I wake up feeling waves of heat hit my eyelids. I can't open my eyes, it's too bright outside. I leave my hand hovering above my face, blocking the light to some extent, making it easier for me to open my eyes.
My head hearts, a sharp pain through my brain. My thoughts are scattered, literally. They seem to be bouncing in my mind, moving too fast, me being unable to catch hold of any of them. I, literally, cannot think.
I sit up, looking down, my eyes finally able to be kept open without having to squint. I look around, to the wooden walls I was surrounded by. I was in a large crate that could easily fit a couple of people. I look up, to find this girl staring at me with cold eyes, sitting down, her feet dangling in the air above my head.
I have no idea why I'm here, nor do I know what to do in a situation like this. I just woke up, in a wooden crate, to a girl's dangling feet above my head. What am I supposed to make of this?
"Hi," she says cautiously, jumping into the crate. Why did she just do that? I hope she knows some way to get us out of here. Or else she might as well have 'stupid' plastered on her. She walks over to where I'm sitting and sticks her hand out. "I'm Sandra," she says, sounding more of a question than an answer, but obviously an answer for my ever-racing brain.
"I-uh, know it's overwhelming, but just calm down for two seconds, and let us explain to you why you're here. It's a little hard to process, but- you get over it, I guess" She continues, her hand still extended. I make no absolute sense of whatever she's saying, cause well, it makes no absolute sense. "Umm?" she questioned.
"What?" I snap back, with anger that I didn't even know I had in me, that I hadn't even felt three seconds ago. She jerks to alertness as soon as I've said that one word. Her shoulder's tensed, her eyes piercing into mine more sharply. She's done absolutely nothing and I just snapped at her. By etiquette, that is literally unacceptable, so I do the next best thing, apologize. "I- I'm umm- sorry? I don't know why-"
"It's okay, really" She assures me, as I see her shoulders relax more, and her face morphs for a moment. It doesn't change, but, in that second, she looked different. I couldn't quite point it out, but I let it go. She's a complete stranger, on the main hand. As all these thoughts are racing through my head, she shakes her extended arm in front of me, as to signal she needs me to get up.
I get up on my own. As confused as I am, I am not, and I repeat, I am not, out of my senses. Or handicapped, for that matter. She shrugs and lets her hand fall back to her side. "You said us," I ask, a matter-of-factly, the question mark not really there. Luckily, she got onto the question there.
"We're, you can say, like a- community?" she replies, evidently rather unsure herself, which intrigues, and freaked, me out terribly. "Hey, Ralph!, she's good!" she screamed, looking up outside the crate.
"I'm what?" I ask, fear evident in my voice, as two boys approach into our view, putting down ropes, with knots in them for easy climbing.
"Don't fret, I just meant you were chill," she replies, adding a wink and catching hold of one of the ropes, placing her foot on the first knot. I hold the other, attempting to climb. To sum it up, it's extremely unsteady and extremely freaky. I definitely don't think I've ever climbed a rope in my life.
Life.
That's when I realized I didn't know what life was. What I've done and what I haven't done. That's when I realized I hadn't thought of who I was yet. My name, how I look, how I am, those trivial things that make up a big part of my... life. I didn't remember any of it, none of it.
I didn't remember my past.
***
I stare at the three in front of me with blank eyes. Sandra turns to look at me and takes a step back.
"I- uh- are you, oka- " she starts cautiously, her body leaned back, evidently ready to move away swiftly in case I do anything rash.
"Where am I? Why- why don't I- I- remember, well, anything?" I question them, cautious myself.
"U-Uhh, look, we'll explain it to you," She reassures, "I can, if you don't want crowds, that is," she adds.
I stop for a moment, thinking about the questions I knew no answers to. I try to remember me, my name. Me, in general. And like a train hitting me in the face, small pieces, small parts of my identity, come back to me. Like a puzzle, not enough to start guessing the full picture, not enough to know much at all.
"Ariana," I mumble, silently, like a prayer. The visual of my appearance flashing in my mind, there, but not quite there.
"What?" Sandra questions, glancing quickly at the other two boys, and turning back towards me, taking a step in my direction.
