It had been three months since the accident. Since the young boy had been found lying unconscious at the foot of a cliff. The man that had found him had immediately rushed him to hospital and when the boy finally woke up he had no memory. No one knew who he was, or where he had come from. The boy himself was incredibly quiet and only seemed to respond to most of the staffs questions by shaking his head. Few of them had managed to even hear him speak.
He'd been labelled the 'Bellhop boy' by the hospital staff due to the uniform he'd been wearing when he'd been found, but even that hadn't managed to spark any memory from him as to who he was. Though now he wore the set of pyjamas the hospital had given him, but the nickname still got whispered around, though no one called him that to his face.
The only other odd anomaly was there was a little squirrel that had been with the boy when he'd been found. It followed him everywhere. It hadn't left his side since he'd arrived at the hospital, even when the staff had tried to shoo it away it somehow always seemed to keep coming back. It was clear it had previously had some sort of connection to the boy. But in his current state the boy only ever just brushed it off or pushed it out the way. It seemed to be closer to a pest for him. The doctor almost wished that squirrel could talk, he felt it might actually be able to give them some sort of clue.
The doctor had been trying these past months to coax any hint of his memory out of him. But he hadn't responded at all. In fact the boy barely seemed to respond to anything, he always seemed to have a long blank stare, it seemed as if nothing but white static was going through his head. He was starting to fear that boy would never get his memory back.
The boy woke up one day to find the nurse telling him there was a special surprise waiting for him. He responded the way he previously had, with a mute blank expression. But he followed her anyway until she led into a room, she said the squirrel wasn't allowed in this area and would have to stay outside. He didn't mind that.
The room was about the size of a small living room, with a few vaguely comfortable chairs and some tables laid out. It had brighter colours then the other rooms in the hospital though it still felt very empty and barren. It seemed to be a visitor room.
"Just take a seat here," the nurse said, and the boy did as he was told, "I'll be back in just a minute."
And with that she left, leaving him to contemplate exactly why he was here anyway. He stayed staring at the walls before the door opened and the doctor entered as well as another man following behind him. The boy eyed the new man with suspicion.
"I have some good news for you," the doctor said, "You've got a visitor."
The boy adjusted himself on his seat, more suspicious. He didn't get visitors.
"This man says he knows you."
The man was tall, had scruffy hair and looked rather worn out and stressed. He wore something that looked like it had been a nice suit, but now looked a bit bedraggled. The boy had no idea who he was and only felt uncomfortable looking at him.
"Do you recognise this man at all?" The doctor asked.
The boy shook his head.
"Oh Spirou, how could you forget me? It's me, Fantasio!" the man said, extending his arms as he headed towards him.
The young boy still felt unsure.
"This man has been saying your name is Spirou. Is that right at all?"
"Spirou…" He repeated that word aloud. Saying it, yes, it did sound like it was right.
He quietly nodded.
"Really? That's wonderful." The doctor said, "For the longest time he's been at this place not even been able to tell us his name."
He turned to the other man.
"Since he arrived he's barely spoken, he hasn't had a clue about his memory. You're the first person that's given us anything."
"Well, I've known Spirou for quite some time. He's my sidekick. Fantasio and Spirou. That's us."
Spirou found himself repeating that name over in his head. It was familiar, but he looked at this man. He knew he had seen him before. There was something about his face Spirou recognised, but his memory was having trouble connecting that name to that face. And still some lingering feeling of uncertainty.
"Fantasio?" he said, still trying out the name.
"My friend, it's so good to see you again." The man calling himself Fantasio stepped forward and patted him on the shoulder. "I was so worried about you. To think you'd ended up all the way here."
"He suffered a rather nasty accident." The doctor said to the man, "He was found at the foot of a cliff and suffered some severe injuries on the way down. It left him completely without his memory. It's good to finally find someone that knows who he is."
"Right. Oh Spirou, to think you'd gone through all that." Fantasio said. Spirou didn't know how to react, though the person was somehow familiar no other memories had come back to him.
"Doctor, how much memory loss did you say that Spirou had?"
"As far as we can tell he lost his memory completely. We haven't been able to get a thing out of him."
