Amnesia - The Beginning
"Kyra! Kyra... Kyra where are you?"
"Atlas? Atlas? Wha-..."
"Kyra! No! Leave her alone you bastard!"
Almost every night for the past... I don't even know... I have had the same dream. Dream? No... nightmare. It feels so real... so obvious... my senses are spiked on alert every time I awake from it as if they were there; actually living it out without my consciousness. Again, like every time it happens, I sit up in bed at exactly 4:15 in the morning, a pounding headache and a chronically bad pain in my left side; hidden within my ribcage. Its always like I'm stuck in some sort of time loop; I've often questioned my own sanity over it all, to be totally honest. What if I'm just going insane and I believe that I have this reoccurring dream, when actually, it doesn't exist... it never did... it's just a figment of my imagination. But then I have to push those thoughts aside purely because of the reality of the dreams... they just seem too real to be a figment of my imagination... too real.
So, like every other time this happens, I slip out of bed and feed the fish in the large fish tank in the kitchen, stare at them aimlessly for a while; as if I am drawn to them, unable to pry my eyes away. Then, when I eventually can, its around 6am and I make coffee. My life seems so... constructed... Always the same things in the morning, then working, home and repeat. Some part of me wants something more exciting... but another part warns me of the consequences of doing so. It's like a random part of my mind is at war with another; my subconscious and hidden with the conscious and knowing.
I shake my head; spitting out the usual nasty taste of salt water before drinking a hot cup of coffee; again staring at the fish tank. I often questioned what my life actually was for. I was in a dead end job with strange characteristics and some ungodly looking scars over my wrists and hands; like burns. I'd never been in a relationship and each time a friend of mine, more colleague than a 'friend', tried to 'hook me up' with a fellow, I felt like I was betraying someone. I couldn't do it. I'd chicken out and apologise then leave. Something was holding me back... it was just figuring out what. Then again... I had been trying to do so for the past... at least nine years. Nothing ever came to me. Whatever it was, was certainly locked away deep inside my mind; even my psychiatrist insisted on finding something that would trigger them, and yet nothing I have tried has worked in any way, shape or form.
Atlas. That was the only lead I had of finding what the hell my own mind was hiding from me. I've had amnesia ever since my coma... Apparently I was in a boating crash at some point... 9-or-so years ago. I obviously remember nothing before it, and it's sketchy afterwards too. The name Atlas. It was nothing to go on. There must be thousands if not millions of people named the same. Fuck it.
Of course that was the same conclusion I came to every morning. Fuck it. I had work to be getting on with. Again to the ridiculous building filled with desks, telephones and computers in the same old black car... under the same old sullen sky and the same old grey streets with grey people and their bloody grey umbrellas. Grey. It was lifeless. Everything gave me a headache.
So, while sat at my desk, my workload done for the day; I stared out at the ocean. It was just visible through the clouded windows of the office and general scum stuck to the windows. I had always felt drawn to the sea, despite the tales of my boat crash and coma. I wanted to go back to the sea... get on another boat... relax.
"Daydreamin' again, Kyra? Typical." Annalese... always the one to wake me and get me back on track. She had helped me through everything and, well, she was the only person I trusted topside. Topside. A strange term that seemed locked into my mind. Topside. Me referring to earth, the planet... or... above sea level anyway. I couldn't recall where I got it from, but something told me it was related to the name of Atlas. So many puzzle pieces, and yet it still seemed that I did not have them all. Damn it.
"Sorry... force of habit."
"You really want to go out there, don't you?"
"Yeah... I guess I do."
"What!" Annalese had a habit of changing her mood dramatically. It had gotten her in several dangerous situations, which resulted in hospital visits and whatnot. "After everything? Don't you think it would... you know... be a little... much?"
"No... It's something I've almost needed to do for a while..." I sighed, flicking a piece of paper into the bin and running my fingers over the scars on my left hand. Annalese frowned;
"You've been more and more intrigued by those scars recently... the same with the fish in that god-damn tank of yours... and the ocean...Your dreams? I presume that's been coming back and forth something chronic too. The salty taste in your mouth?... The pain in your ribs?" She sat onto my desk, shoving everything aside. "Don't you think its all a little... odd?"
