he branches of the towering trees of the vast, leafy forest. Small, blue-

e; the smoke from the fires which had su

nsciousness; her eyes opening instantly but the minute they did, the bright light from t

ounding away at it for hours without mercy, and her

she was not sure that she would b

nlight. The world around her was a lush green, unlike any environment she had ev

orest, she rose to her feet to take in her surroundings, and that w

to her knees and clutch her head in anguish. It was as if a hot knife was piercing through her skull without symp

he was in a car heading to Silicon Valley with Victoria, and the next, she was tied to a tree

th the aid of the fire burning from the torches the woman had held in her hands, she would never

es appeared to have been gouged out by some brutal means, her limbs were tw

as a result of screaming. As Naomi cautiously stepped closer to the body, avoiding the bodies of the masked figures who

y that she could neither understand nor control rising from deep within her till it bur

d failed to remember something, anything, that could have made her become a murderer, even though they tried to murder her first. She was n

sbelief. "No, I couldn't have done this. It's not pos

she b

eg muscles, running as fast as she could; away from the horror behind, away from the memories of almost

g through her veins, she could not feel the stinging sensation that they caused. All that mattered to he

having been on the track team in middle and high school, but for some reason, she cou

pressure she was putting it through so after a few more strides, she crashed t

e a piping hot shower, and down a cup of coffee while chasing more leads that could bring her closer to fi

After catching her breath, she began to wonder what had happened after she s

t she was going to the toilet and would get drinks afterward.

she awoke in a forest with people trying to burn her, she could not. It was as if a

r might to push herself to her feet. Perhaps when she had a d

in front of the other as she commenced her search for a sour

. To her pleasure, there were no impurities as far as she could see, s

at of the forest, and it was a we

till she was satisfied and that

d out with earlier in the day, and the old woman who repeatedly spoke in the third person, calling herself Indah, had said that she cou

n it but now, with the strange reflection staring back at her, the

ithin a dream where she would sleep in a pa

y was there another face staring

dly as she rose to her feet. She began pulling at her hair, a habit she had developed as a child as a meth

. As she brought the hair over her shoulder and ran her fingers through it, she became eve

flowing over her shoulder to stop at her hip bone, and was as dark as late evening. Her hair usually took a long time to soften enou

by the hair that now lay upon her hea

color of her hands. She let the hair she was holding fall fro

ly milky. She rushed back to the pond in a panic to peer at the strange fa

not currently panicking, she would have developed a crush on

lot of power and some kind of deceit that did not belong to her. Where her n

unfamiliar body and why she

long as she knew she could. This was all too much

as sure belonged to whoever owned this body, gathering about her ankles, she set out to fig