chapter 1

Dalia gained consciousness and the first thing she noticed was the hospital smell invading her nostrils.

The smell burned her insides, pulling her out if the darkness she had been stuck in.

She struggled to open her eyes as they felt like weights were attached to them. Her muscles ached, making her grunt, protesting to the movements she made. She had never felt this way before. She had trained too much to feel this way.

Everything felt different even breathing.

With effort, she slowly opened her eyes.

A white ceiling greeted her. The fluorescent lights and the faint beeping of a heart monitor was a dead give away of where she was.....A hospital?

Her brows scrunched up but some how even that was painful. Why was she here...what happened to her.

From all her years of training, she had learnt that the first seconds of consciousness would determine whether she lived of died so she stayed still and listened before she moved.

There was the sound of footsteps, the distant conversation between nurses, the steady hum of the air conditioner. There was no danger, at least non she could detect at the moment.

After making sure that she was safe, she slowly lifted her hand, or at least tried to because it felt heavier than it should have. When she did manage to lift them to her view, she noticed that there was an IV attached to the back of her hand. She stared at it with narrowed eyes.

What exactly was she in the hospital....? Was it a failed mission or an ambush but it couldn't be she had never failed a mission before, she was always prepared for anything and she always made provision for escape incase of an ambush. She searched her memories but nothing came up.

Sure she remembered everything else but it was like the last moments leading up to this point had been erased completely. It was strange.... very strange.

This has never ever happened before, even when she experienced serious injuries she always remembered. This realization made her uneasy.

The sound of someone opening the door interrupted her thoughts.

A nurse walked in with a try and clipboard. She beamed when she realised that Dalia was awake.

"Oh my goodness, you're awake". She said had she dashed to her side within seconds and pressed a button to signal the doctor. "I've called the doctor, he'll be hear soon. We honestly never expected that you would be awake so soon. It's a miracle".

Hmm, miracles, Dalia didn't believe in those. She said nothing and just let the nurse do her job. She just watched. The nurse continued as she adjusted the IV

"You really scared us,when we saw the state you were in, we thought you wouldn't make it".

"What happened to me...?" Dalia tried asking because her voice came out raspy.

The nurse looked up in suprise"You don't remember..?. You were found unconscious by an ally way. Someone found you and brought you in. You had so many injuries and a broken rib. You even came in with a concoction "

She had a sympathetic expression.

She was found in an allyway..? That's odd

She searched the woman's face but her eyes just had pity in them. She ignored that.

"Who brought me in?" She managed to ask

"We don't know, he just brought you in and left before we could get a name" this made her brow scrunch.

He left.... very strange

Life had taught her that people rarely involved themselves in matters out of their concern unless it benefited them some how. Especially strangers, So this just seemed fishy to her.

"Who payed the bill..?"She asked because they would not treat her if she didn't pay, that was how this worked

"The same person. He paid in full before he disappeared"

This made Dalia more irritable. Her finger tightened around her blanket. This whole situation didn't make sense. So someone just did all this to be nice...

"So you're telling me he paid and left and didn't even leave a name...?"

"Yes, sadly. I figured you would want to thank them but we were so busy trying to stabilise you that we didn't get to speak to him or get a name before he left."

'Yeah, sadly' Dalia thought sarcastically

She just couldn't wrap her mind around this whole situation.

The room fell silent.

Soon the doctor walked in with another nurse beside him. He looked like he was in his late forties and wore some thin glasses..

"Good morning, how are you feeling..? Any pains or headaches. Do you remember what happened to you..?"

She shook her head to all the questions. She was too lost in her thoughts to even listen closely.

He nodded and wrote in the note book.

"This is remarkable" this caught her attention. She looked up as she asked"what is".

"Based on all the injuries you had when you came in here, your recovery should have takes so much longer. But now you are awake and you have healed quite well. We concluded that it would be an extra week before we saw progress." The doctor said happily

She nodded as she returned back to her thoughts and her missing memories.

It was as though someone had completely erased her memory.

She thought of every possible but non made any sense in her field of work.

"Are you experiencing any dizziness.?" The doctor's question brought her out of her mind.

"No" she answered. " Any headache or nausea" he asked again

"No, I feel fine" she answered. He looked genuinely impressed by her answers.

"Your body is recovering very well, exceptionally well even" he said as he wrote in her report sheet.

Hmm,....body. that lingered in her mind a bit.

It was at that moment that Dalia realised that something was very wrong but she just couldn't point it out exactly. It was instinct and her instincts never failed her.

She barely heard the doctor speaking

.....we still have to monitor you and.....

....try to avoid strainious activities and rest too..

....maybe get another scan.....

His voice blended into meaningless noise as she tried to figure everything out.

Somthing was very.... wrong. She could feel it.

Everything instinct in her body kept screaming that something had changed.

After the examination was over, the doctor left while the nurses adjusted somethings.

"We'll be back shortly " they stated as they left the room.

The room returned to silence

For a moment Dalia just sat there motionless, then she pulled out the IV needle from her hand. Ignoring the tiny bead of blood and the protests of her body, she swang her leg over to the side of the bed . The floor felt cold under her feet but she still stood up and walked towards the bathroom.

She stumbled a bit but managed to regain balance. If she didn't remember how she got here and her injuries were severe, it was only a matter of time till whoever did this came back to finish what they started.

She also needed to see the amount of damage on her body because the doctors words sounded like her situation was serious.

She made it to the bathroom with small controlled movements, opened the door and stepped inside. The door closed behind her as she turned towards the sink.

She froze, like time had stopped.

The woman staring back at her held the same expression as her and also stood frozen.Her mind was blank she didn't understand what was happening, because the reflection staring back at her wasn't her's. It wasn't Dalia...

This....this couldn't be real.

She raised her hand to her face and the woman in the mirror did the same.

No...no no no , this cannot be happening.

The woman in the mirror had the most beautiful white hair, packed in a bun, she looked so beautiful it felt unreal even with the bruises on her face, she still stood out.

She stepped closer and the reflection did the same,her gray eyes were wide in shock.

Her bruised pale skin, delicate features....non of these things belonged to her.

Dalia had short black hair and deep brown eyes, a scar along her jaw, tanned skin from moving around in the sun, a faint burn mark on her wrist, everything was gone.

Dalia was gone.

He pulse began to rise, a rare occurrence but this situation demanded this reaction.

She touches her face again and once again the reflection did the same. It was soft. This wasn't a dream....or maybe a hallucination.

"No....this can't be happening" those words came out as a whisper. This was impossible, people just didn't wake up wearing other people's faces. They didn't just change bodies.

The only explanation for this was..... reincarnation

But that only happens when one dies, unless....the horrifying thought surfaced in her mind. Death...that was the only possibility for reincanation.

She had died....her breathing became shallow. She had died and she didn't know how. She searched her memories for the nth time and nothing came up. She was gone.

She took a step backward, then another until her back hit the the wall. She barely registered the impact.

Her eyes remained on the woman on the mirror. Who was she, and ...where was she?

The question came faster than she could come up with answers.

She had become someone else, another face with another life and the worst part was....

She didn't know how this happened....

She didn't know how she died .

...........