"Of course I do..." I didn't want to say much more on the subject. I felt that they were all linked. But never would I say that. I would be thought insane that such things could possibly linked together; besides the water fact... and injury.
"Just go home... get some rest... We'll go out tomorrow evening." Annalese stood, patting me on the shoulder before walking to her desk on the other side of the room.
Annalese; Tall, blonde... slim. Had everything going for her and yet she turns down every relationship she is presented with. A smart blonde woman with a big heart. I wouldn't be anywhere without her. So with a sigh; I got up from my desk and checked out of the office block; heading home and crashing out on the sofa. I was exhausted from nothing, absolutely nothing. I shut my eyes and began to doze off to the dull sound of the television in the background;
"So... would you kindly pass me those candles, we could put those-" My head snapped to the side, eyes staring intently to the screen. 'Would you kindly...' I said it repeatedly within my mind. Would you kindly? I don't know what... why or how... or anything... but the phrase seemed familiar... My head repeated it over and over to me in the same thick Irish accent in which the male in my dream had. Atlas. I instantly dashed into the bathroom to bring up the contents of my stomach; the same salty after taste as always.
Feeling dizzy, I rested back down on the sofa and sighed, just staring aimlessly at the television. Eventually, I did fall into a light slumber;
"Kyra! Kyra... Kyra where are you?" A voice, thick and Irish.
"Atlas? Atlas? Wha-..." My own, in pain and cut short by hideous pain to my ribs.
"Kyra! No! Leave her alone you bastard!" The same voice again, worried, panicked, followed by rushed footsteps and shouting.
I woke up breathing heavily again; the burns on my hand pulsing and the chronic pain in my ribs. Dizzy, I threw up again, reaching the bathroom just in time. Slumped against the wall, I cried. I wanted it all to stop. Maybe it would be worth jumping overboard when out later on... as Annalese promised; either way... the chances are it would all end. Hopefully. Perhaps going back to the sea would put my mind at ease over the accident... but maybe it would make it worse. If it was the 'make it worse' option... I would almost surely jump overboard. Either way... all of this would end today.
"I rented the boat from a friend. We should be able to go out pretty far if you want to..." Annalese mumbled, looking almost afraid as to what was out there. "I mean... I've only heard stories as to what happened... you know... nothing definite... uh..." She fell silent as we pulled out of the harbour and into the ocean's vast depths. "Are... do you want to go back?"
"No... no no..." I was smiling. I felt almost... at home out here. "I like it..."
"Do you wanna drift a little further or... shall we go back?" Again.. She kept asking to go back.
"Annalese?... Do you have something about us being here?" She was giving the impression that she knew more than I did. Much more. "You keep wanting to go back..."
"Uh-No! No, no, no, no! Of course... I'm... fine..." She seemed off. Totally off. I sighed, sitting on the decking at the front of the boat, staring out into the sea. It was already pretty dark, since we left early-evening time.
"Kyra?... How about you catch a few hours sleep?...Being out here is obviously relaxing you. I just don't want anything happening... again... like... like before."
"Alright..." I lay down, staying on the decking, and eventually fell asleep. That was, until Annalese began to violently shaking me to get me to wake up.
"Kyra! Kyra!" She sounded distressed;
"What!" I shoved her off and stood up, "What is wrong with you?"
"We drifted."
"We what? You didn't anchor the boat?" I stood up, somewhat shocked at her sheer lack of intelligence to drop the anchor.
"Drifted. We've drifted... I don't know where we are, Kyra!... I'm so sorry... This must be bringing back some terrible things..."
"Nothing actually." I looked off every angle of the boat; we were surrounded by ocean, nothing more, nothing less. "Damn it, Annalese! Just... turn the engine on and carry on in whatever direction the current wants to take us... We'll end up somewhere eventually..." I sat down at the front of the boat again, listening to the low thrum of the engine and the water splashing the sides.