"I see…" Fantasio looked deep in thought before he turned back to Spirou, "my friend, I promise I'll do whatever it can take to get your memory back. I promise I won't abandon you until you're well again."
Spirou looked into his supposed friend's eyes. He really wanted to believe him, but why didn't he believe it'd be that easy?
"Thank you sir," he said.
The man who called himself Fantasio turned back to the doctor.
"If it's alright, could we be left alone for a while? Just to catch up on some things?"
"I believe that should be alright for a few minutes," the doctor said. Spirou could see the doctor looked happy to see him in this state, but then this had been the most Spirou had spoken throughout the entire time he'd been there.
"Is there anything I can get either of you? Coffee or tea?"
"Coffee," Fantasio said.
Spirou shook his head.
The doctor left the room. Fantasio took a seat and Spirou sat opposite him, not saying anything. Fantasio kept glancing at the door but the moment the doctor was gone he turned to Spirou, his expression changed and he looked notably more serious than he had before.
"Okay Spirou, how much do you really remember?"
"What?" Spirou asked, surprised by the man's sharpness.
"About what happened? Do you remember any of it?"
"Erm… I don't know…"
Fantasio leaned back on his chair.
"Absolutely nothing?"
Spirou shook his head.
Fantasio stared at him. Spirou couldn't help but notice he looked tense. He was clearly thinking something, he continued to think before he spoke again.
"Spirou. There are some things about what happened that it's important for you to remember."
Spirou looked at him confused.
"When you disappeared you had something in your possession. Can you remember where you left it?"
"What?"
"It's incredibly important Spirou. Do you remember that you had a suitcase? You must have had it on you. We need to get it back Spirou."
"What do you mean, I…" Spirou paused, something about that did sound familiar. He remembered something about a suitcase… he had to find it… he was chasing it. It was somehow very important to Fantasio. The images came to him so incoherently it almost felt like trying to remember a dream.
"… I was trying to get something… something in the suitcase…"
Fantasio could see some memory had been triggered. "Yes. Can you remember what happened?"
Spirou was trying to think. Only a few random images came to his head.
"It started with the robbery… something got stolen… But I found out what it was… the mask had gone missing…"
"Yes. That's right."
"Wait, Fantasio… Weren't you arrested?" Spirou said, eyeing his friend.
Fantasio glanced back at the door.
"Okay Spirou, there's something I've got to tell you." He leaned closer, "You're right, I was arrested. I escaped and made it out. After I threw the police off I tried to follow the trail of where you went. It's been hard, but I finally found you."
Fantasio quickly glanced back to the door, seeing whether the doctor was going to come back.
"But the police don't know I'm here. We've got to find that mask before it's too late so I can clear my name."
"But, why did you give the staff your real name?"
"I panicked, alright?" Fantasio stood up and paced around, "I didn't know what to do, when the doctor asked for my name I didn't know what to say. So we might not have much time. Spirou, you've got to tell me where it might be. What can you remember?"
"I don't know. I went to a house… That was after you had been arrested…" Spirou remembered because he had been on his own.
"Then I found…" Spirou thought, a name started to come to him, but not a face somehow. He tried desperately hard but a face seemed to completely elude him. He looked at Fantasios face, as if that might somehow give him some sort of clue. Looking at Fantasio's face just confused him more, like he was missing some important detail. The faces were all jumbled up in his head. But a name managed to come through.
"Zantafio… It was Zantafio."
Spirou looked at Fantasio, who seemed shocked by those words, worried and clearly nervous. He saw a bead of sweat run down his face.
"Zantafio?" He repeated, saying that word with a certain amount of dread. "W-w-what do you remember about Zantafio?"
"Yes, it was him that was behind this. He framed you. He pretended to be you."
"What? But… No he didn't!" Fantasio said sharply, then seemed to reel back, "Sorry I shouted. I'm a bit tense. You said it was that Chinese guy that imitated me." Fantasio fumbled around in his pockets. "Do you mind if I smoke?"
"No." Though Spirou squirmed a bit in his seat, he remembered he didn't really like it very much when Fantasio smoked.
