Desolation Comes Upon the Sky

Devil May Care

She was alone. The street was dark, lit only by the occasional streetlight, and snowflakes fell through the cold winter air, covering the ground. The young girl pulled her thin jacket tighter around her body, suppressing a shiver. She hated life, and she hated living like she did. They had fought again, and now she had been thrown out of the house for the night as punishment. She kicked at a loose stone, sending it clattering down the street. Stupid foster family. Like they gave a damn about her.

Suddenly there was light. A bright, blinding light that was gone as soon as it had appeared. Darkness surrounded the young girl as the ground vanished from beneath her feet, and the next thing she knew, she was falling.

There was screaming. Fire flashed across her eyes and singed at her back as the screaming grew, a chorus of deafening cries, growing louder and louder with each passing second —

"The soul has escaped."

Alex's eyes flew open, and all she could see was a blinding light that burned her vision. She flinched away, a silent cry catching in her parched throat. The screaming was coming from machines; they surrounded her, and their cold, monotoned shrieks chilled her to the bone. There were voices too, two, three, four, but the garbled and slurred words didn't make any sense. They were drowned out by the ringing. The world spun and jolted beneath her, and suddenly Alex felt nauseous. A voice rose above the rest, desperate and insistent, and a hand gripped her arm, but her limbs felt heavy and distant. Darkness pressed down on the edges of her vision, and Alex welcomed the comforting emptiness.

...

Princeton, New Jersey

The light was back, but not as harsh and unwelcoming as before. Alex cracked open her eyes; part of her was curious as to its source — the rest of her didn't care. The world still spun, but the nausea and the ringing were gone. "You're awake." There was a voice in the room, a woman. But Alex didn't respond. She only let her eyes fall closed as the pain took hold. Everything hurt, from her head to her toes, and her heart raced within her chest. A hand came to rest on her arm. "Can you talk? How are you feeling?"

What? Alex groaned, and her fingers, stiff and sore, curled in her sheets.

"Ma'am, can you understand me?" The woman spoke again, and Alex turned her head away, finding the voice loud and grating to her ears. "Ma'am?"

Footsteps retreated, but Alex barely noticed, her toes curling at the pain that raged through her body. "Doctor? She's awake again." She could hear the woman speaking to someone outside the room, but the response was too quiet for Alex to hear. "No," the nurse said, "she hasn't. You should try -- she always listens when you talk."

"You're awake." Footsteps approached, and then there was those same words again, but this time the voice was low. Soft. Male. Alex forced open her eyes to look up into the newcomer's face. "There you go." Warm blue eyes sparkled, and crow's feet appeared in the corners of the man's eyes as he smiled, glancing back at the nurse who stood outside of Alex's line of sight. "You gave us quite a scare, you know. It's good to see that you're finally with us. Now, what's your name?"

Her name? Alex blinked. What was her name? "I ..." Events were coming back, slowly yet surely, random flashes in time with familiar yet nameless faces. "Alex." Her voice rasped around the word, and she tried to swallow, but her mouth was dry.

"Alex," the doctor repeated, and the girl managed to nod. "Well, Alex, my name is Dr. Chase. You're in Princeton Plainsboro Hospital because you had a very bad accident. Do you remember what happened?"

An accident? Alex dug deeper into her mind. A face kept reappearing, over and over again in her memories. Dark hair, blue eyes -- who was he? He was the key to it all. What was his name?