Seven hours. Seven hours passed until a faint obelisk-like building shone out from across the darkening sky.
"What is that?" Annalese mumbled, standing from her sitting position.
"I have no-" I stopped, staring at it. "Pull up closer..."
"Are you serious?... Kyra it looks... really weird... cant we just... carry on...?"
"No... No, pull closer. I'm interested... and... It might be the only thing for miles. We could potentially get something to eat there at least... I'm starving..."
"Oh... Kyra.. I just-"
"Do it."
Annalese pulled us in, and threw a rope around a piece of wood that was sticking out of some considerable concrete. A stone staircase lead inside the stone tower-like building, not too warn by the sea. It was as if it was built to withstand the erosion the sea itself would bring... but just a small tower in the middle of nowhere? How strange.
We leapt off the boat and onto the steps; making sure the boat was firmly tied down before tottering cautiously up them; glaring up at the somehow lit lights. Annalese was shaking a little, not wanting to go inside the grand doors but something was pulling me into them; I didn't stop it. I walked inside; taking a few startled steps back as lights flickered on in staggers.
"Ky...Kyra... I... I don't think we should be in here... I just... It doesn't feel right..."
"Oh shush... Would you kindly see if there is any-" I stopped, realising what I had said... falling silent for a moment or so.
"Kyra... There isn't any light switches... it doesn't look like there's anything here...I think we should just go..." She looked around, triggering more lights to turn on; "Alright... freaky. Can we please leave? The air tastes salty and I just want to go home..."
"We don't know where home is... thanks to your lack of boating skills." I also noted the fact she picked up on the salty taste in the air. The salty taste was familiar... it was just like the one I woke up with every time I have that dream.
"I know... I know..." She sounded as if she wanted to cry, but I carried on; stopping to look up at a grand statue of the head and neck of a man. A banner stretched across the ceiling, brushing across the chest of the statue;
"Ugly fuck isn't he?" Annalese mumbled, looking up as she wiped fearful tears from her eyes; shaking still.
"Yeah..." My mind was elsewhere. I was unsure whether it was just because of my longing for knowledge or was because I genuinely did... but he looked familiar. I read the banner over and over, it sounding like I had recited it at some point; No Gods or Kings, Only Man.
"What is that even supposed to mean?" Annalese had taken an interest in it too, frowning in thought.
"It means... that you have total control... that your sweat and hard labour belongs to you..."
"What are you on about?" Annalese looked at me as if I was strange, but we carried on, down several steps of water-logged steps. The Welcome Centre Complex; Bathysphere Ahead.
"Bathysphere?" Annalese questioned, looking around as we approached more steps leading down; a staircase curving either side.
"Yes. The bronze coloured sphere down there." I rushed down the steps, having to stop myself from walking straight inside, as if it was totally natural to me.
"Kyra... It looks a bit... I..." She pulled a face towards me. "Seriously, chick... I don't want to be here... I've heard stori-" She stopped herself, putting her hands over her mouth.
"W..What?"
"Kyra... Uh..." She swallowed harshly, trying not to make eye contact with me.
"You know... something, don't you?"
"Kyra... There was never a boat crash... you were... you were in here... In this underwater city... something... happened down there, we don't know exactly; we weren't there. But from all the stories... Look... I don't know any more than the fact you were taken down into this... stupid city as a young child, grew up down there... then... it went bad or... something and here you are. You were one of the few that managed to escape. But for medical and safety reasons they had to take your strange powers from you, and your memory. Which is why the story of your coma and boat crash was made up. I was never meant to bring you back, and I never intended to... I guess fate has a way of-"
"You knew? You knew about all of this?" I was fuming. The nightmares, the years of wondering, the years of pain... she knew all of the answers?
"They said if you came back you would remember... But... I..." Annalese's sentence was cut short when there was a large, metallic groaning noise.
