Amnesia wasn't a route Hadleigh ever expected to take, but it was one she should be grateful for. Afterall, she was supposed to be dead.
For over twenty years, schemes to tear apart the lycanthrope kingdom have been put into place.
For over twenty y...
Screams pierced through restless sleep. A rancid smell, like burning flesh on an open fire wafted by smoke in all directions. The occasional flickering of red and orange was accompanied by nothing but black outside the bedroom window. Squinting her eyes, the girl found herself discovering that it wasn't the orange that flickered, rather it was the black allowing the light to burst through it. Something moved beyond the window. Something with feathers and beaks and claws. Birds, dark as the night sky flocked outside, silent despite their numbers.
Something grabbing at her shoulders had her jumping, attention pulling away from the world beyond the window, and toward the firm grasp that lay on her shoulders. A man, his dark features pressed into a thin line stared down at her. A deep scar ran from the hairline to the top of his eye, and a tattoo spiralled its way down his neck, beneath his shirt and town toward the hand that shook her further from slumber.
"Hadleigh," he whispered urgently. "Wake up. Get up. Get up, you need to leave." Strong arms pulled her from warm blankets, into the cool air of the night. "Wake up Hadleigh!"
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The girl wasn't sure if it was the creaking of the door or the urgent whisper of a familiar voice that pulled her from sleep. But there was one thing she was sure of or thought she was sure of at least, and that was that the man in her dream had spoken her name. Her name, Hadleigh. A small amount of relief passed through her at the knowledge that she at least knew her name, that there was something left in the void of her mind other than 'Praesidio'. It was a spark of hope and comfort that countered the fear and panic that had passed through her when she realized she knew nothing the first time she gained consciousness, one that had the faintest of smiles gracing her face as she opened her eyes.
The first thing she noticed was that the blinds were no longer closed. Light poured through the room, and she readied herself for the pain she felt the last time she opened her eyes to full light, only to find the pain never arrived. The second thing she noticed was the man that stood to the side of her bed, skin the colour of burnt almonds, a clipboard in his hand, wireframe glasses sitting on the bridge of his nose, and a labcoat wrapped around his shoulders.
Studying the notes in his hand, the doctor took a moment to notice that Hadleigh had awoken. When he did though, he gave her a warm smile that spread to his eyes as he said, "It's good to see you finally awake, my name is Doctor Nolan. You've had quite the injury."
Hadleigh gave him a small smile back. "I'm Hadleigh - I think," her eyebrows pulled together and her mouth turned down into a frown as she thought about it, "I didn't remember anything when I woke up, I still don't really."
"Ah," Doctor Nolan pulled a stool up next to the bed and sat himself down, "Carmen told me you didn't remember your name when you woke up. Some amnesia is to be expected, you lost a lot of blood. It usually all comes back within a few months."
Hadleigh's mouth dried out a little. A few months? How was she supposed to function, how was she supposed to operate in the world for that amount of time without any memory? "M- months?"
