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chapter one. the girl of premonitions
THERE she lay, blonde hair cascading around her like a multitude of clouds. Her breathing was peaceful, eyes shut as she let the nightlife overtake her senses... until something caused her to immediately stir.
Her breath caught in her throat, stuttering, shuddering to regain back the air she needed to breathe. As she coughed a few times within her hands, gulping down mounds of air so she didn't choke, her once tightly shut eyes fluttered open, and she swore her heart stopped in her chest.
What surrounded her wasn't her bedroom, wasn't her usual occurrence to wake up to━━instead of her more-than-comfortable mattress laying underneath her figure, it was the tough surface of a forest floor. Instead of her eyes gliding over her white-stained, picture-filled walls, it was the ever growing fields of a forest unknown to her. There was no window needed to look out unto, because she was already outside.
This wasn't right━━she didn't remember coming here, at all. The last thing she remembered was speaking to her mother the night before, seamlessly falling into a slumber in order to get a good night's rest before her first day in a new school. And, she had fallen asleep in her bed, not in the middle of a forest-like place. She didn't even recognise it.
From where she sat, crumbled upon the ground just as the fallen leaves were, she could tell the sun had long since set, the beautiful image of the moon soon taking over. Darkness enveloped her like some kind of blanket. This one wasn't comforting, however━━it wasn't something your grandmother made you in honour of your birthday, or her love; this one had scratchy material embezzled within, holes scattered about, letting in the cold harsh air you wished to escape from.
It seemed there was no escaping this darkness, either.
The girl in question was just moments away from plucking up the courage to stand up and move around, understand her surroundings and attempt to know what was happening, why this was happening, into a crow swung down suddenly, close enough for her to feel the wind against its wings as they flapped. She waved her hand in the bird's direction, causing it to retreat, a low caw echoing within the distance.
But, it wasn't just one crow, it seemed. After the first one appeared, tens more did so. One after another, they swooped down upon her, attacking her like she posed some sort of threat. Claws dug into her skin, tangled themselves within her hair, and a scream fire through her throat, begging for release, begging to be left alone.
They kept coming, continued to tear through her skin until gashes were made and slight drizzles of blood began to pour through the wounds. Nothing seemed to help get the birds to leave her alone, the darkness surrounding her once more, this time seeming to cover her completely, encasing her within its self-made trap, and then━━
