It was dark with everything damp. As the vision cleared, blood was everywhere. It was moving towards the girl. Crawling and Gnawing her. The girl curled up into a ball to protect herself.

There was a deafening silence. There was no sound, not even the thumping of her heart. She wanted to scream, but no voice came out. She was praying for someone to come and protect her. She wanted to get out of there. The red blood had filled the place. It had reached up to her. Slowly it started to cover her. It got on her legs. She shook it off.

It was very stubborn. It kept climbing over her. She felt the weight of it dragging her down as she kneeled. Her lips moved. There was no sound.

The blood had reached her neck. She was slowly drowning into it. She still prayed.

“Don’t be afraid”, a very faint voice reached her ears.

She looked around.

“It’s not real. Try to follow my voice.”

She tried listening to the voice. “Let go of your fears. Face it. This is not real. Wake up.”

This was a dream. The girl tried to wake herself up but she couldn’t.

“Follow my voice. It’s your dream. Only you can get you out of here.”

She followed the voice. She stood up from the puddle of blood which was dragging her. She forced her way out as she chased the voice.

The darkroom shook. The blood receded. Soon, the illusion broke, and Cindy found herself drenched in sweat.

Beside her bed, Edward was sleeping on the armchair. She was covered with a blanket. On the bed table, some incense sticks were burning. There was some medicine as well. She tried to get up.

Edward woke up from the rustling sound.

“You woke up. Thank goodness. How are you feeling? Do you need something?…(Omitted)….”

Edward bombarded her with a barrage of questions. She had only fallen asleep. Why was he worried so much?

“No. Don’t get up. I’ll call the doctor first.”

“Doctor. What are you talking about? I’m fine.”

“Fine. Do you know how long you were sleeping?”

“…”

“10 days. You’ve been sleeping for 10 days.”

Cindy had no idea that so much time had passed. She was having a nightmare. She could not see or hear anything except for the damp feeling, and the blood drowning her. In the end, she did hear something. She could not remember what it was.

“Even if you feel fine, you just have gone through awakening and a very long one on that. You need a doctor.”

“Awakening?”

“Yes. You awakened your gift. We will find out once the doctor comes.”

Edward answered her while he was sending a message on his communication device.

“What is awakening?”, Cindy rephrased her question as she had no idea what he was talking about.

“You don’t know what awakening is?”Edward asked her feeling confused. He still explained it to her. Awakening was a phenomenon in which humans gain gifts or special abilities. They go through the trials in their dream. If they succeed, they get the abilities if not they die in their sleep. Cindy had not woke up for ten days. Edward was worried that she would die.

Only 5% of humans undergo awakening. These individuals have a chance to evolve into superhumans or immortals. Superhumans are born with their abilities. Elementals another human race were also born with their abilities. Their abilities were elemental attributes, like earth, air, water, wind, and fire. There were few abilities like healing, darkness, ice etc. but their number was on the lower side.

When the doctor arrived, he checked the physical condition of Cindy. He found no abnormalities. He asked her how was her trial or the nightmare she saw. She explained her dream without revealing what triggered her dream.

The doctor explained to her that the trial would show her deepest fears. In her case, it was either darkness or blood. Cindy could not explain how she got out of her dream. She vaguely remembered the voices. The doctor could not analyze further. He taught her how to draw out her gift. It did not work. He asked her to get her gift evaluated in the academy.

Edward gave her a few books on magic ability and awakening. She was lucky to awaken her ability but that ability would become a burden to her if she did not harness it properly.

Later that day, she heard those voices again.

“Hey. You made it.”

“I told you she can do it…”

“Oh! Her eyes are like blue gems. So pretty.”

Except there were many voices. There was a childish voice, a squeaky voice, meek voice, a loud voice talking around. Cindy looked around her. There was no one. But she kept hearing those voices.

“Hey. This way. Can’t you see us.”

Cindy recognized the voice as the one that told her to follow her. It was a confident and beautiful voice of a woman.

“I can’t see you. Where are you?”

“Right in front of you. You can not see us?”

Cindy was not able to see them.

“Ahhh… That’s why I told you not to interfere. Look she can’t see us.”

“No this is not happening. I was so excited to finally talk to a human. And a beautiful one on that. But Look what you did.”

