She flinched as a door slammed loudly, the sound of fast clipped steps nearing her room. They were obviously wearing heels, and the girl felt a sense of dread fill her every cell, as the sound came to an abrupt halt outside her bedroom door.
She shoved her phone and laptop under her bed, not wanting them to be broken, and then counted to ten, waiting...
As she expected, the door was flung open, revealing her mother in all her furious glory. Immediately, the stench of too much perfume and a surplus of alcoholic fumes invaded her nose, telling her all she needed to know about the current situation.
Her mother huffed angrily, stepping closer and beginning to raise her arm...
She winced as she lifted herself off the floor, struggling to stabilise herself, as her head grew dizzy and she saw the room spin slightly around her. Hands finding purchase on her bedframe, she pulled herself to a sitting position and reached underneath, collecting a sachet of bandages and some plasters, along with her phone and computer.
Propping herself up against the headboard, she opened her computer and clicked resume, setting it to the side of her and watching the intro to the last episode of AOUAD, as she quickly set to the task of covering her wounds. When she had finished, the episode was half-way through and she got under her covers to watch the remaining half, a slight pressure building in her temples.
As she had watched, black spots gradually crept into her vision, obscuring what she could see of the final frame, though not dampening her thrill at the suspenseful cliff-hanger.
She closed the screen with a content sigh, not for the first time wishing that she had been born into another world, where it all just seemed so much simpler than the shit-show that was her current life.
Most kids remembered a few vague memories of their early childhood, usually brought about by the reminiscence of their parents. She however, at the age of 18, had no such happy recollections, her parents had divorced when she was young and her mother had claimed full custody to spite her father, not actually caring about her own daughter, or her responsibilities as a parent.
Her mother had then fallen into a bad crowd, often bringing them back to the house to drink in the lounge, which lead to her in turn spending most of her time either locked in her room, studying/watching shows, or hiding out at the library. What little she did remember of her father, had faded and only hollow echoes of his laugh and piggyback rides remained. She thought it all sounded quite pathetic, if she were being honest.
To compensate her home life, she had planned her escape. She had applied for the farthest university she could find, in the hopes that she would be rid of the shackles of this place. As a straight A student, courtesy of her amazing memory- eidetic, the school had said, with an advanced understanding of the material, she had her pick. But all she truly wanted, was to escape. To escape and never have to return.
Her mother was not someone she would miss, and what little friends she had, were all going away as well, so that really left nothing for her to return to in the end.
Her mind came back to the show, a slight pressure building behind her eyes, the world dimming around her, tinnitus getting louder in her ears. 'I wonder what will happen next season..' she thought, her eyes closing without her knowledge. And she was gone.
She would not be checked on for a long time, and only then would they discover her still form, pale and lifeless, bruises across her body, nose having long stopped bleeding, ears and mouth with small trickles of blood that had dried against her skin.
~~~~~~~~~~
She yawned as she woke up, stretching widely across her bed and turning over to bury her face in the pillow, attempting to block out the sun.
She heard voices outside her room, probably her mum and her friends. Her mind slowly woke, as she processed that thought. Wait. Somehow that didn't seem right.
She turned over and glared at the ceiling, trying to figure out what irked her so much about that sentence, only to notice the colour of her ceiling was different. 'Huh. I thought my ceiling was black.' She stared at it for a few minutes, trying to wrap her head around it.
Her eyes widened and she suddenly sat straight up in the bed. "What?!"
She looked quickly around the room, seeing that it looked completely different from what she remembered. She loved the design, but that still posed the question of, 'where the hell am I?'
The room had white walls and ceiling, with natural light wood covings and a slightly deeper wood flooring under a plush cream rug. Her bed was double width with the softest grey oversized covers and a massive velvet white tufted headboard. To the left of her bed were two large windows that had white net curtains and a window seat with grey and dusty pink cushions. At the foot of the bed there was a decent gap before an inbuilt shelving display that stretched from floor to ceiling. It almost looked like her personal library, with the plethora of books that it held, easily over a hundred books. To the right of her bed, there were some soft slippers on the floor and beyond that there was a cosy seating area. It had a miniature white coffee table and a half-sized low-to-the-ground sofa. Between the sofa and the bed was a woven side-table with a lamp and alarm clock. That informed her that it was just gone 10am and it was apparently a Saturday.