Fantasio pulled out a cigarette. Quickly lighting it and blowing out a puff of smoke. It was a horrible tart smell, cigarettes always had a smell like something was burning that shouldn't be. That wasn't the smell he thought of from Fantasio's tobacco. It was more herbal and smokey. Spirou still didn't like the smell when Fantasio's smoked, but it was still more pleasant than this. Maybe he couldn't get to his pipe since he was escaping from the police, Spirou thought. That seemed likely, it did seem that Fantasio must have made his getaway very hastily, judging by how stressed he seemed.
It wasn't just that he was stressed; he also looked incredibly tired. There were a set of thick lines were under his eyes, and his eyes darted constantly to the door. Spirou didn't know why it felt so wrong about seeing the look on his friends face. Spirou couldn't say what it was about him, but he looked different.
Spirou wondered what it must have been like to escape the police and still being a fugitive had clearly taken a toll on his friend. He wondered what the past few months had been like for him.
"I'm sorry Fantasio," Spirou said.
Fantasio looked at him, confused, almost irritated.
"What for?" he asked.
"That this happened. That I couldn't help you."
Fantasio took another drag of his cigarette, he looked almost perplexed by Spirou's concern.
"No trouble. The best way for you to help me now is by telling me what happened to the mask."
"The mask?"
"The one Zantafio took. If we find the Golden Mask you can clear my name."
Spirou thought back… there was something. Yes, that was how it all happened. He had tried to get the mask back.
"I don't know what happened to it… It wasn't with me when they found me."
"Where did you leave it Spirou?" Fantasio asked. "You chased Zantafio down…"
"Yes… I held onto his car then he locked himself in a shack."
"Yes, yes, keep going…"
"I broke in but it wasn't there. Zantafio managed to hide it somehow…"
"With a balloon, wasn't it? That's what I was told."
"Yes, it turned into a balloon and floated away…"
"So then you chased it from there?"
"Yes… I took Zantafio's car."
"Where did you end up? That must have been quite a way to go." Fantasio watched him carefully for his reaction.
"I don't know. I don't remember."
"Spirou, you've got to remember! Where did that mask end up? Where is it? I need you to tell me!"
Spirou tried to think, he tried to remember anything, but his memories only came to him in disjointed pieces.
"I don't know! I can't remember."
Fantasio put out the stub of his cigarette and rubbed his hand against his forehead. He looked more agitated than Spirou had ever seen before.
"Spirou, I need you to remember it already. This is important."
"I'm trying, I really am."
"Well try harder. Do you want me to go to jail?"
"No, of course not."
"Well it's what's going to happen if you don't come up with the answer for this by the time this interview is over. Now think! You were found at the bottom of a cliff, so it has to be somewhere there. If it wasn't with you when you were found then it must be hidden somewhere. You've got to tell me something!"
"I… I…" Spirou tried to think, but everything was just drawing a blank. His memories just seemed to stop at some point, but when Fantasio mentioned the cliff Spirou started to remember something. The mask had got snagged on something, and also also remembered climbing across a cliff face. There were only brief images in his head. Then he remembered how his foot had slipped, and he'd felt a terrible feeling of weightlessness before he realised the cliff was getting further away from him, and he had released he was falling.
Spirou bolted upright in his seat. Fantasio looked up and took notice.
"Kid? You alright?"
Spirou stood up from his seat. Fantasio pushed his chair and got up next to him.
"What is it?"
"I remember something…"
"Yes. Yes, what?"
"I went to get the mask from the cliff. It was such a steep climb. I reached it but then… I slipped… and then I fell…" Spirou felt so scared reliving that moment again. It kept repeating over in his head.
"So it should be near where you fell?"
"Yes, I think so…"
"But then why wasn't it found with you? Did something happen to it?"
"I don't know…"
"If it wasn't found then surely something happened. Was it by a riverside? The mask didn't fall into that, did it?"
"I don't know, I don't think so."
"It's got to be somewhere. We're just back to square one!"
They were both interrupted as the door suddenly opened and somehow stepped inside. It was the Doctor with some coffee on a tray.
"How is everything going?" The doctor asked.
Fantasio stood up and ran his fingers through his hair.
"Fine. Fine, everything's going just fine," he said.
The Doctor turned to Spirou.
"And how are you feeling?"
