Something banged and screamed. It took me a moment to realize the noises came from inside me. My panicked heart and desperate lungs. The sounds of my body dying. My mouth gave a twitch like it wanted to open, but I clamped my teeth together to keep it shut.
But I needed air. Now. That need swept through me and sounded alarms inside my head.
My arms. They'd moved. Heavy mud suspended them above my head, as if I'd raised them to block the falling death sentence. The weight One and Two used to make me accept my death had somehow been ripped away. Now only wet earth crushed me. But I could move.
Adrenaline fought its way through my panic. Curling my hands into talons, I viciously tore at my grave.
Air. I needed it right this second. My lungs blazed.
The cold soil lodged under my fingernails and wrapped around each finger as I clawed up, up, forever up.