She stood slowly, crossing the room. However, as she absently stepped into the slippers and walked towards the bedroom door, she caught a glimpse of her hair and stopped dead in her tracks.
'Huh? Wait! What?!' She frantically tugged at the long stands of her hair and spun around, spotting the full-length mirror that was on the wall near her large custom-built wardrobe, the space to the side of it being a beautiful ornate dressing table that connected to a wide study desk which was currently cluttered with different materials.
But she couldn't even fully appreciate the beautiful furnishings, as she was too preoccupied with the current crisis.
She hurried towards the mirror and stopped, just staring at the reflection that greeted her.
It was her, but it wasn't. She knew that this was not what she was meant to look like, and yet, she found that she couldn't fault the dramatic change. The reflection she now saw was absolutely stunning. She took a moment to catalogue herself, somehow instinctually she knew her height and size, even though she was sure it had changed.
She had long brown hair that flowed past her waist in large waves, face-framing chin-length pieces that blended flawlessly with the other strands, her brows straight and her nose small, eyes resembling some mix between a doe and a feline with their sharp angles yet deceptive innocence. Perfectly soft pink bow lips and flawless sun golden skin. Her body was slender but with a definite curvature that she could see clearly when she moved around. Her arms were thinly toned, and a quick push-up proved them quite strong, while her legs were long and slender. She couldn't say how, but she just knew that she was 164cm tall (5'45").
Staring at herself consideringly, she tried to remember what she had looked like in the past. She could recall being half-American, which she clearly now wasn't if her current appearance was anything to go by. She also thought she may have been taller, but couldn't quite grasp that train of thought. The longer she stared, the more natural she felt in this body.
She knew, logically, that she had died in her past life, that her mother had finally succeeded in killing her. But even then, when she pictured that woman's face, it was like a blur appeared and the image wouldn't focus clearly. She decided not to dwell on those thoughts and instead decided to look around.
She realised this must be her room, since she had been reborn, or reincarnated or whatever, into a new body. Obviously someone up above felt shit for the hand they had dealt her the first time.
She went towards the desk and looked at the clutter of papers and notes. Obviously she was just as big of a study-freak in this life, as well. Funny, that when she thought about it, she could remember all the things she studied, perfectly. So apparently her eidetic memory came with her, then. She looked at a particular paper, surprised to be able to understand it, as she identified the characters to be Chinese.
She looked through the other notes and realised this must be school work that she was going through. Beneath a particularly large pile of finished work, she finally found what she needed, a planner.
Opening the first page, she read the owner's label, 'Property of Song Ara-Hye', she let the name silently roll on her tongue and smiled at the way it felt, "yes, my name, my name is Ara".
Ara flipped through the planner, finding her schedule and browsing her school lessons, from what she could tell she was a senior middle schooler, being 15 currently, though she would turn 16 in 3 months, about 2 weeks into her first high school semester. She found that this coming week was apparently her final exams. She wasn't too worried, as all the material she looked over seemed easy and she briefly wondered why this body had been cramming so much.
That thought was brought to an abrupt halt, as she turned the page and saw her school emblem.
'What? But...' She sat on the small sofa, planner on her lap, as she opened the computer on the mini table, accessing the browser and typing furiously: Hyosan- maps.
The results loaded agonisingly slowly and she fidgeted impatiently as she watched the maps appear.
She found her own location and noted that she apparently lived in a very nice area, right near the outskirts of the city. Though a not-so-nice ghetto area was only about a 5 minute walk down the road... maybe 10, if she got lost.
Panning out, she typed 'Hyosan High School', the maps taking her about 15 minutes in the opposite direction, compared to the other area she saw. She switched to street view and zoomed in, butterflies filling her stomach with each pixel that focused.
There it was. Clear as day. She closed her computer and sat back, thinking.
'Holy-... how do I prepare? WHAT do I prepare? Is this even real?'
She looked towards the window and allowed her curiosity to win, as she moved closer and peered outside. "Hello, Hyosan," She spoke to herself, finally accepting what she had just realised, "Hold off on the Zombs till I get there, would ya." An excited grin spread over her face, a joyful laugh bubbling up.
'Reborn in AOUAD... this should be fun!"