"Much better thank you. My memories are slowly starting to come back, thanks to my friend."
"That's wonderful to hear." The doctor said, "What can you remember?"
Spirou glanced to Fantasio, wondering precisely what he should tell him. Too much information could potentially get them in trouble.
"I'm starting to remember the accident, and how I came here."
"That's wonderful. You're starting to make some progress. Can you remember anything else about your life? Family? Where you came from?"
Spirou tried to seriously think. He tried to stretch his mind to other memories. He had brief flashes of other places and events, but they were still so fuzzy. He tried to recall other people he knew, he recalled the ideas of people but no faces. Their faces and the names attached to them remained blank.
"I can't remember everything about my life… I can't remember faces… when I try to think of faces, I don't know, they all just seem blurred. Even Fantasio's if I try and remember other things…"
"Doctor, I was actually wondering," Fantasio said, "since Spirou's clearly recovering and getting better, why doesn't he come with me? I can take him back to his home and we can all be fine and dandy from there."
"I can't quite do that at the moment. Spirou may be making some progress but he's recovering, and there's procedure to go through before I can discharge Spirou from the hospital."
Fantasio looked contemplatively at the doctor.
"Could I possibly talk to you privately, about what needs to be done?" Fantasio said.
"I think that should be alright. There are some things I can discuss with you," The doctor said, "Spirou, would you be alright staying here for a minute?"
"Of course sir."
"If you'd like to come with me then." The doctor led Fantasio out of the room.
Spirou was left on his own and tried to think. Spirou thought he had failed somehow. It was true, he still hadn't managed to help his friend at all. He tried to think through what had happened. How could the mask have disappeared? If I wasn't with him then something else must have happened. Did someone take it while he was unconscious? But then Spip was with him, he would have seen it - Spip! Of course! It had to be Spip. If he had been by his side, maybe he must have hidden it so that no one else could get to it.
"Spip…" Spirou said. He stood up. How had he forgotten about his squirrel? All this time Spip had stuck by his side, and he'd done nothing but brushed him off. Where was he now?
He was about to get up to go and find him when suddenly the squirrel appeared, hiding under the table.
"Spip! There you are!" Spirou picked up him up and stroked the little squirrels head. "It's so good to see you again."
It filled his heart with joy to recognise his dear pet again. He realised how much he had spent all his time ignoring Spip, his dearest pet. He was so glad he could finally remember him now.
"Spip, do you remember where the suitcase is with the mask?"
The squirrel nodded.
"Is it safe?"
He nodded again.
"Could you lead us back there?"
Spip nodded once more.
"That's perfect, Fantasio's with us now, we can all go there together."
The squirrel looked fairly nervous.
"Spip, what's wrong?"
Spirou heard the door open behind him. He turned round to see Fantasio entering the room.
"Oh Fantasio, you're here. I was just talking to Spi-" When Spirou turned around to face his squirrel he saw it had jumped out of his hands. He looked around and saw it had disappeared.
"Spip? Spip, where did you go?"
"What? The squirrel's here too?"
"Yes. Of course he was with me. He was just here." Spirou continued looking around for him.
"Well, don't worry about that now. We can find him later. If you want, we can go now."
"What?" Spirou looked around, seeing that Fantasio had come back all by himself. "But what did the doctor say?"
"The doctor changed his mind, he says you can come with me."
"He did?"
"Yes Spirou, come on. Let's get a move on, before they ask too many questions." Fantasio headed towards Spirou, and grabbed his arm.
"Wait. We need Spip. He's the one who knows where it is."
"We need him?"
"Of course. He was with me when I fell. He was just here."
Spirou kept looking around for Spip. He couldn't see him anywhere. Where was he?
"Spip? Where are you? Fantasio's here too!"
Why didn't Spip come? Where was he? He had hidden but Spirou couldn't find him anywhere.
"So it's Spip we need…" Fantasio said as he sat down and lit another cigarette. "Spirou, he's not coming. Let's just go and we can pick him up later."
He looked at Fantasio in cofusion, why didn't he care? As he watched Fantasio light his cigarette Spirou finally realised something was very wrong. Why did he now just feel uneasy? He was trying so hard to rack his brains thinking out these details. But everything just made him uneasy. Something was wrong, but what?
