Annabeth opened her eyes and found herself staring at a familiar ceiling. Although it appeared to be white and completely blank with just one look, a prolonged stare revealed thin patterns of flowers engraved on its surface. She had used this room for the last 10 to 11 years as her bedroom. As she lay in bed, she could hear the sound of rain and wind outside. It was Autumn and the weather was on drugs sometimes.
Annabeth sat up in her bed as she tried to remember how exactly she went to bed the previous night. She remembered having dinner and then going to bed early because Canning had told her they would be on a journey to some bandit campsite the next day and enough rest was needed.
"Oh… right. Bandits…" She thought.
"Was all that just a dream?" She wondered.
Fighting the bandits felt like a dream to her and so she concluded it as such. She couldn't feel any pain, see any scars or remember the journey back home. She figured she had thought too much about her captors from the first life that she had a dream about them. She even wondered just how long she had slept to have such a long vivid dream. Worse off, the dream even turned into a nightmare somewhere towards the end as she had strangled herself.
Surprisingly, she couldn't feel anything from having a bad dream… it was like she was empty inside.
Annabeth decided to get up and clear her head with some exercise. She was in for a long journey to Liberdade City, she needed to start preparing too, she thought. She got up and started stretching, did a hundred push-ups and squats before she took a break.
Her mouth was dry and she had a slight headache, both of which a glass or two of water should fix, she thought. She walked to her window to open it and allow some fresh air into the room, but froze the moment she drew the curtains.
Although she was hearing the rain and wind blow, there was not a single drop of rain falling or a leaf on a tree shaking due to the heard wind. It was completely still outside and the surroundings looked like something from a nightmare. The sky looked bright like it was morning but the ground was completely black. Tendrils of black smoke were rising from the ground that changed into a white fog-like substance when they rose a short distance above the ground.
A knock on the door and a female voice announcing that breakfast was ready distracted her for only a second before Annabeth returned to staring outside her window. Annabeth did not recognize the voice but was too busy trying to understand what was happening outside to give the owner of the voice more feedback than a 'come in' reply. The door opened and a lady in a maid uniform entered carrying the food but Annabeth was simply taken by what she was seeing outside.
She saw several hand-like figures form on the ground and start to slowly reach up. Annabeth could hear what sounded like faint screams from the moment the arms started to rise. Although the sound of rain was making hearing difficult, Annabeth could hear a bit of wailing mixed in with the screams. She opened her window to hear and hopefully see more clearly. The screams got louder and she could see slightly more clearly now.
The hands were of different sizes, oily-like and completely black. In fact, the ground looked like it was a liquid. A thick black liquid. The black liquid would drip off in thick chunks as the hands rose. The hands, strangely enough, would disappear at a certain height. Those that disappeared would then be replaced by another in what looked like an endless loop.
Annabeth watched everything happen with a sense of disbelief. How was any of what she was seeing and hearing real? Was this all a dream? Strangely enough, Annabeth's thoughts drifted to the other person in the room with her. Were they seeing and hearing what she was?
The servants in the house were friendly with her and would at least say something if they found her staring outside for far too long. This person instead, had not even passed a greeting or made any sound if anything from the time they had entered the room. Annabeth, trying to get some answers, turned around to call the servant but the moment she turned she was pushed out of the window.
Surprise quickly found its way to her face, but this wasn't anything compared to what she felt when she saw the face of the person who pushed her. As Annabeth fell, she studied the features of the person who was watching her fall in return. They had a malicious grin on the verge of breaking into a peal of laughter and stared at her with black hollow eye sockets. Other than that, they looked exactly like Annabeth, be it face or height.
Everything slowed down tremendously as Annabeth fell. She was confused by her surroundings and seeing herself push her out through the window put the cherry on top of the madness cake. She was trying to think but her brain seemed to be having a field day. In a moment of desperation and much-needed thought, her mind was agonizing over the fact that she would be reborn… again.
Not even a shred of survival instincts had kicked in, leaving her to take in the spectacle as she fell to what she considered her demise.
She tilted her head midair to look where she was falling and saw the hands begin to gather at the place she would hit. Their gesture was a complicated mixture of 'welcome' and 'we are going to torture you,' but somehow all of her emotions had abandoned her at that moment.
She couldn't feel any fear or worry, not even any worry that she couldn't feel anything. As she fell, the screaming and wailing turned into cheers as the darkness below received her like an important guest.
The hands gently broke her fall but pulled her down by the hair into the liquid, staying true to the gesture they had shown earlier.
Her vision was completely black, she was not even able to see her own hand when she brought it to her face. Annabeth held her breath for as long as she could but her limit was approaching quickly. She couldn't take it anymore and finally tried to end her suffering by breathing in using both her nose and mouth.
Her vision immediately brightened up and she gasped for air, taking in several breaths all at once. Her body jerked up as she clutched the cushions around her and sat up in an upright position.
Canning, who had been watching over her the entire time, sat with wide eyes as the sudden movement caught him by surprise. He almost hit her out of instinct from getting startled but had quickly restrained and withdrawn his hand at the last second.
Annabeth recognized her surroundings as inside the wagon. She had been dreaming about waking up in her room at home, and what felt like a dream in the dream was actually real. She had fought the bandits and strangled herself.
For a minute Annabeth just sat there, organizing her thoughts and fighting off the feeling that she was going insane. Canning was saying something to her but her mind was so busy that it could not process any of the new information it was receiving.
After finally deciding what was real and what was a dream, she was able to calm down a little.