Once upon a time, a girl was born. She was a beautiful thing, with obsidian hair and grey eyes that nearly paralleled a mirror. She lived in a kind and caring family, and grew up well. At the age of 14 she had matured into a beautiful young woman who captured the eyes of all the men in her village. Many had already asked her for her hand in marriage, but she steadily refused. There was always something missing, she knew she couldn't live there forever. Her future was not decided, unlike the girls around her, she had no wish to marry and spend the rest of her life raising children in this rundown village. She wanted to see waterfalls, and mountains, and something other than the pine trees barricading her from the outside world.

"I hate this! I can never write anything good!" Raelyn shouted as she threw the crumpled piece of paper she hand been writing on at the wall. "I was born into a family of writers, somehow I should be able to write more than just a paragraph." Exasperated she landed on her bed and lay there starring at the ceiling. After a couple minutes she got up and walked towards the large worn bookcase, which held millions of pages full of written wonders. She randomly took out a book, it didn't matter what one, as long as it was a book. Eragon. It was the book that had originally stirred her to write a story. If Christopher Paolini could write something that children and adults around the world scrambled to read, why couldn't she? Since that time she had come up with a million and one answers to that question, none of them positive.

The thing is that this time, writing a story was actually important. She had a creative writing assignment due at the end of the break and it counted for nearly half her grade. It wasn't supposed to be this hard to write a short story.

Eventually she gave up on writing anything of value that evening, and took a walk around her neighborhood. It always seemed to help her mother when she did that. Sometimes she would wake up to the sounds of her mother opening and closing doors at five in the morning. Suddenly a screeching tore her out of her daydream as a bright light flooded her vision. Then there was nothing, just pain and black, the first of which eventually faded away.

So that is how Raelyn found herself sprawled across the sidewalk of main road, her crimson essence slowly dripping out of her and flowing down the cracked pavement to the gleaming bumper of the enemy. The shattered headlight cast an eerie glow onto the small red stream traveling down the street. In the distance cries and the wailing sound of the police could be heard.

She woke up to the smell of flowers. She didn't know why there were flowers around her, but they were there. People walked around her, throwing cautious glances towards her as they went on with their business. Carefully she sat up, wiping the dirt away from her face. She looked out to her surroundings, realizing for the first time that she didn't know this place, or at least she didn't think she did. It seemed at the same time alien and normal. The beggar on the corner of the street, the butcher four stores down. It all seemed familiar, but… not.

"Are ya feeling unwell?" asked a voice in a thick accent that she remembered, but at the same time didn't. "Ya hit your head mighty hard went that cart near ran ya over"

"Uh… yeah I'm fine…" she said as the boy belonging to the voice helped her up. "What happened? Um…"

"The name's Erick." The boy said with a laugh towards the girl. Something inside her clicked though, and she realized that she should have known that. "And ya were near run over by a cart. The man driving it was arguing with his lady and he lost control of the horses."

"Yeah… I should know this stuff, shouldn't I?" the girl asked shyly.

"I suppose ya should, but ya'r head might be a bit messed around with b'cuz ya hit it real hard." The boy said, smiling. "Do ya remember anything?"

"Well all of this looks familiar, but not enough for me to actually know who, what, when, and where. But now I know who you are… you're supposed to be my friend aren't you?"

"No, but I will be your guide. Your family moved into this here town not too long 'afore that. Do ya remember anything else?"

"No, nothing else. Well... There's something about school and an important project… but I don't quite get it." The girl answered.

"Well, ain't that funny? Ya only have one memory and it's about something ya've never done. School around these parts is only for pretty rich boys." Erick answered with a laugh.

"Where do I live then?" asked the girl.

"Follow 'long. I'll bring ya." Said Erick as he sprinted down the street, his bare feet hitting the ground with a rhythmic beat. People shouted around her, their constant and busy movement dizzying. She surged afterwards, quickly realizing that dresses weren't made for running. Erick turned a corners, and she veered violently around as well, going faster and faster so that she wouldn't loose him in the crowd.

Suddenly she stopped; she remembered something about hating dresses since childhood. Their oppressive weight and the suffocation that generally followed produced and image of a little girl dressed in a mound of cheap lace and hot cotton. She looked miserable and ready to burst out screaming, but she kept quiet. She felt a drop of water fall on her cheek, and looked up to see her mother crying. She became worried and tugged on the sleeve of he mother's dress. The woman looked down at the little girl, a sad smile gracing her lips. The little girl hugged the woman, and a warm hand came to rest on her tiny little ones.

