Chapter 1

Muffled voices were coming through, the sound of a monitor giving off a repetitive beeping sound bringing forth a feeling of annoyance.

"Alice..." My voice came out in a croak and I groaned, my head feeling as if it had been slammed between two concrete blocks. "No... tequila..."

"She's waking up." A somewhat deep voice spoke somewhere off to my left and I turned my head slightly in the direction of where it came from. My eyes felt as if they were crusted with days of sleep and they refused to open.

"How are her vitals? Any signs of a relapse?" asked another voice, a female this time around. She sounded somewhat familiar to me; the voice had an Australian accent to it. I had heard it before somewhere...

"Going strong. I think this one might make it."

A sigh of relief sounded to my right and I turned my head in the direction of the sound, still trying to open my eyes to see where I was and who it was that was beside me. "Wha...?"

"Ms. Moreno, can you hear me?"

I let out a small whimper as I felt a warm hand grab mine. My joints felt stiff and there was pain. So much pain. "Relax, Ms. Moreno. We're going to give you a sedative. You're doing very well."

I heard the monitor continuing in its strong beeping and then heard another louder beep before I felt something in my left wrist twitch. Already I could feel myself drifting off as the hand that held mine gave a gentle squeeze and I heard a whisper against my ear. "Be strong. You need to survive this... Prove me right..."

I knew I had said something in response to the voice but I couldn't be sure what. The darkness was taking me back into its sweet embrace.

-o-

The first thing I was aware of in my wakening thoughts was the feel of very stiff cloth surrounding me. Bed sheets... A hospital bed?

A groan was the first thing to emerge from my mouth as I started to move my body. Various places felt stiff. My arms, my legs, my neck, even my fingers and toes. They felt as if they hadn't been moved in such a long time... What the hell happened?

"Ms. Moreno?"

It was that voice again, that woman with the accent. Where had I heard it before? I struggled to open my eyes and was relieved to find my lids responding this time. They felt clean and clear of crust and my lashes fluttered a few times before a fierce fluorescent light from above greeted my sensitive vision. I winced and moved my arm, holding a hand above my eyes to block the light. It took a moment for my sight to adjust to the light and I slowly moved my hand down, my eyes catching sight of a very beautiful woman looking down at me.

She was of Caucasian descent with thick dark hair that was styled loosely and ended about her shoulders. Her eyes were bright and alert, a lovely shade of blue. I knew her. I had met her before but seeing her now seemed strange. She looked younger than I remembered.

"Amanda?"

The look on her was one of recognition but there was shock and sadness there. As if she had not been expecting me to say such a thing. The woman shook her head as she went to take a seat in a chair beside my bed and offered a kind smile. "Er... No. Ms. Moreno, my name is Miranda Lawson."

"Oh," was all I could say in reply as I tried to sit up but struggled, my joints were so stiff. "Sorry. You look so much like her. Are you her younger sister or... her daughter?"

Miranda gave a soft noise that sounded suspiciously like a sob. "L-let me help you," she said as she moved out of her chair to help me sit up.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome." She moved away from me and sat back down in her chair. "In answer to your question, no. However, I am a member of her family."

"I thought so," I said, lightly rubbing my left wrist as I tried to get the stiffness out. "You resemble her, especially in the eyes. Amanda was always concerned about me. More so than she needed to be..." I smiled a little as I thought back on the last time I had seen her. She had always been so insistent on visiting me when I had one of my attacks. "I guess there was a chance she would be too busy to see me herself for once. Oh goddess, my bones hurt..." I continued to rub my wrist as I looked at Miranda. "How is Amanda?"

Miranda's face took on a somewhat hesitant look as she shifted lightly in her chair. "I-Er- Hm..." She shifted again as her gaze settled on everything but me. She looked nervous. "Before I answer that, I need to know Ms. Moreno-"

"Estella," I interrupted, giving a small smile as she glanced at me. "Or El, as my family and friends like to call me. Amanda is one of my closest friends. If she sent you here in her place that means she trusts you. So, please, drop the formalities."

