It's pitch black.

"Where are you?"

Alex inhales sharply before quickly covering her mouth with her hands, as if breathing alone would be enough to give away her location. She listens for any signs of movement. She can hear familiar footsteps in the distance. They don't seem to be getting any closer. She moves her hands from her mouth and sighs quietly. Good. She was sure they wouldn't find her this time. She'd gone above and beyond this time. Pushing boxes and clothes out of the way and then covering herself with them as if they'd never been moved in the first place. Even if they did narrow down their search to this particular wardrobe, Alex was certain they wouldn't realize she was in here. She considered this a 'hide and seek' victory!

"Okay Alex, we give up. Where are you?" Came the voice of her second pursuer.

'Still on the first floor' Alex thought as she gauged her parents distance to the main bedroom wardrobe in which she was currently residing.

"They're not even close!" She whispered to herself smugly.

"Alex!"

Oh no. There was no way Alex was going to give them the satisfaction of giving herself up this quickly. For a 5 year old she had a surprising amount of determination. She'd make them wait just a bit longer before announcing her victory.

Alex shifted her feet. She'd been standing in the same position for quite some time and her legs were starting to cramp up. Her eyes had fully adjusted to the dark now so she could see quite clearly in the cramped little wardrobe. She had never been fazed by the dark. In fact, she owed many of her hide and seek victories to the darkness. That and her parents not being particularly good at looking.

Speaking of parents, Alex decided it was probably time to go and surprise them. She began moving the clothes and boxes that covered her, making a mental note to use this hiding spot the next time they played. Just as Alex was about to reach for the wardrobe door she heard a loud thump downstairs. That alone didn't seem startling enough to worry Alex, but when she heard the high-pitched, blood-curdling scream that followed, her heart stopped and she froze. She recognised the voice instantly as her mother's. Alex heard several more thumps downstairs, followed by distressed whimpering noises from her mother. Alex was still frozen in place, her heart threatening to beat out of her ribcage now and she tried to force her body forward. Her mother needed her. Something had happened and her mother needed her. Where was her father? She hadn't heard a single sound from him since the initial thump. Fear continued to swell inside her small body when suddenly she noticed that it was dead silent again. She opened her mouth to call out to her mother, but something in the back of her mind screamed at her not to, like it would endanger her somehow.

After what felt like hours to Alex, but had only been a few moments, Alex finally found the strength to move. She all but ran down the stairs, suddenly having the urgent need to make up for the time she spent in frozen horror. She needed to get to her parents, quickly. She reached the bottom of the stairs and looked around frantically. Where had her mother's scream originated from? Her mind was racing and she almost didn't hear the slight brush of something in the living room. That voice in the back of her head was screaming at her again to run away and hide, to do anything but go into the living room. But Alex ignored the voice this time in her desperation for answers, and she swiftly ran into the living room.

The next few moments happened in a blur. She saw her father first. He was lying abhorrently across the ground, his eyes glazed over and a deep, almost black liquid pooling around him. Alex felt the warm liquid make contact with her foot and flinched, but dared not move. It felt like the world had simultaneously sped up and stopped all together. She tried stepping forward, but it felt like the room was spinning around her, forcing her to fall forward in her dizzied state. She'd bumped into something. As she looked up at the offending object, her heart stopped beating completely for a second. She stared into familiar eyes, eyes that she'd looked into so many times in her short 5 years. Eyes she trusted and loved, except now they were empty and stared at nothing.

"Mama." Alex whispered hoarsely, poking at her mother's shoulder thinking that maybe she was just confused and her mother would wake up and tell her everything would be okay. Her mother remained still.

Her throat suddenly felt overwhelmingly dry. She tried to scream, but nothing more than a whimper came out. Alex was finding it hard to breathe. She was sure she'd pass out at any moment, but her instincts kicked in and she suddenly felt the presence of someone else in the room. In her state of shock she remained frozen, but Alex knew it was already too late. She could feel the uncomfortable heat of the other person's gaze, seeping into her very being. They'd most likely seen her as soon as she'd entered the room. Being only 5 years old, Alex didn't have a concentrated understanding of death, but in that moment it became all too clear to her; she would die tonight.

That voice was back in her head, screaming at her to hide, but against reason Alex felt the immense need to look up, to see the person who would soon end her life. It would be her final act of defiance in life, to look her killer dead in the eye so they knew she'd always remember their face.

