The ambient hum of familiar city sounds is what woke me in the end. Not the splitting ache threatening to cleave my skull in two, not the deepening pit of dread that yawned, unrelenting, within my gut. Only the faint whisper of cars over asphalt and the distant yapping of persistent dogs proved enough to rouse me from what felt like slumber far surpassing that of any REM cycle.

I blinked open sleep-crusted eyes, irritably swatting aside the tangle of bangs that had fallen into my face while I'd tossed and turned for however many hours of sleep I'd managed. I had a sense of déjà vu as the blurred and fuzzy world came into focus like the adjusting lens of a camera. A blank, spacious ceiling stretched out above me, different, I was sure, from the one that had lulled me to the sleep in the first place.

A small blossom of panic began to take root in my chest as I lurched upright, my stiff fingers finding purchase in the soft bedding beneath me. No, not bedding - a couch?

Where am I...?

I'd experienced something uncannily similar to this situation before, and I wasn't ecstatic to be trapped in a repeat, seeing as how the first hadn't been all the grandeur and pleasantries that my sisters had made it out to be.

Ah, speaking of those two...

I gingerly swung my feet to the floor - blinking as the cold of the smooth wood seeped into my bare soles - and eased myself into a standing position. There was an initial moment of alarm when a shudder passed through my legs, and I braced my hands against the smooth edges of a coffee table situated in front of me until the threat of immediate collapse passed. I felt like I'd somehow endured miles of sprinting through the unstable sands of Suna without having any recollection of it, which was a jarring feeling I didn't much appreciate.

Righting myself, I took several cautious steps around the table, then, when I'd shaken the numbness from my limps and regained control to an extent, crossed to the sliding door I'd first mistaken for a window. My breath misted over the glass, momentarily obscuring the world beyond - but as it cleared, my eyes widened in stark disbelief, seeing the lights that shone in vivid colors from their numerous fixtures, dancing with disorienting rapidness over the reflective cars darting by beneath them.

Cars. Actual fossil-fueled machines hewn from rigid steel and freshly-molded rubber that reeked with a stench that wrinkled my nose even through the barriers around me.

I'd thought the screeching of tires had been a product of my sleep-deprived mind (ridiculous, I realize now, as I'd never felt more rested in all my seventeen years).

Years had passed between the last time I'd had the displeasure to bear witness to these aggravating contraptions and now; I'd almost forgotten how greatly they irritated me, on par with Arianna and Violet on their most spastic of days.

This, if nothing else, really begged the question of just where my unconscious body had deposited itself yet again.

Turning so that my shoulder blades were pressed up against the glass (somewhat uncomfortably, but bearable nonetheless), I pressed the heels of my hands deep into my temple, rubbing slow, concise circles to alleviate the growing headache I felt expanding just behind my eyes. Panicking would do me little good now; being so unnerved would only lead to clouding my thoughts with unnecessary fear, which would in turn cause me to become utterly useless. I handled fear badly, as I'd learned several years back, and now was not the time to fall into such disarray again.

Think, Scarlette, think... Was there anything specific or odd that happened yesterday that could have caused this?

Well, wasn't that a moronic question. It wasn't as though I had a manic, supposedly fictional character infecting my then-nonexistent laptop to blame this time around. To make matters worse, while I was probing the deeper recesses of my memory in hopes of grasping even the thinnest of straws to tell me what cataclysmic event had recently transpired - I realized how empty said memory truly was.

Oh, I could perfectly recall the basics: My name, my family, close relations, my home. I had memories of times I would have liked to forget, forever seared into my brain with the aid of torturous agony and heartbreak. But nothing from what I perceived to be the last week of my life.

Lovely. I bit down sharply on my lower lip as the headache's steady throb rose to a deafening crescendo. Something pulsed dangerously on the side of my neck - a vein fit to burst from my racing heartbeat, I figured. This may actually be more vexing than before.

"Oh, you're awake!"

If the aching in my forehead had subsided before that moment, I would have whipped around, my body following the usual motions and dropping me into a stance well-suited for battle. Unfortunately, there was a slight disconnect between the desired motion and my nerves, because in all actuality I barely managed to keep from toppling over as I turned to face whoever had spoken.

Steadying myself with one hand gripping fitfully at a set of curtains, I blinked.

"You really shouldn't be moving around, you know," the man chided, though the whimsically fascinated smile he wore made it diffcult to take his authoritative tone seriously. "Most people in your position wouldn't have even woken up yet. Hm... I wonder if that makes you special..."

Special was not a well-liked word in my vocabulary, not because it was something I was mistakenly called often, but because I'd been brutally reminded of my pathetic staleness some years before. And from this man's lips, it set anxiety crawling over my already sensitive skin. "I wouldn't put much stock in that assumption..." I murmured, staggering now as I fought to return to the couch. If this man was any threat, he hardly had a mind for timing.

"Ah, wait, I told Celty I'd tell her as soon as you'd woken up!"

Before I could utter a word of protest, the man had disappeared through the door he'd entered in, and I sank gracelessly onto the couch, not very up to the reality that was gradually making itself known to me. From one hell into the next...