Awakened One Night

Awakened One Night

by Palvi Sharma


A girl is awakened on a rainy night and discovers that she has absolutely no memory of where or even who she is. However, a strange force leads her to a house where she is greeted by another girl called Leena who introduces herself as her sister and tells the girl that her name is Kara. After getting cleaned up, Kara is surprised to find herself hidden from her own mother when she calls for Leena. Leena evades her questions and Kara, in her dazed state, finds it easier to comply with her instructions and the next day, even agrees to be ridden to school on her sister’s bicycle. At School, she is introduced with her sister’s friends; Sheila and Mattie who are also in the know about her revival. Kara is then told to hide in an old bus and while her sister and her friends are discussing, Mattie lets it slip that Kara had been murdered. Leena scolds her friend and then along with Sheila goes to class, leaving Mattie in charge. Kara thinks she has found her chance to question Mattie, when Leena appears stating that her class had been cancelled. Kara is left frustrated and suddenly has a memory flash of herself all tied up in a small room. Before she could ask her sister, she spots a familiar boy coming towards the bus. Leena quickly turns the boy –whose name is Alex- away and Sheila enters their hiding bus stating that another student –Paige Marbelle, had been murdered and the police were all over the school. The friends decide to disguise Kara and try to pass her off as a sick student. Since the ID cards of the students were also being checked, it is decided that Kara would hold onto Mattie’s Library card so as to avoid suspicion. Once inside the auditorium, Kara finds herself distracted when she notices a boy and girl who look familiar to her. Leena quickly tells her that they were her friends- Derek and Wanda. Kara has another memory flash in which she sees herself arguing with Wanda about something. After the announcement, Leena’s classmate tells her that Paige had become good friends with Paige. Leena immediately assumes that they are the killers and complains to the police and the vice principal who turn her away because of the lack of evidence. When Sheila finds out about this, she tells Leena that it was her who had introduced Paige to Derek and Wanda. Leena then realizes that she had almost revealed her sister’s identity and decides to take her home immediately. The friends are about to leave when, Alex offers to drive them home. Throughout the ride, Leena appears to be nervous about something else and once they reach home, tells her friends to take Kara upstairs. When she’s finally alone with Mattie, Kara finds out that she had been really mean to her some years back and Mattie then tells her that she couldn’t imagine why Leena had brought her back after what Kara had done to her. Kara is mystified and looks for clues in the closet where she finds a stack of pictures. It is then that she finds that Alex had been her boyfriend and when she looks out the window, she sees Leena and Alex hugging each other. Kara wakens in the middle of the night and finds Leena crying. Her heart goes out to her and Kara tries to console her. Leena then tells her sister how the family had fallen apart after she had died and Kara wonders if Leena thought that bringing her back would somehow fix everything. When she asks Leena if she had to give up something for performing the ritual that had brought her back, Leena again acts mysterious and Kara is forced to leave her alone. The next day, Kara puts her foot down and demands to be given a new identity so that she could live like a normal person instead of a fugitive.