Andromeda

Chapter One

~One year later~

Anna's eyes flew open as she woke up with a start. Her bed was drenched in a pool of sweat. She groaned as she sat up and rubbed her head, which was throbbing lightly. Stranger than that was the numbing sensation in her right arm. She cast her eyes slowly around the dark room. What was once a dusty attic had been made up into a teenage girl's bedroom. It had only been hers for a year, but it was the only bedroom she could remember having. It was the only place she truly felt safe and at home.

Anna stood up and lumbered quietly over to the window at the end of the room. Normally, she would wake up to the sunlight rising over the flat Nebraska plains, but now it was barely the break of dawn. The sky was tinted a deep blue that indicated morning was not far away. Anna stepped over to a dresser that sat next to the window. She turned on a small lamp that sat atop the dresser and looked into the vanity mirror standing against the wall.

The first thing she saw when she looked up was her eyes. They shown with a brilliant hue of blue like a crystal lake, almost unnatural in their tone, but exceptionally beautiful nonetheless. She ran her fingers through her wavy, sandy hair which hung just below her shoulders. Apart from the light array of freckles below her eyes, she could see faint traces of bruises on her face and neck. It was not the only place she found these marks. In fact, they were all over her body.

A little over a year ago, Anna woke up in this house with no prior memories whatsoever. She appeared to be severely beaten and was near death when she was found in the middle of a cornfield by the patriarch of a small farmstead named James Tucker, who along with his wife, Lynn, brought her into their home to help treat her injuries. Before they could even call an ambulance for her, Anna had woken up in a fit of panic. Once they managed to calm her down, they tried to get information out of her about who she was and where she came from, but she could not remember anything, not even her name.

When the paramedics finally arrived and transferred her to the hospital, what they found was one of the strangest cases they had ever seen. There seemed to be no substantial damage to her bones or organs, but the bruises and physical trauma to her exterior told a different story. The doctors said they could not determine what might have happened to her, only that the incident should have killed her. The police spoke to the Tuckers and were able to confirm that they had nothing to do with her injuries, and they helped file a missing persons report, though nothing ever came of it. Without any form of identification or so much as a name, nobody was able to claim her as kin.

The Tuckers had immense pity on her from the start, and once it became clear that she had nowhere to go, they knew what they had to do. As a God-fearing family, they considered it their duty to take her into their home in her time of need, adopting her as their daughter and giving her the name Anna.

Once Anna was brought home, after several weeks in the custody of the county, she was finally introduced to the Tuckers' two daughters, 13-year-old Abigail and 10-year-old Daisy. They had both heard their parents talk endlessly about her. Daisy was excited about the idea of having another sister, even if it was an older sister. Abigail, on the other hand, was less than thrilled, and as time went on, she became less and less friendly toward Anna. Nevertheless, Anna became a part of the family in no time. With no other space to provide for her, the Tuckers cleared out the attic and turned it into a bedroom. Of course, this rubbed Abigail the wrong way as Anna's new room was much bigger than her own.

It was now the end of August the following year, and today saw Anna starting at the local high school. It was no secret that she was quite anxious. Obviously, she could not remember her school life prior to a year ago, but she must have had some form of education as she was perfectly proficient in reading and writing as well as basic arithmetic, and after submitting to testing and light tutoring, she was determined to be eligible to enter into the tenth grade.