Aquirya
Chapter 1

Cold and sore.

That’s all she felt waking up with a start and wincing in pain. Aeyla looked out into the dark she was laying in. The ground she was laying on was hard, cold, and it felt sticky. Where was she and why did her leg hurt so much? She tried to get up but couldn’t, if felt like her leg was broken. In front of her, she saw a flash of a person running away from where she was. She tried again to get up but her leg was hurting too much and she was sore everywhere she could feel. Her face felt like it was swollen and her hands stung with pain. She felt weak and what was that sticky stuff she kept feeling? She saw a light flicker on and saw that she was at some sort of building that she didn’t recognize. I No other people were around and there were no horses nor carriages. No indication of where she was. She looked down and saw with the light that came on what the sticky stuff around her was, blood. “Help!” She screamed, then thought against it, thinking that whoever or whatever did this, may still be around and may come back and finish the job.

With the lights now all on around the “Rest Stop”, Aeyla tried to focus her eyes so she could try and figure out a clue to where she was and how she got here. She eyed something that looked like a small glass building of some kind and something inside her told her she needed could use it to get help. With all her might she crawled over to the little glass building beside the bigger brick looking building. Crawling to the payphone was painful, what the heck had happened? After several minutes she finally got to the payphone that she had seen.

She dialed a number, 911, even though she wasn’t exactly sure who it was going to call or how she even knew that she was supposed to be dialing this number. Something inside her drew her to the numbers on the phone.

“911 what’s your emergency.” Said a sweet lady on the other end. Emergency! She knew that word!

“I’ve been hurt.. uh stabbed, I don’t know.” She squinted to read the sign above the building. “I’m at some rest stop place.” She told the operator with confusion in her voice.

“What is your name miss?” the operator asked her in a sweet voice.

“I’m not sure.” She thought a minute. The name Aeyla came to her, felt weird because she was aware she didn’t know that a couple minutes ago. “I I th-think it’s Aey-y-la.” She told the operator stuttering and falling over her words.

“Can you describe the area you are in?” The 911 operator said.

“It is a building, off of some road, with moving things on them, they have lights, it says, ‘rest stop’. I don’t know I just woke up here. I don’t know how I got here but I’m bleeding all over and I can’t walk. I don’t know where I am.” She didn’t know how she knew all those words. They all seemed new and different to her. Highway? Rest stop? She was in so much pain she couldn’t think. She closed her eyes and laid her head on the phone booth and drifted off to sleep.

It took almost thirty minutes for the ambulance and police to show up. She was shivering and about to pass out when the EMT’s came over to her. They checked her pulse, checked her legs, and started wrapping her wounds as two others brought over a stretcher to put her on to bring her to the ambulance. A police officer started asking her questions but all she could answer with was, “I don’t know.”

The police officer told Aeyla she’d see her at the hospital later to ask her more questions when she wasn’t so in shock and would be able to remember more. The crime scene was now being marked off, processed, pictures were being taken, EMT’s were working quickly to get her into the ambulance, and in the middle of all that she thought she had seen an orange light come out of the woods near the end of the rest stop. It looked like a person was walking through the light and then it disappeared. It looked like they were wearing a long coat or gown of some kind and something glittered in their hand as the, what looked like a mouth started to close and the orange light disappeared. She looked at the people that were helping her with frantic eyes, didn’t anyone else see that?! What even did she just see? Should she tell someone? Was that real? She was starting to drift off from the medicine given to her for the pain. She fell asleep as the ambulance started moving and the siren came on.

When she woke up there was a distinct smell she wasn’t exactly used too. She tried to sit up but it still hurt to move and she noticed she was in a nicely lit up room in a bed that wasn’t exactly comfortable. A woman came in the door dressed in a light colored outfit, with a book of some sort in her hand. She came over to Aeyla, “You’re finally awake.” She said with a smile.

“How long was I asleep?” Aeyla asked the girl as she readjusted herself in her bed.

“About 12 hours. How are you feeling?” the nurse asked her while taking her pulse.

“Still in pain, my head hurts, where am I?”

“St. Lukes Hospital in Bethlehem. Do you remember anything that happened to you Aeyla? Your last name, anything?” Said the nurse as the police officer that Aeyla had met at the rest stop came into the room.

“No, I don’t remember anything, everything before last night is a blur.” Aeyla put her hand to her leg as a pain shot down through it. She winced.

“Did something happen?” The Nurse asked her while checking out where Aeylas’ hand had just been on her leg.

“No it’s gone, I’m okay, thank you.” As she sat back in the bed she noticed the woman officer from earlier standing in the door.

“Aeyla.” The officer said as she approached the bed. “Are you up to answer some questions now? I came earlier and you were still sleeping. We found this at the crime scene.” The officer held up an evidence bag with some sort of long round metal thing in it with markings on it. “Thought it may jar your memory, do you recognize it?”

“No I don’t think I do, I’m sorry. What is it?” Aeyla said to her looking at the item with her face scrunched in a way to show she was confused at what it might be.

“We think it’s some kind of weapon. It looks like a thousand year old sword of some sort. The end looks like it’s been sawed off or broken. Were you maybe buying it or selling it and got attacked? Seems it may be something of value.” The officer handed Aeyla the bag so she could take a closer look. “Don’t open or take it out of the bag. Still an open case and we don’t want to ruin any prints that could be on the handle.”

Aeyla examined the sword handle and the broken part of the sword. “It looks like there is glitter on the end of this.” Aeyla commented. A memory went through her mind of her in battle with a sword similar to the one she was holding in her hand. She shook her head thinking that’s absurd, how could she fight with a sword and who was she fighting. The image she saw for just a second near the rest stop was a lady, well it looked like a lady any way, with long black hair and a long cloak or dress o some kind. Why would she be fighting or getting away from this person?

The officer asked a couple more routine questions about the night before, than took back the sword handle and thanked Aeyla for her time.

Who was she and why did she wake up basically on the side of the road beaten to a pulp. She tried to close her eyes and rest when a male form appeared in her hospital room door. He had soft features, dark brown full hair, hazy blue eyes that sparkled in the sun even though there was no sun. He smiled, which nearly made Aeyla faint, it was infectious. His smile. It lit up the room with two dimples on both sides of that Mesmerizing smile.

“Hello Aeyla. I’m glad you’re well.” Said the male form in a low voice, with an accent she didn’t seem to recognize.

Her heart started to race. Could this be her attacker?

Niko stood looking at Aeyla for a couple minutes before walking into the room. “I am not here to hurt you Aeyla.” Niko walked to the bed and took her hand. “I’m here to protect you, help you heal, and bring you home.”