We both dashed up the several sets of stairs as fast as we could, slipping and smashing our knee's several times because of the water on the way up. We must have looked more like animals. Once back in the small foyer, it became apparent that there was a storm raging outside, and once we popped our head out of the door; the faint view of the boat on the horizon could be seen.
"I thought you tied it tightly..." I mumbled, watching the only escape we had drift away.
"I did... or... I thought I did..."
"Fan-fucking-Tastic..." We tottered back down the vast sets of stairs, not speaking to one an other until we reached the open Bathysphere.
"Now what?" Annalese mumbled, popping her head inside the Bathysphere to look around.
"Well... I guess we go down and see how its changed... or at least... I'll remember something."
"But... If you got out... then... you obviously wanted to get away from something down there, right?"
"Presume so... soon find out." I sighed, stepping inside the Bathysphere and putting my hand on the lever. "You coming, or you going to hope that someone drops by this dead-zone and picks you up?" I was feeling impatient; hand restlessly tapping fingers against the lever's handle.
"Don't leave me!" She dashed inside, taking a seat on the red upholstered sofa next to the lever; on the one side. I took in a breath before pulling the lever down, staggering backwards onto the opposite sofa as the door jolted shut; we began our decent into the semi-unknown depths.
A small television screen on the Bathysphere's inner wall flickered on; several advertisements beginning about various things in the city. I ignored them at first; watching the measurements outside in the sea grow deeper; 10 fathoms, 18 fathoms... The television flickered again, almost like it was changing channel.
"Fire at your fingertips! Incinerate... Plasmids by Ryan Industries." I read aloud, comparing the woman's hand on the advertisement with the scars on my own.
"Plasmid?" Annalese asked, standing up to look closely at the advertisement.
"Like... genetic enhancements."
"So they give you super powers?" She practically leapt in the air with excitement. "Why didn't you tell me about this!"
"You will not be using any... should we find any. You know what happened to me... we are keeping you as natural as we can."
"But-"
"No."
The advertisement then introduced a man named Andrew Ryan... as the bathysphere showed the City through the large window. Fish and larger animals swam by, past giant neon signs and grand buildings.
"Chick... how did they build all of this down here? It's like New York under the ocean!"
"Don't get excited... Something... is... not... right." I mumbled, still watching the screen. Is man not entitled to the sweat on his brow? This fellows voice spoke, still on the television.
"Kyra... that sounds much like what you said earlier..."
"Sh!" I pulled my finger over my lips, as if to add more urgency to her silence; I was listening to his voice, reciting his name over in my head. The advertisement continued; 'No,' says the man in Washington, 'it belongs to the poor. No, says the man in the Vatican, 'it belongs to God. No, says the man in Moscow, 'it belongs to everyone. I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose...
I moved my eyes from the screen and to the window overlooking where we were going; Rapture. Annalese gasped at the sight of the underwater city, hand over mouth while I staggered backwards, my hands over my ears, eyes locked on the city; Rapture. A few memories from before came washing back, my head physically pulsing as I remembered, buckled over on the floor;
"Come on, kyra... We've moving to a pretty new City!"
"Under the sea with the mermaids!"
"Yes, darling, under the sea."
"Whats the new place called, mom?"
"Rapture, darling. Its brand new. You'll grow up there, and we'll be happy."
I coughed as I sat up, just as the Bathysphere pulled up, revealing the outside; the beginnings of Rapture.
"Kyra!" Annalese shook me violently; "Come on! This place looks like it could be awesome." I grabbed her wrist;
"Wait." We watched as a 'person' scavenged around, half buckled over.
"Look! Maybe they could help us; Hey!" She called out, and I instinctively stood, holding my hand over her mouth and pulling her towards the back of the sphere.
"Sh!"
"W...h.y?" She managed, quietly. When the being started ripping a corpse apart, she fell totally silent;
"They are far from human now..." Although I couldn't recite everything off the top of my head, things were coming back as and when I needed them. "I... I think we referred to them as Splicers...They'll try and kill you...to get ADAM..."
"W...mmmppphh...!" I removed my hand, "What's ADAM? Is it like...a really fit dude?"
