Serelina Vale: The Awakening

I hear noises out in the hallway, and I'm exhausted. I'm going to stay in bed for a little while today. I’m not even going to open my eyes. It's Saturday, and it doesn’t sound like my mother or father, and it sure wasn’t Jole. It sounded like a few people honestly. Voices I have never heard. Who would have come to our house this early in the morning? Honestly, I don't even remember getting home last night. I am pretty sure I was completely messed up. The last thing I remember is getting into the car with……. Wait, who did I get into the car with? I was with some guy. He was wearing a suit… I can't remember his face… or his voice… I remember laughing, but that's it… Oh, s**t am I at his place? I mean, we were having a good time last night. Or at least I think we were. I know we danced together… Damn it!!! Why can't I remember his face?!!!? I started to panic a little bit and decided I needed to find out just where the hell I was and how to get out. I shot up in the bed hoping to catch whoever was having the conversation by surprise. But I was the one who was actually very very very surprised by my immediate environment. It was nothing I was expecting. I was in the hospital! What the actual f**k is going on right now? I began to search around me in the hospital bed looking for the thing they give you that has the nurse call button on it. In some hospitals, it is also the TV remote. I took a deep breath the minute my hand hit the “remote”, let's call it, and called for a nurse. In seconds, my room was filled with all kinds of nurses and doctors. I was beyond confused at this point. I am positive I looked at every one of those people as they all had 3 heads. I was shocked. In complete and utter shock. It took a few seconds for everything to stop spinning in my brain and for me to form words to make complete sentences. Once my brain was clear enough, I spoke. “Why am I in the hospital?” I looked around the room at all of the doctors and nurses as they looked confused, looking back and forth between themselves. Then a female doctor stepped forward and began to speak. “Miss, my name is Doctor Sion Holtz. I am very sorry to tell you this, but we are just as confused as you are. We weren’t given much information about you and what happened. The only thing that we know is that you were found collapsed outside of Strawberry Moon Nightclub, incoherent and shaking.” “Oh” was the only thing I could choke out. The doctor came and touched me on my shoulder. “What is your name, Miss?” she asked me. “Serelina Vale” The doctor smiled softly. “Alright Miss Vale, is there someone we can call for you? No one has come to claim you yet.” I look at her with a questioning look. “What do you mean to come and claim me? How long have I been here?” I asked now, completely freaking out because that would mean I missed Jole’s party. “Miss Vale, you have been here for 3 days.” I jumped off of the bed. “3 days?? 3 f*****g days, your telling me I have been here?!” I shouted. Something didn't feel right inside my body and I needed to sit down fast. I grabbed the side of the hospital bed and steadied myself. I start to feel like I have been unplugged from something important. Then, all of a sudden, I felt calm. Like real weirdly calm. Like all of my emotions have become caged. I try to remember something from that night. Anything. A name. A reason. A face. The only thing that I can remember is a man in a sharp dark suit and his laugh. Warm, familiar, like velvet and thunder. Nothing else sticks. Just his laugh… It felt safe… or was it a trap? I am just so confused. In the midst of all my confusion, a nurse stepped forward and began to speak. “Hello Serelina, my name is Ferren Summers. And I am the nurse that has been taking care of you. You have been muttering things in your sleep. Do you remember what you might have been saying?” She said, but she didn't look confused. She looked calm. Like she has seen this or dealt with something like this before. “No, I don't remember that even happening. But I do have a question. What do you guys know? What have you done in the 3 days that I was.. I guess sleeping?” The nurse stepped a little closer to me this time. And a smirk appeared on her face. “Serelina, the only thing that we did was, on day one, we gave you an IV to make sure you were not dehydrated. And then on day 2, we did a CBC, BMP, CMP and a blood chemistry test.” I looked at her for a second before asking her to explain to me what each of those things meant. Once she was done explaining what they meant, I shifted my ass in the stiff hospital bed, my eyes narrowing at Nurse Ferren in front of me. “What did you find in my blood?” Nurse Ferren paused just a second too long. Flipping the clipboard closed with a casual smile. “Nothing unusual. Dehydration and maybe a little stress, but nothing that raises red flags. You’ll be fine.” But as she turned, her eyes flicked towards the clipboard with the test report now sitting on top of her cart. I noticed it—not just the glance, but the way Ferren’s hand hovered over the paper like she thought about taking it, then didn’t. Like she didn’t want me to see it. Then another doctor blocked my view of her and then she was gone. Something in my chest tightened. Not panic exactly. Not fear. Just... a pull, deep and instinctual, like my gut was catching up to a truth my mind couldn’t grasp yet. I wanted to ask more—demand to see the report, to know exactly what was in my blood—but the words wouldn’t come. My mouth felt dry. My head, heavy. And under my skin, something shifted—a quiet hum, a flicker of heat just below the surface of my spine. I blinked, and it was as if everyone couldn't get out of my room fast enough. Leaving me in my own thoughts. “Get some rest,” a male nurse said, without turning around to even make eye contact with me. The door clicked shut behind him, and silence filled the room once more. I stared at the ceiling. I