There was chaos. They were groaning and heartbroken.

“What are you guys? Are you ghosts?”

“Ghosts? No, we aren’t. I don’t know what we are. But we are not ghosts.”

“Yep. Not ghosts. Not ghosts.”

Many other voices repeated the same thing.

“Oh, I see. Then what are your names?”

“Names. We don’t have names.”

“But you can give us names. I would like one if you give me one.”

“What are talking about? She can't even see us. How will she give us names?”

Cindy stopped them from arguing, ”I can give you names. But first of all, thanks for saving me. It was really scary there.”

“Mention not. We will always help you. Anywhere, everywhere we will protect you.”

“Thank you.”

Cindy continued, “I don’t know what this awakening thing is. Are you guys from my awakening?”

“Yes. Correct. We are your gifts. Aren’t you a lucky one to get chosen by us?”

“Yes. Indeed.”

“Don’t worry. You can soon see us. You have to keep practising and_”

The voice stopped and suddenly got more closer, “I will protect you from that psycho woman. She is really really really bad.”

Cindy remembered the darkroom. Janet had done many atrocities in that room. She had to inform the officer. And also she had to be careful around Janet as not to raise suspicions.

Few days passed. Cindy went to the Academy to get her abilities evaluated. She got a mediocre grade as her ability was rare, and the academy lacked facilities to test it further.

She would always go to the streets where that masked officer had asked her to meet. He didn’t come for many days.

Janet wasn’t suspicious of Cindy in any way. Because of her ability, she would know when and where Janet was. She was getting all the information about her from her new friends.

She had gained some confidence after defeating her fear in the trials. She behaved like a very normal girl around them.

Half a year passed when that officer met her again. By that time, many other officers were kidnapped and tortured by Janet and her group. Cindy had found out that Janet was the leader of a rebel force called Kagena. It was a notorious group that had already destroyed a whole city. Cindy was getting anxious because of it.

“You finally came. I have a lot to tell you.”

The masked officer came closer and asked her to follow him. She followed him. Soon they disappeared and were in front of a small café. The masked man looked around and removed his mask.

He was a very normal-looking man. He was tall with a sturdy body. However, his face wasn’t that memorable. Cindy found herself dissatisfied for some reason.

“My name is Quadro Perez.”

“Quadro as in Spanish for four.”

“Yes. I was the fourth child in the family,” Quadro replied without any expression.

“…Ok.”

As they sat down inside the café, Quadro asked the waiter to bring them coffee.

“So you can speak Spanish as well.”

“Not really. I know a few words.”

“My special ability is mind reading and teleportation. I can read minds to a certain limit. At that time I saw you could be of use. You were betrayed by your friends and needed help. I didn’t help you because I was being a good person.”

“That doesn’t matter. You saved me. I owed you. And this is where I payback.”

“I know. That’s why I wanted to come clean. Also, congrats on your awakening.”

“Thanks. But I would like for you to stop reading my mind.”

“I can read to a certain extent that you are allowing me to. Those feelings are on the surface. I can see that you have improved a lot from before.”

“Whatever. I can give you my report, or you want to directly read it from my mind.”

“I already tried to read it. You are not letting me in.”

“…..That’s rude. …Agh… I don’t like being pried like that.”

“I can tell you more about myself if you want. You were curious about my face, I showed you. It didn’t meet your expectation. That wasn’t my fault. I already told you my name. I don’t think you are interested to know more.”

“I didn’t know you could talk that well.”

“I have to. Somebody was so dissatisfied with my face that they are not revealing any information,” Quadro spoke while drinking his coffee.

Cindy took the coffee mug. It was bitter.

“Can we do it the traditional way?”

“Or we can forget that you saw my face and I wore the mask back. And voila”

“…..Fine you win”

Cindy closed her eyes and relaxed. She thought about all that had happened in that half-year. She avoided thinking about what wasn’t necessary. When she was done, Quadro had left. He had left behind a note. ‘Thanks for the help. And by the way that wasn’t my real name or face.’

She had gained nothing. He might have been bluffing. He had a mellow voice, the voice which had become like that after years of smoking. It was similar to her father’s. she was curious about how he looked like. She imagined him to be handsome. He might not be handsome, but that doesn’t matter. She knew there was some protocol which prohibited special agents to tell their real names or face.