She slowly raised her head, taking in the dark, curved figure before her. Alex's eyes had been well adjusted to the dark by now, so even in the unlit room, Alex immediately noticed the unusual cold blue coloured skin of the perpetrator before her. The tiniest bit of fear was replaced with curiosity at the odd colour, but was quickly diminished when she looked into the piercing yellow eyes staring back at her. Any sliver of defiance she had was quickly replaced with horror, and all she could do was stare wide-eyed at the woman who would soon take her life. Alex couldn't tear her eyes from the piercing yellow, as if the woman was somehow hypnotising her with her stare.

Alex could have sworn the woman sighed in, frustration? She then stepped towards Alex and knelt down in front of her, Alex not taking her eyes off her for a second. The woman's presence was overbearing now that she was so close and her sweet scent seeped into all of Alex's senses. Alex thought it odd that amongst all of this horror she could spare a thought to think how pretty the blue woman was. She was broken from her thoughts by an all too pleasant French accent.

"Sweet dreams, Chérie." Were the last words Alex heard before she felt a stinging pain in her neck, and her world went black.

Alex jolted from her sleep, banging her head on the back of the seat in front of her.

"Aggh! Fuck!" She exclaimed, rubbing her head furiously.

A mother in the seat across the aisle was hushing her small child who was giggling at the scene. The woman was staring at Alex, giving her a look that said she should be ashamed of her language, which just pissed Alex off in her current foul mood. Normally she'd just ignore the woman, but her head hurt and she didn't feel like taking any shit right about now.

"Why don't you take a picture huh? It'll last longer!" She snarled at the woman, who gasped over-exaggeratingly and stared at anything but Alex.

"That's what thought." Alex said to herself triumphantly as she sat back into her seat.

'That nightmare again' she thought to herself as she stared out the window, watching the scenery flash by absentmindedly. She always had that dream when she was nervous, even after 11 years she couldn't shake the vivid memory. She remembered those piercing yellow eyes like she'd only seen them yesterday, even while the faces of her parents began to fade. She was dragging up unwanted memories again. She slapped herself with both hands, shaking the thoughts away before they started making her shake. Alex was a firm believer of squashing any unwanted thoughts or memories down into a part of her mind she'd never have to face again. Sometimes it actually worked.

Alex glanced up at the clock in the front of her carriage. 3:15pm. She still had an hour to go before arriving in King's Row. She definitely didn't want to sleep again, so she pulled the crumpled letter out of her backpack and read over it again:

To Miss Alex Cross.

I apologise for writing to you out of the blue, we have never met and I'm not sure whether you will have heard of me, but I know you quite well.

In regards to Daishin's passing, you have my deepest condolences. Your guardian was an honoured member of the Shambali and a dear friend of mine. It is through these unfortunate circumstances that I am writing to you today.

In his life, Daishin told me much about you, his young student, and asked that I deliver a message to you should anything ever happen to him. Upon his death, I was automatically updated on the situation, as well as given the message to pass along to you.

Due to the nature of the message, a direct approach is required, so I would like to meet with you in person to discuss the matter, as well as Daishin's wishes for your future.

I will be arriving in King's Row in 7 days and have a company safe house there where we may meet up. I have given you the coordinates of this safe house with this letter, as well as a train ticket from your current location to King's Row, valid for the next month.

I understand that this might seem overwhelming given your current circumstances, and odd coming from somebody you've never met, or possibly heard of, but I assure you I only have yours and Daishin's best interests at heart. If you need to take some time, before agreeing to meet, please do so. As I said, your train ticket is valid for one month so there is no rush.

I look forward to meeting you.

Kind Regards,

Tekhartha Zenyatta

Alex folded the letter back up and placed it back in her backpack. She sighed loudly.

"Who the hell writes letters nowadays?" She said to herself before laughing at the thought of this Zenyatta character whipping out an ink pad and feather to carefully write the letter. What if they made a mistake, would they re-write the whole letter? The image of a frustrated old omnic bent over a bin of ruined letters was very amusing to Alex. Or maybe he didn't make mistakes. Daishin probably wouldn't. He was a stickler for perfection and attention to detail.

Thoughts of Daishin suddenly put her back into her foul mood and again, she signed loudly before putting her feet up on the back of the seat in front of her.

'Well this has been a shitty day hasn't it?' she thought to herself before looking at the carriage clock again. 3:25pm.

The whole carriage must have heard her very unsubtle groan.