All Your Angels

Prologue

Cassandra

Oct 5, 2018
Present day

I must have been shot in the head. It's the only plausible explanation for the piercing pain at the top of my forehead right now. I keep my eyes closed for a few seconds, knowing my headache will only get worse when I open them. When I finally do, the brightness forces me to close them immediately. I wiggle my fingers to get an idea of where I am. I'm definitely not laying in a bed. My fingers are stiff and it takes more energy than usual to get them to move at all. I try to lift my head up, but it feels stuck in place. Am I paralyzed?

"Fuck." I say out loud, mostly to see if I can even talk. When the sound leaves my throat, I become increasingly aware of the dry, bitter taste in my mouth. The taste resembles the feeling of getting water in my nose in a pool full of chlorine.

When the pain seems to spread evenly throughout my body, I decide to try opening my eyes again. I slowly lift my eyelids and fight through the urge to close them again. I squint hard to see what's around me, but all I can see is blue in every direction. It's a soft blue, like the color of the sky in the morning. Wait, am I looking at the sky?

I tilt my head to the side as much as I can, and at the same time, the taste of salt fills my mouth. It has the texture of dirt, but the saltiness burns the back of my throat. I spit as much of it out as I can.

My thoughts go silent and I try to focus on the sounds around me. When I hear the clash of waves breaking near me, I finally realize that I must be lying on a beach. I shake my arms and legs as hard as I can, and finally break myself out of a thick layer of sand. I brush the remaining clumps of sand off of my stomach and when I see my bare stomach, I panic thinking that I'm completely naked. Reluctantly, I look down at my chest, ignoring the sore muscles at the back of my neck, and heave a sigh of relief when I see that I'm wearing a bathing suit top.

I slowly pull myself up to my feet and take in my surroundings. I'm definitely on a beach. The ocean is less than 30 feet away from me. There's nobody else here except for me. The wind is throwing clouds of sand into my body, so I sit back down and try to collect my thoughts.

How did I get here?

Where exactly am I?

Who am I?

The last question sends me into an internal panic. Why can I not remember anything important about myself? The only details I can remember aren't helpful, like the fact that I know how to play chess. I can shuffle a deck of cards pretty well. I know how to drive. None of these bits of information tell me anything significant though.

I pull my legs into my chest and try to calm myself down. Maybe I just drank too much and it will just take a few minutes for everything to come back to me.

I sit in the same spot for at least an hour, unsure of what to do, and nothing about my memory has changed yet. I feel a few tears slip from my eyes, but I'm not sure why. Despite all the pain in different parts of my body, the one feeling that stands out is the pit in my stomach. Something feels extremely wrong, and my body seems to remember what my mind has forgotten.

Suddenly, I get the feeling that I'm going to be sick. I hunch my body over and my body heaves as if my stomach is trying to empty itself, but nothing comes out. This goes on for a few minutes until my body gets exhausted and I lay back down on my side.

I lay like this for what feels like forever until I hear something in the distance. It sounds like a voice. I look up from the ground and see a distant figure on the beach. It looks like it's getting closer to me. I prop myself up on my elbow and look closer. Whoever it is seems to be approaching me quickly, as if they're running. I don't know whether I should be scared or thankful. I choose the latter because I'm not sure there's anything that could be scarier than my current predicament.

I stay frozen in place, waiting for the person to get to me.

Just as they get within 50 feet of me, a sharp sound of a gun can be heard in the distance. I look in the direction of the sound, but I don't see anyone who could've caused it. When I look back, I see the person has now fallen to the ground. It only takes me a second to put two and two together before I'm on my feet moving quickly in their direction. I'm not thinking clearly or I might not be so fast to run in the same direction as someone who just got shot. After all, this person was clearly coming towards me.

Within seconds I'm kneeling on the ground next to their limp body. I notice that whoever this stranger is, they're a man. His jacket is quickly becoming stained with blood, and knowing nothing about what to do in this situation, I shakily press my hand against the wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

"I-I'm going to find help." I stammer over my words. My hunger and fatigue mixed with the stress of the situation is making everything around me spin.

Before I can run to find help, the man grabs my arm.

"I'm sorry for not trying harder." He says vaguely. His hand falls from my arm and drops to the ground dramatically. My eyes are frantic as I try to find anything to help this man. When his head falls to the side, I see a puncture on his neck from where the bullet hit. It pierced right through one of his tattoos. I quickly push myself away from him for two reasons.

The first reason is that I've never seen someone die.

The second reason is that I know exactly who this man is.