How much time had passed? What was real, and what had she hallucinated? All she knew was that the mattress between her felt like a marshmallow, and she was sure that she was sinking into the fabric. For her limbs felt heavy, as stones were weighing them down. She blinked several times, rolling her head to the side. Her senses felt hazed, as if someone had dunked her head in a bucket of water. But luckily, the more she moved her head, the more reality seemed to set in.

Her surroundings were strange, to say the least. She wasn’t hooked up to any machinery and there weren’t people in scrubs standing over her like she was their new science experience. In some ways, that brought her relief. She didn’t need her condition to appear on records, and she sure didn’t want to spend the next few days being poked with needles as they “tested” her to make sure she was healthy enough to leave the confinements of a hospital.

However, if she wasn’t in a hospital, and she wasn’t lying in the alleyway, then where in the world was she? Evelyn groaned as she ran her fingers through her hair. Nothing about this situation could be good. A quick glance down at her outfit let her know that she probably looked like she had just walked off of the set of a horror movie. The only problem was that there was no evidence that the blood was hers. Faint white scars were the only blemishes that remained to remind her of the attack.

A chill traveled down her spine. She wanted to believe she was hallucinating, that the near death experience hadn’t been what it was. But the experience was all too real. Leaving her to quietly wonder, “What was that thing?” But she quickly stilled as she realized that someone was watching her. She closed her eyes, desperately trying to rack her brain to come up with some excuse as to what happened. Sadly, all she could draw was a blank.