PROLOGUE

The girl woke up from a restless dream filled sleep, drenched in her own sweat like an athlete running in the Olympic marathon. She was scared, confused and felt the relentless urge to scream for help.

She felt strange, a bad kind of strange. It was like she was being watched.

She could feel another presence in the room and it felt cold and dreary.

Her body was on fire, a contrast to the icy cold sensation in the dimly lit room. She whipped off the sheet covering her and rose to stand from the bed but her limbs failed her, making her topple back into the bed. She was as weak as a kitten, floating ungracefully in the air and there was no thumping heart to ascertain whether she was dead or alive, despite her panic and racing thoughts.

The girl looked to the bedside table and finally gave in to the persistent urge to scream. Even the sound came out weak but it was loud enough to attract the wrinkly, keen eyed old woman.

"Easy child. You need to relax," she crooned to the girl as she moved to the bed slowly, leaning heavily on her cane.

Her totally grey dreads testified to how old she was in years. The grey locks fell all the way past her waist to her knees, accentuating her extremely pale and wrinkly skin.

She reached out with her trembling hand to touch the girl's forehead, holding her trembling hand in one of her age spotted and gnarled ones

The girl stared into the old woman's black eyes, dark as death, a bottomless pit of experience and secrets, beckoning her to take a deeper glimpse into what it knows but at the same time, warning her off for what she might find. Her eyes told a story of how old she was in experience.

She looked around the room and her eyes were fixed behind the door for a moment. The girl followed her gaze and felt the icy chill of the room chase up her spine, and she was covered in goosepumps.

"What is wrong with me?," the girl finally brought herself to ask in a weak voice despite the burning felling she started experiencing in her throat. Like she knew what was happening to the body of the young one, she reached for a cup of water by the bed.

She put the cup to her parched lips and drank from the water, greedily taking in every revitalizing drop like her existence depended on it.

"You are going through the Awakening child."

It had not felt like just any waking moment, more like a rude awakening. The girl had questions, starting with the bedside clock.

"What day is it?" She looked back at the clock, where the left corner displayed the date, not believing what was right before her eyes.

"Monday."

"Noooooo..." She could not believe it.

She had slept for four days!

The last thing she remembered was going to bed on Thursday after a nasty bout of severe menstrual cramps_or so she thought but there she was on Monday without any recollections of Friday Saturday or Sunday.

"I know you have questions. But you should calm yourself before I answer them," the old one said soothingly, seeing the wild, panicky look in her eyes

"I....." Words failed her as she stuttered unreasonably. She had no idea what she was going to say.

The burning sensation in her body returned with a pang, making her want to throw off her night shift.

The old woman moved to her side, reading her thoughts again and she proceeded to help her out of the garment.

Her limbs were useless.

She looked down at her naked form. It was hers, from her crooked big toe on her right foot to the birth marks dotting her extremely pale thighs.

But they didn't feel like they belonged to her anymore.

"Mama, what is wrong with me?," she asked again, not having the will to stop the whirlwind of thoughts in her head.

She could not be dead, could she?

How does a weirdo like her know if she was dead?

"Nothing is wrong with you child of my heart. You only got your first message after your Awakening."

That word again. And what was the old one going on about a message?

She wished she could feel a thumping heart or a jumping pulse, anything to tell her she was not dead. The old woman being their did nothing for her because her old self was at death's door already.

She needed answers to questions she did not even know.

With hands shaking due to old age, she covered up the girl's nakedness and moved to sit beside her, going into details, a crying details of what changed the girl's life forever.