Anamnesis - Chapter 1: A Little Too Close For Comfort

The man's heavy eye lids began to open slowly as his eyes adjusted to the light. He was lying flat on his back, he realised. He moved his arms in an attempt to try and sit up, but there was some sort of resistance from his left hand. He looked down at his wrist to find that it was handcuffed to a smaller more feminine one. His eyes traced the unfamiliar hand, up the arm until his eyes rested on her face. Her jet black hair was splayed out in a way that veiled most of her facial features, but he could tell that she was asleep.

"Hello?" The man called out to her. Maybe she has the key to take this damn thing off. He thought to himself, trying the pry the sturdy silver handcuffs off.

But the girl with dark hair could not be roused no matter how much he tried to shake her shoulders or call out. Instead the man tried to figure out how he found himself in the unfamiliar place.

I have no memory of how I got here… Where am I? What is the last thing I did before I got here.

A dull throbbing headache overcame the man as he tried to probe for his last memories. Deciding to distract himself from his headache, he set about inspecting his surroundings as best he could from where he was sitting. He did not fancy the prospect of physically dragging the woman around on the floor as he tried to get a better look at the room. The room was quite large, the man gathered. But the most interesting aspect of the room was set in the middle of it. Large black and white tiles were set up in a way that reminded the man of a large chess board. The tiles seemed to glow almost except that the intensity of glowing would ebb, sometimes getting brighter then several moments later they would darken.

There was only one door that the man could see which was to the left of his position. Thoughts clouded the man's mind as he tried to figure out what was going on, when the woman he was handcuffed to seem to come to.

"Good, you're awake." Levi started, "I need to ask you somethin-"

Levi was interrupted by the woman as she vomited on the floor. Some of its contents splashed onto the man's boots, and he made no attempt to hide the repulsion on his face.

When the woman was done emptying her stomach contents onto the floor, she wiped her mouth on the back of her sleeve. It was then that the man noticed that they were both wearing the same clothes. Identical dark green jumpsuits with several pockets, and black boots, that was all they had been fashioned with.

"Why are we wearing the same things?" The man asked, bewildered.
The woman looked down at her garments but seemed to notice the handcuffs.

"This is what I am more concerned about!" She said raising her handcuffed wrist, pulling his along with it. "Why the hell am I handcuffed to you?"

"I have no idea. I thought you might have some answers." It occurred to the man that he knew nothing about this woman, and therefor he could not trust her.

"Where are we?" The girl asked.

"Like I said… I thought that you might have been able to enlighten me." The man replied coolly.

"What's your name?" The girl asked as her eyes narrowed; obviously she felt the same way about him.

"My name… is…" The man was stumped for an answer, as if a big blank space crossed his mind. He threw his gaze to the room in front of him, as if hoping that his name would magically appear on the walls.

"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"

"I… can't remember?" The man said, "What about you? What's your name?"

The woman's mouth opened, and hung there for several moments before she closed it. Her black eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Why can't I remember my name either?"

"Well… I guess the cat has got both of our tongues." The man chided.

The woman threw him a dark look and stood up, the handcuffs pulling the man with her.

"Let's walk around and see if we can find the key for this thing." The woman said.

The room was huge, but there was not much in it apart from the glowing grid in the centre, until the woman pointed out the chest of drawers on the opposite side of the room. There were four drawers. When they pulled open the first draw there was a single bottle of water which the man and woman shared. They put the empty bottle back into the top drawer and opened the second. Inside this drawer were a small notebook and some pencils.

"Why is this in here?" The woman's voice was quiet.

"What do you mean?" The man asked her.

"They obviously left it here for a reason…" Her voice trailed off.

The man did not say anything, but of course the thought had crossed his mind. Someone had taken them both from wherever it was that they were from, and brought them here.

But for what purpose?

"Mmm… well we had better take it in case we need it later." The man said as he putting the pencil into his trouser pocket. But something was already there. From inside of his pocket he pulled out a small card.

Levi
"Take me back to where I belong"

The man examined the card, and had to read it several times.

"What is that?" The woman asked, peering over.

"Check your pockets." The man replied, still engrossed in the words on the small white card.
The woman pulled out a card of her own, and seemed to reread the card over and over again.

"What does yours say?" She asked

"I'm not sure. Maybe it's my name. What about yours?"

"I guess this could be my name… but I don't understand the bit underneath…"

"Can I see?" The man asked, but went she threw him the mistrustful look he offered that they each show their cards at the same time, to which she agreed to.

Mikasa

"You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink it"

"So you're called Levi?" The woman asked hesitantly.

"And you're Mikasa?"

The woman nodded, "Even if they aren't our real names, they'll do for now."

"Mmm… but I have no idea what the little phrase underneath our names mean."

Levi and Mikasa put their cards back into their pockets along with the small notebook and pencils. The bottom two drawers were empty so they made their way over to the glowing grid in the middle of the room.

"I wonder what this is used for?" Mikasa said.

"Hmm…" The man took one of the pencils out from his pocket and threw it onto a white tile near the centre of the grid. As soon as the pencil hit the white tile, it changed to a crimson red colour, and the other tiles followed suit.

Deafening alarm sounds blasted throughout the room. "Incorrect tile! Ten seconds until first punishment!" A stoic voice rang out over the blaring alarm.

"You idiot! Look what've done!" Mikasa shouted.

Instantly, the couple sprinted to the only door in the room, desperately trying to escape whatever punishment was meant for them. Running whilst handcuffed was awkward as each of them used their arms for momentum at the opposite times. Finally they seemed to get in sync with each other as they got closer to the door. As they reached the door Levi turned the handle and pulled open the door, Mikasa almost pulled Levi in before he had time to shut the door closed.

They gasped for breath, not knowing what was happening on the other side of the door, but they could still hear the alarms. After catching his breath Levi finally looked up, and saw that they were in a long corridor. Except there wasn't any windows, but white wallpaper, and grey stone tiles beneath their feet. There was a red door at the end of the corridor that looked miles away after their little sprinting session.

"Well, I w-" Levi was interrupted by a sound that seemed to come from above them.

A small tile in the ceiling was replaced by a nozzle that reminded Levi of a water sprinkler. But something about this one did not look particularly friendly in his eyes.

"Run!" He shouted

The pair started sprinting again, just missing the spray that emitted from the nozzle above their heads. To Levi's dread, more nozzles were appearing above them in the corridor, spraying a fine clear liquid.

Several drops landed on Levi's hand as he tried to protect his head. A searing pain pierced his skin every time a drop landed on the exposed flesh.

"We have to make it to the door – hurry up!" Mikasa shouted.

Levi did not know if she could feel the drops on her skin, if she did she did not show it, he thought.

Finally the door seemed within reach. By some miracle Mikasa was able to turn the handle without losing the momentum of her running and the pair of them seemed to fall through the opening of door. Levi fell face first onto the floor, and Mikasa onto her side. She kicked her leg out the close the door, and lay on her back for a moment. They had escaped the painful sprays of the acidic liquid that rained from above.

The only sound Levi could hear was the thudding of his heartbeat in his ears, as he tried to focus on catching his breath. Just as he rolled onto his back, he was met by a pair of blue eyes.

"This is our room! Both of you get out!"