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It’s obviously not the first time my sleep has been invaded by the horrors of my past. But tonight, it’s with a vengeance.
Tonight, I watch in slow motion, over and over again, as the device strapped to the bottom of that rickety, shitty little kitchen table in the rundown shack on the outskirts of Kabul turns to liquid fire. I watch it expand, frame by frame, blooming like something utterly beautiful before it suddenly explodes and fills the room with fire and death.
I feel the heat and force of it punch through the air, vaporizing the three men I’ve called brothers for the last five years before it slams into me and knocks me backward out into the cool desert night. In a daze, unable to breathe, I watch that little house on the outskirts of hell burst into a million pieces before the darkness overtakes me.
Then all I hear is screaming.
And more screaming.
I sit bolt upright on the couch, my chest heaving and slick with sweat as the screams tear the sleep from my eyes.
I’m not dreaming. The screams areCallie’s.
Just as I’m about to bolt from the couch, my eyes suddenly focus, and my heart clenches. Right outside the glass door, standing on the patio, is a woman dressed all in black, with a hoodie pulled up over her head, shadowing her face.
She’s lookingright at me.
Then I hear Callie scream again, and a roar.
And I smell smoke.
I don’t have time for ghosts right now.
I whirl, ripping my eyes away from the spooky figure standing outside as I hurdle the couch and bolt across the apartment. I crash into the bedroom and instantly choke as acrid black smoke smelling like sulfur fills my lungs and the throbbing heat of flames slam into me.
The entire wall by the bathroom and closet doors is on fire, half blown out. Liquid flame ripples up to the ceiling and snakes across it, belching smoke and ash across the room.
Callie’s screaming, huddled into the far corner of the room with abject terror and shock on her face. I rush to her, grabbing her face as my eyes stab into hers. But she looks right through me, shock turning her eyes blank and horrified.
We need to get the fuck out of here.Now.
“Callie!” I roar in her face, momentarily snapping her out of it as she focuses on me with pure fear in her eyes. “We’re getting out of here!”
I go to grab her into my arms, but she jerks away.
“Wait!”
“Callie—”
She bolts across the room and grabs her laptop bag before rushing back to me.
“Are you fuckingserious?!”
“I can’t leave it—!”
“Let’sgo!”
Just as I’m yanking her into my arms, something slams against the window next to me with a dullthwap. My head jerks around, and I frown as my brain tries to make sense of what looks like a white splatter of paint against the glass.
Thethwapcomes again, and another splatter explodes across the outside of the reinforced glass.
Oh fuck.
Not splatters.Smashes. The white isn’t paint, it’s fuckingspider cracksof the bullet-proof glass shattering.
This isn’t a random fire.
We’re under attack.
