“He’s mine now, Alana. Don’t you see? Nobody really wants you. Your parents turned their backs on you. Darren loves me now…You have no one…”
Ingrid’s voice kept echoing in her head. Her voice sounded demonic, and piercing pain shivered down through her skull as she felt like everything was breaking within her.
‘No!’ she was screaming inside her head. But then the voice that was haunting her wouldn’t stop.
“No one will look for you once you die. Blame yourself for your pathetic life,”
‘Stop!” Alana kept screaming, wanting the voice to stop. Her heart was beating violently inside her chest.
“Did you really think I stayed with you because I truly see you as my best friend? Deep inside I wanted to vomit every time you hugged me. You disgust me, Alana,”
‘No! Make it stop!’
Alana was running. Her feet were hurting and she didn’t have to look at them to know that there were wounds on her legs and blood all over her body. The white long dress she was wearing was now a mixture of black and red from all the blood and mud on her.
‘Moon Goddess, help me. I can’t die like this. I still have so many things I wish to do,’
Alana was praying desperately as she tried to hide within a huge trunk of a tree, her eyes, despite her vision already blurry, lingered on the shining Moon above the dark sky.
Tears desperately rush down her cheeks as she slowly loses hope. When she heard some footsteps from afar, she stood up again and started running.
She was panting as she ran for her life. It was dark, and all that could be heard was the sound rush of the wind, the chirping of the birds within the dark forest, and the crushing of the dried leaves as she ran on them.
Until a gunshot was fired and this is when Alana realized, her life was indeed over. She died in the hands of those people she trusted. Her wolf heart stopped beating after that.
Helena Asher had been asleep for what felt like an eternity. Five years to be exact.
The world around her had been filled with the gentle hum of machines, the soft shuffling of doctors, and the constant, hushed conversations of her family.
The Red Asher Pack had always been known as one of the most powerful packs in the town of Emerald Ville. Her father, Alpha Harold Asher was known to be cruel and did everything to keep their pack powerful.
Helena could sense their presence, their concern, and their hope, but she couldn't quite reach out to them.
She was trapped in a cocoon of unconsciousness, a state of limbo that seemed to have no end.
Five years…It has been five years since she succumbs to darkness and her body lay bedridden, away from the reality there is.
Today, though, was different.
“Wake up…”
The voice kept on ringing Helena’s ears like it wanted her to stir awake from her deep slumber.
But she’s dead, isn’t she? A dead body could no longer wake up. She was not sleeping. She’s dead. Or was she?
“You have to wake up, Helena… I need you… I need your help…”
‘Who are you?’ Helena wanted to ask but she had no idea where the voice came from. All she could see was darkness, a pitch-black horizon that had kept her prison for years.
“I am you, Helena… Wake up,”
And it was as if a strong force pulled her out of the darkness, snapping the thin string that was tied to her which had been keeping her drowning on the orbit of endlessness.
She could feel her body floating as a rush of aura enveloped her body.
“Wake up, Helena. And remember, do not trust anyone…”
And just like that, the voice that had awoken her faded like a lullaby and slowly, as her eyelids fluttered open, the harsh fluorescent lights of the room pierced her senses, causing her to squint against the unwelcome brightness.
It took a moment for her groggy mind to process the surroundings, and when it did, chaos ensued.
“Helena?”
“Oh, my God! She opened her yes! Oh, God! Call the doctor! Call anyone! My daughter! My daughter is finally awake!”
Everyone in the Asher’s household was in a panic, especially Helena’s parents. Harold Asher, the head of Red Asher’s pack immediately ran towards his daughter’s room after he heard his wife shouting.
“Call Ingrid! Tell her that her younger sister is awake!” he ordered.
Helena's awakening was nothing short of a miracle. Her family had spent years agonizing over her lifeless form, clinging to the slightest glimmer of hope.
Their faith had been rewarded as she stirred from her deep slumber, but the sight of her family in the room was not what confused her.
What bewildered Helena was the fact that nothing felt right.
‘Where am I?’ she thought to herself.
The room itself seemed unfamiliar as if it belonged to someone else entirely.
Panic surged through her, and she tried to sit up, but her body felt heavy, as though it was not entirely under her control. She struggled against the weight, desperate to understand what was happening.
Doctors and nurses rushed to her side, their faces a mixture of relief and surprise. They began to pepper her with questions, but their voices sounded distant, almost as if they were speaking underwater.
Helena's heart raced, and she felt like she was on the verge of a breakdown.
