I smell rain. I am outside. I try to open my eyes to see where I am. Did they drag my body out of the palace? Did they give me an antidote before I could die? I am going to kill my sister. How could she betray me like this? Over some man. I cannot believe Raella would try to kill me. I try to breathe, but it doesn't feel easy. I tap my chest a few times. I am lying on my back somewhere cold and wet. I am outside somewhere. I am no longer in my palace. I open my eyes and it's still very dark. I try to see what is around me, but it's difficult. I bring my hands close to my face and they are covered in dirt. I put them behind me and tried to force myself up. The act of sitting up makes me gag. I lean over to one side and throw up on the ground. I feel horrible. Once the nausea has passed I open my eyes again hopeful that it will help me figure out where I am.
After giving myself some time to adjust to the dark, I notice a few things around me. I am next to a building that appears to be made completely of glass. I have never seen such a thing in Pergamum. I am not in the capital. I look around for more clues. I notice a sign on the building in bright lights that reads, "The Peacock." Even the color of the lights is strange. I have no idea where I ended up or who saved me. I look around and see that I am alone. Perhaps the person who brought me here is going to come back. I think about who would have saved my life. I am drawing a blank. I need to focus on surviving. After a few minutes in the rain outside I got cold. I try to pull a coat around myself. I don't have one on. I look down and I am wearing men's clothes! Did someone dress me up as a man so that they could help me escape?! I look down at what I am wearing and shake my head. This is men's clothes like I have never seen before. The shirt is made of softer material and has an image on it that I don't understand. The pants I am wearing are stiff and blue and are of a similar fabric that you would expect on luggage. I never would have chosen clothes like this for myself.
A couple stumbles out of the door of the Peacock building. They stare at me for a minute. I honestly cannot make sense of who is the man and who is the woman. The taller one has long hair like a woman, is wearing pants like a man, and is very burly. The shorter one has short hair, like a man, but is wearing tight-fitting clothes like a woman. Perhaps a corset? They are both shocked to see me sitting on the floor. The shorter one walks over and asks, "Are you okay? Should we call you an Uber?"I don't respond. I have no idea what an Uber is and why they would call it. Perhaps it is an animal familiar to this region? The confused look on my face gives away my feelings. The shorter one walks closer to me and offers a hand to help pull me up. The hand is feminine and soft. She smiles at me as I stand up. "You shouldn't drink so much when you are out by yourself. You don't want some creep to take you home." The taller one helps hold me up. He is a man. When I get closer to his face, some facial hair. Perhaps they are actors? I say, "Thank you so much for helping me," and then I bow. The two start laughing. The man asks, "Are you okay? We could take you to the ER." Once again, I don't know how to respond to this.
The woman is scanning the ground for something. She is slightly crouched and finally yells in excitement, "There it is!" She bends down to pick up a bag off of the ground. She opens it up and starts rifling around in it. She pulls out two small rectangular-shaped objects. The first one she opens up and inside she finds plastic cards. She smiles. She pulls out one and says, "I found you, Olivia Smith!" Then she says, "Here is your phone, why don't you use it to call for a ride home?" I don't know what she is talking about yet again. It's like I am in a foreign country trying to make sense of a new language. I look at the second smaller rectangle the woman is trying to hand me. I notice some buttons and press one. It lights up the device. I look shocked and amazed. The woman starts cracking up "You must be super high. What the heck did you take? Come here, I will help you." She then presses a button on the phone, it lights up, then the woman takes my hand and puts my index finger right up to the device again. An image appears on it. She clicks a strange button on it and the device starts ringing. A female voice comes next. They ask if the person is friends with Olivia Smith, and the female responds, "I guess you could say that." Then they start explaining to the female voice where the Peacock is located. The female voice sounds annoyed but says that she will arrive in 20 minutes.
The two strangers wait with me until the female shows up to claim me. I am still trying to figure out why the person called me Olivia Smith. I am Anaphalia. But perhaps the person who snuck me out was trying to keep me safe from my sister by giving me an alias. I don't want to put myself in danger by drawing attention to who I am. I am still looking around me, waiting for a familiar face to come out and explain how they saved me. They must have brought me here while I recovered from the poisoning. But no one comes. Next, a female arrives in some strange carriage that is compelled by something that is not a horse. I look at the vehicles with awe. This is amazing. Wherever I ended up, they had advanced technology beyond anything in Pergamum. The person who came to claim me is a young female. She is wearing shorts the size of her underwear and a shirt with no sleeves. I cannot fathom that she is anything but a prostitute. Who else would dress like this? She grabs me by my arm and sits me in her car. I ask, "Who are you?" She rolls her eyes, "You are such a mess. Mom is going to kill you. She taught us better than making yourself an easy victim." At this, she sits down and starts driving the carriage herself. She is dressed like a prostitute but knows how to operate this advanced technology. I am still super confused.
She brings me to a giant building. It's bigger than my palace back home. Is this where she lives? I gasp. It's massive. She grab the bag that had been found near me and search through it. Eventually, she pulls out a set of a few keys. She shakes them and asks me, "Do you remember which is yours? I haven't been here." I look confused. I shake my head no. Is she implying that I LIVE HERE? In this palace. It's old and run down on the outside, but it's massive. I guess it could be worse. I need a good night's sleep and then I can try to find my way back home. I want to tell everyone what my sister did to me. She deserves to die. How could she poison me on her wedding day? I need to set things right. My companion and I walk up to the palace. One of my keys opens the first door. It's amazing. I look around inside and I am confused. This is like no palace I have ever seen. My companion looks at the key and realizes there is a number on the key. She explains that the number on the key probably matches the number on my door. I have never seen a place like this. People stare at the two of us walking down the hallways. Finally, we come to a door with a number that matches the number on the key. We tried the key and the door opened.
My face instantly drops when I see the inside. It's one room that has both kitchen items and sleeping items. I see the door to another room. Ahh, the rest of the space. I open the door and there is a closet-sized bathroom. It includes a toilet, sink, and a tub. This is it?! How poor must one be to live permanently in a place like this? My companion grabs me. "Sorry about the fight between us yesterday. I know we have a weird relationship, but please don't shut me out. We are all we have." She looks awkwardly at me, hugs me, and then says, "Don't forget to wash your hair and dry it before you sleep tonight. I don't want you to get sick." With that, she closes the door behind herself and is gone.
I go to the bathroom and look in the mirror. How could anyone confuse me with a person who lives here? I look in the mirror and I scream. The face looking back at me is different. I stop and make faces in the mirror. To test if the reflection is mine. It is. Tears start to well up in the eyes of this person. I pull out the plastic card that identified me as Olivia Smith. I look at the picture on it. The face staring me back in the mirror is definitely the face in the picture. But how can it be? My memory is that of Anaphalia Lynette of Pergamum. I see that on the plastic ID card is what I assume is an address. The numbers and words all jumble together, but the bottom line does say, "Los Angeles, CA, 90003. I pause at that clue. Despite my mind having so many things on it, my body is foggy and tired. I realize that I am not going to figure anything out right now and decide to go to sleep. At least the beds are still the same here. But not nearly as comfortable as the one I had at home. I grab the blankets and go to sleep. Leaving this problem to be solved in the light.