The Awakening

The Awakening [Contest « True Magic »]

Evelyne's head was spinning again.   

It was the third time in two days. She knew what it meant. What was going to happen. Hallucinations. Strange, disturbing, sometimes terrifying, hallucinations. Yesterday, she'd hold back a cry of surprise amid English class when a man had walked through the door as if it was the most common thing in the world. She'd blinked, and he was gone. Later, on the road back home, she'd spotted an abnormally large black dog sitting before Mrs. Galloway's house, seeming to peer through the kitchen's window. When it's turned its head towards her, the glowing red eyes in the nightfall had made her scramble home. It had disappeared when she'd glanced through the window, and so she'd blamed it on hallucinations. But this morning, she'd learnt Mrs. Galloway's death, and a far-off, uncomfortable feeling had stuck to her.

"You alright, sweety ?"

The words stuck in her throat when she looked up and discovered the woman before her. Or what it should have been. The waitress who had served her minutes ago was now a taller-and-slender version with pointed ears and golden-like eyes. Evelyne gasped. Then, she saw them too. At a table farther away, people with the same slender limbs and pointed ears, one of them a blueish-haired, scales-skinned male. She could've thought they were all part of a very convincing cosplays party if she hadn't seen two miniature versions of humans with shining wings flying across the cafe to talk to them. The sight made her jump from her chair, panicked, and after some stammered apologies, she rushed out.   

Outside, the spinning feeling worsened. Someone shoved her, and she fell, disoriented. The world turned down when she hit the ground.   

She didn't understand why her hands touched a barren, brownish soil when it has been concrete ground seconds before nor why an eerie, dry wind blew her hair back when there had been none. She stood up, a horrible shiver crawling down her spine at her surroundings. No more city of London. Just a barren, rocky land with a threatening reddish sky. She had to be hallucinating... 

Fear, whole and grounded, seized Evelyne when an unearthly cry pierced through the air. Something big crawled out from the boulders' shadows near her. Glowing, yellow eyes. Death-bringer cry.   

Evelyne ran.   

Heavy, hurried steps from behind told her the monster was chasing her. She pushed herself to run faster, blood pounding at her temples, heart on the verge of exploding. She had to be hallucinating. There was no way she's just magically ended up in another world. Yet everything looked so real. And there was still a beast chasing her. Suddenly, a screech pierced through the air, but not from behind.   

From above.   

In the sky, a flying figure appeared. Membranous wings and scrawny limbs abruptly swooped down on her. Evelyne screamed, arms bracing in a pointless attempt to shield herself.
But the attack never came.   

Voices everywhere and people shoving her made her open her eyes again. Gone the creatures and the forbidding rocky-deserted landscape. She was back in London, on the Queen's Walk on the Thames' southern bank. Only a few blocks away from the cafe. How had she ended up here ? Had she been hallucinating while walking ? Like some kind of walking-black-out ?
What was happening to her ? 

Panic was seizing Evelyne, fierce and uncontrollable, causing her head to spin again, almost to the point of making her sick. She needed to go home. On wobbling leg, she darted for the Westminster Bridge, not paying attention to the people she jostled on her way. On the way over the bridge, a nauseous feeling sent her falling forward, the bridge's balustrade stopped her from hitting the ground. Hands bracing on either side, nails clawing the cast-iron, she tried to take a breath, focusing on the river's calm waters. 

She squinted.   

Something was moving under the water. Gradually, a blackish-violet-haired head came out. Then hypnotic, darkness-like eyes. A sharp smile. And a hand beckoning her. Seeing Evelyne wasn't moving or reacting, it flipped back under the water, and Evelyne glimpsed a deep-blue fish-like tail before it disappeared. As if in a daze, Evelyne slowly straightened up.
When she turned around, the world shifted with her.

Evelyne was in a garden. Nature was surrounding her, peaceful, lush and aerial. She could hear birds singing, butterflies gently flying around her. She was standing before the most majestic, imposing tree she had ever seen, its mighty branches stretched up high in the bright-blue, cloudless sky, offering her the secret of its shadows. An invisible string seemed to draw her to the single, glossy apple hanging from the tree.   

A flash of movement caught her attention. She watched, mesmerized, an abnormally-large snake slithering between the branches. It crawled its head out, yellow eyes riveted on her.
Predatory.   

Without warning, it strikes. 

Evelyne jumped back in terror, a scream dying in her throat as she suddenly bumped into a solid body. As she looked up, she saw she was back on the bridge, before locking eyes with a black-haired, copper-like-eyed man.

« There you are, he breathed. »

Evelyn wanted to ask who he was but no word came out, still awfully shaken by what had just happened. Besides, there was something with this man, his almost-unearthly beauty, the aura of power emanating from him, dark and yet so appealing, somehow familiar, something pulling her toward him, making her unable to look away.   

It would have been no use to ask his name. For he didn't plan to let her remember their encounter. It wasn't the right time. For he was Abaddon. The Destroyer. A fallen Angel. The forgotten lover of Evelyn's past lives. Her visions had started. The slumbering magic keeping her anchored to this world was awaking up. Soon, she would remember who she was. For now, he will look after her from the shadows. 

And when it is time, the story will start again.