1 Prologue

I hated overcrowded places.

I sat in the packed restaurant with my family as they celebrated me getting accepted to college. I had officially received a letter of acceptance from Georgetown University two weeks ago which so happened to be my parents dream school. It didn't take long before my entire family found out about the wonderful news and that's when the planning began. It took me plenty of pleading and convincing to my mother to not throw me a party so she decided to have a "small" outing with just close family and friends.

"Aren't you even the slightest bit of excited, Rayne?" I heard a voice say in which the voice belonged to my Aunt Marie.

I placed my fork down. "I'm very excited! I think it'll be a great school for me to attend!"

I lied.

She smiled softly. "I'm sure you will love it! Georgetown is a highly selective school with a lot of notable figures who've attended the school. I think it is absolutely wonderful that you were accepted!"

"Yes! I'm very proud of you!" Her third husband said as he gave me a soft pat on my shoulder. I smiled softly at them before placing my attention on the dry  English peas that sat on my plate.

I have always dealt with these type of problems. I didn't have a brother nor sister, I was the only child so I had to deal with the pressure of being perfect for my parents. My mother grew up in a tough household. She was the second eldest out of four kids and was raised in an abusive household. At age 14, she had to take over the responsibilities of her eldest sister who had decided to move out after my grandfather put his hands on her. My mom didn't have an easy childhood. She worked two jobs and met my father at her job as a waitress when she was 17.

My father on the other hand lived a pretty normal life. He was raised in a humble household. His mother was originally from Kenya while his father was American solider. He traveled a lot due to being an army child but he never complained. He would always tell me that he was grateful for his father's bravery. Because of his service to serve this country, my father was able to witness and experience so much.

He moved to Savannah, Georgia and had only been there for six months when he walked into that restaurant and met my mother. Safe to say, the rest was history. My mother lived a tough childhood and did not get to experience life as much as my father did so she has been trying to place this "perfect girl, perfect world" image on me since I could walk and talk. She would always tell me how she wanted all of my dreams to come true. However, they weren't my dreams but they were hers instead. Her visions came to life while mines continued to be nothing more than a daydream.

"Thank you all for coming!" My mother announced as she smiled at everyone. "I know so many of you have other things to do so I won't keep you long! As a graduation gift, we've decided to gift you with a trip of a lifetime!" She said as she handed me an envelope. I stared at her before grabbing the envelope softly. It was a huge white envelope with "To our dearest daughter" written in cursive across the front.

Sighing heavily, I opened it. I pulled the two tickets out and read them to myself. I didn't say another word as I placed them back in the envelope and sat it on the table.

"What was it?" She asked.

"It is two plane tickets to the Dominican Republic." I answered. Everyone gushed at the news as I rolled my eyes and sipped the iced tea that had been sitting in my glass for the past fifteen minutes.

My mother clapped. "Everything is already paid for!"

"Thank you!" I dryly said. My father looked at me for a bit before clearing his throat.

"It was a lovely dinner, Janet!" My uncle said as he placed a kiss on my mother's cheek. "Congratulations to you, Rayne!"

Everyone bid their farewells before we all parted ways. I followed closely behind my parents as we got into the car and made our way back to our small  family home.

"Why do you look so down?" My mother asked.

"I just don't really want to attend Georgetown, mama. I wanted to attend Howard University in Atlanta!" I answered.

She scoffed. "And did you get accepted into Howard?"

"I did!" I exclaimed. "You just never paid attention. As soon as you saw the acceptance letter from Georgetown, everything else became a blur to you! I got accepted into both but Howard is my dream school!"

"Rayne." She warned.

"You made it even worst when you decided to break the news to everyone. I knew right then and there that I wouldn't be able to go to Howard!" I revealed.

"Alright, that's enough." She mumbled.

"You have to stop letting your dreams affect mine! This is my life! I should be able to make my own decisions!" I finished.

"Rayne Munroe!" She yelled. I could see my father staring at me from the rear view mirror before putting his eyes back on the road.

"Sorry." I mumbled. She sighed but didn't say another word as we sat in silence the entire way home. It didn't take long before we arrived at the familiar place that had been called my home since I was 10. My mom got out of the car and walked into the house.

"Rayne?" I heard my dad call.

I turned around. "Yeah?"

"She doesn't mean any harm." He said.

"I know."

"You don't but that's fine. You'll understand sooner or later. She just wants to see you be great and do great things but she just has a very odd way in showing it. I promise that it won't be terrible." He explained.

"Okay. Whatever." I mumbled.

He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and gave me a sad smile. "Attend one semester there and if you hate it then you should go to Howard University. Don't worry about her! As long as you get an education, that's all that matters!"

"Thank you, Dad!" I said while giving him a tight hug.

