Unlike the time before, the process wasn't painful—in fact, it was almost relaxing, like a part of her that was never meant to be awake was finally going back to sleep. The sleeping portion left only a dull ache at the center of her brain, and that, too, slowly decreased until she no longer felt it at all. She felt normal again. Tess was alone again in the blackness with her thoughts.

A bright white light appeared overhead. The light was blurry and almost seemed to be in a separate world. She was drifting in the sea of darkness. Overhead, shapes swam past. She felt warmth on her face. It was right above her.

She raised a hand to touch the warmth and found something attached to it. Voices reached her mind, but they were dampened, like she was hearing them from deep underwater. An...

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