PROLOGUE - Dreamstate
The streets were particularly quiet, even for that particular hour of the day. No one was seen outside on the sidewalks, and the roads looked a tad abandoned. No cars were seen at all, except for an occasional one that would had been unnoticed as it passed by, if it hadn't been for noise of its almost noiseless humming engine and the weak smell of rubber tires against the hot asphalt road.
A few high pitched chirps could be heard from the birds high overhead, but none could be seen from the sidewalks except for a few which basked themselves in the sun on the many two story rooftops.
The lawns belonging to the properties were mostly yellow with patches of green, as if there had been a drought and water had not been freely permitted to be used on such menial things.
A steady breeze was cruised though the streets, picking up and disturbing light garbage and minor particles of dust as well as rustling the half dehydrating leaves on the sparse trees planted in the front yards. A single tin can rolled down the street on its own, as if the wind had given it life. It bounced down the road with a half tinny sound that faded as the wind died down a bit. This furthers the illusion of abandonment by time.
A lone figure stood by a rundown two story brick building at one corner of the intersection.
The building was sunbleached, and missing a couple bricks in some random places near the upper floor, so worn that it looked badly in need of repairs, but the main floor of the building was still in use as what looked like a neighborhood coffee shop. The windows were a tad dirty but it can see clearly inside that the furnishings were neat and tidy, even if a tad old fashioned. The lights were off inside the place, and there is a very large wooden "Closed" sign hanging on a hook on just inside the window of the front door.
The figure looked around slowly as if finding itself lost and no idea how it got there in the first place. The slow turning had brought the silhouette into a spot of sunlight where it shone on a batch of fiery long red hair which automatically revealed the figure was clearly feminine. She was of a small stature, not more than 5 foot 2, wearing a lightly faded black windbreaker and a pair of blue jeans. On her feet were a pair of lightly worn brown leather sandals.
She took a look down the empty street in all directions slowly and back at the window of the coffee shop. She didn't remember what happened before getting here or why she's alone, but it felt like a tingling sensation at the back of brain, that she needed to be here, to find something yet she doesn't know what.
The pain of the migraine she remembered always having came back full force and she started falling when her eyes suddenly almost blacked out. Her left hand shot out as she braced her arm on the wall as support. Her vision cleared after a couple seconds, but the migraine is still there. Some unconscious sense was telling her she was close to her quarry, and the migraine that had was caused by said quarry would be ending soon.
Closing her eyes as to clear her head for a couple seconds, they automatically snapped back open unseeing, as if she's using some greater power had been calling her and overrode her senses. As if a robot had taken over her legs, they started walking her in one particular direction, crossing the street as if the traffic lights weren't even in place. If it wasn't for the sheer lack of traffic, there would easily had been a death on that street.
Her legs took her across the street and along the length of the sidewalk until they got to the entrance of a dark alleyway. The shadows down the lane grew darker farther in, as if the shadows themselves are waiting to come alive. She turned to stand facing straight into the alleyway, quite sure what she would need would be down this wretched path.
A bright blinding flash of white light exploded before her eyes, and she automatically used her arms to cover her eyes at the same time as the burning pain of her migraine erupted beyond her threshold of tolerance. Every single part of her body felt as if it's being burned and cooked away, even though nothing on her lightly tanned skin showed the cause of that pain. She screamed out in terror and pain as she collapsed on the sidewalk praying for her life.