Shocking pain. Light burns through my eyelids. My muscles seize. The air around me crashes and crackles, buzzes and zaps. My skin tingles; my body releases.

Then all is soft, silent darkness. I try my hand. It clenches.

I hear a triumphant shout next to me: “It’s alive! It’s alive!”

Jessica Hoard is a writer of over 25 years. She received her MA in Creative Writing from the University of Memphis. She has appeared on stage and screen and has published her photography. Her writing has been published in magazines and literary journals including Breath & Shadow, Pear Noir!, Karamu, The Society of Classical Poets Journal, and Short, Fast, and Deadly among others. She is mother to three cat children and in her spare time likes to go camping in her vintage Shasta camper, Rosie.