Chapter 1 – Reflections in a Stranger’s Skin
1289 Words
Beep, Beep, Beep.
The first thing Lena remembered on awakening was that steady sound. It was not quite a heartbeat, but near enough to wreak havoc with her brain.
Her eyelids were sandpaper. She made an attempt to open them, and blinding white shone in her face. The ceiling was much too clean. She felt heavy, weird, as though someone had put her body together sewed backwards.
Her muscles were unwilling when she attempted to sit up. Everything got sore - her toes and the top of her skull. There was a half-numbing ache at the back of her neck.
Then voices spoke, she heard outside the door. Footsteps came shuffling along.
Then the door opened.
A blonde dressed in pale blue scrubs came in, carrying a clipboard. She had tight braids in her hair, her voice was soft but with practiced efficiency.
“Oh, God, Thank God,” she said, and came nearer. “Dr. Vale, can you hear me?”
Lena blinked. The woman’s voice registered, but the name didn’t.
Dr. Vale?
Her throat burns as she tries to speak. There was no sound that came out of her mouth.
“It is understandable; you are actually going through so much right now. You coded twice before the operation. We were not at all certain you would survive.”
Smiling in a nurse's way, the woman sought to comfort someone probably not supposed to be alive.
Lena grabbed the edge of the blanket wrapped on her with her shaking hands.
Dr. Vale?
The nurse noticed her confusion.
“You may be disoriented,” she said. "Your ID said Rayna Vale. That’s you, right?”
Lena's heart skipped a beat, almost as if it would burst through her chest. Her voice cracked as she tried to speak up. She nodded her head slowly.
“I... I don’t…”
The nurse paused. Her eyes narrowed just a little. Not suspicious yet, but watching.
“You’ve had severe head trauma,” she continued gently. "It’s normal to feel confused. We’ll have a psych run a check before discharge, just in case.”
Discharge?
Lena struggled to process it all. She felt no broken bones, no wires attached to her chest. Just the cold knowledge that something was deeply, horribly wrong.
Rayna Vale.
The name was foreign to her; she had never heard of it.
Without hesitation, the nurse walked towards the monitor screen and tapped something on it before turning to walk away.
“I’ll tell Dr. Lynn, you’re awake. He’ll be in shortly. Try to rest.”
Lena pushed aside the blanket as the door finally closed behind the nurse.
She managed to get her shaking legs over the edge of the bed. Every joint protested. Everything was new to her, especially her skin. It felt borrowed, like she was some kind of alien.
Across the room, the cabinet had a mirror. Too terrified to move, she stared at it for too long.
Her mind was a battlefield of a million ideas.
Where was she? Why did they think she was someone else?
And why did her body feel so... wrong?
Lena gripped the IV pole and stood. Under her bare feet, the floor was ice. She managed to stand on her weak legs, at least she didn't fall as her knees shakes.
She staggered towards the mirror like a drunkard. Each step she took was harder than the first. She halted as she arrived.
Then she stared and stared.
And stared.
In the mirror was another face, staring back at her. It wasn't hers.
She now has brown skin, so smooth and with no scars. Long, dark lashes. A small nose she didn’t recognize. Hair too thick. Cheekbones higher than hers had ever been. Full lips, cracked but elegant. The only thing that felt a bit familiar were her eyes, but even those seemed off, bigger, more colorful, and way less tired than Lena recalled.
She reached up and brushed her cheek. The reflection mirrored her. The sensation sent a spike of panic through her spine.
This was not a mistake. This was not a hallucination. This was real.
Lena stepped back away from the mirror, almost colliding with the storage box behind her. Her heartbeat increases, making her breath difficult.
This is not my face. This is not my body.
Who the hell is Rayna Vale?
---
Dr. Lynn entered a few minutes later, all calm professionalism. He looked up from his tablet and paused when he saw her standing in the corner, arms wrapped around herself.
“You should be in bed,” he said gently.
“What happened to me?” Lena asked with a steady voice.
The doctor shook his head and looked at her confusion, he understood, "You were found out cold in a crash near Fairfield. No ID other than the badge clipped to your coat pocket. It said Rayna Vale, MD. Neurology resident at Crestfield Hospital. You’ve been in and out for two days. This is the first time you’ve spoken.”
“I don’t remember any of that.”
“You had severe head trauma. You were lucky someone saw the smoke from the wreck. Your bloodwork came back clean, and we found no signs of drug interaction. No broken bones either, which is unusual given the state of the car.”
Lena’s thoughts raced. There was a car wreck. She was unconscious.
Rayna Vale.
Not a coma, not a dream. No flickering memories of being someone else. Just darkness, and now... this.
“I’m not her,” she whispered.
Dr. Lynn blinked, “Sorry?”
“I’m not Rayna. I’m Lena. Lena Thorne. I'm not really sure how I ended up here or why I look like this, but that’s not who I am."
Silence follows.
He glanced at his notes, then back at her, “You might be experiencing a dissociative episode,” he offered carefully. “Trauma-induced identity confusion is not unheard of after accidents like yours.”
“I know my name and who I am,” she growled loudly. “This isn’t confusion. This is not my body.”
He studied her, not dismissing, but clearly skeptical.
“We’ll schedule an MRI and bring in a neuropsychological consultant,” he said after a moment. “But right now, I suggest you rest. Take it slow. Let the memories come back on their own.”
She did not argue. There was no point.
He left her with more questions than answers.
---
Lena didn't touch her food, she leaned against the cold window glass and wondered if anyone had noticed she had disappeared from the pack.
Did Damon think she was dead? Did her family?
Has her burial been performed? Did they bury an empty coffin? The room was quiet, and everything outside was silent, as if in solidarity with her turmoil.
Everything she had been, Luna, healer, daughter of the Ashenwood line was gone.
Stolen.
And yet, someone else's life was now stitched into her bones. A stranger with a degree, a name she never claimed. A face that did not belong to her.
---
Night came quickly. The nurses turned down the lights, offered her melatonin, and whispered goodnight like she was a fragile thing.
But sleep would not come.
Lena stepped out of bed and walked back to the mirror to look at the new face once more. There she stood, looking at Rayna's reflection.
The eyes looking back were calm now. Steady, a little angry.
Lena pressed her cheeks with both hands. Her touch was warm. Her skin was soft. Real.
No seams. No cracks.
Whoever Rayna Vale had been, Lena was her now. And she was going to find out why.
- Writer
