It was dark. Really dark. From her position she couldn't make out much of what was happening. Then, voices. Her parent’s voices. They were arguing with someone. She had been here before. She tried to shout, tried to warn them but her body stayed silent and still. Unmoving. Frozen. Inside, she was silently screaming. Ailith knew what was going to happen. But there was nothing she could do, so she just watched. Watched as the man with the fire eyes pulled out his gun. Watched as he shot first at her father, then at her mother. Then she was screaming. Really screaming. The man turned toward her. His answering grin was nothing of this world. It was pure evil. He pointed his gun at Ailith and fired.

Ailith startled awake to the pinging of her treker. She had to blink several times to return to reality.

‘A nightmare’

‘It was just a nightmare’

‘Yeah, a shitty nightmare that made her relive her worst moments and seemed unnervingly realistic but yes, in the end, it was still just a nightmare.’

She gazed down at her wrist. 6:30. Ailith scrolled through her notifications. The device had been upgraded yesterday to that of a rank 1 and she had been receiving numerous ads nonstop. She sighed. If only she was allowed to take it off. She gave it a tug. As usual it remained locked. Even if she did somehow manage to find a way to crack or break the fingerprint lock, she would be arrested immediately by any authorities informed that her treker was unlocked. Scrolling through her notifications, she came upon a message. A comm...from Clarice?

Clarice: Training starts today. Arrive at this address by 10AM sharp.

Below was an attached address, set in the city. She groaned. By her blunt way of speaking, Clarice must have been the woman in white from yesterday. But to make her start the day after she was informed.…she swiftly got out of bed and threw on an extra layer before heading downstairs.

Outside, the fall breeze was cool on her face. The winds seemed to dance around her and she gladly joined it. Ailith set off jogging at a slow pace. Then, as her body warmed up, she ran, faster, and faster until all her worries were swallowed up by the morning air and all she heard was the wind as it carried around autumn’s leaves.

When Ailith arrived home, she was drenched from head to toe in sweat.

Xavier scrunched his nose. “Go take a shower.”

Without a word in protest, Ailith did as he said.