Miranda stared at me for a moment before she gave a nod in consent. "Very well... Estella," she continued, "Do you know where you are?"

"Hospital," I said in reply as I glanced around the room, taking in the sight of the very sterile white walls and gray floors. There were no windows in this room and my bed was one of a few pieces of furniture. It was nothing like any hospital I had been to but hospitals were always modernizing. "I must've had another attack..."

"Attack?" Miranda tilted her head slightly, a look of confusion touching her very beautiful features.

"I'm-" I let out a breath as I shook my head, reaching out to rub the stiffness in my left shoulder. "I have a very aggressive case of ovarian cancer. I'm in the latter stages. Sometimes the pain can get to be too much. Amanda is always having someone with me if it happens. I don't know why she cares so much..." I frowned and looked at her. "I'm surprised you don't know. Didn't she tell you?"

"Not directly," said Miranda, studying me with interest. There was a moment of silence between us before she shifted again and crossed her legs. "Ms- um... Estella, what do you remember last?"

The question seemed a bit off but it wasn't unusual. Amanda asked it often enough when I had passed out and awoke to find myself in a hospital bed. The last moments were always fuzzy but it helped to determine my mental stability. I looked down at my hands; the caramel flesh looked so dark against the stark white of the bed sheet that covered me. I was dressed, though what I was dressed in was hard to tell. It was a black and white skin tight affair with a strange symbol on the left beast. It looked like a diamond with open ends toward the bottom part. It was paralleled by two other lines outside of it. The design was very angular, very modern. I could not recall a hospital that had such an outfit with such a symbol but it was comfortable.

"I was out with a friend," I began, my gaze turning away from my outfit and frowned as I tried to recall the last moments before I had blacked out. "No... My best friend... and my former sister-in-law- though we still think of each other as sisters." I closed my eyes, the memory of that night starting to come back in bits and pieces. "Alice Marie Shepard, if you need to verify with her. We went out for drinks and dancing. To celebrate that one moment in life in which we were nothing more than two women, single and free." I smiled, the memories coming on stronger. "We had so much fun. I love that girl to bits. She's getting deployed to Syria next year and has to head out for boot camp in another week. She was going to be gone for who knew how long and I was going to die in who knew how long..." I opened my eyes as I swallowed at the tightness in my throat. The memories were coming back stronger now.

You ain't dead yet! Be alive tonight!

"We drank too much but we had a blast," I said with a laugh, remembering Alice's awful dance moves. She never could hold a rhythm despite my attempts at trying to teach her. But it never stopped her from enjoying herself. She just simply laughed right along with me. "The last thing I remember is getting into a car with Alice. She had hired a driver to take us around. We were both hammered and heading home." I could feel the tension as I tried to recall what had happened but there were only bits and pieces again. The rest was blank spots, thanks to the alcohol. Or the cancer. "There was screaming... I had blacked out..."

I placed a hand to my forehead, trying to think on what had happened. "Squealing tires... An accident?" I looked at Miranda and shook my head. "Did we get in a car accident?" The panic began to rise as I studied the other woman, truly looked at her, and noticed that her clothing was unlike any style I had ever seen. "Was Alice hurt? Is she OK?" I could see the hesitance in Miranda's eyes and I leaned toward her, trying to get her to look at me. "Miranda, please tell me my sister is all right. I don't care about myself. I'm dying anyway. But if Alice got hurt... You have to tell me!"

Miranda reached out and took my hand in hers, giving it a gentle squeeze while her blue eyes studied mine. "Relax. She had made it out. She was all right."

I let out the breath I had held but my relief was short-lived. I had caught the past tense. I pulled my hand from hers and struggled to sit up straighter. "What do you mean was?" The frown on my face grew as she straightened and clasped her hands in her lap.

"Estella, the accident had happened quitesome time ago."

"Would you care to elaborate?" I asked in turn, my worry beginning to rise. "Exactly how long? A week? A month?" I was beginning to get scared. Had I been in a coma for that long? How much time had passed?

"That accident took place in September of 2015." Miranda studied me as she took in breath and shifted slightly in her chair to move closer to me. "That was nearly 169 years ago..."