<div style="background-color:#6c9cb8; border:1px solid black; margin:10px 10px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px;"><span style="color: #000000"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Century Gothic;"><div style="text-align: center;"><a class="postlink" href="http://i.imgur.com/HIaYY7L.png">[ img ]</a></div><br/>Her hand felt very warm. That was the first thought that greeted Alannah as she came back to consciousness. Her left hand was very warm, like it was lying in direct sunlight, but that was silly, because she was under water. Everything moved so slow and it was so dark. It took her a minute to realize that it was dark chiefly because her eyes were closed. They didn't seem to want to open, so she gave up on trying to blink the sticky stuff that was keeping them shut away and returned her focus to her hand, which no longer felt sunny-warm, but oven-warm. Her face twisted; she was too far away to react with much more as the feeling turned from uncomfortable to painful. She thought she heard a voice, but it sounded like it was coming from a phone lying across the room. With great effort, she turned her head in the direction of the sound, finally managing to open her eyes.<br/><br/>A blurry, unfamiliar vision of someone with dark hair greeted her.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">"Pa?"</span> Her voice sounded small and younger than she recalled. But no, her parents never visited her in her apartment. There wasn't room. They had gone once, to see how she had set everything up in her little home, and that had been it. Daniel and Dimitri and various other people sometimes stayed the night, but it couldn't be one of them, she reasoned in her slightly incoherent state. The pain in her hand bit and burned at her, and she subconsciously sucked air in through her teeth. She blinked again, and Dimitri swam into view. He looked concerned, but otherwise as perfect as she always thought he was. Alannah smiled. It was hard not to.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">"What day is it?"</span> She asked hoarsely. She smacked her tongue a few times. It tasted like salt. Was it Saturday, then? Had she already been in the sea? Well, her hand hurt like Hell, but she wasn't dead, so... And this Saturday meant another important thing. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. Her room looked very bright.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">"Happy birthday."</span></span></div></span></div>