Beep...beep...beep…
The sound lulled Alex
out of his painful sleep. His eyes opened only to embrace the agonizing light.
Complete consciousness still eluded him. His unfocused eyes looked around,
trying to recognize something, anything that would be familiar to him.
Beep…beep...beep…
The intervals were
steady, almost rhythmic. He saw figures walking around him in the haze. He
closed his eyes to fight back the headache that had begun. His mind, still
swimming, reached out for sounds this time, for smells, for anything that would
identify his location.
Beep...beep...beep…
He began to faintly
feel a presence that was in the room. There was an anxiety about the person.
Eyes still closed and sounds still muffled by whatever had happened to his head
lent no clues to the identity of the person. He knew nonetheless that whoever
was in his room with him walked quickly, wanting to go from task to task in
order to help him.
Beep...beep...beep…
'Help me?' Alex
thought. 'Why the rush to help me? Why do
I need help?' He again strained his eyes to open. He fought the blurred
vision, desperately trying to discover his location. The fog began to lift from
his eyes. He looked at a pale white ceiling. The light from the window was only
slightly blocked by a thin curtain which wafted gently through the air. He
searched the room for his helper bus only saw a machine to his left that had
wires coming from it. This was the source of the beeping. He watched as a
playful green line bounded up and down along a black screen.
Alex looked around the
room to find who was so anxious about his well-being, but he saw nobody.
Realizing he was lying down in a bed he attempted to sit up in bed. As he did
however, a sharp pain from his left side shot through him causing him to cry out.
Suddenly a door swung
open and a woman in a gray uniform came to his side at once. As she saw him,
her joy was immediately evident. She rushed to his side and began to talk to
him. Her voice was muffled, as if she were attempting to speak to him through a
pillow. She recognized Alex’s confusion at her words and instead motioned him
to stay where he was. Although her face was stern, her elation still lifted his
spirits. He relaxed and gave a slight nod to her showing that he understood.
After checking the machine and the bags that hung suspended at his bedside, she
exited taking with her the cheery spirit.
Alex lifted his hands,
only to see tubes protruding from them. His palms looked as if something had
tried to chew through them. 'A hospital,'
he finally realized, 'I'm in a hospital.
But why?' Slowly the constant beeps from the machine became clearer. The
light from the window didn't hurt his eyes anymore.
Finally, the woman
returned with another bag of fluids.
"Can you
understand me?" She asked.
"Yes, I can
understand you now," He replied. "What happened to me?"
"You are a hero
Alex." She answered. She took an empty bag off the hanger by his bed and
hooked up the fresh one. He could feel a chilled sensation pass through his
hand as the new liquid entered him.
"I'm a hero?"
He asked groggily.
"Yes, you are a
hero." A new voice replied. A man stood near the doorway wearing a long
coat and fedora. He entered slowly, cautiously. This man was very different
from anyone Alex had ever met. The light ambiance that the woman brought with
her was real, tangible almost. This man though showed no emotion.
"Who are
you?" Alex asked.
"I'm Mr. H. I'm
pleased to make your acquaintance Mr. Spellbody." The man sat down in the
visitor's chair to Alex's right. Alex looked at the man carefully. By this
time, the woman and light atmosphere had left. Alex felt a slight longing for
the woman to come back and help calm him down. "I'll thank the nurse for
you when I leave, but for now I need to talk to you about what happened last
night." The man in the hat wasted no time.
Alex looked up to the
ceiling, not knowing how to reply. "I don’t know what happened last
night." He answered honestly. "I don't really know where I am, I have
no idea who you are, and I don't know why I'm in a hospital."
"So you do know
where you are." Mr. H replied.
"Sure, I know I’m
in a hospital, but I don't know which hospital. There isn't one within seventy
miles from where I live."
"True, but
thankfully this is more of a school than a hospital." The stone cold look
on the man's face remained unreadable. As Alex studied the man's face more
carefully he saw the evidence of a rough life that had worn him out. No
exhaustion was expressed by the man, but the skin around his eyes seemed to
droop from sleeplessness. The light green-yellow eyes however held firm,
resolute. The only thing for sure was that this man was interested in Alex.
"Why am I at a
school then? I was never able to afford school. What would you want with
me?" Alex asked.
"We want to know
what happened last night," the man repeated. "Are you sure you
remember nothing from it?"
"Nothing."
Alex turned his
interest once again to the ceiling, not wanting to meet the hard gaze of Mr. H.
He closed his eyes, trying to figure out how he got there, retracing his steps
from his rundown apartment. Slowly, Alex began to feel a familiar hunger. His
desire for control, power, and the pain of others began to grow, slowly
engulfing his body. As the voracity swelled inside of him, a figure came back
to his memories.
The smell of gas, the
red baseball cap on his head, and the hand clutching a knife sped across his
mind, exploding into a revival of the fight he had barely survived.
"Do you remember
now what happened?" Mr. H asked calmly.
"Yes." Alex
replied.
