“Oh ye, all ye, who suffer here below,
Schooled in the baffling mystery of pain,
Who on life's anvil bear the fateful strain,
Wrong as forged iron, hammered blow on blow...”

-Mathilde Blind

{Maritza’s perspective: 10/14/2016 11:50 PM}

Where… where am I?

I can’t move, My stomach is in so much pain, it feels…

WAIT.

I’M IN PAIN?

Is this what pain feels like? I can’t believe I’ve forgotten what pain feels like.

I see my cousin next to me, crying and telling me that the ambulance is coming.

I’m… I’m confused.

What the hell just happened?

One minute I’m here talking about the autumn leaves falling in our park by the apartment building with Elena and the next…

Lights out.

Then something hit me. HARD.

I always thought I couldn’t get hurt though… I haven’t felt a pain like this since…

The hospital.

Since Madame Melfi’s house.

That year, God I hate that year.

I…

(Maritza was given a sedative as she was put on a stretcher by the EMT’s that arrived to bring her to the hospital. Sierra, Flora and Zekito followed them.)

{Maritza’s dream: 10/14/2016 11:50 PM}

Maritza: Wh...Where am I?

Madame Melfi: Ahh good, you’re awake my child.

Maritza: Madame Melfi? How? Wha…

Madame Melfi: What happened to you, my child? Why are you here?

Maritza: where is here?

Madame Melfi: Child, you are in the middle ether.

Maritza: what is the middle ether?

Madame Melfi: This is the place where the souls who have no place else to go...go.

Maritza: So is there no heaven for us Madame?

Madame Melfi: I don’t know child. All I know is that I arrived here after my daughter made me and you… fight.

Maritza: I’m sorry Madame. You were going to kill me, I had no choice…

Madame Melfi: It doesn’t matter child. Listen to me now though. You must stop what’s coming.

Maritza: What’s coming?

Gonzalo Melfi: You must stop Your Cursed brothers and sisters from uniting. While you were dormant, pretending that you were just a normal teenage girl, then a young mother and wife, then a thirty four year old divorcee Living in New York city, they have been uniting. Plotting. You were supposed to stop this…

Maritza: Why the hell is this up to me? I didn’t ask for this curse, I didn’t want to… I… I deserved a normal life!

Madame Melfi: I understand child. None of us wanted this!

Gustavo: I… Deserved what I got when I did what I did. I admit that to you Maritza. But whether you wanted this power or not is no longer up to you. You have it, It is your burden. You have to...

Maritza: (Slaps Gustavo to the ground) You… of all people… HOW DARE YOU TALK TO ME!

Gustavo: I am sorry. I am only speaking on behalf of your conscience.

Madame Melfi: That’s right child! We are only telling you what your mind already know is true! You need to awaken your powers, but use it to stop your kin from uniting and destroying the world we know.

Maritza: But… Virgil… he… He’s in that prison, He can’t…

Madame Melfi: listen to your heart child! You know you are lying to yourself, pretending that he is not the one who found a way to harm you! They have sent you a message child! They are looking for you, and now you know, they have found a way to hurt you! You must stand up and fight!

Maritza: But how can I fight this? I don’t even know If I could…

Madame Melfi: Your power lays dormant, but it is there. The fires rage inside you, powerful as ever. Protect your sister Yuki. She is also in grave danger.

Maritza: How so?

Madame Melfi: We don’t know. All that we know and can gather from your thoughts is that she arrived suddenly, her ticket said she had arrived from Mexico, and her story has a lot of holes in it. You two need to talk. Ask her why she had that scar on her arm…

Maritza: That’s right! I wanted to ask her about that when we were talking in the bathroom.

Madame Melfi: She is scared child! Something happened to her, Someone did something to her that made her more cautious about her cursed family. She is not the same girl that you met in that dream all those years, long ago. You need to find out why.Protect her, and protect yourself as well. Most of all though, protect the world from what's coming.You know what's coming.Please...

Maritza: Okay, I will…

(Maritza woke up from her hospital bed, saw that she was on a ventilator as hospital noises surrounded her. She then pressed the nurse call button.)