My eyes slowly fluttered open.

I sat up and winced as a sharp pain pierced through my head at the sudden movement. I looked around and took in my surroundings.

I was lying in what I recognized to be a hospital bed. The machine beside the bed that was currently hooked to my arm started ringing loudly.

A nurse suddenly rushed into the room.

Her eyes widened in shock when she saw me.

"You're awake!" She exclaimed as she rushed to my side, her eyes on the monitor that's still ringing. "Your heart rate is really high." She looks at me again her eyes concerned. "I know, you must be scared right now but you need to calm down." She tells me gently, "You're in a hospital right now, you're safe."

"A hospital?" I echo, my voice comes out scratchy. I cough.

The nurse quickly pours a glass of water and hands me the plastic cup. I slowly sip the cool liquid. I feel it sliding down my throat and soothing some of the rawness.

You were in a coma for a month." She tells me gently.

I inhale sharply at her words.

"Just let me go inform the doctor." She said, "I'll be right back."

I can feel my heart thudding wildly in my chest as I take in my surroundings.

"You were in a coma for a month."

A memory flashes in my mind.

The sound of screeching tires.

A windshield shattering.

The pain.

"I was in a car accident," I whispered just as the nurse walked back inside. She had what looked like a red hoodie in her hand.

The nurse gave me a sympathetic look. "Yes that's right, sweetheart, you were in a car crash." She gave me a hopeful look, "Do you remember anything else?"

I shook my head slowly. "Not really."

She held out the hoodie towards me. "You were wearing this when they brought you in. We washed it for you." She winced. "All your other clothes were unsalvageable, I'm afraid."

I reached for the hoodie. I ran my fingers over the soft material.

A couple of minutes later a doctor walked into the room and asked me some basic questions. He shone a light in both of my eyes and checked my vitals.

He gave me a warm smile. "You're all good to go, Juliana."

My eyes widened in surprise, "Juliana?" I asked.

He gave me a sympathetic nod, "You don't remember? It's your name."

I swallowed.

"Your boyfriend came looking for you not long after the crash." The doctor continued. "You didn't have any kind of identification on you when they brought you in. Your boyfriend was the one who identified you and gave us your name." He gave me a tight-lipped smile. "We called him as soon as we got the news that you'd woken up. He's waiting outside."

My thoughts were a jumbled mess right now.

Boyfriend?

As if on cue an unfamiliar man stepped into the room. He was tall, and had straight shoulder-length hair and blue eyes. He was almost too perfect, the kind of perfection that for some reason I didn't find appealing.

Our imperfections are what make us human. There was beauty in flaws and this man didn't seem to have any, at least by the looks of it.

"Juliana." He uttered my name, his eyes shone with relief.

"It's me, Rafael? I'm so glad you're finally awake."

He walked up to my bed and clasped my hands in his,

"I was so worried about you."

~~**~~

I waited as Rafael paid my medical bills and got clearance and then I followed him down the hallway, outside the double doors, and into the hospital parking lot.

We stopped in front of a sleek black Audi. Rafael opened the passenger side door for me and motioned for me to get in.

"You can't trust them."

The warning the stranger from my dream had given me suddenly echoed in my mind.

I froze.

"I'm sorry, what did you say my full name was?" I asked.

A look of impatience crossed his face but he quickly masked it.

"Juliana Emerson." He answered.

I ran my tongue over my chapped lips.

"Rafael," I said quietly, "Who exactly are you?"

His eyes flared in surprise for a split second.

"Your boyfriend, of course. Sweetheart, the crash caused damage to your brain, you have amnesia-"

"You're not my boyfriend." I cut him off.

For a second, I could see him contemplating whether or not to keep up with his façade. Then suddenly, his entire demeanor changed. His face became completely blank, a void of emotion.

Suddenly he looked annoyed. This whole ordeal of pretending was exhausting to him.

"Get in the car." He instructed in a bland tone.

He made a move to grab me. On instinct, my arm jutted out towards him, and the base of my palm made contact with his nose in a quick upward motion. There was a satisfying crunching noise as the man leaped back and clutched his nose, groaning in agony.

I looked at my hands in disbelief. That reaction had been pure instinct.

Where had I learned how to fight like that?

"You bitch!" He hissed. His eyes filled with rage as he came at me again.

In a swift motion, my leg arced through the air with precision, aimed directly at his sternum. My foot connected with his chest and his body recoiled backward from the impact followed by a muffled grunt.

I didn't wait for him to recover. I turned on my heel and sprinted.

My sides hurt and my legs were burning from exertion but I didn't stop till I knew I'd covered a reasonable distance.

I made sure that no one was following me before finally stopping in an alleyway. I leaned against the concrete wall for a moment before sliding to the ground from exhaustion.

The red hoodie the nurse had given me was still clutched in my arms.

"You can't trust them"

The man's voice echoed in my head once more.

I ran my fingers over the material of the hoodie. The familiarity of it comforted me.

It was what had caused the alarm bells to go off in my head.

When the nurse had handed the hoodie to me I'd been hit with a feeling almost like nostalgia. I hadn't recognized it but I'd instantly known that it had belonged to me. A gut feeling.

Yet when Rafael had entered the room I'd felt... nothing.

I trace the letters embroidered on the inside of the hood. The ones that had caught my eye in the hospital.

A name.

My name.

Not the one they had called me by.

My real name.

Evangeline Peters.