Chapter 1: Stirring

Prologue - October 8, 2015. New Zealand, Hot Water Beach

"Come on everyone, move in closer," the girl behind the camera smiled, using one hand to gesture people on the left, "you two, the tall lads! Get round the back between the girls!"

"Happily, Annie!" One of the guys laughed and did as he was told, looping his arms around two waists and sticking his head between the others, "Ladies, just doing what I'm told!"

"Yeah, we're taking a picture, not having a competition on who can be the biggest creeper, Kauri," Annie pulled the camera back and looked them all over, "everyone, ready?"

"Ready, take the bloody picture!" Rena cackled as she knelt in front of everyone, holding up two glasses in her hand, "I need to get these drinks in me SOON."

"Alright," Annie put the camera back up and looked through the lens at her friends, finding everything 'picture perfect'.

Annie Trenton was living her life to the fullest. She was happy, a successful photographer and blogger and enjoying the sun, sea, sand and…sangria. Travelling the world had been a wise decision and despite starting off alone and relatively penniless, the last few years had been kind to her and she'd been lucky.

Now, she had settled into her New Zealand life, having received no letters from home, nor word from family or friends. If she had been forgotten, she didn't mind. Haven had its own troubles to worry about.

As Annie clicked the shutter a few times, moving only a centimetre or so to the left or right to change how the light came around them, she began to feel strange.

It started off as a gentle throb, like a twitch, behind her eyes. She stared at her friends through the lens and felt frozen. Like she was becoming a statue. She tried to call for help, but nothing came out. And then, once the stillness faded, the blinding pain exploded in her head. One moment she was standing, the next, she was laying flat on her back.

"ANNIE!"

"Oh my god, somebody help!"

"Call an ambulance!"

Her friends screamed out above her and she could feel hands touching her face, holding her own hand and checking her pulse. But whilst her eyes were upon and her sensation to touch, smell and hear weren't affected, she could neither move or talk. Simply fall. Fall back, down a long, dark corridor. Back into the apparent abyss in her mind.

But amongst her friends own concerned voices, she could hear screaming. Monsters wailing. Something in the darkness, calling to her. Why? Where?

And then, for a while.

Nothing.

X x One Year Later x X

October 8, 2016

"Do you think she'd appreciate a coral or peach varnish today?" Rena held up the two bottles, waggling them at the nurse for consideration.

"I think Coral," Nurse Kelly tapped her pen against her clipboard and worried her brow, "maybe she'll appreciation some of the stick on things as well?"

"Nah, she hated the whole stamping thing," Ren put down one bottle and shook the other up, "tried it once when we first started hanging out. It lasted two days and she loathed sitting still for that long."

Rena sighed and looked at her friend, motionless and hooked up to a monitor.

"She probably hates this as well."

"She doesn't know what's happened," Kelly scribbled some notes, "her organs are still good, she's showing no signs or stress. She's just… asleep."

"I know. I know, we've talked about it fifty million times, but it's been a whole year," Rena stood up from her seat and made her way to the window, staring out at the happy landscape and wondering how so much had changed, "I just wish there was something more we could try. It's either wait to see if she wakes up or wait to see if she dies."

"She's showing no signs of that," Kelly told her sternly, switching into concerned friend mode, "you've been with her the entire time, visiting her every day. The doctors have never once given you bad news."

"Yeah, but they haven't been giving me good news either," she turned back and looked at Annie, squinting, "I hope she appreciates the hair cut when she wakes. There's not much else I can do but make her look nice."

"For when she wakes."

Rena shut her eyes and nodded.

"For when she wakes."

She had been repeating that little mantra repeatedly, something she'd learned in therapy.

'Think positively, but realistically.'

"She will appreciate it. It's a shame we can't give her some highlights," Kelly shrugged and got back to writing, but Rena snorted.

"I tried to convince her to do that as well. She told me not to put any dyes in her hair because she didn't want to be reminded of her mother."

"Cow?" Kelly offered and Rena smirked.

"According to her, utterly."

"Shame. We couldn't seem to contact her family, they-"

"Croatoan."

Both women startled and looked at the figure in the bed. That voice couldn't have come from anyone else, and they weren't exactly experienced ventriloquists.

They stepped closer to the bed, peering at a girl who hadn't spoken in over a year.

And then, eliciting two twin gasps from both women, the figure sat up.

Annie looked straight ahead, her eyes wide and her brow damp with sweat. She still had a small tube connected to her nose and various patches stuck to her, but she didn't seem bothered by them. She merely blinked and took deep, shuddering breaths.

Neither Rena nor Kelly moved or spoke. It was like watching a horror movie, were the undead came back to life and they weren't sure what the first words would be.

But Annie was not undead. She was very much alive. She turned her head slowly, first looking at Kelly and then Rena.

"Hi."

"H-hi babes."

"What the fuck is going on?"

"Oh babes," Rena gave a shaky laugh and carefully sat down on the bottom of the bed, "it's a long story."