Chapter 1

She woke to find herself in a very comfortable bed. What in the world? she wondered to herself, where am I? The last thing she remembered was being held inside her cell after jumping out to protect Jared, in the process almost being killed by the group of boys. She looked around the room, it was larger than her cell, very much so. It had a large bed, which she lay on now, and a moderate sized wooden cabinet; across the room there were two rickety wooden chairs. In one of those chairs sat the kind man who had taken her in, Jeb. She was extraordinarily grateful to him, for he had saved her life on multiple occasions. She tried to speak, to bring his attention to her, but rather than words she expelled a cough.

Jeb met her eyes and smiled speaking in his rough voice, "good, good, you're awake." he looked at her for a moment as if he was awaiting a response then continued, "I'll go get you some water, Wanda, I'm sure you're awful thirsty." Wanda? she thought, what a peculiar thing to call me.

"Yes, that would be very nice, thank you."

He left the room and she could hear his footsteps retreating as they echoed through the cave walls. After a few minutes the footsteps returned, only there were more than one, and one seemed quite a bit more eager than the other. She looked down to examine herself, she had a few cuts and bruises, but none that felt familiar to the fight that had occurred the night before. Her hand reached for her forehead, when her fingertips touched the skin there she winced, she could feel a large bump as well as a cut going across the right side of her head.

The footsteps had halted and she turned to the door to see Jeb who was concealing someone behind his large frame. "Someone's here to see you, you kept him waitin' a pretty long time, Wanda." Him? Who is this him? And why was he waiting? Jeb stepped aside revealing someone who made Wanderer's eyes bulge out in fear. It was one of the boy's from the night before. Ian.

He walked quickly toward the bedside with a wide smile on his face, he reached out to her but she pulled away hastily. What is Jeb thinking? Did he bring the boy here to finish me off? When Wanda retreated from his embrace Ian's eyebrows scrunched together, "Wanda, what's wrong?" She didn't respond she just sat there staring at him, paralyzed with fear. What's going on? Where's Jared? Melanie? Are you there? Why won't you speak to me?

Ian turned to Jeb with a questioning glance then looked back at Wanda, "Jeb," he spoke without looking away from the girl he loved, "what's wrong with her, why does she look so scared?" When Jeb didn't respond immediately Ian looked at him and asked again.

While he was turned away Wanda pushed herself farther from Ian and started whispering to herself, "Melanie? Mel? Please Melanie Stryder. Please do not tell me I have lost you." The whispering did no good for both Ian and Jeb's heads whipped in her direction.

"What'd you just say, Wanda?" Jeb sounded somewhat urgent and that frightened her, she did not wish to respond.

"Jeb, go get Doc," he said in a crucial tone, "now!" Go get Doc?

"Go... Get... Doc?" Wanda repeated robotically. Does this mean they really are going to kill me? Was Jeb's kindness all a ruse?

Ian walked slowly to her as she had fled to the other side of the room in her alarm of her impending demise. He held out his hands and approached cautiously, "Okay, Wanda, I don't know what's going on, but Jeb's bringing Doc, and we're gonna figure everything out... okay?"

"What do you mean 'figure everything out'?" she spat his words back to him, "if you're going to kill me then... then do it!"

"What?" he thought for a second then continued, "Wanda, why would I want to kill you? I love you."

She was very confused. Why are they playing these mind games? "I do not understand..." she whispered. Before Ian could stop her she darted out the large door, into the many winding caverns. Behind her she could hear Ian calling to her, using the odd nickname they had given her as well as her full name, Wanderer. Soon his loud footfalls began following after her. She did not stop, she just ran and ran, tripping multiple times, cutting her knees and hands; but she would always recover from the blow and continue. Eventually the sound of his approach disappeared and she found herself in the bathing spring.

She sat by the warm water and looked down, when she saw her reflection she shrieked. The face that was displayed before her was not that of Melanie Stryder, that of herself. The reflection in the water was a girl with light delicate skin, she had long bronze waves, a button nose which had a few freckles dotted across it, and a pointy chin. She stared at the girl, at herself, for a long while until she heard a familiar voice call to her.

"Wanda!" It was the voice that had been vacant from her head since she had awoken.

"Melanie? Melanie!" she called back. Surely Melanie will know what is going on. There was a large sigh of relief and Melanie Stryder rounded the corner carefully joining Wanda.

Wanda stared at her in amazement and Melanie ran to her giving her a tight hug. "Oh I was so worried, I ran into Ian and he said you ran off, we all thought we had lost you."

"Wha-" Wanda was cut off when Jared waltzed into the room, this made Wanda's heart pound with joy until she saw that he was not alone.

Doc walked quickly toward her with a small bottle in his hand, he tapped the top and it sprayed in her face, her lungs puffed and she collapsed into darkness. The last thing she heard was the voice of the boy, Ian, the one who'd said he'd loved her, saying, "Doc, we just got her back... was that really necessary?"