Gehenna: An Awakening

Chapter 1

Ira, is that you?" A voice whispered.

She shot up in a cold sweat, as if fear itself had crawled into her skin. Panicked, she darted her eyes around the room, but it was pitch black, and she was unable to see even her own hands. The darkness and the silence suffocated her as all her thoughts turned to alarms. She had no idea where she was, and she couldn't remember a single person in her life. For all she knew, there were no other people in the world. She couldn't remember a family, or even her own name. Why was that? Why couldn't Clara remember her own name--

She remembered! She was Clara. Clara... Clara... She knew her last name, she had to. It was on the tip of her tongue. Clara... Vaughn! She was Clara Vaughn! She had a family. Memories of Clara's mom, dad, and brother flooded into her mind.

Then came Jaclyn, her best friend, and the town she lived in: Gainesville, Florida. Clara remembered that she had long blonde hair that she usually kept in a ponytail, and that her eyes were blue, her skin pale, and that she was of an average height. She remembered that most of her clothes consisted of plain sweaters, t-shirts and pants, because the last thing she wanted to do was stand out.

As her eyes adjusted to the dark, her environment became more familiar. She was in her bedroom. Her desk was still in the corner, with all of her paper and pencils. Her favorite picture she drew when she was five still hung on the wall above, portraying her and her brother Andrew holding hands.

Wait, Clara thought. I was thinking of something else. But she couldn't quite recall what it was. It was just before she forgot her name... forgot... she... forgot her name? She didn't remember that. She forgot... something, but Clara couldn't even recall what it was anymore, even though she knew she had just remembered it. But what was it? Surely it couldn't have been that important if she had forgotten it that quickly.

She shrugged. It was pointless to keep worrying about it, she decided. If it was worthwhile, she probably would've done more to hold on to the memory. It was most likely just fragments of a dream that she couldn't remember. Craving sleep once more, she plopped her head onto her pillow, blackness overtaking her immediately.

DING! DING! DING!

Clara opened her eyes groggily, trying her best to not accept the reality of her situation. Her alarm was going off, and that meant it was six-thirty. Worse yet, it meant she had to wake up. Clara weakly lifted her arm and plopped it on snooze. Just nine more minutes. That's all she wanted.

DING! DING! DING!

She assumed her nine minutes were already over. No matter how unfair it was, she probably had to get up. Groaning, she begrudgingly turned off her alarm and plopped out of bed.

Clara was unusually tired this morning, given that she went to bed at a good time. Most often, such exhaustion was a sign of having woken up in the middle of the night, but she couldn't remember any such incident.

Well, it didn't matter right then. What mattered was getting ready for school. So, with that in mind, she changed into decent clothes, and made her way downstairs to the kitchen.

Andrew was already there, eating his cereal. He had a slightly muscular build, a sharp nose and scraggly blonde hair with eyes just as blue as Clara's. His height was certainly nothing to be jealous of, but it wasn't a laughing stock either.

"Hey," Andrew said quickly, chomping on another bite of cereal. When Clara simply lifted her arm lazily, Andrew gave her a concerned look. "You alright? I haven't seen you this tired in a while,"

"Yeah," Clara said groggily as she grabbed her favorite cereal from the cabinet. "I don't know why I'm so tired. I'll wake up when we get walking to the bus stop."