Chapter 1

It was an ordinary cave, dark as caves are, nothing impressive about its shape or looks, nor its locations. It stood in the middle of a forest, as common as the cave itself. In fact, there was only one remarkable thing in the place, which was what the cave contained, or rather whom it contained.

You enter the cave, where you find such treasures and luxury worthy of only kings and ancient gods, in the center a man sleeps. His face shines with as much power as it exudes beauty, his face perfectly proportioned, with bronze skin, high cheekbones and a powerful nose. Suddenly he opens his eyes and facing him is like looking into the eyes of the sun. He gets up.

You are not in a cave anymore, you are frozen still as a tower rises in front of you and the world burns.

The phone started ringing and I woke up immediately, usually i would let it ring, anyone who called this early in the morning deserved to be ignored, but in this morning it was a bliss to get up and shake the creepy nightmare away.

The pain in my head was a reminiscence of how last night was, though to be honest I barely remembered it, too much vodka and too little sense, which was usually a killer combination and yesterday wasn't an exception to that old rule.

-"Someone better be dying" I answered the phone with a groggy voice.

-"Clara? Did I wake you up? It's 10 a.m."

-"it's my day off, mom"

I turned on the speakerphone and let my mom's voice resonate in what was previously a silent room; as usual her voice was full of affection with just a hint of disapproval. I moved around the house searching for anything with caffeine.

-"well, don't stay in bad all day then, you're leading such a sedentary life these days, Clara. It can't be good for your health. Speaking of health, I just saw Dr. Clifford at the market and he told me that his son is in Chicago, so I told him you could show him around."

My mom was as subtle as an elephant, she usually stayed out of my life, but about a month ago I stupidly told her that I wanted to get a puppy, because life in a big city could be a bit lonely sometimes. So obviously, she took it upon herself to set me up with every single man who could be around Chicago anytime soon.

-"Mom, you know how crazy my schedules in the hospitals are, I can't show whatshisname around." I was only paying half attention to that conversation; my full attention was in my coffee quest.

-"Dick"

- "Excuse me?"

-"Dick, his name is Dick. Well, his nickname is Dick, his name is Richard."

-"Well, I'm not going out with Dick, mom" I said laughing at her, right before I found the coffee powder and little angels sang in my head.

-"See? This is why you're single, your standards are too high, he's such a nice, good-looking young man. I'm telling you, you should give him a chance."

"Well, I don't see a reason to lower my quality control." I stopped mid-sentence to smell the divine scent coming from the coffee machine and maybe it awake some benevolence in me, because right after I said, "you know what, fine, I will go out if him"

Then the lights went off and the coffee machine stopped… before finishing my coffee.

"goddamnit. Mom?" My cellphone went off as well, even though it was completely charged.

Life is funny like that, it changes without notice, one moment you're having an annoying and somewhat amusing conversation about a guy named Dick, and then life as you know end, with no warning, no suspenseful soundtrack, no big Hollywoodian explosion.

Suddenly I heard people screaming in the street, I went to the window to check what the commotion was about and it took me a minute to realize what I was seeing and when I did my heart stopped for a second, an airplane falling out of the sky.

I dressed the first pants, shirt I saw lying around my room, grabbed my purse, and run out of the house, I knew the hospital was understaffed, so I needed to be there and give any assistance I could, even though I was only an intern.

As I ran down the stairs my mind was racing, was it terrorism? It could be, it had to be. It was too much of a coincidence; I heard somewhere hackers could take down our cellphones, lights, even cars. It was terrorism, what else it could be?

When I reached the end of the stairs I could hear people's exasperated voices. I expected a pandemonium outside, but it was unusually silent, aside from a few people talking here and there. There wasn't a single person in their phones, nothing worked, not even the cars. As I looked into people's faces I saw everything, anger, panic, but in most what I saw was grief.

I went back to my building, grabbed my bicycle and rode it like my life depended on it.