"My- my name, I-I- remember, it" I saw, looking unsurely into her steady eyes.
"Oh- umm," she stutters, taking cautious steps towards me until she's at arms distance, "You don't have to share, you know. It's the only thing they let us keep," she continues, a distant look in her eyes. "You can- you know, change it. Make it your own little secret. It's not a crime, you know" she adds.
I think about her words deciding I wouldn't want to keep it hidden. It's the only part of me that I have, that I know. I shouldn't act as if I was ashamed of it.
"Aria," I reply, telling Sandra the shortened version of the part of me that I remember. In a way, she's right. I'm not me, anymore, if I don't know who me even is. I'm her, this new her that I was going to become. This new her would replace me. I would know to become her.
She nods her head, raising her eyebrows in question before placing her hand on my elbow. "Uh- we need to, you know, explaining, and all," she reminds, sucking her lips into a thin smile.
"Uh- yea, sure, I- um- I stutter, not able to process everything. But then there was nothing to process, my ears and brain had already processed what she'd said. It was my mind, whirring.
"Come on," she tugs me by the elbow, walking beside me. The guys take lead, and we follow them through a wooded area, into a clearing.
"Welcome to the heart of Elsi!" she tells me excitedly, as I land my eyes on the little clearing which had been divided into different parts, for different uses, like cooking, resting, sleeping, and whatnot.
"Heart?" one of the guys that accompanied us, snorts.
"We're the only living people here, Barn," she said back. I turned to get a good look at them. One of them, the on Sandra had called Barn was well-built, with green Capri shorts and a brown t-shirt. He had blonde hair and blue eyes, while the other guy next to him, was a brunet, with brown eyes. He was more less-built, but with confidence in his posture.
"Bye," they call out, to Sandra of course. I didn't know them, nor did they know me.
"Hey- Don't-don't fill your mind up with too much of worry. Possibly the worst advice ever, but honestly, it isn't like you're going to gain or lose much," She tells me, to which I offer a brief weak smile. "Umm, now, introduction," she reminds, giving an awkward laugh.
"Umm yea, uhh-" before I can say anything, somebody cuts me off,
"Hey," I turn my head to see two other guys. One of them is tall, with olive skin. His long brown hair reaching up to his shoulders. His eyes were dark but clearly brown. The other one was shorter, but a couple of inches taller than me, from the looks. His hair cropped close to the scalp, His eyes a dark grey.
"William, just the person I wanted to meet," Sandra remarks.
"She's the tyro?", the taller guy asks Sandra, not even trying to acknowledge my presence. He diverts his eyes to give me a once-over, but diverts his glance again. Sandra nods in reply, after which he says, "Can you just- you know? We have something up, so I need to go. Rafael can come with Y'all"
"Uhh yeah, sure-" Sandra stutters, nudging me to follow her. We don't go into the crowd, like I thought we would, which relieves me to no end. The other guy -Rafael, I assume,- pushes me to the side and walks up to Sandra, leaning in to whisper something in her ear. Her mouth opens to say something, but she pulls it shut, nodding in reply. He takes the lead, and she starts walking beside me, her steps a step ahead of me.
We walk in silence, following blindly wherever Rafael leads us. I assume Sandra knows where we're headed to, too, just an instinct. After going in rather deep -I hope they know they're way out- Rafael stops. The surroundings don't look any different than the woods we'd walked through the whole day.
"Stand there," He tells, not moving, pointing to a tree a couple of meters away from where Sandra and I stand. I don't move, staring at him, not out of defiance, but my mind really cannot understand a word he means. I can't process anything. I know what he said, I know what he meant, but my body can't understand anything.
"Hey!" He yells, bringing me back to my senses -somewhat. My eyes go wide, the hatred on his face burning every ounce of confidence I had. I slowly move and stand with my back to the tree. What is happening??
Sandra takes a step back, as he takes a step towards me. He screams something indecipherable, soon after which I lose my footing. Everything happens so fast, I don't register everything happening around me until moments later.
Crammed into a rope-net trap hanging from the tree I was standing near, I see a new person approaching Rafael and Sandra, smiling at Sandra and high-fiving Rafael.
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