"No. Stop being so stupid. ADAM is like... the lifeblood of Rapture... everybody wants it... and everybody needs it..."
"I don't get it..."
"Oh fucking hell. ADAM can be genetically manipulated to produce cells that would not normally be present in the human body. It acts like a seemingly benign form of cancer, destroying native cells and replacing them with the unstable stem versions. While it is this instability that gives it its amazing properties, it is also what causes the cosmetic and mental damage to people who use it habitually. In the end, the instability of the stem cells means that the user will have to take in more and more ADAM just to remain sane and healthy..." I stopped, not realising quite how much I had said.
"It's coming back, isn't it?"
"Yeah..." We watched quietly as the Splicer tottered out of the small lounge on the other side of the glass of the Bathysphere. "Come on..."
We walked slowly through the various corridors and rooms that begun Rapture.
"So... how do you get superpowers?"
"Plasmids..."
"Plasmids?"
"It's like... a super-elixir made of the ADAM I explained earlier..."
"Oh... ew."
"Just... please don't touch any." Annalese just looked at me; "Promise me!"
"I... I promise. Jeez, Kyra..."
"I want to keep you alive..." We fell silent, merely following my sense of direction in the vast hallways and rooms; hoping we would find someone who was still on the right side of life down here.
We walked into a high-ceilinged room, with a grand staircase and puddles across the once grand carpet.
"Anything coming back to you?"
"No..."
"God this place is really..."
"Just... stop. Please."
"Sorry... Look." She pointed to a pink neon sign on the top of the staircase reading 'Plasmids'. I sighed in response. One side of the staircase was aflame;
"Come on... 'lessee what's up there."
We wandered cautiously up the staircase that wasn't in flames, Annalese avoiding damp patches on the floor. There was a strange rumble as we reached the top, signalling Annalese to scream;
"Will you be quiet! You'll attract splicers and we are not armed. They'll rip us apart in moments." She was obviously afraid, and I understood that... but this was a life or death situation; as it always was in Rapture; I could feel it. I walked over to the strange looking vending machine; a bottle of odd looking liquid in the retrieving section; as if someone had put money in for it but left it there.
"T...Thats a plasmid?" Annalese questioned, staying close but trying to avoid the bottle and the vending machine.
"Yep... According to the bottle-" I picked it up and glanced over the label, "It's one for 'Incinerate'."
"Like the advertisement in-"
"Yes...I...I think this must have been what I had before." I looked down at the scars on my wrists;
"How to you... You drink it, right?"
"No..."
"Then what...?" I'll give her some sort of respect, she knew nothing, but everything seemed to natural to me; "You inject it."
"Do you need a needle or..."
"No... no like this..-"Within a moment of injecting the serum, I lay on the floor, writing in pain, my eyes blurred and the back of my head burning.
"K-Kyra! Kyra!" Annalese was panicking, and flailing around, screaming and crying aloud. When I eventually came around, I grabbed her and hid around the corner; listening as splicers came frolicking towards the Atrium.
"My genetic code was just rewritten... It would have helped it you shut up!" I snapped, watching as Annalese cried silently. "Listen...!" The sound of shouting Splicers and gunshots could be heard; "That was your doing. Step one of surviving Rapture; Do not create unnecessary attention."
The splicers came dashing up the stairs, screaming and shouting, profanities and death threats. As if by instict, I waved my hand , clicking my fingers in the process. It was as if it unlocked something inside me; the splicers caught aflame and so did the majority of my fingertips and wrist; soothing over the scars that were there before almost perfectly. The screaming died down as the splicers died in a fiery inferno. Annalese curled up on the floor behind me;
"W..What did you...-"
"Plasmids... turn you into super-freaks..." I mumbled, searching the bodies. "Look..." I tossed her a pistol and a few bullets, found collectively from the splicers. "Use it. Shoot anything that moves unless I say otherwise, understand?"
"Y...Y-Yes. O-Okay.." She was still bawling her eyes out; "Kyra I want to go home..."
