Heroes and Villains

Memories

The boy sat up in a medical bed and gasped, air filling his lungs. He was dressed in one of those robes issued to hospital patients, and his head throbbed. He looked around at the plain, white room he was in, only furnished with a chair beside him and a set of draws by the door. The room was bright, but there were no windows. The boy frowned. Where was he? He tried to think how he got here but his mind was blank.
Okay, he thought. Start small.
What was his name?
Nothing.
He racked his brain for an answer, but he had nothing. Only blank spots where names and places and people should be.
The door to the room opened, and a young man walked in, dressed in black jeans and a dark leather jacket.
"Hello," the man said. "Welcome back from surgery."
Surgery? The boy shook his head. He would've remembered that. You should remember you name, idiot.
"Well, I take it you don't remember much?"
"Nothing." The man coughed.
"Sorry, nothing?" His eyes widened. "Absolutely nothing?" The boy shook his head again.
"Dear god," the man muttered. "Oh no, this is not good."
"Who am I?" The boy said. "What did I know before? Did I have friends? Family?"
The man chuckled. "Woah kid, one question at a time. I can't tell you exactly what you knew, but I can tell you what information we had on you." The boy rubbed his hands over his face. This man was just making everything twice as confusing.
"You were dying, when you got brought in for surgery. The only way to save you was to give you power. Well, a mix of two. You had family, yes, but you left them a long time ago. And friends? I wouldn't call them friends from what I know, more like people you were forced to hang out with." The boy nodded and smiled.
"Well that's great." He said. "But who am I? What is my name?"
"Ah yes." The man grinned. He came up to the bed and sat in the chair beside it. "Your name kid."
The man opened a folder he pulled from his jacket.
"It's..." he squinted at the paper. "Roman? Yeah, that's right. Your name's Roman."

As the man said it, images came flooding back to Roman's mind.
A girl, Briar, with a dragon beside her and a grin on her face.
A fight with Noah, whoever he was.
A small girl, and her attacking him.
A group of villains, and a jewellery store.
The sunset from a cabin.
A forest on fire.
Roman knew these people, but didn't know how. What if they were for bad reasons. He looked at the man, who was still reading the folder.
"What did I do? Did I work for anyone?"
The man nodded. "You worked for us. Do you remember Briar?" Roman nodded. "Yeah she tried to kill you, and she needs to be brought in." She tried to kill him, that's why she was in his head.
"What about the dragon?" The man choked on the water he had gotten from somewhere, Roman had no idea where though, and coughed. "I'm sorry, a dragon? Damn, you got hit pretty badly kid." The man stood and headed out of the room. Before he left, he turned and smiled at Roman. "When you're up to it, come and have a look around. You might be able to track down this Briar girl. Get the information from her. She'll know exactly what we want. See you later." He walked from the room and shut the door behind him.

His name was Roman.
Someone had tried to kill him.
He was trying to find her, and get the information these people needed.

Roman stood and went to leave his room, pulling on the clothes left on the drawers by the door. As he pulled on a shirt, he saw the scars all over his stomach and sides. He still had no idea where they had come from, and his stomach seemed to ache for some reason. He shook his head, ignoring the sense he was being lied to. He had forgotten everything, and these people had reminded him. They were the good ones, the people who had saved him. But as he left the room, Roman felt like he was leaving something behind. Something precious that he would never get back.

As he walked down the halls and corridors, the smiling girl was in his head. Her name was Briar, or he thought it was. The one who tried to kill him. But when he felt the need to hate her, he found he couldn't. When he wanted to see her pay for what she did, he just wanted to see that she was alive and okay. Maybe it was just his mind playing tricks, and he made himself believe it.

She was no one to him.

She was a killer.

And she would pay,

In blood.