Ruin and Revival

Chapter 35: Who am I

ARIKA

Ice cold water drips down the sides of my face. My heart thunders in my chest at the shock of it. A piercing pain in my left leg slowly starts to inch over the freezing numbness in my body. Something feels very off about me. I notice my hands are cuffed to the wall behind me.

"She's awake sir," A calm voice states from a direction. My head hurts too much to pinpoint anything. I feel a soft pair of hands tilt my chin up and I meet a pair of soothing brown eyes.

"I need you to answer some questions for me," He's handsome, too handsome to be my captor. I try to say something, but my throat burns with the effort.

"What?" I manage to choke.

"What's your name?" My name. Of course I know my name. My name is...

"You don't remember do you," He says sympathetically.

"Of course I know my name! Just give me a few moments," I insist. There is no way I forgot.

"What are the names of your parents? Your first love? Anything?" I rack my brain, digging deep, but all I draw is a blank. Tears overwhelm me and they are falling before I realize.

"Who am I?" Incredible sadness engulfs me. He says nothing, but takes the cuffs off of my hands, detaching them from the wall. I remain in my defeated posture, unable to have the motivation to do anything because I didn't know anything!

"Let's get some food and water in you and we'll talk," He gently tugs at me to stand, but I don't bother making a move.

"Do you know who I am?"

"I don't. But I do know that if I were you, I would take this opportunity to begin again. Remake my life and my choices without the baggage from the past dragging me down. So let's get you up and get some food and water, shall we?" I don't respond, but take his hand. He guides me of what looks like a prison cell. What did I do to end up in here? The piercing pain in my left leg increases with every step. I stop, putting my hand on the wall for support.

"Here, let me help you," I let him support me, taking the weight of the left side of my body for me. I thank him as I peer down the hallway. The faces of the other prisoners terrify me, dark and grim and haunted. None of them even register us, all laying lifelessly on the tiled floors.

"What is your name?" I ask, trying to distract myself from the horrendous sights occupying the prison cells.

"Mason," He says a little too quietly.

"That's a nice name," I say awkwardly.

"HE IS NOT NICE! I HATE HIM, I HATE HIM!" A woman in a cell we are passing by suddenly springs alive, clawing in my direction, her face feral and her mouth foaming, all signs of humanity gone. I bite back a scream.

"Just ignore her," Mason says nonchalantly, as if nothing was happening.

"DO NOT GO WITH HIM GIRL! SPARE YOURSELF" I shrink away from Mason and the woman.

"No one can just ignore that," I insist. She has to have some justification for her words. Mason reaches for me, telling me to just trust him and that I needed to eat. I narrow my eyes suspiciously.

"Just because I have amnesia doesn't mean I'm stupid. Mason, explain why she is screaming at you like you are the devil himself," I clench my hands into fists, trying to recall how to defend myself, how to fi-

My name is Arika.

"My name is Arika! And I wouldn't take a step closer if I were you!" I shout as aggressively as I could, holding my knuckles up in that certain stance that had come back to me minutes ago. Mason's composed face transforms into one of alarm. He holds up a walkie-talkie to his face.

"Her memory is back. What do you want me to do?"

"Dart her,"

I feel the needle in my thigh before I could even register those words.