“Mmm,” my aching body stirred from what I thought was a deep sleep. My arms propped up beneath me, pushing me to a sitting position as I tried to rouse myself. “Ah.” I the spot on my head that throbbed in pain at the sudden movement, only to realize as my hand pulled away, it was slick with wetness. There was no mistaking the crimson color of the blood that trickled down my fingers and jolted me awake in an instant. My hand returned again, swiping at my forehead where the gash was crying streams of blood. I needed help. I needed to get to the hospital. What if I’d had a concussion? What if… As my mind raced, I realized I didn’t even know how the accident had happened. The last thing I could remember was sitting at my desk, typing away at the story I was working on. Had I hit my head on the surface when I’d drifted off to sleep?

My eyes opened wider, expecting to see the computer and the proof of my theory, but instead, all I saw was green. Vast amounts of greenery, and pink puffs of smoke. In fact, unless I had completely lost my head, pink tendrils from the puffs appeared to be reaching out for me, almost as if they were trying to entangle me and drag me away, but as my bloodied hand reached out, my fingers brushed through the smoke, revealing it to be nothing more.

“Where am I?” the words tumbled from my mouth softly. I wasn’t given a second chance to question my own whereabouts as the throbbing reminded me of my current condition. Regardless of where I was, I needed to get help.

“Hello?” I called out, hoping someone on a nearby street or perhaps in a building would hear, but as I looked through my blurred vision, I realized I was far from civilization. “Is anyone around?” I tried again.

Just as I was about to give up and try to bring myself to my feet, a voice called out from within the shadows of the trees. “Oh dear! Looks like you’re injured.”

I blinked, trying to take in the appearance of the woman as she slowly emerged. It was strange, though. I had thought her skin was green at first sight, a sickly sort of green tint, as if she herself needed medical attention, but when I opened my eyes again, she looked just as normal as anyone else I’d ever met.

“I don’t know how it happened, but I should get to a hospital. Could you take me to one?”

The woman approached and I realized she was beautiful, almost too beautiful. “A hospital? Oh silly girl, we don’t have those here.”

My brows furrowed sending another scorching pain through my head, blurring my sight again. “Ah!” I cried out softly. “But, I need help! Where am I? Couldn’t we go to the next town? Surely there’s one there.”

The woman chuckled and I felt something in the pit of my stomach lurch. I put the blame on my injury for the sick feeling that was beginning to overwhelm me. “Let’s have a looksie.” Her long fingers wrapped around my hand and she pulled it toward her face, looking almost ecstatically at the blood that was beginning to crust over on my fingers. A nail scraped over my skin, taking with it a trail of blood. The woman’s icy cold fingers released my hand and I found myself inching slowly away from her as she raised the nail to her nose, sniffing the blood like a hungry animal.

“Mmm, yes. I see. So pure, so clean. You’ll certainly need to get that fixed up right away. Come with me. I’ll help you, dear.”

Again she was reaching out for me, her fingers within inches of my skin. My head screamed, my stomach clenched. All I could think about was that I was going to vomit or pass out, or perhaps both. I needed help, but every bone in my body screamed that this woman was not here to help me like she claimed.

“Please,” I mumbled, my lip quivering in a mixture of pain and fear. “I just want to see a doctor and go home.”

Once again, I could feel my vision blurring as the woman reassured me she was here to do just that, to “fix me” and take care of me. I was losing the will to fight as my body crumpled into the ground. She was just above me, her arms reaching out to scoop me up when the air was cut by a whooshing sound. The woman froze, her gaze looking up and her feet slowly retreating.

“You know you aren’t welcome here, Senka,” came the sound of another voice, a much more calming one, despite the threatening tone she seemed to be using.

I tilted my head, looking back up at the woman who had seemed so friendly at first, only to realize her skin was green, and she wasn’t nearly as beautiful as I had first imagined her to be. My body shivered from the fear that was beginning to take over and the world around me started to fade to black.

Before I completely lost consciousness, I felt myself scooped up into a pair of strong arms, could make out what looked like a woman in white, an angel, I could only guess. She carried me in a hurried manner and mounted on the back of an animal, a horse I assumed. It was the rushing of the air around us as we moved that finally did me in, but not before I heard the woman whisper to me. “Stay strong, I’ll help you pull through this.” And for some strange reason, I felt I could trust her.