Chapter One: Awaken

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As I awoke, limbs folded under me like a sleeping bird, my first thought should have been: "where am I?"

Unfortunately, the first question to permeate my sluggish brain was not that. "Who am I?" slipped from my tongue as I sat up quickly. My head pounded as I looked around. Everything seemed to be alright: beeping, humming, and murmuring like a hospital should. The only things wrong were in my head. I didn't know who I was or how I got here. Somehow, strangely, I knew exactly where I was: bed 307 of the Aulton General Hospital in Canton, Ohio, United States. How? I can't begin to fathom. The only other thing I could remember was my name. 

Anyijaverra Mayra Rescottoll.

"Oh, you're awake!"

A nurse in highlighter yellow scrubs with big blue eyes hurried over to my bedside. "I'm Sonya. How are you feeling, honey?"

"I—good, I guess," I managed to cut in before Sonya stuck a thermometer into my mouth and a hand on my forehead. Before she could even read the temperature, she made a guess.

"100.2 degrees Fahrenheit," Sonya proclaimed, as she removed the thermometer. "Ha! I was right!"

"How did you do that?" I managed to ask, slurring my words a little. Strange as it was, I had a peculiar feeling that I was not speaking in my native tongue, yet I understood Sonya and couldn't think of any other languages that I knew.

"Everyone has superpowers, sweetie," Sonya winked. "Now, let's check your file."

Sonya pulled out a manilla file and looked over the mostly blank page inside. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"What happened?" I repeated, still wary of the foreign words in my mouth. I understood the meanings, but they felt so weird on my lips, as if I'd never spoken them before.

"How did you end up here?"

"I-I don't know," I admitted. Sonya frowned.

"Well, do you have a parent or guardian?" she asked.

"I don't know..." I trailed off, wishing I could be more useful. But it was true, as if my memory had been wiped clean.

"Well, what's your name, then, sweetie?"

I sat up a bit, glad to have a question I can answer.

"It's..." I paused. Something told me that Anyijaverra was a bit of a strange name around here, and I didn't want to appear more strange than I already seemed. "It's Anya. Anya Rescottoll."

"Oh! Our names rhyme then!" Sonya beamed, writing down my name. I told her how to spell my surname, even though I couldn't recall ever seeing it written out before. "Sonya and Anya."

I managed a small smile. Really, I wasn't in the mood. What do you do when you're left all alone in a hospital, without any clue as to who you were?

"How did I get here?" I asked. Maybe I had family who would come pick me up and explain to me who Anyijaverra Rescottoll really was.

"You don't remember? Someone, some passerby, they called 911. We found you lying unconscious in Glenn Park. Don't know what on Earth you were doing there. An ambulance came, and you've been here ever since. Three days, almost. We thought you'd never wake up. The funny thing was... well, I suppose it isn't that funny, strange maybe... your heart was beating so fast. Normally comatose patients' hearts slow down while they're unconscious, but yours was beating rapidly, almost too fast. We thought you would die right away."

I nodded. What do you say after someone tells you they thought you died?

"And my family?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," Sonya said. "No one has shown up looking for you, and it doesn't help that we didn't even know your name to ask around. How are your bruises?"

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