Arising Flame of The New Phoenix

Prologue, Part 7: Last Memory

Ring-ring-ring!!!

"Gah!"

The alarm rings, and in an instant, Annie wakes up abruptly.

Unlike her usual morning, she is panicked. Her heart throbs uncontrollably as if it is about to burst.

Her breathing is all over the place, she can be heard inhaling and exhaling as if there is no air to breathe in. She then puts a hand to her face, holding it as if her face is about to break.

The alarm continues to ring, but Annie can only hear muffled noises that constantly ring in her head, unrelated to the alarm.

Buzz!

Her phone suddenly rings as well, looks like someone is calling her.

Calming down her breathing and as well her heart, she recollects herself.

She then turned off the alarm with a little bit of force, but not enough to harm the alarm clock.

She then unhandled her face, to grab the phone.

But the phone then stopped ringing, the person seems to have stopped calling.

A wary and distressed look can be seen on her face.

Recollecting her thoughts, she tries to recall what had just happened. But to no avail, she couldn't remember a thing. She can only remember herself closing her eyes just before sleep, but after then, she is suddenly awoken with a panic attack-clueless of the reason.

Could it be a dream? Was it a nightmare? She tries to recall again and again, but yet unable to remember a thing. It is quite strange, even if you would have a nightmare and suffer a panic attack from it, you would at least remember just a fraction of the dream. But in her case, there is nothing.

She gets up from the bed, with a slight struggle. She realizes that she is trembling, her hands are shaking as well as the rest of her body.

"T-that was quite a nightmare, wasn't it? Annie." Talking to herself while trembling, she convinces herself she may have experienced a surreal nightmare as the cause.

She calmed herself down again, before heading to the bathroom.

Arriving at the bathroom, she looks at the mirror, placing both of her hands on the basin below.

Seeing her face, it is messy all over. Nothing but a distressed look can be seen over her face. Her hair is ruffled and tangled, as well cold sweat covers around her.

"I should consult someone about this."

Evaluating the situation, it may not just be a regular panic. Considering the things that have been happening lately, she concluded that she may not be okay.

She glances at a nearby clock, it reads '08:46'.

Slightly relieved, she sighed.

"At least I woke up in time."

Turning on the faucet, a loud gushing water can be heard. She then washes her face and proceeds to brush her teeth.

After cleaning herself, she turns off the faucet.

"Okay!"

The fresh water in the morning wakes Annie a second time, refreshing her fully back to normal.

With this, she forgets about what had just happened and returns to her usual demeanour.

"Now, what to do today..."

She returns to her room, only to find her phone ringing again.

It was Albert, knowing him, it would seem like he called her on behalf of Mia, suggesting that it was Mia who called her earlier.