Prologue


The only sound in the room was my slow, even breathing and the scratching of a pen as I wrote,
February 12, 2008.
“The most amazing thing happened to me the other day.”

Such a common saying- usually accompanied by, “I won the lottery,” or, “I saw a long-lost friend.” Yet for me, when I said that oh-so-simple phrase, it came before; “I died.” Yes, I died the no heartbeat, non-breathing deceased sort of dying. All the doctors agreed and freely admitted, at nine thirty one Friday morning I lay dead on a hospital bed. The cause of death was simple; my heart had stopped. No tumors, cuts, shots, or holes, it just stopped.
You may find it weird to believe, because you're reading these words. A dead woman couldn't write. Logic states that it can’t be true. However, logic just took a holiday. I was dead (‘was’ being the operative word).
There was just one little catch; someone else wanted me alive. I don't know what caused it all to happen exactly. I just remember that I was late for class and Will was drinking coffee, laughing. All I can bring to mind is the kitchen, then simply nothing. When I did come to, I saw a sunset. Hmm that won’t do, let’s start at the beginning shall we…









Chapter 1
She was dreaming again she could tell by the way her companion had a glow around him.
“What do you remember?”
“When?"
“Your anger is not helping Sanah.”
The young woman made a wistful noise. She was wearing jeans that hugged hips that reminded her of watermelons. Accompanying the jeans was a baggy shirt. She always wore such thing when she felt at her worst. To quote a friend, ‘baggy’ didn’t cover it, but it did cover her. Coming back to the moment, she looked at her companion.
“You want me to tell you what I know? That I remember everything, well I do,” she snapped.
“Then wake up,” he said.
“I’m already there.”
The man cast an expression she knew well. Her actual Sensei used it often enough. Shame this was a strange dream version of the man. He stood to join her before resting hands on the feminine shoulder.
“Wake up Sanah, it is time,” he told her.
Sanah let out a breath; shrugging away, she noticed an exotic fragrance.
It would have been good to be able to say that the day started out with birds singing and the sun shining so bright, but that would have been a lie. The fact was that it was raining; really, it could have been classed as a torrent of missiles. Once already Sanah had been out in the weather and it had taken her two towels to get dry again. Chris had simply laughed before rolling back over to fall back asleep. She had joined him to rub her cold feet against his legs to get revenge.
Sanah jogged down the stairs late for the thousandth time she was sure. ‘You would think that military school would make you punctual. Guess ma was wrong’ she thought wryly.
Sanah just didn't do 'on time'. She always seemed to be way to early or late. Today unfortunately was the latter.
“Gotta go, gotta go,” she muttered as she slipped on shoes.
“Relax, you’ve got time,” Chris laughed.
“Yeah right, you’re off today,” she shot back.
Chris had always been the calm one in the relationship, emotions controlled as if a dog brought to heel. Sanah was like her hair, a fiery personality, which got her in trouble. Yet, like a flame, her emotions gutted and sparked at random. The two were light and dark in all ways. He had been there when her parents had died. The only one to let her be alone for a while. Sanah remembered that day vividly with a sad smile. Her mind came to reality as she tripped. Turning on her heel, she went into the kitchen. Feeling woozy, she felt her self-fall in slow motion. For some funny reason, all she could see were his feet. Odd, it didn't hurt any and there was no fuzziness anymore. Matter of fact, she felt pretty damn good as her world turned up side down.