Blog Tour: Near Death

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Welcome to  my stop on the virtual blog tour for Near Death by M.B Mulhall! Today, I will be sharing with you an excerpt from Near Death!

~Excerpt~

As Gabe turned to leave, Sara grabbed his arm. He started to ask what she wanted and saw

she was staring across the field. Gabriel followed her gaze and saw what she was fixated on.

The mysterious boy was standing in plain sight in the middle of the empty playground. Jackson

turned and noticed him too. Jack glanced at Gabe and gave him a slight nod. Gabriel leaned

down to Toji and told him he’d be right back and that he should wait there with the girls. He

dropped the boy’s hand and returned Jackson’s nod. In a flash, the two teens took off towards

the playground in pursuit of the green-eyed boy. Jackson veered left while Gabriel veered right,

hoping to catch the stranger in the middle. The mysterious boy stood there, eyes wide, panic

evident.

 His body shook with fear.

The boy turned his head, looking for an escape route. There was nowhere to go. Jackson

and Gabriel were coming up on him quickly. They both reached out to grab the blond boy and

somehow ended up grabbing each other. They fell to the ground in a tangled mess. While trying

to extract themselves from each other, the girls ran up to them, Toji in tow. Marisol lent a hand

to help Gabriel up while Jackson stood up and brushed off his clothes.

“Where did he go?” Jackson asked. “He was right here! You all saw he was here, right?

Where could he have gone? I thought I had his arm in my hand...How did it end up being Gabe’s

arm? Am I losing it?! Tell me you guys saw him too!”

“Relax, Jack. We all saw him. It’s not some crazy dream or a hallucination,” Sara said. “He

just seemed to vanish into thin air.”

Marisol nodded in agreement.

“One second he was there and the next he wasn’t.”

Gabriel knelt down so he was at eyelevel with Toji.

“Toji, did you see the boy that was on the playground?” Toji looked frightened, but

nodded. “Have you ever seen him before today? Is he a friend of your sister or your family?”

Gabriel continued. Toji was reluctant to answer. His small hands were clenched tightly in front

of him and his little body was shaking slightly.

“It’s okay,” Marisol said. “You can tell us.”

“I saw him once before,” Toji said in his soft voice.

“When was that?” Gabriel asked gently.

“It was....It was the day of the accident,” Toji said, barely audibly. Gabriel looked up at his friends with a worried expression.

“You saw that same boy the day your parents were killed in the car accident?” Marisol asked.

Toji’s lip trembled, tears rolling down his cheeks.

Gabriel glared at his sister.