He kissed my forehead before pulling away. "Now go on that vacation! You need a break to actually enjoy yourself!"

"I don't know..." I trailed off.

He shook his head no. "You're going because I've already paid and it's non refundable! I'm sure you will love it! It will be out of this world!"

I chuckled as we walked into the beautiful home hand in hand.

•••

"I cannot believe we are sitting on an airplane!" Candace said as she smiled excitedly out the window.

"Candace."

"I cannot believe we are going to the Dominican Republic!" She said.

"I cannot believe you won't shut the hell up." I mumbled.

She smacked my arm. "I heard that!"

I laughed. "You're so excited but you're going to have to calm down. There's people looking at us as if we are crazy."

"Fine, fine!" She said as she held her hands up in defense. I leaned against the window as we prepared to take off.

"If I fall asleep then don't disturb me until we are about to land." I warned.

"It's only a three hour flight!" Candace groaned.

"It doesn't matter."

She rolled her eyes and shrugged. "I'll just listen to music then!"

I smirked and threw the hood of my jacket over my head and leaned against the window. I pretended to not see Candace as she stared at me for a bit.

"Rayne," She started, "You've always been like this since we were kids."

"Like what?"

"Uptight!" She answered bluntly, "You've always acted like you were mad at the world. Why is that?"

I sighed. "I've been raised to be this perfect child, Candace. While everyone else had the chance to go outside and play as kids, I was stuck inside of my home with books in front of me because my mom wanted me to grow up to be super smart. I didn't get to go to high school parties like you did. I was judged for being the nerdy type. I never got the chance to make my own choices or anything."

"It wasn't that bad."

"Candace, you were raised in a huge household with a wonderful family. Your parents spoiled you while I watched my family struggle for years. You were the popular girl at school and I was the loner in the back of the classroom. You won homecoming and Prom Queen and I wasn't even nominated." I said with a chuckle.

She slapped my arm, "We were best friends through all of that though!"

"You're right!" I agreed, "I'm sorry for being uptight. I've just never liked doing things like this."

"Why though?"

"I'm just used to being alone!" I said with a shrug, "I just wish I could go far away where no one is around except for me and I can just do whatever I want without anyone judging me for it."

"Far away like where? We're on our way to the Dominican Republic now!"

"Like another dimension or something." I said.

Candace laughed a bit, "Go to sleep."

"Thank you!" I answered as I placed my head back on the window and closed my eyes while she put her headphones in.

I was awoken by the plane jerking a bit. I looked around as everyone seemed to be aware of the sudden movement. I tapped Candace on her shoulder.

"What?" She said as she woke up.

"You didn't feel that? The plane just jerked or something!"

"You're overthinking it." She said as she leaned back and closed her eyes. On cue, the plane jerked again. Candace's head shot up.

"What's going on?"

"Something's not right." I mumbled. Everyone began to panic quickly. I watched as the man in front of us stood up and began yelling at everyone to remain calm. I could feel the plane going down in full speed as everyone screamed. Suddenly, the door to the pit opened and out came the pilot. He has blood coming from his mouth and nose as he dropped to the ground with a thud.

"What are you doing? What's going on?" A woman cried.

"We've been hijacked." He weakly answered. Two men ran towards the injured pilot and dragged him into an empty seat. Before I could even think of anything else, two more men came out and pointed their guns at us.

"Shut up and sit down!" They yelled. Everyone quickly did as they said except for one of the men who had gave up his seat for the injured pilot.

"This was not supposed to happen!" One of the men mumbled as he paced around.

"Rayne." Candace whispered as she pointed outside the window. I looked only to see that we seemed to be traveling through a tunnel of clouds with no sky, ocean, or horizon in sight. Everything on the plane began to malfunction. The plane began to shake and before I knew it everything went black.

I opened my eyes slowly. I could hear the sounds of the birds and the ocean. I looked up to see the pretty blue sky with not a cloud in sight. I sat up slowly from the sand and began checking myself for an scratches and bruises. I was shocked to see that I looked as if I hadn't been in a plane crash.

"Was I only dreaming?" I mumbled to myself. I slowly stood up careful not to fall and turned around. I gasped at the sight of the airplane. There were pieces everywhere and the main part was on fire. I searched around for Candace but I couldn't find her. I called out her name in hopes of her hearing me and making any noise but I got nothing. I screamed until I couldn't anymore.

It had been a few hours since I had awoken and it was so officially nighttime. I cradled my knees to my chest and sniffed as I sat alone on the deserted island with no food or shelter. How did I manage to survive without something as simple as a scratch? How was I going to get out of here? I had lost my phone in the crash so I couldn't call anyone and I highly doubt there would be service here either.