didn’t know what was going on yet, or why I was still here, considering there are no visible injuries on me, and my blood work and vitals look great. But one thing was becoming suddenly, undeniably clear. I was being lied to. And whoever or whatever I am… She was starting to wake up. Nurse Ferren’s POV The fluorescent lights buzzed softly above, casting a sterile glow over Room 312. I stood just outside the doorway, my clipboard clutched tightly in my hands. My gaze lingered on Serelina Vale, lying in the bed—still, uncertain, haunted. Serelina Vale. The name wasn’t listed in any registry. No emergency contacts. No ID. Just a woman who'd been found unconscious outside of the nightclub Strawberry Moon, barely breathing—like she’d simply dropped out of the sky. But it wasn’t the lack of records that bothered me. It was the blood. I flipped the clipboard open again, my fingers grazing the corner of the lab report. Line after line of clean results… until the final flag. Compound Detected: Duskroot Residue — metabolized. Unstable response. Source unknown. My heart ticked hard against my ribs. Duskroot was forbidden—classified. Black-market. Weaponized to sedate supernatural threats. Even seasoned alphas couldn’t process it without slipping into a coma or worse. No one should survive it unless… unless they weren’t human. Not entirely. But Serelina had survived it. She had processed it like it was part of her. She slept for three days. And now? She was waking up like nothing had happened. No human could do that. No normal werewolf, either. I closed the folder and pressed it into my chest again. I could feel the heat rising at the base of my neck. I should have reported this. Immediately. But something had stopped me—something in the girl’s eyes when she asked what had been found in her blood. The not-knowing in Serelina was real. So raw it almost made me hesitate. Almost. I glanced around the hallway. Another nurse passed by, nodding politely. She smiled back, all professionalism. All calm. Inside, my instincts screamed. I turned and walked down the dim corridor after giving Serelina a very vague answer. “Nothing unusual. Dehydration and maybe a little stress, but nothing that raises red flags. You’ll be fine”, each step echoing off the tile like a countdown. A slow exhale escaped my lips. “She has no idea what she is,” I murmured under my breath. “And if anyone else finds out what Serelina is before I do or finds the report before I get rid of it… we’re all in trouble.” I turned sharply and slipped into the storage room near the nurses’ station. The room smelled of antiseptic and old linens. At the back stood a locked cabinet used for discontinued patient charts—rarely accessed, always overlooked. I pulled a key from my lanyard, popped the lock, and slid Serelina’s blood report into a plain white folder, unlabeled, unmarked. Then I tucked it into the back of a dusty manila file labeled “Pediatric Discharges – 2012.” I relocked the cabinet, slipped the key back beneath my badge, and leaned against the door, heart pounding. “She has no idea what she is,” I whispered to myself. “And if anyone else finds out before I do… we’re all in trouble.” I only spent another minute or so in this room before emerging back into the hallway. Checking to make sure no one would see me slipping out of the storage room. Thankfully, no one was there and I needed to make a phone call. I am going to need back up. Not sure exactly how many I am going to need… but I can feel it. Something is coming. I get back to my station and pull out my cell phone, checking over my shoulder as I settle into the chair. The hallway is quiet now, just the distant hum of machines and the soft shuffle of shoes across the tile. I glanced down the hall at the storage room where the file cabinet is one more time, making sure no one was trying to go into the room and that the document that I placed there is secure. He needs to know what I know. This is bigger than anything I was prepared for. I swipe open my encrypted message app—something I haven’t used in months. Not since the last containment breach in Denver. Not since I was told to lie low and monitor, not act. But this girl… Serelina Vale... she isn’t just another anomaly. She's something else. Something long thought impossible. If she metabolized Duskroot and lived, then the rumors were true. She's awakening. And she doesn’t even know it yet. My fingers hover over the screen. Subject: Code Echo – Patient Located Text: “She’s alive. And she’s changing.” I hesitate, then add: “Recommend extraction or surveillance. Awaiting orders.” I hit send, the message vanishing into the encrypted cloud. Then I tuck the phone away, mask my expression, and get up—just another nurse on a long night shift. But the game has already started. Mysterious Handler POV: The message came through at 2:14 a.m. I didn’t flinch as the encrypted notification blinked across the hollow-screen in my private office. I was already awake. I rarely slept. I read it twice. Code Echo – Patient Located. She’s alive. And she’s changing. Recommend extraction or surveillance. Awaiting orders. I leaned back in the leather chair, the quiet hum of underground servers filling the silence. So Ferren had found her. After all this time. I turned slowly toward the wall behind me, where a dusty glass case held an old, torn file with the initials S.V. burned into the top corner. A case closed too early. A girl presumed dead. A bloodline believed broken. “She’s awake,” I murmured, fingers steepled beneath my chin. “Just like the prophecy warned.” I tapped a series of keys and typed a reply with precision: Surveil. Do not engage. Suppress all results. I paused, then added: If she remembers who she is… terminate contact immediately. The message disappeared into the ether. I rose to my feet, my coat whispering behind me as I moved to the window, watching the city sleep. The awakening had begun. And nothing would stop it now.