Chapter 3. Night as always, darkness and cold. 

1000 years later...

Night as always, darkness and cold. 

Eva woke up with a splitting headache. The intense neon lights of the night city and the cars passing through the street stung her tired eyes. 

She could barely distinguish the figures in front of her. Everything was spinning and blurry as if nothing made sense. 

As she took several breaths, she tried to focus her sight, but the pain was numbing and distracting. 

"Girl... are you alright?" The voice of an old lady, perhaps Mrs. Torres, echoed in her head. She remembered that she was closer to the fried food stand on the block when a car crashed into her from behind. 

"Hey! Do you hear me? Do you want me to call an ambulance?"

"N-no...no need, I'm fine," she replied almost without voice, her jaw hurt too. She groaned painfully when she felt a sudden, excruciating pain in her ribs and thighs.

A few seconds ago, her bike was pushed onto the sidewalk and she was sent flying to the concrete wall like a sack of potatoes. Then the driver shamelessly sped away. She couldn't see the car nor the license plate, not even the color. Not long after, she blackout maybe for a minute or two. 

When she woke up, Mrs. Torres was in front of her. The old lady bent down and frowned when she saw blood running from Eva's forehead. It was a painful sight. 

She passed her hand in front of Eva's eyes many times and called her name, but it seemed that Eva couldn't focus her sight.

"You are not well, I will call an ambulance and the police, you must see that..."

"No..." Eva scrambled to her feet trying not to fall. Then she wiped the blood from her forehead with her soiled sleeve. Suddenly she felt a stinging pain in her right leg, probably from a sprained ankle. "I don't have money for treatment, just let it go..."

"But..."

"Please, Mrs. Torres, I'm fine," Eva reached down to pick up her things from the floor. Her torso and ankle ached like hell, but she couldn't afford to go to the hospital right now. Her only choice was to bear with the pain until she arrived home. 

There were not many things in her backpack, but they were all over the sidewalk. Some notebooks, her shabby wallet, and the old barely functional smartphone she managed to buy in a secondhand store. 

Mrs. Torres also helped her pick her things up. However, watching Eva almost fall again, she clicked her tongue and moved her head from side to side.

  'That girl must see a doctor,' she thought. 'Anyway, it's not my problem.'

She wasn't that concerned about Eva. She didn't know her that well and only watched her pass through that street a few times. At this moment, she only wanted to return to her lonely stand quickly. 

There were not many clients that night, and she was worried. If she returned home with that little money in hand, her husband wouldn't like it. 

From the side, she suddenly noticed Eva's cheap wallet a few steps away. Her eyes brightened up, as she picked up the wallet and looked inside. There were a few bills, exactly what she needed to meet her quota for the day and maybe some days more. With that, her husband would not punish her.

Eva was distracted, picking up her bicycle a few meters away. 

"She won't notice." Mrs. Torres whispered to herself "And she is strong and young, she doesn't need it that much. Maybe with this, her karma will change for the better."

Then she took out the bills and shoved them in her pocket quickly. After all, Eva would never notice, perhaps she will think that she lost them or had dropped them by accident. She would never know it was her. 

"Here..." she put the rest of the things in the wasted backpack. "Go home quickly to bandage that forehead... if you don't want me to call the ambulance."

"Thank you, Mrs. Torres," Eva nodded. She really couldn't pay for the medicine and treatment in the hospital. 

Her salary for the past two months and some other side jobs were her only money at hand. She only had what was necessary for the tuition for the following semester.

There was no choice, she would have to steal some medicine from the mansion that night. She hoped Mrs. Roberts wouldn't give her trouble.

Two hours later, despite it being a few blocks away, she returned to the mansion. The steep slope and the freezing weather did not allow her to walk faster. 

"Fucking luck I have…" she whispered biting her lips. The pain was excruciating. 

After a few minutes of trying to stand the pain in her ankle, she could barely feel her leg. Now she had a fever growing up and felt dizzy. 

"Just a bit more," she whispered to herself. It was hard not to faint in the street. Nobody would notice. 

When she saw the huge metal gate from the Hart mansion. It took her entire strength to ring the bell and ask the guard to open the doors for her.

"Who is it?!" a loud shout came from the other side, "It's late at night, who dares to enter the Hart Mansion so shamelessly!"

"It's me," Eva whispered, retaining the pain. "Eva."

"What?! Hah… well, whatever… Should I wake Mrs. Roberts to ask if you can get inside?"

"Just open the fucking door or shall I call Mr. Hart's Personal Assistant."

Not long after, the gates opened. 

Eva left the broken bike on one side of the gate, she didn't care that the guard grumbled at her again. Her only thought at that moment was to get into her room and lie down. She didn't care about stealing medicine. She was too weak for that.

"What kind of person leaves her stuff lying around, she's not even the real Madame of this mansion and does whatever she wants," Eva ignored the guard's complaints. 

Not even when she heard the guard stomping on the bike, she turned her head. The bike might be already broken from the car crash, therefore, she didn't care if the guard threw it away.

The mansion was not too far away from the main entrance. Just a few meters, but it looked like an eternity to her. She just wanted to get to her room, lie down in bed, and sleep until the next day.

When she arrived, she noticed the lights were off, there was no one waiting for her. No one came out to greet her as they should be.

She was the wife of Kian Hart, the so-called billionaire of the century, who with just a few years in the industry, and a great idea created an empire. 

But still, with that status and that stamp on her marriage certificate, the people inside that mansion didn't respect her. At this point, status or not, she didn't care.

She almost crawled up the stairs, two flights to the second floor. Then hopped down the hall on one foot. The swelling in her ankle was killing her as she had to put her weight on it to walk without being noticed.

Some tears threatened to fall from her eyes, but she held them back quickly and covered her mouth to stop from groaning in pain. 

If she didn't want any more trouble that night, she had to be silent.

Through the corridors adorned with expensive lamps and objects of great value, she hopped on one foot quietly. 

Several expensive paintings and some family photos hung on the walls as she walked, but none of them had Eva's face in there. It was as if she didn't exist in that family. 

After reaching the end of the hallway, she sighed with relief when she touched the handle of her bedroom door. 

The place was as before, dark, small, and a bit dirty. A trail of dust could be easily seen with the light from the moon. At least she knew that no one had entered there those days when she was in the College dorms. 

The darkness continued to invade the room, for some reason, she could see well enough, even without her glasses. 

She didn't know if they were broken or not, she had kept them in her backpack without checking them.

Her body was burning, she could feel it. The pain began to spread again from her legs to her ribs. 

She jumped into the cold shower with her last bit of energy. It didn't matter if she was still dressed, with her shoes on and blood from her injured forehead. She crouched down and sat as the icy water covered her entire body.

"I'll be fine…" she sighed desperately, her tears mixed with the cold water, and her lips turning blue from the cold, "I'll be fine… I have been through worse."

After so many years, she had never felt so alone, so tired. She always gave her all, but people always find ways to tear her apart. She was tired. If she died that day, maybe no one would notice, some would even be happy, but she didn't care. 

Her eyes finally gave up. They closed as she watched the blood dripping on her hands and on the floor. 

That red color soon immersed her in dreams. Strange dreams of a past she didn't remember.

"Eva…" she heard.