Jeanne - Book 1- The Oracle

Chapter 1

Once Upon A Time, or; How it all began

Everywhere I look, there's darkness. I don't know if this is the right way to do it, or that I'm just turning blind, until I see a flash of white light. I try to blink or scream, but it's like my whole body stopped working. The rays of light that shine through the vast, almost material darkness form a bright tunnel-like way, only accessible for me. If I look closely, I can see a million little stars, screaming for help... Wait, that isn't right.

In the middle of the open space just at the edge of the forest lay a girl, surprisingly calm for someone who just literally came out of nowhere, staring right into the white sun without blinking once. Her breathing was very slow and for someone who didn't pay enough attention, she could be dead. But she wasn't.

She was pretty short, small and thin for her age, but how could she possibly know her own age? Her hair had a little bit of every colour, from mudbrown to strawberryblond, it wasn't very clear in the bright sun. Just like her eyes , which normally shone like double rainbows. Everything of her was small, her arms, hands, legs. Only her hair, which, though it now was in a ponytail, normally pointed into all directions, and her eyes , that were big, bright and gave her an always-curious look. Well, not now. Now they were just two dull, glazed pupils that didn't do their job right.

She didn't knew how long she had been lying there, and she didn't care. Her mind was empty and only the sun, bigger than ever before, had her attention. It was like something in her head was blocked. It was like someone had turned her off like a light switch, like she was trapped in her own body. She didn't knew how she had got there or what she had been doing before, but she didn't even try to remember.

Eventually she turned her head sideways and looked at a wild rose growing beside her. A drop of dew that lay on a leave of the beautiful red flower slided down and fell with a 'plop!'-sound on the with grass covered ground.

It worked on the girl as if she had been electrocated. She sat upright and looked wildly around. The questions that were hold up in her mind all the time now finally came out. Her mind submerged itself with thoughts now she finally realised what was going on.

'Where am I? What's going on? How did I came here? What happened? What am I doing here? What time is it? Where's everybody? Who brought me here? Who am I?'

'Who am I?' That question stayed stuck in her head. Wild theories flooded into her now over-active mind: I'm a princess who has been kidnapped in exchange for the king's treasure. I'm a crazy maniak who managed to get out of a mental hospital. I'm an axe murderer, a knife murderer, a strangler...

She looked at her hands. Those fragile little things were far too weak to strangle someone, to hold an axe or to throw a knive at someone.

This calmed her down a bit. She sorted out her thoughts and decided that she couldn't be a mental hospital client or a murderer or a princess, because that was just ridiculous.

But who am I than? What's my name?, she kept thinking.

She jumped up with this realisation; She couldn't remember her own name.

She instantly fell down again and let out a whail of pain. She grabbed her right ankle; It felt like thousands of pieces of glass were stuck inside it. She must've broken it somehow.

She looked beside her and noticed something she didn't before. Next to her, on the ground, lay a red backpack, clearly packed and clearly hers, since there was no one else to be seen.

That means that I knew I was going away, the girl thought. She took the backpack and zipped it open.

Inside weren't a lot of things: An empty notebook with a pencil, a bottle of lukewarm water, an old teddy bear and a little wooden case with yellow photo's in it with people on it she didn't recognize from which she couldn't make anything out.