• You know that feeling you get, when you think someone’s calling your name and then you turn around, and no one’s looking at you? So, feeling awkward, you turn back around slowly, still looking out of the corner of your eyes for anything weird, because you just can’t shake that eerie feeling?

    That was how I spent the first fifteen years or so of my life. I could be doing anything, anywhere, and still feel like I was completely missing something. It felt like I was subconsciously trying to remember something, something I had forgotten long ago. I had learned a long time ago how to push this feeling to the back of my mind and just try to ignore it, which at least let me function somewhat normally. Right now, I was finishing my homework for math. It wasn’t working; I hated math.

    Pulling my hair up into a ponytail, I wiped off all my make-up that my mom had forced me wear to school today and studied myself in the mirror. I was on the short side, pale, with dark brown hair and green eyes. I was really thin, something that was rather annoying as it meant a small chest too, which the bratty girls at my school had been quick to notice.

    I had, however, been told that my waif-like appearance best suited my name, which I guess was a compliment. My name was Jackie Nicole Morgana. My last name is annoyingly stiff and reeks of upper-class, but I like my first two names. They’re both soft, quiet; sort of like a mild spring day, my favorite time of the year.

    I tore myself away from my reflection and threw on some jeans and an over-sized t-shirt. Since I couldn’t concentrate on my homework, I might as well take a walk; I loved to be outside. I slipped on a pair of Converse and headed out.

    I meandered around the place, straying further and further from my house, until I wound up about three blocks away, by the city park. I guess I wandered out farther than I meant to. Not yet ready to go back to the nagging of both my parents, I made my way to the bench in the park and sat down, breathing in the clean air. I had only been sitting for a minute when I felt a stinging sensation in my left upper arm and then the world faded black…