongue feels heavy and my body limps to the side. The crimson taste of metal settles on my tongue, and I swallow it, biting at the bile riling furiously against my chest.

I shift my head and come into focus with the overturned car, and then I spot him, and then I'm screaming, and then I'm crawling over to him, and then I'm tugging at his seatbelt but I just can't get it loose. I must have been here yanking and screaming out my almost non-existent lungs for hours, before arms encircle my waist and yanks me out of the car. And then I'm screaming more, and I'm put in the back of some vehicle, and I spot my parents. They're being checked out by men in white shirts with bright flashlights that pierce through the darkness of the night. And then I hear an explosion. It's bright and furious and wholly evil. It's all too much, and I pass out, his screams mingling around in my head.

I shoot up in my bed, desperate to escape the nightmare that was unfortunately really a memory. His screams linger in my mind and trap me with a crippling feeling in my chest. I groan and sit back against the cherry oakwood of the bed's headboard and take a deep breath. With my eyes closed I see flashes that last a second. I'm gripping my silk duvet so tightly, my knuckles turn purely white. And my heart's pounding as if desires to escape my body. I just want it to stop. It takes a while, but when my heart settles and my hands stop shaking, I let out a deep breath.

"You've got this, Liv," I tell myself, forcing a smile on my sweat beaded face. "What is today? Open your eyes. Look around. Spot an item that tells you the answer. Find it." I have to coach myself to truly settle the anxiety that desires to consume me whole.

My eyes fly open, and I look around my room. Cherry oakwood study desk, ivory shaggy rug, wardrobe - everything seems to be in the ordinary. Except one thing that stands out among the rest. The acceptance letter sent to me by my dream school - Penn State University. Around the framed letter that is the key to my future is a single strip of fairy lights pinned into the cream walls, surrounding the perimeter. It shines like a beacon, and it lulls me out of my bed to stand in front of it. I stare at the enchanting display I assembled myself for this exact moment with a mixture of awe and satisfaction.

For my whole life, practically, I've been preparing for the day I left for college, but not just any school. Every challenging assignment, all the extracurricular (and tiring) classes were necessary tools in making sure I attend this school. My parents attended Penn State, and look where they are now. My father works as a judge in the Supreme Court while my mother is one of the top surgeons in New York City, and I hope to follow in their successful footsteps. I want to have the title of 'One of the top...', I want to wield a power position, I want to make them proud. And by going to this prestigious college, which is one of the hardest in America to get into, I'm on the right path of doing just that.