I awoke to the sound of soft rain drumming against a window.
My eyes refused to open at first, fighting off the light sweeping over my face.
It took a lot of coaxing to finally open them.
When I did open them, I was utterly surprised.
The ceiling was a pure white color with a single light hanging delicately over the large bed I was tucked in.
The floor was a white ocean, swirling around the room.
The bed was pushed against a white wall, a nightstand to the right and a closet to the left.
Across the room a large flat screen tv was hanging on the wall.
The right wall was a huge landscape view window.
It took up the whole wall, except for a tiny strip near the top that had a bar for the curtains nailed in.
It was drizzling outside.
The windows were covered in fog, making the outside view unreadable.
I moaned and rolled over.
Everything ached.
I rubbed my eyes slowly, adjusting to the spinning room.
Where was I?Why am I here?I moved my legs slowly under the thin, white sheets.
I felt no fabric.
I wasn't wearing any clothes!
Panic swept over me.
I lifted the covers.
My eyes widened in sheer confusion.
Instead of my dark skinny jeans and tight, bright blue shirt, I was wearing a soft fabricated gown.
I felt my face light up.
My heart started pounding, my head ached with unanswered questions floating around in my thoughts.
There was a sudden knock at the door.
I practically jumped out of my skin, recoiled, and quickly dropped the covers.
As the door began to open, I swatted frantically at the sheets, forcing them down.
I slid down into the bed and closed my eyes, faking sleep.
I heard footsteps making their way to the bed.
A shadow rolled over my face.
I tensed.
"Wake up, human girl," A foreign voice spoke.
I recognized that voice.
I let out a faint sigh, still rolling with the fake-sleep-plan.
A warm hand gripped my shoulder.
My eyes flew open.
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" I spun around and tried to smack the hand away.
Surprisingly, the hand moved out of the way easily then made a quick grab for my wrist.
My breath caught in my throat.
The warmness began to spread through my arm, inching towards my heart.
I hissed and pulled my wrist away.
I glanced up.
It was the boy.
From before.
His eyebrow was raised in a mock expression, his dark gray eyes giving off mischievous looks.
His dark hair hovered close to his eyes in a hot mess.
His lips were pressed together, the ends curling up into a smile.
He had tan skin, some freckles dotted his face.
His height and muscles fit him perfectly, he looked lean and built.
All in all, he was gorgeous.
"Who are you? Where am I? Why am I here?" I bursted out.
The boy looked taken back by the load of questions, then slowly relaxed.
"I am Ajax," He spoke once more in that foreign accent.
Ajax?
"Like the cleaner?" I asked.
He looked confused for a moment, then continued on.
"No. Ajax is meant as 'powerful warrior'. I go by Jax," the boy named Jax explained.
"Oh," I replied with a dumfounded tone.
"What do you go by?"
"Me? I go by Rena," I answered.
"Rena. Peace," He began muttering to himself.
"Ajax. Cleaner," I mimicked his accent.
He mumbled something about girls and turned away.
"This is Gia," Jax turned back around to peer at me.
"Gia?" I tilted my head.
"Yes, Gia, one of the main countries," He gave me a smart-mouthed tone, as if I was stupid.
But where's earth?
Before I could ask, Jax began to ask questions himself.
"Why are you here? I cannot answer that. But what were you doing attacking a Shadow? Where did you come from?"
I gave him another dumbfounded look.
"I don't know where I came from. I remember landing on the ground with that 'shadow' thingy hovering over me. Before that, I can't remember anything. Its almost as if I appeared out of thin air. And that scythe? Was it mine?"
"I believe so. Don't think too hard. It's best you rest… for now. But we must hurry before they find us," Jax finished quickly.
I raised my eyebrow.
"They?"
"…Its no one," He sighed.
His words hung in the air.
Then it was one of those 'okay-what-now' moments.
I looked at the covers, eyeing the spot where my feet were sprawled out.
"Hey…did you undress me?" My words cut through the silence.
"Is that bad?" Jax asked innocently.
"Is it -Is it bad! YES THAT'S BAD!" I flailed.
Jax ducked out of my way, escaping my menacing grip.
"I did not know!" He cried.
"Since when was dressing a girl alright?" I hissed angrily.
"It's allowed in Gia. Boys undress and dress girls all the time," He snorted.
I felt my stomach drop.
He didn't mean…
No, he couldn't have.
DID HE?
"DID YOU DO ANYTHING TO ME!" I blurted out instantly.
At once, I wished I hadn't.
Jax gave me a bewildered look and tilted his head.
"What do you mean? Of course I didn't."
"Do you have any idea what I'm talking about?" I began to laugh, realizing that this boy, who looked almost 17, older than me, did not know what sex was.
He only blinked his stormy eyes, covering me with their longing gaze.
I stared into them for a moment, imagining myself standing on a horizon overlooking a brute ocean full of swirling waters as a sheet of cold rain washed over me, the sky turning a dark color until even the darkest of charcoal wouldn't be able to compare to the clouds roaming across the sky like a hungry mountain lion.
