Infernus

Chapter 1

Memories

I opened my eyes to find myself in what seemed to be an enormous hotel room… with an operating table? It had cheap blue and green wallpaper with waves that circled the room in one continuous, cheesy stripe. The carpet was hard from various spills that stained the blue fabric. Across the room was a freshly made bed that smelled of what could only be crisp linen.

            That's right, I said across the room. I wasn't lying on the bed that looked cozy, warm, and perfect. Instead, for some reason, I was lying on a hard, silver table. Around me, in the corner where I was, were smaller tables parallel to mine, that held unopened creams, silver tools, and a small digital clock that read 10:13.

         I was dressed in a fitted white t-shirt, a lightweight blue jacket, and jeans. My hair fell a few inches beyond my shoulders, kind of annoying me. It was always getting in my face, brushing my neck and shoulders. I had a feeling it was slightly out of the norm. I slid my bare feet off the table, and realized that they looked flawless, without a single mark or scar...

            Memories of the night before flooded through me and I saw rocks, so many rocks. Magma flooded everywhere, yet I didn't remember the heat. I remembered a look of excitement because... My mind drew a blank. Why? Because of what? That boy, I remembered his tousled brown hair and soft blue eyes, and he didn't look stupid. More the opposite. He looked like he knew what he was doing, and what was coming. Like I would be safe with him by my side. He was gone. His ambition must have carried him too far, because one moment he was alert and alive, and the next he wasn't. If I'd remembered him, I probably would have grieved his death. But I didn't, so I felt nothing.

             I must have blacked out on the volcano, because I vaguely remember being carried on a stretcher towards an ambulance. In the ambulance, men with dark sunglasses asked me question after question after question, as "nicely" as they could (meaning they spoke through gritted teeth and an annoyed tone the entire time, as if my condition and the fact that we were in an ambulance were merely a small block in the road that they could easily ignore). By the time they were finished, it was probably 3 in the morning.

            And then there were the words. I don't know why I said them, or even remember that I did. I probably said them before I was knocked out.

             I wondered what could have caused me to lose my memory. Heat? Maybe I was nauseous from the heat and passed out. Or maybe I tripped and hit my head on the rocks.

            Just as I finished that thought, an elevator door opened, and a man in a lab coat slipped through. He walked towards me, paying no attention to me and (most likely) intentionally avoiding my gaze. He stopped at the small tables and silently started to collect all of the creams and tools.

            "Um, excuse me?" I asked nervously. He kept collecting but looked up at me from his round, nerdy-looking glasses.

            "Can I help you?" he asked in alarmingly deep voice.

            "Where am I?"

            "You're in a large medical bedroom. It is one of our largest suites, so you should feel very lucky." he replied, almost drawlingly. It made me feel stupid for asking. Well, duh. I thought. Besides the obvious, where am I?

            "But I don't remember coming here after the...er... questions." I said.

            "That was the point," he sighed, clearly annoyed now. "You were knocked out with some of our specially formulated sleeping gas, then transported here. We thought you would need treatment. We found it unnecessary, so we left you be." What do you mean, unnecessary? I thought. Hello, I was blown out of a freaking volcano!

            "Unnecessary?" Then I realized the truth. But how could I have even survived? A million thoughts raced through my mind as he explained it to me.

            "You did not need treatment, because you were found unscathed. You were very, very lucky." the last few words rolled out once more in my head. I seemed to be getting very, very lucky a lot in the past couple of days. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have other business to attend to." and with that, he left, leaving me thinking of how lucky I was to be alive. If only I knew what I was in for.

            The rest of the day was spent either napping or staring out the window into the city streets below. Skyscrapers reached into the sky, trying to meet the clouds. Among the clouds were airplanes, coming in and out. Musicians played on the sidewalks. Men and women in business suits walked in and out of smaller office buildings, getting things from their cars, going out to lunch, or simply going to and leaving work.

            When I could sleep, (most of the time I couldn't), I dreamt about the boy. Smiling and laughing, he would not leave my dreams. Most of all, he assured me it would all be okay. He told me that everything happens for a reason, and to hold on, even when nothing makes sense. That certainly seemed like now.

            Finally, dinner came on a small silver tray. It was spaghetti-like pasta with a creamy yellow sauce (and yes, I'm sure it wasn't cheese). It rode up to my room on the same elevator the man in the lab coat came through.

             As I took the tray up in my hands, I realized that with the elevator, anyone could probably ride straight up into my room. That was an unsettling thought. Anyone meaning even the men with dark sunglasses. Especially the men with dark sunglasses. What was so unsettling about them was that they were so strange. They never seemed tired. They seemed always to be watching me even if they turned away. I was convinced they were robots. Or maybe some kind of super-human race. Either way, they were downright creepy, and I didn't want them strolling into my room.

             The thought was making me paranoid, and every few seconds I would glance up at the elevator door, checking for intruders. In fact, I was so shaken by it, that I didn't notice the note that was right in front of me.