Darrell tried to lift her head to look around, but groaned quietly and rolled into a ball instead. Her body was wracked with nausea, her head felt as though it had been split like a piece of firewood, and even her eyeballs hurt. Sure knowledge crept around the edges of her misery, but she pushed all thought away and focused on what little light she could see. The darkness was cut by thin, golden threads in the shape of a tall rectangle hovering like a halo at some indeterminate distance. A door? She heard a scuffling beside her and straightened her neck to try to see the source. I’ve felt like this before. A large rat scuttled over and peered into her face. “Agh!” Headache or not, she wasn’t prepared to face down a rat under any circumstances. At the sound of her voice, the rat scampered across the straw-covered floor, and as Darrell leapt up, understanding swept through her like a flood. Delaney gave a low growl as he scrambled to chase the rat. Darrell grabbed the dog as he ran past and dropped to one knee.
