INTO THE FIRE countdown: 15 days...

...until the release of the sequel to After The Ending.

Today's countdown goody is another longer excerpt, this time from a Dani chapter. Enjoy! Only two weeks and a day to go!!!

Dr. Wesley was holding out her hand, her fingers crooked. “Come here, Danielle. I want to show you something.” She was standing in the shadowed doorway leading into my closet…at Grams’s house. Why is she at Grams’s house? Why am I at Grams’s house? And then it came to me: It’s a dream. 

The doctor turned and disappeared into the oppressive darkness, and tentatively, I followed. Like the small walk-in was actually a magical wardrobe into another world, I pushed through hanging sweaters and dresses—except instead of finding myself in a frozen, winter forest, I emerged into an enormous laboratory filled with a meticulously arranged sea of antique, metal-framed medical beds that stretched as far as the eye could see. It was as though an infirmary from the First World War had been transplanted into an infinitely expansive, modern laboratory. 

“Come,” Dr. Wesley said, walking away from me. 

“What…where…what…?” 

“Come.” Her voice surrounded me, a whirlwind of sound pressed into the single word. 

She stopped by one of the beds. It was empty, with crisp, white sheets pulled tight over the mattress. “You must choose. We can only make two more Re-gens, but we have three recently deceased to choose from. You must choose.” 

“What are you talking about?” I asked, looking away from her and back down at the bed. It wasn’t empty anymore. A body—a person—lay under the covers, the top sheet a shroud hiding his or her identity. When confusion drove me to raise my eyes, I found that all but three of the beds had disappeared and the walls had closed in around us. 

“Choose.” 

I shook my head and backed away, but a wall sprouted up behind me, preventing my retreat. 

“Why do you want me to do this? You’re the one who creates them. You choose!” I didn’t want to see the face of whoever was under the makeshift shroud. 

My stomach lurched as Dr. Wesley pulled the sheet back, revealing the face of the nearest bed’s occupant. 

Zoe. 

She looked serene, like she was merely sleeping, but I knew better. She was too pale, too still. 

No, no, no, no, no… I couldn’t tear my gaze away from her face. “Her, I choose her!” I whispered fiercely. 

“Are you so sure?”