Prologue
The penny dropped...the girl looked at the man before her and gaped. In that moment she saw who he really was. The violence and pain in his expression was almost wounding her, was this all her fault? Was she was she capable of hurting someone she felt this strongly about so much? Or was this...something else...someone else...something entirely different?
No, it was all her. She could feel the pain shifting around his eyes as he looked at her. She must have done something terrible... but for the life of her, she could not remember what it was. It was simply not there...not a shadow or even a blur, just... nothing. This man was in pain because of her, was dying inside because of her, and she didn't even know who he was. No name came into her head when she saw his face, nearly every day when he came to check in on her in her room.
Come to think of it, she didn't know anyone...She was alone. Everyone seemed to know who she was, but...she didn't know who they were...until the dreams came.
Every night, she would have vivid dreams of the men, women, and children that she saw everyday while she was awake when she was lying on a small, box like bed. In the dreams they were weeping, screaming, yelling, or shooting bursts of red, green, and white light in every direction. While awake, they were tranquil, smiling, and even joyous. And the girl who had forgotten herself was confused. The worst dram she had was of the man she saw before her. The man with pain in his grey eyes always fell down and disappeared through an archway in this dream. It didn't seem too terrible, but every time she dreamt of it, she would wake, even more scared than she would be on those rare occasions that she saw a pale, pale man who seemed timeless and terrifying with slits for a nose and gleaming, bright, red eyes. And she asked herself...What did this all mean?