The first thing Elise was aware of when she started to rouse was how much her head was throbbing. It reminded her of the first and only time she'd agreed to doing some tequila shots with some of her coworkers one night after work and the hangover she'd experienced the next morning.

But that almost paled in comparison to this pain. It was like someone had driven an ice pick through her temple.

Then Elise became aware of the loud and shrill beeps that were sounding less foggy by the moment as she woke. They did nothing to help her aching head. [color=00aeef][i]What time is it?[/i][/color] she wondered, [color=00aeef][i]God, what DAY is it? I feed so...what did I do last night?[/i][/color] She tried to think about the previous night, tried to think about the last thing she remembered doing, but she couldn't. Her mind was swimming, her thoughts and memories were cloudy, and her head continued to pound painfully. 

She wanted to throw up. 

But first she needed to turn off that freaking alarm.

Eyes still closed, Elise reached her left arm out to hit the button on her alarm clock. But where her alarm clock should have been there was only open air. Her hand didn't even touch her bedside table. Something was wrong...something other than this hangover. A hangover she shouldn't have because she hardly ever drank that much. Elise became aware that she was lying on a lumpy mattress, a mattress she didn't recognize.

Then she heard a thump and a noise of surprise that she had not made. [color=00aeef][i]Oh God, I'm not alone...[/i][/color]

Almost instinctively at the realization of another presence Elise tried opening her eyes and sitting u[p. Both proved to be mistakes. Light hit her eyes, almost blinding her and sending another stab of pain through her temple, and sitting up just made her head spin. After several moments of nursing her head, Elise finally managed to push herself slowly into a sitting position and eased her eyelids open.

She was greeted with a jarring color of orange. It was so bright it made her eyes hurt, but she hardly thought about that. What she thought about was how she recognized nothing surrounding her, not the walls, or the bed, or the rest of the furniture. She wasn't in her room. Her heart thumped and she felt panic creeping through her. 

Then her brown eyes fell on the opposite side of the bed she was sitting on and the girl on the floor. The girl who had obviously fallen to the floor from the bed where she had been lying next to Elise. A girl that was as much a stranger to Elise as this room was.

Elise could only stare at her for a moment, her eyes wide as she tried to process what was happening. It made her head hurt again. [color=00aeef]"Who...who are you?"[/color] she asked, her voice sounding strangely slurred to her ears.