“Maybe no one told you there is strength in your tears, and so you fight to keep from pouring out. But what if you unlock the gate that keeps your secret soul? Do you think there’s enough that you might drown? If no one will listen if you decide to speak, if no one’s left standing after the bombs explode, if no one wants to look at you for what you really are. No one can take you where you alone must go, there’s no telling what you will find there. And, God, I know the fear that eats away at your bones. It’s screaming every step, ‘Just stay here’. If you find your fists are raw and red from beating yourself down, if your legs have given out under the weight. If you find you’ve been settling for a world of gray so you wouldn’t have to face down your own hate.”
A flash of light. Loud noises. Explosions. Blood. That is what Sophia experiences every night after she goes to sleep. It feels like she’s in the middle of a battle, and it feels much more real than any other dream. She’s on the floor, hurt, laying on a pool of blood, just watching her surroundings, her dilated pupils taking in every detail of the event. She was confused, yes, but if there was one thing she was 100% sure of was that the people fighting, definitely weren’t humans. Their powers were unquestionable, and certainly no one could that many hits and still be alive. It feels so real, she can actually feel the heat of the nearby fire on her skin, the smoke crawling through her lungs, driving into her an unconscious stage. And after that, it was all black. The agonizing darkness that remained that way until she woke up the next morning.
This exact same dream has been haunting her for the past 5 years, and Sophia is certain that this means something. There hasn’t been one night that she wasn’t trapped in this event that might have never happened. Maybe it’s just a dream. But deep, deep down, she knows it isn’t. And the worst part is, that she’s right. The supernatural population all over the world is almost the same, since Heaven and Hell try to keep things fairly balanced. But Camden? Camden is different. This is the place where the underworld sends its worst workers, the ones that are either evil to the core, or don’t know how to do their jobs properly. And when both those kinds of people combine, nothing good can come out of it. And certainly, nothing did. But in a city full of humans as well, one has to learn to keep things under covers, control their anger, but that didn’t happen that day.
Earth was in chaos, and the chosen location for the battle field had been Camden itself. Heaven had no part in it- vampires fought incubi, who fought succubi, who fought imps, who fought demons. Never there has been as much of a disaster like that one. They battled for eight hours straight, and the fight taking place in the middle of the streets, it was impossible to keep humans from witnessing it. And Sophia was one of them. She was 16 at the time, and was coming back from school when she found herself in the middle of it. The true description of being in the wrong place, at the wrong time. There was no escape, and Sophia herself got hit by masses of magic - that was the only way she could find to describe it - quite a few times. She was brought to the floor, bleeding, her life slipping away from her as she watched the true exposure of the supernatural world.
Luckily for her and not so much for the demons, she woke up the next morning. She survived. But her mind was in a million places as she stared at two angels in front of her as she laid confused on her bed. At that moment she couldn’t tell what they were, of course, but she could suspect. It was one of the few times that angels interfered; they not only had to do major damage control, but also go after the few humans that had survived the wrath of the damned, and do whatever they could to help them. One of the angels had too much of a conscience, so he decided to be fair. He told Sophia everything that had happened, that everything she saw was real, and that he wasn’t just a simple human. Much to their surprise, Sophia lost it. The truth was too much for her, and panic shot through her each time she thought about all of those things being… real. She was crying. She was terrified. Even the angels, that were there to help, seemed like a threat to her. Without any other option left, the soldiers of Heaven did the only thing they could.
Not only did they erase her memory and wiped out every detail related to that day, but they also altered it. In her mind, she left school and went home, watched some movies and went to sleep. There wasn’t a gap or a loophole there. It was simply normal in her eyes. Like it never happened. Her body was healed as well, not leaving a trace, wound or scar behind. Well, only the one in her mind. Ever since that day, when she goes to sleep, the memories that wasn’t supposed to be there strike back. She dreams about it, exactly like it was. She does think they mean something, but after telling others about her thoughts, no one even considered it to be true. But how could they? She knows for a fact that never truly happened. She has no way to prove it, since there isn’t anything she could work with. So for now, the only thing she has is her safe, human self, and the world she slips into at night.