Suddenly, I could hear footsteps. I turned around quickly but I saw nothing yet I could still hear the footsteps. I began to panic. I crawled to a huge rock and picked up the closest weapon which was a rock and a thick stick.

"Who's there?" I asked. I crawled away from the rock and looked around yet I still didn't see anyone or anything.

Before I could make my next move, I felt something hard hit my head causing me to fall down. I groaned as I felt the blood rushing down the side of my face. My vision began to blur as my eyesight faded away yet that didn't stop me from seeing the black figure standing in front of me. I couldn't do or say anything, I just let the darkness take over.

I slowly opened my eyes. I was greeted with bright lights. I looked around to see that I was inside of a hospital room. I looked over to the person sleeping in the chair only to see that it was my dad. My mom slept in another chair right next to my bed with my hand in hers. There was a huge window with the blinds with open as the sunlight peaked through, the television hung on the wall in the corner of the room as the life alert commercial played, the bathroom door was cracked but no one was in there.

I felt completely different. For starters, there was no pain in my head after being hit hard with what seemed to be a rock. My eyesight was completely better. I never needed glasses but I could see every detail from the small cracks in the wall to the dust around the room. My hearing had gotten better as well. I could hear the breathing from my parents loud and clear, I could hear the footsteps from down the hall, I could hear talking from doctors and other guests clearly as well. I moved my hand a bit which caught my mom's attention. She opened her eyes slowly before her mouth dropped open.

"Rayne?" She asked.

"How did I get here?" I asked.

She broke down. My dad sat up quickly before staring at me with wide eyes and running out of the room - I'm assuming to get a doctor.

"We thought you were dead!" She cried as she kissed my hand and held it tightly.

"I thought I was too." I mumbled.

"How did you manage to survive that is beyond me but we never gave up. They searched for you, the rest of the passengers, and the plane but found absolutely nothing! Your body was found washed up on an island!"

"No one else was found?" I asked.

She shook her head, "You've been missing for an entire year!"

"What? That cannot be right!" I exclaimed, "I was only there for a few hours!"

She stared at me shocked, "Rayne, you've been missing for a year and two months. They found the wing of the plane near the Bermuda Triangle. They said your plane completely disappeared off the radar and everyone knew you all had crashed into the Bermuda Triangle."

"Listen to me, Mom." I started, "Our plane was hi jacked and we crashed. I woke up to see the plane on fire but I found no one so I assumed that everyone died in the actual plane. I saw someone but I passed out and that was yesterday!"

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"I'm serious, mom!" I exclaimed. She dropped my hand and grabbed the remote on the table next to me before turning the television up. I looked up at the screen to see a picture of me going across the screen.

"It has been a year since Flight 74 disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle. For the first time in history, someone managed to go in and come out alive. Rayne Munroe's body was found in the Bahamas and she was still breathing. She's currently being held at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Nassau. She has awoken from her coma since being found a month ago." The news reporter revealed.

"A month?" I whispered.

"However, the bodies of the rest of the passengers have yet to been found." He said as pictures of everyone appeared on the screen.

"Candace." I whispered as I stared at her picture across the screen. Her long brown hair flowed across her shoulders as she smiled brightly. I looked away from the television with sadness knowing that I'd most likely never see my best friend again.

"You should probably lay down and rest." My mom said. Before I could reply, the door opened and in came my father and a doctor. My dad had tears in his eyes as he stared at me. Standing up, my mom made her way to him and grabbed his hand to keep him calm.

"Miss Munroe, it is nice to see you awake!" The doctor started, "How are you feeling?"

"I feel good." I answered.

He smiled and walked over to me. I watched as he wrote a few things down on his clipboard and checked the monitors. He smiled softly as he placed his hand across my forehead but it didn't take long before his smile turned upside down.

"You're as cold as ice." He whispered as he stared at me confused. Quickly, he grabbed a thermometer. My parents watched in confusion as he checked my temperature.

"I actually feel normal!" I exclaimed as I gave him a soft smile.

He stared at the thermometer and shook his head, "You're body temperature is 30°. This isn't normal!"

"30?" My father asked.

"98.6°F is the normal body temperature!" He revealed, "Your below 35.0°C. This is a case of hypothermia and it is severe!" He panicked.

"Do something!" My mom yelled at the doctor as he quickly called more doctors and nurses into the room. I listened to everyone as they panicked and began trying to figure out what was wrong with me as I kept telling everyone that I felt perfectly fine and normal. Suddenly, the heart monitor started to slow down before a loud beeping noise took over the room. Everyone turned to look at the screen only to be shocked by the flatline.

"She's dead." The doctor whispered.

"So then," I heard my mother whisper, "How is she still alive?"