Excerpt from "A Little Taste of Red" by Beth Wylde

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Excerpt:
As she went around a particularly sharp curve, her Honda slid suddenly to the right. Tinsel pulled the steering wheel to the left to try to correct the problem. She tugged too hard and the slide turned into a spin. She fought not to panic, pumping the brakes the way she'd been taught years ago in Driver's Education. The vehicle responded by losing traction altogether and launching itself into the trees. Tinsel had just enough time to cover her face before she plowed into the snow bank. The white mound hid the embankment waiting on the other side and as she free fell down the steep hill, she started to scream.

The world flipped upside down and then right side up over and over again. Her car's lack of a working seatbelt ensured that she received a brutal thrashing. After what seemed like an eternity, the car came to a grinding halt when it collided with a huge boulder. The sudden stop propelled Tinsel forward, flinging her through the windshield and out into the wilderness.

She landed in the heavy underbrush of the ravine, hitting the ground with a force so hard, she bounced. The taste of blood filled her mouth where her lip had split and she'd bitten her tongue. More of the red liquid oozed from the dozens of multiple cuts and lacerations that covered her skin. Her head throbbed, too, and her vision was blurry.

She turned slowly to her left side, trying to get a good look at her surroundings. She was rewarded with a rolling wave of nausea and a spell of body-wracking chills. The ground was ice cold, below freezing, in fact, and her body grew colder with every passing moment. It was during the aftermath of one of the shaking spells that Tinsel noticed her leg.

It was bent backwards at an impossible angle and she gasped as she realized how badly broken it had to be. She gritted her teeth in preparation for the staggering pain now that she'd discovered the injury, but none came. In fact, the leg was pleasantly numb.

Tinsel recognized the numbness as a bad sign, but she couldn't remember why. All she knew was that she needed to get warm. She turned further sideways, curling into a fetal position to help conserve body heat. Her broken leg chose that moment to flare back to life with a stabbing pain so intense, she screamed. The whole situation was suddenly too overwhelming and she started to cry as she huddled into her ripped and all but useless clothing. It was impossible to generate warmth in the below-zero temperature.

Tinsel started to panic, knowing the ravine was too steep for her to climb with her injuries. She also knew the possibility of someone spotting the wreck from the road was slim to none. She feared freezing or bleeding to death before anyone could rescue her. She took a deep breath, thankful when her leg started to go numb again, and tried to form a plan of escape. She desperately needed to find help, but she didn't remember spotting any houses close by. She was stuck in a virtually empty forest. The more Tinsel tried to focus on her problems, the harder it became to form a coherent thought. Her vision was getting blurrier and her eyelids were suddenly too heavy to hold open. Just lifting her head off the ground made her head swim and gave her dry heaves. She finally gave up on trying to move, propping her neck on her outstretched arm and closing her eyes. As she allowed herself to drift off, she vowed just to rest long enough to build up some strength. Instead of catching a nap, she blacked out completely.