Ava woke up to an overwhelming sense of suffocation. It was as if she was drowning in a sea of smoke while her whole body was being flayed by flame.
After some long minutes of great exertion, she opened her eyes and saw that the whole place was in flames. What's happening? She questioned herself apprehensively, but knew she had to get out of the smoking fire.
She tried to get up from the ground, but couldn't. So she looked around, and found a place where the fire was smaller and crawled through it.
When she was approaching the exit door, a small beam of the roof fell straight down and hit her on the head, and she fainted.
While regaining her consciousness, she remembered an explosion at the gas station, and something ...large and furry. Those eyes....
"Miss!" A horrified voice sounded from the outside.
Ava slowly raised her head. In the blur, she saw that the outside of the door was full of different people, rushing towards her. Then a pang of pain struck her and she lost consciousness again.
When she woke up this time around, she saw that she was on top of a panel bed. She turned her head slightly to see luxurious furniture, arranged in simple manner across the room.
"Miss, you're awake!" A pleasantly joyful voice came, and Ava saw a young girl's oval face with big bright eyes.
Samantha. The name suddenly flashed in Ava's mind, and the memories of the previous owner of the body flooded into her mind like a riptide.
She was the eldest daughter of the Smiths family, a wolf bloodline. Her mother, Sophia, died when she was three years old. And later, her aunt Angela became the Luna of the family.
Since then, she had been gradually ignored, and was living in obscurity until now, when she turned eighteen years old.
Wait, a wolf family? She asked herself in shock. Did she die in that explosion, and somehow transported, transferred, trans.....?
But most striking was the reality that the original host's name was also Ava Smiths.
After a few minutes of thinking, she didn't know whether to cry or scream. It seemed that she had passed through something beyond her imagination, and arrived here. For a young girl who didn't believe in the reality of such notions, it was a bit difficult to accept.
Then, an older woman in a maid dress and apron, came in through the door carrying a small bucket of water. She heard the young maid called Samantha just now, so she too quickly came to see for herself.
Seeing Ava awake, she was also very happy. "Thank goodness, miss. I was worried to death."
Lindsey. Another flash of memory struck in Ava's mind. Samantha was her personal maid. She was a young coyote orphan. She was wandering around when she was acquired for Ava. Whereas, Lindsey, also of the coyote bloodline, was the personal maid of Ava's mother, but decided to stay with Ava after her mother's death.
"What happened to my face, was it burned?" When Ava felt the veil tied to her face, she asked in apprehension.
When she asked this question, she realized that her voice was a bit hoarse which made her to panic even more.
When Samantha heard the question, tears flowed down her face. She clutched Ava's hand, and tried to console her. "Miss..."
It seemed that the injury she sustained in the fire was serious. Ava thought, and lost consciousness for the third time.
After a few days, she was in a state of half awake and half coma. She knew that Samantha and Lindsey had been waiting by her side, and that there was a family doctor who came every day to check on her, and change her dressing, but she just couldn't cheer up her own spirit. She was groggy and wanted to sleep all the time.
It wasn't until a few days later that her spirit recovered a little bit, and she was able to sit up from the bed and eat some food.
Leaning on the head of the bed, she looked at the mirror and saw what she was like now. Through the crystal clear mirror, the reflected face was obviously different from her own. The glaring ones were the eyes. Instead of the previous brown eyes, she now had purple eyes.
Then the face as a whole. It had exquisite features, seemingly lighter skin, and long darker hair, except for the scar on her cheek. And for the first time in so many days, she recognized reality for what it was. This was who she was now.
Samantha and Lindsey, on the side of the young mistress, saw her staring at the mirror in a daze, and they couldn't help feeling sad for her. The beautiful face of the young mistress was ruined by the ill-forsaken silvery flame.
In this alternate world, women valued their looks the most. Young men were practically after beauty and strength in their women before other things.
Now that the young lady's face was ruined by a silver-induced fire, what would she do in the future? She had heard that surgery couldn't amend injury from silver fire and mistletoe. Lindsey forced her tears back and comforted her. "Miss, don't worry. As long as you're alive, your face could be healed, I strongly believed that."
Seeing Samantha nodding vigorously in agreement, Ava knew that they had misunderstood her. She didn't feel much concerned about the ruined face, but about her coming to this world to occupy the body of someone who just died.
Why wouldn't she cry for the unfortunate girl and her own seemingly death?
But she didn't explain, she just handed them the mirror, and said, "It's okay, I don't care much about it anyway. Moreover, according to the doctor, it's not that the scar can't be operated."
"Well...." Lindsey wiped away her tears, her face showing a little sign of relief.
"Miss, I'm happy you survived." Samantha said with a beaming smile.
Ava smiled indifferently, and said to her. "Samantha, I'm a little hungry, please get me something to eat."
"Get her a glass of water first." Lindsey, held Samantha's hand and whispered.
Samantha nodded when she heard that, then turned and ran out. A few seconds later, she returned with the water and gave it to Lindsey who was beside Ava.
Lindsey carefully raised it to Ava's mouth, who drank a mouthful, looked at the old maid and asked, "Lindsey, what's bothering you?"
Lindsey nodded and said. "Miss, I've been thinking about it for a few days now, and I believe the fire was not trivial. I have the feeling that it was set on purpose. I could smell silver and mistletoe in the fire. It could have easily killed you. I think it was not a coincidence."
Ava agreed with Lindsey. From her few years of experience in forensic medicine, the fire was definitely not accidental. Sadly, both maids didn't know that the young lady they had dedicated their lives to, had actually died in the fire.
She frowned for a while, and then told the older maid. "Lindsey, let someone seal off the penthouse that was on fire. No one is allowed to enter or leave. We will check it out tomorrow."
While they were talking, Samantha walked in with a tray of waffles and cinnamon buns. Seeing the food, Ava realized that she was really hungry. So she started eating with eagerness.
After taking a few bites, she heard a loud noise, coming from the outside and frowned in concern.