3 Reborn

It was so cold, as cold as the Arctic tundra... No, it was a different kind of cold. The kind that pierced into her soul and froze her from the inside out. Would she stay like this forever? Midway between hell and heaven? Lying on her side, she shut her eyes tighter and curled further into a ball, seemingly guarded against the freezing cold.

Suddenly, she felt a small hand touch her shoulder, the warmth seeping from her shoulder towards the rest of her body. She opened her eyes, sat up and hugged her knees to her chest. It was a black space; she could barely see beyond a few feet yet a 15-year-old girl was clearly standing in front of her. No, she wasn't standing... It was more like floating, levitating slightly off the ground that she was sitting on. She narrowed her eyes - just where was this place?

The floating girl looked as though she had been waiting for her and opened her mouth, as though about to say something, but no sound came out. The girl shook her head lightly, and as though she had changed her mind, she closed her eyes and smiled. As the girl did so, her figure became paler and within a few minutes, she had faded away into nothingness. In her place, a shining golden butterfly remained.

Sitting on the ground, she narrowed her eyes again at the strange event. The butterfly fluttered in front of her, as though motioning for her to follow it. She hesitated at first, reluctant to move from this space, despite the freezing cold. But what was the worst that could happen? She got up and followed it. The path led by the butterfly seemed to be endless. Growing somewhat impatient, she reached out and grabbed it. And at long last...

She opened her eyes. 'What a weird dream.' The soft mid-morning glow greeted her. Beep. Beep. The periodic beat of her heartbeat sounded next to her. She turned and saw a plethora of medical apparatus, all of which seemed to be connected to her in one way or another. She moved her hands to remove the sensors attached to her. However, she felt stiff and it took her a few tries before she could take them off. Almost immediately, the nurse ran into the room, expecting the worst but instead saw the girl trying to sit up on the bed. "Young miss..." The nurse started to tear up, but immediately called the medical team assigned to the girl before turning to her. "You have been in a coma for over a year. How are you feeling?"

'Mandarin Chinese, spoken with a strong Beijing accent... I must be in China then... How did I get here? I was in a coma after being shot? No, it pierced through my heart, I should have died...'

"I..." Her throat felt rough. In fact, now that she thought about it, her entire body felt as though it hadn't been used for a very long while. She tried again. "I..." The nurse looked at her pitifully. "It's okay, you-"

"Zhiyu!" The old man barged into the room, with a team of medical staff following behind him. "How are you? Do you know how scared I was? I've been so worried this past year... I thought I lost you..." He started tearing up and acting dramatic, rambling on about his grievances almost like a young child. The medical staff looked on in mild amusement. Was this really the same man who demanded reports on his granddaughter's status from them every hour?

'Zhiyu? Who is that?' A wave of unfamiliar memories hit her, causing her to hold her hand to her head slightly. Her action went unnoticed but caused her to take a closer look at her hands. They were unfamiliar, smaller than what she was used to.

She turned her head slightly and a large mirror hanging on the far wall entered her line of sight. Looking into it, she saw a girl in her late teenage years staring right back at her. Long, wavy black hair framed a heart-shaped face; two large dark eyes blinked slightly, looking too large for her pale and gaunt countenance. A faint scar trailed diagonally across the front of her face, crossing over her nose from one side of her face to the other. She raised her hand to it, and slowly felt all of her face. Her platinum blonde hair was gone, the piercing gaze from her baby-blue eyes replaced with a doe-eyed look. As she felt 'her' face, there was also a sense of familiarity, and it dawned on her that it was the face of the levitating girl she had seen in her dream. 'The memories must be that girl's too, then.' She felt surprisingly calm despite knowing she was now someone else.

Her grandfather paused, following her line of sight. When he saw her touching her face, he believed she minded the scar, minded the imperfection that marred her once-'perfect' appearance. He said gently, "Don't worry, we can have that scar removed once you've recovered."

He then turned to discuss something with the medical staff before walking slowly out of the room. After checking on her, the medical staff placed the sensors back and continued hovering over her, ensuring everything was fine. An hour had passed before she was finally left alone to sort out her thoughts.

'Camilla is dead. She died that night. I have been reborn. Maybe this will be my chance to live a normal life. A happy life, one without the Underworld. It's time to take charge of my life.' From the previous owner's memories, she found out her new identity and how it was Zhiyu's half-sister that had caused the previous owner to die.

'Now the question is, will I get revenge? Should I? After all, I didn't die from being set up. The previous owner did. Hmm... I think I'll just focus on myself for the time being. My body's not exactly in any condition to get revenge anyway. I'll do the physiotherapy and catch up with the previous owner's school work. It looks like she didn't go to school much. I'll do the things I never got to do in my last life and if that half-sister of mine comes looking for trouble later, then I'll give her trouble.' Zhiyu laughed evilly in her head, yet her face remained as stoic and neutral as possible.