"Well... consider it a sleepover at my place..." I sighed, looking around. "Welcome to Rapture, Annalese... The city of the walking Insane." I panted a little as I fell to my knees.
"Kyra?"
"I... I need an Eve Hypo..."
"A what..?"
"I..." I tried to think over what I just said but it had gone... I wasn't even sure as to what I was saying.
"Hang on..." She began reading over a disregarded piece of paper; "Eve. Enables the use of Plasmids. So basically... Eve gives you the magic stuff to make that flam-ey stuff shoot out of your hand... This thing?" She lifted up a blue, glowing syringe.
"Where did you-"
"It was on the floor..." Annalese handed it to me, watching as I injected it into the same point on my wrist, almost feeling a sense of relief. "I'll be sure to keep an eye out for them..."
"Yeah... I think we'll be needing them."
"Is anyone there-bzzzzt-a-bzzzzzz- anyone there?" My eyes snapped up to a discarded radio, hanging aimlessly from a picture frame by some lose wires.
"Hello?" Annalese picked it up, sending back a voice message.
"Survivors? Down there? Bloody hell! Atlas! Atlas we've found more survivors! I told you there was a moving Bathysphere!" The man sounded young, around 24... and very excitable. My head span; Atlas. I threw up into a discarded bin. The name was so familiar.
"What're ya names?" A thick Irish accent, like in my dreams came over the radio.
"Uh... My name is Annalese, sir." She sniffled, "And.. my friend here is called Kyra... but she's sorta, being sick." The other end of the radio went quiet for a moment;
"Kyra?... Does she have a las' name?"
"Kyra? What's you last name, chick?" Annalese asked, looking over at me slumped against the wall, remembering a little more than I thought I ever would in one go.
"Xarlass. Kyra Xarlass."
"Xarlass... or something like that." Annalese mumbled; "Where are you guys? Seriously! I'm scared..." She began to cry, and the Irish bloke at the end of the radio fell silent again.
"Atlas? Atlas? You alright, dude?"
"She wouldn't remember..."
"Who?
"Kyra... She... she won't remember anything..."
"You mean thats-"
"Yes... It can't not be...they wouldn't have survived the splicer attack from earlier if it wasn't... she would have some sort of impulse... I.."
"Atlas?"
"Just get 'em outta there. Thats an order. Your head on it if they don't survive."
"RUN!" Pete. Pete was the non-irish fellow's name. Shouting at us to run as there was a hoard of splicers dashing after us, sensing the EVE on Annalese as well as the ADAM inside me. Everything was slowly coming back to me, the hall ways, the running, the people... the general layout of Rapture. It was making me feel more and more sick; light-headedness kicking in; making me stumble as we came close to Fontaine Fisheries.
Annalese screamed at the full capacity of her lungs as we dashed through a maze of fishing equipment; bullets from various Splicers ricocheting off nearby metal as they missed our bodies. I couldn't carry on, my legs were shaking terribly under my weight; I waved for them to go on, hiding myself in-between two crates, covered with nets; then passing out.
"Wh...What about-!" Annalese struggled to carry on running, realising I was gone. Pete grabbed her arm, dragging her into the fisheries and to the safest part of Rapture. Met by only a few others; one eager blonde man, with sapphire blue eyes, a questioning look in them.
"The... the other one passed out on the way... hidden..." Pete breathed, obviously exhausted. "S...Sorry, Atlas."
Atlas, the blonde, blue-eyed bloke immediately armed himself and made a break out of the fisheries and towards the place Pete described as the last place he saw the other girl.
"Kyra?" He whispered, managing to kill off a few splicers before diving between two crates, seeing she was there. His heart stopped as he looked over her unconscious body; unable to take his eyes off her.
"K...Kyra?" He swallowed harshly, gently moving the stray piece of hair from her face. "You're more beautiful than you were back-... back when..." He sniffled a little, remembering it would take more than his face for her to even hope to remember who he was in her life. "Kyra... wake up for me, sweetheart..."