Forbidden Orbits Prologue “Five!” The intercom was jarringly loud, echoing everywhere and anywhere. “Four!” I buckle into the roller-coaster. The other passengers start counting with the intercom. “Three!” Ethan grips my hand, “You ready to have some fun, cariño?” “Two!” My first roller-coaster with my big brother. “Only if you are.” “One–” Everything’s black. In that split second of time, between that feeling of pure excitement and absolute agonizingly gruesome pain, there’s a moment of peace. There’s one single moment of a reality you would only find in a dream. And that split second seems to bleed into minutes. And those minutes bleed into hours. That bleeds into days, weeks, months, years, decades, hell, a whole lifetime. And though that lifetime is entirely in your head, you want to stay there. But it’s only a second. And seconds don’t count when your spine is torn out. At least from what I know.
