For a horrible instant, Kyle had the crazy thought that he was going for a gun.

A viewer learns to see it, to identify the gestures and motions, one horrible instant after the next.

At the same horrible instant, she recognized the offensive smell on her pillow.

They remained stiffly upright for a horrible instant, then the butler plunged forward on his face in the road.

For a horrible instant he realized that he had come very close to shooting himself in the thigh.

For one brief, horrible instant he thought she'd left him, had gone from his life without saying goodbye.

The whole battle had happened quickly, like the passing of a brief, horrible instant in an all-too-real nightmare.

For a horrible instant, he felt like crying.

For one horrible instant, she feared she'd died and gone straight to hell.

For a horrible instant I thought the pane was going to break and come tumbling down on me, but it held solid.