"Helena, darling, can you hear us? It's a miracle!" a woman's voice, filled with tears of joy, called out to her.
Helena turned her head to see a woman and a man, both of whom had tears streaming down their faces. They were reaching out to her, calling her Helena, and declaring their love for her.
But that couldn't be right. Helena was not her name. Her name was Alana.
Alana, she thought, as a rush of memories flooded her mind, memories of a painful life filled with betrayal and regret.
She remembered her family turning their backs on her, the love of her life cheating on her, and her so-called best friend taking away the life she was supposed to have.
As these memories bombarded her, Helena's confusion turned into panic, and she couldn't contain the turmoil inside her any longer. She opened her mouth to scream, a blood-curdling cry of anguish that echoed through the unfamiliar room.
The doctors and nurses scrambled, desperately trying to calm her.
In the chaos that ensued, a doctor swiftly injected something into Helena's IV line. The medication began to take effect almost immediately, and her screams turned into incoherent mumbling before she succumbed to unconsciousness once more.
The room fell silent, save for the sounds of hurried footsteps and whispered conversations.
Helena's family, torn between their elation at her awakening and their worry for her distress, watched helplessly as she slipped back into slumber.
Alana had awakened within Helena's body, a body that was meant to belong to another.
“Alpha Harold, it looks like Miss Helena had forgotten some portion of her memories but the test results show that she was already fine. In a few days, she would be able to fully recover, and having the strong blood of an Asher’s, she would be able to regain her past form in no time,”
Alpha Harold looked at his daughter who just had a major breakdown earlier.
“I understand. That’s all for today. We’ll call you if needed,”
The doctor bowed to their alpha and left the room. Luna Patricia was sitting on the side of Helena’s bed crying. Her hand reaches for the side of Helena’s cheeks.
“I am glad you are now awake, Helena. This is a miracle. Your older sister will surely be happy to know about this,” Luna Patricia whispers to her sleeping daughter.
Helena’s parents stayed in the room for a few more minutes until they finally decided to leave so she could rest.
She didn’t know how long she was out after the medicine took her consciousness away from her.
While Helena lay in her bed, her body still and her mind adrift in a restless slumber, her consciousness was a passenger in this unfamiliar vessel.
As the world around her faded into a haze of dreams, she found herself in a strange and ethereal state of awareness.
She could hear voices, distant and muffled as if they were coming from a world beyond her reach.
It was the voices of her parents, the people who had just moments ago professed their love and relief at her awakening. They were talking in hushed tones, their words carrying to her like the soft rustling of leaves in a gentle breeze.
"I can't believe she's finally awake," her mother whispered, her voice tinged with relief.
Her father, his voice equally low, replied, "It's a miracle, my love. We waited for this day for so long."
Helena tried to move, to open her eyes, to signal to them that she was aware, that she could hear their words. But her body remained unresponsive, trapping her in this strange, disembodied state of consciousness.
Her mother continued, "Now that Helena is awake, we can finally focus on her recovery. Ingrid's wedding to Darren will have to wait until Helena is well enough."
Ingrid, Helena's sister, and Darren, her ex-best friend's former lover, were supposed to be engaged. This revelation pierced through the fog of Helena's confusion.
Alana remembered Ingrid, the so-called best friend who had betrayed her, and Darren, the man who had broken her heart by cheating on her.
Helena's anger and determination welled up inside her. She may be trapped in this body, but she was not going to let Ingrid and Darren's happiness go unchallenged.
She didn’t understand what was happening but she was sure the life she remembered wasn’t of Helena’s. Or maybe she does but she was sure the pain and the betrayal that she felt was of Alana’s. And she was supposed to be dead.
Perhaps the Moon Goddess had given her a chance to avenge herself.
They were responsible for the pain and suffering she had endured in her life as Alana. And now, with Helena's parents discussing their plans to delay the wedding until Helena's full recovery, a newfound sense of purpose blossomed within her.
Helena, who had Alana’s memories, was driven by a fierce desire for revenge.
‘I promised in the name of Helena’s body, that I will make sure Ingrid and Darren would pay for everything that they did to her.’
She would seize the opportunity granted to her by this strange twist of fate and ensure that justice was served.
As Helena's parents continued to discuss their plans and hopes for the future, Alana's determination grew stronger.
She may have awoken in a life not her own, but she was resolved to live it to the fullest and exact the revenge she so desperately desired.
The stage was set, and Alana, now within Helena's body, was ready to play her part in the complex web of secrets and vengeance that entwined their lives.