He watched as Fantasio let out a puff of smoke from his cigarette. The smell sent a jolt though him. That sharp tart smell, he started to realise why it felt wrong. Another memory was triggered that reminded him who he did associate cigarettes with.
The man sitting across from him seemed to notice he'd tensed. He hastily put out the cigarette in response, but the damage had already been done.
"There's one other thing I also realised…" Spirou started, "How did you know about the suitcase? I left you at the bike race, back then you couldn't have known there was a suitcase at all."
"You mentioned it. I mean, it seemed like it was an obvious way for Zantafio to hide the mask."
"I didn't mention it. You brought it up." Spirou said. Before the man had the chance to respond he said, "You're not Fantasio. You've been lying to me this whole time."
Finally it clicked for him who the person in front of him really was. Why his features were both familiar and yet disturbing. He'd been mixing the faces up all this time. But now he remembered clearly who he was.
"You're Zantafio."
The figure sitting at the table hastily stood up. Spirou turned and ran towards the door. As he grabbed the handle an arm grabbed him and spun him around, pushing him against the wall. Suddenly a hand clasped around his neck.
Spirou looked up, finally recognising the face of Zantafio looking down at him. He'd been mixing up his face the whole time. But now he figured out who he was the veneer had disappeared and he just saw the tired angered face of his nemesis.
"You're not going anywhere kid." Zantafio said. Spirou immediately tried shouting for help but Zantafio squeezed his grip tighter around Spirou's neck to stop him, starting to choke him.
Spirou tried to kick him off. But Zantafio dragged Spirou forward just to throw him against the wall again, knocking the breath out of Spirou. He seemed almost deranged as he held his grip on Spirou.
"You're going to show me where that mask is and I am going to get my revenge for what you two did to me! I have nothing! My life! My dictatorship! You two ruined it all! I will make you two suffer! Now just help me get this mask! I got this close and came this far I won't give up now! I won't let you take this away from me!"
Zantafio suddenly screamed in pain and stepped back. Spirou looked down to see that Spip was biting his leg. Spirou took his chance and rammed himself into Zantafio, knocking him over.
Then Spirou finally opened the door, stumbling out into the corridor. He coughed as he tried to shout.
"Help! I need security! Somebody help me!"
Spirou saw he caught a nurse's attention, she saw Spirou shouting and called back for someone else. Spirou turned round as Zantafio stepped out of the room, looking intent on killing him.
But as Spirou looked forward he saw one of the security guards heading towards him. Zantafio stopped, and turned round and bolted.
The security guard went chasing after him.
"Oi! Come back here!"
He chased after Zantafio, the nurse came up to Spirou and looked at him.
"Are you alright?"
Spirou coughed a bit, rubbing his throat.
"Yes… I'm fine…" He watched as Zantafio disappeared. He was in a state of shock. A part of him couldn't quite believe everything that had just happened.
A moment later a little squirrel popped up on his shoulder and nuzzled his face against his cheek.
"Thank you so much Spip… I'm so glad that it's over…"
A while later Spirou was sitting down with the doctor.
"I'm terribly sorry about what happened. When I sat down with that man in my office he knocked me out and must have gone back to you. This scenario never should have happened. He never should have gotten past security."
"Did you find him at all?"
"No, he managed to escape. He might still be out there but we don't know where he could be. We will keep a tight watch on anyone coming near the hospital. Do you know what he wanted?"
"He was the reason I fell down the cliff. He stole something and I was trying to get it back…" Spirou said. He was starting to remember everything. Fantasio had been arrested, and that had been over 3 months ago. Spirou needed to get back to him and find out where he'd really been all this time. "I need to go to where I fell off the cliff… I left something there. I need to go and find it."
"Err… are you quite sure? It could be quite dangerous."
"I really need to go there. It's very important."
"Yes, of course we can arrange that."
Spirou smiled.
"Thank you, thank you so much."
"I'll talk to one of the nurses right away about it but it should be possible to be arranged."
It was over… his memory was still patchy, but it was gradually coming back. He remembered who he was, what had happened to his friend, and even how he could save him. It was so strange but he felt so happy.
And soon, he could finally go home.