The girls was snapped out of her daydream by a loud cracking sound and man saying, "Ready?" then an electric shock coursed through her, making her lurch forwards and fall into the mud at her feet. Tears rained from the sky ad a second shock coursed through her, followed by a blinding light and an earsplitting crack. Her heart beat faster now, a beeping resounding around her each time it beat. The rain dissipated, letting the sun stream through.

"Come on in! Ya'r parents want to see ya!" shouted Erick from the doorstep of on of the houses. Quickly the girl followed his through and found herself in a cozy living room. Memories of sleeping on the couch after staying awake all night with her friends and making camps out of the pillows and blankets flooded her mind.

"Oh, Honey… I missed you so much! When I heard you had gotten run over by that cart I thought it was a prank or something straight out of a book. I never though that it would happen to you!" wailed the woman that just appeared in the doorway. She immediately ran over to the girl and held her hand in hers.

"Calm down, Barbara, she'll be fine," said a voice from behind the woman. The girl tried to look behind her to see the face of the man, but she couldn't. "She's a tough girl. She'll survive anything."

"Honey, she's not a character from one of your novels. She isn't superhuman, not anymore than the rest of us…" Barbara said, cupping the girl's hand.

"But she'll make it through, she has to…" the man said.

"Mister, Miss, can we come in?" asked a girl for the rest of the three who crowded the doorway.

"Yes girls, I doubt that anyone minds you being in here." The man answered as the group entered.

"I don't believe it… how could she have gotten into this kind of mess?" asked one of the girls, while another started to cry. Immediately they tried to reconcile her. She pushed them away.

"May I?" she asked as the woman, Barbara nodded. Then the girl then felt a finger trail down her arm, quietly calming the crying girl.

"Susana, she'll be fine. Don't worry about her. She wouldn't want you to." Said a girl with bright red hair. Susana nodded her consent and stepped away, letting the others trough.

"That doesn't mean I can stop worrying though." Said the first girl to have spoken.

Erick appeared by the girl's side. "Lookey, everyone is missing ya!" he said with a smile.

"But why are they so sad, I'm here and I'm okay… aren't I?" the girl asked, confused by the reactions of the people around her.

"Ya might think you are fine, but they know better. Being hit by a cart in no small scratch. Come one, you must be tired." Erick said, getting up and walking up the staircase. The people around the girl had disappeared, letting her follow the boy with ease.

"Here's ya room, ya can sleep if ya like." He said, showing a comfy looking mattress and quilts. The idea of sleep suddenly became very enticing. Slowly she slipped into a warm blackness that radiated safety. In the background she heard someone say "She's stable at the moment. We'll tell you if anything happens."

When she woke up, light streamed into the room from the large window to her left. Erick was sitting on the edge of the bed, watching over her, his childish face bathed in sunlight.

"Did ya sleep well?" he asked, still smiling.

"Yeah, I slept well… by the way. Can ask you a question?" the girl asked.

"Ya just did, but yeah, go ahead." The boy said, laughing at his joke.

"What's my name?" the girl asked as the boy stopped laughing.

"So you're finally ready, aren't you?" He said with a self-indulgent smile. "Are you sure you want to know?" he asked back, his youthful joviality replaced by a grim seriousness.

"Yeah, why not?" the girl asked, confused and startled by the boy's transformation. The loss of his accent and his I-could-care-less mood scared her more than she wished to admit.

"Names are heavy burdens. They hold immense power, are you absolutely sure you want to know yours?"

The girl took a big breath and said, "Yes, I want to know my name. What's a life without one?"

"Good, you understand their importance. Your name is Raelyn." The boy said solemnly.

"Raelyn… Raelyn…" the girl whispered, tasting the name and realizing that she knew it. A flood of memories soon followed, her surroundings blurring into each other as bursts of light flashed by her, showing different periods in her life. One showed her as a kindergartener on her first day of school. Another flash passed by and she remembered how she had met her friends.

"Raelyn!" a voice whispered, shattering the stream. "Raelyn…" the voice whispered again, calling her out of her dream. "Raelyn…" the voice said again. This time she recognized it. It was her mother's voice!

"Hey Mom…" the girl, no, Raelyn said feebly.

"Honey, welcome back!" Raelyn's mother whispered as she scooped up her daughter and hugged her with all her might, tears of joy dripping onto the crumpled hospital gown. Suddenly four people entered the room, a man and three girls.

Realyn unbound herself from her mother and raised a hand in greeting to the new arrivals. "Yo!" she said a little louder this time. The four stood there in amazement, one dropping her drink on the floor.

"Oh my god… Raelyn?" asked one of the girls.

"Yeah, what did I miss?" Raelyn answered back.

"Well… a lot. But the quick version is that you got run over by a car and went into a coma. But more importantly you're back!" said another of the girls. The one who had told the others not to worry about her.

"Coma eh?"