Who are you?
The girl was falling. Falling in an endless void, where shadows dragged along her frigid skin like grasping hands. She slipped through those hands as swiftly as sand in a sieve, gasping and shuddering.
The desperate cry of her sister's voice faded like the wispy afterimage of a disturbing dream. There was an endlessness above and beneath her. She could no longer tell if she was sinking or rising.
Who are you?
The girl frowned. Someone was talking to her. But why? There was only darkness, and her. Fading. The memories of her life seemed distant. She couldn't recall her name. The faces of her mother and father grew foggy. Her younger brothers slipped away. Her older sister….
Did she have a sister?
Only the pain remained. A horrible shattering sensation which echoed in the concave hollow of her chest.
Who are you?
The words rattled through her. Vibrated in her throat. And then she realized no one was speaking to her. She was asking the question. And it wasn't shadows grasping at her. But an entity. A cold shuddering figure full of darkness and hunger. Fear. Death. It coiled around her body, as she slipped deeper into the fog. She was paralyzed by it. By fear. She shuddered, trying to look away, but her eyes were forced to remain open. To stare into the terrifying face which pieced itself together out of darkness.
"Who are you?" She gasped, crying. And the figure smiled, smoke curling past its jagged teeth. Its eyes burned like twin suns, but cast no light in the darkness. She shuddered.
"Maeve Fendyre." The being breathed, its voice a key turning in the girl's muddled brain. Her fathers face, her sisters worried gold eyes. The memory of her mothers voice singing to her. The laughter of her brothers. She wept. "You have died before your time. You are yet needed." The being squeezed her so tight her bones groaned and she screamed in agony.
"Who are you? Who are you? Who are you?" She babled. Begged. Desperate and scared. The entity laughed,
"Awaken."
The girl jerked upright, gasping and scrambling at the dirt, ripping clods of it up as a horrible rushing sensation filled her body. She was sightless for long moments as hands grabbed her desperately, and suddenly she could see. The light rushing in and sound popping back into existence.
"Maeve! Gods! Maeve!" Her sister. She grabbed her shaking.
"I am Maeve." She gasped. "I am needed."