Spirits: Waking Up Alone

Awakening

    It was dark. Black. No stars, or even a moon to shed any light in her dark world. It had been pleasantly warm around her, but the warmth was fading, replaced with a biting cold. Voices whispered around her, but they sounded far away and echoey. The cold increased dramatically, then again faded into warmth, and a tiny speck of white appeared as the voices faded away.

     She watched, the warmth growing as the light came towards her, expanding as it drifted towards her outstretched hands. It was so close, she could almost touch it, and hope filled her heart. But then the light vanished, leaving her to cold again.

     Then it was just the dark. The dark and the cold. And the numbness that spread through her finger tips, spreading across her body until it was impossible to feel anything. She lay there, not knowing whether it was just seconds passing, or entire days, but the numb tingling sensation spread into an almost painful prickling that jolted her awake. And she opened her eyes.

     The light blinded her as she sat up, and she closed her eyes again against the glare. But she sat up slowly, trying to get adjusted to the sudden light. Blinking hard, she lowered her hands from her face, trying to get her bearings.

     She was in a field of browning grass and large, gray stones that were smooth, sitting snuggly in the ground. Each one had carvings in it, and as she looked closer, she could pick out names from the worn engravings. The one behind her read 'Kiara Yurei'.

     "Kiara Yurei," she said softly, nodding her head slowly. She liked that name. Kiara.

     Slowly and shakily, she got to her feet. Where was she? Actually... Who was she? Why couldn't she remember anything before she woke up? How had she gotten there?

    Panic beginning to fill her, she glanced around wildly, but saw nothing but a black, barred fence surrounding the field. Somehow, she realized that there was a town nearby. She couldn't see it, she didn't know how she knew, but she was positive that there was a town very close by.

     Frightened by her lack of memories, she ran towards an open gate, racing down the grassy hill top towards the small town, her mind a whirl of confusion and panic. She raced past trees, stumbling along the stone path.

     She raced into the town, looking around. She ran up to a random man, "Excuse me, sir, I-" But the man strode away without giving her so much as a single glance. Not wanting to give up, she ran up to a kid about her age, "Hello, could you tell me-" but he, too, didn't pay her any attention.

     "Please!" She called after him, now truly panicking. She reached the corner of the street, racing around it in her distress, skidding on the icy patches over the road, "Excuse me," she said, trying to get a woman's attention, "Please, could you tell me what-" the woman didn't blink as she turned away.

     Now in tears, the panicking girl turned away, shouting, "Somebody, please!!" she reached out a hand to grab the woman's shoulder, then gasped as her hand passed right through it.

    She grabbed her own hand, pulling back as the woman shivered slightly, moving away. Now co fused, she stared at her hand, touching it against herself to make sure it was still solid. She reached out again to touch a boy, but her hand passed through his arm as if it wasn't there. The boy turned as his mother called, and he ran right through the frightened girl's body.

    She gasped, touching a hand to herself in shock. She reached out, grabbing at a person walking past in a desperate attempt to grab something, but again, her hand passed through him. A woman walked through her, then shivered, as if she had just walked through something icy.

     And the girl was forced to accept it: no one could see her. No one could hear her. No one could feel her.

     Tears now flooding down her cheeks, she ran. She didn't know where she was going, she just ran. She had to get away, had to escape from this pain and solitude. She fell through a wall by accident into an old shed, and found herself staring into the eyes of a big, black beast. She shrieked as it lunged at her, and pulled herself back, falling through the wall again and onto the icy streets.

     And she ran again, not knowing if the transparent beast was following her. And she found herself in the graveyard once again, so she flopped down into the grass, then found herself falling through the ground.

     She landed on a rotting corpse inside a buried casket, and shrieked again, pulling back and above the surface again. She found herself sitting on the ground, the long grass blowing around her as she stared in horror at her hands.

    She glanced up at the sky, tears falling from her face as she stared at the quick moving clouds in the thick, gray sky. She was alone. Alone in a cold, dark place with no memories of anything, where she was in a world of the unknown. And it terrified her.

     So lost, and scared, and confused, she let out a pained cry of fear before hugging her knees to her chest. And as the strong wind blew about her, carrying the laughter of the children in its cold clutches, she took a deep breath... and cried.