And that's when I realized I had lost myself in his eyes.
I snapped from the trance and rubbed my forehead.
Jax pushed my feet over gently and plopped down onto the bed.
He began to rub his temples.
"This does not make any sense," He whispered darkly to himself.
I only raised my eyebrow when he droned on,
"You don't remember anything before the Shadow. You were fighting him. You had a scythe. When I found you, he was taking your soul, absorbing you. Yet…you're still here. Any normal human would have been dead, and you claim to not come from Gia. I don't smell any Element blood in you. You look and smell like a normal human. And your name, your name is Greek for 'Peace'…" He trailed off. Then suddenly, he snapped his head up and stared at the wall blankly.
"Shadow's tend to grab a hold of people and take them to different places. Cities, states, districts, worlds, or even realms apart. And during that transition, whom ever a Shadow takes loses their memory about their past life. The Shadow then takes their soul, after they've don't a bad deed, and send them to be reincarnated. And over and over again, they relive their life, damned by Lucifer. Whatever bad deed they have done wrong in their past life ends up re-living over and over again until finally, they re-do it themselves and break the curse.
"It could be that you aren't a human. But instead, you take on the form of a human. But, since you were fighting the Shadow, then that means you've been reincarnated before," He finished
I gave Jax a horrified look.
Me? Shadows? Elements? Smelling? WHAT!
"Okay, whatever prank this is, you need to stop," I sniffled.
He looked away from the wall and eyed me with a weary look.
"Light Aura's have an everlasting soul. This means that their souls were forever pure. But what I don't understand is why a Shadow would want to attack a light aura, after the truce, unless something in the future must be stopped," Jax looked away again, clenching his fists.
All this talk of Lucifer and Angels made me want to pull out a Bible for some help.
Although I've never been a huge Bible-reading, lord-praising kind of 'gal, a Bible sounded handy dandy at the moment.
Right now, Jax wasn't making any sense, none at all.
I wanted to reach over and smack the silly out of him.
Obviously, this was a sick joke that he was playing on me get back at me for whatever.
But then again, I could not remember anything that happened before that Shadow had dropped me onto the frozen, pine covered floor of the murky forest.
And where did the scythe come from?
How could I be this angel-light-aura-thingy?
How could I have done something evil in my past life when I could barely even hold down my lunch over a fly?
"Jax, you're not making any sense. Listen, if you're pulling a prank on me, whether I know you or not, I suggest you quit. Now where's the hidden camera?" I began moving when a sharp pain pierced my chest, smack dab where my racing heart was located.
I clutched my chest and yelped in pain.
Jax looked calm as I fell back against the soft, feathery pillows in the bed.
Sweat beaded down my face.
My breath came out in ragged, short huffs.
Just from moving, I was exhausted.
"Relax, as I said before," He snapped.
Jax's eyes were no longer a darkish gray that I lost myself in.
They looked more confused and clouded with fear.
I relaxed my grip on my chest as Jax moved closer to me on the bed.
Some part of me clung to the bed, curious of what he was about to do.
Most of me wanted to yell, 'STRANGER DANGER!' and bolt away.
After what he just told me, claiming that I was some angel that had been reincarnated and nearly stripped of her soul because she had done some bad deed in one of her many past lives, did not make me feel comfortable being around him.
When he looked at me, his gray eyes consisted of a hungry look, their gray depths gnawing into my mind, begging for me to wander into their land.
I tried to resist them.
Here I was, staring at a boy in the eyes with a dumb look on my face.
How lame of me.
I trembled slightly, unsure of what was going to happen.
I was so confused, so frozen, my mind buzzed angrily as it tried to fend Jax's glare off and make sense of what was happening at the same time.
I couldn't move, not only because of Jax's glare holding me down, but because of the fact that I felt as if I was going to implode every time I attempted to inch out of the bed.
Jax placed his index finger under my chin gently, then tilted my head up.
I gave him a scared look.
"Jax, what're you doing?" I whispered urgently.
I tried to back away to only ram my head into the wall behind the bed.
Jax opened his mouth then exhaled slightly.
A bright-light-looking gas slowly trickled out of his mouth.
It began to run like a river around me, glowing a dim-silver color.
Heat washed off of the light like waves, encircling me with it's warm arms and clutching me tight.
I closed my eyes, taking in the soothing heat.
I let out a sigh of pure relief.
It made me realize that the light itself was seeping into my skin, surging through my body and making me glow.
When Jax closed his mouth, the warmth seeped away, and the slow trickle of light coming from his slightly opened mouth stopped.
"Do you know what I am, Rena?" He spoke in a different voice, more deep and confident.
I shook my head, all this information sent my thoughts scattering.
And if Jax was dead serious, then I would have to rely on him for the answers to my questions, even though he made things much more unclear.
Jax stared for a moment, then smiled and sat up.
He stretched his arms out and took a deep breath.
"Haven't done this in awhile," He muttered.
"Haven't done-" I didn't get to finish my question.
Jax had let out a short gasp of pain as a bright light blinded me, making me cover my eyes with the back of my hand.