Today I'm linking up with Alyssa and Emily for their bi-monthly writing link-up, Snazzy Snippets! If you'd like to find out more, read the latest post here.

There are three different prompts this month, and all of them worked out well for Petrichor, my NaNo novel from 2013. It's a bit of a trainwreck at certain parts (as all first drafts are), but at least I managed to find a few gems in my 100,000-word tangled up mess!

My narrator in all of these snippets is Cobie Stirling, and you can find out more about her from reading the snippets or clicking here.

Yesterday, I saw things I haven’t seen in... well, ever. The stories my dad told me were replaced with real experiences. I saw blood and guns and an actual crime scene, and I had to watch as a bullet was pulled out of someone’s arm.

Now, Dad’s stories are real. Actually, they’re more like nightmares.

When someone I walked to the hospital--Decker--has a brush with death, it makes me want to marry Ryker while we still can. And maybe, if we do that, I can get out of this little house and this town that’s too small for my dreams. Except, for all the hell Oakridge has given me, I still love it. There are inexplicable things tying me down here, and I don’t know whether to stay or to cut myself free.

I lie down in bed. I don’t know what to do with myself. I don’t want to sleep. I don’t want to be awake. I don’t want to be conscious, I just want to float away and disappear. I wish I was back in the cove, I wish I was somewhere else.

My hair lays on my face, a soft, tangled mess, and I don’t care enough to push it off. I close my eyes and pretend I’m on the back of a motorcycle. It’s a small escape, but it’s something.

After a few minutes of that, the mental pictures have done nothing but make me homesick for a place or a feeling I’m not even sure exists. I get out of bed, the fall chill clinging to my legs, and I open my desk drawer and pull out Blade’s old polaroids. I lay back down and lay them all on my chest, holding up one at a time to study them in the moonlight. There’s one of me and Ryker, my arm wrapped around his neck. Another one is of the falls, which soothes me, because that’s my home. There’s one of the blue sky, the white clouds puffy, the blue of the sky deep and slightly grainy. This one makes my heart ache, and I’m not sure why.

I look at them for a while into the night, even though I’m still not sleepy, I end up falling asleep somewhere around 3 am. The last thing I remember is a shot Blade must’ve taken while Ryker and I were on a motorcycle. The shot is taken from the back, the motion blurring, the sun bright, and as I fall asleep, I can almost taste the freedom.