Chapter 1
The first sense that she acknowledges is thouch. She can feel the cold rain on her face and soaking through her clothes. Even though she doesn't hear or see she can tell that everything around her, every surface is as cold and damp as her body. Every blade of grass, every leaf growing on the trees around her. It feels like she is surrounded by ice, even though she is certain that it is rain, not snow. The cold is creeping up her arms and down her spine as if it were some sort of virus. It is overwhelming.
After the cold rain has settled onto her skin she acknowledges the scent. The air smells like rain. Cold but beautiful summer rain. The scent of wet grass and blooming flowers around her fills her nose and lungs. It makes it better. Even though she is still utterly frozen, she feels comforted by the familiar scent.
And then, all of a sudden, she opens her eyes. It is indeed raining, but it is no beautiful summer rain. She isn't surrounded by beautiful green grass fields and blooming flowers like she had imagined. In this new reality she is standing on her very own backyard. The grass under her feet is overgrown and messy. There are no beautiful flowers growing and no trees with green leaves. That was all her imagination, or maybe something she had hoped she would find when she opened her eyes. But imagination is not reality. The reality is worse, and now if possible, she feels even colder. The smell of wet grass is no longer soothing, but rather nauseating. It feels as if the fresh scent has now turned into something heavy and dirty.
At last her final sense comes rushing through, and her reality changes once again. The rain is no longer calm, but instead something like a raging storm, filling her ears. The raindrops slamming against everything around her. The grass, the rocks, the house… The house. Her house. She turns around to see her old house behind her, and once again she is faced by something completely unexpected. The house is in flames. The flames are now suddenly removing any bit of coldness from her body and replacing it with the sensation of burning flesh. Her eyes travel from corner to corner. The fire has spread everywhere. She can see it in the upstairs windows, burning down her favourite curtains. She can see it burning the front door, the roof, the walls, everything. It makes her feel as if she would be burning as well. Her eyes burn with tears, her heart burns with sorrow, her skin burns with the heat radiating from the burning house.
Her reality is once again turned upside down when she recognized the familiar figure in the upstairs window.
"Dad?" comes out of her as a small croak.
Her father's face is calm. He is smiling. But it is not right. He is standing in the flames, in the burning house. He should be screaming in pain. He should be screaming for help.
"Dad," Her voice is now a bit louder but still not recognizable. She is now taking her first steps towards the house despite the excruciating heat. And still her father's face stays the same. He seems happy, but that wouldn't make any sense. Thoughts are racing through her mind as she keeps taking steps towards the house, towards her father.
Her hands are gripping the hem how her shirt so hard that her knuckles are turning white.
"Dad!" She finally shouts loud enough for her father to hear. Her father looks at her and instead of worry appearing on his face, he smiles wider.
"It's okay, Clarke." His voice echoes in her ears as her walk turns into running. Her heart is beating in her chest so hard that she can hear it herself.
"No." She breathes out between gasps. The pain that the heat is causing is now almost unbearable, but it doesn't stop her. She has to make it. She has to save him.
"It's okay." The whisper rings in her ears as the burning house suddenly seems to get further and further away.
"No!" She shouts as loud as she is able. The heat is getting more distant and the coldness is making it's way back her spine.
"Let go, Clarke. It's okay." Her father's words are the last thing she can hear and then her reality is gone
Clarke wakes up with a jolt in her cold bedroom. Her gasps for air are desperate and deep, as if she hadn't had been breathing for hours. Her head is pounding with the lack of air and the painful images still running through her mind.
"Just a dream… just a dream." She repeats to herself as she sits up and wraps her arms around her knees and starts rocking her body back and forth in effort to calm herself.
The room around her is dark and cold and her body is covered in sweat. Her blanket has been kicked off the bed, so it now lays on the floor in a bundle.
It takes her longer than usual to calm down, but eventually her heart rate is back to normal. She runs her hands through her hair and combs through the messy blonde locks. She turns around on the bed to look at the alarm clock on her nightstand.
It's 4.23 am.
"Great…" She lets out a deep breath. Her alarm is set to go off at 6.30 am so that would leave her only two hours of sleep. She throws her head back into the pillow and lets out a deep grunt before getting out of the bed. She already knows that she won't sleep well after her nightmare, so why not just get up instead. It's not like she couldn't use the extra two hours on her first day in the new high school.
*Huge thanks to you all who made it to the end of this chapter! The first chapter is a shorter one but the next ones will be a bit longer and will also feature more characters, such as Abby, Octavia, Raven, Lincoln, Lexa, Anya ( Clexa ) etc. So stay tuned for more and I hope you liked this dark start to this fanfic. Review and Favourite If you liked it :) *