She stared up to the night sky, the stars twinkling dully, trying to gather her breath. As she tried to get up, the man fell on top of her. He drove a knee into her stomach, and the pain in her lungs, begging for air, was like nothing shed ever experienced.

But then she felt something slip into her stomach. It was sharp and somehow cold and she felt it slicing through her muscles. There was a tight pinching sensation as something vital was pierced. Somehow, it hurt even worse when the man drew the knife out. He leaned down closer, his nose almost touching hers. His breath was in her face but all she was truly aware of was the knife going in again…and again.

Lucinda thought it might have gone in a fourth time, but she wasnt too sure. By that time, the stars overhead were growing dimmer and the sky seemed to fall slowly down over her and swallow her up.

CHAPTER FIVE

The bedside clock read 4:15. She wasnt sure when she woke up, but the little sleep she got had been fragmented, broken. Rachel turned to her right and looked at Peters sleeping shape. The sheets covered him from the navel down and she took a moment to appreciate his body. He had never been one to worry about abs or muscles but hed always been blessed with an unreal metabolism and managed to seem to be in at least decent shape. She toyed with the idea of reaching out and stirring him awake but couldnt do it. She was tired and stressedthe perfect recipe for caving in and telling him the terrible news.

Coward.

It was a word she called herself many times during the course of the night. Oddly, though, Rachel was okay with it. Untimely death had caused enough damage to her family long before shed been married. Her mother had died in a boating accident just two days after Rachels eleventh birthday. Her father had done his best to run things as a single father but had abandoned her, leaving her with grandparents that, though they loved her fiercely, had not been prepared to raise a child while in their sixties. While her mothers death had been unexpected, Rachel thought it might be even worse to know it was coming. To tell your family you were going to die in a yearthat set up a morbid little chain of dominos that knocked over plans and future visions, hopes, and dreams.