Chloe weakly opened her eyes expecting to see the rain still pouring and the dark cloud swirling overhead, but there was only blinding sunlight peeking through a red blanket curtain.

    The smell of pancakes lingered in the air, and the sound of laughter was close by.

    "Wake up sleepy-head, Tom's made pancakes. You don't want to eat them when they are too cold," a voice warned.

    Chloe quickly threw herself up into a sitting position. She was in her red and purple futon back in Cairo. She could hear the loud honks of traffic and the whines of a few donkeys. Her room was warm, vibrant, and colorful. The windows were wide open and brushing in hot desert winds.

    "Mom?" Chloe mumbled in confusion and disbelief.

    It was hard for her to accept, but everything was there just as it had been. All her clothes were hanging on a standing rack in the corner. All her favorite teen novels were stacks on her small desk that was covered in stickers. Her room was childish and innocent. All the symbols of a happy childhood were marked from the glow-star studded ceiling to scuff marks on the floor.

    Singing came from the kitchen.

    Chloe slipped her feet into a pair of pink slippers and left her room to go downstairs. When she reached the edge of the staircase, she could see Tom standing over an electric griddle. He was tossing a few pancakes over while one of his hands turned up the dial on the radio. Chloe's mother was dancing in the kitchen, singing into a spoon covered with pancake batter.

    Her mother spotted Chloe spying on them and turned her serenade from the bowl into Chloe's direction instead. "I love you baby, and if it's quite alright, I need you, baby—"

    Chloe felt her eyes well up with tears.

    It felt like so long ago that life was perfect, just like this. So far removed from the darkness and the dismal. A life bathed in light, music, and the taste of golden griddle cakes.

    "Come on in, I have seven hotcakes with your name on them," Tom said in a warm tone.

    Chloe could not contain her emotions. She raced down the last few steps and ran towards them as fast as she could, but the more she ran, the further away the kitchen seemed to feel. She tried to just match her pace and move her legs quicker, but the hallway leading into the kitchen just kept stretching, and stretching and stretching. . .

    She reached out her arms in desperation, trying with every breath to scrape the walls and push her toes against them for leverage. Anything to get her closer to them.

    Her mother's singing echoed. Tom's voice started to become fainter and fainter.

    "Don't go! Don't leave me! I need you!" She cried to them.

    Their forms started to become smaller and smaller.

    "Mom! Tom! Please!" She choked on her words. "Please. . ."

    She felt a hand touch her back.

    She looked up to see Dominic standing just behind her.

    Chloe immediately held onto him and buried her sorrows deep into the fabric of his shirt. "They left me, Dominic."

    Dominic ran his hand down her hair and pressed his lips close to her ear. His smooth and seductive voice echoed out two words, "Join them. . ."

    Before Chloe could question his words she felt something very sharp puncture her skin. There was the pounding against her temples and the pain started growing. She pulled back from Dominic to see he had stabbed her—right in the heart. . .

    Dominic stood with a stoic gaze, dressed like a hunter. A bow against his back, a golden blade with a mirror hilt. His mouth had a wicked smile that did not break the ice in his eyes. A shadow drew out from the corner behind him to reveal Elizabeth, dressed all in black, wearing a crown on her head and with lips of blood-red. Her eyes glowed, filled with sinful magics. She slipped her long, willowy fingers onto Dominic's shoulders. She slowly eased in closer like billows of smoke. Her voice spoke to him in low tones, "Good boy, break her heart. A son will do anything for his mother you know. It's a bond that can't be broken. . ."

    Chloe couldn't breathe. The darkness was growing around all three of them. Her palms reached out for Dominic, wanting to plead with him, but no noise escaped her lips.

    Elizabeth moved like a banshee, tumbles of dark twirls following her every step. She had Dominic's blade in her hand. Her grip reached down to grasp hard against Chloe's throat. Her smile felt like a snake catching fat prey.

    The dagger was drawn closer to Chloe's throat and with a sickeningly sinister smile, Elizabeth uttered, "Who is the fairest now?"

• • •

Chloe bolted up screaming at the top of her lungs. Her legs thrashed, her hands ripped at the air. Pain shot from her arms.

    "Chloe! Chloe stop! You're okay!"

    She recognized Prince's voice. Her vision cleared and her surrounding became more apparent. She was at the hospital. There was—or had been until she ripped it out—an IV running into her arm. Everything was a dream, all of it, the good and the bad.

    "Water," she barely could even say it.

    Prince quickly gathered the pitcher from off the small table nearby and filled a glass and handed it to her.

    "Solara, Sanford, and some of the faculty are here too, they just went to grab a bite to eat." He continued to explain. "All of your friends have been worried about you. They had to notify your family."

    "I have no family," she said bitterly. Chloe swallowed down as much of the water as she could without choking. Her body felt weak and sore. She tried her best to remember what exactly happened. The last thing she could remember was being outside during a storm and that Dominic had carried her.

    "Where is Dominic?" Chloe asked weakly.

    Prince opened his mouth as if to say something and then promptly shut it. He sat down at her bedside. "You really should rest some more."

    She reached her fingers out to desperately hold onto Prince's wrist pleadingly. She felt like she'd fall apart if she didn't know that Dominic was safe. "I need to see him, Prince."

    Prince placed his hand over hers sympathetically. "Chloe. . . do you remember anything about what happened to you yesterday?"

    "Yesterday?" Chloe felt a dull pain build-up at the base of her neck and spine. Her body felt heavy and ached terribly. She could vaguely remember the tree branch, it must have hit them.  "I've been unconscious for a whole day?"

    "He's in the hospital, like you, but he isn't awake, Chloe. . ." Prince spoke slow and his eyes stayed on Chloe's. Guilt was written all over his face. It was like he'd finally realized Dominic's value to him. "I just visited him before I came over to check on you."

    "What?" Chloe felt her heart sink into the pit of her stomach. If she was awake and Dominic wasn't, then that meant somehow, Dominic had protected her. She was on his back, she should have gotten the brunt of the branch, so the only way for him to still be unconscious meant he must have saved her, again.

    She'd lost her mother and Tom. The two people she loved most in this world. Fate felt like the cruelest mistress to desire to take her first love.

    Tears formed in her eyes, she couldn't stop them even if she wanted to. "You take me to see him right now, Prince. You take me to see him!"

    "I think it's best that you rest for a while more, Miss White. We just want to make sure that you are okay. If everything's still good we can look at discharging you later today."

    It was a nurse speaking. A brunette with a tired face and a weak smile. She looked like she'd had a difficult shift with the storm from the night before. The nurse tucked her hair behind her left ear and approached Chloe to check her vitals and the IV that Chloe had ripped from her arm. "Let me get this cleaned up here as well."

    Chloe didn't care about herself at all. All that mattered was Dominic. "Please, I just want to go see someone here at the hospital." She begged.

    "I think you should listen to the nurse, my dear," A cool female voice spoke like a narrator reading a book to children. It was a voice that had the power to make the hair on the back of Chloe's neck stand straight.

    Elizabeth stood in the doorway of the hospital room. Her wicked-red matte lipstick, long-lashed eyes, perfectly botox skin, and a long black pin-skirt. She looked sharply dress, beautifully elegant in every sense of the words and utterly, and completely terrifying.

    She stepped with a model's grace, one heel after the other until she was close enough to grasp Chloe's chin.

    With the most sinuous of smiles she spoke in a low tone, "After-all, Mummy knows best. . ."

_________________

Authors Note: I will be re-editing the story to make the chapters all smaller at some point since they were long to meet NaNoWriMo's quota. ❤