Awakening (Book One of the Eklektos Series)

Chapter One

Kali shot up in bed and nearly tumbled right onto the floor. Her head was spinning, and she was gasping as though she had run a marathon. The dregs of her dream were already ebbing away, but the terror wasn't so willing to let her go. She buried her face in her hands and found that her cheeks were wet. Tears? She groaned and wiped them away.

Checking her phone with bleary eyes, Kali moaned when she saw the time. She had overslept again. Struggling out of bed, she tallied up all her usual symptoms. She felt like she was hung over, but without the fun the night before. Her head was pounding and when she opened her curtains she winced as the light sent sharp pains through her. The position of the sun only reminded her that she needed to hurry up.

Grumbling under her breath, Kali grabbed the nearest black trousers she could find and rushed to get dressed. She steadied herself against the wall as she tried to find a safe path across her cluttered bedroom floor. She knew she should do something about it, and her mum wouldn't stop whining at her to clear it up, but it was too much hassle. She'd get around to it eventually.

Kali grabbed her bag off the back of the door, and thumped on her mother's bedroom door on her way past. The curses she heard from the room made her laugh; her mum was always late for work and today would be no different. Kali brushed her teeth in a hurry to get out of Lynette's way and then took her time walking down the stairs. Her head was swimming, and she had a strange but familiar ache in her chest.

Before she left, Kali filled the kettle for her mum to make her usual coffee. With a quick glance around to try to remember what she was forgetting, Kali swept out of the house with a grimace. No doubt, she would notice as soon as she needed it and not a moment sooner. While she walked, she twisted her hair up into a messy bun and winced at the extra pressure on her scalp. It was already promising to be a long day.

She just caught the bus, though she had to jog over when she saw it pulling in. She scowled to herself and avoided eye contact with the driver and her classmates. Instead, Kali pulled out her phone and used the camera to check her hair. It wasn't that bad, but she grimaced at herself anyway; she looked ill. Her skin was practically grey against the white blouse she had to wear, and her brown eyes looked lifeless. How Kali wished she could have inherited her mother's blue eyes. Her father's had been gold, she could remember that much about him, so she didn't know how she got stuck with such a boring brown.

The route the coach took went past an old park. Seeing it every day, Kali didn't need to look closely to see that the once-red paint was gone from the adventure playground. The wooden seats of the swings were splintered and were almost split completely in half, and the carousel was rusted beyond recognition. Kali couldn't bear to stop in the park because she hated to see what had happened to it. She remembered when she was a little girl, not even three, when she used to go to that park with her father. It was one of the only memories she still had.

The journey passed in a blur, as it usually did. Dazed as she was, she nearly missed the stop for the school. It was only when one of her classmates nudged her on their way past that she sprung to her feet. Flashing him a grateful smile, though she couldn't remember his name, she followed the group off the coach. She let the distance between them grow as she walked and focused on the music blaring in her ears.

Kali couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched as she walked through the school gates, but she shook herself. She was just being paranoid. As usual. She hadn't been able to shake the feeling of danger since Jade...

She rubbed her temples gently and headed straight to the bathrooms on the ground floor of the main building to sort out her hair. She couldn't have it up when her head was hurting this much so she put it in a loose plait over her left shoulder to keep it out of the way. She softly touched the long scar on her left cheek and clenched her jaw before lifting her chin to look at the similar cuts on her neck. They should have healed by now. Kali had never scarred before so why were these so stubborn?