Anew

PROLOGUE

She awoke with her face against cold, damp dirt. Morning sunlight cast a silent glow on the earth below, and somewhere nearby a bird began to sing.

Dawn.

She slowly pulled herself into a sitting position and looked around in confusion.

Where am I?

Tall trees and wild shrubs surrounded her, indicating she was in a forest.

A deserted and unfamiliar forest.

Carefully she stood and turned around, searching for anything that would help explain where she was. Her eyes canvassed the area, but nothing was familiar.

Nothing triggered any memory as to why she’d slept alone in the woods.

Nothing triggered any memory as to how she’d arrived there.

Nothing triggered…any memory at all….

Her breathing became more rapid as she tried to remember. She looked around desperately, her long dark hair swinging around her head as she spun in circles.

She glanced down at the clothes she wore and furrowed her brow in puzzlement. She didn’t remember getting dressed.

She began to panic.

More birds were chirping now, and the rising sun gave way to a shower of light, illuminating everything before her.

She couldn’t remember last night, or the night before, or the night before that…she couldn’t remember anything.

Not her family, not her past…. Nothing.

She rummaged through her brain for something—any information at all. She pressed her fingers to her temples as she thought, praying something would come to her, but her memories seemed lost.

Stolen, even.

As if plucked with magical precision from her head, leaving nothing but emptiness.

She was terrified.

She closed her eyes and tried to think. There had to be something in the emptiness; something inside her head that could echo back a memory. She scanned her mind desperately until finally….

Click.

Hidden far away, in the back of her brain, was a tiny scrap of knowledge. It flitted about like a hummingbird, teasing her with answers as she chased it around. Finally, she grasped it.

Her eyes flew open with two revelations.

Her name was Scarlet Jacobs and she was fifteen years old.

Aside from that, she remembered nothing.